Captain Porky’s

Fantastic taste and quality! Cajun shrimp is out if this world!!! I wonder if we can order it even spicier… but terrific the way it is!

This is a fantastic place to stop for fresh, high-​quality food at a great price. When you visit, you are just part of the family. They know you by name because after the first time, you feel compelled to go again. After that, well, you go more. Soon, you’re a regular, but you never get tired of the home-​cooked goodness, the in-​house smoked meats, the fresh seafood, the locally sourced ingredients, most from their own family farms in Wisconsin and Greece, or the extreme hospitality. And, given such high-​quality, it is at a price that you can definitely afford. You will sit at a picnic table and eat from takeout containers with plastic utensils, and you will love every minute of it.

I knew something was going on when I saw the long line. This no frills location does barbecue and seafood right. Cons are one bathroom for each sex and location has benches and tables that are not that comfortable. Your best bet is to order and move on. Also I would pass on the desserts.
Pros are the food and service. If you have that you are a winner in my book!

Did not try the BBQ. My wife had the crab stuffed shrimp and I had smelt with garlic potatoes and greens. All were great and will be back but will stick to half orders next time. Even my wife’s half order of shrimp had leftovers.

My parents couldn’t stop raving about their recent discovery of Captain porky’s last weekend– so much so that my husband was sold on the idea of stopping for dinner before heading back to the city.
The first thing I noticed was all the fresh ingredients on display in the cooler. To sample the most– my husband and I both did the combo with one seafood item and a barbeque item. While just the combos would have been more than plenty– my husband also got a side of fried okra. Everything was AMAZING! The seafood was freshly battered (and excellently seasoned) before being fried, and the pulled pork/​ribs were tender, smoky, and everything I’d hope for in good bbq. I don’t even like cole slaw– but I couldn’t put theirs down!
Needless to say, I think this will be a regular stop now when we head to lake county to visit family. My husband’s advised me the heartburn from over-​indulging in their delicious dishes «is totally worth it»

Awesome! Loved the greens, garlic potatoes, ribs, alligator tail, scallops and cornbread. So delicious. Kids loved the steak fries. Seating is different. Not easy for lots of diners. Finish on the tables wasn’t done right so they were really tacky. Doesn’t matter. Good was great. We will definitely be back. Yum!

This place is Awesome! Fresh & delicious seafood, I had jumbo shrimp po boy and OMG! That shrimp is real JUMBO! Perfect seasoning! Definitely going back again soon!

Best service and food I’ve had in a long
Time. I would recommend to any one looking for a new place to have dinner.

Great seafood and service. C sea bass cooked to order over white rice pan seared with herbs and lemon is to die for. Busy but worth the wait.

I’m ashamed of living in northern Lake County my entire life and never stopped in. What made me pull the trigger was seeing the picture of their craw fish po boy sandwich. I had to have it. Just got done eating it and here is what I think.
Amazing flavor! A little too much bread for my liking but no deal breaker. I see myself coming here more often. I want to try out their ribs and give their desert a try. A nice thing about this place is that they cook your food fresh. Good craft beer selection and huge props for supporting local beer from Tight Head Brewery.

I made my husband mad on Saturday evening so, as an apology, I agreed to barbecue for dinner. We’ve driven by this place a few times and eaten at The Shanty once or twice. When he suggested it, how could I say no?
The place is as divey as you would hope a good barbecue place would be – wooden floors, sturdy wooden tables, dark inside. There are only a handful of tables and people didn’t seem inclined to share (though the tables were easily big enough for 4 – 6 adults). We lucked out and got a table after some folks left (and by that I mean I stood close enough to their table that I could hear their conversation until I made them uncomfortable enough that they finished their meal and rushed out).
I ordered the half slab of ribs, which my husband then upgraded to the full slab because he wanted some. I made it a dinner with greens, cornbread, and garlic potatoes. I opted for the mild sauce because I’m not good with heat. The ribs were tender, but they lacked that smoky crust that you want on them. The sauce was mild, almost to a fault. It was sweet with a kick of mustard, but there was no spice to it at all — not even garlic. The garlic potatoes were lacking garlic as well. The greens may have been the most redeeming part of my meal, tender and flavorful.
My husband had brisket, which was pale and flavorless. It didn’t even taste smoked.
Overall, this was an (expensive) disappointment. We’ll probably give it one more shot before making a final call on it.

