clark's fish camp

very disappointing meal and terrible service.. i honestly don't understand the appeal of this place. thefoodwas just terrible and the service even worse. it may be that all the dead annimals on the walls give it a feel if some swamp disneyland. whatever it is, that was my last trip to this place.

satisfying past-disappointed now. my family went to clark's for my husbands birthday dinner. arrived early so it wasn't very crowded. my husband and i have been many times in the past and have enjoyed looking at the different animals. when my son was young, he was in awe at all the exotic animals. at 18, he was less than enthused to see "stuffed" animals staring at us from every direction. he said it made him feel guilty for eating there. i was looking forward to having broiled scallops but was told by the waitress that because i was ordering the scallop "basket", it had to come fried. that was disappointing that the cook wouldn't throw them under the broiler. my efforts to eat healthier went out the window when that big plastic basket of friedfoodarrived. my husband ordered the jamaican jerk shrimp skewers. they forgot his fries. he thought being a jerk recipe, it would be a rub perhaps allowed to marinate before grilling, instead it was just a jamaican spice sprinkled on the mere 10 medium sized shrimp. needless to say, he ended up eating some of my son'sfoodas well as mine. my son had breaded chicken planks that were way overcooked. some parts were inedible because he just couldn't chew them, they were so tough. the waitress was nice enough but we waited way too long to receive our check. there was only one table of about 8 people next to us and by the time we left about 5 other tables filled up, mainly couples. not enough reason to keep us waiting for so long. as far out and remote as this place is, i think we'll choose a closer resturant with better quality food. by the way, she told us the "cook" was the one who brought out my husband's fries. he must've been 19 yrs old, if that. guess he had a problem with broiling scallops if you ordered them in a basket instead of a platter. i chose to go with the basket because i knew the platter would be way too much food, so, my bad (and it was). next time if we're going to drive out of our way, we'll head to trent's on the westside.

great food. if you want a great meal at a fantastic place, check out this restaurant. there is something for everyone. i love to check out local places when i visit a new place.i'm very picky when it comes to restaurants and food. i can honestly say that thefoodis great, terrific service and beautiful decor with the taxidermy specimens. if you miss clark's while you are in jacksonville, you will regret it. whoever is saying they had bad service and poorfoodmust have gone somewhere else , maybe long john silvers?

been going to clark's for years. they used to have some of the bestfoodaround. sadly that is no longer so. on my last visit, the creamed peas tasted like corn starch, the greasy spoon quality of the rest of the meal (steak baked potato and mystery veg ) was disappointing. my taste buds cried for the formerly great cuisine. regards to the the girl at the front counter, who,  was rude beyond belief. the table service was awful. 

oh! how the mighty have fallen...

smells like dead animals. almost ruined the meal for me. kids loved the animals but thefoodhas been hit or miss. overall pretty good though.

bland, flavorless, underseasoned and overpriced. did i mention bland?. this place used to be a lot better, now it's basically just an over-hyped, overpriced tourist attraction.

my latest meal there will most likely be my last. the overly-thick, wallpaper paste-like and bland crab soup appetizer (brought to me without a spoon, which i then had to wait another 10 minutes for) turned out to be an ominous portent of the disappointment to come. my first attempt at an "entree" was the #10 stuffed flounder, with buttered shrimp and scallops. while everything was cooked to the proper texture, at least, it was otherwise almost completely unseasoned and bland aside from the melted butter, which was pretty much the only "flavor profile" that dish had to give. the cream peas were also pasty and overly-thick, but the garlic red-skinned mashed potatoes were actually quite tasty. i kind of wish i had just ordered a big bowl of those and called it a night.

i was so disappointed with the soul-killing blandness of the flounder that i sent it back and ordered the seafood pasta instead. while marginally better, the cream sauce was - again, too thick and the dish was, you guessed it, very bland overall, but by this point, the rest of my party had already finished their meals, so i just went with it, ate about half of it and drowned my disappointment with some captain morgan.

i tasted some of my party's other offerings, fried shrimp and oysters were properly-cooked, but were... yep... bland and woefully under-seasoned. picking up on a theme, here?

