Salty’s Seafood & Spirits

I love Salty’s. It is an «old-​school» seafood shack, that has been dressed up a bit. This isn’t a bad thing at all, just don’t come expecting anything else. What you get here is the standard fried or broiled seafood fare that makes seafood shacks so great when done well. And Salty’s does it well… most of the time.
My wife and I eat here regularly and have tried a number of the items on their menu, and for the most part we haven’t found anything we haven’t liked. I often order the Special Platter, which is a mix of fried shrimp, fried scallop, fried clams and fried haddock, or their Stuffed Sole. Each dish is exactly what you would expect although I wish the Stuffed Sole had more crab in the stuffing. My wife often orders one of their «scampi» dishes. What’s not to love about seafood drenched in butter and loads of garlic? While not the best I’ve had, they are respectable versions of Scampi.
I do love their salad bar. It’s small, but they offer fresh spinach and hot bacon dressing so that is usually my go-​to, along with a few hunks of pickled herring.
My 2 complaints about this place are: 1. like so many local places in Fond du Lac, they are afraid to season their food. I often order the Twice Baked Potato as my starch and I always find it a bit lacking, mostly because the filling isn’t well seasoned. And when something isn’t well seasoned you end using twice the amount of salt and pepper on top, yet never achieve the depth of flavor that seasoning while making it achieves. 2. I am not a fan of their Old Fashioneds. They are heavy on the booze, and diluted just enough to make it a poor rendition of a true Old Fashioned, but not mixed enough to make a good Wisconsin style Old Fashioned.
In any other city I’ve lived in, this place would be dripping with nostalgic irony, but here in Fond du Lac you don’t get that vibe. They just go about doing things they way they’ve always done it. And that ain’t a bad thing!!!

Great food! One of the best prime ribs I’ve ever had! I know it’s a sea food place, but I would really recommend you try their stakes also. Great lobster and their twice backed potatoe is to die for!

Almost didn’t come here because someone described it as a «poor man’s red lobster» and Red Lobster is gross.
Fish is flaky and perfectly cooked. The breading is light and crispy and compliments not covers. The same for the shrimp and sides. Our waiter Jon was not only an exceptional waiter but a great tour guide. 5 stars for him!

Hands down the best Clam Chowder I have ever had. EVER. I had it once and I can’t stop thinking about it. I crave it. I dream about it. My experience at Salty’s is 5 stars because of it…
We were greeted and seated right away. Our waitress was cheerful and knowledgeable. It was honestly everything I want in a dining experience. She even brought us more bread.
I had a heavenly cod and shrimp cheesy bake with a side of mashed potatoes. Portions are large and I ate about half of my entrée. Probably because I filled up with soup, bread, and salad. But my food was fantastic as left-​overs so no complaints here! I love large portions!
Salty’s has a unique Tiki drink list — I was loving the inexpensive, amazingly delicious Hurricane. And they let us keep our cups! Good cups for kids and picture-​painting.
Everyone loved their food except for Joe R… he ordered the cajun-​style grouper. As he described: «it was so-​so. It was old man food. Bland. Underwhelmed.» So go with a special or favorite dish instead — when in doubt, ask your server! ;)
I can’t wait to return to Salty’s. I forsee an adventure up here during the cold weather months for clam chowder: D

Went on a Friday night the place was packed especially the bar. Great atmosphere and the drinks are yummy! I recommend the pineapple upside down martini! It’s happy hour so our first drink we got two of them, we arrive around 6:15. Wait was about an hour, not bad for a Friday night. I ordered their king crab legs special of the evening $ 36.99 not so special, my waitress did try to warn me said ya get more with the snow crab legs. She was incredibly right they were no bigger than the snow crab, you got about 4 which is exactly what she said and the shells were soggy, so they were very hard to break open and they were overcooked. They accompanied a twice baked potato that was overcooked also and cold. My husband ordered blue gill with a baked potato and his was very delicious. We were with two others that ordered snow crab and steak and theirs were delicious but their snow crab too had soggy shells. All in all I would try it again I just wouldn’t order crab.

If your looking for a poor man’s Red Lobster, you’ve found it. But today I’m leaving my poor review based on the rudeness of one of the older female bartenders. Long story short, we were about the only people in the joint at 2 in the afternoon or whatever, and my toddler was antsy to leave. He wasn’t causing a scene or anything, just a little crabby. The bartender made several unsolicited comments that one could only take a judgmental, and insisted my child needed to be spanked. It’s unfortunate because most of the servers there have been great, and normally I’d be willing to look beyond the mediocre food but this was uncalled for.

