J S.
Yelp
3 STARS: (2 for the food, 1 for byob)
A seafood restaurant attached to a seafood market sounds like a great idea. Like eating fish on an island of fisherman. Surely they know the best way to serve it?
Apparently not.
Although the interior is relatively attractive, with a not terribly over-the-top nautical theme, the food at Captain Marden's is like a time warp back to the 1970's. Whether fried, baked or sautéed, it was uniformly flavorless and over-cooked. Totally uninspired, tiny crab cakes. Mealy garlic & herb shrimp, lacked any of the promised flavors. A daily special of swordfish steak, apparently cooked in margarine. National Park cafeteria French fries, coleslaw and steamed vegetables. Complementary cornbread was fine.
The worst thing we had was Captain Roy's mussels (steamed PEI's, garlic-wine-caper sauce, garlic bread), the flavor of which was completely unappealing and the mussels decidedly on the fishy side.
The best thing we tried were the little fried pollack nuggets, served with tartar sauce, which had an appealing crispiness.
Captain Marden's one redeeming feature is that BYOB is totally legal, a rarity in MA. Unfortunately, our two wines didn't perform all that well either!
Service is good, prices are cheap (~$25 counting tip/pp for dinner with no dessert), and you have a fair-to-middling chance of finding a parking space in the lot out front. But be ready to wait for a table (no reservations) since it appears to be very popular with fans of the 1970s.