Hell Point Seafood

I’d go back right quick.

I have to say, this was one of the worst upscale dining experiences I’ve had in a long time. We arrived early around 5:45 on a Thursday and were seated in an empty dining room. We were eventually joined by a family with two small kids and by the time we left there were four table. Eerily quiet other than occasional screma by the kids.
The menu was sparse with only four entries. I had to ask for a wine list which was not much more interesting.
I ordered salmon and my wife skate. The salmon was on the bland side and the skate a bit over cooked. The appitizer of fried oysters, clams, and shrimp was good.
The service was amaturish. the server lacked signs of personality, neglected to refill our water glasses, and didn’t serve spoons with dessert which included ice cream.
We’ve been to Hell Point a few times before and dine at Kinkeads often so I know the owner is capable of more.
Oh yes. A bug ran across the table too. Very nice.

Hell NO!
Full disclosure; I ordered beef in a seafood restaurant.
We had the Thai Squid, which was pretty flavorless. My wife and I each ordered the prime rib, medium rare. It came out a lonely slab of meat on a white plate. Cold and really tough. When asked, we told the waiter that we were not happy and after a brief discussion, decided that we didn’t want to try something else. The manager came by a bit later and told us that they were taking the prime rib off the bill. At that point we stopped eating it.
Other stuff:
We were in Annapolis for the New Year and asked a couple of the staff about a good place to watch the fireworks. Two didn’t know anything about it and another told us the wrong time. I know that they’re not responsible for fireworks, but it just seemed like the people working there were in Annapolis for the first time.
The guy filling water glasses when we sat down spilled ice on the table, grabbed the spilled ice and held it behind his back, filled three glasses, then dumped a block of ice in the 4^th glass. He said something about the water pitcher wasn’t right to fill 4 glasses. I agree.
The place is expensive. Expensive is fine if there is something outstanding to justify it, expensive for no good reason is not fine. There is no good reason for this place to cost this much.
We looked at the dessert menu and decided to skip it. It was just 5 or so really basic boring things.

The food was good, and portions are appropriately sized for lunch. We ordered the Thai squid (just fried calamari with Thai dipping sauce); lobster roll (meat was good, but the bread was soggy); and little neck clams pasta (delicious, I only wish the portion was larger).
The restaurant is located on the 2^nd level, overlooking the water. It seemed a little quiet compared to Pusser’s Landing across the way. Service was pleasant.

I brought my family to have lunch today at Hell Point and from start to finish the experience was completely disappointing. I’ve heard good reviews and was expecting something much better than what we experienced. We needed two high chairs and when we were brought to the table it wasn’t prepared. We had to wait for the hostess to pull out chairs and bring high chairs over. In my opinion the table should be ready before the customer is brought over. There was an industrial fan blowing directly on us and it was still very hot. The waiters were all sweating. That’s not very appetizing. I was expecting something a bit classier.
The food was a complete disappointment. We ordered crab cake sandwiches and fish and chips. The crab cake was small and bland and the fries were not fresh and burnt. The same was the case with the fish and chips. We spent $ 50 on a meal that was terrible. I don’t mind spending money for a nice experience and good food but this was definitely not the case with our lunch.

Went here for lunch, so happy to have found at least one restaurant downtown that doesn’t suck.
Crab Veggie soup was really good, lots of flavor, the wedge salad was really yummy, especially the grilled onion and blue cheese.
We also both got burgers, really good.
Restaurant was nice and simply, they could probably use some music though, or turn it up a teensy bit louder if they do have it.
Also the service was really great, our server kept up with everything and she was very sweet. Happy to have found a decent place that doesn’t serve just bar food.

Great location, however…
WAY OVERPRICED.
The «market price» for a VERY small lobster roll??? $ 26 bucks. NOT WORTH IT. Steam a lobster and make your own.
The crab soup is a creamy, sherry-​fied bisque, but no lumps of crab as I’d hoped.
Overall, good but not outstanding food… just priced way too high for «casual dining».