So sorry Salty’s, this review is a year over due. We were at your restaurant in July 2013 (during the Oshkosh Air-​Show), celebrating my then son’s 14^th birthday. The staff was extremely friendly & the seafood was amazing! Between the four of us we had escargot, calamari, oysters, mussels, steak, lobster tails, crab legs, & shrimp dishes. There was so much delicious seafood served, sadly there was no room for dessert. If you’re looking for a great seafood restaurant with extremely friendly staff & excellent service, Salty’s is that place! You will not be disappointed one bit!

Salty’s has long been a favorite when I’ve been in Fond du Lac, and my most recent visit certainly has not disappointed. We arrived mid-​week, and was told that the wait would be 20 – 30 minutes. We decided to enjoy a well prepared cocktail at the bar while we waited. After 10 fast minutes, we were taken to a small booth. Service was fast, friendly, and informative. The salad bar was well stocked and delicious, as were our entrees. We enjoyed 2 seafood platters, one broiled and the other fried. Both were well prepared, flavorful and large.
We will be back, of course, as we both enjoyed ourselves again.

Decided to try Salty’s on a whim tonight, should have gone somewhere else instead. The fried catfish had an odd taste, the tarter sauce was runny and had tasted like mayonnaise, the twice baked potato was over cooked. The fried fish sandwich tasted nasty. Burger kings fish sandwich would beat saltys in a heart beat! Not to mention that their prices are extremely high. Service was very crappy. Wait staff very rushy. Overall, we will NOT come back!

I was a bit dissapointed. I was starving and looking forward to a great meal. the food tasted like it was just taken out of the microwave. The service was excellent. I was just not sold on the food.

Very good seafood. I found that they did shrimp very well and had the Shrimply Awesome which was shrimp 4 different ways. Scampi, stuffed, breaded and grilled. They were fresh and had good favors. I got the twice baked potato and founded it very well prepared, fluffy, well seasoned and browned nicely on top.
The bacon wrapped cajun shrimp were also good and you got quite a few on the plate. My wife could not finish them and brought them home and they went VERY well on a salad the next day.
The shrimp and crab nachos are very good. More like a seafood tostada than nachos it is full of great flavor and a lot of cheese. It is served with sour cream and salsa on the side. A little fresh pico de gallo/​salsa fresca would be better than the jar salsa.
Much better than the national seafood chains!
Very friendly wait staff, good well make drinks. Happy hour is a great time to go with double bubble.

Friendly, comfortable, decent seafood. It’s not Oregon, or Maryland-​but it is good for small town upper midwest!

Well kept seafood in Fondy secret. Deffinitely not a fine dining place but you get a lot of food for your money

When I am desperate for a quick and affordable seafood fix we head to Salty’s. There are things on the menu I avoid for sure… such as the shrimp done any other way than hot steamed or shrimp cocktail. I’ve found the scampi, deep fried, grilled and broiled shrimp all seriously lacking in flavor and technique. However, the prawns key largo aren’t bad. Be warned anything with cheese will be LOADED with cheese. I don’t bother with the lobster as it’s not the best I’ve had. I usually get Salty’s steamer which is a piece of fish, stack of crab legs and steamed shrimp in shell. It’s fun to eat. The crab legs are usually good (sometimes great)… a couple times they weren’t good at all. So consistency is an issue. The rib eye steak is typically a good bet. Also, those fake crab nachos are incredibly yummy. The staff is extremely friendly and helpful. So, in summary, Salty’s helps kill a craving, but it’s not exactly five star due to inconsistencies in quality and poor execution on some dishes.

I tried cheese and seafood soup and fish sandwich. Cheese and seafood soup is very very rich, but the taste was good. The fish sandwich left a lot to be desired. It didn’t have very much taste and the bread was not very fresh.

Salty’s is the traditional seafood place I’ve been searching for on Lake Winnebago. The décor is very kitschy: nautical knick knacks, sharks, tropical fish tank, etc. They have a full bar and lots of seating around the bar as well. The booths are kinda cave-​y though, you feel like you’re closed in.
Anywho, on to the food. I had the perch meal (breaded and fried). Out-​freakin-​standing. It wasn’t greasy-​oily-​nasty fried, but light, crisp, succulent fried which makes me think they are pan-​fried. The filets were a little small, but they gave you plenty of them. It came with a choice of potato/​veggie, cole slaw, tartar sauce, and a roll. To be honest, the only thing I actually ate other than the fish were the fries, which were okay. The perch though… nailed it.
Prices were decent, about $ 10 for my dinner which was pretty standard for the rest of the dinners/​sammiches. They do have some non-​seafood options for those who have not yet seen the light. Service is quick. No real complaints. Contrary to Alex, I didn’t think the food was salty at all, in fact I added just a little bit to my food.

The staff were friendly except that if you have a party, you have to wait until everyone is there. That is strange.
The food was above average. I always have sea food there. The food is a bit salty, (is it the reason they name the restraunrant?) I like the salad bar.
They close @9:00PM it is a bit earlier for me.