Charlie’s Fish House

One star that is the best I can do. overcooked fried seafood not worth a second chance. serving food this poorly prepared should be a grime, Bottom line it is a awful Restaurant

We had a really wonderful experience here. We arrived early in the evening, and sat outside to watch the sunset. The view is absolutely beautiful, yet the patio has a laid-​back vibe that was perfect or our two young boys.
Our waitress was extraordinary. She was super friendly, patient, and perfectly attentive. She even brought us some samples of their various soups when we couldn’t decide.
We ended up ordering the clam chowder, which was really, really good! It was well seasoned, and contained plenty of clams. We also ordered the peel and eat shrimp, cooked in beer, and the stone crab claws. Both were fresh and flavorful. Our kids got the popcorn shrimp and loved them.
Based on our experience here, I would definitely recommend this place, and we hope to come back someday ourselves!

4 meals ordered, not one was good. Shrimp, pasta marinara, fettucini Alfredo, and oysters. Oysters tasted like bad grease, Alfredo was bland and tasteless, marinara was straight out of a jar, shrimp left a bad aftertaste. So far we are unable to find a decent restaurant in Crystal River. What a shame. A beautiful restaurant, a perfect site and food that is just bad.

Gross gross and gross. No flavor. No taste. The grouper is nothing like Crackers next door. Table of four and none of us ate more than two bites. Manager had extremely bad attitude as well. I guess so– I’m sure he’s constantly told that this place is nothing like Crackers next door. I don’t know how this place stays open. Don’t waste your time or money here go to CRACKERS! B

Other than being on the waterfront I don’t have many positive things to say about this place.
We sat outside and ordered a grilled chicken sandwich and coconut shrimp. The shrimp weren’t bad but the chicken was overcooked to the point of almost being inedible and the fries tasted like they had been cooked hours ago. The service was also very slow and several other people around us sent their food back.
When I went to use the restroom there was someone getting sick so I promptly turned around and went back to our table. Honestly the best part of the meal was probably the packaged crackers that came with the salad.
Overall a very disappointing experience at a place that I can only describe as a tourist trap.

Conch Fritters were amazing. Just wish there was more in an order. Lobster Salad Wrap very yummy. Cole slaw is good and apple sause goes good with everything according to my Fiancé.

Went to Charlie’s because it was on the water and we wanted seafood. Ordered shrimp and scallops. Both were over cooked and leathery. Potato and salad were okay. Service was casual but attentive.

We were on mini vaca for the weekend in Crystal River so: We came here for dinner because the place was packed outside, I was a little reluctant because I had read some bad reviews.
My boyfriend and Mom said lets try it anyways, glad we did!!!
We had Kerry Ann and she was nice, ordered the shrimp and crab dip, not very large portion but it was yummy.
All three of us ordered the blackened grouper as a recommendation from Kerry Ann and it did not disappoint.
I am giving them 4 stars because we sat outside and there was no music, but it was kind of peaceful in a way (we even saw a Manatee !!!) Seeing as how it was on the water that was a plus as well.
Good service, good food.

We’ve eaten there three or four times now. Usually it’s pretty good, this time the service was good but the food was marginal. We probably felt that way because we ordered blackened fish, and it had hardly any flavor at all in the blackening rub, and the potato salad tasted terrible. We’ll go back, but not order anything blackened and definitely not the potato salad. We’ll just count it as an off day.
The attached fish market is AWESOME!!! The proteins they offered were beautiful. It’s the main reason we go there (and responsible for the 4^th star). We purchased a pound of fresh bay scallops for a fair price.

It looks so pretty from outside & does have nice waterfront.
The tablecloth is plastic. The plastic napkin dispenser is on the table. Every time a chair moved across the dining room it sounded like thunder.
I ordered lobster bisque and it was delicious.
I also got fried shrimp & baked potato — the shrimp were grossly overlooked & the manager took off my bill. When I told the waitress about the problem she apologized and asked «what do you want me to do, please?» — it was so odd.
My husband had the steak & said it was good. The side was corn & he was pretty sure it was poured right out of the can.
My 2 for 1 lemon drop martini came in a shot glass and tasted awful.
This is a $ type of place with a $$$ cost.

