Captain Benny’s Half Shell Oyster Bar

I don’t know why Houston gets such a bad rap. Any place that has this this much seafood can’t be all bad. Though I’m from Corpus and I rag on that place all the time, so there you go.
Captain Benny’s is a casual seafood restaurant less than 10 minutes from the Medical Center, in the shape of an old school shrimping boat. I wish a had a place like this 10 minutes from my house. I would be eating fried shrimp and gumbo and catfish and hush puppies and fries ever’day. Okay, maybe it’s good there’s not a place like this close by…
We sat at a table for about 10 minutes with no service. Zero. Zip. Nada. You start to wonder, are we not the desired clientele? Did we have a Sixth Sense experience and were actually killed in crazy Houston traffic on the way here, but now our ghosts are here trying to grab a quick bite and no one can see us? Do I offend?
We decided to sit at the bar which is what we should have done in the first place. I longingly looked at the various instances of fried shrimp on the menu and reminded myself it was probably cornmeal breaded or flour or a combination of the two and not the crunchy cracker-​meal breaded fried shrimp that is ubiquitous in Corpus Christi. But wait. In a photo of one of the specials, the fried shrimp sure did look like the shrimp of my youth: fried to a crisp orangey-​color and granular, rather than the anemic and flat appearance of flour– or cornmeal-​based fried shrimp common everywhere else in the world.
I asked the guy what they used to fry the shrimp with and he said cornmeal and I said, «oh, it looks like cracker meal» and he says he can do it in cracker meal. Really? Yeah, he says.
Okay.
I’m still suspicious. If you could do it in cracker meal all the time, why wouldn’t you?
Of course, I now happen to be saying «cracker meal» a whole lot in this restaurant which got me some rude looks from the other patrons. Mind your business, y’all.
We order a special that has two shrimp pirogues (little french breads stuffed with tiny shrimp and mushrooms, topped with melted cheese) and 8 fried shrimp, a hushpuppy and fries. We also ordered a cup of the gumbo each.
Well, our gumbo never arrived and a patron who sat down after us was served his immediately. I re-​ordered mine but my dad declined. The plate we got was good, and the shrimps were in fact fried in the meal that shall not be mentioned again. They need to punch up the horseradish on the cocktail sauce (it was maybe 20:80 horseradish to ketchup, could def be closer to 50:50) and even I had to add hot sauce to the gumbo which is saying something.
Next time, I’ll forgo the pirogues, and just get jumbo fried shrimp platter with a cup of gumbo on the side. Or the stuffed redfish. Or the whole flounder. Or the etouffe. Or the fried alligator. Dang, they have fried scallops too? I clearly have been land-​locked too long!

Good local spot in the medical center area of Houston. I was looking for a very relaxed place to grab a bite & found it.

Had great food and great service. The place has a dinner feel to it, and a bar around the bow of the boat part of the building. I had the shrimp étouffée and gumbo with hush puppies. All were good and the Saint Arnold’s lawnmower was excellent. Would definitely eat here if your in the area and can’t escape the Tex mex labyrinth

The employees here are so polite even in closing hours, awesome place and great sea food.

It is my first tim try the fresh Oyster. The server prepared the fresh oyster in the bar. You can tell how fresh they are. We ordered Oyster on the half shell and half shell combo. Tried one cup wine. Many guests here. It is Monday! The freshOyster is my favorite. I never try fresh one before. But today’s Oyster, it is amazing! When the bill came, reasonable price is an extra gift! I love this place, definitely will be back with my friends!

The food here was Great! Living around North Houston I usually go to Captain Tom’s. But let me say, hands down this restaurant may have just beat Captain Tom’s. I order the captain’s platter (catfish, scallops, jumbo shrimp, stuff crab, a small cut baguette, fries, and coleslaw). Let’s say the food was good from beginning to finish. Would recommend for people who love seafood.
The Cons are that it’s a free for all seating.

If you want cheap seafood, especially oysters, this is the place to be! Their dozen oysters are about $ 8 a dozen if I remember correctly. It used to be $ 6 but they raised the price a bit. I wish they served the oysters a bit colder so it can taste better, but I guess that’s alright. This place is usually always crowded so prepare to wait in line. Fortunately, their service is fast and people go in and out. Their michelada here is also the best one in Houston that I’ve tasted yet! Their fried shrimp and seafood are also very good. Especially the shrimp, it’s flavorful and huge! Their stuffed crab cake isn’t a must for me but it’s not bad. I’ve tried their crab fingers once, it was alright. Not something I have to get whenever I go. Their gumbo is really good though! Best in Houston!

Gumbo had really good flavor. Nice quantity for the price and the fried seafood had good flavor & nice light batter. Boiled shrimp was good, just wish I had ordered more. I just happened to be in the area & had this bookmarked. Our server was a nice lady, very attentive, I will definitely come back when in the area.

The food is miles apart from the fried seafood, gumbo, Cajun stuff in Louisiana. I looked the place up and thought I had pick up some for my parents… But the food is just NOT good and they charge a hefty amount for the stuff they serve. The 13.99 crawfish Ettoffe was full of hot green peppers and hardly and «crawfish». (I had one just last week in Baton Rouge for 9 bucks and some change for a container that’s 3 times the size with authentic flavor) The seasoning for the gumbo is just wrong. The piece of fish I got in my capt platter was tiny.
I had to tell my parents… This does not represent cajun/​southern seafood what so ever. I will have to take you guys to get some real stuff after this disaster.
Oh wait did I mention some items they charge you a different amount for take out than sit in? That is on top of the take out charge they add on to your bill. This place is a joke. Sorry fellow Houstonians… You guys are getting ripped off!

