where jess ate

Specializing in Creole-inspired seafood boils, The Captain’s Boil (@thecaptainsboil) opened their first location in North York at the end of 2015. In the past year, they’ve taken the city by storm with the opening of over 10 locations throughout the GTA and several more on the way.

I was recently invited to a media preview of one of their newest locations, located at Midland and Steeles in Scarborough. The restaurants are franchises and while all the restaurants serve the same core items, some of them offer specials (like happy hour or student specials) which are unique to their location. Some of the downtown locations are on the smaller side but this Scarborough location is enormous and has a separate VIP room that large parties can book out.

The concept here is pretty simple: 1) choose your catch, 2) choose your flavor and 3) choose your heat level. Your “catch” options, which are all priced by the pound, include staples like shrimp, mussels, clams and snow crab as well as seasonal offerings like crawfish, king crab legs, lobster and dungeness crab. As for the flavours, you can choose between cajun, lemon pepper, garlic and Captain’s Boil, which is a mix of all three.

After placing your order, you’ll want to get prepped for your meal. This means, putting on your bib (trust me, it’s very much necessary), tying up your hair (if applicable) and putting on your plastic gloves. The seafood is steamed or boiled and served in a plastic bag mixed with your sauce.

Just dig in with your hands – de-shell and eat! It’s a fun but extremely messy affair. Be prepared for a lot of splatter, so plan your attire accordingly (unless of course, you like red polka dots).

We tried an assortment of seafood in the Captain’s Boil sauce. My personal favourite was the king crab legs. They were incredibly tender, super meaty and most importantly, not a lot of work to de-shell. As much as I like crawfish, it’s a crazy amount of effort to get the tiniest amount of meat!

You can supplement your meal with an assortment of sides. I recommend the cajun fries, corn (ask them to add it into your seafood bag) and steamed rice, which you should throw into your bag with all the leftover sauce once you’re done with the seafood.

This location is open everyday for lunch and dinner from 11am for you to satisfy your seafood craving. Come and get your fix!

*This was a complimentary meal. The opinions in the post are my own.*