Claro's Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Friendswood

I was a victim to this place's viral advertising and went there yesterday. It really wasn't very good.

First the menu is "wrong". The menu shows meals with side dishes. We were told that if you order from the picture they will serve the meal with the side dish as pictured but they need to 'correct' the menu to remove the pictures with side dishes included with the meal(s).

"Meals" don't come with sides. Side dishes are very limited- French fries, hush puppies, and fried rice- all about $4 each.

Everything costs extra except the fish-flavored rice chips they serve as a free appetizer. While this is a potentially fun and interesting free appetizer, the chips were so greasy that you can tip them to let the grease run off.

They don't serve iced tea or water. They charge for water and only serve bottled water. Sodas are canned so there are no refills.

The fried shrimp dinner was 10 shrimp for $14. That's it. That's all you get on the plate except for some decorative lettuce, lemon wedges, and cocktail and tartar sauce. The shrimp I ordered were large but they were so garlicky that I suspect the garlic is used to hide the flavor of less-than-fresh shrimp. The fried shrimps were greasy and wet on the bottom where they sat on the plate. They were also overcooked so they were tough and chewy.

Oh- I forgot. The 'shrimp plate' also came with some not very tasty toast. I don't know if the oil (not butter) was old or if the grill wasn't clean but it just wasn't good toast.

My friends ordered the grilled fish as pictured on the menu just so they could get a side dish, also know as a meal in other restaurants, without having to pay extra.

The grilled fish was OK as were the hush puppies, but neither were good enough to make one one to come back for a second visit.

There is nothing 'fresh' as a side dish- no salads, no vegetables, no cole slaw- just nothing. The only fresh thing on our table was the lemon wedges.

The place was empty. There was one other table and two delivery pick ups in the 3 hours my friends and I spent there catching up on old times. We were there for quite a while chatting and watched the ice melt in our glasses since there is not even water available for no charge and we didn't want to pay for more canned soda or bottled water.

The interior, seating and decorations was nice enough though.

I feel bad for the family that opened this business. I know it takes and costs a lot to open a restaurant and I wish them well but I can already tell this business will fail without major changes and soon. The food is average at best, expensive, and the place really offers nothing to make one want to come back.

I'd recommend Claro's hire a restaurant consultant ASAP to try to save what they have started. They need to create a better, more customer-friendly menu, provide more than the unclear a la carte ordering they have now (or perhaps provide only a la carte ordering for a unique "create-your-own-plate" approach to ordering), add fresh items to the menu, and adjust their cooking techniques to improve the food quality.

A consult with a professional advisor would be a better investment decision than whatever amount of money they are spending on their very strong viral advertising campaign. One-time-visit-only customers will not sustain this business.

I hope they improvise and improve. I like to support local businesses. Good...

Husband and I wanted to try this new place out as it’s less than 5 minutes from the house. 1000% worth it. This has to be the best seafood I’ve had in years (no exaggeration), the fish is so incredibly fresh and well seasoned, and perfectly cooked.

We had the calamari as an appetizer, it was so delicious we forgot to take photos. I got a fried fish combo and my husband for grilled. We usually share food anyways but the grilled shrimp he had were super flavorful and juicy. I typically hate when I go somewhere and there is grit in my oysters or you can taste the over used oil, not here. Like I said the seafood is fresh, but they also cleaned it very well before seasoning and cooking. The plates are also huge, you could definitely make a whole other plate with how much is served.

I also want to highlight the service here, our waitress was incredibly sweet, attentive and made our first visit so pleasant. These people love what they do and I’m so happy we found a great spot near the house. Next time I’m going to try their seafood boil. Please give this place a try, we will be...

5 stars!!! I rarely give one to a seafood restaurant but This one is a NEW, VERY CLEAN and a HOLE-IN-THE-WALL Seafood restaurant in Houston! Their Seafood is legit fresh coming from someone who loves seafood. Some of the seafood cuisines have the filipino touch like their seafood in Sinigang soup(so good!), sweet and sour whole fish and the Shrimp Halabos (buttered shrimps) are sooo tasty and delicious. The fried scallops, JUMBO shrimps, oysters were cooked to perfection. Not dry at all! Also, they seasoned them sooo well! The serving size is huge and price is very reasonable(huge plus) The servers and owners were so kind and even helped out take care of my baby when we were eating. We will surely come back to this Family friendly place as we get to enjoy eating their freshest seafood with the best...