Matt N.
Yelp
After craving seafood, my girlfriend recommended Ike's. I had my doubts because the OC boardwalk has a reputation for mediocre food and I really was looking for something to knock my hunger pains out of the park. After a pleasant surprise, I left Ike's in an elated mood due to the absolute experience our dinner was. I ordered the Neptune's Feast: cajun-grilled grouper filet, 3 jumbo shrimp, and a 4 oz. crabcake, and my girlfriend ordered the Dirty Bird sandwich: fried chicken, slaw, hot honey, and pickles. When the food arrived, it came with a very, very healthy serving of their signature butterfly chips along with 4 house-made sauces.
I tried the crabcake first. By itself it was not exactly spectacular, but it had a nice crab flavor and great texture. When paired with the sweet roasted red pepper sauce, the crabcake was purely delicious. I then had one of the jumbo shrimp along with the sun dried tomato tartar. The spices of the cajun seasoning worked perfectly with the slight bitterness of the tartar. I tried the grouper alone, and it came out amazingly. As a white fish, it was light, but also not very fishy. The grouper was perfectly seasoned and almost slightly creamy, giving it the perfect texture.
After trying the variety of seafood (along with the sauces), I was extremely satisfied. But the real show stopper was the one bite I had of grouper, shrimp, and crabcake mixed along with a dabble of the two sauces. I think that right there was one of my best bites, not just in OCNJ!
The chips also came out well, although a little salty for me, they were very unique and tasty.
My girlfriend also left Ike's with a smile on her face (she is easy to please pallet wise though) and I can't wait to make Ike's a future staple of our OC vacations!