Joe’s Crab Shack

Staff less than friendly!
Food ok

We’ve frequented this particular Joe’s Crab Shack since it’s opening back in ’97. It’s fair to say there’s only three reasons one should ever come to this location. One is the waterfront view, happy hour, and lastly to bring out-​of-​towners. The happy hour drinks & appetizers are always tasty & well priced. Our dinner however, is always another story. To be honest, I’m not sure why I continue giving them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it’s because I absolutely love salmon & simply can’t resist ordering it, even if it’s subpar. The salmon itself was served blackened and was passable but, the steamed veggies were definitely overcooked and quite soggy so, I didn’t even touch them. Not sure what everyone else ordered but, the general consensus was the same… Just okay. 3 stars for the a-​okay drinks & appetizers!

Ok so I have to say I usually despise the Kemah Boardwalk restaurants. Of all the choices though this is probably the best. The food is about the same but a little cheaper. If you sit at the bar you can get a really big beer for 5 dollars which is a great value for the boardwalk. They have a happy hour but it is pretty early. It does have good food and drink prices though. I think it is from 5 to 6 pm. The food is passable and I especially like the great balls of fire which are some spicy jalapeño crab balls with a real kick. The view though is also the best of all the other restaurants at the boardwalk. I don’t recommend you dine at the boardwalk but if you do Joe’s is probably your best bet

I recommend the crab stuffed mushrooms, stay away from the fish. It’s terrible and they charge too much for it.
This establishment is solely a tourist trap — they know people will come and pay for sub-​par food.
Also, the wait is usually around 40 minutes.

Ok, …you must be wondering why on Earth would I give Joe’s Crab Shack a 4 star rating. I have good reasons. At a glance, this does not look like a well run restaurant and you have probably had a bad experience here on occasion, but what you don’t know is that anyone who applys to the Kemah Boardwalk, who has no or little experience, is sent to Joe’s. So, you basically have a bunch of unruley, hormone filled kids running a restaurant. Take that into consideration, and some of the stuff that goes on makes more sense. They try to follow state and federal laws and give everyone a chance to work. Let’s face it, not eveyone is cut out for the restaurant business, but everyone should get a chance to work… I like that idea. Many are fired, but I commend the management there for having the guts to fire people who shouldn’t be there. Eat somewhere else on the Boardwalk, go back in six months, and the bad waiter that you had last time will still be there giving bad service (he might even be a manager by that time),…not at Joe’s. At Joe’s, if you are a bad waiter, you will be fired. Now, you may be wondering how I would address the food issue. Hmm! I would recommend that you go Monday — Friday and try the Happy Hour Menu which is comprised of .49 cent specials. I would get 10, .49 cent shrimp and enjoy a $ 1.25 draft beer or a $ 2 glass of wine, they even have a martini special and I think those are $ 3. What a bargain. So, I pretty much feel, and I think many would agree, that the seafood is pretty much the same at all the concepts on the Kemah Boardwalk, so, why pay Landry’s prices for shrimp, when you can get the same shrimp at Joe’s happy hour for a fraction of the price at Landry’s… Food for thought!!!

2 star food for 3.5 star price. Fun atmosphere

This place was the worst. Had the snow crab steam pot, the meat was scarce and dried out. The corn on the cob appeared it was obtained a couple of years ago, and the potatoes under cooked. This is an over priced rip off the wait person was clueless about anything I asked

Yup, good food. A smidge pricey for the fare, but a good time was had by all. Part of the Landry’s Restaurants chain. Watch out for all the up-​selling the waitstaff will hit you with.

I got the Fisherman’s Platter, which I wouldn’t recommend. It was mediocre and the portions are not commensurate with the price paid. That being said, My Fellow Unilocaler’s spicy steam pot was good, if a bit oversalted. Our server was very attentive and at around 6pm, most of the servers went into a dance routine to the tune of ‘carwash’.

The food was wonderful. The flavors were well represented. Try one of the «boil» pots; crab, crawfish & shrimp — oh my. Our waitress was kind & understanding. A must go!

This place used to be a halfway decent place to take the family to eat, but not anymore. Overpriced for the food that you get, and isn’t anything to write home about. Went on 10÷10÷10 for a birthday, and they don’t do the dancing anymore. The place and people working on that day looked haggard and wanted to be somewhere else.

