Captain John’s Restaurant & Tiki Bar

So where to start with this review. I am going to give you a run down of our experience because I truly believe we donated our entire bill to this restaurant and got nothing out of it in return. I really want people to know that if you decide to eat at this restaurant, you might be just donating your $ 200+ as well.
So, we had reservations but we were running slightly late due to us not knowing exactly where it was and we parked very far away. We called the restaurant because we felt bad we were running late and the manager told us not to worry, they were not busy and 15 – 20 minutes would be fine. We were very happy because in all honestly, we thought we might just have to go somewhere else because we were late.
So we arrived to the restaurant and we were all very impressed with the look of the restaurant. It was very clean and was decorated cute and it was impressive. We picked this restaurant due to the heavy advertising we see all over CNY for this place. We got to our seats and the rest of our party showed up. We ordered the 2 for 1 margaritas.
Pause. This is where our first issue comes about. The margaritas are 2 for 1 but what they do not tell you is that 1 margarita is the price of 2. Yes you read that right. 1 margarita which was served to me in a wine glass was $ 11. This is CNY, no margarita is $ 11. So, that was their first mistake.
So our drinks were served with no taste of tequila at all. They were supposed to be frozen but they were more on the the rocks with small ice cubes. At this point, we were still happy with them because we did not know that they were $ 11 until the bill came.
We ordered apps and they were good.
We then all ordered meals. Please note before you go here that meals at this restaurant are expensive, especially for the area. So, we made the assumption that the food must be very good and that we were going to have a great night out with tasty seafood and drinks.
Our food arrived to our table and half of the tables food was cold. Now, when I say cold I do not mean slightly warm, I mean cold. Lobster and crab felt as though they had been in cold water sitting waiting to be served. This group that I go out with never sends food back, never. But this was so cold that one person in our group spoke up and said honestly this food is very cold. The waitress was GREAT and said she understood and wanted to make it right. So, back goes the food. 10 minutes later, our food arrives back at the table. It was cold. Again. Not sure they even did anything with it. Cold.
So, after a few minutes the waitress came back and asked how it was and we told her it was still ice cold. At this time, half of the table was done eating. The waitress sent the manager over to talk to us.
This is where things really started to get bad. Instead of trying to work with us to make this right, the manager was a deer in headlights. Almost as though she had no customer service experience. She stated she would get us new food in which we stated we were not interested in. Half of the table was done eating and we had a small child with us who was tired of sitting in the restaurant. We wanted the cold food in which was not ate, taken away and we did not want to pay for it. It was cold, the people did not eat it and we do not feel we should have had to pay for it. The manager walked away in mid-​conversation and said as she was walking away, «Well if you would not have showed up 1 hour late, this wouldn’t be like this»
If you refer back to the start of this review, you will remember that we called and asked if we could be 20 minutes late and they said that was fine. 20 minutes. No one was an hour late.
So, when they waitress asked if everything was taken care of, we asked for the manager to come back. When we confronted her on her bogus claim, she just stopped listening to us and was just saying ok, ok, ok, ok. After some explanation in that what she said was not right and that even if we were late, doesn’t give an excuse for ice cold seafood. She said she would take them off the bill. We thought this was fair since the food was not ate.
The waitress came back and apologized and handed us the bill. This is where we found that margaritas were $ 11 a piece and that only half of the seafood meals was removed. When the waitress came back, we explained that his was an issue and that is was supposed to be removed. After waiting over 15 minutes for the manager to come back, she said she was only removing $ 24 because the lobster was cold. We explained that she just stated they would be fully removing it seeing how the entire meal was cold. She said oh well and said we needed to pay a bill that was way over priced and for food we didn’t eat because it was not cooked.
We got up and said we were leaving then and not paying for things that we served ice cold. She then stated she was going to call the cops. After her going nuts and her causing a scene, we paid to just get out. Stay away from this horrible place.

We ate at Captain John’s on a Tuesday night. There were other customers there, but it wasn’t packed. We had their two-​for-​one Margaritas which were average at best. We couldn’t taste much alcohol and switched to soda after the first one. We started our dinner with the calamari and immediately began wondering how the rest of our dinner would fare. They were chewy without much flavor, and when we were finished you could see the puddle of fryer grease across the plate. Next, I was served my half Caesar salad. This was heavily overdressed with limp lettuce. I suspect it was made in quantity long before and is just scooped out into a bowl when ordered. I had the middle sized prime rib, with the «seasonal vegetables» as a side. I was EXTREMELY disappointed with this meat. I love Prime Rib and have eaten it for decades across our country, and this would easily be in the running for the worst I’ve had. Even though the hostess announced «the prime rib just came out of the oven» as we were seated, I can’t help but wonder if that was true. I also heard her say it to another table who were seated about 45 minutes after us. I also worked in restaurants for about 14 years, and wouldn’t have sent out a piece of meat that looked like that. They ladled some au jus over it, but you could see on the ends where it hadn’t reached how dried out it was. There were also no natural juices when you cut into it. One end was also ice cold, and you had to chew each bite for quite a while until it got to a state where you could swallow it. I suspect that it may have been left from the day before and reheated for tonight, but if that isn’t the case they need to retrain their cooks. Actually, they should probably retrain their cooks either way. The vegetables were so unappetizing I didn’t even eat them. They looked like green beans from a can with some carrots thrown in. I didn’t recognize the sauce on it. My wife ordered the Haddock stuffed with crab meat. It was dry without a lot of taste, and looked like it may have been reheated as well. The décor is to be expected for a tourist town, but bares very little relation to actual seaside restaurants (I grew up in a tourist town on an island off of Florida). The prices were a bit unreasonable, even given that it was a tourist town. Almost $ 4 for a soda? And 1 $ for a refill? Come on! This barely edible dinner set us back $ 90, so i guess it was an expensive lesson. Don’t you spend that much to learn the same one. We will not be back.

