The Captain’s Boil

This is the second location of Captain’s Boil & I decided to give them a second chance. Service was very disgusting. When we needed something the servers just ignored us or are not perceptive enough to get us what we needed because we had to wave like a crazy person to get attention.
We ordered the King crab legs, lobster, crayfish, mussels, shrimp, butterfly shrimp. No drinks. For people, that was $ 110 taxes and tips included. Really not worth your money.
We asked the server if the food was enough for three people, she said yeah. But in reality, it was good for like six people. So the servers will always tell people to over order, do not fall victim to it.

I had the $ 9 lunch special: sizzling chicken and a side of seafood. A few pieces of chicken, rice in the middle, a bit of corn, all on top of a hot sizzling plate drenched in oil. Then it gets all drenched in teriyaki sauce. It was way too oily and not very flavorful.
The bag of seafood soaked in sauces as alright. I’d say this place is only worth it if you come during lunch hours and get a special. I saw their dinner prices and it was way overpriced for the quality you get.

Excellent place to enjoy lots of seafood. They are brought out in a bag marinated, and you eat them with your hand.
Their food quality and service were pretty good, especially considering the price (1 pound mussel or shrimp were around $ 10). I recommend Captains Boil sauce with shrimps and mussels. Also, their chicken tender with cajun fries were amazing!
They give plastic gloves and apron, but your hands would get a bit oily regardless.
I strongly recommend this place if you are a big seafood lover

Alright so do you love seafood? Well this place is definitely it. Basically you choose a lb or 2 or more f whatever seafood you’d like along with the sauce and the spice level (along with any sides). It’s that simple. You have this cute bibs along with plastic gloves to eat your food. Fair warning is that when you order items that you need to break apart (like lobster) your hands will still get oily even with gloves.
Although I was with a group of 11, 3 of us decide to share the food and costs. We ordered the lobster, 1lb of clams, 1lb mussels, 1lb shrimp, and Cajun fries. Regarding spice level we chose medium and our sauce was the Captain sauce. Fair warning again the media is really spicy. Going for the hottest sauce is probably for bragging rights but I doubt you’d enjoy the taste of the food as it would be hidden in the heat. That much was filling for us 3 and we only paid 32 $ each tax and tip incl.

First time coming here for a late lunch around 2ish pm and it wasn’t busy. The food came quick. We ordered the Captain’s Boil flavour sauce for everything. We got the Crawfish, Shrimp x2 (mild and medium) Cajun fries and Oysters (12). The medium spice is a good spice for anyone who likes spicy food. Everything was good except for the oysters; which was disappointing. I’ve had my fair share of oysters at many places and I can say that it wasn’t fresh! The bill came out to be $ 91 before tips. The customer service was good. I will be returning back to try the other stuff on the menu. Overall the food experience was ⁸⁄₁₀.

Overall experience: ⁹⁄₁₀
Food: 8.5÷10
Atmosphere: 7.5÷10
Service: ⁸⁄₁₀
The Captain’s Boil is a great place if you’re looking for an informal dining experience with friends/​family. No, the restaurant doesn’t provide plates or cutlery, but it does serve up great food and a fun atmosphere.
We tried almost everything on the menu. Hits of the night were the dungeness crab, lobster and shrimp. The mussels were great, however would not recommend ordering multiple pounds as the taste gets a bit overbearing after a while (as compared to the lighter, sweeter taste of crab). Crawfish is one I would avoid; some friends found it a bit creepy to dig through the little bugger for a tiny piece of meat.
Your whole party needs to be present before they will seat you, and they will only hold the table for 15 minutes.
Some tips:
— wear black! (white would be a disaster)
— ask for a second set of gloves that you’ll switch into halfway through the meal (also expect that your fingers will still get a bit saucey)
— before the meal, lay a paper towel on your lap for spillage and easy access
— move your drinks to the side of the table so if you are passing food to somebody else, the sauce doesn’t drip in…
THE BOTTOM LINE: the no-​frills joint provides an informal, fun atmosphere and delicious seafood.

Really enjoyed this dinner! Had the shrimps and mussels with a side of corn; these were all reasonably priced.
The cajun seasoning was pretty delish — just the right amount of heat. I don’t see any reason to complain about the plastic bags, as they are quite transparent about this aspect of the restaurant. Plus, foregoing the plates and having the entire surface of the table to eat out of is actually pretty convenient.
Sidenote: they had a couple of TVs on but preferred showing premier league soccer over the NFL playoffs. Great seafood though!

They had run out of crawfish. Huge disappointment. However, quickly forgotten after submerging into a bag of 1lb lobster. Their Cajun mild sauce is fantastic, as are the Cajun fries and corn on the cob.

