Joe’s Crab Shack

I will never go back to this location. Me and my fiancée went here for Valentine’s Day. It was busy, as we expected. There was a 35 min wait time which was fine, but the hostess, who was rude in the first placed, skipped over me and my fiancée until he brought it to her attention. That was frustrating, but we did get seated soon after that. The worst part of my experience was the food. I couldn’t even eat mine. I tried my lobster and was disgusted. It had no firmness to it whatsoever. It was horrible! We both received significantly smaller portions than usual. Our bill totaled $ 120. Money well wasted because I left hungry and extremely unsatisfied with the entire experience. I highly recommend people to stay away from this particular location.

If you get shrimp or lobster tail, they aren’t cleaned. Every one comes with a free shit vein!

Food tastes good. Portions today were sparse. Ordered Dungeness and got one Cluster and another end of a cluster with no legs attatched to it? Great Balls of Fire appetizer was fantastic. Service @ the bar was awesome. They now have signs up everywhere saying no tipping and tips not accepted. Then on the reciept it says any money left on the table will be given to charity. I then found out it’s not charity, it goes to a foundation. I’m sure those beautiful waitresses will move on with this no tip policy and the service will be crap with hi turnover employees. It’s truly a shame. So for a $ 60 dinner tonight i got small portions, left hungry and told i couldn’t tip my favorite waitress. I will definately go less often.

This location used to be good. Joe’s in Pittsburgh recently changed to a no-​tipping policy, paying all of their servers a hourly rate. Bad idea, they don’t want to put in the extra effort. Our waiter took our order and disappeared, someone else brought our meal. I had to go to the bar to get a refill on my drink.
I ordered the Arctic Bay Steampot. If you’ve been to Joe’s before you know that these steampots come with your shellfish in net bags. Both of the bags in my pot were opened, I had 1 snow crab leg and 2 shrimp in one bag. The other bag with the lobster was another story. A whole lobster but the only meat in the lobster was in the claws, there was no meat in the rest of the lobster at all, not even the tail. It looked like someone else dug into this pot before I did. I complained to the manager and got a new lobster for my efforts but no crab or shrimp.
My guest ordered the King Crab bucket. Again, it looked like her food was picked over as well. 2 of her crab legs were cracked and had no meat in them. Another complaint to the manager. However with this we received no compensation and just a «That happens some times».
So after we finished what turned out to be half of the food that we ordered we waited 20 minutes to look for someone to get our bill. Finally the manager returned with the full bill, no apologies, no credits, not even a coupon for the next visit. I expressed to the manager our dissatisfaction with the meal and service only to receive a reply of «I’m sorry to hear that» as she was walking away from us.
Needless to say we will not be returning.
This was the worst restaurant experience that I’ve had in several years.

The loud club music while trying to eat is very obnoxious. I’ve never heard such a thing at any of the Joe’s I’ve been to on my travels.

Food horrible, server sucked, didn’t bring napkins or silverware. Food is better at long john silvers

I’ve gone to Joe’s Crab Shack many times. In the past, I’d have given this place more stars. Typically, the service is good, the food comes out well, and we generally leave satisfied. Last night was definitely the exception.
My family and I went, and the place was packed. So I understood the delays in the waiter coming by — to a certain extent. I ordered iced tea and my usual steampot, with broccoli in lieu of the potatoes. They bring my iced tea, but no sweeteners out. It takes half an hour to track down our server to get sweeteners. Then my meal comes out, and it’s missing many things. In the pot, there’s crab, a couple shrimp and a sausage link, that’s it. No broccoli, nothing. So they get the broccoli after a few minutes. Then I realize I didn’t have any warmed butter, a knife to cut the sausage, an infamous bib, a cracker to break the crab shells, or most of the things that a waiter typically brings with an expensive steampot order (25.99). I ate the tiny broccoli portion and the shrimp while waiting for the server to come by to request the other things. Then of course it takes him 20 minutes to get them. By the time he came back, my crab was cold. Oh and I never got a refill on my drink.
Then, suddenly when it was time to drop the bill off, our server was abruptly nice and had all the time in the world to laugh and smile with us. Clearly hoping for a bigger tip. Granted, he got 15 percent, but I probably won’t be going back to this Joe’s Crab Shack anytime soon.