this place is set up to turn as many covers as possible in a busy saturday night, and it shows in their lackluster, flavorless and vastly overpriced food. i won't even get into the parking on a prime-time evening other than to say it's an absolute nightmare that you could live with if thefoodat least lived up to the billing, but becomes just another huge annoyance when thefooddisappoints this badly.

first time is also the last. i've heard of how interesting the restaurant was, with the numerous taxidermy animals and such. i went with some friends of mine, and while myfoodwas good, the attitude from the waiter and the "manager" was utterly sub-par. prime rib, even medium (since they could not provide medium rare as requested) should not be dry and grainy. waiter excused that as being cooked less than other restaurants' medium, but this was dry in the sense of well-done. so-called manager essentially called a party member a liar and claimed that he had consumed 2/3 of the meal, whereas that was not the case (and was evidenced with a photo from before we started eating after the plate was brought back out to the "manager's" displeasure). a free meal wasn't demanded, just what he had ordered. "manager" refused to state his name, in addition to making disparaging remarks as he walked away.

while this was my first time going to the restaurant, it was also my last. if the owners keep those kinds of managers employed, they do not deserve my return business. essentially the attitude was "we serve plenty of people, we don't care about you", and that's uncalled for. my meal was quite delicious and satisfying, the terrible service from "steve" (as told from "josh" the bartender) will keep me from returning.

some of the nastiestfoodin the first coast.. first let me preface this by saying i love seafood. it is my favorite type of food, hands down. i am also not a spring chicken. not elderly in the least, but i say all this to say that i've had my share of good, bad and mediocre seafood in my lifetime. my husband and i had been looking for a good seafood spot and he has a pal that said clark's fish camp was good. we should have asked about the last time this friend had been there, because come to find out much later, it had been years ago.

my husband orders ourfoodand brings home carry-out. when i tell you i opened the box and wanted to scream, i mean that emphatically. the strong odor of decayed fish hit my nostrils and singed my nose hairs until they burnt to a crisp and fell upon the open container like sprinkled pepper (that was probably an improvement to the meal). the seafood platter looked like something that had been sitting out in the blazing sun for three days and three nights. the soft shell crab was deflated like some dark orange balloon at a party that had been had about a week previous. now how the heck can an animal with a hard shell look soft and deflated? well, clark's fish camp managed to pull it off! now, let' get to the bake potato...

that thing was black as tar, skinny as a cigarette and old as the book of genesis. i could not believe my eyes. it was money down the drain. the shrimp were not de-veined, notta one of them, and they too looked to be part of some seafood contest to see how many times they could be re-deep fried before someone called uncle. that mess went promptly in my trashcan. my trashcan hollered out to me that it didn't deserve that sort of abuse, and would protest. i felt sorry for the receptacle, removed the items and took them out the garage where they would not smell up my house as badly.

all jokes aside (though i'm serious) my husband said the place stunk, was filthy and he is surprised the health department hadn't closed it down. clark's fish camp should be renamed clark's fail den, because this was a big fail, a stinky fail, an over-priced mess fail, an oldfoodserved all day every day fail, a listen to these reviews because they are true fail. get it together, clark! band camp is cooler than you! (((cuing trumpet funeral music)))

good seafood. great place to eat. it's a bit eccentric with all the taxidermy however thefoodwas great. i tried a few different dishes such as the gator which was very good. i also tried antelope, kangaroo, and shark. overall it was a good place to eat.

fun for kids. ok, the service was iffy and we definitely didn't receive the "bottomless basket of hush puppies" thefoodcritic seemed to partake in but the kids loved all the things to look at and we had fun with weirdfooditems. yes it's all fried and greasy but the shtick is what it is.

let down!. what we ordered:
appetizer: charred snake (python) - it was like chewy gator tail, had no flavor other than the soy sauce mixture that we put on top of it. over priced for the portion we were served, considering there is an overabundace of these snakes in south florida.
- note: they did not have any exotic game meat. we wanted kangaroo..

meal 1: jumbo shrimp (caribbean style) - if you have ever had barbecued or blackened skewered shrimp, you've had this dish.. $15 worth of nothing special. my side ceasar salad was similar to what you would get at a ruby tuesdays; iceberg lettuce, croutons, and ceasar sauce. my other side, yellow rice, was so greasy that i was glowing by the finish.