3.5÷5
*The restaurant was spacious and spotless! I liked how they had a big sink at the front with sensors so you wouldn’t have to use the washroom and dirtied the handles.
*there were bibs, paper towels and plastic gloves on the table.
*service was average, not the most attentive.
*I would not come back to Captain’s Boil on a regular basis as it’s quite expensive.
–Lobster ($ 29.95) and Shrimp ($ 12.95) in Captain’s Boil sauce:
The lobster was cut lengthwise, and both the shrimp and lobster were cooked perfectly. While I understand the concept of the restaurant was to use your hands, but at some point it was extremely difficult to eat the lobster without lobster crackers. Half way through eating we also realized that there was no where to put the trash/​empty shells.
While the Captain’s Boil sauce was supposed to be the combination of all three sauces, the garlic was overwhelming. I love garlic but this was way too much and the sauce was under-​seasoned for our taste. I also thought the shrimps had much more sauce and flavor compared to the lobster, perhaps the shrimp was smaller hence the sauce was able to penetrate easier?
Half-​way through I decided to order the Cajun Fries. I thought the fries were quite crispy and fluffy on the inside, but it felt very. powdery? They could have better distributed the cajun seasoning by tossing the fries as it seemed they were just sprinkled on top.

First of all, I need to comment on the service (which if you scroll down, you will see is something quite a few people have issues with). The servers were nowhere to be found. They were all chatting at the back and generally ignoring us. Our actual server also decided to go home and leave our table with no one attending to us. After finally flagging someone down to get the bill, he told us they don’t split bills. Then why did our original server tell us that this was something they could do? We had to talk to the manager who eventually did it for us, but it was a hassle. Also they have a bunch of beers on display like Tusker but they don’t actually serve it… why display it then? They have draft beer on the menu too… but don’t have any. And the gloves they give you are ginormous and keep slipping off your hands so you get messy and gross. Finally, one person at my table ordered chicken fingers and he got his meal 30 minutes after everyone else with no apology given. It was pretty obvious they forgot his meal until we reminded them.
This is all a shame because I really really enjoyed the food. Get the captain’s boil with seafood and add in a corn and it’s delicious. Literally, it’s the only reason I am giving 3 stars. If they addressed these issues, this place would be great. But as is, I am not going back, the service is so bad.

The sauce is delicious (we got the signature) the fries were also great. I am still fighting garlic breath hours later due to raw garlic in the sauce but, it was worth it because I have a vacation tomorrow anyways ;)
As for the seafood… The lobster and king crab was okay albeit overpriced but, the shrimp had that mushy texture that no longer fresh shrimp has.
I also don’t like the gloves, they get stuck in your mouth as you try to eat because they’re so baggy and that in turn gets into the food… They pretty much seeped through after the first couple of shrimp anyways. Perhaps a giant fingerbowl and shell bucket would’ve been better.
I would go again, yes because it’s so close but, I’d get my own bag which entails a limited option and I would get the side of Cajun fries for sure.

The concept of this place is a novelty for Toronto so I was excited to try it out.
We went as a party of two and ordered a pound of mussels (lemon pepper, medium) and clams (Cajun, medium) with Cajun fries on the side, a half dozen raw oysters, and beers.
Service was serviceable and there was an adequate amount of paper towels (meaning an entire roll). The atmosphere was busy and the décor was fine.
On to the food… unfortunately. To put it bluntly, the mussels tasted like those white rubber erasers dropped into a vat of spicy chicken seasoning and boiled for an hour. The seasonings and grease overwhelmed any hint of shellfish flavor that might have remained after cooking.
The best part of our meal was the oysters (fresh with decent condiments) and the beers (cold) because neither of which was boiled, to our relief.
Maybe it’s growing pains or the fear of sending out a bad clam but I would give this place another chance when crawfish are in season. Until then, Unilocal is telling me this review looks pretty epic so I’ll end it here.

It was a great experience! On your table, they provide cute plastic bibs with gloves. Trust me you need them! I thought I could do without gloves but boy was I wrong. At the time, crawfish were not in season. So we had the clams, shrimp and mussels with the Captain Boil Seasoning + the Cajun Fries. Once the food came in plastic bags, it did not remain long in there! It was great! I enjoyed the mussels the most then the shrimp. Looking back, I wished I skipped on the clams. They were not memorable.
And the fries reminded me of Costco fries, which I love. My other friends got the Lobster and King Crab and regretting nothing! They enjoyed their food.
I am glad Captain boil opened in the downtown core.

If you are really into seafood, I would recommend it but generally just a restaurant you’d try once and keep it at that.
Lacking in proper service, it was extremely difficult to get the attention of our server, our water was never refilled-​we asked one of the other servers but we were ignored. It also took forever to get the bill, they probably wouldn’t even notice if we dined and dashed. We voiced our dissatisfaction to the manager but it seemed as if she didn’t really care.
The food is alright but absolutely horrible service!!!

