Catcher's Fish House — Restaurant in Town of Hempstead

Off the top, this place is way overpriced. We have have dined at much more expensive restaurants, it's not about that, it's about what you get for the price point and at Catcher's, it's mediocre food and service, sitting between a canal and a loud street, at 5 star restaurant prices.

We gave it a second chance after a poor birthday experience. No change.

It wasn't terribly crowded on a sunny Sunday evening. Should have been hopping, but it wasn't. A large table was seated after us, saw a lot of looking at, talking about and pictures of, the menus. Shortly thereafter they got up and left. Smart choice. The wait staff was noticeably talking about them, then a manager or owner came over yelling. Something about pineapple, $20 and them leaving after. Couldn't quite make it out.

Against my better judgment, we stayed. We came by boat and there's really nothing of quality in the area.

My wife wanted sauvignon blanc, but they only had Oyster Bay, a $10 mediocre bottle that they were peddling at $58. Yes some restaurants have started 4-4.5x markup on wine, but this is just egregious.

Our first time there I went with their paella special. At $65, it is very overpriced, but I really like paella, especially if it comes with a lobster tail. I asked about it before ordering, particularly if it was a traditional paella. They said it was, well it wasn't (it is pictured).

This time, only one place setting with fork, knife and napkin were on the table that would be for four (we were 3). We had to eventually ask for more when entrees were served.

This time, the paella was again a special, but I had no intention of ordering a soupy dish. They had a porterhouse and stuffed lobster special, but I didn't have high hopes and didn't want to gamble about having to argue over its $245 price tag if it lived up to my poor expectations, so i passed on that. I was then contemplating the pork chop, but that's a tough one if the chef isn't up to par. So...a bacon cheeseburger, maybe a 6oz was on the menu for $26. Really? Better be a fancy steakhouse burger at that price. It wasn't, but it was good. Anyway asked for truffle fries instead of regular fries, they said it would be an additional charge, which I expected. What they didn't say was that they were going to charge me for an entire side of truffle fries ($14) and not bring out both sets of fries. So that $26 burger was now $40.

Also ordered this time were: Mesclun salad with grilled shrimp (I thought it was terrible, but our 13 year old thought it was ok).

Linguine and white clam sauce. Just ok.

My wife asked for a second glass of sangria before asking for the check, the check came without the sangria on it, but the sangria never made it to the table. Fine.

The check had a service fee added as well as a 20% gratuity already added. We were a party of 3. I forgot that they added those last time. Said something about both as well as the $14 upcharge for truffle fries. I should have taken a Pic.

Apparently if you pay cash (which I was) the service fee comes off. They removed the added 20% so i could leave whatever I wanted, and reduced the burger $7.

In any event, just an all around bad experience. Wish I would have remembered exactly how overpriced they are before deciding. After 2x I can say we are definitely never going back. Frankly, I don't understand how this place gets any good reviews. I hope they close. The owners and the staff (who make it obvious they talk about customers) don't deserve the place. Pretty sure we got the same treatment as the guy that was yelling about the prior group came up to the manager asking excitedly what I said to him as I left.

There's really nothing good on the mile. This place used to be Nawlins, and while the service was extremely slow (order two drinks at a time lol) the cajun food was very good. The subsequent Tropix on the Bayou and now Catcher's were both sub par.

This is a hard pass unless you like throwing your...

Honestly had the worst food and service here my family and I have experienced in a very long time. It completely ruined our beach day and we talked about it for the entire car ride home. Unforgivable circumstances went on last night. Our server was extremely aloof and unprofessional, borderline aggressive. I let the server know we wanted clams oreganata ti which he said “ok so the baked clams” I said “yes but definitely oreganata, not casino.” He responded “they’re totally different”….I’m like “ok I’m just letting you know we’d like the oreganata clams not the casino” to which he responded “if you don’t order the clams casino then you want get the clams casino” ….????? Rude?? Then I ordered an expresso martini. I said “hey I would like that black, no baileys please.” He returned with a milky expressi martini. I’m a full time bartender in Chelsea, so I already knew it had baileys in it by the color. I said “does that have baileys in it?” he told me “no it doesn’t.” I said “I think it does” and he just said “can you just try it first?” And proceeded to put the drink down and walk away. I got up to bring it to the bartender because clearly I was getting nowhere with this guy, only for him to be returning to the table with a black expresso martini on his own. We didn’t converse on this as I was already headed to the bathroom. The food was also pretty terrible. We never got those clams, the lobster Mac and cheese was a joke, my husband got sick from his lobster ravioli and my scallops and risotto was flavorless. We had to move tables due to a bird nest on top of our heads on the patio, staff didn’t offer any apology or remarks regarding that. And our full bottle of Pellegrino was taken off the table to which we had to ask for it back….our server was clearly annoyed and placed another one, again without saying anything. My husband noticed our server ignored us for the rest of the meal while providing other tables with better service. We would’ve ordered another round of drinks if he would’ve asked but his lack of professionalism held him back from being able to smooth the earlier hiccups in the meal over with us and reestablish some rapport. A shame. $300 later (after an unprompted 20% gratuity charge for a party of 3 adults and 1 child) later, we were so ready to leave we didn’t even have the patience leftover to discuss our unhappiness with the meal. We were drawn to Catchers by their calm aesthetics and delicious sounding online menu only to be jolted by a totally subpar experience. Food was clearly not fresh and unseasoned. We left this place with nothing but dissatisfaction and a stomach ache. We will not return and...

On April 14, I went there for an early dinner. I’ve been going there for over a year with a couple and their daughter. It always seem nice but this time I introduced my daughter‘s friend mom to the restaurant no one ever came to ask us about drinks finally when I saw the owner, I asked him if the octopus was still on the menu. It happened to be a special that day. The waiter told us all the specials. I ordered the octopus the Mom with me ordered the coconut shrimp and our two daughters ordered the lobster ravioli still did not ask us if we want to drink drinks !! Next thing you know within 5 to 7 minutes, our appetizers came out while we were eating our appetizers. Still no drinks the way rue waiter handed me the bill. I was in shock. I didn’t understand it. I took the bill. I put it underneath my wallet and phone and continue to eat my appetizer. The girls had not got their lobster ravioli. Yet the waiter comes and lifts my phone and wallet to get the bill and I said to him oh Oh, there’s nothing in there yet he proceeded to still lift the bill and spilled my phone into my octopus. He said oops and walked away. I think I didn’t say anything cause I was in shock. !!! I decided not to write the review that day because the couple I go with is very good friends with the owners And I needed to not be so angry and annoyed. Never came to ask us if we wanted any other food, any dessert, desserts any other drinks and after all that when I looked at the bill he had put his own tip. The restaurant was not full not sure what the rush was about Also, he put that we were party of three and we were party of four and I thought that you only put your tip on of a party of six or more It’s too bad this was such an extra bad experience, and I was truly embarrassed because I had ranted and raved about this restaurant to the new Mom. I spent lots of days last summer there .. I will not be...