Stumpknockers On the Square

When ordering waitress stated that there is a $ 1 up-​charge for clam chowder, OK. We get our bill and two $ 2 charges are listed. Waitress said it was an up-​charge for the loaded baked potatoes, not OK as the waitress didn’t let us know when ordering. A manager came to the table to explain that «all» the restaurants do it, while speaking to us like children. I told him it’s not all (Outback for one nearby does not) and most tell the customer like the waitress did for the clam chowder. Maybe it’s because we ordered water?
Thanks for ruining a pleasant evening until then.

Our server Sandra was great. We told her we were on our way home to Ohio and wanted a quick sit down lunch. She took great care of us. Food came out quickly. Kids meals are a bit pricey. $ 7.95. ½ lb cheeseburger was 8.95. Kids said cheeseburger was one of the best they’ve ever had. Homemade ranch dressing was awesome. Shrimp po boy was «delish» according to the hubs. My hot peel and eat shrimp were acceptable. French fries were really good! And you can’t beat the name!

Had a great lunch with my Mom around 3pm on a Thursday. Place was a lot bigger inside than it looked outside. Food was very good! I had the Reuben with potato salad (so delicious) and my mom had a cod special in an amaretto cream sauce. Yummy! Service was good but atmosphere was a little off. Kind of too dark and dreary for a nice sunny afternoon.

Great variety reasonably priced. The hushpuppies we excellent. Friendly staff. Will come back again.

Fun place, food is average, nothing special but good. Service was good each time we’ve been there.

The original restaurant on hiway 200 is far superior than this Inverness location.
No check, no credit cards accepted!!! CASH only at the Hiway 200 locatuion. I would not be back to this chain!

Sticky table. Fish was not fresh or grouper as advertised. Staff was friendly though rushed when we were there. Most likely we won’t eat there again for a long time.

This is for the Inverness location. Interior has had a lot of attention to detail. Ample seating, but at times can feel crowded. A lot of tourists really enjoy this location.
For the food, best to stick to the basics. I have had many sides which were subpar — corn, fries, mushrooms to name a few. Have also had some pretty fishy tasting grouper too. The hush puppies always seem to be very good.
The wait staff seems to be a little thin, as perhaps the kitchen is too. While four visits doesn’t make me an expert on the location, no visit was without flaw in what was ordered over what was recieved with only two in the party. Give your waiter/​waitress kind notification if you need something off the grid, like vinegar or mustard. In my humble opinion, this location is overrated.

Yep. That’s right. A full 5 stars. Friendly staff who gave good recommendations and with really good food and nice portions. The prices here were very reasonable as well. I was excited to see that they had stone crab as a special. Although I only got the appetizer portion, it was plenty. The stone crab wasn’t on the menu, so you may want to ask about it. I didn’t indulge, but I saw that they have all you can eat catfish on the menu for about $ 11. I usually finish all of my food, but had to take a to-​go container with me. Great place to eat.

The food was horrible. Service not so great either. Very disappointed. It was not crowded at all

Great food, great and friendly service. This is a great food joint in Inverness Florida. If you like seafood this is the place.

Not bad food, but don’t plan on doing anything after you eat since they will keep you hostage here forever! We always tend to come on off-​hours for lunch when there aren’t many people in the restaurant, but the servers are always missing in action. I don’t mind waiting for food, but it’s silly when you’re waiting 20 minutes for the check.
With that said, their food is surprisingly good for being out in the country, and they have giant portions! The peel-​n-​eat shrimp is great, and it seems like you get a lot more than a lb of seafood. Delicious! Their salads are always a great choice– Cobb with blackened chicken is a massive portion, served with a yummy hardboiled egg (get the Blue cheese dressing– yum!) Someone in my group got the grouper sandwich, and the fish was hanging over all sides of the hoagie bun it was on! They also probably have one of the better burgers in the area (not to say that it’s the best burger in the world, but you take what you can get out here since restaurants don’t seem to season their food too much to accommodate for their primary audience).
Overall, it’s a fun little restaurant full of fishing memorabilia located in the heart of downtown Inverness that serves up some good food on laid-​back island time.

