Original Island Shrimp House Named One of Illinois's Best

PALOS PARK, IL -- You don’t have to go oceanside to get fresh seafood. Original Island Shrimp House was recently named one of Illinois’s Top Ten Seafood Restaurants. Open since July 2015, the Palos Park eatery joins established seafood restaurants that have been around for decades, such as Bob Chinn’s Crab House in Wheeling, Westmont’s fourth-generation owned Pappadeax Seafood, and Shaw’s Crab House in Chicago.

The Top Ten list was published by Illinois’s Best Things, a media site that ranks food, entertainment and recreation destinations around the state. Reportedly, rankings are based on customer reviews, the list makers’ personal experiences and reviews in magazines and newspapers.

Owner Tim Keefer, a patent attorney, didn’t even know his restaurant made the list until a customer came in and told him.

“I was stunned,” Keefer said. “At first I thought it was a bunch of malarky until the customer showed me the review. The only contact we had Best Illinois Things was an email we received after we hit the list telling us we should be proud.”

Best Things Illinois praised Original Island Shrimp House for its “fresh, delicious seafood and friendly service. This casual seafood restaurant offers a simple menu featuring freshly prepared seafood items such as shrimp, oysters, and scallops. Guests rave over the famous lobster rolls, clam chowder, and fried shrimp.”

Keefer takes immense pride in his restaurant’s attention to quality. Most of the seafood served at Original Island Shrimp House is “wild caught” in the United States. Cod and haddock comes from Iceland. The lobster, scallops and calamari are shipped from New England. Salmon, smoked on site, is flown in from Scotland. Fresh vegetables used in the soups, chowders and seafood jambalaya are locally sourced from M&D Farm in Homer Glen. All of the seafood is chemical free.

“We wanted to create a fast casual environment by serving regional seafood that was super high quality,” he said. “We buy the best lobster, shrimp, salmon and U.S. caught fish. We wanted to cut across all demographic lines from traditional New England, east and west coasts, and the south. We do them exceedingly well and by design because we want to be the best.”

A sense of community is also the soul of the restaurant. Last year, Original Island Shrimp House’s owners and customers put their energies into the saving the home of a quadriplegic man and his parents after their landlord had reportedly stopped making mortgage payments. The family had poured thousands of dollars into making the house, which they were leasing to own, accessible for their paralyzed 28-year-old son. Keefer and his crew spearheaded efforts to raise $175,000 to purchase the home outright.

It was the lobster rolls that first put Original Island Shrimp House on the map, but now the restaurant is known for so many more things, Keefer says. Seafood-loving customers flock to the restaurant for the lobster mac ‘n cheese, happy crab platters, an all-you-can-eat weekend fish fry, King Snow Crab and crab cakes.

Original Island Shrimp House has a chef, but Keefer also takes part in food prep and has been known to don an apron and cook for hours on end in the kitchen.

“We’re trying to build a platform concept for possible franchising,” he said. “Until that happens, we’re content to cook seafood with an attitude.”

The full list can be found at Best Things Illinois.

Original Island Shrimp House is located at 12902 South La Grange Road, Palos Park. Restaurant hours are 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. The restaurant is closed Mondays.