Sea Captains Calabash Seafood

I have never understood why a seafood restaurant in a beach community would use imported frozen seafood..

Had lunch today with my boss, I had the flounder with oysters, the flounder was soaked in oil, Absolutely terrible, my boss tells me it’s the first time there and last. I’ll never go there again. It took about 1 hour before I got a belly ache. I told the waitress but it seemed she did not give a damn.

We were visiting my parents for the weekend and they wanted to hit Calabash for Sunday dinner. Since we love seafood, we were game. It looked kind of dinerish when we arrived, which I guess should have been a red flag. But in my experience, that kind of place sometimes has the best food. Not true of this place. It was also almost completely empty and unnaturally bright.
There was a lot on the menu to choose from and we all ended up ordering a grilled seafood platter. I ordered grilled flounder and shrimp. My husband got shrimp and scallops. My father and stepmother each ordered scallops. We all got salads as well.
Before I get the how the food was, one of the reasons we had such a terrible experience was that the service was TERRIBLE. I am usually pretty forgiving in this regard, but this time I cannot possibly justify cutting them slack. We should have known we were in for a bad time when the waiter didn’t know what beers were on tap. He told us it was his first day. After than I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but in the end I just couldn’t. He brought us our drinks and took our order. So far, so good. About 20 minutes later we finally got hush puppies. I read in other reviews that they were the best people had ever had. Uh, not even close. Like, really really terrible. They were basically tiny, burnt pieces of dough. Gross.
So, about 15 minutes after that, our waiter brought out the food. Uh… what happened to the salads you might ask? We never got them. When he showed up with the food, all of it was fried. We explained that not only did we all order grilled items, but we never got our salads. He looked at us like he had never seen us before… seriously. He didn’t even apologize… he just said he would be back. And when we reminded him about the salads, he said, oh, they’re coming, like it was totally normal for the salads to come after the meal. About 5 minutes after that, he brought out the salads and more hush puppies. They were at least better and fresher the second time, but still not great.
In the end, our food came out a good hour after we originally ordered it. Our waiter was MIA after the salads. My parents and husband didn’t really have any issues with their food. It was grilled as requested and tasty enough. My shrimp was actually pretty good, but the flounder was not even edible. It was so incredible fishy and obviously very old. Since our waiter had disappeared, another waitress came by and asked us how things were. I wasn’t going to say anything, but my stepmother spilled the beans. The waitress offered to get me something else which I declined. She then said…“that’s why I don’t really eat flounder… because it’s so fishy.” Where was she eating flounder? Probably this place. For the record, flounder is a mild and delicate fish and SHOULD NOT NOT NOT taste fishy. If it’s fishy, don’t eat it.
In the end, the waitress spoke with the owner back in the kitchen even though we didn’t ask her to. He had her take my meal off of the bill. We did appreciate that since we had such a terrible experience regardless of the fishy flounder.
Our waiter did come back to give us the bill. As I mentioned earlier, I usually cut servers slack… having been one myself and I am always very reluctant to tip less than 15%…and I almost always tip 20%. But this time, no way. I think we left him less than 10% and that was more than he deserved.
Bottom line… this place is terrible. Don’t go there. Seriously, just stay away.

New place for breakfast. If you like Boathouse, this is an alternative… Home fries are a must! Crispy and fresh potatoes… $ 14 after taxes for 2 full breakfasts.

no more for this kid… food was cold. fish was dry… hostess was nice. me and my sister’s stomach is upset… really disappointed.

Stopped here for dinner on a Saturday night with my family. Casual atmosphere, seated promptly but waited for about 10 minutes before a waitress came to take our order. Ordered crab cake platter, not much crab, mostly fillers. Disappointing for $ 13.99. Tried the tilapia, tasted fresh but the batter literally had no flavor. We probably won’t return here just because there wasn’t anything great or special about this place. The wait staff was friendly and the hush puppies were decent tho.

This was my first visit to Sea Captain’s for breakfast, and I certainly will return. The staff was friendly and attentive even when things got busy. They had a variety of menu choices. I ordered the Belgium waffle with strawberries… Yum!
AND if you haven’t tried their seafood, you’re missing out. My go-​to place now for seafood.