I came here on a beautiful, sunny, Annapolis day hoping to get a nice lunch in with a view of the harbor. Hell Point seemed like a viable option, so my family and I decided to go there. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize that if you have a large party (we were 6), you couldn’t be seated by the windows. So, no nice view us.
Off the bat, my family was pretty annoyed by this, but we decided to stick by the restaraunt and suck up the whole view thing. We ordered a variety of appetizers, including the stuffies, malpeque oysters, and some fried squid. From these, the only standout was the stuffies. The combination of flavors was absolutely divine and the chorizo really added a nice touch to to it. Obsessed.
For entrees, my family ordered the mussles and the crabcakes… both were a pretty big hit at the table. The crabcakes especially so because the ratio of bread to crab was in the crab’s favor… so bonus points for lots of crab!
Pretty good food… I was a bit dissapointed at how limited the menu was, though.
Sidenote — my water tasted like metal. Gross.

Love this place! They even had a Groupon available a few months ago!
One of my favorite places to brings out of towners, because you can get great food and a great view of the water all in one place. If you are looking for a hole in the wall place for cheap steamed crabs and beer, this is not the place. This is a white table cloth wine sipp’n establishment for the hoity toity types. You will not like it if you don’t like fancy places.
The menu is not very diverse. It’s all sea food, and very high end sea food. So it is very pricey. I think they have more wine options than they do food. If you are an adventurous eater, every once in a while they will have something unique like the Skate prepared Milanese Style. YUM! Their desserts are also great!
While I LOVE wine, I was convinced by a friend to go for the Magic Hat #9 beer. I wasn’t really expecting this option at an upscale sea food place like this but I was all for it! She never had it before, and thought it was awesome. I’ve always been a fan of Magic Hat!
Back to the food… appetizer list is pretty nice. I have been to this place and just ordered a few appetizers and sipped on the wine while watching the sail boats get underway. I’m also a fan of the crab cakes!
This place would also be a great place for a date. The décor and the ambiance is very romantic feeling.
When there are things going on downtown, I highly recommend that you call and make reservations! The Parade of Lights in the winter can be best seen from this place. You get food AND your warm!

Hells Point can be hit or miss. I’ve been there a couple times and had great service and fresh, hot food. Then another time, it was rather busy on a weekend during the summer and all of the above were completely different. It’s in a great location and has the opportunity to be great on certain nights. I would def try it again since my good experiences has been more than the bad, but there are so many GREAT places to try in Annapolis.

It’s ok, but there’s better options.
Cold out the other night, so not surprised by the little mouse that joined us for dinner. We saw him five times, although the staff told us that they had never seen one before, so…

A perfect way to end a great trip to Annapolis with lunch on the waterfront. I was excited to try an off shoot of DC’s Kinkeads and was not disappointed.
We started with stuffies which are a crab and chorizo mixture baked in to an oyster shell. Followed by a cream of crab soup. I had the classic crabcake sandwich and he had the seafood boulibase.
Everything seemed fresh and had great flavor. The waiter started off great and was attentive but as the meal progressed and the restaurant got fuller we could barely get a bottle of ketchup brought to us. They need to work on the service.

The food here is top notch, everything we had (Stuffies and crab soup for starters, then crab sandwich and seafood stew) was delicious. Sitting with the windows open and looking out the at the activity in the Annapolis marina was a great way to cap a visit there.
However…
The service? Not so much. They weren’t terribly busy but we had extensive waits to get anything, even a bottle of ketchup (which we had to ask another server to get for us). This needs to improve to bring up the quality of the place.

