Captain Benny’s Seafood

The food was excellent, 4 – 5 stars. The gumbo is spicy, loaded with shrimp, fresh okra and celery, could have been hotter in temperature. Server brought both our cup and bowl with soup sloshed on sides and the serving plate.
Oysters super fresh and large with plenty of lemon and horseradish on the side and reasonably priced just über $ 10/​doz. my fried shrimp basket of 8 held 10 butterfly shrimp lightly breaded. Fresh, hot fries and gear side of coleslaw, with two little hush puppies, all good, especially the shrimp.
Problem 1: cleanliness. Didn’t touch the dirty salt shaker bottle and tried not to look at the Capt. Benny sign on the table with dirt all over the frame. As a result wouldn’t touch anything in that condiment tray. When the waiter wiped down the two tables that emptied on our side, both tables were left with crumbs on them.
Problem 2: waiter. This guy never brought up utensils or napkins. Has to ask another person. Blamed the gumbo for slopping, not himself. Served us our only glass of water one at a time. Rarely saw him but somehow he managed to bring us the bill in the middle of our meal, not asking if we wanted desert. Seemed to have no pride in his work.
Overall I would say this establishment needs a very, very deep cleaning and a healthy dose of pride in the great food they serve. My advise would be to close the store for a few days, hire a professional service to clean it and reorganize your storage rooms and kitchen, both of which I got not so pretty glimpses of.

havent been here in quite a while. Went Friday night and loved it. great menu, wonderful Gulf Oysters on half shell. Momma got broiled crawfish tails with dirty rice. I got Fried shrimp and catfish filet basket. beautiful. Right out of the fryer. Cornbmeal breading golden brown and crispy. perfect.
If u love simple, great food at reasonable prices this is it!

We drove around all day and sampled quite a lot of gumbo today. Hands down yours was the best by a long shot! We will be back!

My boyfriend has a huge soft spot for this place. Every so often he looks at me and says, «you wanna go to the boat?» I always say yes.
Captain Benny’s Seafood sits n the midst of hotel-​motels off I-​35 –great vibe and solid seafood. Sitting around the slanty-​floored «boat bar» are usually a group of characters with stories that will knock you right off your stool. Just your average no frills, seafood — faux boating experience. It’s a solid bet for oysters, fried shrimp and a good time. Did I mention it’s cheap?

Capt Benny’s is an amazing seafood place to eat with pretty reasonable prices. I live right around this area, and decided to pop in one day when my sister was visiting me from Dallas. I had the Nacho Oyster style. They had jalepenos on top. While I have never eaten cheese with Oysters I have to say this was surprisingly delicious. Fresh Oysters on the half shell. I added a little hot sauce and a Beer, man it was a good lunch.
The second time I went was about a week ago and just ordered the GUmbo to go. It was hot, fresh, had plenty of meat, not too much rice at all, and tons of flavor. So far, so good. I will continue to return.

I’m giving it four stars but only because of the waitress. She was friendly, bright attitude and very attentive of the table. The food on the other hand wasn’t up to the rating. My husband and friend both ordered the shrimp basket and the batter the shrimp had was more cornbready and thick, I, myself ordered the chicken finger basket and the chicken pieces looked like nuggets instead.

The oysters were ok-​fresh, the fish basket was a little too greasy. Gumbo was ok. I do agree on some other posts that they seem a little bit stingy on some things. They tried to save little things like small pieces of oysters and tried to make the fries look like a lot when you can clearly tell it’s just that much. I’ve had better, but not a bad place at all.

Captain Benny’s in Austin?! Me and my husband thought we were hallucinating homesick from Houston but, nope! Here it is! And the gumbo is consistent in flavor just like back home, DELICIOUS! Perfect.

Since this was right by our hotel, I had to stop by and try this location out. The tempting sign out front with the dozen oysters on special for 9.99 was our first clue. We stepped right up to the bar and were able to find 6 seats in a row. Thats a first for me… It all went downhill from there though.
Our server was either drunk or high and just didn’t seem like he wanted to work that day. We ordered a couple micheladas and iced teas and a coke and that took forever, when the restaurant wasn’t even that busy. He messed up the micheladas and gave us a shiner to go with it, then he didn’t even give one of my friends the beer, only the mug with the tomato juice.
For the food, he never gave us our dozen oysters. Maybe I’m spoiled by all the better locations of this establishment in Houston, or maybe this guy should just be fired!!!

This place was not good. We went during dinner and the waiter obviously hated his job. He was just irritating right off the bat. Got our drink and when my husband asked for recommendations, he asked what we wanted to eat… we had to ask for silverware. The portions were small, way over priced for the portion and taste which tasted like the frozen section of HEB. I can make better catfish than what is served here. The tarter sauce tasted odd… no salad or bread comes with entrée… won’t be going back ever again!

I ordered the catfish basket to go and got a «craft beer» to wait for it. The foods came in about 10 minutes. Not bad.
The fish was thin and battered a bit too thick. There were two pieces and with a white sauce that I cannot really fathom. The fish was fresh, just probably too thickly battered and over-​fried. The fries were OK. The to-​go box did not include ketchup.
I would only come here if I have no other choices.

Went for dinner, won’t be back. The tilapia specials were worded poorly and the broiled tilapia was greasy and bland, it literally left a bad taste in my mouth… I ate one bite and continued to only eat my toast and rice. When the server collected my plate he threw everything on my plate away and didn’t bother to ask if I liked it since just about everything was STILL ON my plate. My sister got the Shrimp Lovers Special and only liked the dirty rice and stuffed shrimp. The butterfly shrimp were as thin as battered and fried tortillas. The cole slaw is sweet which did not compliment my plate or hers. Extremely disappointed.