Family dinner of 10 people… all the food was great, wait staff was friendly and prices were very fair!

Best hush puppies ever but from there it was all down hill, my wife and I both ordered po’boys and it the bread was tough and old and lacked any roulade. Everyone’s French fries were undercooked and soggy. My son kept spitting out his fish so I tried it and it was so overwhelmingly fishy I’d say it was spoiled. Service was horrible to boot. The décor is from the 70s with no updates and the only stall in the men’s room had a broken door that could not be opened.
But those were good hush puppies

Go for the Breakfast menu! Good grits. I had poached egg atop a Pecan Pancake. Delicious. He had Biscuits & Gravy (of course). They were above average in portion size and taste. Our friends had omelettes. Home fries were nice chunks of potato. Go for breakfast. Enjoy!

Mediocre at best. If I could give 2 ½ stars I would. Waitress in other section wearing overpowering perfume (Obsession). Our waitress, when asked where the shrimp is from, simply said she «didn’t actually know» then stood with a blank expression waiting for my order. (Every job has an aspect of customer service. I give props and bigger tips when people say, «I don’t know, but I’ll find out for you.») I then asked if salmon was farmed or wild. Her reply again was less than knowledgable. I’m not sure I fully believed her when she said, «Umm, it’s wild. Everything is wild except for the catfish, which is farmed.» I’m convinced everything was frozen, which was a disappointment as we are so near the ocean. I was not impressed with the menu (or potentially frozen seafood from unknown origins) so I opted for the inexpensive catfish basket ($ 6.99). Fish was okay, but slaw and fries were terrible. I tried the fried clams which were tasty but I would never go out of my way at any restaurant for fried clams. Another in our party had the salmon and it looked delicious, although I’m not sure it was actually wild. We went on a Wednesday evening around 6 PM and there were few patrons. The music was on the loud side and I felt like I was at a skating rink with 80s songs by Madonna (3 songs), Simple Minds, Michael Jackson, etc. Décor is what one might expect from a calabash style restaurant: sky blue walls, white Christmas lights, netting, cheesy paintings. I likely will not go back as the food, music, and perfume combined was not a wonderful experience. Still, it was cheaper than eating fast food.

Went there with family the food was great crab cakes nice and the hush puppies so small and delicious. The service well not much. Running out of drinks when it’s not busy a no no. Catered better service to others not us.

My husband and I enjoy breakfast there every week. The selections are great and the
prices are reasonable. The service always comes with a warm smile and a pleasant
hello.

We just ate dinner there this week and nothing in the meal was above mediocre. There weren’t many other people there, other than waitstaff, and I don’t expect them to stay open long.

No complaints about food or service but kitchen was really slow. Sat down at 1:35 and didn’t have entrees until over an hour later. May give it one more chance but not sure.

Breakfast is good although the portions are a bit small if you like a big breakfast… for us ladies, it was just fine.
Service was slow but didn’t really matter for breakfast.
I have not been here yet for lunch or dinner but will try it sooner or later.

Went on a Saturday night at about 7 pm. There were about 6 tables occupied when we got there. Food portion size was good, and the food was OK. My wife shrimp was cold and flounder was under cooked. What drove us and the other 2 tables next to was the loud radio that played 5 seconds of a song the changed. It was like this entire time, we as well as the other tables said something to the waitress, she said they don’t pay for Pandora radio anymore so that’s what’s on, we asked them to just turn it off, they did for about 5 minutes. Try someplace else like long john silvers or a fish sandwich mcdonalds for something better, blawwwwwww.

We just had dinner there and the food was great!!!
Good size portions, very well seasoned and service was excellent… I recommend it.
We’ll be back soon.

I couldn’t figure out why this place was almost completely empty at 7:00pm on a Wednesday night. Reasonable prices and fast service, my to-​go order got the job done. This isn’t the best seafood restaurant I’ve ever been to, but certainly not the worst. It was convenient to the Hampton Inn — University Area/​Smith Creek Station. Limited menu with kids options on the back.

Great calabash seafood for an affordable price. I had the fried oysters and they were delicious. My husband had fried whitefish basket and he loved it. The place was clean, atmosphere was nice and the staff was excellent. We will be coming back.