The Captain's Boil
2081 Pembina Hwy
204-500-9729
https://www.thecaptainsboil.com/l/winnipeg-the-captains-boil.html
May, 2018
This international chain recently settled on Pembina Highway with little fanfare. We only found it by chance driving by, commenting on what a terrible name for a restaurant. C'mon, who doesn't think of an infection on a matey when referencing The Captain's Boil?
The name may evoke some elements of repulsion but that's where it ends. As soon as you enter The Boil, the robust smell of seafood and garlic capture your senses and your taste buds quickly awaken. Scan the dining room and despite the low lighting, you can't help but see abundance of crustacean shells lying on the tables.
There's no fuss here; The Boil means that the cauldron steadily boils up heaps of seafood. The staples include crawfish, lobster, dungeness crab, snow crab, king crap, shrimps, clams, mussels, or for you landlubbers, chicken slices. To go with your staple, you have a choice of flavours, including:
I visited New Orleans several times and on those journeys, I learned to love (LOVE) crawfish. Prior to my enlightenment, my only experience with crayfish involved either stringing them on the end of a fishing hook or eyeing them with disgust at Sturgeon Creek as a kid. Who would have figured that those ugly mudbugs would end up becoming one of my favourite foods.
As a note, places that have them to eat call them "crawfish," while places that hardly consider them food call them "crayfish." Louisianians call them either crawfish, crawdad or mudbugs.
The secret to eating crawfish lies in the dispatching of the shell. Take the head in one hand and the tail in the other. Gently twist it about 10 degrees both ways while lightly tugging the two apart. Done right, you get the organs still attached to the precious tail meat, making for the perfect bite. For you squeamish folks, get over making your face and just eat it--the organs contain tons of flavour. From here, you can suck on the head if you wish, but there's nothing to it. The only reward lies in the faces looking at you as you hold the crawfish head to your mouth. If the organs break inside the head and you only get the tail meat, sucking the head might get the organs out for you.
If that description isn't convincing enough to get you to try crawfish, the shrimps offer a nice alternative. The Boil serves them whole, complete with whiskers and eyes. You eat them in a similar fashion to the crawfish except the shrimp shell sticks to the meat more so than the crawfish, so you'll likely have to peel them. Both crawfishes and shrimps come perfectly cooked, just done while retaining its moisture and bulk.
If you don't relish the idea of faces looking at you, the snow crab legs provide a nice alternative. Each order gives you eight legs (one crab's worth). Typical with snow crab, the large segment is the only one that has substantial meat, but what's there tastes delicious.
Similarly, both the clams and mussels come perfectly cooked as well, looking plump and juicy. The clams taste quite mild, compared to most clams crossing my plate. These mussels are quite possibly the largest mussels I've ever encountered, nearing almost four inches long on the shell. It won't take many of these to fill you up (sorry about the pic).
There's always a member of every party who eschews seafood. If that's you, the chicken pieces come simply made (I'm guessing boiled as well) which makes it a great conduit for one of the richer sauces.
For add-ons and sides, the sausage has a tad of spicy, somewhat reminiscent of the Louisiana andouille. The meat tastes a bit dry, suggesting a very low fat content (not always a good thing for sausages). You can also order a side of fish and chips (you read that right). The fish fillet tastes nice and most, flaking away underneath the light breading. The fries tastes light and not greasy but let's face it, the fries don't go with most of the mains here.
I'm not a big fan of chain restaurants but The Captain's Boil meets or exceeds all of my expectations. If you're a fan of unadulterated seafood, this is a must try for you. Most of the dishes are reasonably priced, although you pay a premium for lobster and king crab leg, understandably so, but it's nice to have the option if you want to treat yourself. Cheers Captain!
2081 Pembina Hwy
204-500-9729
https://www.thecaptainsboil.com/l/winnipeg-the-captains-boil.html
May, 2018
This international chain recently settled on Pembina Highway with little fanfare. We only found it by chance driving by, commenting on what a terrible name for a restaurant. C'mon, who doesn't think of an infection on a matey when referencing The Captain's Boil?
The name may evoke some elements of repulsion but that's where it ends. As soon as you enter The Boil, the robust smell of seafood and garlic capture your senses and your taste buds quickly awaken. Scan the dining room and despite the low lighting, you can't help but see abundance of crustacean shells lying on the tables.