We were seated quickly and met quickly by the server who was polite and efficient. The small placard holding the specials menu was sticky and needed to be cleaned. The table needed a good degreasing/​de-​stickifying. The alligator and calamari appetizers were good, but the underlying flavor was masked by entirely too much spicy Cajun-​type sprinkled spice. We found two hairs in the appetizers. The various food plates were pretty good, which included catfish, shrimp, scallops and crab. The tartar sauce was great. The French fries were excellent; our favorite part of the meal. The Cajun «dirty rice» and shrimp gumbo were very good. Prices were ok for the quality/​quantity.

Staying in the Marriott I walked to the end of the parking lot to check it out. Service is great… food is Awesome… beer selection is so so, that’s the only reason for the 4 star instead of 5. Definitely coming back!!!

Good oysters

I would love to give this restaurant a higher review. The staff is friendly, professional, and dedicated to doing a good job for their guests. Otherwise, I would give Captian Benny’s only one star. To start, the gumbo is almost as Campbell’s Chunky. The shrimp are microscopic and overcooked. The roux is watery and flavorless. The rice is plentiful though. Rinsing the plates into a hot pot mat produce a better gumbo.
I rate their beer selection as being barely acceptable, especially for Austin. The French fries were greasy and far too blonde. Sadly, Captain B’s may be amongst the best in Austin for fried seafood. It’s like being amongst the best Tex-​Mex in Bangor, Main. I also wish they offered malt vinegar in their selection of table condiments.
My review is based on multiple visits. Sometimes I get a craving for fried seafood. Sometimes I agree to go with friends. Austin needs a good, affordable seafood restaurant Like is plentiful in Houston and New Orleans,. Even San Antonio has Sea Island.
Bottom line — I give Captain Benny’s one over yuck.

Sit outside ! –Vidal is an excellent waiter!
Honestly the service is even better than the food. That’s a stretch because the broiled shrimp, oysters, & rice that accompanies your meal is top notch :)

Even as a child I was interested in trying this restaurant because it’s made partially out of a boat. If you decide to dine here, I suggest you sit in the boat portion of this restaurant which will mean you are sitting at the bar. And what a fine bar it is! If it were a full bar, not just beer and wine, it would certainly make this place a step closer to getting four stars.
Now, don’t misunderstand my reasoning for thinking this place needs a full bar. Sure, I’m not a beer lover, but it’s deeper than that. This place has decent food, not great, but the fact that part of the venue is an actual old boat means this place has awesome hangout potential. That could easily mask the average fried oyster dilemma, and make this spot cooler, therefore making every dish more special and delicious feeling.
At the end if the day there is a long-​standing seafood restaurant nearby that only serves wine and beer as well that will likely be more popular with the locals. This place is alright, but a few tweaks could really make it something!

I have eaten here a lot in the past and for the most part it is a decent enough sea food place. Oysters are good and most of the seafood is tasty.
However, this last weekend I took the kids by there and ordered a Texas tradition, fried jumbo shrimp. In my opinion, a good measure of any seafood restaurant in Texas is their fried jumbo shrimp plate. I was really dissapointed. Primarily because, «jumbo» means big. There is a standard to be called a jumbo shrimp and these did not meet that standard. They were smaller and butterflied and pounded flat to make them look bigger than they were. When you’re paying $ 20 for 12 jumbo shrimp, you expect way better. They cut corners on the shrimp and like I said, this is the yardstick for any Texas style seafood restaurant. They missed the boat.

Happy hour monday through friday $ 1.00 ofd from the bar!
Don’t blink because you will pass the entrance and have to turn around! The big billboard in from of the entrance has your attention and overwhelms their sign.
Walking in from the parking lot it doesn’t look like much but they have a cute little patio with tables and tiki style umbrellas. It was rainy so we opted to sit inside but, people were enjoying the patio and cooler temperatures.
Once inside we sat at a table not at their boat style bar where they shuck oysters in front of you. Next to our table we noticed they had another small side patio with 2 regular picnic tables. They also had flat screens which was nice because Eric wanted to watch the football game.
The ambiance was that of an East Coast Crab House. It wasn’t fancy but, you knew the food was going to be great.
They only have a bottled beer and wine selection; no liquor and nothing on tap! We started with the shrimp diablos which were 3 for $ 3.99! They were really tasty and definitely had a kick to them.
I ordered Broiled Platter $ 16.99 and it came with broiled shrimp and scallop skewers, broiled fish filet (white fish), veggies on the skewers (peppers and onions), coleslaw, garlic toast, drawn butter and shrimp with seasoned rice. Mine was really tasty. I wasn’t so hot on the scallops because they were overdone and rubbery. The rice was to die for and I would probably order a big bowl of that next time. The coleslaw was different, it had pineapple in it and gave it a sweet burst of flavor. It wasn’t bad, it was just different.
Eric had the Captain’s Platter $ 16.99 and it came with fried shrimp, scallops, catfish, stuffed and fried crab, fries, hush puppies and coleslaw. It was a huge helping of fried food and I don’t think he really cared for it. Fried food is fried food if you ask me but, he kept staring at my plate longingly!
The servers were friendly and I enjoyed the overall experience. I would come back but, I would bring a bigger appetite and I doubt Eric would want to go back but, that was his ordering mistake.