Castnet Seafood

I absolutely love this place! What a gem in an area with no quality food at all! Castnet has been run by the same owners for a very long time and the food is consistently great quality and always really good! Their boiled crawfish are my personal favorite… and let me tell you, I’ve had crawfish at almost every place in New Orleans… this place does it right! There is almost always a line, so when you go in, grab a number and wait for them to call your number. While waiting, have your order ready so that you can order as fast as possible and keep the line moving. Your food will be called by number and when you get it, it’s always hot and delicious! I’ve had their fried plates, bought fresh seafood, their boiled shrimp are great too. Everything is good, you won’t be disappointed!

When you get there, tell them that Dwight sent you. … best/​fresh seafood to sit down or go home with!
Family runs it and rebuilt after Katrina.
Who Dat

What made me fall in love with New Orleans. Met a girl out of town in school and this is the 1^st place she took me. Creole, beautiful girl. The place is still to this day has the best poboys and broiled seafood and I’ve been all over. This place is the machine. Can’t give it enough props!

Absolutely delicious!!! Loved the boiled crawfish and the fried shrimp! Definitely recommend this place. Super friendly staff and patrons.

My husband is from New Orleans and I fell in love on the first visit. I have not had anythng cooked but the fresh fish and shrimp are the best you will find. It’s out the water, and then to my plate! We buy the trout, crab and shrimp. It is chaotic but if you grab a number when you walk in you’ll get personalized service faster. Besides, the chaos is what makes it New Orleans.. . and that’s a good thing.

Well if you want to eat good food then you have to go where the locals eat outside of the tourist traps. I was lucky enough to have a good friend who was raised in Nola take me to where they eat. If you are big on décor and atmosphere this is not the place for you. However, if you are big on taste and fresh quality then head on over here. One side is where you can order food prepared to go and the other side is where you order fresh seafood to take home to cook. Both sides were packed.
Let’s get to the good part– I ordered a poy boy half shrimp and oysters. Fully dressed and toasted. Yeah I am not a rookie with the ordering of poy boys. It was well worth the trip and then some. Halfway through I said let me try the soft shell crab. I never eaten one so I wanted to try it. I ordered one separately and it was amazing yes amazing. Just writing this makes me want to get one but I am long gone from there. It was nice and hot seasoned well and fresh. If you want to experience good food while in Nola take a trip to this establishment. It’s well worth the trip and experience

If I’m rating this restaurant from a sheer dining experience, it was subpar at best. The order process is absolutely chaotic. Patrons are bottle necked into a tiny area right next to the kitchen. It was hard to decipher the people who had paid, and the ones waiting to order. The dining area was small and outdated. If you are looking for fine dining, this is not the place for you.
Having said that, given the chaotic atmosphere, they run a very tight operation. Everyone working was very attentive and helpful. No one seems to be slacking in the place. They accommodated a very large group during lunch time.
I had heard people rave about the seafood here, but I’m allergic to shellfish, so I couldn’t taste the crab or shrimp. The fried fish was decent. The cheeseburger po boy was not that great honestly. The patties were thin and dry, and the bread was a little tough.
Would I come back? Maybe if I was in the area. I wouldn’t drive out of the city again to do so, when there are dozens of great seafood restaurants to go to with food just as good and a much better atmosphere.
Dining Experience 2*
Service 4*
Food 3*
Price 5*

I come here all the time but never reviewed it before for some reason. Their boiled seafood (I’ve had the shrimp, crawfish and snow crabs) are delicious. They are seasoned perfectly. Extra shoutout to the snow crabs be they are expensive but so worth it. You get a whole lot of shrimp on the fried shrimp plate. The poboys are fantastic as well. They have wonderful fresh seafood at a fantastic rate as well. The only down, I only, is their macaroni. It’s horrible but everything else makes up that.

What at one time was one of my favorite seafood spots is no more. My family had been going here for more than 20 years and in that time have had excellent food. As the neighborhood has changed so has the service to the point where you are treated as a criminal before you hit the door. Like I said 20 years I have been coming here and I go to relatively the same cashiers all the time and all I hear is «can I see some ID». What a joke! Well this time I had enough, asked for my card back and left my order sitting there. This place treats its customers the same way places did in the 60’s when you had to order from an outside window, I guess that goes with the program when most of your customers are of the same color. Will never spend my money here again.

The shrimp sandwich was good but severely over priced!!! Small ass sandwich for 6 bucks.

Castnet has the best food & a great staff!
From their poboys, shrimp, & most especially their crawfish you can never go wrong with the food they serve. Everything is AWESOME! In addition to the taste their menu is perfectly priced. You can’t go wrong with anything in their menu. If you have any questions… just ask the employees are so nice & helpful and are always willing to answer any questions or help.
We’ve been to New Orleans several times & Castnet is always a must at least several times each visit to New Orleans.

