Phillips Seafood House North

It's more of a tradition to visit the original restaurant than visiting for the food. The food is ok unless you get crab (which is good). The coleslaw and potato salad is good. The shrimp is the same that comes out of the freezer case in a supermarket (skip it). They seem to get more and more expensive each year. Definitely visit if you've never been, just get crab.

I see the Phillips's defenders are out in force on Yelp so buyer beware. The truth of this review shall set ye free....to better establishments for your seafare.

First, I will say I have long loved Phillips. This was the second straight time where the food and experience was worse than the time before. Needless to say, I am not sure if I will return. And of note, it seemed to go downhill when they went commercial and were showing up in the seafood section of my grocery store.

So the review. First, the salt. If you run a restaurant, make sure the salt comes out of the salt shaker. It didn't come out of ours. So we grabbed a shaker from the table next to us. Salt again didn't come out. Always a bad sign.

Now on to the actual buffet. Secondly, the crab imperial...while tasty, was full of crab shells. A sign of a pathetic lack of attention to one of the most important dishes they serve.

Third, it would've been nice if the salad bar portion of the buffet had...oh I don't know? Salad!?!?

Fourth....the king crab legs..the Phillips signature! I didn't think they could screw that up. But they impressed yet again. The crab legs were clearly over steamed. I could bend the crab legs as easy as I could break them. Unbelievably pathetic.

Fifth, the shrimp. Seasoned perfectly, again they were cooked a little too long making them too chewy.

Sixth, the mac'n'cheese and fries for my son kind of tasted like they were supposed to....but not really.

Two good things...the fresh cut meat station featured well prepared and well cut meat. The dessert options were also very good.

It is a sad state of affairs when I can buy better Phillips crab cakes in the frozen section of my grocery store than fresh at one of their signature restaurants.

I am not one to dish out poor reviews, but this one was deserved. Maybe one day I will return to give them another shot. But I need plenty of time to forget this experience first.

The staff was fantastic with a happy attitude considering the amount of customers that they are balancing.  The food was mediocre for being right on the coastline.  I had the crab-cake style stuffed fried shrimp and my girlfriend had the friend shrimp.  The stuffed shrimp had crab meat that really wasn't all that great at all.  The fried shrimp was okay but the coleslaw was terrible.  The french fries were okay.  The atmosphere and the wooden tables was pretty nice where the booths were. I recommend trying to get a booth because they are the best table for privacy.  I'm going with 3 stars on this one.