+100! I had a nice big slab of abalone in a San Francisco restaurant ca 1992, and it was out of this world crazy good. Now it’s overfished and restricted and almost impossible to get. 
Agree. My father used to grill monkfish when I was a kid and it was so good. I don’t think I’ve had it since, and would have no idea where to find it.
I’ve had this once in Seattle in season. The flavor was intense
After we got married, my wife and I did our honeymoon in Iceland. We booked a thing called ‘A Culinary Tour of Iceland,’ where they took us to some restaurants and traditional food prep sites (including a place where they preserve the infamous hakarl*, which is fermented shark).
My favorite, though, was when they took us out on a small commercial fishing vessel to a bay where the water is ice cold and super clear. They lowered a trawler, pulled up a pile of scallops, cleaned them, and we ate them right there, raw and literally as fresh as possible.
It was by far the single best bite of food I have ever had in my life.
*The hakarl’s flavor was surprisingly mild and a little sweet. The aroma of it, however, was like an icepick made of ammonia shoved up your nose.
No mention of turbot so far. The king of those funny-looking flatfish, it spends its life eating crustaceans, which seem to impart a special flavor to the turbot. The way I learned to cook it is to bake it on a bed of thinly sliced potatoes and a few cloves of garlic (smash 'em first). You gut it, leave the skin on, pour a glass of water over it all and bake it whole. When it’s done, transfer everything to a plate, add a handful of finely chopped parsley to the juices in the oven tray (which are loaded with collagen), and briefly cook over a flame to make a green sauce. I’ve only done it twice, and friends still remember it fondly 20+ years later.
My latest thing is salmon fishcakes. I buy frozen strips without skin or bones. Transfer to fridge in the morning for dinner that evening.
Should have written Creole for accuracy but Cajun style sauces are common sometimes differing only in name. I was trying to shorten what I was typing on my phone to something shorter than ’ New Orleans’. There are other varieties starting with French which I assume was the original.
Salmon has already been mentioned many times, in various forms, but I don’t think in lox form…?
A good bagel, cut in half and lightly toasted. A shmear of cream cheese. A sprinkling of capers, lightly pressed into the cream cheese so they stay put. A few slivers of thinly sliced red onion. Finally a layer of some Nova or other high-quality lox. 
Thank you. Salmon in the form of lox is so good I didn’t even consider it in the same class as other seafood. I just need a sliced bagel and a shmear to form the ultimate food.
I don’t think anyone has mentioned conch. It can be tough if not prepared correctly.
One of my favorite dishes is Conch Yvette, a conch ceviche served at Yvette’s in the Quartier deOrlean on the French side. It has finely minced jalapeno pepper in the marinade, along with just one or two teeny pieces of an insane pepper they grow themselves. They also make a very good Conch & Dumplings Stew.
I have fond memories of conch chowder from several trips to the Florida Keys.
Got it, but there is a big, big difference between Creole and Cajun cooking. Good Cajun restaurants in New Orleans are few and far between. K’Paul’s was a good restaurant (I’ve been) but nowhere close to being a Cajun restaurant. When I lived in Lafayette before the Cajun food fad and I never ate, saw or even heard of blackened anything.