Captain Benny’s is one of my mom’s favorite places. She goes for the gumbo and the jumbo fried shrimp platter.
And the cold beer.
And the hushpuppies.
And she’s not wrong. For years, she and her best friend would drive out to the I45 South location from her home in the Memorial area. One day, I mentioned that there was a much closer location on US 290 so now we go much more often, as we did last Saturday along with my OBD, (OtherBrotherDarrell - “not” his real name!).
I was driving and only had iced tea and the six piece fried shrimp platter with extra hushpuppies in lieu of the bread.
Mom had the six piece fried shrimp platter with extra hushpuppies in lieu of bread and a cup of Seafood Gumbo. And two beers; (yeah, she’s wild I tell ya’).
OBD had the six piece fried shrimp platter with extra hushpuppies in lieu of bread and a cup of Chicken/Sausage Gumbo. And two beers.
It’s pretty good stuff. Both gumbos are great and the fried shrimp are so good that I never get anything else. A nearby patron had some of the baked oysters and he said they were great. I may have to try that soon. Another nearby patron had oysters on the half shell and said they were good also, but we noticed that as he was shucking them, the shucker was running the newly opened oysters under the tap of running water. Isn’t the oyster liquor a “thing”?
Anyway, we like this place. My mom likes this place.What else do you wanna know?
Yay for Capt. Benny’s. Been going since the early 80s. Almost exclusively these days I go the the one on S. Main where supposedly Benny’s widow is still in charge. But, doh, I didn’t know they had two gumbos now; I order after only glancing at the menu - love the whole,butterflied catfish, too.
Doobs you’re right about the water and I would insist they not do that. Next time ask the shucker where they come from. Oyster season is closed until Christmas for pretty much the whole Texas coast except the private leases due to all the fresh water from the floods.
I loved the Capt Benny’s on Gulf Fwy during my working days at LYO. They opened one about a mile from us in Deer Park and it’s not nearly as good. We’ve tried it several times and just don’t love it.
In the early 1970s I was working in what was then the Fannin Bank building right at Main and Holcombe and the original Capt. Benny’s was on the corner right across the street in the original real shrimp boat hauled up from the coast. My older brother, who had moved away from Houston, came to town and visited me and asked if I’d ever been. He said that he had been going since it opened and really missed it. I hadn’t, and it was a decade or so before I started going. Last year, one of his sons was in town (with his widow) for my birthday and we went to the Pappadeaux near me because they don’t get much Cajun food in Colorado; we had some very mediocre oysters on the half shell. I asked him if his father had ever mentioned Benny’s and told him about it. He just notified me on our (shared) birthdate last week to say he’s coming down at the end of next month and we have to go to Capt. Benny’s. I decided I couldn’t wait.
A dozen on the half shell, larger and plumper than I expected this late in the season; well chilled, heavy metal tray with ice; lemons, seafood cocktail sauce (pre-mixed, maybe store bought) and horseradish in the other little cup. Awesome. I haven’t been since maybe the BP oil well disaster in the Gulf when oyster prices started going up.
I used to get the gumbo about half the time when I went and thought it was very good. We have a lot more examples of gumbo to try now than we had back then and this is different from what I remember. Shrimp and crab (although I didn’t detect any chunks of crab in my bowl), rice (less than I remembered), pieces of celery and okra, cooked almost to the point of disintegrating, and VERY SALTY. Better tasting than I remember (and I loved it back then) but I have been intentionally working to lower my salt intake, and this was too much – I probably won’t order it again. I don’t remember it being this salty years ago but maybe I just didn’t think anything was wrong previously.
My other fav orders were the cold boiled shrimp platter, butter-flied fried shrimp, and the whole, butterflied fried catfish. Way too much to get this time but I will be going back whether my nephew makes it down or not. The price came to at least twice what I used to pay.
I do not use the seafood cocktail sauce on the oysters but after I’ve finished the meal, I mix more of the horseradish into the sauce (which already has some) and finish off the saltines dipping them in it. Dessert! And you get your sinuses cleared out!
Had never seen these saltines before - 3 to a cellophane pack, a little thicker and sturdier than Nabisco, some darker/longer roasted (?) than I ever experienced before – I liked them. Saladitas - Galletas Saladas - Gamesa brand. But like everyother saltine I’ve ever experienced, worthless the next day after they’ve been opened.
Awesome! I have looked for a pic of the original many times and never found one. Much smaller than I remembered. Never went to that location, actually. It moved a few blocks south on Main years later then again to where S. Main and OST/US 90 cross where it’s very easy to miss driving by or stopped at the lights because that intersection is so busy. The boat made the first move but not the second. My favorite location because of the ambience but the one on 1092/Murphy in Stafford is much more convenient to me and that’s where I went. That location gets kind of rowdy sometimes with the crowds.
I failed to mention I found 3 small tsp sized bits of boiled potato in the gumbo. I don’t remember that at all from all the years I’ve eaten it - maybe it was completely dissolved?