This place is delicious!!! I had the walleye and lake perch with garlic potatoes and cornbread. Lightly fried fish just the way I like it. You pick your fish and they fry it for you. So fresh and tasty. Very good

Wowza wow wow. I’ve been wanting to get up here to check this great spot out. I was totally blown away. Such amazing food and wonderful people. I love finding a family so passionate about their heritage and what it means to provide good wholesome meals to their customers. My first visit I knew I wanted to try the brisket and they had a special lobster mac and cheese that I just had to try. I ended up getting a bottle of olive oil from their farm in Greece, an order of potato salad, red beet salad, chocolate covered strawberries, homemade peanut butter cups and a slice of turtle cheesecake to go. There are so many wonderful healthy options to load up and take home, or relax while they prepare your meal and enjoy it in their rustic dining area. If you didn’t save room for desert, take a few home. Chicago’s Best TV chose their Bread Pudding for this segment…

Found this place during a visit with CTCA. It’s great. They have fresh seafood that they will cook to order! And the barbecue looked amazing. A lot of good side choices, kale salad, hush puppies, corn bread, octopus salad, and more! They even have alligator, which is something my brother loves to eat, so he was very happy. I would recommend if you’re looking for barbecue or seafood!

I’m in love with this place! I really love the jumbo shrimp, the alligator tails and the melt in your mouth frog legs. Their turtle cheese cake is fire. So happy I found this place. Can’t wait to keep trying other foods.

Wow, what a find!
My friend and I came here after a round of golf. We had just completed our round and wanted to grab a bite to eat. My friend had been here before and told me that I would like it. Boy was he right.
As you enter it reminds me of the episode on Seinfeld with the soup nazi. You stand in line and gradually move forward until it is your turn to place your order. The exception is that the staff is very friendly and helpful. The menu was very extensive so I decided to go with something familiar as well as try something that I hadn’t had before. I ordered the fried perch which I loved and I tried for the first time was the lobster salad. Holy crap was this an awesome lobster salad. I now have something to judge other lobster salads against. The perch was also delicious and the side of coleslaw was very tasty.
The place is small and you can either dine in or pick up and enjoy it at home. I am going to have to come back and bring my wife so she can have or enjoy the experience that I just did.

This is a family owned restaurant — the Shanty next door is owned by the same family.
The beef, lamb and pork served in these two establishments are raised on the family farm in Lake County, IL
The olive oil used in these restaurants comes from Greece and — yup, the olive orchard is owned by the same family.
On Sundays they frequently serve roast leg-​of-​lamb which I highly recommend.
I almost forgot to put it in here …
Dino (one of the owners) appeared on «Let’s Dish» and the segment is on Youtube.
You can see it here:

I’m averaging this joint three stars because I vote five stars for the fried fish specifically the blue gill, four stars for the BBQ, two stars for the value and one star for the warm beer which required a glass of ice.
My combo of fried shrimp and rib tips was $ 14. It came with some dynamite garlic red potatoes, greens and corn bread. The value part is that there were only about six very small but very good shrimp and around six small rib tips. Got to increase the portion size for this guys cash. A pound of excellent fried blue gill is $ 17. Wow.
Very large selection of fish, seafood, salads and ribs. Frozen fish and seafood too.
Parking gets tight due to it being next door to The Shanty (same owner for both places) and thereis limited seating inside. The owner did mention that he would be expanding in the near future.
Come at lunch or dinner time and you’ll be waiting. Huge take-​out place

It’s been a while and I’m going to updated my review for captain porkys. It’s too far away to get to often so when I found out some I know was driving right past it and would arrive at work around lunch I had to ask can you pick us up something.
First off I have been all over the menu and never found something that was not good.
Today was time for the jambalaya because it’s been a long time since I had it. The small is $ 5 and the large is $ 8 so I opted for the large because what will you get for $ 5, wrong because it was very heavy for lunch. I don’t have a large appetite so I ate until I was full and there was plenty left. I weighed the container after I ate lunch and there was 2 pounds showing on the package shipping scale, what did it weigh before I dug in. See my pictures.
It smelled amazing by the way. The meat and seafood ratio vs the rice seemed like ⁵⁰⁄₅₀. There were big chunks of sausage and not slices, tail on whole shrimp, chunks of fish as well as the rice and other ingredients. The whole dish was very good and tasty. The big chunks of meat and seafood were very generous and they do not skimp on this dish.
The large jambalaya has got to be the best value on the menu for how much sausage and seafood you get for $ 8.
If you are remotely close this is a must stop for any foodie.

Hubby and I have stopped here twice on our way back from WI. Both times I got the brisket, and both times I was disappointed. My photo says it all. Basically, it is very tough, fatty (not the good fat), and anything but tender. Hubby got pulled pork the first time. He said it was good. He got an italian beef the second time and felt it was not the place to get italian beef. He got his first clue when they did not have hot peppers.
I’m thinking I will try it sometime in the future and make sure I get something other than brisket since I see Unilocalers I trust really like this place.
We were there on a Sunday evening and the fish did not look that fresh and tasty in the display case. It might be fresh, but it didn’t look that way and the display case window was dingy. (While we were there, someone started to clean it.)
I tasted the regular and the hot barbeque sauce… they both tasted about the same. They were good though. I just need to find what they will taste best on for next time… :-/