Joe’s Crab Shack

This was the best food I’ve ever tasted and the service was just incredible. The A/​C was broken and the restaurant was cold as heck. Kids also eat for free so we saved some money if you come here with your kids I recommend eating on Mondays because they eat free if it’s your first time order the crab deluxe.

Husband and I went there last year… First off it was hot and sticky in the building so you may want to update that, the service was crappy our waitress was doing other things like bartending and it seemed like that was more important than making sure the patrons were taken care of at the tables, the food… eh all it was to us was boiled an then seasoned… put the seasoning in the water or season before it’s cooked… was very bland and was dissapointed!!!

Service was horrible, ordered calamari, never received, half of our order was incorrect, A/​C was not working indoors … Spent $ 150 for this? Wonder why they don’t believe in tipping for their waitstaff?

So, I left this place angry! So here goes our visit at Peoria Joe’s Crab shack. My fiancé and I decided to go here on a Monday afternoon. We were quickly greeted by our server Missy, who by the way, was an incredible server. She promptly grabs our drinks then proceeds to taking our order. My fiancé orders the sirloin and shrimp meal and I order the «12 Oz» ribeye. Both come with hush puppies. OK… Thinking I am going to actually get a decent steak at $ 28 I didn’t hesitate. But then I find out you can order a half pound of crab legs on to your meal for a certain price according to what type of crab you want but the server said Yeah its not a half pound (but the menu says ½lb), its actually just a cluster of crab. OK add it on, whatever, I just wanted a makeshift surf & turf. So…30 minutes later we get our food. I recieved my «12 Oz» ribeye in two pieces. Two thin fatty choppy looking, cold, over peppered pieces of «steak «. No way it was 12 Oz even before it was cooked. No way. Decided to give it a try before judging this book by the cover and, yup, it tasted as awful as it looked. Now, here comes the best part. Mind you, our server missy was phenomenal during this whole ordeal. I feel the need to constantly remind the readers this. Anyhow, I told her I really didn’t care for the steak (being that it was disgusting and all) and she immediately took action. I asked her if I could just replace it with crab legs considering I didn’t have time to wait another 30 minutes for another steak which would probably be terrible too. So she tells me she would have to ask the manager. So the server comes back and said the manager said that I could just order the crabs as a separate meal, and pay for just the crab legs. So basically she is trying to sell me a more expensive meal, make me wait another 30 minutes and just take off the steak that was returned. So I finally ask to personally speak with the manager. So here comes «L». I won’t disclose the whole name but it starts with an L so we will just stick with that. L comes out and proceeds to tell me, yes my steak was subpar, she did throw it out, but If I wanted something else she would be more than happy to make it as long as a paid for it. Well of course I was going to pay for it! I had every intention of spending a decent amount of money on this meal. Not only did she attempt to pull the manager card trying to seem generous as she expressed she could take off the meal because «she could do that» she then proceeds to pull the cancer card. Expressing that since her stage one cancer she only eats healthy. Not sure where this whole conversation ended up here. But I did express my concern about the manager sending the server doing the dirty work as a messenger and she reluctantly agreed that was not a professional manner. Needless to say I decided to feel remorse and just leave unhappy and still hungry. So then our check comes. The manager did take off the meal, but I go to add a tip and no tip line on receipt? So then I found out that Joe’s Crab shack became a non tipping restaurant as of October of 2015. Wow! What kind of incentive is this? She busted her ass to make sure we were happy. I’m disappointed, disturbed, disgusted and irate at this point. I will never ever step foot into a Joe’s Crab shack ever again. Never. I will also tell everyone I know. Good luck Joe’s. You officially make me sick and it’s not just from your terrible food. It’s from your terrible business point of views and also taking the art out of the service industry.

We went back to this location and the owner put on a fresh pot of water this time so that I could choose any crab from the menu. We were blown away and will come back often :-)

Good food. It’s nice that kids eat free on mondays. Normally slow when we go there. So we get good attention from the servers. The food is pretty good for the price that you are paying. Nice quiet neighborhood and nice quiet setting is something we enjoy.

Love the sea food. We always make a trip out to Peoria because it’s the closest Joe’s around. It is high on price but you can’t beat the food. The location is great for summer time but is a bit tricky to find if you’ve never been to the area before. When the weather is nice, the seating outside is ideal. The inside has a very warm atmosphere. The servers are always friendly as well.

