The Boiling Crab

Service is okay here. I put in a to go order and they said it would be ready in 15 – 20 minutes. When I arrived the order wasn’t put in and they were wondering if I called the correct location. I gave them the number I called and it was here. They asked the girl who took my order and she said she forgot to put it in. No apologies or anything. Thanks.

Oh boiling crab, what is going on?!?
I used to LOVE coming here cause the food was so tasty… but the last two times I came, I ordered shrimp whole sha-​bang and it was completely dry! They’re totally skimping on the sauce and it just isn’t the delicious boiling crab I used to know! Definitely not one of my favorite places to go anymore

Restaurant host was very unclear about our table availability. When we first arrived, she said our table was ready as soon as we gathered our guests. When we came back, she said there were four other tables ahead of us. Huh? What happened? So we shrugged it off and said okay, sure we’ll wait.
Then when we got seated, the waiter grabbed our orders and drinks, and we never heard from him again! We had to walk to the cashier to ask for service. Apparently, our waiter went on his lunch break and no one bothered to cover him or tell us! And we never got refills on our water.
Also, Boiling Crab has become so stingy over the years. We had to ask for the lemon and pepper mix. They came out and gave us 5 halves of lemons. Also, they use less and less sauce, and expect you to pay $ 2.50 for 4 ounces of sauce. We talked to the manager, and he explained it’s a standardized process on how much sauce they use. His solution was to offer us another bag because the sauce in our bag was at the bottom… We declined. If the process was standardized, please explain the discrepancy between my friend’s bag and our bag. We both ordered 1lb of shrimp, and we measured the differences after we were done eating, and they received twice as much sauce!
TLDR: Service was terrible.

Sorry I don’t get it. You get served your food in a plastic bag, no silverware. You go deep with your hands and that’s it. I can see that «fun factor» for young kids, but zero appeal to me. «If» the prices were low than it would all make sense to me. No cost on silverware, lien, or China, but it’s market value.
Staff was nice but too short staffed to put the personal touch on a table.

My boyfriend and I love going here.
I would HIGHLY recommend going here on a weekday because the wait is forever on the weekends! But at least there is a sheltered waiting area right outside.
We usually get two pounds of shrimp for the both of us cajun style with sides of rice. The seafood is market priced.
They also have pretty bomb fries there!
There are a couple of TVs for your entertainment if you’re tired of talking to the people you’re with. Or you can just try to make with all the writing on the walls.
The service is great. They put on bibs for you so you don’t ruin the fancy clothes you shouldn’t be wearing while you’re there.

I love Boiling Crab. The only thing that I’m not a fan of is the wait times and no reservations.
Things to get (the whole shabang):
Shrimp
Snow Crab
Corn
Cajun fries
Things I wouldn’t get:
Oysters — the one or two times I got it, they weren’t as fresh as other oysters I’ve had. If you’re not picky and love them anyway, go for it.
Crawfish — I thought that the work and effort in peeling these things were not worth the amount of meat you get to eat after. Shrimp is much easier and a much meatier bang for your buck, unless you like paying for a lot of shell.
Tip: Ordering to-​go (call in) is a way to beat the wait time. The only bad thing about this is the cajun fries usually get soft and soggy this way.

This is my favorite spot for seafood. I always order a pound of shrimp (whole shebang), potatoes and rice. The only reason I don’t give it more stars is the fact that I’ve had more than one bad experience with the service. Even though this place is efficient and they try to get their customers in an out, it’s so popular that the wait is lengthy. I usually take it to go-​always making sure my car windows are down !! can stink up your car! Overall good spot to bring some friends and enjoy good shrimp and beer.
Pros:
good tasty food
great ambience
Cons:
long wait for a table. During dinner time it’s usually over an hour wait.
Rude service

First of all, when they get busy they purposely don’t hang up their phone so you can’t call in. SO RUDE. You end up calling many many times just to hear the disconnected beeps. Honestly if you know that you get so busy to the point you can’t pick up the phone for take outs then maybe you need to change something? Maybe assign someone to pick up the phone? Ended up always going in the store and asking why I couldn’t call in? And they just said we are busy and can’t handle the incoming calls. Then I proceeded to order my take out and having to wait 30+mins for my order. They are lucky they are popular.
Used to be my favorite place to eat! And also the prices are hiked way to high recently. A pound of shrimp is now $ 13! It used to be around $ ⁷⁄₈ or something. The snow crabs are $ 17 now! The seafoods not better so I don’t know why the prices increased much as they did even though they already have so much business.