I LOVE this place. anytime I come to visit my grandparents I request to come here. Their clam chowder is delicious and I get the catfish every time. Sometimes it can be a little bit of a wait but I’ve never been disappointed in the food.

Over the past year or so my favorite place to eat in all of Citrus County has deteriorated in regards to some of my favorite menu items. Having been a frequent eater and long time lover of this restaurant and its menu, I had to keep going back. Having always loved the catfish I was disappointed when it first showed signs of not being as it once was… deliciously addicting. The catfish started tasting not quite the same. By my third try at it I realized I had a sour stomach each time I had ate it. I knew there had been a chef change when I order the clam chowder. The clam chowder was no longer delectable, regrettably, it was watery and flavorless. Another time I ordered the steamed shrimp. Usually the steamed shrimp comes pre-​cooked in Old Bay seasoning, however, this new version came with old bay on the side. Luckily, in between these deteriorating meals I did have a few highlights with a fish dinner, a shrimp dinner and with the seafood platter (3times…yum). We also cannot say enough good compliments about the fried vegetable appetizer and the Gator nuggets.

We’ve been coming to Stumpknockers since moving here 3 years ago. We always brought our guests here for dinner and generally haven’t been disappointed — until now. I’ve had their Fab 4 dinner, scampi style 5 or 6 times in the past and always loved it. We came for an early dinner and I ordered it again.
The shrimp was rubbery and very overcooked, the scallops were completely flavorless. The muscles were good, but instead of a nice scampi sauce, my pasta was swimming in unseasoned water. It was horrible.
I did something I hate to do — I sent it back. Apparently the only thing that was heard was that the scampi sauce was missing because the same plate was brought back to me and the water was replaced with scampi sauce. It came with the same overcooked shrimp and flavorless scallops.
I spoke to my server again and instead of offering me a fresh meal, she tried to tell me about some sort of shrimp and bacon dish she would bring me. I was hungry so I said okay. She brought out a dish of 6 shrimp over a creamy pasta. The shrimp were properly cooked, but the spice level overpowered the shrimp. I did not like it so I sent it back.
I ended up eating the crab and muscles. The waitress conferred with someone and I was charged something like $ 8.95. Whoever she spoke to apparently didn’t want to speak to me as they never came by the table.
When the bill came there was a «mistake» in the math and an additional $ 10 found its way onto the bottom line. We had it removed.
The original meal should have been 86’d and a new plate fired which is what I expected to happen when the plate was first taken back to the kitchen.
While I’m on it, avoid their corn on the cob at all costs. It’s nothing more than flavorless, overcooked, frozen corn. Their salads are always fresh and flavorful though.
We used to send a lot of traffic to Stumpknockers. No more.

Great local place, food is always just right. Try the grilled chicken chef salad or the steamed shrimp for the lighter side, but they have lots of traditional fried seafood too. Gator nuggets and fried mushrooms are great!

Was driving through Inverness looking for a good place to stop and get some great seafood and was not disappointed. Food was top notch. We had the peel and eat hot shrimp and the grouper entrée. Everything was super tasty and tasted very fresh.
Service was great and I love the causal atmosphere. Prices are really really reasonable for the quality and quantity of food you get.

