The Captain's Boil — Restaurant in Castle Downs

We saved this dining "experience" for what we expected to be a nice evening out with family and friends - it is after all in the higher price category.

The evening start to finish was not at all what we expected.

When you are seated at your table it has plastic gloves (disposable ones) for each seat already on your table. Menus are accessed on mobile devices except the big fresh seafood menus on the chalkboards around the restaurant. No cutlery is provided until you get your meal, and then its plastic.

Our group of 5 ordered the following meals

3 fish and chip meals - two with regular fries one with Cajun fries - these meals were the highlight of the night. The fries were great, nice and crispy and hot! The Cajun fries were perfectly spiced - if you ate too many in a row you really felt that spice - our friend loved them! The fish was large pieces with a great crispy coating - overall this could be a contender for best fish and chips in town (and I'm an east coaster). It was not greasy or soggy - very nicely done!

For the remaining two meals they both came cooked and served in plastic bags - and we both chose potatoes and corn as sides. We chose from the fresh seafood menu. A couple option prices that stuck in my mind - Lobster $70, Snow Crab $44, Shrimp or Clams or Mussels were $22. There was another option that was $62 - it might have been King Crab.

I ordered a pound of shrimp (note that these are all peel and eat) in Cajun seasoning. I had a choice of head on or headless - personal choice is headless always - its not crawfish after all. I should have counted how many shrimp were in there I just know it was a lot! However, I found the shrimp bland - I like spice and didn't find the Cajun seasoning picked up by the shell on shrimp. The corn was cooked well - not overdone - I didn't bother with the potato - it was not appealing - I should have ordered 2 corn - my mistake there. I was still eating long after the clams were gone in the other bag.

My sis-in-law ordered a pound of clams with Captains Boil seasoning. She enjoyed the clams and the spice level but isn't a big spice person so I don't think it was too spicy. She ate both pieces of potato and the corn and was still left hungry. Her comment was she felt that she ordered wrong - that ordering a pound of in shell seafood like clams definitely wasn't enough food due to the weight of the shells and the size of the clams - not something she would order again.

Our dining experience was overshadowed by the ambient noise in the place. We had a reservation at 6:30 pm on a Saturday night. There were lots of empty tables when we arrived but we were seated in the middle of the room. Along the windows was a very large group dining together. Two in our group are hearing impaired. One wears hearing aids. It made for a difficult dinner to say the least. We did ask if there was a quieter spot we could be moved to, and our server did try, but the only table that may have been an option was being set up for another larger group.

Overall, for the price we paid, the food we had and the "experience" - we all felt that it wasn't worth the money - or time. When you consider what you pay for other dining "experiences" around town this one felt overpriced and under-delivered. We all agreed we won't return.

One tip I will leave for anyone that does dine here and chooses a fresh seafood option - your dinner comes in a large plastic bag. You are eating straight out of that bag. Your server will likely instruct you to turn or roll down the bag to make it easier to eat - if they tell you to roll the bag so the edges are outside DON'T DO IT!! Roll it inwards and save yourself all that mess!...

EDIT, 3 HOURS LATER: just violently vomited several times. Was it worth it? Maybe.

I recommend coming here for the experience at least once, or if you don’t want to or don’t know how to make your own seafood boils.

The service was average. Only one person at our table got a drink refill, and it wasn’t even verbally offered. Took a while for our order to get taken despite the place being empty. No instructions on whether to come up to pay or pay at the table. I’ve seen people say the ladies there don’t really provide great service but I’m there to eat not make small talk so I don’t really care about being treated special - but I’d like my stuff refilled for sure.

The portions were insanely small, and I don’t mean the seafood - the seafood actually filled me up decently (shared a Matey’s feast with mussels and shrimp, and two snow crab boils between 4 people) but the amount of sides was sad. Corn and potatoes and eggs cost next to nothing for restaurants so for a “feast” to have one egg and one potato per bag is pretty crazy.

Also a good chunk of my crab legs were like half empty - not a lot of meat in some of those legs. But I did see them throw a few extra pieces in to make up for that so I appreciate it.

The food was actually delicious, the sauce was yummy - the mild was definitely spicy when it would collect in the shells. The rice is surprisingly spicy, so if you’re stomach-sensitive to spice it will hurt, but my mouth wasn’t on fire or anything. The fries are delicious, the rice was good, the seafood was cooked decently, and the shrimp were soft and yummy. The sausage was flavourful too.

I’ll come back when I’m craving a seafood boil and don’t wanna make it myself, but this is definitely something you can make at home for less than the $200 + tip that...

It was my first time going to that place, I was curious to live that experience and try that new flavor, unfortunately, from the moment we arrived, a Filipino-looking woman with glasses served us, she directed us to a table and so far everything was fine, immediately she asked us if it was our first time and we answered yes, she began to explain the menu to us very quickly. Which we did not understand our English, it is not very good, but her English is bad and speaking it quickly, you can't understand her, I explained to her that my English was not good and she made an annoyed face, a very ugly annoyed face. She is not nice and making an angry face It looked even worse, I felt angry when she made those faces because I was not going to ask for free food, I was going to pay for a service. Then she explained to me again without caring that I did not understand, I told her I do not understand very well, but tell me it is the best there is because that is what I am going to order and she told me, that is very expensive in no time. I asked him about prices, I simply told him give me the best.

When it was time to bring us the food, he just came and put the bags of food on the table and never offered us anything else.

I paid a bill of one hundred and ninety-five dollars for two people and I still tipped them. Honestly, it doesn't seem fair to me that people like them are serving you in a place like that. If the food is good and the service is bad, the restaurant is bad. If the food is bad and the service is good, the restaurant is good. On this occasion, nothing was good. My wife and I are very upset. It was an unpleasant experience.

I do not recommend going to that place unless they replace the overpriced staff and very poor service...