The sauce has completely changed! The whole shabang is short of flavor and isn’t as tasty as it use to be. I ordered 4 lbs. of shrimp with the whole shabang. I also included a few pieces of corn and 1 lb. of sausages. While the shrimp was enjoyable because it was chewable and easy to peel, I still didn’t like the sauce at all. Some might argue that the sauce is healthier because it’s not as salty, but it’s missing extra garlic, spices, and limes.
While the service here was good, I’m just utterly disappointed in the flavor because it means that much to me. I won’t be returning unless someone begs me to come out for a special event.
5 stars for Dawn! She was really sweet and super attentive during my meal with my friends. We had a party of 12 and she was able to accommodate all of us. Thank you.

This was my favorite location of boiling crab until today. It’s been a while since we’ve been back to this site but I’m completely heartbroken to not have gotten the same satisfaction that we had before.
The waiters were all too busy to pay attention to what they’re doing and which table they were waiting for. The shrimps were watered down and the shabang taste wasn’t holding on to the meat.
Their policy of «no being seated until everyone in your party is present» was the depressing part of the whole visit. I never thought this rule could ever ruin my experience here but my aunt was unexpectedly able to eat with us and not realizing how big a deal it is to have everyone present when being seated, we invited her. My mom informed one of the waiters that there will be one more person so he kindly reminded us about the policy and explained that it’s not the seat availability that is the problem but the policy. ??? Regardless if we had room and could have her sit at our bench the answer is no. And then he gave us 5min for her to show up or else they wouldn’t let her sit with us. Luckily she did make it but if we weren’t able to sit her with us we would have been forced to leave.
Then there was a situation with my niece’s car seat. My sister placed her first on the bench but her car seat was moving and a little off so she asked for a sling. My husband couldn’t get their attention to ask for a sling so he saw and got a high chair and put it upside down to turn into a sling (like how other restaurants do) and placed her car seat on top. One of the waiters later came up and said it was unsafe and the car seat is better on the bench or on a chair. I explained that we didn’t feel it safe because the seat on the chair couldn’t hold the car seat in place and the same with the bench. She just kept saying what she had said the first time then the second time and then the third: that she felt it unsafe for the high chair to be upside down. She expressed no sympathy for our concerns about the car seat moving. We ended up putting the car seat between me and my sister.
It was really a sad experience because I wanted to share with my mom and aunts this «great» place but they just had rundown shrimp and uncomfortable eating. We felt unwelcome.

Addicted to the boiling crabby
Very yummy place for shrimp in sauce!
20+ starsssss
Service is good, but the wait sucks lol
Definitely worth it though!

Not coming back on this location. First of all, wait time is long cause they have a small location compared to others. 2^nd we ordered Cajun shrimp and when they served it it’s almost Dry, so little sauce in it. We told our server about it, he just said, if you want to add more you guys have to pay additional. We don’t have a problem paying for it, but the the way he said it, seems like we’re not gonna pay. 3^rd, the service is so slow. We have to stop eating cause we ran out of rice and we have to order extra, but just the rice we have to wait for a long time. Other location is waaaayy better than this.

Dinner on Sunday, 1÷10÷16
It’s time for some seafood! This is the famous place to go for Cajun style seafood. Expect a long wait time around 1.5 hours. It’s located in old town Alhambra so parking on the street will be difficult. Parking structures are available nearby for free though. While you wait for a table, there’s a waiting area right in front of their entrance or you could take a stroll around town.
It gets busy so we just ordered, ate, and left. Service was good considering we sat near the kitchen so we flagged down the staff members when we needed refills on our drinks. The food was good as usual but the spiciness levels isn’t consistent. Sometimes medium would be just right and other times, it tasted like it’s mild. My usual is shrimp and corn. It’s decent-​sized shrimp. The french fries were delicious too.
Boiling Crab is good but I’ve found that Boat House on Valley Blvd and Garfield Ave is just as good! At Boat House, they serve pretty much the same items and the sauce is just as good if not better. If you don’t want to wait for Cajun style seafood, that’s another option.

