Axelsson's Blue Claw Restaurant

We ended up at the Blue Claw after Marie Nicole's screwed up our dinner reservation, and it ended up being a total win for us! Service is super friendly and the food is a yummy seafood based menu (never would have guessed from the name, right?). There's also some meat-based items, but really? Go there for the seafood. It's fresh and well prepared. It's a fairly large space and we were able to get a reservation on Saturday night for 7pm without trouble, which was great since we had other plans in mind.

The place is cute inside, albeit a bit dated, with great views of a marina - lots of big boats to look at and dream about owning one day. They have a fireplace that looks so cozy and automatically made me think of coming back in the winter to sit there and have dinner.

Enjoyed a Wisconsin Cheddar and lump crab meat soup as an appetizer - huge pieces of lump crab which is always a nice find. Ordered a potato-crusted grouper as my entree, which was nice and a good sized portion. I'm not a huge fish eater, so "nice" is probably near the top of the descriptive words I'd use for fish. The lobster tail was a good size and yummy. Wine list is ridiculously underpriced, which is a nice treat from NY. Lots of whites in the $20-range and a lot of reds that were not that much more expensive.

The restaurant is quiet and there is a lot of room. The crowd is mixed - saw a lot of older people when we walked in and thought they might be there for the early bird special, but looked around and saw a pretty mixed crowd of all ages. Good for kids if yours will eat seafood - not sure if they have a kids menu available or not. Give it a try! We'll be back for sure.

Wow, REALLY surprised to see some of these negative reviews. One person said it seemed "snooty". Usually if you think its "snooty", then you don't belong there anyway, and I'm sure you can find an Ruby Tuesdays somewhere close by.

Anyway, I will agree with some people and say that the menu is somewhat limited but given the area that this place is in, namely a toilet bowl, I'm not surprised. You're not going to find places around the beach with a great executive chef - be happy you got this place.

I also agree that we were made to sit at the bar (did not have reservations) and there were literally like 20 empty tables while we were waiting, while we were eating and while we left so - WHAT THE FUCK???? I'm TOTALLY convinced it was a ploy to get us to buy a few drinks while we "waited for a table".

The food. 2 of us had the seafood alfredo, which has been the best I've ever had so far. I also had some raw clams that were pretty tasty. I will say that your bread basket almost got thrown to the seagulls, as it was just toe-jam nasty.

Given this place is around WW, its not really that bad. If you want something a little more sophisticated than sitting at a picnic table or getting bar food then give this place a try.

On one last note - and this is for the Blue Claw. I will be back, but if you try that "there's a wait" BULLSHIT when there's 10 or more tables open, you'll promptly be told to go fuck yourself and you can kiss my ass as it heads out the door and right to the Crab House.

3 stars for your lame attempt at milking people for beer money. Based on the food and service, I would have given 4.

This place was great many years ago.  The menu got boring and the quality declined. We decided to give it one last try with past fond memories with family. That was a mistake. Began with being being told we couldn't get a reservation at 7:00 but 7:15. When we got there there were only 2 tables occupied. We were welcomed to a ramshackle and damaged desk not a good start for a pretty nice place. The service was slow and not interested. When we asked about Gluten free the reply was "yes we have a list ".  Well instead of something like Gluten free bread or substitute gluten free pasta or even brown rice. No the list was shrimp, clams and some veggies  it didn't help. We ordered the copper pot. Filled with past prime soggy fish. The red sauce was nothing more than chopped tomatoes and peppers in an unappetizing and bad tasting condiment. The kabobs were not grilled but soggy and 2 days old.
The worst part there wre 3 young boys playing on the dock with no supervision. We thought one fell in. The host just shrugged it off. I was told one had fell off the day before and diners were horrified. When asked how our food was we answered honestly. The waitress said
She would tell the chef but only came back with our bill. There was another large party leaving who complained and got the
Meal taken off and free coffee and dessert. They told us they would not b coming back ever. They said the father "previous owner" had died and it went down hill since. Save your money and your tummy the trouble and find somewhere else. Hope this helps