I took Matt to Annapolis for the first time today to show him my school and have a little Annapolis seafood. I walked us down to the end of Dock Street to eat at Phillip’s, and what do you know, another Annapolis establishment has changed hands! We looked at the menu outside, though, and figured why not, let’s do it — the dining room was open (the windows slide open so its like a big patio), and the food looked good.
The prices were a little high, but I assumed we’d be getting decent sized portions like at some of the other places in town. We shared a cup of the crab gumbo to start — it was PHENOMENAL. The crab was soft and tender, and we only came across one tiny piece of shell. For lunch, Matt ordered the crab cake sandwich, and I ordered the tuna burger. Luckily the waitress gave me a heads up that the tuna burger was probably not what I was expecting — she was correct in thinking that I’d assumed it would be a tuna steak on a bun, but in actuality it’s ground sushi-​grade tuna with scallions and red onions and seasoning. I ordered it anyway, and it was quite tasty. Matt had never had a non-​fried crab cake, and loved it.
The buns were small, but the meat was THICK. Both sandwiches came with fries and cole slaw. The fries were a little overdone, but they were good once I put ketchup on them. They’re house made, so I’ll give them a little slack on that. The slaw was a little strange — I think they put fennel seeds in it, so, especially if you bite into them, there was a bit of a strange taste. It’s also not super creamy.
All in all, the prices are probably what kept me from giving this 4 stars instead of 3. The service was good, the food was tasty, but I feel like I could have gotten a bigger portion of just as good food for the price at Middleton’s or McGarvey’s.

I was a little worried about going here for dinner last night but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I really, really, really enjoyed this restaurant and would definitely go back again and again. I have heard such negative comments from people I was worried when I stepped foot into the place. However, I have been to Kinkeads in DC so I wanted to give it a try. Loved Kinkeads when I went there and LOVE this place too!!!
The service was impecable. The food was amazing. We got the sprimp appitizer and it was fantastic. There were only 2 shrimp but still the taste was incredible.
I got the Wahoo Fish Dinner and it was superb. It has shrimp, crab and a corn dressing over it. Fantastic.
My boyfriend got the pasta with clams and it was fantastic too. The pasta was homemade and all of the fish were very fresh.
If you are a local, like myself, you will get 20% off your bill on Thursdays. This was a great suprise to find out too!
My only suggestion for the restaurant would be to have a good mix drink menu. They couldn’t make Pear Martini’s and were out of Crown. The white wine was cold but not really cold. They keep their wine in ice buckets upstairs so I believe that is why it wasn’t chilled perfectly. Maybe get a nice bar upstairs so the servicers don’t have to keep their wine in ice buckets.
Overall, I would definitely go back. Fantastic restaurant!!! YUM!!!

Meh. We stupidly went into this restaurant on recommendation of the Westin. My major complaint: it’s expensive for what you get.
One of my friends really wanted steamed crabs, but they didn’t have any. I ordered the corn meal breaded flounder. It was OK, bathed in butter sauce, with some baby shrimp & vegetable topping. It was tasty, but nothing special. I did like the fresh bread, but no fancy butter, just the regular kind. Not a great alcohol selection: beers (mostly domestic, no craft beers) and hard alcohol, no cocktails. I ended up ordering an iced tea instead– lame-​o! We did have outdoor seating with a great view, but come-​on, there were some restaurants across the dock that had the same.
The food did not blow me out of the water at $ 20+/entrée, side dishes are another $ 5/​each.
I really regret not walking around to check out other places instead. This seems like the kind of place for crusty, old people.