I’m not one to leave reviews EVER, but I ate at this place and had to comment. I will start with the positive. Our waitress was friendly and courteous. The atmosphere was great also. OK on to the negative, the FOOD! It was wayyyy over cooked. I had the seafood platter and there was nothing that was cooked correctly, also there was a dead bug in my salad. Now maybe the cook was having an off day, but I won’t make a repeat attempt!

The view was amazing we got a table overlooking the water at sunset. Other tan that everything else was horrible!
My boyfriend got the peel and eat shrimp first regret is ordering them. Second is that I didn’t take a picture of these sad pathetic little things. They looked so awful I didn’t even want to try one and the last one he put in his mouth he spit it out. I order fried fish. It was ok. He also got a mashed potato for a side and it was soooo over cooked I could tell just by looking at it. He told me that it was mushy.
At the end of our meal the waitress asked how it was. I told her the shrimp was awful and tasted like it was frozen (he had more than half of his meal left). She responded by saying the shrimp is fresh. If that’s the case then they cooked it about 12 hours earlier. She asked if we wanted a replacement. We were already done! We said no so she brought us the check. She didn’t even take half of the shrimp meal off the check!
When we got up to the counter to pay the cashier asked us if we wanted to add a tip. When he said no. She immediately got an attitude with us.
All in all worse than cafeteria food and other than the great view so not worth it. They had plastic table cloths and bug zappers… INSIDE!!!

The only thing worse than the service was the food… not even edible!!!
The best Part of this experience was the to go coffee… fast food would have been a better choice!

I had lunch here my last day out of FL with a great group of people. I ordered the fried grouper with fries and a side salad and had the mullet dip as a starter. While the food isn’t the best I ever had, it’s quite good and a great price. The service was quick especially considering we had 10+ people in our group. If I didn’t have to rush down to Tampa afterwards, I would have gladly lounged there a bit longer enjoying view and adding a couple more pounds to my ass.
p.s P.J., our server, is a doll. I love her.

Dinner on Saturday night, on a holiday weekend — the parking lot was full, the restaurant was too. Recipe for a bad experience, but the waitress was quick to take our order, brought our food out as quickly as they could turn it out, and kept a close eye on us.
We had a pretty wide sample of food — one seafood platter, fried mullet, an island fried shrimp, and two of the «tuna tataki», with smoked mullet dip and my son’s standard cheese stick appetizers.
The tuna tataki on cold noodle/​seaweed salad — tuna was good; noodles were okay.
Mullet dinner — the mullet was fresh, properly treated when caught, and fried perfectly. Cole slaw was good, but sweeter than I prefer.
My 22 year old food snob son loved the seafood platter.
In all, I’d go again, even with the many choices for seafood along 19 in that area.

My order: clam chowder, captain’s platter with shrimp, crab pattie, oysters, and grouper, cheese grits and salad.
Hubby: crab stuffed shrimp with baked potato, and salad.
Other items ordered by the group: shrimp stuffed jalepinos, onion tanglers. Jalepinos shrimp came out hot and shrimpy with the sweet red jalipinos. Would order again. Onion tanglers were thin fried onions. Clam chowder was good but needed a touch is sherry to make it perfect. Just a touch would have made the difference.
The crab claws were amazing!
Now, my dinner: The shrimp were perfectly cleaned and fried. Oysters? I usually don’t like then but ate4 and passed around the rest. The crab patty was crabby with very little fuller. Cheese grits– yum! I will be back here again over crackers! Just wish there were an easy way to get there by boat!