Boiling Crab has definitely made its mark in the cajun seafood industry, so it’s no surprise why there’s always a line here. The boyfriend and I came here on a Sunday evening at 5pm hoping we’d beat the rush, but how wrong we were. There was still an estimated 1.5 hours wait although it ended up being an hour instead. I liked that this location has a waiting area and a lot of various stores and shops around to hang while you wait. Be warned not to stray too far as they did skip over you pretty quickly if you’re not there when they call you.
We started off with the cajun fries ($ 4), which I’ve noticed are in smaller baskets now. Nonetheless, they’re still delicious and I’ll still order them. I also ordered my usual one pound of shrimp, the whole shebang, medium or XXX-​spicy. I felt adventurous today and chose XXX-​spicy, but that was a mistake. Thank goodness the boyfriend got medium and we just mixed both of ours together to even out the level of spiciness. The shrimp is Market Price, which ranges from $ 11−14/lb. Despite the wait, Boiling Crab stays true to still being the best cajun spot around.

The wait, food, and prices just isn’t worth my time anymore.
I used to love boiling crab. And it’s my second visit at this particular location. I can’t say I like it the same anymore. We arrived around 745 pm Monday night. The wait was around an hour. (Which is the norm) We also called the other location nearby and the wait was approximately the same. You have to be present when they call your name. Grab a drink or appetizer at other restaurants/​bars nearby while you wait but just make sure you’re back before they call you.
I got a pound of shrimp the whole shebang mild. The shrimps looked like they were just topped in a bag of sauce rather than seasoned. Their levels of spiciness seems more mild than at other locations so I found the mild pretty bland. I couldn’t finish the whole bag like I normally do or maybe because I didn’t think it was good did I really want to, but you can take home leftovers if you want. We split an order of the Cajun fries medium level of spiciness, which also didn’t seem as seasoned or fresh.
My friends got their oysters which he enjoyed but also noticed the waiter was unaware of what type they serve. I also tried one of their wings which is pretty much rolled in spice powder so when you eat it your tongue is dried out in spice sand but the chicken itself was just ok. Boiling crab doesn’t live up to its hype like it did anymore.

I’d must admit I was pretty impressed by the this place. As a Southern girl, crawfish is always in season for my appetite. The seasonings are not the same as home but they were definitely very good and very different. The corn and potatoes in the mix was very good.
It was very pricy ($ 9 a pound for FROZEN crawfish). There was a charge for everything including mayo, which was pretty odd. I think they should come up with a much better wait system and invest in the notifications beepers patrons can have. It can get a bit chaotic.
Other than the pretty steep price and wait, the service was fast, the environment was fun and the seafood is rich in spices and flavor.

I use to really love Boiling Crab until these recent menu changes. Do check my photos of you are curious of the new menu.
Each seafood item is increased about half the original price. For example: Crawfish live use to be 10 $, now it is increased to 15 $
The service is alright like usual, however I must complain about the price for «sauce» now. It is 2.50 $ for 4 ounces of sauce and I personally don’t like the idea. If I added on something I would understand, but asking for a bit more sauce costs nearly 3 $? I’ll take a pass. Not only that if you order 2 pounds of crawfish, they NO LONGER give corn.
They added kids’ chicken tenders, basically half the price and portion for the original chicken tenders. In addition, they also added half naked and naked crawfish or fish. The main idea is to get more healthy. Naked means bare, no sauce at all on your crawfish while half naked only has Lemon Pepper seasoning.
I typically order 2 pounds of crawfish and 2 clusters of snow crab legs which equals about 45 – 50 $, now has raised up to 60 $. I really wasn’t satisfied with the bill. I will probably take a longggg break from this place.
Nevertheless, the food was tasty as usual. I think they added more lemon pepper seasoning to everything. Not that I’m complaining nor am I complimenting.