There's no fuss here; The Boil means that the cauldron steadily boils up heaps of seafood. The staples include crawfish, lobster, dungeness crab, snow crab, king crap, shrimps, clams, mussels, or for you landlubbers, chicken slices. To go with your staple, you have a choice of flavours, including:
- "Cajun: A blended melange of Cajun spices, including cayenne pepper, paprika and more"
- "Garlic Sauce: Roasted garlic with melted butter"
- "Lemon Pepper: Lemon zest mixed with black pepper"
- "Captain's Boil: A perfectly balanced combination of our three sauces"
In addition, you can order your level of spiciness, ranging from none to fire. We order most of ours dishes medium and find it accessible to all but the most spicy-timid. Oddly, our mild dish came spicier than all of our medium dishes.
The Cajun spice may contain cayenne but the dominant influence comes from the paprika, giving the dish a beautiful, glowing red essence to the already red shells. When the Captain talks about garlic sauce, he/she means it! The sauce comes loaded with mounds of garlic chunks, perfect for those of us who like to ward off vampires. For the less adventurous, the lemon pepper is for you. The Captain's Boil blend, encompassing the three sauces, comes exactly as they describe, "perfectly balanced."
I visited New Orleans several times and on those journeys, I learned to love (LOVE) crawfish. Prior to my enlightenment, my only experience with crayfish involved either stringing them on the end of a fishing hook or eyeing them with disgust at Sturgeon Creek as a kid. Who would have figured that those ugly mudbugs would end up becoming one of my favourite foods.
As a note, places that have them to eat call them "crawfish," while places that hardly consider them food call them "crayfish." Louisianians call them either crawfish, crawdad or mudbugs.
The secret to eating crawfish lies in the dispatching of the shell. Take the head in one hand and the tail in the other. Gently twist it about 10 degrees both ways while lightly tugging the two apart. Done right, you get the organs still attached to the precious tail meat, making for the perfect bite. For you squeamish folks, get over making your face and just eat it--the organs contain tons of flavour. From here, you can suck on the head if you wish, but there's nothing to it. The only reward lies in the faces looking at you as you hold the crawfish head to your mouth. If the organs break inside the head and you only get the tail meat, sucking the head might get the organs out for you.
If that description isn't convincing enough to get you to try crawfish, the shrimps offer a nice alternative. The Boil serves them whole, complete with whiskers and eyes. You eat them in a similar fashion to the crawfish except the shrimp shell sticks to the meat more so than the crawfish, so you'll likely have to peel them. Both crawfishes and shrimps come perfectly cooked, just done while retaining its moisture and bulk.
If you don't relish the idea of faces looking at you, the snow crab legs provide a nice alternative. Each order gives you eight legs (one crab's worth). Typical with snow crab, the large segment is the only one that has substantial meat, but what's there tastes delicious.
Similarly, both the clams and mussels come perfectly cooked as well, looking plump and juicy. The clams taste quite mild, compared to most clams crossing my plate. These mussels are quite possibly the largest mussels I've ever encountered, nearing almost four inches long on the shell. It won't take many of these to fill you up (sorry about the pic).
There's always a member of every party who eschews seafood. If that's you, the chicken pieces come simply made (I'm guessing boiled as well) which makes it a great conduit for one of the richer sauces.
For add-ons and sides, the sausage has a tad of spicy, somewhat reminiscent of the Louisiana andouille. The meat tastes a bit dry, suggesting a very low fat content (not always a good thing for sausages). You can also order a side of fish and chips (you read that right). The fish fillet tastes nice and most, flaking away underneath the light breading. The fries tastes light and not greasy but let's face it, the fries don't go with most of the mains here.
I'm not a big fan of chain restaurants but The Captain's Boil meets or exceeds all of my expectations. If you're a fan of unadulterated seafood, this is a must try for you. Most of the dishes are reasonably priced, although you pay a premium for lobster and king crab leg, understandably so, but it's nice to have the option if you want to treat yourself. Cheers Captain!
This is an unbiased, free public service that I am happy to provide. If you enjoy these reviews, please consider clicking on the accompanying ads. This is the only compensation I receive.
For continuous updates, please follow me on Facebook @Ray Yuen's Winnipeg Restaurant Reviews or Twitter @food_winnipeg. As usual, thanks for reading and good food to you!
Comments
Post a Comment