Crawdaddy

Stopped by here for take out — it’s been a few years since I ventured it. It was very delicious through and through. The shrimp, corn, sausage, and even the fries were cooked perfectly and super tasty.
We then tried something unheard of — cooked some pasta and mixed it in with the spicy garlic sauce. We got super spicy garlicy pasta that punched you in the face! Delicious! I definitely want to try that again. I bet it was pretty fattening, but oh wells.
Definitely coming back here!

I was brought here by a friend that truly enjoys this place and I strongly recommend to go with someone that knows what they’re doing. I went with a party of 3.
Crawdaddy is located on Story Rd. in the East Side of San Jose. It’s small and it tends to get a little busy there on the weekends. We didn’t have a wait when we showed up on Sunday afternoon (I went on Valentines Day, for lunch.)
I ordered a pound of Cajun Garlic Shrimp and Garlic Noodles. I put on my plastic bib and waited patiently. The shrimp were brought to me inside a clear bag thats filled with the broth that it was cooked in. It looked delicious, they were well cooked and seasoned good. The noodles were a little cold but still tasty. I’ve never had to skin my own shrimp but the experience was new and it was something different.
The service was quick and always with a smile. The waiters where very attentive. They would stop by every couple minutes to check up on us to make sure that everything was okay with our meal or get us something else.
If I do go back (which most likely will be the case) I’ll make sure to wear gloves. The garlic smell lingered on my finger tips for the next couple days even after scrubbing them several times.
Pros: Great food, great service and good experience.
Cons: Limited parking, small space, you’re served with paper plates and cups.
MEAL & PRICE: (Party of 3)
Garlic Noodles
1lbs each (3) of Garlic Cajun Shrimp (w/​sausage and 1 with extra cloves)
2 rounds of beers each (4 Coronas, 2 Heineken)
1 Sprite
$ 80.28 ($ 20 tip)

Okay, I’m not expecting the world’s best seafood to be located here, but I was expecting something more flavorable. My family and I didn’t make the first round of people at Boiling Crab so we came here instead since it was just a quick 12 minute drive. First look: Yeah, not busy at all. There was only about 4 – 5 tables occupied and it just looked dead in here. But I’ve read the reviews and kept my head up high and hoped for the best. What I got was pretty average honestly.
Their menu isn’t the same as Boiling Crab or Kickin’ Crab. While at those restaurants you can choose what sauce you want, here they already have sauces with their seafood. It’s just a matter of how you want it cooked I guess. But as first timers, you gotta try right? So we got their butter garlic shrimp and their clams at the mild level of spice. We also got their chicken tenders with cajun fries and garlic noodles. Also, they don’t really list their prices on the menu stating «Market price» so be sure to ask before you decide to splurge.
Their servers were friendly enough. It took a little while for a server to come take our order even though it was slow, but it’s okay. When the server came, he answered my questions about their food and took our order pretty fast. The food soon followed after and honestly, they were okay. The garlic noodles were probably my biggest let down. The noodles were in choppy pieces and the flavor just wasn’t there. Their shrimp were generous sizes, but no flavor whatsoever in the broth it came in.
Overall, come back? Probably not. My mom didn’t leave here pretty happy and she’s the boss of the house so what she says goes. Sorry, Crawdaddy.

watery sauce o ()o
not flavorful compared to other places I’ve visited.
only thing I would get from here is the fried catfish

Every Time I’m craving for crawfish Crawdaddy is where My bf and I go. Love that they only serve fresh crawfish here. Their spice level are always on point. I can never get a place to get the sauce as spicy like Crawdaddy can. The sauce isn’t as thick like other places but it’s still full of flavors. They also have really good appetizers. Like their sweet potato fries and battered catfish. Their catfish is super crunchy on the outside and super moist on the inside. I try a lot of battered catfish and this is my favorite so far in San Jose. They recently just added garlic noodle to the menu and it is awesome. I love garlic noodle to go with my crawfish. Also good on their menu is the gumbo. I can eat that everyday.

Crawdaddy is located near Walmart on Story Road.
I visited here recently and I was surprised there was no wait. The food was good and I would love to come back in the future. During my visit, I ordered the Boiled Cajun Garlic Butter Shrimp. The shrimp was large and very tasty.
The Cajun fries were a good portion to share with a few others. Next time, I’ll have to try the sweet potato fries.
I love how they give you a plastic bag so you can throw away the shells. The bag makes it less messy and you don’t have to worry about anything dripping from the table. After you’re done eating, make sure to ask for some limes to help get rid of the smell from your fingers.