I wanted gumbo but ended it getting the crawfish étouffée and one piece of fried fish. The customer service was good. They attendant warned me that the étouffée was extra spicy. I love spicy. Normally when people tell me something is going to be very spicy, I usually wish it were a little bit more spicy. Not with this. Any more fire and I probably wouldn’t have been able to finish it. The catfish had much less flavor than I expected but that probably made it healthier. I would eat here again and you should too. Come for the fresf food at a decent price.

What a rare find Captain Benny’s is! This diner-​style eatery is a hole in the wall that was unexpectedly tasty and FRESH.
My meal began with a spicy michelada style Corona served in a cold mug followed by a dozen very plump, succulent Gulf oysters on the half shell served with lemon wedges, cocktail and horseradish sauce, and saltines. My oysters were shucked right before my eyes. I then enjoyed a half dozen broiled parmesan oysters, which were cooked to perfection, served on a bed of rock salt. This tapas style meal concluded with an order of crab fingers perfectly broiled, garlic toast, and sweet potato fries. Everything was delicious, and the wait staff was attentive.
This is not a fine dining environment, but it certainly delivered on quality, freshness, flavor, and whimsy. Thumbs up!

After three dozen oysters last week, Benny’s were the best. And that was compared to a popular baton Rouge place and an even more popular metarie restaurant.
Fresh, bright, served on ice, cold, with a good set up of horse radish. Also shells were very clean.
The eutofee was excellent also.
The menus did stick to the table (lol) but the food was fresh and very good. I probably will change the review to five stars once I give it a bit more thought.

Great fried shrimp! My Gf and I wanted something close to home so we decided to give this place a shot. It’s a hole in the wall and run down. However the shrimp were great. They need new stools by the bar, some paint, and a professional grade cleaning. My GF commented that she felt like she was on a boat considering how completely slanted her stool was and rocked side by side so dramatically. We watched the guy (who could barely speak English) shirk the oysters and all I have to say is that we will not ever be ordering them here. He needs to clean them better. Also, he is your waiter if you are sitting at the bar and he can barely speak English but does his best and is a hard worker. It’s just not the right position for him to be in. The manager sat in his office the whole time vs greeting customers and checking on the staff.
All in all I would come back for the shrimp, but that’s it. If they had better waitstaff, cleaned it up, and improved the décor, I would frequent here with the kids.

Great food! I got the fried scrimp. The hush puppies were excellent. I got the jalapeño boudin and it was great. The only bad about this restaurant was the wait on the food. The food took forever, it seems like. I would come back here and eat again.

My husband and I’s favorite spot. Could eat their seafood gumbo everyday! Houston’s best!

Called in for an order of boudin balls, order was ready in 15 mins. Each time I’ve been here the food is always good. The service is quick and the staff are friendly. I’m only giving three stars because I truly haven’t gotten a chance to try any other dishes, mind you I’ve only been here like 2 times. I will definitely update my review in the future…

All 3 times I’ve been here, my menus have stuck to the tables. One time couldn’t pry menu off the table.
Service was adequate.
Food was not good.

To celebrate the recent flooding of Houston, what better way to give tribute to the almighty Poseidon than by having tons of delicious fried seafood? We canoed here along Main Street to find a small divey (hehe) place shaped like a boat. I guess they were also ready for the coming of the second Biblical flood.
Everything was fresh and the service was great. Started off with the calamari and they season it to be a little bit spicy which makes all the difference. I don’t now why all seafood places don’t do this (I’m looking at you Pappadeaux). Then I had their Mates’ Plate which is a mix and match of two choices of seafood– I got oysters and catfish– and a generous helping of fries, hush puppies, cole slaw, and garlic bread. The garlic bread really stood out for me considering everything else on my plate was pretty heavy.
And washing that all down with a refreshing Corona michelada completed the meal. My only problem was being ID’d when I ordered the michelada. I know being an Asian male, I lack the necessary components to grow full facial hair, but that doesn’t mean I can’t look the age. The struggle is real my friends.

My experience was okay. I was craving fried seafood and this was he only place open late and I’m not a fan of pappas seafood. We arrived about an hour before closing and the place was dead. We were greeted by the manager and an employee who was very upbeat and nice.
My husband ordered the broiled redfish filet with shrimp rice and for a $ 3 up charge you can make the redfish stuffed with shrimp and crab. My husband kept saying my grilled redfish is better, the best part to him was the stuffing.
I ordered 9 jumbo shrimp and they were definitely not jumbo for $ 16.50 it was way overpriced. Just because shrimp are butterflied does not classify shrimp as jumbo. The shrimp was mostly cornmeal which confirmed they were not jumbo. I could even taste a small squirt of frying oil as I took a bite of the French fries.
One thing we both agreed on is the food was definitely not worth $ 50 for the two dishes. I’ve had waaayyyy better. I do recommend this place to oyster lovers, other than that, everything else offered you can get better elsewhere. Now I remember why I stopped dining here in the first place.

I’m not a fan of free-​for-​all seating, especially during dinner rush in a tiny space… too many people lingering around and being rude/​hangry.
Service is great though. They’re really accommodating and try their best to make sure everyone is comfortable. Food took forever to come out, but when it came out, it was really good.
They have great oysters (raw and baked). The special (whole fried catfish, shrimp, hush puppies, slaw, and fries) left me satisfied. I tried some of my friend’s broiled platter also, and it was super good! I’d like to come back to try different dishes next time.