The Captain's Boil — Restaurant in Markham

Paid $130 for one crab leg, a dozen or so shrimp, one serving of broccoli, and rice. To be fair, the crab leg was a snow crab (the largest kind), but this was one of the most overpriced meals I've ever had to pay for. My boyfriend and I came in for dinner at a 7/10 hungry level, and left at a 5/10. He was telling me to eat all of it myself and that he could grab some fast food afterwards. Absolutely unacceptable for $130.

Food presentation was horrible. We ate on top of a table that wobbled enough to stick out into the aisle, covered by a sheet of paper, using paper cups, Styrofoam takeout containers, and a diner style napkin dispenser. We were given paper bibs and plastic gloves, and our food came in bags that we had to reach into or dump onto the table. The bibs were made of stiff paper, so not only were they uncomfortable, they wouldn't stop falling off and they kept lifting up away from our shirts. I do understand that this restaurant serves a style of cuisine that is a bit more hands on, but for a place that dares to charge $100+ for two pounds of seafood, I found the dining experience to be unforgivably disappointing.

There was no prep put into any of the food. The shrimp came fully shelled, with heads on. They were delivered to us in the bag they were cooked with, so everything was smothered in grease and boiling hot. Have you ever tried to peel burning hot oily shrimp while wearing slippery plastic gloves? When some of the seasoning sprayed into my eye, I had to first somehow remove my gloves, which is not easy when both your fingers are soaked in grease. My boyfriend had so many pants stains from seasoning dripping off the table onto him. He dropped his paper cup of water because he literally couldn't hold on to it. The broccoli pieces were longer than my fingers; I have never been served broccoli that large and uncut in any restaurant before.

Service was pretty bad, too. We arrived at about 830pm on a Sunday, and there were two waiters, a man and a woman. He was wearing a black sweatshirt and black jeans (and not the professional kind of jeans), and she was wearing Adidas sweatpants. The man was our host and it could not have been more obvious how badly he did not want to be there. And although he signed his initials on the piece of paper we ate on top of, he stopped serving us midway through and switched with the woman. I'm not sure what the reason was given there were only two or three tables at the time. We were told about last call 15 minutes after receiving our food, yet they took in a new party 10 minutes after that and served them. Not that we had any desire to order anything else, but it didn't feel like honest service.

I did not witness the men's washroom for myself, but of the two stalls in the women's washroom, one had pee in and on the toilet, and the other one was leaking (not overflowing, but it wouldn't stop draining once flushed). The sink was covered in a ridiculous amount of soap and water stains. Most restaurants have a sheet to track when it was last cleaned and by whom, but I did not see any such sheet at this establishment (I didn't look everywhere for it admittedly, but it wasn't posted anywhere easy to see).

The only saving grace of our visit was that the food WAS good. Personally, I didn't think it was worth the price, and I absolutely did not leave the restaurant feeling full or satisfied, but I can't say it wasn't tasty. I also appreciated our female server's attempts to improve our experience, once she realized we were clearly not having a good time.

But between the price, dining experience, service, and sanitation, I can confidently say that I would never return here and would never recommend it to anyone. This was a complete waste of...

We came to Captain's Boil for the AYCE promotion, and it was an absolute disaster from start to finish. This isn't the first time we've come to Captain's Boil, it used to be a favourite. But this is definitely the last time.

First off, the restaurant was barely busy—only two small tables of 2 and one other large party. We expected it to be packed for the AYCE deal but it was practically empty when we first arrived. We got there around 7:30pm and placed our order shortly after. Our first round of food took about 20 minutes, which we could accept. But then, the second round of orders took almost an hour and a half to come out. It came out at 9:30PM and the restaurant closes at 9:30PM.... And our orders were not complicated whatsoever, we were a table of 7 ordering a pound each with fries, thats all. I don't understand how the first round came out in 20 minutes while the second round of the exact same order with less fries took about 4x longer to prepare?

There was only one server working the entire floor, and he looked noticeably stressed, running around trying to handle everything alone. The cook was apparently new, as the server explained to us, but that's no excuse for the miserable service we experienced. With only one server and a new cook, it really impacted the entire dining experience. The company should’ve staffed properly, especially when they have a promotion running. It cannot be that difficult to prepare seafood boil in a bag as they aren't creating 5 star dishes in the back, but somehow, it still wasn't managed in a timely manner.

We couldn’t even get our money's worth with the AYCE promotion because we barely had time to order everything we wanted before closing time, and we had to wait so long for the food that we were essentially rushed out. To make matters worse, the food was incredibly bland, not spicy, and nothing like it used to be when we visited before. And they were also out of lemons and their ice machine was down. The total/pp was $70, not worth it at all.

Overall, this was an insanely terrible experience. The slow service, lack of staff, and tasteless food left us extremely disappointed. We won’t be returning, and I’d recommend others stay away if they want to avoid wasting their...

I strongly caution anyone who contemplates on eating here. There is a reason why this place is only serving 2 tables at 7pm on a Saturday night.

We ordered take out. 1 lb of shrimp, 1 lb of muscles, fried rice, a few corns and 2 bowls of steam rice. I pick up more and head home. When we open the bag, we see 4 shrimps and a few prices of muscles. We were absolutely shocked. We pull out our scale and the weight of both bags were 0.69 lbs and 0.74 lbs. I get cooking shrinks the seafood but both bags are also full of sauce which bought weighed 0.53 lbs. You can do the math on the actual weight of the seafood. The seafood also tasted as though it sat in their fridge for days. They forgot our two bowls of rice.

We called within 30 mins after picking up our order. The lady who picks up the phone agreed that the bags did feel a bit light when she picked them up from the kitchen. She also said the Manager wasn't in and that she would get him to call the next day. Unfortunately, no call. We follow up twice within the week. Still no call. We totally forgot about this and follow up again 2 weeks later and finally get a phone call back. The Manager accuses me of being the person "on the way to Montreal trying to scam the restaurant". Totally random - I offer to show him my credit card statement to prove I was in Toronto the next day. He then says I should've called right after I picked up my order. I offer to show him my phone bill history that I did. And that I called the restaurant 4 times!!!

In a coy way he then apologized after realizing such accusations weren't true and offered a free pound of shrimp. Absolutely brutal customer service and absolutely brutal food. The Manager was clearly bitter after calling him out with proof that everything he said was completely false. The restaurant industry is tough, but if you’re clearly caught in the midst of a mistake, own it and make it right to the customer.

If you intend on eating here, make sure you bring a scale so you know you aren't getting scammed. I have money on the fact this place won't be...