Blackbeard's Too — Restaurant in Ingleside

"at least the lemons were juicy!"

First off, if you think this place is like the blackbeards in port Isabel, you’re wrong. Same name, and likely same owner, but this place is much smaller and housed in a metal building that looks like it used to be a storage unit or garage of some type. Not that appearances matter, but just a heads up.

Well, things started off fine. We got seated right away and our drink orders were taken promptly. But that’s as far as it went. Our drink order was simple. 3 waters and 1 lemonade. Yet, it took close to 20 minutes for anyone to visit the table again and bring the drinks. A different server finally brought out our drinks, which I had seen sitting on the fountain drink dispenser for at least 10 minutes. We place our orders, including an appetizer. The app came out in a reasonable amount of time, but, although they had brought small plates, they didn’t bring any silverware. The server was gone before we even noticed. When we caught him again, we asked for dinnerware. We were expecting the usual knife and fork wrapped in a napkin. Nope. He brought 4 forks. We had to stop him again and ask for napkins. He brought 3, even though there were 4 of us dinning.

Catching anyone after this was impossible, so I went to the restrooms and got some paper towels for us. The servers were all running around frantically. There were at least 6 servers for a very small place, yet, they couldn’t keep their act straight. One of the servers looked like she was going to cry from being frustrated and overwhelmed. At one point, one of the servers told another that table 6’s ticket has been lost for 35 minutes. The kitchen couldn’t find it, so they had to tell the table they needed to take their order again… after 35 minutes!!!!

We finally got our entrees, but the side salads didn’t come out until we were half way done with the entrees. And only because we reminded them we never got the salads.

I wouldn’t call the food great. It was ok, but not great. I could eat their food again, but I won’t due to the poor service.

While we were eating, our son squeezed some lemon juice on his shrimp and made the comment, “At least the lemons are juicy.” So they got that...

It was ok. My biggest issue is they did not devein the shrimp and the waitress completely forgot my husband's salad but she took accountability, which is rare these days. Their blackened spice is pretty good, it's not hot and it is flavorful. I hate when cooks put so much cayenne or hot spices on blackened foods, it takes away actual flavor and Blackbeards Too did not do that. You can actually taste flavor (I asked for extra on the side and added more to my fish) The grilled zucchini was surprising as it was sliced long ways but it was grilled just right. I just feel like they could have chosen a nicer spot, it looks like it was a small retail store converted into a small restaurant. It just has a cheap feel and for Blackbeards being so popular in Corpus, I assumed it would be bigger and on the main road. The pricing is ok for some items and high for others. We ordered the shrimp and fish dinner. The fish is Swai (which I've never had before) but it was not a nice white flaky fish that I was hoping for, it was more like a cheap tilapia. It was not worth $20 but I guess you pay for the atmosphere. But now I know I will never order Swai fish again, it just isn't worth it. The fried shrimp is butterflied and the breading was light and a little crunchy, which was so good but realizing they don't take the few seconds to devein shrimp, ruined the experience and it plays part in the noticeable shortcuts, like sticky tables, servers sitting around, staff playing around too much. The restaurant has a lot of potential, it has a good name as Blackbeards has a good reputation and this was just not the experience I expected. 1st step would be stop serving one of the cheapest fish avail and spend a little more on a better fish for your house plates. There are articles that mention how swai is not really good to eat, especially due to the farming conditions of Swai. Ask for a different type of fish. Sorry guys. 😞 Next time, if I come back I'll make sure to order Mahi or...

I really wanted to like this place. As an outsider stepping into clearly a more local area restaurant, the place had some real local neighborhood charm that I enjoyed. The staff were great and appropriately attentive. The guy playing guitar and vocals to some familiar southern songs was perfect. The salad came and it was huge and delicious. And then the rest of the meal came and it was all just a disappointment from there. The fried shrimp, completely over cooked and very boring with no seasoning or taste. The fried fish, almost the same but it was perfectly cooked, it just absolutely had no taste. There just can't be any way there was any sodium in that dish. Thankfully there was, was some very boring supposed tartar sauce to dip the fried fish into. Then came the fried oysters. They were absolutely obliterated in the frying process as they came out simply as batter fried charred oyster bits. Trust me, fried oysters don't have crunchy oysters inside them. They were a disgusting excuse for fried oysters. Never again, nope, you can't make me eat those things ever again. The fried onion rings, they looked great but had zero salt. I ended up peeling off the excessive batter, salted the actual beautiful remaining onion ring, and enjoyed it the best I could. Again, the place had great charm and service love, but the food simply missed...