Neat little seafood, sandwich shop. Very busy. Freshly made so order so a bit of a wait. Call your order in if you are in a hurry. Super nice staff!!! Really enjoyed this place.

For a first time customer it is confusing knowing where to order, thus we ended up in the dine-​in area, not the order area. Alas, a very helpful lady (I really, really, wish I had her name) tracked us down and explained the process. (Right hand door in the front to order your dine-​in meal regardless of steamed, fried, or poboy). I ordered a pound of crawfish and our very helpful lady even gave me the crawfish 101 lesson (yeah I’m Southern, but not from around here) A local fireman was amused saying «…he never met no one who didn’t know how to eat crickets». Anyway, the crawfish were wonderful. Several others had Poboys who commented how they could not finish them because they were so large (and good!). One had the BBQ sandwich and again said it was good.
We arrived at a good time, it was crowded just after we arrived.
Would I go back”? You bet!
Why not 5-​stars? It was very good, I just don’t give too many 5-​stars.
Enjoy!

Love this place! Got off early from work and drove all the way to New Orleans East. The crawfish is phenomenal. Always hot and perfectly spiced. While there I purchased a pound of fresh large shrimps and redfish fillets to cook tomorrow. Since I was in full in gluttony mode, I also got a shrimp and oyster platter. The platter was amazing! I can go in for days about how much I love this place. It’s always packed but it’s for a reason. The staff is friendly and service is always quick. Remember the left side is broiled seafood and the right side is fried. Parking can be a pain despite the large availability of parking. I personally prefer potato salad with my platters. They also offer sodas and beer. They have a restaurant next door if you would like to sit in.

Oh, my goodness, am I ever going back here! I went here last Saturday and had the best fried softshell crab po-​boy ever. Ever. I tried to convince the other member of my party to also split a dozen raw oysters but ½ that po-​boy each was really filling. The crab was so good and meaty.
Anyway, I mention oysters because there was a sign advertising that you could get a dozen raw and a soda for $ 10, which seems like a pretty good deal to me. I want to come back for that because I love oysters.
This is way out on Hayne Blvd. and the set-​up is different but it is totally worth checking out. there are two entrances, one for buying raw seafood to bring home and cook, and one for the prepared, fried stuff. You place your order, then go to this separate dining room where they bring your food to you. They were busy and we were given a 15 minute estimate on our po-​boy (not unreasonable for a fried crab) but it came much sooner than that. All the employees were nice and a gentleman who I presume was the owner/​manager was kind enough to check on us.
In short, if you are a seafood fanatic, this is a must.

Their fried shrimp is by far the best I’ve ever had. The portion was HUGE and the price was low. This place is a jewel that is tucked away from the beaten path of NOLA.

I found this place via Unilocal and visited today for the first time at 2pm. By the large amount of cars, you’d think it was prime noon lunch hour so we figured we’d made a good choice.
We intended to get seafood which I believe you pick out yourself, but instead ordered the BBQ ribs as they were running low and came confidently suggested by the staff.
The meal was excellent and filling, the atmosphere laid back and slow in a good way. Small business friendly (cash only), and inviting staff. I recommend this restaurant to anyone who’s looking to experience a great representation of Louisiana hospitality and eats

The oyster po-​boy was pretty good for a Saturday afternoon after getting stood up by a customer that wanted an estimate. They must keep this location hidden in the neighborhood because it was packed shoulder to shoulder and I was the only white guy in there. (As you can see in the photos). I took a flick of the po-​boy and the restaurant so you can see wysiwyg. Overall, it was one of the better oyster po-​boys that I’ve had in a while.

A couple of us took a drive out the East early this spring, and had our first crawfish of the season, as well as a dozen oysters on the halfshell. Dee-​licious, and even though it was super busy, the staff at Castnet Seafood were all incredibly sweet and helpful.
Great flavor to the crawfish – nice and spicy, but really robust. Sweet oysters that were a dream and one of the guys working there whipped us up his special cocktail sauce blend recipe. We sat outside eating seafood & sipping on iced tea & fountain drinks, and we both left there fat & happy.

This is near my house so I anticipate that I will be here again. My crazy new to NOLA behind went here on Good Friday and packed is not the word. I wanted to get some boiled seafood to go with the rice and beans we had at home. I loved the shrimp seasoning but I was only so so on the quality of the shrimp, they seemed a little gummy to me.
Also, not being from NOLA, it would be great if they could have a little more order to the menu. They have signs everywhere and not in any particular order. i understand with places like this the pricing is highly influenced by what type of season local fisherman are having and are pricing. So a standardized menu is not an option. However, if they could group similar things together it would help people to make informed ordering decisions and therefore be more satisfied with the order.
For instance, I ended up ordering boiled shrimp with head on. I don’t know if that is all they had but I would have preferred to have them head off because it doesn’t make since to me to pay for something you are not going to eat. Anyway I took what I got because they were so busy and because I wasn’t sure there was another option. A clear menu would have at least given me peace of mind.