Great atmosphere, food was just ok, over-​priced definitely! I had the king crab legs for $ 50, lucky It came with garlic butter because the crab legs had no flavor, not even a dot of salt. Service was good, went at around 4:30 pm and food came fast. My fiancé had a seafood dish with crab stuffing wish was not good. We ordered 2 pineapple mojitos that only tasted like pineapple juice, drank about 10% of it and gave it back and got charged for the full price! Ordered 2 of the champagne drinks with watermelon rum and those were excellent! Overall just ok!

Kitchi beach décor. People are extremely friendly. For the area probably a good restaurant 4 out of 5. For travelers who are experienced foodies a 2 out of 5.

We will not be back — lets start at the beginning.
Service was slow but friendly we ordered coffee and ice water with lemon and asked to find out if the veggie primavera would be GF if made with GF pasta (+$ 3). Coffee arrives, no spoon; water arrives, no lemon. Hubby orders surf and turf I order GF veggie primavera hold the mushrooms (I have Celiac’s disease so this is not a fad).
The lobster tail is extremely overcooked, the prime rib is tasty. Veggie primavera has mushrooms, frozen carrots, not very tasty and as I find out later not GF. It was not cross contamination but full blown gluten contaminated and resulted in the dry heaves before my evening was over.
I know I take a risk each time I go out but its 2014 and generally if you asked the right questions it works out.

Another successful trip to one of our favorites! I can’t say enough about the owners and their staff here. They know the menu inside out so don’t be afraid to ask questions about the selections or drinks.
It’s a bit pricey but well worth it in my opinion :)

Great personality and fun! Had the calamari — crispy and delish! The sparkling champagne cocktail — yummy! And the seafood provoncal was outstanding. A huge lobster tail, mussels and shrimp in a garlic wine sauce. i ate every drop of it! We live in syracuse and wish we had a restaurant as fun and delicious as this place! Don’t be put off by the fun and family friendly atmosphere — the food is excellent! We can’t wait to go back!

Excellent food and polite staff! Reasonable prices for a high quality food selection. Great with large parties of people too!

Just celebrated my birthday at Captain Johns. Staff was awesome. Food was really good. Many choices of seafood and meat. Had the two five oz lobster tails. They were some of the best lobster I’ve had. Loved the atmosphere and decorations. Felt like I was at a beach club. Loved the two for one Margarita’s.

Well, I spared them total star annhilation because they had good fried fish. Beyond that…
My inlaws tried to order prime rib. One of their specialties. Three or four times the server came out with ever increasingly dire news on the state of the prime rib. Shit, we’re down to 4 cuts. 2 are ends. SHIT we’re down to 3, 1 end. WTF.
Finally my MiL got something altogether different and wanted to get a baked potato with her chickeny replacement for the prime rib. OOPS. Out of baked potatos. WTF. I can forgive running out of prime rib. But baked taters? I dunno.
The service was friendly but mad, mad slow. Mad slow. And the décor in this place, while understandable, just sort of gets to me. I’ll put it to you this way– It’s like Jimmy Buffet and Robin Williams remade Hook into a porno and this place’s décor is the bastard child. That reminds me– Jimmy Buffet was on repeat, blaring through the music speakers.
It was very expensive here, too. But I’m told that’s a given for the area. We did manage to find other, cheaper alternatives. And given that we were in a house, I’d personally rather just go fish for dinner and cook it my damn self.

Three of us ate there tonight. Drinks, appretizers, salads, entrees, desserts, service, staff, 5+ stars. Magnificent across the board-​VERY pricey and worth EVERY penny. Seafood over the top. We tried, steak, seafood, calamari, salads, desserts-​everything was 5 star plus. Cannot say enough! Extremely perfect.

The irony of Captain John’s is that it really presents itself as a tropical beach side restaurant, but it isn’t located on the water and is probably one of the farthest places from the beach! Like Labella’s Pancake House, Eddie’s, Yesterday’s and Cinderella’s, Captain John’s is an old-​time Sylvan Beach institution.
The décor is intentionally over the top with tropical/​seaside flair. From the ship themed booths to the specialty drinks with souvenir mugs, Caption John’s goes out of the way to make you feel like you’re in some touristy beach locale from the Florida Keys.
The main feature of the menu is obviously the seafood, but they also feature Prime Rib and chicken dishes. The food is pretty decent and the portions are usually generous.
The service is usually pretty friendly and attentive. There actually is a Captain John and it is not unlikely for you to find him making the rounds greeting the patrons or driving around in his old antique car that is usually parked outside.

We ended up having dinner at Captain John’s after an aborted attempt to eat at Splash’s.
The service at Captain John’s was great — we had our food within just a few minutes of sitting down. We started with the French Onion soup and the clam chowder both of which were hot and freshly made. The Gorgonzola Chicken with fresh spinach was quite tasty as was my husband’s Sea Bass.
We didn’t save room for dessert but the dessert tray was certainly tempting.