RESTAURANT OF THE WEEK
A PERSONAL REVIEW OF RESTAURANTS AROUND THE WORLD

OUTBACK CRAB SHACK
ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA
By Guest Reviewer Nancy Dorwart

This restaurant was an awesome experience.  
 
We have been to all the fish camps in the area, but this is the most rustic and probably most authentic. There is nothing cleaned-up or polished about this place, just lots of good food.  
 
First of all the dining is mostly done outside. There are inside tables, but why bother? The deck is large, there are fans turned to every table and you are overlooking the water (Six Mile Creek). This is worth mentioning because there is a long boat dock to stroll upon before/after dinner.  
 
The night we were there we had the pleasure of seeing both a small gator and a manatee. I have never, in my 12 years of living in Florida, seen a manatee in the wild (it beats the lettuce-eating manatees in the tanks at EPCOT).  
 
THE MENU: Mostly seafood (it's a fish camp, what did you expect?) there are some burgers and steaks, but we were there for the seafood. Our mistake was in ordering too much. We had no idea how large the platters are, so be warned!  
 
We ordered the half boiled seafood platter. It arrives on a plastic tray, (the type you use in the school cafeteria) loaded with crawfish, shrimp, mussels, king crab legs, potatoes, sausage, broccoli and mushrooms for "market price" which was $34.95 that day. It was all quite tasty (and quite messy, wear old clothes!) We also ordered the 1-pound boiled shrimp platter (also market price, which was around $25). The shrimp was good-sized and tasty. Everything was great, just lots more than of it than we expected.  
 
The kids menu offers hotdogs, shrimp and hamburgers, comes with fries and hushpuppies, all are $6.50.  
 
Ice tea and soft drinks arrive in Styrofoam cups. The beer comes four bottles in a bucket of ice, you are charged only for what you actually drink.  
 
All tables are equipped with rolls of paper towels and a basket of plastic forks, wet wipes and ketchup. Another basket arrives with cocktail and tarter sauce and a container for all the discards that you will have with shellfish.  
 
Overall it was great experience and we will return, but our evening turned out to be rather pricey, dinner was $65 and it was all on paper plates while sitting on a picnic table. It's tough to take  leftover shrimp home, it just doesn't heat up well. Next time, we will split a platter four ways and probably still have leftovers.  

They have a web site here.