After reading an article about Hell’s Point in the Capital that included an interview with Chef Kinkead, I kind of wanted to hate this place. I wish I could find the exact quote but it was in reference to the new restaurant’s somewhat shaky start. Chef K basically said that it had been tough for several reasons one being that he didn’t believe the local palates were ready for some of his more creative offerings. Arrrrrrrrrrrgh…
Did it occur to anyone that maybe just maybe the restaurant wasn’t thriving because his menu was one of the most expensive in town? When most folks were trying to just get by with the basics during a bleak economic forecast, he was charging $ 23 for a lunch appetizer??? C’mon.
His other major zing was that the pool of employees recruited by the restaurant were surprisingly less professional than the pickings in DC so there was a big learning curve when it came to service. I started seeing a trend of «blaming the locals» for the restaurant’s shortcomings. No where did he indicate that his problems may have been a result of a shoddy marketing strategy that not only failed to see that Annapolis was not DC., but that no adjustments were made to accommodate the differences.
So had a bit of a chip on my shoulder walking in. Frankly, I don’t even remember much of the décor of the place. Didn’t seem to me that it changed much from Philip’s days. It was lunch time and the place was quite empty, but it was their winter hours on a dreary Thursday in February.
I had gotten glimpses of the original menu at the actual establishment when it first opened as no website was up yet. By the time we visited, the menu was revised, but still way too pricey. Lunch appetizers ranged from $ 9 — $ 23, salads $ 8 — $ 9, soups $ 5 — $ 8 (cup vs bowl), sandwiches $ 9 — $ 17 and entrees $ 17 — $ 32. I don’t know about you, but at these prices, the food better be orgasmic.
Once we sat down, the server was being way too formal but extremely polite and gracious. Annapolitans and visitors tend to be very casual folks but it doesn’t mean they don’t or can’t have a more sophisticated palate. They need to find a balance here since we felt a bit uncomfortable at the «stuffiness» of it all. Luckily towards the end of our meal, our server loosened up and we had some good laughs and conversation.
We ordered the fish and chips and a pasta with seafood in a light cream sauce. Both dishes were well prepared, pretty to look at and quite good. Nothing extraordinary. We received a surprise before our check — a free dessert. Apparently the chef had a special of the day that no one had ordered and he wanted someone to experience it. That was our only wow experience. Can’t remember all of the descriptives but it was a brown sugar ice cream with an apple tart. We had gotten two desserts to go as well, one was their version of a Smith Island Cake. The original was much better. Theirs was just really bland.
Our second visit, we ordered the rock fish tacos served with black beans, jicama slaw and a corn tamale, and the local pork belly pastrami reuben w/​grand cru Gruyère. Service was less stuffy, meals arrived in a timely manner and both of us were very happy with our entrees. All the components really worked well with each other and the quality of the ingredients really shined. We left happy but poor.
I hope they find a balance in their pricing. When lunch appetizers, salads and soup cost as much or more than the entrees, something is wrong. And maybe that’s why no one is busting down the doors to dine at Hell’s Point.

We have waited some time to try this new Annapolis restaurant. But because of the views we finally took my out of town mom and friend to dinner. It was a hit. We went on the night of a big snow, and they delighted in sharing a rose champagne with all the guests. It was a delicious way to start the meal. The ambiance of the place was perfect and with half their reservations canceled I was still surprised to see all the window seats filled, people braved the uncleaned snowed in roads to eat here… Must be good, I thought to myself.
The waiter was a peach. He was just darling and very good at what he does. He was able to tell me everything about the menu that we asked and he was kind about it.
We all started with different salads, and they all were so unique in flavor and plating. Mine was a soft lettuce salad with Dijon vinaigrette. It was deliciously simple. My hubby had a avocado salad with some sort of slaw… all delish.
For the second course I had an appetizer (saving room for desert), I had the gnocchi with grape tomatoes and some ricotta and garlic. It was perfectly cooked and seasoned. It was comfort food. Neil had a seared Tuna with chickpea fries, spinach and fennel salad. It was all just marvelous and married brilliantly.
I tasted one of my dining party’s crab cakes and they were as well just delish… perfectly done — in one word they were «Maryland on a fork». My mother had the Portuguese soup with shell fish galore, but I had expected the dish to be bigger. The portions were not over sized at all.
We did have some dessert. We all shared a caramel cake. It was delicious!!! Just well made and flavored just diligently. Perfect compliment to the meal.
We completely recommend trying this place out. I can’t wait to try it in the spring with a different menu and warm summer breezes on the outside patio. bon appetite!
(ps for the infant car seat they have slings… very convenient — they were baby friendly)