Like some people, my friend & I settled on this place for dinner because the wait at Boiling Crab was too crazy but this place still had a bit of a wait. There are tons of places similar to Boiling Crab & they try to match their flavors but Crawdaddy was nowhere near Boiling Crab’s flavors. Unlike Boiling Crab, Crawdaddy offers only one type of sauce which is the Cajun Garlic Butter. I ordered Cajun Fries & a pound of the Medium Spicy Cajun Garlic Butter Shrimp. The Cajun Fries were crispy & had a spicy kick to it, which I liked, but it overwhelmed what was supposed to be the Cajun flavor. As for the shrimp, I had several issues with it. The biggest issue I had with it was the consistency of the sauce. The sauce was far too watery so dipping the shrimp in the sauce, which they tell us to do on the menu, did absolutely nothing. Being too watery, the shrimp was unable to pick up & absorb any of the sauce. Another big issue was that the shrimp was very overcooked which you can tell by how difficult it is to peel the shell off the shrimp. When shrimp gets too overcooked, the shell sticks to the flesh so that it’s impossible to peel the shell without tearing the flesh. Along with being too watery, the sauce had a good spicy kick to it but the spiciness significantly overpowered the true Cajun seasoning. Customer service was also sub par as we had to flag down a waiter/​waitress whenever we needed something. Next time, I’m definitely going to just endure the wait time for Boiling Crab!

I need to come back here more often, you can’t find any good crawfish like this in New York (not that I know of).
Great place for shrimp, fresh crawfish, reasonable price, and great service! The oyster here isn’t too bad either! We had mild shrimps, oyster, crab, gumbo, and etc. The bag of sauce, the sausage and corn were also good.
The location is the area that known as Vietnamese Town.
Tip: Ask for gloves if needed.

Not really the Cajun experience that I was looking for. Although the business advertises itself as a real-​deal New Orleans Cajun experience, it was relatively far from that. I would call it «Casian», not «Cajun», as the entire staff, and the vast majority of the patrons, are Asian. Now I love Asian cuisine and culture, but it really was like eating at an Asian restaurant that tried to theme things like Cajun.
Pros: Decent portions of shrimp for the price. Decent flavor (although again I had a hard time not thinking I was eating some weird variation of Phở’.
Cons: Over-​boiled sausage and corn that I had to pay extra for. French Fries and Sweet-​Potato fries were unnecessary and the waiter should have known that when we asked. Also, I was frustrated to see that this business obviously doesn’t care about the environment. Everything is in plastic bags, plastic forks, disposable plates, etc. etc. It’s all about the bottom line at this place. Also, I think it’s very poor taste to have TV’s blaring on both sides of a tiny restaurant. I came here to dine on «Casian» food, not on french fries, steamed rice and football.

My husband and I ate here the other day (12÷19÷15 saturday. Lunch time) Coz we are both craving for seafood and time to eat without our kids not bec. We don’t want them but bec. They are allergic to seafoods!(sad) Anyway, this is our 2^nd time here…
Pro’s :
— good as boiling crab
— no long line
— different kind of choices and plus you can even order RICE. (Yes! I’m an Asian and I love rice)
— choices of «spicey-​ness»
— fast server.
— they serve the food fast (good! we are hungry that day, at least we don’t need to wait that long)
Con’s:
— not so big place (so, if this place gets crowded, I’m not sure if you have to wait in line like boiling crab)
-
I’m not sure if I have to say that the price is expensive or not. Guess it’s okay? They will base the price on market /​per lbs. And I think they have fixed price if it’s fry cook not sure?. Just check it out yourself.
Obviously, we came back here for 2^nd time. Bec. There’s no hassle in line and good food.

