This place is AMAZING!! It was crowded, but we were seated upon arrival. All personnel were friendly and pleasant. Our server, Caleb, was top notch!! The food, from the watermelon salad appetizer to the entrees, was out of this world. The trout I ordered had a deviled egg sauce drizzled on it - man, it was good! We WILL be returning to this place. We want to try more of the items on the menu. Oh, & Caleb brought me & my husband a delicious pudding in celebration of our 34th anniversary!!
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We cannot believe the restaurant has good ratings. The scallop ceviche was watery; the brook trout was heavily breaded, dry and drizzled with a mustard sauce; the broiled seafood platter was tasteless and swimming in watered down butter. The waitress refused to substitute mashed for boiled potatoes. The children’s meals were cold. The volume inside was so high that we had to shout across the table. Don’t waste your time or money.
Awesome food!Took my brother out who was visiting from out of town! The scallop appetizer was amazing!! He got the cod, cooked to perfection and tasted so good. I got the scallops for my dinner and it was also cooked to perfection.The staff is friendly and the service was top notch!! Make reservations or otherwise it is hard to get into!!
We just found this place on the internet and boy oh boy! This is one of the best seafood restaurants I've ever been to. Our server, Brittany, was charged with surprising me with my food and she did a great job! She brought me a Staycation cocktail and it was perfect for me--not too sweet, not too sour--just right. The conch fritters were delicious and the neon yellow sauce that came with them superb. The crab cakes were sooooo good! My husband enjoyed his fish as well and his soup. The atmosphere made this place feel like we were really on vacay--very beachy and relaxed. I would travel back to Jax just to eat there again.
We went here 2 years ago and I've been dying to come back ever since. The service is excellent the staff is super friendly. I ordered the spicy Seafood linguine. The dinner I had two years ago was not the one that I had last night. 2 years ago it was full of flavor spicy garlicky was a home run. The one I had tonight was dry and lacked flavor. I'm going to chalk this up as just I got a bad dish. If there is a new cook don't be afraid of the spices dude!
Having read some of the reviews, we understood this was not going to easy. Parking is a disaster. They have complementary valet service, however, no matter how much the guys hustle, cars clump up and you have to wait. I am not sure what to recommend to make that better. The parking guys were hustling hard, doing the best they could with the horrible traffic flow design. They were also polite and understanding of people’s frustrations. We got on the list, and were told it would be maybe 10 minutes or so. We lucked into seats at the bar and I had one of their Staycation cocktails. It was nicely done. We were called to the hostess’ station and seated at a hightop, steps from the bar. A thing worth mentioning, depending on what kind of an experience you want, is that the place is a loud, cramped echo chamber. My nearly 60 yr old ears could not distinguish people talking right next to me. I heard nothing of the spiel of specials, and B had to repeat nearly everything she said due to the ambient noise. Normally, loud areas don’t bother me much, but the ambient noise was so bad here, it diminished the experience. Once seated, things went further downhill. We seemed to have no server, and it seemed the overtaxed barfolk were supposed to handle us. Nope. No one noticed us for 10 minutes (ok, we eventually tripped someone to pay us attention,) but after that, it seemed things were moving along. We got a new drink order in, and ordered our appetizer. Both came shortly thereafter. As we made it through the app, though, no one showed up to refill waters, push more profitable drinks on us, or, more importantly, take our entrée order. Our death stares eventually stopped a server to take our order. It should be noted that every serving action so far was via different people; again, no one was responsible for us. We were 30 minutes or so into our visit, just now ordering our meals. The building crowds made one think they’d want to be as efficient as possible to get your bum out of the chair for the next customers. Apparently not. Then, the food never came. Eventually, B went to the bar to ask “someone” where our food was. Bingo! All of a sudden, it was being plated RIGHT AT THE MOMENT SHE ASKED ABOUT IT. After that, we got extra special guilty service. Our appetizer was comped. The check was handled quickly. The charm meter was cranked to 11. Nonetheless, our meal took close to two hours with half of it waiting for someone to do something. So all that is bad, but this place is really about the food. It is a shame some thought and management isn’t applied to the service side of the business, as that would really put this place over the top. We had an app of fried clam strips (great breading) and their homemade tartar sauce. Their sauce was very well done. I’d have to say it’s the best I’ve ever tried. B had the fried shrimp basket. It was “bigger” and better plated than any other baskets I’ve seen. Fried shrimps were big and good. Seemed to NOT be frozen. Her remaining sides were so-so, the typical cole slaw, fries, and hush puppies. I had blackened mahi slathered with a light Tasso ham gravy, with sides of collard greens and “creamed grits.” The fish was excellent. If it had been frozen or spent excess time under the salamander, I couldn’t tell. My grits and greens were as good as I’ve ever eaten. Perhaps dodging dinner seating and sitting at the bar, or doing lunch would improve chances for a better experience.
We went to Julington Creek Fish Camp for dinner. We made reservations for 6:30 and dined in the downstairs part of the restaurant. The restaurant is always packed due to the quality of the food and atmosphere. It is a bit noisy when the restaurant is busy and it can get a bit overwhelming when you are trying to relax with a good meal and conversation. For an appetizer my wife ordered the fried green tomatoes and I the shrimp cocktail. For our entrees she ordered the grilled shrimp with grits and I the broiled seafood platter which has cod, shrimp, scallops, zucchini, squash and potatoes in a white wine sauce. I decided not to get the scallops and just got extra shrimp. The food was excellent like always and the waiter was very attentive, knowledgeable and friendly. We have been coming here for years and have always enjoyed it and the food has always been great. If you are looking for a REAL seafood restaurant while in the Mandarin area make a reservation and you too will experience an awesome restaurant with great food!
When I travel I like to look for local places, I've seen tourist in Rome looking for a Pizza Hut or Subway, WHY! I also like finding places with great food, and low prices. Some locals are too "polished/fancy" all show no go, so I look for the place that fits. So, being from Kansas City, am not looking for a steak house. I'm on the coast, seafood is the order of the day. I spotted this place, looking like a local hangout. I was not disappointed. Chris my server, made sure I was never close to empty on drinks, his two prime recommendations were spot on, and this is a place if and when I return to Jacksonville, that I will be found sitting on the deck having dinner. Thumbs up to the Camp!! Highest recommendation.
I was visiting my daughter, and she chose this restaurant for our dinner. It was a Monday evening so she didn't think it would be overly busy. Wrong! We had a small wait, maybe 15 minutes. Once we were seated our server got our drink orders. The menu items looked so yummy it was hard to choose. We split a wedge salad and they graciously cut and placed it on two plates. My daughter had the fried shrimp basket, Cole slaw, and fries. I had the Red Snapper special which came on a bed of mashed potatoes and green beans. My daughter's favorites were the fries and shrimp. She didn't care for the Cole slaw because it was room temperature. My dish was delicious as well. I was truly surprised by how packed the restaurant was on a Monday which leads me to my only negative comment. This would not be the place if you are looking for a quiet, romantic dinner. Fortunately that was not the case for us, so all the talking didn't bother us. I highly recommend this restaurant when you're in Jacksonville.
It is always a treat to travel to Jacksonville and on our way back from Savannah we had the pleasure of being served by Wendy at the great Julington Creek Fish Camp! Lunch was oysters, triple tail and divine Key Lime pie with a great view of the water. Bravo!