Shell’s — Restaurant in Port Aransas

We’ve never written a bad review on a place before. But I felt the need to go out of my way to make sure I get this review written. My family and I ate there last night. Not only did we wait two hours to get our food but the food was HORRIBLE. My husband wanted a nice steak so we looked around Port A. We were on a time crunch to get back home a few hours away...we have a dog. We called around Port A looking for a dog friendly place and found this. We looked at the menu and saw the steak and shrimp would be $33.00 or so but we agreed that it would be worth it for that nice fresh caught shrimp and an excellent quality steak. Well we waited maybe 30 minutes for a server to come. The hostess kept saying “your server will be right with you.” The server finally came and we ordered. We waited and waited and were getting extremely impatient after an hour and a half of waiting around. The server said at least 3 times within a 40 minute span “your food is on its way out.” And I looked at my husband and said “if she comes out one more time to say that, we’re leaving.” About 10 minutes later, our food arrived. The steak looked TERRIBLE. Like the cheapest steak you could ever find. Thin as can be too. The shrimp was TINY. Very cheap. Not fresh shrimp, but the tiny peeled and deveined shrimp you can find at H‑E‑B. The steak was way overcooked. He asked for no broccoli, as his dinner came with a side of vegetables, and there was the broccoli and hardly any other vegetable. My son got an Alfredo that he added shrimp to and his shrimp was the same. I ordered spaghetti with meatballs, and was excited to eat it regardless of those meatballs looking like they came out of a Walmart bag from the frozen section. So I ate my spaghetti. Let me tell you, the noodles tasted like they were boiling in a pot with soap remnants. Every bite I took....Soapy tasting. It was embarrassing that I got my family excited to eat here. My son wouldn’t even eat his already after 3 bites. And I couldn’t even finish my spaghetti. My husband finished his steak and shrimp, but was LIVID. I have never seen him this mad about something. He had to walk it off. So we paid, he told the server it was horrible and we left. We paid good money for some food that we could hardly even eat. So, save yourself the time and money and don’t come here. I truly let my family down with that one and that’s money that went right...

Disappointing!

We have a rental property in Port A and are often in town. Shells is one of our favorites! We recommend it to our guests often as well. I say all of that because we know about the wait times to get in and that it is a small place. It's actually one of the things we loved about it. However, last night was an epic fail!!

Our wait to get a table for 4 was only about 30 minutes. They had the dining room and the outdoor patio available. It was a Saturday night but I have to say, I have seen it much more crowded. We sat down to our table and twenty minutes later we were greeted by our server. She didn't realize that we had been seated. We asked for a wine glass (we had brought our own and two bottles of wine thinking only 3 of us would be drinking but then the fourth decided to have a glass) and waters for the table plus two appetizers. 30 minutes later, my husband started a timer to see from that point how long it would be before we got the glass and waters. Thankfully, she noticed us and brought the wine glass and no waters and wanted us to order our food right then. I told her we would place our order after we got waters. She brought out only 3 waters. We went ahead and placed our orders. (At this point, 4 inside tables were empty.) Finally, she brings out one of our appetizers and says the other one will be out in a few minutes. Basically, after sitting at our table for close to an hour and a half, we had gotten three glasses of water and an order of dumplings. We left the table and my husband went to the kitchen and flagged down a server to pay for our dumplings. We watched as one women actually changed seats with her husband and told us she just couldn't stand to watch the inefficiency in the kitchen anymore.

I was so sad about my experience. I always look forward to going to Shells but I guess that is a thing of the past and I will be removing them from our suggestion list.

I guess a lot of people felt the way we did because we drove by 45 minutes later and they were...

This place is a joke. We were seated immediately (4 other tables had people, and several empty) and ordered within 5 minutes or so. After 45 minutes, I walked into the kitchen and asked for some bread for my 4 year-old who was obviously hungry. The hostess came out and said they had been having issues with our server all night. I told her I hadn't seen food come out for any of the other tables, and asked how that was our server's fault? She then said they were down a server. Again, not sure what that has to do with food preparation. There were 2 people in the kitchen which is plenty for the total 5 tables or so who were seated - not sure if an organization could be run any more inefficiently.

After an hour and fifteen minutes, we finally got our food. Beside being average, my dish was entirely wrong. When I pointed it out, the server offered to adjust the price since what I ordered was cheaper. I asked for the manager, and she said there wasn't one. I asked who was in charge, and she said no-one.

The 2 other servers and hostess walked by my table at least 5-6 times EACH during the hour and fifteen minutes waited for my food. Not one of the other 3 ladies offered to bring us bread or fill up my water. Perhaps if there was some leadership the employees would care about the collective good of the restaurant instead of blaming each other?

I am slightly irritated I wasted 2 hours of my evening for average food. I am really irritated that the hostess was quick to blame the server, and that no-one was in charge. There were 6 people working that I saw- how can no-one be in charge? If the server is failing, I am curious what kind of training she was given. This is clearly a leadership failure.

For the owner - I left my phone number. Feel free to call...