Went here for lunch as I had received an e-​mail offering a free appetizer with the purchase of an entrée for today only.
The place was about 25% full and I was greeted right away by the hostess. Dining alone, I told her I’d be sitting at the bar. It only took Joella a couple minutes to come over and offer me a drink. I opted for ice water with lemon. She handed me a menu and gave me a few minutes to decide on lunch. She noticed the menu closed and sitting on the bar and came back over to take my order. I ordered the Crab Nacho’s ($ 10.59) and the Blackened Mahi Taco’s ($ 11.59). The nacho’s came in about 10 minutes. They were a mountain of salty chips with shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, corn, black beans, guacamole ‘spread’ and some crab flavored mushy stuff that was the color of buffalo chicken dip. It wasn’t bad… but it wasn’t good. I got through about half of it and a full glass of water before deciding to stop to check my blood pressure. Joelle offered me a to-​go container and I accepted– I hate to leave food.
My Mahi Taco’s arrived (3 of them) which consisted of a decent ‘tender’ of broiled fish, some shredded cabbage, diced tomatoes & onions and (I think) a drizzle of that same guacamole dip. I added hot sauce. They were accompanied by a small handful of those same salty chips and a small cup of pico de gallo to spread on them. The fish was a little on the dry side, it could have been pulled off the broiler a few minutes sooner but the taco ‘wrapper’ was nicely warmed and stayed together rather well.
I don’t want to bash the place seeing all the other reviews but this visit did not leave me with a good taste in my mouth and I don’t see any reason to return (to this one or any others)…

It had been awhile since we had been to Joe’s so we were excited to go back. But we were greatly disappointed. I ordered a Crab pot with King crab. It was a lot of crab but it was over cooked and rubbery. The portions of cole slaw and macaroni salad were good but small. I had a lot of potatoes. I left most of them. My meal was supposed to have andouille sausage. It did, but it was two tiny bite size pieces.
My husband ordered the Sam Adams pot. It came with lobster that was tough and had a very funky/​weird taste.
Our server was excellent but the food was far from it.

Sam is the best! Very attentive and funny. Food, as always, really good and hot! Fun atmosphere and great food.

Very good visit everybody is so friendly and the place is so inviting! The food was good and plenty of it!!! The crazy good crab dip is ah-​ma-​zing!!! Our waitress was friendly and so patient (we had 3 drunk guys haha) she did so good!!! Definitely will be coming back! The reason I gave it a 4 out of 5 was because sometimes we had to repeat and repeat and repeat or order but it does get a little loud so I understand so overall I loved it!!!

Beware! Served under cooked fish. They remade the order and that fish smelled and tasted really old. Made my husband and I sick.
Also my order was brought out with wrong side items. Charged for things I didn’t get and service less then desirable. Wish had at a Long John Silvers. Would have had a better meal at a much cheaper price.

This used to be a great place to take the family. But, the food has gone down hill. Went this past Friday — I got the Crab Cake salad and my wife got the Crab Cake sandwich and both smelled of something rotten. The kids always get the fishermans catch. My one daughter said «dad this does not taste right» so I took a bite of the fish stick and it did not resemble anything like fried fish. When the manager came around, we told him about everything. He did seem concerned and offered to make us new meals but it was too late. We paid the bill and ate over at TGI Fridays.

My husband and I showed up at 5 PM for dinner on a Saturday. I was happy that we were able to immediately get a booth. Our waitress was nice. She, however, brought out our entrees without first bringing out our appetizer. When the manager happened to come to our table, I told her that our appetizer never came out. She asked us if we still wanted it. I replied yes. She said that she would give us the appetizer for free. The buckets of snow and queen crab tasted good. We were not brought out butter at first, so we had to ask for it. One of my potatoes was brown from going bad. We enjoyed the taste of the french fries and hush puppies. When our appetizer, a crab dip, finally came out, we did enjoy the taste of it.

