For the most part, driving along I-10 in Channelview, Texas, means seeing a regular stream of Mexican restaurants, taquerias, panaderias, and the occasional asadero. There’s one restaurant, however, that always catches my eye: Captain Tom’s Seafood & Oyster Bar.
It’s the shape of a boat.
There aren’t many boat restaurants in Houston besides Captain Tom’s and Captain Benny’s. Both captains have steered fairly clear of one another, both in proximity and in their way of doing things. Captain Tom’s carries all the swagger of a fish stand on the way to the beach: no website, no social media, no menus, no tables, and no pretentiousness.
The history of Captain Tom’s is somewhat murky. According to a 2000 Houston Chronicle article, Tom Makdisi opened his first Captain Tom’s restaurant in the 1990s at 9651 FM 1960 West in northwest Houston (It moved less than a mile away to 10501 FM 1960). Makdisi later opened locations in Katy and Channelview.
I visited the Captain Tom’s in Channelview at 13955 East Fwy. There was plenty of parking a little after lunch on a Wednesday afternoon. Hundreds of discarded oyster shells line the grass strips and bushes planted along the curbs of the lot. Since it’s a boat, the restaurant is somewhat elevated and requires a quick climb up some steps to reach.
Inside, Captain Tom’s is a bustling place. Two-thirds of the restaurant’s dining area is a U-shaped bar counter with bar stools. Another wood countertop is against the wall, offering window-side eating if you can’t sit at the bar. But honestly, the bar is where it’s at. It’s a delight to see the staff shucking oysters, stuffing beer bottles in mounds of ice, ladling gumbo into various bowls, and chit-chatting with the regulars. You can see the cooks frying fish, crabs, and shrimp through the open kitchen window toward the back.
Captain Tom’s menu hangs over the bar. Much of the appeal of the restaurant’s food is its simplicity and affordability. A cup of gumbo runs around $3.65, and while it’s not going to win awards for anything, it doesn’t need to. The hearty portion size is immediately served piping hot with complementary crackers and hot sauce. The broth is appropriately seasoned and has enough bits of vegetables, rice, shrimp and meat to tide you over until the entree.
Captain Tom’s fried seafood is coated with crispy cornmeal. It wasn’t seasoned when I had it, but I had salt, pepper, and a trio of different hot sauces at my counter spot, as does every guest at Captain Tom’s. I enjoyed the fried catfish, stuffed crab and shrimp. The fried oyster tasted like hot snot, however; no amount of hot sauce could remedy that..
The fun part of the meal was watching all the people commiserating around the bar. Maybe it’s the location by freeway, but Captain Tom’s seems to attract a diverse crowd of Houstonians. There are families, blue-collar workers, business types and folks just looking for lunch in the tightly packed dining room. It’s is often a come-and-go-affair, but Captain Tom’s really feels like a busy port town.
I left Captain Tom’s with a feeling that I should go back at some point and try other parts of their menu, including the hush puppies, frog legs and stuffed jalapenos. And I also left with a feeling that more restaurants should be like Captain Tom’s. I’m not saying we should have more boat-themed restaurants, although why the heck not, but really I just want a place to drop anchor until the winds are blowing in the right direction.