Courtney's Restaurant-Seafood — Restaurant in Saint Mary's City

a visit became a must for us after we got the following recommendation from a local: "you will have the best seafood ever, but this is the true opposite of red l*bster".

And this turned out to be the case: excellent, fresh, and delicious seafood, personal touches and photos everywhere (e.g. 'gulls' and 'buoys' restroom signs), caring and personal service. In short, a place run by a small family that totally understands their seafood. And care about their business. So, we were disappointed, but very pleased to hear: 'it is no season for this or that fish, so we don't have it'. If this doesn't make sense to you, this place is not for you.

Specifics: The service was fast, attentive, personal, and very caring. The young gentleman (grandson of the owner from what I overheard) made great recommendations. We ordered and loved: the absolutely fabulous crab balls for $7.99 (see other review), which were nearly 100% crab meat. They were fried to perfection. Considering their size and the price of a pound of picked crab meat, this is a great deal. fried oysters, again fried to perfection (much shorter/lighter than the crab balls for obvious reasons). Absolutely fresh, a wonderful salinity, and rather hefty in size. as a shared main course, we ordered the fresh local fried fish, coming with a salad from their bar and soup (selection of clam chowder or crab/veggie soup). Our waiter explained that only rock fish and sea squab were in season and caught, and he kindly offered to us to get a combo of both. How much more to ask for? Again, both were fried perfectly, tasted super-fresh and -delicious. for dessert, we shared the home-made blackberry cobbler a la mode (again, a recommendation from our waiter), which was simply wonderful.

In summary, a must if you are in the area. Come without the expectation to get a certain dish. We fully appreciated that a truly fresh product can be sold out or not have been caught (and did not want to get a piece of frozen...

This is one of my favorite restaurants! If you want clean, fast organized service, with contemporary dishes this place is not for you! But if you want an experience, you can remember, quirky strange happenings and some of the best streamed Chesapeake Bay Blue crabs then this is the place for you! The atmosphere is phenomenally unique, surrounded by working farms on a peninsula where a car might pass every two hours if that then yeah! Memories of grandfather taking me crabbing on his boats are some of my first and very best memories! He was a retired National Can engineer, a machinist back in the day, turned grandfather and watermen and he taught me about the important things in life; respect everyone, be kind, have a laugh, enjoy life and find beautiful isolated places that offer a unique perspective… We head down and stay at the refurbished motel Pier 450 for a week every summer so we can enjoy crabs and the owner’s and staff at Courtney’s making us breakfast every morning. The owner is often the only one there so she seats you, as she’s setting up the buffet and salad bar with many of the vegetables she grows right outside. She takes your orders, serves you, then takes the check too! It’s beyond laid back and personal! It’s hard to find a place this intimate these days but it pays off for us with lasting friendships and amazing camaraderie. The crabs??? I’ve been eating them every summer my entire life, fifty plus years, and I had three jumbo’s out of our dozen this year that had the sweetest, most delectable, sweet buttery crab-back-fin flavor that puts you in a hypnotic trance!...

Went and had the Crab Soup. Awesome. Had the SoftShell Crab Dinner. Awesome. Hush Puppies. Awesome. Iced Tea. Awesome. Rolls. Awesome. Peach Pie w/Vanilla Ice Cream. Awesome. It was so awesomely delicious, that we went back the next night.

The seafood is caught by the Family Dad who is a waterman. The mom does the cooking and most often the daughter is waiting tables. Awesome people. The place looks old, but it has history and the walls are cluttered with articles and photos. Courtney's is every bit as good as the Crockett House on Tangier Island, and the Harrison House on Tilghman Island. The prices are very good as well. If you love the old shore house southern seafood places that are very rare to find these days, you will fall in love at first bite.

If your the type of person who thinks TGIFridays is the best on the planet, you should probably avoid this place and stick to Red Lobster. Its a bit slow and they tell you that on the menu, so the reviews complaining about that are probably not worth your time. Personally I prefer the slower friendly service over the "rush them in and out" of all the places up on the main highway.

Hell, we might eat there every night at...