Perhaps it’s because it grew up with it, perhaps because Red Lobster was the only other option in the small city I grew up in; I’ve always had a negative view of western — style seafood. Bland and overcooked isn’t how I want to describe a nice dinner with premium ingredients. Luckily, Captain’s Boil is none of those things. (Though it comes with the caveat that it may be ‘New Orleans’ style, which is mostly creole flavours).
At The Captain’s Boil, the premise is actually quite simple, pick your seafood and pick the sauce. 15 minutes later, they drop a plastic bag on your table with your food. You put on your bib and gloves, and chow down. Literally.
As low brow as that sounds, the restaurant is remarkably well thought out. Bibs and gloves are on the table when you arrive, and there’s a large sink off to the side, so not every one is trying to cram into the washroom to clean off their sauce covered hands. You can have a beer if you want, but they don’t hard sell the liquor. He did give us each a lime and small plastic container of salt that looked like a college bar tequila shot at the beginning of the meal, but it turns out that it was supposed to be for seasoning the seafood.
My only qualms with the food is that the undercooked garlic in the sauce gets quite bitter if you’re over indulging (like I tend to do), and the Creole flavour is not for those who can’t handle spice.
All in all, it’s great place to eat, and for things like whole prawns and dungeness crab, the price is pretty reasonable. It’s not a fancy dinner by any means, but a great place to hang out with a group of friends.
HHHH — four hedgehogs out of five

Came here after hearing about the hype about the North York location. There was 10% off special for their grand opening.
We ended up getting a few pounds of mussels, clams, shrimp, and added some sausages and corn to some of the bags. We had a variety of sauces including captain’s boil, Cajun, and garlic.
The seafood absorbed the flavour of the sauces and was quite delicious. This was one of the most satisfying seafood meals we’ve had in Toronto. Highly recommended, but probably not for a first date.

Great experience eating with your hands (kind of). The gloves are a bit annoying at times but I guess there’s no other way to keep it clean. Other than that, it’s a great concept. I came with my family and had a great time. The wait was around 25 minutes on a Sunday around 6pm. It’s really busy but I think it’s worth the wait given that we hardly have any place like this around.
The food was really good. I love the concept of ordering food and it comes in a bad with your preferred spices. We ordered some shrimps, mussels, clams, rice, chicken, sweet potato fries and Cajon fries. The crayfish is out of season so they weren’t offering it. They were all mild flavours but some thought it was still a little spicy so if your spice tolerance is low… then you’re on your own. Love the spices and the sauce. With rice, it’s fabulous. Overall, it wasn’t too cheap but wasn’t too expensive either. For a family of 5, we spent around $ 100 and it was pretty filling. We weren’t all you can eat full, but the right amount of full.
Will definitely come back again. Great for special occasions with a big group!

Not worth the hype imho. The food was mediocre at best… The sauce was nowhere near as flavourful as a boil should be, they do not devein the shrimp ($ 12.95/lb) which is stupid beyond belief. It’s not hard to cut open the back of the shrimp, shell on, and devein it. It also allows the sauce to penetrate better and it’s easier for patrons to peel. SO Y DONT U DO THIS? How lazy can you be? The sausages ($ 6.95) were very salty – I recommend this joint to look into sourcing different sausages. Corn was expensive $ 1/​half cob. We also got the seafood fried rice ($ 10.95) which was rice, shrimp, scallops, corn cooked in the sauce and topped with a pinch of green onions. Ok, for something that greasy I would have appreciated something to balance all the oil out like more green onions, peas or cilantro. Just to freshen it up a bit. Other than that, it wasn’t special.
The setup was alright, bibs (standard), gloves and disposable paper tablecloths and a big sink out in the open with sensors so you can be as messy as you want. They open late too but I don’t think it would be a good place to go post drinks or post club, wayyyy too much work.
Crawfish were «not in season» lame. Crawfish is what boils are all about. What an outrage.
I don’t recommend. I suspect that restaurant management took a trip to LA and tried out real boil and thought they could do it here. Not like this.

Came here at 5 so there wasn’t really a line up:) food came quickly we ordered 1lb snow crab and the seafood fried rice. Loved it! It’s a pretty interesting dining experience– the table gets really messy at the end so make sure you don’t wear a white shirt haha. The only thing is the food is pretty spicy even you don’t add extra spice. So I wouldn’t recommend if you don’t like eating spice:).
Come earlier so you can skip the lines! Or make a reservation.

Heard about this place from a friend that went to their North York location. Apparently their north York location is jammed packed and some folks were waiting like 2 hrs… So when I saw this place in my neck of woods… I came by to try it out.
Came on a Friday night around dinner time with the gf. A bit of wait… But not too bad. I ordered the shrimps in their captain’s boil sauce with med heat. It’s combination of all of their three flavors together. Added some sausages and corn to the mix too. Gf got the dungeness crabs and clams. Dungeness crab was with the captain’s boil sauce mild heat. Clams were with garlic sauce. Everything tasted really good. Loved that the flavors got right into the meat of the seafood. Loved the optional salt pepper lime sauce they give you to dip your seafood in. It adds a diff taste to the palette. Only thing wish they had was some type of bread to dip in the sauce. They were out of garlic bread :(
Service was very nice. Our server checked up on us at the right time without being too obtrusive. Also, filled up the water for us too.
Would definitely come back!!! Apparently they are putting in draught Sapporo! Can’t wait! This is a great addition to the community!