meal 2: stuffed flounder (with crab) - did they really use artificial crab?! i think they did. it looked nice, tasted nice, but really? fake crab? not cool, especially for a seafood restaurant.

drinks: we didn't get any after hearing a customer complain about an $18 margarita (obvious exaggeration but it scarred me since the prices aren't displayed on the menu)

service: our server was just pushing us through. he took no time to talk to us, and was moving so fast that i could hardly ask any questions.

atmosphere: cool, lots of taxidermy. dissapointing since none of the animals on the wall were available on the menu.. cool location and feel though.

would i go back? no. would i recommend anyone to go? yes, it's one of those places you have to go to once, i would just recommend to not get your hopes high, and call ahead to make sure they have wild game available.

i would never go back though. thefoodwas average and overpriced. do yourself a favor, go grab a bag of frozen shrimp, smother them in old bays, dump them on the grill, and enjoy. don't waste your money on atmosphere.

don't take your peta friends. walked into the restaurant and i was immediately hit with what smelled like 3 day old a$$. it might be the aligator tank. i don't know. taxidermy everywhere that could use a periodic dusting. have eaten here 3 times. everytime thefoodis cold by the time it gets to the table. it could be because the justin beeber looking kid that delivered the tray to our table (group of 12-15) brought a tray for another table and it takes awhile to figure out where thefoodgoes. all the friedfoodtastes the same. maybe change the grease. serves pepsi instead of coke. must be run by communists. get coke! i think i would have enjoyed my scallops more if they had been stuffed and mounted as part of the decor.

bad, very bad imho. you know it's bad when ... you have to file a complaint with the florida division of hotels and restaurants. i have been a fan of clark's for many years, but now i feel very different. i made three attempts to resolve the bad experience i had saturday with no results from clark's. i did not feel comfortable causing a scene with business guests (yes i would consider having my meat weighed as proof and then being replaced due to poor quality to be causing a scene, which i refused to do) so i quietly brought thefoodhome in a box and promptly emailed clark's the following day, and i emailed again the day after that. two emails were not returned, and a call to a 'manager' today did nothing to address my concerns over prime rib of beef inedibly tough inside and dried beyond beef jerky on the outside of an end cut. i did not request an end cut, and a medium rare rib roast should not be so tough that a serrated knife won't go through it without brute force. i think a chainsaw would have been more appropriate. worse still, noticing that the beef seemed about the size of some steaks i have cooked, i brought it home and weighed it on my kitchen scale at an estimated 25 ounces, not the 56 ounces (3.5 lbs) declared on the menu. now, i may be off by a few ounces, but 25 ounces is a long way from 56 ounces. according to the menu, "think you are a big eater, try the jack's cut prime rib which weigh's [sic] in at a hefty 3.5 pounds of bone in prime rib of beef. and no, it's not free if you finish it." i paid $29.95 plus tax and tip for what probably was the worst piece of meat i ever have tried (and failed) to eat, and i estimate it to have been around 25 ounces not 56. not good in my opinion. the menu also says, "our appetizers are huge, gargantuan, and filling. some people think they are a meal in themselves." i don't consider the 7 small nuggets of fried alligator we got "gargantuan" or even close to it. the $9.95 price and the statement on the menu just don't match up with 7 small nuggets in my opinion. to make matters worse, instead of adjusting the bill or making any sort of gesture of good will, the manager told me on the phone today that there was nothing he could do. he wasn't even apologetic in my opinion, just sort of arrogant and condescending i think. the problems with the beef rib, the statements on the menu vs. what we actually got, and then speaking to this unhelpful 'manager' mean that i will never, ever go back again. i gave them three opportunities to make some sort of gesture of good will or attempt to make the situation right, and they refused to do anything. hope you don't have the same experience. where's the beef?

great decor greatfoodcrappy service

i was having some boat issues on the st. john's river one day and my gf went inside to get help after we arrived on the clark's dock (our phones were dead).the owner gave us great helps and even a ride to where we needed to go and even followed us back .....i've also been eating here for years for affairs and the atmosphere andfoodis great. will definetly continue to be a customer here and is owned by very nice people. ....