This is the second location I’ve tried, the first being the other one on valley blvd which I think I’d prefer to go back to. We came around 5 & were told it was going to be a 2 hour wait as expected but I noticed the next time I come here I’m just going to come around 7 – 7:30 instead. By the time we were seated the wait area was empty & there were tables open everywhere.
We ordered 2lbs shrimp, 2lbs king crab, 1lb clams, 2 gumbos, & lemon pepper fries.
King crab in size is a lot better than the competition (kickin kasian, the crabby crab) but I felt like the taste of the crab wasn’t as fresh as it could be. Shrimp was good, we did the whole shebang seasoning with the medium spice & I loved it ! What I love about their seasoning is that it’s just enough & the shrimps aren’t drowning in grease. It’s got the perfect amount of flavor. Clams were disappointing, I recommend staying away from these because we basically just got a whole bag of shells & barely any clams. Gumbo was delicious like always & I will always order it whenever I come to this restaurant ! Get it with the rice or without & add the rice to your liking ! I didn’t try the lemon pepper fries because I’m not a fan of them in general but my friend says she always prefers them to their cajun fries,
Also another small issue we noticed was with their drink machines. I don’t know if it’s the way it’s being cleaned or if all the drinks are just mixing together weird but my raspberry iced tea had a funny watered down taste so when I asked to switch it with coke I noticed that also tasted weird. It was super carbonated & tasted like it had been mixed with other things. This wasn’t such a huge deal but I thought I’d bring it up.
All in all, I love boiling crab ! This will definitely not be the last time I come to this location but in the meantime the other one is the place to be !

Valley is better. I have been to both numerous times and the Main St one always misses something. This time, the oyster dozen $ 15, was the worst I’ve had. Flavorless, unfresh. And the lemons they give us, must been stolen from some drought attacked tree from their neighbor. They weren’t good.
Average shrimp and they were out of crawfish. Eating here is always a hit or miss. Lately, a miss. Thankfully the staff is great and very attentive.
Wait time is ridiculous, 1.5−2hrs. The hype is over.

Best time to come here with NO LINES, is before they open!
I’m practically at the door 15 minutes before they open, at 3pm on weekdays!
No wait whatsoever. You choose to sit wherever you like, and you get to enjoy your food when it comes 5 minutes after you order!
Easy!
Now for the food.
I always get the mild Cajun Fries, the Whole Shabang of 2lbs of Shrimp, and add a corn to it as well!
Fries come first, use the ketchup bottle to draw your name on the white wax paper they lay out for you, and start creating your masterpiece! Then you snap loads of pictures for Unilocal AND Instagram before you chow down. Then your bag of shrimp comes. Whip out your phone again and snap some more pics, and as soon as you finish editing and uploaded everything onto all of your social media platforms, your food has gotten cold, but you still eat it anyways because it’s so damn good!
Did you forget to ask for the lime and pepper? Oops! «Server! (a fine ass one too!) May I get some lime and pepper please? *flutters eyelashes*» LOL jk
As you peel your succulent yet juicy crustaceans. You suck all the yummy juices off the skin and dip it in your pepper and lime juice containers, shove that baby in your mouth while you chew on it like a happy high horse you are. HAHAHA!
Anyways, every time I plan on coming here to eat, I ALWAYS end up wearing my favorite white tops!
Why do I do this to myself?!
Gahh! Whenever I peel the shrimp, I always get the juices squirted in my eyes, and all over my arms and shirt, while i’m wearing a bib!!! The hell man?! lol
So the last time I came here, I had a cute ass server! Too bad he didn’t really acknowledge my existence. I practically, needed my raspberry iced tea refilled and tried asking for more lime and pepper but he didn’t once look at me while I waved my hands several times, calling for him. He gave my neighbors excellent service though!
Just wondered why my existence didn’t matter to him? lol
Anyways, I would’ve been über nice and provided 5 stars but cuteness turns ugly once you ignore me at a service oriented business.
We’ll see if you can help yourself help me boost this back up to 5 stars. (;
Let the confidence of your service, BEGIN!