Don's Seafood & Chicken House

Should be 0 stars!!!

My dad wanted to come here for his birthday because he was craving a seafood platter. What followed was one of the most disappointing meals I’ve had on the Eastern Shore.

First off, I hate seeing “market price” on a menu, but I understand it when you’re serving fresh seafood. I’ve seen it all over places like Japan and Rhode Island where the catch is actually fresh. So I asked the obvious question: What are the prices, and is the seafood fresh?

The server flat out told us EVERYTHING was frozen.

Let that sink in. We live on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, surrounded by some of the best seafood in the country, and this place is charging market price for frozen seafood. That’s ridiculous.

Then there’s the Orange Crush. If you’re going to serve Maryland’s signature drink, at least make it correctly. An actual Orange Crush is made with fresh-squeezed orange juice. This wasn’t.

I ordered the fish and chips, which tasted like something straight out of a frozen Food Lion box. My girlfriend got the crab cake, and it was mostly filler with very little crab. It was soggy, bland, and honestly hard to finish.

The 12 oz ribeye was somehow even more insulting. Thirty-two dollars for a frozen steak that was cooked and served with almost no flavor. If I’m paying steakhouse prices, I expect something better than what tastes like it came off a delivery truck and onto a grill.

The service wasn’t much better. We were checked on maybe three times the entire meal, and our server looked about as excited to be there as we were to be eating the food.

If you’re not a local, save your money. If you want frozen seafood, frozen fish, frozen steak, and a fake Orange Crush, just go straight to Sysco and cut out the middleman.

After eating here, I understand why they got run out of Ocean Pines. Next year I’ll buy fresh seafood myself and cook for my family. It’ll be cheaper, fresher, and a whole lot better.

One of the worst seafood experiences I’ve had on the Eastern Shore.
☆☆☆☆☆

The server was wonderful. She was attentive, quick and professional. I enjoyed my salad, potato, and soda. The steak was cooked appropriately for what I requested. However, for my taste, it wasn’t my favorite steak and I was not a fan of their housemate streak sauce.

Overall, I would return and would just try another meal.

For those like me, it would be good to know that there are TVs all over which I don’t prefer.

My husband and I visited for the first time-and last- time this weekend. The restaurant was so dim we could barely see our food. Service was friendly, but everything else went downhill fast.

The hostess greeted us quickly, started to seat us on the lounge side of the restaurant, but quickly decided it was too crowded and directed us to the other side of the restaurant. Maybe she couldn’t tell which side should be seated with such dim lighting.

Our waitress quickly took our order, consisting of a crabby fry appetizer, a southern fried tender entree and a chopped steak entree.

We received the crabby fries, a handful of fries topped with crab dip, tasty but lacking old bay flavors. The fries were cooked crispy to hold up to the crab dip.

My husband’s chicken tenders were average. My chopped steak was a complete failure- just a premade medium well hamburger patty sitting in a puddle of grease with a tiny scoop of mashed potatoes. The hush puppies were served separately, likely so they wouldn’t soak up the grease. Charging $20 for this and calling it a “chopped steak” is unacceptable.

For comparison, Longhorn Steakhouse serves an actual chopped steak that’s $5 cheaper, comes with 2 sides and fresh baked bread - and it’s miles better than what I was served here.

Our bill was almost $80, including a slice of Smith Island cake to go. The cake was the best part of dinner - and I doubt it’s made in-house.

Save your time and your money! Pocomoke doesn’t have a lot of restaurants so unfortunately this one is choosing to take advantage of their customers by price gouging and providing sub par food!