Came here for 4^th of July with bunch of friends (18 friends to be exact) to celebrate. Our waiter’s name is Justin and he was very attenative, and provided us with great customer service. Just the down side to this place is the food. It was not good at all…

Wow, I had not been to the boardwalk since it had just reopened after IKE. Based on what I have experienced I will NOT be back. It is a tourist trap and might appear to have a problem with gay couples and mixed race couples. We were seated and NEVER waited on. In fact we waited for twenty minutes when I said «Let’s just get the heck outta here!» My friends wanted to post something on a network sharing space and I said I did not want to be a part of it. As much as I disagree with the way we were all treated there I will not be back. We had a similar experience at another Landry’s establishment. NEEDLESS to say I am sharing my experiences with my friends and posting here.

Was visiting Texas for the weekend, and stopped over at Kemah on the way to Galveston. My friend had already heard of this place, and we decided to have a really late lunch there. The menu didnt have too many options. We went for the crab stuffed mushrooms, and that was quite a delectable appetizer. We then moved onto the crab stuffed shrimp and of course the King crab in the special BBQ sauce. The King crab was simply awesome. Well marinated, soft and tender. We enjoyed it so much, we even ordered ourselves one more! The drinks are huge too, we had a Shark Attack, which was quite light.
All in all, a lovely place!

This is the original Joe’s crab shack which was quite an environment and clearly meant for a visit during the summer time instead of in the dead of winter when the boardwalk is dead. Their drinks are great and a test tube shot of tequila is 99 cents. You really can’t beat that… Delicious giant frozen drinks for anyone looking for a good accompaniment to their giant amount of seafood otherwise.
I don’t like shellfish so I got fish and chips which were fine and the rest of my table gorged themselves on crab buckets galore and were content and full very quickly. I think the food is good and we went at a good time when it wasn’t busy like usual so it was a cute kitschy place.

Just as bad as the first time I went, 7 years ago in Florida. My husbands fisherman’s platter looked worse than cafeteria food (see the pics). Whatever that means. You get the idea. I had the lobster pot which would have been great had they not over cooked/​steamed my lobsters. The meat was stuck/​welded to the shell and all dried out. I will not be back. Service was good.

I ate here with an ex boyfriend. It was his step father’s birthday.
They didn’t have hush puppies.
Which should be a staple at a seefood resturaunt… I guess.
I don’t know.
His family made a big deal about it.
It was crowded.
It is in the same area as the other major tourist attractions in that area.
I had the coconut shrimp.
It was delightful.

To tell you the truth, this Joe’s is a little too big, too hot and too crowded… not exaggerating. We sat outdoors because the covered part of the «outdoor» seating was at least 95 degrees, and it was evening. It was only 80 something out. I ordered a gumbo for appetizer and it was disgusting, so much so, I had to return it. Our server Brian was very sweet and helpful, so at least the service was good. We ordered the steamed pot, which had shrimp, crab, potatoes, corn, onions etc. I thought it was good. I was super full when I finished my part (I shared it with my friend Adis). The strawberry daiquiri was very good. I am giving them two stars because I would expect this restaurant to be a little better than others of the same chain, since it is in a tourist spot, but obviously it is not. I have definitely had better.

I agree with Adam on this one. This place was really disappointing. Food was stale. The only reason why I even gave it 2 stars was because our waitress was really sweet although you could see she was tired. She was extremely gracious but the food was horrible. I didn’t expect too much on the atmosphere knowing we had arrived during late night dining but still. I felt like I was among the living dead (and that’s including the customers).

I have been to plenty of Joe’s Crab Shacks to know what I SHOULD be expecting… and this one fell way short.
What to expect:
— lively, fun, upbeat atmosphere
— good (albeit mostly fried) seafood
— benches, garbage pails in the table, and bibs (for certain meals)
What we got:
— a server that seemed as if we woke him from a nap (and in true form he got better as the meal went, as if he was finally waking up)
— warm (not hot) food… I got the daily Tuesday Special (Fish and Shrimp) which had a good flavor, but was NOT hot enough
— okay fine, we got the benches and garbage pails…
In totality, our experience was not very enjoyable. We had brought my Godfather there who had traveled from England to see us. He had never seen the quippy «Got Crabs?» t-​shirts, so he had a bit of a laugh. But he stopped laughing when we got to our table in the «outside» section, and it was surrounded by birds.
Seriously… birds… everywhere.
Basically it was a fried fishy lunch in a bird sanctuary. What made it worse were some stupid patrons tossing their bread… This prompted my Godfather to yell quite loudly to get their attention: «Adam, who knew you were bringing me to a restaurant where I could contract crabs AND bird flu».