The cigarette stench at the front door was so bad, I almost went somewhere else. The food and service was excellent — but I won’t be coming back if they don’t get that horrible problem corrected

The first 4−5x I ate here, the food and service were really good. The last two times, including my last time ever, the steam pots have been over cooked and the service staff appears to be Perkins castoffs.
Our service was really good tonight, but the food wasn’t. The corn looked like it had AIDS and tasted like I think AIDS would taste. The crab was overcooked and I had to scrape it out of the shell to eat it. My wife’s hush puppies were really dry and tasteless as well. The fries had roughly 3 pounds of salt, so I could get heart disease to compliment my the aforementioned Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Lastly, some server who apparently forgot she wasn’t at home in her mobile mansion kept yelling to her co-​workers every time she walked by our table. Nothing says ambiance like white trash and giant sharks.
I’m done with this location and will take my crab needs to the Joes in Station Square.

The food is so so and don’t believe the menu that is posted on Unilocal there are many dishes listed that they no longer have very disappointing!!!

Could have bought triple the amount of crab legs else where and I wouldn’t have had to deal with the terrible service, at other tables I saw wrong food coming out and waitresses that honestly could have cared less. Dining room was a comfortable –20 and I just wanted to leave to feel my extremities again. Our waitress even told me that my $ 16 lobster was frozen. $ 70 well spent and a $ 10 tip expected. Two stars for the shark.

Eh, part of me thinks that if Joe’s Crab Shack’s prices weren’t so out-​of-​line, I’d enjoy them more.
Kay wanted to come here so badly, it was killing her, a craving for crab legs driving her to the brink of madness. I had to take her. There was no choice.
She enjoyed the hell out of her meal, especially with me footing the bill, which came to $ 150 after the tip.
It’s partly my fault. I caved and bought a steampot that contained two whole steamed lobsters, shrimp, sausage, and corn cobs. I can’t recall what they call this combination exactly, but man did it make my wallet scream.
If a restaurant puts lobster on their menu, I have trouble passing it by.
What formidable critters of the deep lobsters are with their crimson, armored hides. Imagine if they were the size of men or… elephants.
Regardless, tearing at these monsters taught me to respect them anew, and savoring the briny, plump, tender meat morsels reminded me how tasty they can be when dredged in clarified butter.
The Crab Nachos were an easily enjoyable appetizer (crab dip on tortilla chips topped with pico de gallo, black bean corn relish, Jack cheese, and avocado lime dressing doesn’t require pinching the nose to devour). as was my dessert: The decadence dance Joe calls the Campfire S’mores (How could one with a sweet tooth hate on a chocolate cake, marshmallows, graham crackers, and a Hershey bar stuck under a broiler together on a plate? Hell I could make it at home and should!).
Nonetheless, I must deduct stars for sticker shock, regret (for what I spent, it should have been the meal of my life), and somewhat absentee service.

I don’t understand the negative reviews at all! After seeing commercials for Joe’s for years but not having one close by we were thrilled to be staying at a hotel so close to one.
My husband, my daughter and I couldn’t wait to go for dinner. We weren’t sure how crowded it would be but we were willing to wait as long as we had to. When we arrived we were told 15 – 20 minutes, but it ended up being about 10.
The service was excellent and the food was to die for. We had the sampler appetizer. The crab balls were amazing, the calamari perfect, and the crab dip was amazing.
My husband and I each got the Sam Adams Steamer Pot and our 10 year daughter got her own Classic Steamer Pot. She ate every crab and shrimp in the platter. The sausage was a little too spicy for her and she didn’t like the Old Bay on the corn, but her dad was happy to help her eat those, and she had plenty to chow down on without it.
I would love to have a Joe’s in Lancaster, PA, though I would have to get a part-​time job to support our crab habit.