Ate at Stumpknocker’s last night. It was exceptional. The hubs and I have tried eating here before but each time they were closed. He had eaten here one other time, back in 2004, and kept telling me how great the food was. I scanned the reviews on our way there the first time. I checked them again last night. I have to comment about two of them
1) to the Unilocaler who said «Eat at the other one»
Both of the locations are close enough they have to use the same Vendors. One location could not have better food from another unless they are so far apart the Vendors are different. The difference would be who is doing the cooking.
2) to the Unilocaler who complained about the server Missy? She was our server last night. I could not agree less with your evaluation
The staff was friendly and on point.
There was a nice breeze and the restaurant was pretty full so we sat outside. Our server was Missy. She was attentive, personable and very helpful.
We opted to not order an appetizer and go straight to dinner.
The hubs ordered the all you can eat catfish with slaw, fries, corn on the cob and hush puppies.
I went with the trio– A crab cake, 3 catfish fingers and 3 shrimp, baked potato, salad, corn on the cob & hush puppies. I am not a fan of catfish and asked if grouper could be used. Missy said that would be an easy swap.
Beer first. They have a Stumpknocker’s pale ale, Bud Light and one more Yang Ylang (if I remember correctly) on tap. Pitcher of Bud Light for the table!
The slaw and salad came out first. I had a bite of the slaw and it was good. The hubs would like them to use more mayo (he has a thing for mayo; no matter the amount used it is never enough. I thought it was plenty) The salad– lettuce was crispy, red onions vibrant and tomatoes were perfect.
Main course.
The hubs left no catfish behind. He said it was better than he remembered. I did have a bit of his catfish. I am still not a fan of this fish but can see why people rave about it here.
My trio– All items were coated in a corn meal batter and deep fried. The baked potato was perfect. The corn was a little over cooked but with some salt and pepper the flavor was exactly what is was supposed to be and I gobbled it down. The shrimp were plump and succulent, the grouper fingers were spectacular and the crab cake could have been better.
I love crab cakes. My love affair with this seafood cake started when I was young and am quite particular what makes an excellent crab cake. The filling was good; big pieces of crab and little pieces of chopped onion. The ratio was perfect and the flavor was fantastic! This is where it stopped for me, however. If the cake hadn’t been as fat OR if the cake had started in the oven and finished in the fryer the meal inside the cake would have cooked more. The moisture wasn’t a good thing because I felt it was undercooked. So yes, I was disappointed. But not every place scores high on their crab cakes so I was ok with my disappointment. Besides the shrimp and grouper were incredible so I had more to focus on.
We split a piece of key lime pie. I had a bite without the whipped cream first. It’s very important to do this to discern if the custard tastes like it should. Wow! Creamy, sweet with just a bite from the tartness of the citrus. The graham cracker crust was perfect and well, I wish I had ordered my own piece.
Stumpknocker’s? You guys nailed it last night.
We will absolutely be back.
I am not affiliated in any way with this restaurant. I had never met Missy before last night. I gave it 5 stars inspite of the crab cake b/​c everything else was fantastic!

Pretty good seafood and an eclectic interior. Tried this place out on a Friday night while passing through the small town of Inverness.
Our server suggested the gator nuggets since they are a Stumpknockers patron favorite. The gator nuggets were pretty good, but a few of them were really chewy and overall just very heavily breaded. The gator nugget dipping sauce of a light, sweet mustard was very good. I also tried the 1lb of shrimp appetizer with the shrimp steamed and lightly spiced, these were simply wonderful! For an entrée I had the flounder stuffed with some real crab and some imitation «krab» stuffing. It was just okay, nothing outstanding about it, but good if you’re hungry.
The service was quick for the appetizers, but we waited at least 30 plus minutes for dinner to come-​it was a bit long for me. No one checked in to say anything during the wait. The seating was quick considering the place was completely at capacity and I know it’s a busy place. There was a big similarity of customers throughout the restaurant. I had time to look around a lot at the customers and décor while waiting for dinner to arrive. I think I must have been there for the early bird dinner time as this seems like a local retiree hotspot. This is a nice place to stop you find yourself in Inverness. Stumpknockers seems a bit like a Cracker Barrel with more seafood to me.

Great Atmosphere, Service and Food
We were down from NC for a wedding and decided to go to Stumpknockers after a long drive that day. We’ve been to Stumpknockers a number of times going back probably 15 years and have always enjoyed it.
This time was no exception. Walked in and were promptly seated and presented with menus, beverage orders taken and the speicals explained in rapid succession.
Menu is normally Seafood, Steaks, Sandwiches and an occassional surprise. This time was no exception. One of the specials this evening was meatloaf which I have never seen on the menu.
My wife loves a good meatloaf and that was her choice that evening. I had a Seafood platter with fish, oysters, shirmp and crab and as usual it was delicious.
Parking with the one way streets can be a bear if you are not familiar with the streets but worth the effort. I’m familiar with the area and even I made a wrong turn and had to circle the block to the restaurant.