Stingaree Restaurant Review, Bolivar Peninsula, at Crystal Beach, Texas

When I say in the subtitle of this article that Stingaree Restaurant is the best seafood plate I've ever eaten, I'm not saying that lightly. Seafood is heavenly to me, to the point that when I eat it, I think I die a little inside and float up to heaven. Yes, seafood does this to me. I love seafood. Do you fully understand how much seafood means to me? I'd rather eat seafood than anything else in the world!

And with that said, I'll repeat: Stingaree's seafood plate was the best seafood I've ever eaten.

Let's start with the negatives, because once I get to the food, you'll forget all about the negative.

Stingaree Restauarant Negatives - Location & Accessability

Stingaree is inconveniently located on Bolivar Peninsula, off the Intracoastal Canal Waterways, on Crystal Beach in Texas. This is loosely in the Houston/Galveston area of Texas, on the gulf coast. To get there, you either have to take the back-end highway around, or you have to drive aboard the 24/7 ferries that are run by TXDot. Sometimes, the wait to get on the ferries can be quite lengthy, and so the drive to Stingaree Restaurant can be quite a trek.

To get to the restaurant, you have to walk up a couple of flights of steps. Now, if you are disabled, there is a 'lift' that will take you up to the platform, but because it is located directly on the coast, the restaurant must be up on stilts, to prevent flooding. The lift was a little scary to me, but the food is worth braving stairs or the lift!

Stingaree Restaurant Interior & Décor

The entire interior of Stingaree Restaurant is wood or wood-like, giving it a nice rustic and slightly rugged look. Finished pine, wood Pergo flooring, wooden bar, wooden walls, wooden tables and chairs. Tables and chairs are close together, because there's not a lot of room in the small restaurant, and because it's such a great place to eat, it's sure to be crowded most every weekend night. Expect a crowd and expect a short wait to be seated on busy tourist season nights.

The downside to all that wood is that the Stingaree Restaurant echoes, echoes, echoes... sounds bounce off the walls, making it especially hard to hear, order, converse or think in the restaurant. However, it does make it a lively place. Where the wood gives way to nice tinted storm windows, you can watch out the window at the Intracoastal Canal Waterways and see barges and tugs and ships and boats passing by. Spectacular view!

Stingaree Restaurant Menu & Prices

There's not a huge selection on the Stingaree Restaurant's menu, but what is there is definitely good pickings! The prices are high, by regular restaurant standards and are a bit more than you'd probably pay even at a seafood place such as the chains (Joe's Crab Shack, Red Lobster, etc), but you're ordering the freshest and best seafood money can buy. Compared to the pricier seafood restaurants in the Houston/Galveston area, Stingaree Restaurant's prices seemed very reasonable to me for high-end seafood.

Stingaree Restaurant has a fully stocked bar with your favorite beer, wine, liquor and mixed beverages. At the time we dined, the restaurant was still recovering from damage due to Hurricane Ike, which obliterated most of the Bolivar Peninsula, where Stingaree is located. Because of this, the décor is renovated, and the soda fountain was not working. This means sodas were canned, served with ice, and there were no free refills. However, the tea was good and so was the water.

Stingaree Restaurant Food

I ordered the 1/2 pound of cold, boiled shrimp for an appetizer while my friend ordered the crawfish etouffee. The meal for my son was the fried catfish, which was the flakiest, best fried catfish I'd ever tried, moist and flakey, not dry and drawn up.

My friend ordered honey jalapeno BBQ shrimp skewers. For me, I went all out and ordered the Stig's Seafood Platter, which included two full (but small) BBQ crabs, BBQ shrimp, charbroiled shrimp, fresh fish fillet, a huge stuffed shrimp, shrimp Bordeaux, and a cup of shrimp etouffee. Served with this was a cup of homemade coleslaw, red beans and rice, and a side dinner salad for a small extra price.

I was simply amazed when this huge platter of seafood came to our table and had to remind myself it only cost $18.99 for all that expensive seafood!

Stingaree Restaurant Dessert

Frozen key lime pie (icebox pie), with an Oreo cookie crust, blueberry cheesecake, chocolate brownie cheesecake... what's your dessert pick?

For me, it was homemade bread pudding with a bourbon sauce, to go, please!

There is good bread pudding and then there is bad bread pudding--there's not much in between. Whomever puts raisins in bread pudding should be shot, in my opinion. Fortunately Stingaree Restaurant doesn't put raisins in their bread pudding, but they pack it dense with a lot of flavor and then drench it in the most amazing bourbon sauce.

It would be worth the drive for me to go back for nothing but the Stingaree Restaurant's bread pudding, much less the best seafood I've ever had!

Stingaree Restaurant Service

If the food, prices and dessert weren't all enough, the staff are most helpful, quick to serve, friendly and outgoing, and you'll never have a full messy table or run out of a drink in this establishment.

If you love seafood as much as I do, this is a must-try place on your vacation or for a very special night out. I know it's quite a distance from most places, but it's simply worth the drive. Plus, if you're vacationing in the Houston area, a trip on the ferry with your car is a fun thing for the family, and TXDot offers the ferries for free.

Visit Stingaree's website here: http://www.crystalbeach.com/wayout/Stingaree/Menu.htm