Disappointed in Seafood (Houston, San Antonio, Corpus Christi: live, restaurants, beach)

[imaterry78259]

Why does CC area that is on the beach have such lousy seafood restaurants. Please excuse Water Street Oyster Bar from this discussion. This is the biggest mystery to me and my guest who visit a city by the sea. Maybe they need to hire a Louisiana or Galveston chef to show them how it is done.

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by imaterry78259

Why does CC area that is on the beach have such lousy seafood restaurants. Please excuse Water Street Oyster Bar from this discussion. This is the biggest mystery to me and my guest who visit a city by the sea. Maybe they need to hire a Louisiana or Galveston chef to show them how it is done.

Good Question. I always remembered the first time that my family (1970s) took me to the Kings Inn (Rivera, I think). They served big shrimp, frog legs, etc. It was delicious but well worth the drive. I used to buss tables at Black Diamond Oyster Bar on Rodd Field Rd in 1979-80. That was some very good seafood too. Of course, that was a long time ago.
Do you think that Water St Oyster Bar is good? They seem Ok to me, but I wouldn't "write home" about it.

[imaterry78259]

I guess Rockport has the only decent seafood restaurants in the area.

San Diego
LA
SF
Houston
Galveston
Lake Charles
Baton Rouge
New Orleans
Pensacola
Tampa
Baltimore



Great seafood cities


Corpus Christi, the worst that I have ever seen on the sea.



G

[CptnRn]

I have not eaten at that many seafood restaurants in Corpus, I would be surprised if there are no decent ones. And I'm not an expert on seafood by any means, but the shrimp we have had at Snoopy's Pier was as good as any we had in Rockport.

We have had several excellent dishes at the Crab-N Restaurant between Aransas Pass and Rockport. Their pecan crusted crab cakes were excellent.

Crab-N Restaurant‎
210 Gulfgate Blvd.
Aransas Pass, TX 78336
(361) 758-2371

Someone once recommended the Big Fishermen in Rockport to us. We thought it was horrible. Pretty much all fried foods served in a cigarette smoke filled atmosphere. We never went back.

[thenewtexan]

I only eat seafood from the ocean when I go back to the Cape, Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket. I wouldn't trust anything from the Gulf anyway. Lobster always looked limp, even before the oil spill. On the other hand, I refuse to eat Mexican north of San Antonio. I am obnoxious. I know.

[ohmanon]

We were in Corpus in October (beautiful weather, clear water...A Perfect Week!) and really didn't know where to go for good seafood either.

I sure remember Kings Inn and also the days of Ship Ahoy which was delicious - gigantic golden fried shrimp and onion rings. Lived right across the street from the one on Ocean Drive and I noticed it looked like the structure was still there after all these years. Ironically, I also lived downtown at the La Posada and right next door was the other Ship Ahoy - those were the hungry years when I could rarely afford to go.

Most would agree that gulf lobster is a totally different ballgame from the east and few restaurants here (especially fine dining) serve it but I have to say I've had the very best flounder and red snapper right from the Texas gulf, most recently 2 weeks ago at a dive in San Leon...f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c!

[SOM]

I agree, CC is oddly dissapointing when it comes to seafood. My recent favorite was actually Sea Island Shrimp House, which is now a vitamin store. Water Street is OK, but not the simple seafood that we should have in abundance. Catfish Charlie's is hit-or-miss. Big Fisherman is terrible. Snoopy's is ok. There's a place around Morgan and Baldwin called King Seafood that is not too bad, and very cheap. All in all, though, I would expect a LOT more being right on the Gulf. We oughta have a bunch of funky seafood dives....like....JOE'S CRAB SHACK!!! Ha.

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by ohmanon

We were in Corpus in October (beautiful weather, clear water...A Perfect Week!) and really didn't know where to go for good seafood either.

I sure remember Kings Inn and also the days of Ship Ahoy which was delicious - gigantic golden fried shrimp and onion rings. Lived right across the street from the one on Ocean Drive and I noticed it looked like the structure was still there after all these years. Ironically, I also lived downtown at the La Posada and right next door was the other Ship Ahoy - those were the hungry years when I could rarely afford to go.

Most would agree that gulf lobster is a totally different ballgame from the east and few restaurants here (especially fine dining) serve it but I have to say I've had the very best flounder and red snapper right from the Texas gulf, most recently 2 weeks ago at a dive in San Leon...f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c!

Is "Kings Inn" gone? I remember that Ship Ahoy on the Bay is where my family would go for special occasions. I miss it too.

[ohmanon]

King's Inn is still there, I think. Had we had a little more time, we would have driven over for dinner. It was always special for us too.

Don't think it can qualify for "real" seafood but my favorite afternoon while we were there was spent on the beach enjoying a picnic with tuna sandwiches, ha. The simple life is good!

[jbtx]

Has anybody mentioned the "Yardarm" on Ocean Dr.? The several times we've eaten there the seafood was pretty good. I think we were disappointed only once.