Craving boiling crabs so I gave this place a try with my family. Medium spicy 2 pounds shrimps & 3 pounds very spicy clams, fried oysters, sweet potatoes fries, and ½ dozen raw oysters. So I got very sick after I ate here 3 – 4:30pm yesterday which is Sunday 11/​29/​2015! Please don’t order oysters; I went to hospital and got IV fluid in and I was almost faint from very upset stomach that I couldn’t sleep from 7pm till 7am (12 hours I have to practically sleep in my bathroom after 25 extreme painful runssssssssssss) I had been eating raw oysters almost anywhere any states any countries. This is my 2^nd time in my life I got this sick. 1^st time was 9 years ago at Japanese sushi bar. If you have time and want fresh seafoods; please go to Boiling Crabs so you won’t get sick like me.

To be honest I never been to Boiling Crab, but I been to many similar places and Crawdaddy is one of them! This is probably my third time here, and there’s always excellent service! As soon as we walk in we are greeted and seated away — there’s never a long wait!, whereas I always see a long line at Boiling Crab (that’s why I never go there). Well the menu here is quite simple, but the workers always ask if we have any questions, so that’s very nice. Anyways, this time we ordered a pound of shrimp w/​2 corn and a pound of crawfish, along with a basket of cajun fries + catfish & a side of rice, and the total came out to ~$ 43! Idk how much Boiling Crab would cost, but $ 43 for all that yummy seafood at Crawdaddy is a good deal to me. Of course we always order too much and ended up with leftovers — the only thing we finished was the shrimp, but we took our leftovers home :) Overall, everything was delicious & flavorful and I had a great time! Food came out quick and service was excellent! Was definitely in food coma & my clothes smelled like yummy seafood afterwards! Haha. I will be back whenever I’m craving for some seafood! :)

This place has so much more flavor than boiling crab and I feel it’s underrated.
The spicy is spicy and I love that. They give you plenty of sauce and there’s plenty of other options like fish and chips.
The sauce is thicker than that of boiling crab and you don’t feel like you’re being drowned in butter here ! Yes! The Cajun fries are yummy and they offer a lot of the same seafoods as boiling crab !

I must say it’s better then boiling crab BUT Kickin’ Crab is WAY better compared to this place. We wanted to try something new, came here and there was not that many people at this place for a 6:30 Pm, dinner time. Interior walling was nice. There was a bug that was red with wings running on the floor. Luckily, I had someone kill it for me. (My mom)
We ordered a medium 1 lb of crawfish, 1 lb of mild shrimp and 1 lb of clam.
I had the bag of clams to myself, for a ‘mild’ spice level it was still pretty spicy at one point. The sauce doesn’t stick onto the seafood and there wasn’t enough sauce in the bag. It looked like a bag of melted butter with lots of chopped up garlic. Not sure how it would be considered cajun.
Other than that, it was clean, the waitresses were nice, I would come back if I didn’t want to drive far.

While in San Jose for business I thought let me go on one of my foodie missions because the Asian cuisine here is vast and everywhere. Plus my co-​worker that was here with me was completely down for the cause. Driving to our training we noticed Crawdaddy’s, and without thought we knew that was going to be our spot for dinner.
We arrived at Crawdaddy’s around 8:00 pm on a Monday; this place was packed and we placed our name on a list. Luckily there was not a long wait. They cleared the table, covered it in white paper and handed us the menus. We decided on 1 lb. of Garlic shrimp medium, 1 lb. of clams medium and fried oysters. I thought it was interesting that they did not offer other sauces, and that the sauces were pre-​picked unlike other places that offers a few sauces plus the heat level. Within 10 – 15 minutes are food arrived in bags (no bowls to dump the food in???). I requested Sriracha, and was informed they only had Tabasco. .. EXCUSE me what kind of establishment is this??? So we requested spoons so we could make our dipping sauce with the salt/​pepper, limes, tabasco and adding sauce from the shrimp.
Garlic shrimp was pretty tasty; not overcooked and full of garlic. 5 stars
Clams were salty and overcooked (all the meat was detached from the shells). 2 stars
Oysters were the tiniest looking things I have ever seen but still good. 3 stars
We were satisfied but not, if that makes any sense. Our bill came, and we requested to use two cards split down the middle. Our waiter returned to inform us they have a policy of $ 20 minimum for cards, so since it would be $ 17.50 each they could not split. Ok so place $ 20 on my card, and my co-​worker will pay the difference cash (she gave them a $ 20).. .easy enough??? Nope, they returned the change, and clearly cannot count giving us $ 15 back (Total was $ 35 minus $ 20 on a card minus $ 20 cash LOL equals $ 5 to be returned). We left the whole $ 15 for them to figure it out. We both agreed Firehouse and Crab City in Sacramento is WAYYYYY better. Major points loss for not having Sriracha!