I love their crab. Of course I had relatively high expectations seeing as how «crab» is in their name, lol…
Service is great, prices are reasonable. Nice view, too.

Great food, much too much for one person, which is a good thing. Waiter was crazy and very humorous. Drink glasses were never empty. They will need to roll me out of here. Definitely going to make the two hour trip here again, should have before

With friends who ordered steamed mixed plate. They loved it. Wife had chicken and I east coast platter. Chicken was breaded and over cooked. More fries than chicken. My plate had crab cakes that were good, but possibly from frozen crab. Jumbo shrimp with bacon must have been from Lilliputians (tiny) but well prepared. Generic breaded white fish was star of plate. Fries hid fact that portion was small for $ 19.

Staff has no idea what is going on ordered a pot and half was missing hush puppies looked like someone dined on them before I got them overall not up to par.

The only complaint i have is the service is a bit slow… but my wife and i both had crab pots tonight and the Bairdi crab spicy boil was simply outstanding! I think its some of the best i’ve ever had.
The Clam Chowder soup is excellent as well.
All in all, i will gladly come back, hopefully the service improves some!

Im giving this place a 3 because it looks like a place where you can enjoy a date to watch the nights lights and boat. Besides that the lobster and crabs was alright good enough to eat but wasnt all amazing. James was our server i will give him a 5+ excellent service from him. Great helper also. Maybe will give it a second chance to try again and maybe not (:

Used to enjoy this place but it’s gone downhill. Terrible service, sticky menus, long waits. No wonder it is half empty all the time

The restaurant was clean and the service was outstanding.

Horrible, overpriced greasy food. Are Hall tables fries were served cold, which I guess it really didn’t matter because the fries were just there to soak up the excess fryer oil. Service was just ok with it then waited just get my bill

We have be patronizing this Joe’s for years but the last few times service as really gone down, tonight was the last straw…
The hostess acted surprised that we were willing to wait 30 min for a table, frowning while taking down our name. As we waited other groups came in, reciving the same treatment we did. At one point she actually threw down her pencil after writting down the customer’s name.
When we finally were seated our waitress rolled her eyes and walked away when we turned down adult beverages and appetizers. Overall the servers were hostel and almost pissed off to be doing their job.
The wait for our food wasn’t bad and everything tasted fine. That’s the nicest thing I can say.
This Joe’s really needs to focus more on customer service and less on making sure the staff is on the floor dancing at designated times. As it is we will not be returning.

Okay I read all of the bad reviews. I’m not sure were were in the same restaurant! Actually we dined outside on the deck overlooking the river. It was a great experience after riding the paddle boat with our oldest son and his wife. It was mid July but very comfortable enjoying our meals and watching boaters on the river. We’ve been in Florida since 1994 but still miss the muddy Illinois River.
It was summer of 2013 so things may have changed. I’m not gonna attempt to list what we ate. Something fishy and very tasty. We had great service even though the place was crowded and we were outside, and enjoyed the way the place was decorated. Can hardly wait to go back.

My husband and I come here a lot for being out of towners. The service is always great (especially tonight!) and the crabs are always amazing. I always get a Caesar salad to start off and it’s always good. We used I share a bucket but now we just get our own, which I advise. :)
Thanks for dinner tonight, Joe’s!

Ridiculous, we had a ridiculous experience at this restaurant and there was just no real excuse for it.
I came here with my dad and his wife and we waited probably 15 minutes at the bar for our table which was fine. When we got sat we were greeted by our server and that was all fine. We ordered food and appetizers and that was all fine too.
The first disappointment was that the appetizer clam strips are totally different from what they used to be. They used to be small and yummy and now they are big and the flavor is weird.
The second disappointment was that we never got our food. Ever. We waited for over and hour and just kept being told that the printer in the kitchen had been down so our order never went through…
I’ve worked in restaurants and I’ve had this happen to me but you can bet my manager and I then busted our butts to get the customers food out as fast as possible after the mistake had been discovered. Instead, we watched table after table get their food. We watched tables leave, new people come and we watched them get their food.
We were so hungry and so tired of being there we finally just told the manager that we had to leave. We couldn’t wait anymore.
The final disappointment was that she did nothing to try and convince us to stay or convince us to ever ever come back.
Boo Joes Crab Shack booooo