Half Shell — Restaurant in Lake View Township

I'm extremely disappointed with my outside dining experience today for numerous reasons.

First of all there were very very few customers inside or outside and the only server there took her sweet time getting anything out to me; whether it was a menu or just to pass by casually to check up on me every so often. I'm going to assume it's because I'm not a drinker. I only wanted to try this place because I believe I used to come here for oyster specials in the past but perhaps I genuinely confused this oyster restaurant with another because the pricing is much higher and the oysters I actually did receive were extremely tiny.

I guess i was expecting a larger sized oyster because I ordered a dozen for over $25 but I was presented with extremely tiny oysters and only ONE sauce...a tomato 🍅 horseradish and a lemon 🍋 plus some cheap wrapped saltine crackers. I asked my server if they had root beer 🍺 and she thought I meant beer so after I mentioned non alcoholic options she said all they had was coke, ginger ale and lemonade so I chose lemonade. The lemonade was very good but no refills and long after I had polished off all my raw oysters my server never bothered to check up on me and offer me more water.

I absolutely waited assuming there must be tons of people inside that she was serving so I didn't go inside to ask for my check.

Once she came out and presented me with the final bill I pulled out a credit card 💳 and was informed it's strictly cash only here.

I had to go inside with my debit card and everything inside was dark and drab. There was barely any lighting which isn't good if you're using an ATM machine. I got charged a $3 service fee on top of the $32 for tiny oysters, saltines and lemonade.

I'm not happy at all because I feel cheated and honestly this isn't the type of restaurant service or food portions I am used to receiving so this is a hard pass for me moving forward.

Oh yea before I forget! I couldn't figure out why the servers weren't more proactive and coming outside more often. When I finally got my bill and headed inside to find the ATM machine I saw both women snacking on boiled corn 🌽 on the cob. I guess that's why they were too busy to check up on me every so often to ask if I needed the bill. That corn on the cob definitely looked more affordable and filling than the miniscule sized oysters I received today. And honestly why don't they accept credit cards?! I absolutely feel it's important for all eating establishment to be flexible enough to accept Google Pay, cash 💸 and...

I gave this place two chances (I visited alone). It was okay the first time. It was terrible the second time.

As you approach from the outside, you'll likely have the impression that it's a divey type of place. Although the dim lights and subtle, musty scent of the basement do meet that criteria, the clientele and yacht club flags are quite different. It's often an extremely affluent and standoffish crowd. Not really much of a complaint on my part, but I will summarize by saying the vibe is confusing at the least and weird at most.

Anyway, the food is mostly mediocre. Not much to mention other than the fact that I am confident the seafood is not fresh at all. I was actually expecting that to be the case, given that we are in the Midwest. The problem is that after my second visit, I spent an entire morning puking in my bathroom.

The biggest positive is that the service was nice. Both the bartender and the table servers are quite attentive. I did not have to make any extra requests, and they visited enough to keep me satisfied.

As a final note, I tend to be wary of cash-only businesses. The inconvenience of it is one reason. For example: not being able to split a check. But in the case of Half Shell, what put me off is that they will attempt to sneak extra things into your bill. The check you will receive is going to be a completely unreadable set of chicken scratch, and there's a good chance something small will be tacked on, despite you not ordering it.

In my case, both of my visits ended with a random beer added onto the ticket. These types of discrepancies are hard to dispute when a business lacks any POS system to track orders. I left with the impression that at Half Shell, the problem is...

It was between this dive and Low Country. We should have gone to Low Country!!! It started off with not being able to sit because all of are party had not arrived (they were looking for a parking spot). So we sat at the bar by 17 year old included. I was there with my parents 77 & 73 years old for my mothers birthday (she was equipped with a portable oxygen machine). A waitress came into the restaurant in the basement and said the table for 5 is ready (she was speaking to the bartender) he then says you can go out.....we had to find the table. Waitress Carmen come over to take out order and we informed her there would be 3 checks shes says " I can't do that you will have to figure that out yourself" It was down hill after that. We picked Half Shell because of the size of the crab legs and the Chubbs. Well guess what? They have on the menus but do not sell it. My father had a hamburger instead They king crab legs were Ok but they didn't provide enough utensil, even red lobster does that. Our waitress Carmen was not attentive at all my daughter had to get condiments for the hamburger because Carmen never came back to ask what we needed. The other servers attended us. Our bill was $154.00 we would have given a nice tip but Carmen attended to everyone but us maybe she thought because we wanted separate checks our order was going to be light. Maybe its because we were black (saw her treat an African american couple with a small child not so nicely as well, seated a white couple first even though the black couple was there first) What ever the case I will never go back to half shell, the food was okay, I don't see what the hype was all about and Carmen...