Captain Jack's — Restaurant in Huntington Beach

Long story short: avoid this place.

Long story long: When a restaurant costs over 100$ a person, they're held to a certain standard. Much of what was wrong with Captain Jack's would be excusable if it was a Red Lobster serving people for 30$ a head. But that's not what they charge, so let's take a look.

Wait time without reservation- 45 minutes. Overall, that made sense until we were actually seated and saw that the number of staff standing around performing exactly one task each outnumbered the diners. It's definitely a confusing way to run a restaurant.

Service was friendly and curt. But also a bit slow for how many of them there were.

Decor is outdated and cheap. Large lit displays for bad prints when there's a local artist right next door. Otherwise so dark you can barely see. Overall the restaurant has a soulless chain feel.

Cocktails were 14$ a piece, and were in such tiny glasses or watered down with so much ice that no reasonable bar would call them a full drink.

Bread was warm and delicious, but served with cold butter that could not be spread. Again, weird choice.

Salads were reasonably fresh, but basically a cheap garden salad with a few mushrooms chopped up and thrown in. Not bad since they were included. As a side note about the chopping: the cook's knife skills were embarrassing, nothing was cut evenly.

Next let's get to the sides. There were 2 options: a cup of unseasoned rice, or 4 slices of mealy, underripe tomatoes with dried herbs. The cook's knife skills again let us down as they couldn't even make it all the way through the tomato.

Entrees:

Prime Rib and King Crab:

Crab legs: nothing to write home about. They claim this is their specialty, but there was nothing special about them. Good quality meat that survived being slightly overcooked.

Prime rib: an enormous slice of meat that has sat in the fridge just a few hours too long. It was cooked correctly, but it was totally unseasoned. It had never even seen a container of salt. I'd prefer a smaller steak cooked by someone who knows what they're doing.

Entre Price: 100$

Filet and Lobster:

Filet: Was ordered med rare, came closer to raw. Luckily, my partner likes blue rare steak or she wouldn't have eaten any of her entrée.

Lobster: tiny, low quality Lobster tail cooked to absolute oblivion. We could not cut through it with a steak knife. I would be ashamed if I sent that out to a paying customer. Truly disgusting.

Entre Price: 100$, lowered to 50$ when we asked they take the Lobster off the bill.

This place is an absolute scam. A two star restaurant at its best, charging five star prices. It sounds like once upon a time this was a great place. But now it's a cash cow living off of old reviews.

Like I said. Avoid this place. There's plenty of better seafood around at...

I’ve came many times. And sadly there’s been a shift. Prior I always tipped well and our party always behaves. But sadly my prior review is like a distant memory of the glory of Captain Jacks. At least from what me and my business partners have been experiencing. We’ve been put at tables and completely forgotten about while certain tables around us is catered to like kings. Drink refills. Plates. Appetizers. We have been totally forgotten for nearly an hour at a time. We’ve even had nights where we flat out ask for the tab and depart. And the crab quality the last two times has drastically changed. Not sweet. Not smooth. The butter they bring is flavorless. Overall I’d say from food to service it’s been bland. The prices have steadily climbed while it seems portions haven’t. It hurts too because I was an avid fan of this location for years. It’s safe to say I won’t be returning and we will be taking our meetings and celebrations elsewhere. It was nice while it lasted. I’ll leave the old review pasted under this one. Leaving 2 stars in memory of what was. In reality I’d leave 1.

OLD(OBSOLETE) REVIEW: Captain Jacks. An adventure from start to finish. We entered the building and were greeted and told there would be a half hour wait and we could wait in the lounge. Sounded odd but we waited in a nice seated area to the left of the entrance booth and listened to live music played by a older gentleman who was using the piano as well as the harmonica and singing. He was very talented and they took our drink and appetizer orders in there. The half hour sped by very fast and they escorted us to our table in almost a celebrity like way, employees stopping to let you pass and greeting you. We were seated at a small two person candle lit table with live flowers in a vase where we ordered the two servings of king crab. No prices listed or discussed so I was a bit worried. But the crab was so insanely good, as were the salads, the quesadilla and the bread, the cost stress disappeared. It came out to 280$. I was expecting more honestly but it was worth every penny. Insanely amazing service, food and entertainment. I will be coming back and every time I’m coming with new family and friends so they can...

Well, after 50 years of my grandparents, parents and my husband and I coming here- we finally are calling it quits. The last THREE times we have visited, we left saying “it’s just not the same, it’s gone down hill” and this time we said that this was it and we won’t be back. I can’t remember all the issues with the previous two times since they were a while ago, but I can tell you about this last time. We came in after shopping for cars near by, so it was last minute, and not a huge meal like the times before.

First, the bread is the first thing they give you along with water, and that bread used to be my favorite! Now it’s thin and dry, especially the pumpernickel.

My husband ordered the surf and turf ($95.00) with prime rib and crab, and a potato ($8.00). the crab was also dry! Seemed like it had been steamed too long or too long ago. The prime rib just fell flat. They must have changed suppliers some years ago, because you can just taste the quality difference. ( we frequent steakhouses and can speak to a quality meat).

I wasn’t feeling fancy and went with the prime rib quesadilla ($24.00) The tortilla was disgustingly soggy with meat juice, and they didn’t bother to remove huge chunks of fat and gristle from the meat before putting it into the quesadilla. I had to deconstruct it and remove it all myself, then try to put it back into a slimey wet tortilla. Just gross, couldn’t eat it and didn’t even have them box it to take home.

And lastly, the potato skins ($22.00) Those are always good and would be the only thing I would order if I ever had to come back. They are 22.00 now- used to be 12, then 18 and it’s just crazy how high the prices are and we just aren’t enjoying it nearly as much as we used to.

200.00 after tax and tip, and we felt grossed out and sad that we know it’s over.

Sad to say our family tradition is dead. We...