Cedar River Seafood Crystal River — Restaurant in Crystal River

We love eating here!!! The employees here are ALWAYS so sweet and attentive. The food is always fresh and SO GOOD!!! The dining area and restroom are ALWAYS clean. The menu has something for everyone. And if you're from the south looking for that GOOD sweet tea.....YOU WILL FIND THAT HERE!!!!! I have never been here and eaten something I don't like. The ONLY thing (somewhat) negative is (AND THIS IS TOTALLY MY FAULT).... I am VERY picky about my ketchup. So much so that I will carry my own with me if I know I'm going somewhere that I don't like theirs or I will absolutely refuse to go to a place if I know they have "bad" ( in my opinion) ketchup....with all that said, I carried my own ketchup with me because the last time I was there is was not good TO ME, however the food is so good that I can't NOT eat here just because of the ketchup. So, I didn't say anything to the waitress. I just asked for a small bowl. I tried to hide it (because let's face it, it's pretty weird to carry your own ketchup into a restaurant! 😂). I got busted, though!! She saw me and asked me IMMEDIATELY if it was bad. I explained my situation to her, and she took the ketchup bottle and smelled it. She was like, nope. This one is going back to the back. She was SO NICE and understanding. She literally went to every single table (even the ones with customers) and asked to see their ketchup. I know that their ketchup is USUALLY good, but....I also know that some employees aren't as caring about the quality of food their customers are getting, so instead of making sure the bottles are cleaned properly, they just refill them and set them back out on the tables.....this young lady went above and beyond for her customers. She was NOT allowing anyone to have a bad experience!!! I can't remember her name (I wish I could!), but in my brain, it made me think she was family to the owners because she cared so much that she went to check every single bottle!!! THOSE are the employees we like to see. Sorry for the long rant (about ketchup 🙄🤦‍♀️ I'm weird, I know), but you should ABSOLUTELY give this place a try. Their food is SO good, SO fresh, and not overpriced at all! You WILL NOT leave hungry or...

The restaurant is beautiful and looks like it has been recently renovated, however, the main item (food) did not match the vibe. We ordered a bunch of stuff. Crab stuff bell pepper for the appetizer and it was ok. Broiled flounder for the kids with mashed potatoes, which were very good and green beans that were 100% from cans, sad. I had the blackened shrimp with flounder, that I’m pretty confident it was tilapia, but I could be wrong. Both were not even close to what blackened it’s supposed to be. They were dry WITH dried seasoning on top. Almost like the cook took the fillets from a package, microwaved them and added some old bay on top and I’m not even exaggerating. The collard greens looked and tasted like they had been boiling for 4 days and that was a bummer. Mac and cheese looked and tasted like Kraft mac. My husband had the crab stuffed snapper and his dish was ok. For dessert we ordered the fried cheese cake and boy… if I had known that the “cheesecake” was a spring roll I would most definitely have not ordered it. Hush puppies come with every meal and they were the highlight of the night and that is disappointing, since we all know it’s pre mixed. We also got crab legs to go and haven’t tasted them yet, but based on the rest of the food I’m not super thrilled about them. Everyone was very friendly, they were just understaffed and not well staffed in the kitchen. There were only 4 tables including ours during the almost 2 hours it took us to get through dinner. Very slow. It is sad when you go out to eat seafood in a city by the water, and most of your meal is microwaved. The “hot plates” with lukewarm food is proof of that. I would not come back here. If they cut their large menu by a 1/3 and spend time perfecting their items they have great potential to...

Recommended, but... First of all, the food was totally excellent. Very reasonable price for what you get as the portions were large, and again everything was really really good and seemed very fresh. However, this place is LOUD and a little slow. Well, really a lot slow. We were seated rather quickly and ordered not too long after, but then we waited and waited and waited. I guess I could say it was worth it, but did I say the place was loud? It is very loud. We were in the back room by the bar, which should be placed in a separate room or out back under the awning they have, and this room was packed with tables, booths, and people. Maybe an acoustics specialist should be hired, because the sound seem to reverberate and we had a very hard time hearing each other or talking at all. But, would I go back? Yes I would. The food and the value for the food, and the portions were that good. We had three things- shrimp, po' boy, shrimp and grits, dinner scallops. Two of those things were truly hidden gems. I feel. The shrimp po' boy was most excellent. If you like New England lobster rolls, you will like this as it reminded me a lot of one. At 12:50 a deal as it came with two sides as well which were excellent. I had the mash sweet potatoes and lima beans. The other was the shrimp and grits. I really large portion and it even came with shrimp gumbo on the top which was a nice surprise as we didn't even know it would be there. So in one dish we got to taste their shrimp, grits, seafood gumbo, and the side of course. At 16.99 another value. Again, alot time, bring your ear plugs, and get ready for...