At my friend Justin’s suggestion, we had dinner here tonight and it was, overall, a very sound choice. It’s not fancy, but it’s a little more upscale in its interior and diversity of dinner options over most Southern seafood places in the region although they can certainly do typical Southern style seafood here, too. The atmosphere is very clean and soothing with cool colors and a seaworthy theme expected of such places but a bit more on the tradition of New England clam houses, surprisingly, than your majority of Southern seafood restaurants. They also have an outdoor deck which overlooks King’s Bay and offers a fairly good view of boats going to and fro.
I had the smoked mullet dip as a starter and my friend had the conch fritters: both were good though the dip wasn’t quite as outstanding as the smoked mullet dip at the Blackwater Inn in the Ocala National Forest (at the town of Astor). My main dish was the Tuna Tataki which was served seared, but nearly raw (as it should be) over a bed of pasta and with a soy-​based dipping sauce and a creamy Asian-​influenced sauce, also. The creamy sauce was quite good and the quality of the tuna was as high as I’d expect from a top-​flight sushi bar. The pasta could have been better, it was a bit overdone, but aside from that the Tuna Tataki was great and at only $ 12.99, far less-​expensive than you might imagine for this dish: I’ve had the same basic dish in California for over $ 20. Which brings me also to the point that all the prices on the menu seemed very fair and some were downright bargins. My friend was very happy with his salmon dish, too. His cole slaw he said wasn’t the best, but like my pasta, it was a side-​dish and not crucial to the meal.
Our waitress was an older lady as were most of the servers, but she was prompt, sweet, and kept our drinks filled up. I don’t see why other reviewers have complained about the service or servers: it seemed fine, perhaps slightly slow, but I have really no complaints. This restaurant is obviously a family affair: an older woman with cloud-​white hair walked back into the kitchen in the middle of our meal: the owner perhaps? Meanwhile, two teenage boys were eating at a booth and later joking with the waitstaff and seemed to know everyone in the restaurant. Overall, it’s a good place for seafood and seems to draw a decent crowd. I would certainly go back again and in fact look forward to it the next time I’m down to Crystal River.

I usually eat hear when I have a business lunch with co-​workers or City of Crystal River employees.
The food is by no means top of the line, but it is good and it is consistent. You’re pretty much guaranteed a good meal every time you go. I’ve only sampled the lunch specials, and like I said, I can’t complain. A good portion of food.
The atmosphere is casual and laid back. Sit at a table, sit at a booth, or sit outside and check out the boats and get attacked by insects and birds :)
Overall, if you’re in the area of diving or manatee site seeing, I am probably the only poor sap that’s there for business, this is a good choice for lunch.

This place is a great casual place on the river! The service was better than most fine food establishments I’ve been to! We were checked on multiple times and drinks refilled without asking!
Dining tonight are myself, my seafood loving husband, and my über-​picky 8 year old daughter! We all left happy!
I had fried shrimp which was butterflied and very lightly breaded before fried! Fresh and delicious!
My husband had a seafood platter with scallops, oysters, a crabcake and grouper. All fried and all perfect! Plenty of food!
We also had onion rings and they were yummy! Regular slices that were beer battered to perfection!
Miss picky 8 year old was happy with the kids menu which had popcorn shrimp, grilled cheese, hotdogs Mac n cheese and chicken nuggets .
Unfortunately I didn’t catch the name of our waitress but she was a spunky little lady with short highlighted hair and colorful glasses. I hope my husband tipped her well because she was very attentive!
We will be back again and again!!!

If some Hollywood director said «gimme a place that’s real slow and Southern like for my next scene», they’d be elated with Charlie’s Fish House.
The servers are all little old ladies, and the customers were all little old couples waiting for the 4:30 dinner bell to ring. My BF, fam, and I really stood out as not being from around there but the server was nice and very friendly to us… though we all got uncomfortable when we *think* she was trying to do some sort of World War II era impression of a Japanese person. Not cool… but we discussed later and none of us were 100% sure since her Southern accent mixed with what we thought was her idea of what an Asian person sounded like was hard to decipher. But I think she realized we were pretty uncomfortable with whatever she was doing pretty quickly.
Beyond that, the server would have bent over backward for us but the food was not so great. The prices are really cheap, and I believe most of the fish is what is caught that day, but the food I had was really rubbery and overcooked. It reminded me of the one time I thought you could cook lobster by microwaving instead of steaming it.
For a place that overlooks the river, they should be able to cook a better fish.