We had the bad overcooked night one followed by superb specimens the next day.
Edit.
We naturally followed up with more Benno’s Cajun fried crabs and the bad returned. The overcooked stringy crabs were sent back followed by another overcooked batch with some mushy ones meaning they’d been dead for a long time. I only cook live crabs and dead less than 30 minutes.
I’m not send back food guy but our buddy Mary Jane gladly took them back, she being well compensated.
The offending crabs were traded in for a perfectly cooked moist whole bone in catfish plus some delicious oysters which we got more of later in the week.
The worse were saved for last at Stingaree, a place we’ve loved in the past. It’s in Crystal Beach on the Bolivar Peninsula a ferry ride from Galveston.
We got an app of good claws and not good bisque. The fried crabs were terrible, with a flavor of liquid smoke. The Wifeacita mentioned they didn’t taste like crabs and she was right. We left maybe four on the platter, something I’ve never done, paid the bill and left.
I’ve only been to Benno’s once, and it was an unfortunate visit. Glad you ended up with tasty food! I’ve always wanted to go to Stingaree to support it as a lonely Boliver outpost, especially since Ike. But as the only place in town, it’s not surprising that the quality is not there. Competition is good.
Edit to add: Hey, you and the discerning Mrs. should do just that, open a place on Boliver, rents are cheap, you are in your element, and all three of us will support you! Hehe. Also, I know you both could knock it out of the park. Think about it.
We’ve been to Galveston four times this past year. We really like the place. Once you get through Houston it gets easier each time. And once you cross over the bridge it’s like a breath of fresh air.
BUT this place IS a tourist town.
Benno’s - January - first time - Blackened oysters, Cajun potatos, garlic bread & fried seafood platter -excellent. Went there twice .
Surly service at front counter. Put it down to us the first time.
July - Blackened oysters for me and several seafood platters for others. Hot and fresh. Surly service at counter.
August - crabs are hot but two other fried oyster and shrimp platters were lukewarm and overbteadef. Surly service at front counter again and waitress didn’t seem to concerned about anything.
September - Didn’t go back on principle.
And we were always there by 5:00 p.m so waiting in line wasn’t an issue.
I don’t know who owns this place but by the looks of reviews they have a problem they don’t care to address .
JC - You shouldn’t have had to repeatedly pull strings as you apparently did on the last go round to get a good meal and I will just leave it at thst😊
July - Stingarees - OUT of soft shell crabs so different shrimp catfish plasters for others that were just ok. I had the shrimp salad stuffed avocado which was good. The accompanying bowl of gumbo was full off mushy small shrimp though.
September - Stingerees - Excellent deep fried soft shelled crabs w/ French fries / coleslaw and tarter sauce… I mean they were GREAT.
Service is always friendly at Stingerees. I have to hand them that.
Also my new favorite place to stay is believe it or not Gaido’s Seaside Inn. (Recently renovated this lat year). Stay inside the courtyard. Family owned and friendly. Nice safe place. Two chairs right outside each ro so you can sit and smoke . Galveston is full of hotels with balconies but no smoking within 25 ft of building. Really nice rooms too.
And we can have a couple drinks in the room while getting ready/watching the news and then walk a few hundred feet to Nick’s. Don’t order the HH margaritas or mojito’s if you want a buzz. No liquor in there that we could detect. But the deep fried peppers with crab and shrimp at HH price are pretty good, the seafood platter ok. Just sitting outside under cover with pidgeons flying in and out, watching foot traffic, car traffic and looking out at the ocean with ships with the breeze blowing makes it all tropical type and worth while.
By the way JC - Just wanted you to know that we ordered the blackened oysters on your recommendation back in January and also stocked up on oysters and shrimp on the way back at TH Seafood. Well run place…9
They had twenty foot tides during Ike that came right up to the bottom of the building and it took a long time to reopen. I had fried oysters after fishing once and they were not good, add to that the terrible crabs and the ferry and I don’t see us going back.
I know you’re flush with cash so if you’ll bankroll us we’ll see about opening a place. I’ve pretty much got Benno’s blackened oysters down and am a genius at frying fish.
I’ve been going there since the late 80’s and never had problems and gotten to know Mary Jane the last 10 years or so and she takes care of us, heck it was her idea to send back the crabs if we weren’t satisfied so we did, twice.
I leave a couple of bucks in the tip jar for the crew and tip Mary Jane a fiver when she comes by which she calls her beer money. A little goes a long way and we’re taken care of and I’ll leave it at that.
We stayed at Gaido’s once and didn’t ask for the courtyard and was rewarded with a room on the side with a nice view of the parking lot.
We’ve been staying at Quality Inn at 59th with all rooms with a Gulf view.
We just spent 5 nights there with 60 dollar rooms tax included. The place was great and we had no complaints. I always call the front desk when booking a room for the best rate.
Watching the news is nice but I prefer the stalker channel/Lifetime Movie Network until the Wifeacita returns from her coffee fix and running the streets and puts an end to it.
Anybody been to Murdoch’s? It’s a sprawling souvenir place over the Gulf with a breezeway, rocking chairs, and beer and wine, very relaxing.
The Poop Deck Club is really nice on a breezy night especially with a full moon over the Gulf.
She was still hungry so we got some “catfish” to go. I don’t know what it was, swai, tilapia, but not catfish and we didn’t eat it all.
It was dark by this time and at least an hour ferry ride to Galveston so it was a 35 mile white knuckle two lane ride from Crystal Beach to Winnie and then the joys of a Saturday night 70 mile I-10 ride to Edit coming.
Ride to NW Houston. Now the Wifeacita knows I am right on many things especially NFL penalty flags.
The following is rated M for Mature audiences. So after about twenty mind numbing I-10 miles I needed some water to drink and a splash on my face to keep me awake.
Like I said I am right on many things and I told her the truck stops and gas stations east of Baytown are well known for, ahem, working girls and I wasn’t wrong.
In front of me in line were two very young girls buying a bottle of md2020 rot gut wine.
Cashier asked do you have jobs, nope. Do you have a credit card, yep, not sure what that was about since they paid in cash and left setting up station in the parking lot next to a motel.
So it wasn’t all crabs and oysters there was some cow involved and a pizza at Mario’s Seawall, half sausage half cheese, a favorite place especially after five or six hours of wade fishing.
The cow was from Salt Grass Steakhouse, a complete waste of meat for the Wifeacita’s chicken fried steak. I’d read good things about it on Yelp and seen some nice pictures but this was a thin and flavorless piece of meat.
I, on the other hand, wolfed down a perfectly cooked 20 oz. hunk of medium rare prime rib. I’d been craving a piece of meat like this for a long time and they came through.
The salads were excellent but I’m not a fan of the Shiner Bock bread.
I’m Leary of Fertitta joints, especially in Galveston but it’s hard to mess up prime rib. Pepperoni and jalapeño is my order at Mario’s. Been going there for decades now.
I worked in Galveston for a year and the locals assured me the Galveston Fertitta joints were better since he was down there all the time so I went to Landry’s once.
It was shall we say, um, so Landry’s. You know what I mean.
We’ve stayed at the pink Quality Inn several times and always had a positive experience. I prefer dealing directly with hotels myself, but I’ve never been able to negotiate That kind of price there. My hats off to you😊
