Shells Seafood - Brandon — Restaurant in Brandon

Easily our favorite local restaurant. No question.

My wife and I eat here a couple times a month, and we both love it. Food, service, and pricing are all fantastic. It's a very pleasant change from all the national chains in the area.

I'm thinking hard here, and I don't believe we've ever had a sub par dish after dozens of visits (there is a sweet glaze on their skewers I don't care for with my typically garlicky mains, but they happily leave it off if asked). their portions are huge, especially considering their extremely reasonable prices. The food is always very well cooked. Never had a rubbery scallop here. Not once. To be fair we have a handful of menu favorites and don't stray from them. You can't go wrong with any seafood pasta dish here. Wife likes the Buffalo shrimp and I'm partial to the crab cakes (almost all crab) and clam chowder for starters. Draft list is small, but they got Jai Alai so I'm happy enough.

The real standout here is the service though. Friendly and efficient without fail. Our favorite in the current staff is Amelia, who remembered us after exactly one visit, and finds time to say hello even if we're sat with someone else. End up at her table and you'll do fine. There is another server or two who also go out of their way to remember and greet us after taking care of us exactly once and I feel horrible for not remembering their names (I'll try to update after I catch them). To be fair, we have never received less than excellent service from anyone there. Teamwork is solid and dishes disappear as fast as you empty them. I hate empty drinks and thankfully it's never an issue here, and this place can get busy.

A small touch I like that is far from ubiquitous elsewhere is a manger table visit... every time. Huge Props to both Michelle and Stacey who go out of their way to make sure we're having a good time and great meal. Owners, please know your team is awesome. Everything they do is noticed, appreciated, and has earned our loyalty.

Thanks all, and see...

😭😭SHRUNK!! NO VALUE, WHAT HAPPENED?? THE FAMOUS COMMERCIAL WHERES THE BEEF?? WHERES THE FOOD?? A TAMPA NATIVE, FAMILY, FRIENDS, MYSELF HAVE ENJOYED GOING TO SHELLS A VERY LONG TIME, (DECADES). I REMEMBER WHEN THE ORIGINAL, THE FIRST ONE OPENED IN THE 70S IN CARROLLWOOD ON NORTH DALE MABRY HWY. ITS BEEN A TAMPA FAVORITE. THE FOOD ALWAYS VERY GOOD, GENEROUS PORTION, VERY REASONABLE MENU, SERVICE GREAT, NO COMPLAINTS. RECENTLY WE GO ABOUT EVERY 1 TO 2 MONTHS AT THE BRANDON LOCATION. THE BRANDON LOCATION WAS ORIGINALLY SHELLS, THEN AFTER SHELLS MOVED OUT IT BECAME TADPOLES, A FANTASTIC PLACE TO EAT AND DRINK, AND NOW ITS SHELLS AGAIN. THE RECENT VISIT ON AUGUST 16TH 2025, 3 DAYS AGO, WE WERE DISAPPOINTED. WE ORDERED THE ULTIMATE COMBO, AND THE SPECIAL FROM THE BLACK BOARD, COD WITH 2 SIDES. THE SERVER SAID THE PORTION IS BIGGER FROM THE BLACK BOARD SO WE DID. 1 ENTREE FROM THE MENU, AND 1 ENTREE FROM THE BLACK BOARD. WE IMMEDIATELY NOTICED THE SMALLER PORTIONS ON BOTH PLATES FROM LAST TIME. MUCH LESS, MUCH SMALLER PORTIONS. FOOD GOOD, BUT PORTIONS TINY ESPECIALLY THE FISH, 2" × 3", THE CRAB CAKE, SIZE OF A SILVER HALF A DOLLAR, AND THERE FAMOUS RED BOILED POTATOES ARE VERY SMALL, GOLF BALL SIZE. THE MENU PRICES HAVE GONE UP OVER THE LAST 3 VISITS AND THE PORTIONS HAVE DEFINITELY SHRUNK!!!!! WE HAVE NOTICED THE LAST FEW TIMES THE GRADUAL LESS PORTIONS OF FOOD AND INCREASE MENU PRICES, VERY NOTICEABLE, ESPECIALLY WHEN UR HUNGRY. WE DIDNT ORDER APPETIZERS WE ORDERED ENTREES. ITS ASHAME NOTHING IS AS GOOD AS IT ONCE WAS. I GIVE A OVERALL 3 BASED ON THE LAST 2 AND 3 VISITS, THE LAST VISIT ON AUGUST 16TH 2025. IM SORRY THIS HAS HAPPENED, WE LOVED THIS PLACE FOR MANY DECADES. HOPE THEY WILL SOLVE THE PROBLEMS. DONT CHANGE IF ITS BEEN WORKING...

We’ve always loved Shells, so on our way back up north we decided to place a pick up order of seafood pasta, baby lobster pasta, and clam chowder.

We arrived at the designated time, were told it would be a few minutes, and then we were promptly ignored. We waited about 20 minutes without anyone speaking to us, offering us an explanation or apology for the delay, or even something to drink while we waited. As the restaurant was only about 1/2 full, you cannot chalk this up to the kitchen being overwhelmed. If you give a customer a specific pick up time, Shells, you should do your best to have the order ready at that time. So instead we just sat and awkwardly waited for what was a pretty long time-which kind of defeated the purpose of choosing to do take out in the first place.

If the food had been great I would have been more forgiving. Overall, though, the food wasn’t bad, it just definitely wasn’t great - especially when you factor in the order came to nearly $60 for takeout. It appeared that they basically just threw a bunch of pasta into two containers, topped each w/some measly pieces of seafood, slammed the lids and called it a day. The containers were super flimsy and didn’t travel well, and the lids weren’t tight enough to hold the food in so the bottom of the bag was saturated w/a huge liquid mess. While the food was edible it was pretty disgusting to have to wipe everything down in order to be able to eat any of it.

My recommendation is for Shells to reassess their whole carry-out process. From the excessive wait time to the poor packaging to the overall value of their items, they need to step up their game. And it definitely was a lot of money for the (lack of) food quality...