Katie's Seafood House — Restaurant in Galveston

Well well well.... My husband and I went here for my birthday on a recommendation. We love fresh fish and they serve what they catch daily. Major plus! We are big fans of Texas redfish and both ordered the creole style. Our dear old waiter, who reminded me of captain kangaroo, had to return twice to confirm our order. About 10 minutes later Keith (Capt. Kangaroo) comes to our table with one plate and tells my husband it was not the creole but it was another really good way they prepared it. He wanted to know if my husband would mind eating that instead of what he ordered because he accidentally put the order in wrong. Yes, he really spoke that out loud to his paying guests. My husband told him he still wants what he ordered. Keith walks away and about 5-10 minutes later he brings my plate. My husband's food wasn't quite ready but it was on the way. I really wish I had taken pictures of our plates because this is where it really gets interesting. So.... My fish was perfectly blackened and was plated beautifully with veggies on the side and a moderate amount of sauce poured in the middle of the filet. A few moments later my husband's plate arrives. I remember thinking, wow, they really poured on the sauce, lucky dude. We are both eating our food and my husband asked to taste some of my fish and said yours is good mine is okay. At that he started pushing the sauce off of the fish and no lie, it looks just like the fish the server tried to sell my husband from his mistake. We call Keith over and show him the differences that my fish is perfectly seasoned and blackened from side to side and my husband's fish was very bland in comparison. His fish was still white and my fish had that reddish black crisp coating. Keith says that's how it's made. We asked if it was the other fish and he goes so far as to say the cooks ate the other fish and he saw them with his own eyes. Fast forward, bring the manager over and immediately he noticed the fish was clearly not blacked and not prepared correctly. Mind you Captain Kangaroo is clearly trying to back track and clean up the mess he has now made of the situation. After he minimized the situation, insulted our intelligence and straight up lied 50 times. He even blamed the kitchen saying, "Oh you know it's been a long day and those guys are tired, blah, blah, blah...." By this time the manager has initiated redoing my husband's order CORRECTLY. Kanga, knows he has messed up and finally admits it was the other fish and then says to my husband, "Look, I'm going to get you some dessert, it's your birthday." My husband says, "Actually it's my wife's birthday. That's what we were here trying to celebrate. And also, I'm diabetic and dessert is not an option. At this point my husband and I are over the entire situation. We cordially accepted the birthday cake and requested both the cake and his food to be boxed to go. My husband and I are generally very generous tippers and tip 20-30%. I was once a server and always try to look out for servers, not tonight. I have never ever ever not tipped a server, but I have never ever ever been more insulted by an indignant and aloof person ever.

Keith, if you still work there... My greatest tip for you is NEVER EVER EVER make the mistake of trying to force someone to EAT your mistake. And more so, remember that as a server you should be serving up hospitality, not hostility.

I hope to return for another visit, but PLEASE not in...

I've waited to review this trying to give an accurate opinion. The 3rd time in, I can say it's not for me. The fish is definitely fresh and the portions are rather large. But they've added so much cheese and oil to everything well, why bother with fresh? The mac n' cheese was the original draw. It can be a meal by itself, so yes, shareable side is accurate. The crab is on top of homemade heavily cheesed thick noodles and covered with baked cheese. I took some home, ate part the next day before throwing it out. It's just too much cheese. The garlic cheese bread is an open loaf, low on garlic and topped with cheese and a splash of dried herbs. But the cheese is consistently concentrated in the center of the loaf and needs to be cooked longer. The boatload of shrimp & fettuccine has a LOT of shrimp. Def a shrimp lovers delight but the alfredo... well see the pic. Soooo much oil and fat. I left pools of it in the dish and well, you can see what was there after the refrigerator... noodles are a little overcooked, sauce consistency feels like too much flower/corn starch rather than flavor. The first couple of bites are peppered but it quickly dissipates. Personally, I'm not a big black pepper person so I was happy but for those that are, you could be disappointed. The grouper itself was good, the sides meh. Breaded shrimp is heavily battered and crisply fried, fries were a bit over cooked going past golden brown. The house Sauvignon blanc was nice. The first time we went the pina colada's were the best with a large natural coconut flavor, most recently it tasted more like a premix added to ice and liquor. They serve it in a fun tiki style glass that can be purchased as a souvenir. No diet coke, but they have coke zero. And well this is Galveston, so I have to comment, while it's possible I've started to becoming accustomed to the flavor here... the water is pleasantly drinkable. That's coming from the person who has VERY good faucet filters even for cooking. Overall, as a fish lover, I'll say it's fresh, the way its prepared deminishes that quality. The place isn't bad, it's...

First off, OPEN TABLE. is mandatory for getting in. Sitting outside is great at the beAch but not outside a restaurant unless that's your thing. If you are wanting, live by the expression good things come to those who wait. Katie's lives up to it.

Second, understand where to park. Katie's has nothing to do with the paid parking nearby. There is no discount for parking in those lots. You can park for free on the street in front of the restaurant (if you are lucky enough to get a spot).

Third, do not come without an appetite. They do not believe in small portions. That was unexpected and awesome.

My wife and I both got different salads as our meals and neither one of us could finish them. They are huge by intention and well appointed.

I started out with what was supposed to be a cup of gumbo. While it was their "cup", it was everyone else's bowl. What was striking about the gumbo was that it was not overseasoned which is so common when you're eating average gumbo. In this case, they let the flavors stand out from the actual food and didn't try to drown it in seasonings to hide an otherwise average gumbo. This was anything other than average. If you like gumbo, you've got to try it. Ask for an extra spoon because you can definitely share it with somebody if you want to have a real "cup's worth" for two people.

Every meal we saw that was brought out was a very good portion. The atmosphere was outstanding. We watched the boats come in that brought in the fish.

If you like what you eat, you absolutely must bring a cooler. You can buy most of what they have downstairs that is fresh off the boat. My wife and I would have done that but we never thought to bring a cooler. We won't make that mistake again.

We are very used to eating at fisherman's wharf but I have absolutely converted to Katie's. Don't get me wrong, fisherman's wharf is great but this was...