Castaway’s Seafood & Grill — Restaurant in Port Aransas

I ordered the blackened Jetty Grilled Combo with pontchartrain sauce on the side...and the snapper came out SO chewy that I couldn't even eat it. It was burnt! My husband hated his meal too. I even tried to dip my fish in melted butter but nope, couldn't eat it. We got there right when they opened so I assumed they didn't have the grills ready. The rice was VERY undercooked. I just can't help but think they weren't ready and rushed to make our meals. The pontchartrain sauce was like a plain cream sauce. It did not have a roux type of flavor at all...it was more like opening a can of cream of chicken soup...again, maybe because the kitchen wasn't ready? I don't know, all I know is that the food wasn't right. My husband ordered the Jay's special, blackened, and his was burnt and chewy also. His "blue crab meat" was a little chunk about the size of a quarter (see photos). Blackened does not mean burnt, it means that it's coated with seasoning that it appears darker when grilled (or pan cooked) and when cooked right, the outside is full of flavor and the inside should be tender and flaky...but our fish was definitely not prepared right. I liked the flavor on the split cut shrimp but the shrimp was stuck to the shell that made it difficult to separate the shrimp from the shell. The sweet tea was good, tasted fresh. The manager credited my meal since I couldn't eat it but my husband, retired military has learned to eat just about anything, whether it tastes good or not 🤣. But he will prob think twice about going back or make special requests with the server to ensure the meal is prepared right. Almost forgot the gumbo! We both ordered the gumbo and it was so spicy that I couldn't eat more than a few bites, my eyes teared up so I gave it to my husband. It was nice and chunky with sausage and shrimp but the spice was overwhelming and I just couldn't enjoy it. I don't know why people think the hotter it is, the better it is...that is not the case for me, I'd rather have flavor than it being so spicy (with cayenne prob) that it was just not edible for me, however, I think my sinuses are clear now! 🥵 My husband who likes hot and spicy food said it was overwhelming with the hot spices and not with flavor. Sorry guys, maybe next time we'll have a...

We looked up the restaurant on line and decided to eat there because of the variety of menu items. When we got our menus they were completely different then online and the online prices did not match the in restaurant prices. We had the 4 piece mahi mahi diner. It came with four pieces of fish fries and a bit of Cole slaw in a little disposable plastic container. Tartar sauce and what tasted like marinara sauce. The fish tasted like it was a frozen TV diner that was microwaved. The fries were pretty good. We also had an appetizer of the creamy crab Rangoon dip. It was very good but ran out of chips before the dip was finished. Ask the waiter to have a few more chips to finish off the dip and was told I would have to purchase more. Keep in mind my bill was 87.02 for 2 adults and 2 children. We did not order any alcohol. You think they could have given us a few more corn chips. They would not let us switch out the fried shrimp for grilled shrimp and was told we could but there would be a 12 dollar upcharge so it was the same price to just buy a side of 4 grilled shrimp. My brother in law had a burger that was cooked to less than rare but didn’t want to say anything at this point due to the other issues. We a party of 5 felt like it took an extremely long time to receive our food but the restaurant was not crowed with no wait to be seated. We got there a little before 7 and left around 9. I won’t say it was horrible but for the price it was definitely not worth it and we will not go back based on...

I try really hard to be fair with my reviews. I relied alot on reviews to decide where to eat. So here's my shot:

We put ourselves on the wait list and were seated when expected ( about 45 mins). We had drinks while waiting, and they were fair.

The food: We ordered hush puppies and popcorn shrimp as appetizers. The hush puppies were delicious, the shrimp was...probably frozen but not terrible. The sauce was good!

I ordered the Third Coast fish with Mahi Mahi (with onion rings instead of rice), my husband ordered the shrimp platter with fries. His came with onion rings, so he had to ask for fries, but he really enjoyed his food. The coconut shrimp were delicious, as was the Thai chili sauce that came with it. My fish was bland. The fish was unseasoned and the sauce had no flavor. I asked for a salt shaker, and what a difference! I think if there were more than 15 capers, I may not have needed salt for the sauce. The fish was cooked nicely, though. The squash that came with it was well seasoned and not mushy (as squash can be).

The service: This place was busy, but not packed. In talking to some folks around here, there is a labor shortage. Hence, the wait. We waited a while after being seated to have our drink orders and food orders taken, but after that, our food came out fast (our entrees came right after our apps). Our server was as attentive as she could have been, and we cannot complain about that.

Overall, we weren't overly impressed, but nor were were terribly...