Introduction

T-J’s Seafood Shack is one of the three seafood places in Oviedo that only serve that genre of food. Though it has been in area since 2008, I still found interest in reviewing it, as my love for good seafood had me drifting to the restaurant’s website.

I tried four different food platters, each of which I rated on a scale of one to 10. I will also share my opinion on the price and atmosphere.

Overview of restaurant

This restaurant has a comfortable vibe to it, and I would say that it is cozier than some of the other restaurants in the area. The walls are decorated with fishing gear, making the environment both casual and outdoors-y.

The service was quick and friendly. Though the wait was a little longer than expected, the food came out hot and fresh.

Menu items

Salmon BLT tacos–5/10

This dish, with salmon at its center, doused with dill sauce and peppered with bacon, lettuce and tomato, caught my attention as soon as I saw it on the menu. As someone who loves BLT sandwiches, I enjoyed the texture of the bacon and vegetables. Yet, what surprised me was the lack of everything—except the sauce.

The dill sauce, which had a nice bitter taste, coated the entire taco. It definitely took away from the experience, and I found myself unable to fully enjoy the dish. Maybe if the salmon had been cooked longer and the lettuce was more present to balance out the other textures, it would’ve been more enjoyable.

Fried shrimp order with beans and rice–8/10

Fried shrimp is a classic for me when it comes to seafood restaurants, and T-Jay’s take on the dish was very tasty. The ratio of shrimp to fried skin was around two to one, making the shrimp less heavy than most.

The beans and rice were strongly recommended, so I ordered it as one of my side items. The consistency was amazing, and the only thing I would have changed about the item was the cilantro sauce. It added too much bitterness to the dish that overpowered the taste of the beans and rice.

Gator bites with swamp sauce–3/10

This famous appetizer had me intrigued, as I have never tried gator before. What I found was not what I expected.

Each bite was small and hard to chew. The meat itself had no true flavor, but the outside fried crust had an decent salty flavor.

The swamp sauce was the best part of the dish. Though it had a little bit of kick to it, the sauce complimented the gator bites and had me eating more of them. It is a really great sauce and I would definitely eat it on another platter in the future.

Mahi mahi smoked dip with saltine crackers– 7/10

The actual dip itself had a great smoky flavor. It was very light and tasted like a crab dip in many ways, one being that it has a very solid flavoring. It is hard to stop eating at first.

The saltine crackers provided are flavorless—no salt or any other seasoning—which I usually would not have liked, but they actually went with the dip very well. It let the mahi taste shine through.

Peanut butter pie– 8/10

The peanut butter pie was very solid and worth eating. I have found in the past that this type of pie is very heavy and hard to eat a lot of, but this dish was surprisingly light.

The peanut butter flavor felt very sweet, and though I would have preferred more of a saltier taste, it went well with the thin layer of chocolate crust.

Price and value

The average price per dish was $12, and I would say that it is generally fair. The service was quick and efficient, and provided high quality dishes.

In terms of portion size, I would say that they were decent for the money spent, though none of the platters I got were large enough to be able to share with my family if ordered as a main dish.

Overall impression

T-J’s Seafood Shack is a solid restaurant to order from if you’re ever in the mood for seafood. It stays true to the normal selection of dishes in the genre, and besides the gator bites, there was nothing unique to the actual restaurant itself.

I will definitely go again, and definitely recommend it.

7.5/10.