Cabby Shack
This place is just so much fun. When you walk up, there's big palm trees. Then the chairs and tables are all multi-colored. The view is absolutely amazing. There's a fish tank, lobster traps, and my favorite feature: three bars in one restaurant.
My pal Babby Briney is the owner of Cabby Shack. But the day-to-day captain of this ship is chef Rob Bono.
“Cabby Shack is fresh seafood. We're right on the water, so pretty much what we get for seafood is coming right out of here. So we try to stay real local, stay fresh, New England fare, eclectic, a lot of sauteed dishes, a lot of fried items. And our pan pizzas are to die for. Great views, great drinks, great bands. You just can't go wrong.”
The best appetizer on the menu here may be the stuffed quahog. Let me warn you: do not call it a stuffy. The chef hates that. It's got clams, garlic, onions, and peppers. I love the way being close to New Bedford gives you that Portuguese influence in the food.
All clam chowder in New England is somehow award-winning, but this clam chowder really does deserve an award. It is really thick, jammed with potatoes and clams. They serve this in a cup or a bowl, but if you're like me, you get it in the bread bowl. I love an edible bowl, and it makes sure you don't miss one little bit of this delicious clam chowder.
That's amazing clam chowder.
The only thing better than a seafood tower is a seafood boat, especially when you have a view of the ocean. This one features a whole lobster, big crab legs, gigantic shrimp, a dozen oysters, a dozen little necks, and tuna poke, plus four dipping sauces.
“Coming out of the kitchen, we get the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’. It's very grand. One of our better sellers hit the restaurant, and you're getting a lot of different flavors, from your raw oysters to a wasabi aioli with your tuna poke. The food is straight out of our oceans. We're going through hundreds of pounds of fish a day, so you're always going to get fresh fish. You're always going to get fresh seafood.”
This is the kind of place where you're going to want a drink in one hand and something to eat in the other, so the sandwiches may be a good option.
The chef takes a lot of pride in the crab cake sandwich, those big delicious crab cakes, Cajun slaw, and remoulade all on a Bulkie roll.
For lobster rolls, they offer both hot and cold. I usually get the cold because I like to hang out outside here in the sunshine. It's a lot of lobster, a little bit of celery and mayo served on the toasted hot dog roll.
“Sitting and eating the lobster and sitting over the water and listening to some music, it's just priceless.”
The South Shore is known for two foods: the South Shore bar pie and seafood. The clam baked pizza combines those two things in a genius fashion.
“I was just messing around one day and I just threw chowder on a pizza. Clam bake pizza is the deliciousness of our chowder on our bar pizza with some cheddar cheese. And then it's baked, a little bit of applewood bacon. That is for the chowder lovers, the bacon lovers. It is delicious.”
Both the tourists and the locals love the Captain's Platter. It is a massive platter of fried seafood, including fish, fried clams, scallops, and shrimp. It has both onion rings and French fries.
These are massive hand-breaded onion rings, and they're almost like mutant onions to make them this big. And they are delicious.
South Shore food meets southern cuisine in the lobster jambalaya. Chef just added this to the menu. It's got an entire lobster, plus mussels, clams, shrimp, and linguiça all over a big bed of rice.
“Going to get the strongest flavors from the linguiça. And then it's going to be kind of folded in with all of our local seafood. So you get some light flavors from the little necks and the sweetness of the lobster that’s to die for.”
This is definitely the kind of place where you're going to want to have a couple of drinks, and they do all kinds of fun cocktails and all kinds of fun different glasses. It would be physically impossible to have this on your table and not have a good time.
“It's the fun atmosphere. It's the great service. It's the diverse menu. It's so many things you just can't go wrong. Going to Cabby Shack.”
Fresh seafood and great cocktails with an ocean view. That's for me. I hope it's for you.
Check out the Cabby Shack in Plymouth.
