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In case anyone hasn’t noticed on my travel blog, I love seafood … specifically, the fish and chips (also called FnC) variety. Working in Atlantic Canada has allowed me to seriously overindulge in my fried food affair, much to the detriment of my gut. My coworkers in Moncton all told me that I should head over to Cap Pelee for some serious fried seafood. I was excited since my last FnC tour was through Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and that was pretty awesome. I’m sad to say that driving 40 minutes to Cap Pelee for fried seafood was an epic disappointment.
Chez Camille
The first time I tried to head over to Seafood Paradise, I was thwarted by a broken fryer. I was actually amazed that a restaurant that fries seafood could only have one frying rig … but that’s another story. Of course, I asked the staff about another location where I could harden my arteries and they recommended Chez Camille. I was a little annoyed, especially since we got lost on the way driving to Seafood Paradise … thankfully Chez Camille was just 2 minutes away. It’s s a little fast food diner just off the main road with an seafood extensive menu. Like any dive, there isn’t great ambiance or service because you pick up the food at the counter and eat in bench stalls.
If you take a look through that menu … the only thing that I would order would be the Fisherman’s Platter. It’s a monstrous heaping helping of fried dietary destruction. It comes with the following :
– Fried Clams
– Fried Scallops
– Fried Haddock
– Fried Shrimp
– 1/2 lb of Lobster
– Bucket of Fries along with a leaf of lettuce and slice of tomato!?!?!
Overall impression was that it was definitely a lot of food for the money, but the overall taste was just slightly better than average. I felt like I could make this stuff at home, if I had their equipment.
Seafood Paradise #1
My first visit was a failure as mentioned due to a busted fryer!
Seafood Paradise #2
My second visit to Seafood Paradise Cap Pele was successful in that I was able to order and actually get some food.
Of course, I ended up ordering Fisherman’s Platter. It was another heaping pile of fried food. That being said, the only thing great about the meal was the view. The fries were just terrible, in fact they tasted like bland stale, double cooked crap. The fish was devoid of any flavour, in fact the batter was actually better than the fish. I asked for more clams rather than lobster and they put three more fried clams. This was a mistake, since I bit into two fried clams and actually got grit and sand, telling me that it wasn’t washed properly before dumping into the fryer. The shrimp was average at best. Both meals were equally as terrible …
The patio upstairs and the view were all very nice and this would be a nice place to come for a couple beers and chat …
Overall impression was that you can get a lot more for your money in any other place. This place is overpriced for the service and the food that you get. They’re obviously very successful because they have a great location and have many tour buses come here … but I would recommend that you go for a beer on the patio and avoid the food. I’m being a bit harsh, since the teenage girls who were behind the counter along with the fry cook could have been having a bad day and I could have had a bad batch of fried stuff … but at their price point, I wouldn’t bother going back.
