2.24 Captain Kidd’s
Posted on July 7, 2008
Filed Under American, Best of the Best, Extra Hard Core, Seafood | Leave a Comment
My search for hard core seafood at casual prices continues, we have a pretty solid place lined up for this week. Captain Kidd’s in Redondo Beach is half seafood market, half restaurant. It’s a little confusing, but there are three lines. One line is for drinks — they have a good selection of beers on tap. The line in the back is where you can order combo plates or most anything else you’d like — if you don’t want to pick out which piece of fish you want. The main line in the front left part of the restaurant is the seafood line, where you can pick your fish or crustacean from a grocery seafood display case — they’ll write up your order, take your money, and give you a number. They’ll holler when your order is ready. So! Let me show you what we got this week…
Here’s the display case full of fish, you can see crabs in the back, lobsters and more are around the corner.
I’m so Asian, I wanted sashimi from the fish. They were very good about it and this gentleman expertly sliced up some salmon, halibut and tuna for us.
The sashimi really hits the spot. The fish is fresh, the knife work is clean and precise, beautifully laid out, as you can see. I think they simply sell you the fish by pound and charge $2-$3 for cutting it, so cool, good stuff.
I love oyster and ordered up a plate. I think this suffered greatly from being shucked in the morning and sitting in the cold display. It’s a bit dried out and it’s not as fresh as oysters shucked in front of you at, say, Swan Oyster Depot or Giovanni’s, but it’s decent.
My friend Jason ordered a box of cocktail shrimp, these were huge shrimp and so fresh and sweet, great value at $6 something.
I ordered a small bowl of paella. This was dry and not particularly good, probably because it was sitting in a steam tray for too long, avoid.
Fresh live steamed crabs at $12.99 a pound. They put this in the steamer and it takes about 20 minutes, it comes out of the steamer in a bag and they holler your number. We tore it apart with our usual enthusiasm. Live crabs are totally worth the extra cost, the meat fills the shells and it’s fresh and delicious.
What a great meal, there’s so much variety here, but the guys behind the counter are helpful and friendly. It’s all very casual and crowded and you sit in one of three levels of indoor ocean view patios. All of this ran about $80, and the girlfriend and I were stuffed. Skip the paella, look at the oysters closely to see if it’s dry before you order it, and you can definitely go to town with the fresh fish and crabs. Oh, I’m told they have giant scallops that they can throw on the grill. I’m so coming back.
Captain Kidd’s
209 N Harbor Dr
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
(310) 372-7703