AJ's Seafood & Oyster Bar - Albany

I ate dinner here with my family as we were looking for somewhere to eat on/nearby the boardwalk. At the time it was around 8pm and we were looking for somewhere to eat before watching the fireworks at Harborview. This was a problem because most restaurants closed at 9pm and their wait times were over an hour to accommodate my family. That’s when I stumbled upon AJ’s. When I got there, one of the staff also mentioned that “you can see the fireworks.” (Disclaimer about the fireworks, I thought it was going to be a big thing but it turned out to be a 5 minute tiny fireworks display probably meant to only attract people to the boardwalk on slow days; mon/thur.) My family sat upstairs on the bar floor for this reason, and I thought the decorations, live music, and harbor view were something way too good to complain about. On the other hand, something that did disappoint me was the food. No one told me before my family was seated that “upstairs and downstairs had different menus.” I wished we could’ve been informed about this before we sat down, but it didn’t bother me too much since we wanted to sit upstairs anyway. I decided to order the gumbo bowl and Classic Fish Sandwich. (Blackened “fish”. Menu doesn’t really say what kind of fish? ‍♂️). I thought the seafood gumbo was okay, but the fish sandwich disappointed me just a little. The “fish” was seasoned fine and cooked well, but the tartar sauce described in the menu felt nonexistent. Overall, AJ’s is a nice place for a bite later in the evening, but if I was in a situation where there were more restaurants open, I’d pick another restaurant with better seafood options.