Captain Joe’s Seafood

It’s extremely rare that I leave a restaurant truly disappointed… I gave this place a shot mainly due to the 4 star Google reviews.
Ambiance…if you can call it that… unmentionable. It’s a seafood place in a small town, so I can accept a dated atmosphere… it was clean enough.
Server was very pleasant and courteous but inexperienced and overwhelmed. I sat right as 2 other tables were and nobody helped her seat or get drinks. She took all our orders at same time all of us had long wait times. She did pre bus and fill water, but she did not check back after getting entre.
All this I could get over, but the food is absolutely terrible… one of my worst experiences ever. Salad bar had decent selection and clean but some products looking old… mushrooms browning, tomatoes overripe, tuna salad bland, commercial dressings… I tried the veg beef soup and again bland… the beef was chunks of ground beef and no seasoning to broth.
The main entrée was a the kicker. Fettuccini Alfredo with scallops. Utter disaster… the cook committed a hate crime and didn’t just overcook the scallops (which is common in restaurants) but overcooked them to the point of dry and almost crisp… not seared but burnt.
The pasta was UNDERcooked… not al dente, but almost crunchy in the middle… hadcs number of chunks 3 – 4 pieces of pasta stuck together and a couple pieces were actually brown like they were heated under broiler.
Sauce was terrible… sure it came from a jar/​can.
Normally I’d make my way through the dish and that’s life… but halfway through, I had a bite that had that bittersweet taste that tells your brain ‘bad seafood’ before you reflexively spit it out onto the plate.
Late night on road trip for business so I didn’t bother talking to management.
It was so bad that I can’t comprehend the good ratings… it wasn’t poor execution on a bad night… it was bad food and untrained cooks. The people in there were the stereotypical older town folk who eat for quantity over quality or taste buds died in their 60’s…maybe they were the good reviews.

With a bad experience at the Rolling Crab about 30 minutes prior to coming here, they met our expectations. The staff was very friendly and courteous as soon as we walked in. We were seated and asked what we would like to have for drinks all within five minutes of walking in the door. We both had the snow crab legs (about 3 clusters of legs and claws per order) and were not disappointed. We both had tea as our drink, mine was a blackberry tea, and hers was a half sweet and half unsweet that was mixed perfectly; we each received a full glass and our own personal pitchers of tea. The staff constantly came to check if everything was to our liking and if we needed anything at all. The salad bar and soup bar were good as well, the rolls and mini corn bread muffins were very good too. Definitely worth trying and coming back to.

Well, we have no idea where the pictures on the Unilocal page came from.
So, there we were, heading to dinner with our retired neighbors (one of whom is disabled). We picked Captain Joe’s because it was close to home and supposedly served seafood. Like another reviewer, we had been once before and forgot why we didn’t return. I came straight from work so my husband and neighbors arrived a little early and started with the salad bar. It’s acceptable food, mostly from cans, with some pretty tasty house-​made sweet potato chips (cinnamon sugar coated). I hear the banana pudding is popular, but not for my foodie tastes. It’s canned pudding with fresh bananas and Nilla Wafers.
The real fun began with the dinner entrees. My husband ordered a crab cake dinner with fried mac n’ cheese and hush puppies. The hush puppies were run of the mill pre-​packaged. Mac n’ cheese was fried, so no complaints there. The crab cakes’ seasoning was straight spice, like cayenne. The flavor overall was weird and unbalanced. Not much crab in these cakes.
I arrived and ordered the daily special, which I was told was grouper. My celiac neighbor had ordered that dish as well. I should have looked at it. At $ 18/​plate I was suspicious but hopeful (maybe a small portion). My plate arrived with two filets of greatly oversalted tilapia. There was no questioning what that fish was. It was definitely not grouper. Not even an ocean fish. It tasted like dirt, but salty. Most definitely tilapia. It was so bad I can’t even remember my sides.
Our disabled neighbor ordered «stuffed shrimp». The shrimp were tiny, butterflied, «stuffed» with some breadcrumb mixture (was it supposed to be crab?) and wrapped in bacon. He was not a fan. When the waitress wandered back to our table he told her it was gross and here’s the kicker: she LAUGHED AT HIM. She said it was her favorite dish and that he was the first person to ever dislike it. And then she walked away. So we stiffed her.
I’ve been in food service off and on for over 15 years. It’s not difficult to learn 3, 5, or 9 steps of service. It’s even less challenging to be courteous at the very least. I have never seen a waitress laugh at a guest. It is even less appropriate with the neglectful level of service we received — I asked repeatedly for my beverage and to-​go box (to feed the remaining tilapia to our chickens) and we had to chase her down to get her to look at our table.
Now folks, if you want to eat seafood in Midway, please drive the extra few miles to the Sunbury Crab Company. Not only do the shrimp come directly off the docks in season, but they know what a grouper is and how it is supposed to be seasoned. The view is amazing and the waitstaff competent. Midway doesn’t get any better.

Had hamburger and fries that were okay. Waitress brought drinks in styrofoam to go cups for multiple tables under her arm, should be on a tray and not styro w/​lids way too much ice. Service was okay

This is a nice little place with generous portions. I enjoy eating here and go at least once per month. It’s very mom and pop style. Almost all entries come with an endless salad soup and dessert bar. Don’t go in expecting 5-​star glamour, but for what it is, I love it. The food is great.

If I could give this restaurant less than one star, I would have. The food wasn’t good and the waitress sucked with her attitude. Last night was my first time there and will never go again. My friend, myself, and our four children walked in there, sat down and my friend and her son went to the bathroom. The older blonde waitress came to the table and had an attitude from the start. I gave her our drink order and she left. She came back and my friend gave her their drink order and we ordered food. My son ordered the chicken and shrimp which clearly stated on the menu that it is grilled chicken. It came out fried and the waitress said it was his fault because he didn’t specify he wanted grilled. Now if the menu said grilled, should he have to specify grilled? However, I didn’t actually see it on the menu so we asked for a menu again and it was as he said. So when I pointed it out, one waitress was going to have it reduce but our waitress said they couldn’t because the grill was turned off. I really just think she didn’t want to have to redo it. My Alfredo tasted like it came out of the freezer and the noodles were mushy. I left a SMALL tip for the waitress and when she came to the table to clear it, while I was I was still there, her sarcastic remark was «Wow!» Never again!

I ate here once before and couldn’t remember why I decided to never go back… until today.
I hate to say anything bad because the waitresses were very nice and did give their full attention. The entire staff looked kind of dirty, a little trailer parkish I guess. Not a huge deal. Then the cook walks out from the back having just finished our food I assume. His pants down to his knees, bearded and looking twice as dirty as the waitresses. After ignoring all the warning signs we eat. I ordered the sea food platter which I believe was the most expensive single meal on the menu. Musty be good. No.
With the exception of 3 pieces of shrimp in a tiny dip cup, the entire platter was fried. Shittier than that, it all seemed like it had been freezer burned or something weird going on. The one good thing without a doubt was the fried pickles. I actually boxed them up and took em home. The wife just found a hair in them. Undoubtedly the cook’s hair based on the ethnicity.
Sadly, the one good bit of food at this restaurant was ruined by hair. Never again. Hopefully this time I remember why.

The only thing good about the restaurant was the vidalia onion salad dressing. The crabcakes were the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen. They looked like potato sticks mixed with imitation crab meat. The restaurant is packed on Sundays, so maybe I had the wrong thing, but I won’t venture back to find out.