The Captain's Boil — Restaurant in Toronto

Last night was our very first time eating at captain's boil. It was just me and my son and we went to the York Mills location.

We ordered: Lobster boil which was 1 small lobster with half a cob of corn and half of one potato, priced as MARKET. sailors for one person (1lb. Shrimp) which came with fried rice, and fries. It was priced around 30 something dollars on the menu. We also ordered 1 sparkling water (which never arrived while we were eating).

Our first Server couldn't speak or understand English properly. She had trouble taking our oder and couldn't fully answer our questions. She punched in our order in a machine (looked like a laptop) and after some wait, our food arrived. I can't make any comparison about the food since it was our first time in Captain's boil. There were some bits and pieces in the fried rice which felt like sand or small rocks and totally ruined the rice which could otherwise be described as delicious, but this review is not about the quality of food. I felt totally scammed when it was time to pay!

When I asked to pay, a second server took over (speaking perfect English) and told us that the method of payment is cash or E-transfer only. I wanted to pay by credit card but she said that option is not available and that a promotion is going on to help "small businesses" (I don't think Captain's Boil is a small business but whatever!!!).

She handed me a small piece of paper with an email address typed on it and a whopping amount of $104+tip was handwritten underneath (there was no invoice or printed detail of our order or the cost). When I told her again that I prefer to pay by credit, she started sweet talking me and didn't give me a chance to ask any more questions regarding the invoice. Meanwhile the first server (with no English) arrived and the second one told her that she is taking care of the bill!!! Seemed like they were both in on it because the first server started encouraging and pleading me to add some tips for her!

My son asked the second server a bunch of questions about the "promotion" and she replied with some nonsense that didn't really contained any useful information. My son told her that we never got the sparkling water we ordered and she offered to give it to him to go. She gave us a small can (250ml) of Perrier water and also offered free ice cream for my son as part of the "promotion" when she saw my over the top hesitation. Given no choice other than paying by cash or E-transfer, I paid by E-transfer ($104+$11tip even though the food was clearly not worth that much and the service didn't deserve any tip at all!). My bank notification showed that the money went to a person named: GUIHUA FENG.

I would have rated our experience -0 if I could. Not sure if this is something that's going on in other locations as well or not, but I'm grateful for google reviews because at least I can voice out...

I would give a 0 if I could. I went there excited to eat a nice lobster, saw the environment was family friendly and was excited for a low key meal. We stood at the front for about 10 minutes while the server polished cutlery, looking at us from the back. Finally the manager came out fo the kitchen and waved him over to us. He looked to be about 14 and kindof brushed us off to a table. The waitress came pretty quickly but when i asked her a basic question about one of the wines listed ("is it canadian") she had no idea and didn't offer to check, just waited as I googled it. I asked the market price of the lobster which was $52 and I was a little surprised given the casual nature of the restaurant so I asked what size it was. She answered about 1.5 lbs so I figured ok that's not so bad. The food arrived about 3 minutes later, but the waiter had no idea whose was whose and they had messed up the sides with the level of spiciness so they had to take them back. They did come back pretty quickly with the right order. The wine only came about 5 minutes after the food which I thought was strange. It wasn't the bottle we ordered - it was one that's priced at about half the price at lcbo. I mentioned it to the waitress and she just laughed. Didn't offer to change it or do anything about it. We ate our meal, nobody ever checked on us or asked if it tasted ok. I had to wave another waiter down for forks and nutcrackers. When we were done there was still no waiters in sight so i pushed away the brown paper across the table so the mess was out of our way. It was about 20 minutes later before she came to clear the table. When the bill came, it had the more expensive bottle on it. She argued that it was the correct one because that's what she had on her tablet. I had to her a photo of the bottle mentioned on the menu and show her that it looked completely different. I showed her that the bottle we ordered is almost twice the price at the lcbo as the one she brought us. She went to see the manager and offered $10 off. I was surprised they didn't offer more - they charged us 3.5 times the price of the bottle at the lcbo.I paid the bill and asked to speak with the manager. So the waitress went to see him, he went back into the kitchen and she came back to see us - he would come to talk to us but just had to go have a cigarette first; could we please wait 15 minutes. I was originally going to share this review privately to him instead of publicly but I was appalled at the lack of regard for his dissatisfied customers. This place is more cancerous than his lungs. I'll never go back again and hope you don't waste your money or your time.

A week later, after seeing my review, the restaurant decided to try to bribe me with a $10 gift card. LOL! I definitely won't be back so I have no need for...

⭐☆☆☆☆ Never again.

Let me be clear: this wasn’t my first visit to The Captain’s Boil — but it will absolutely be my last. What used to be a decent spot has turned into a complete embarrassment.

We were a group of 8, 3 of whom were just visiting and only planned on getting appetizers. From the second we sat down, the so-called “waiter” — who we later realized is actually the owner — acted like we were a burden. She was barking orders at one of the female staff like she was beneath her. Totally unprofessional and flat-out disgusting to witness.

She dropped off some water without a word, and disappeared. No “hello,” no “can I help you,” nothing. I asked for more water and instead of even attempting to be polite, they slammed a jug of room temperature water on the table and walked off again.

We sat there for 20 minutes until I had to literally wave the server down to take our order. No suggestion of drinks. No asking if we wanted mains. Just took our appetizer order and vanished.

The food? Pathetic. Calamari, sweet potato fries, onion rings — and they showed up like they were pulled from a frozen food aisle and dumped on a plate. Two sad little sides of ketchup and one mayo for eight people. Asked for lemons — they gave us three slices of lime. For EIGHT people.

The mains? An absolute disgrace. Three lobsters, a shrimp boil, and one lobster bisque — and I swear it looked like it came from a food bank ration line. The lobster plates were missing claws — and we realized later they probably recycled them into the bisque. My boil came with two miniature potatoes and a sad little chunk of corn that looked like baby corn from a can.

The only thing that had any value was the flavour — and even that couldn’t save this dumpster fire of a meal.

The server (or owner, whatever) never once came to check on us. No refills, no follow-up, nothing. It was like once they had our order, we stopped existing.

Then came the final slap in the face: the bill. I usually tip 20% minimum when service is decent — but surprise! A 15% mandatory service charge was tacked on without any warning or mention. There’s no sign, no notice — nothing. Just sneak it in because we were more than six people. And for what? The place was half-empty and the service was garbage. That was not earned.

This restaurant is running on fumes. Cutting corners, disrespecting customers, and serving subpar food while tacking on hidden fees? Someone’s going to get sick eventually — and when that happens, I hope it shuts this place down for good.

Avoid at all costs.

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