This restaurant recently took over the space that was previously Philip’s Seafood. Despite some purported growing pains, Hell’s Point is a vast improvement over the spot’s previous tenant. The restaurant shows enough promise that its initial unevenness could be forgiven.
The contemporary menu gives a fresh take on standard dishes, seafood or otherwise. I especially enjoyed my appetizer, the lobster salad with blood oranges and avocado because the flavors and textures of the ingredients contrasted well against one another. My main course was a «Portuguese seafood stew,» which seemed to me like a cross between a paella and a bouillebaise. It was hearty and full of strong flavors. The dish that surprised me the most, though, was the pork tenderloin that my companion was kind enough to share a bite with me. It was the most tender and moist bite of pork I have had in many years. It’s encouraging that the meat entrees are as well prepared as the seafood entrees. A satisfying dessert selection rounds out the meal.
Summary: don’t immediately compare this place against Kinkead. Give it time and it may develop into something cool in its own right.

I’ve waited a long time to say this my fellow Unilocalers, but you can all…
«GO TO HELL!»
Hell Point Seafood that is.
(Hell Point is the original name of the small piece of land that juts out between Ego Alley and Naval Academy.)
I’ve known about the coming of Hell Point Seafood since this past March. Bob Kinkead, of the venerable DC seafood institution, Kinkead’s, took over the old Phillips Seafood spot and was slated to open in April. Needless to say, as restaurant openings go, it was July before he actually opened the doors.
Reportedly, priced a notch below his flagship Kinkead’s in DC, it is meant to be high quality, casual and affordable dining. My Dining Partner in Crime and I still managed to rack up a $ 100 lunch tab, without cocktails, thank you very much. Granted, we didn’t hold back.
The space is neutral and sophisticated. They have the best windows in all of Annapolis, one view overlooking Ego Alley and the other looking out to Eastport. They’ve made sure wherever you are, you have a good view. Smart.
The menu changes daily with a high concentration of seasonal and regional cuisine. The DPIC started with the heirloom tomato salad with basil oil, balsamic vinegar and bleu cheese, while I had the Yucatan Tuna stew with chilies, cilantro and fire roasted tomatilloes. Both were exceptional. The tuna stew was appropriately spicy and tart and the perfect foil for the rich chunks of barely cooked tuna.
For entrees, I chose the grilled swordfish and the DPIC had the Maine Lobster Roll. My swordfish was a revelation; perfectly cooked, amazingly fresh and moist. It was served with fried zucchini strings coated in parmesan cheese which soaked up the juices of the fish and oven roasted grape tomatoes. It was like a delicious plate of «Summer».
The lobster roll was less successful. I’ll be candid. For $ 26.00 they need to do better. The portion was small. The quality of the lobster salad was great, but uninspiring. The shoestring french fries were not hot and it came with a simple cucumber salad in a ramekin. Boring. If this had cost $ 13.00 I might have been more impressed.
Desserts are all made in house which is always a good sign. They get their ice cream from next door neighbors Aroma d’Italia. The DPIC had the almond layer cake with lemon cream and lemon sorbet, while I had the local peach tart tatin with pistachio ice cream. I love a good tart tatin, but in this case, the peaches were drowned in so much butter, brown sugar and rum that the fruit could have been anything and you wouldn’t have known the difference. the almond layer cake, however was really good. Extra rich and delicious.
Big kudos to Hell Point for having Fresca on the soda fountain.
Service was fantastic. Energetic, suggestive and knowledgeable.
If we go back for lunch, or dinner for that matter, we will definitely do things a little differently. There are less expensive options on the menu. Perhaps we would split a dessert or skip it altogether and head to Sofi’s Crepes, just two doors down.
They seem to still be working out some things. There is still no website and no advertising. That has not stopped THRONGS of people from coming, up to 400 covers on a busy day for lunch. Their computer had been stolen on the day that we dined so they had no proper reservation system. Opening a restaurant in the middle of the busy season is not an easy task. I believe that given a few more months, however, Hell Point will become THE place to go in Annapolis and I expect that we will all be GOING TO HELL for many years to come.