I am not sure if it was just a bad day for that restaurant …
I used to love this place. However today my experience went quite wrong.
First, they got my order wrong. No biggie.
Second, the most important, the quality of the food went down. I ordered 1 pound of «hot» shrimps. The shrimp skin was literally glues to the shrimp meat. Very hard to peel.
The sauce wasn’t that spicy and certainly not buttery at all. I feel like the whole thing (shrimp and the sauce) had been frozen for a while.
Cajun fries? under cooked, soggy, not crispy. Felt like cardboard sticks.
Crawdaddy, what’s happening?

I really like this place until my visit today. Not only did it take longer than usual to be attended, but the girl said the minimum charge on a card was $ 20. Our bill came out to $ 38 and we were trying to split it up between three people.
The food was great like always, but the card things was defiantly an inconvenience. That is why I cave this visit three stars

You know what they say… you never forget your first! And I will most definitely never forget you, Crawdaddy. You were my first introduction to a crawfish boil and I just can’t thank you enough. Because of you, I’m now hooked.
I first came to Crawdaddy with my family when we visited my sister in San Jose where she was interning for the summer. None of us have ever had a boil, so we were eager to give it a try when we read about it on Unilocal.
After being given the lowdown, we decided to get 2 pounds each of the crawfish and shrimp. Armed with our bibs, little cups of salt and lime, we were ready to attack. And attack we did. I don’t even know how many pieces of crawfish or shrimp I had. But it was a lot. A whole, whole lot.
I definitely think it was the garlicky, buttery sauce that just made everything taste so good. I’d f*cking shower in that sh*t! But actually. I love that Crawdaddy’s also gives you corn on the cob and sausage in the bag that comes with the seafood. I love me some corn, but I love me some corn in garlicky, buttery goodness even more.
Can’t wait until the next time we’re reunited, my love.

1.5 — 2 STAR.
This review is based on a comparison against Boiling Crab (BC). For those of you who are reading this, your opinion of Crawdaddy should be based on whether or not you’ve been to one of the two locations of BC in San Jose.
My wife and I go to BC all the time since it is right next to our house, so we wanted to try something new and so we checked out Crawdaddy on a weeknight. It is safe to say that were thoroughly DISAPPOINTED after visiting and there is a high probability that we will not be returning.
First of all, Crawdaddy has a very small location. I could imagine that it gets really busy in there, or maybe they just handle all of the overflow from the people who don’t want to wait 1 – 2 hours at BC. To make a safe comparison, we ordered all of the same things that we typically order at their primary competitor’s restaurant. We ordered 1 pound of the garlic butter shrimp with mild spice for about $ 11 – 12 per pound, which sounds really good on paper, right? I’d rate these shrimp a 2 out of 5 and here’s why: When we got the shrimp, it looked like the shrimp was just floating in pure oil. The sauce doesn’t even stick to the shrimp itself. Something we like to do in BC is peel the shrimp and then dip the peeled shrimp back into the sauce. We tried doing that at Crawdaddy and it was just pure oil on there… gross.
We also ordered the catfish with fries ($ 11), which is another one of our favorite dishes. The dish itself was huge, but the catfish was really horrible. I’d rate this dish a 1.5 or 2 out of 5. It was just pure cornmeal breading, and the fish was probably right out of a bag of frozen catfish from Costco. The fries were mediocre too, and didn’t taste like typical cajun fries.
In any case, we definitely won’t be returning. A really disappointing experience. I recommend to everyone reading this that you just go to Boiling Crab instead. Much better, much tastier, better service, and overall a better dining experience.

I was looking forward to trying this place… but after waiting what felt like a bajillion years for our food, my stomach only grew angrier. The tables who came in after us were served before us, and it took them a long time to get their attention to place our order.
Came in on a Sunday at 6:30pm, waited around 40 minutes to get seated.
Felt like it wasn’t a real cajun experience, and you can’t do any combo sauces compared to Boiling Crab.
Unfortunately, if you want more variety and more spice in your food, I wouldn’t recommend eating here as your first try