The Boiling Crab

Love this place, I always get here half hour before opening and never wait long. Food is always a pleaser and I love their lemon pepper wings.

Beware!!! My pregnant wife and I got food poisson here and almost died!!! We waited for 1:30 for lunch. Check in at 3:05pm and set down 4:35. Food was quick but cold and taste old. We have muscles and king crab legs also catfish but muscles were cold and old also king crabs were so old and smell like a dead fish. Thank god nothing happen to our baby which is due on Jun. My wife trow up all night and I had shet water!! shady business. When you get busy your quality goes down. After being customer here for more than 10 years! We are gone!!!

I always get Shrimp the Whole Sha-​Bang and Cajun Fries. Always my favorite! What I like to do is peel all the shrimp first then put it back in the bag with the sauce. I personally like and enjoy my food that way instead of peeling one shrimp at a time. I don’t get satisfied that way. Recently though, they barely give any chunks that go with the sauce in the bag. They used to drench it with plenty, but I think they are really limiting the amount they give now which has been disappointing to me. I still choose them over any other seafood place though.

First and last place ill ever eat seafood in bag at, absolutely the best, me and my family are addicted, a regular order for our family is 2lb of snowcrab medium hot shabang sauce, 2lb of snow crab no hot galric sauce and 1 lb of shrimp and 4 corns with shabang sauce. The sauce is great, i feel that the wait line is crazy sometimes close to 1 – 2 hrs, but the easy ticket to eating here is ordering take out its ready in 30min or less and i find that if u do take out and let the sauce and hot crab marinate for a bit longer it seems to absorb the great sauce into it more, thats just me tho. Great quality crab and portions, must try people wont be disappointed i promise. Unless u get a long wait time for dine in, lol

I gave in to the hype and finally came over to give it a try. We came here on a Saturday early evening and the wait was incredibly long. I was expecting maybe an half an hour wait but it was almost 2 hours before we got seated. There’s a Target next door, which definitely helped with the wait. If you don’t want the wait, feel free to take it to go but it’s certainly not the same experience!
The staff was really friendly and suggested the she-​bang and medium spicy after we got seated. A tip is not to wear anything that you don’t want stained because it will get very messy. Additionally, don’t order XXX spicy unless you can really handle spicy. After I wore my bib, I was ready to dig in. We each ordered a pound crawfish and shrimp and shared a dungeness crab. The seafood was very flavorful and super satisfying. But afterwards, no matter how much you clean your fingers, the smell always lingers. Also, this place a little more on the pricey side but it was definitely worth it!

Long behold, I finally got to try the infamous Crawfish spot.
The time was an unassuming Holiday shopping day, most likely a Thursday, late afternoon. After much convincing, the BF and I drove to this location and to our pleasant surprise there was no line.
We got seated and was told that there would be no crab available, later to have found out the reason behind it was the El Nino season had affected the crab crop in local waters.
Anyways, we did much a do with the options that were available to us. We ordered a mixed bag of crawfish, shrimp, and mussels with a the «shabang» mix. The «shabang» mix is a nice blend spicy, sweet, and savory marinade.
The results were great: super tasty, fresh seafood, and attentive customer service. Added bonus, the damage of the check was not so bad either, pretty reasonable or in Unilocal terms between «$» and «$$»!!! Definitely coming back to BC.

This was my first time going to the Boiling Crab after hearing so much hype about it. I know, I’m late to the party. Anyway, I had read reviews about the wait time being absurdly long so my friends and I decided to go for early dinner at around 5PM on a Wednesday. The restaurant was practically empty so good call (and a little paranoia) on our part. We were immediately seated, and the customer service was super great. The waiters were super attentive to our needs and upon noticing that it was our first time there, they gave us some helpful descriptions of how the restaurant worked.
I wasn’t too hungry, so I ordered half a pound of shrimp with lemon pepper seasoning (cajun is the base for all their seasonings, so essentially I got Cajun and lemon pepper). I also got Cajun fries. You have the option to choose how spicy you want your seasoning (I’m a wimp so the mild was more than enough for me). The waitress dissuaded my friend from getting the spiciest level but I’d say that if you like or are used to eating spicy food, go for the spiciest you can get. My friend found his medium spicy to be not very spicy at all.
It’s a very interestingly messy eating process, where you just eat straight off the table/​out of the bag, but it’s definitely an experience. I really dig the little plastic bibs that they give you too. The shrimp was definitely delicious, but I personally thought that the sauce wasn’t as flavorful as expected. The Cajun fries were AMAZING and generously portioned. The fries were of the perfect crispiness (I like my fries to be very crispy but not burnt on the outside, but still soft on the inside) and the Cajun seasoning was on point. To be honest, it was a little spicier than expected, but that just made them more delicious.
The price point is very reasonable. I ended up spending less than $ 10 for the shrimp and fries and left pretty full. However, if you’re planning to get the fancier seafood like King Crab I’d definitely check up on the market price first. My friend had a surprise $ 35 meal because of that.
All in all though, I’d recommend this place for anyone who loves seafood and/​or anyone who’s new to this style of restaurant. If anything, the experience will be fun!

Hum… for me, it’s not worthy to wait for that long time. We went there so early, so we didn’t wait too long.
We ordered the clams, shrimps, corn, steam rice, and sweet potato fries. The seafood and corn were fresh and tasty but too greasy and salty to me. The fries were delicious.
After all, I may go there again if it doesn’t need waiting. LOL

Drove 90 minutes each way (over 100 miles and $ 50 in gas /​wear&tear on my car round trip) to eat here, my favorite restaurant.
Fought through traffic to get here, and find out they were closed (on ¹²⁄₂₃). Their website didn’t say anything about the closure. Unilocal or google didn’t have anything about their closure. All signs pointed to deliciousness. Pretty frustrated.
If you were having some kind of holiday party for your staff, great! They deserve it! …Just let people know.
Because you refuse to do call ahead seating or take reservations, I have to plan around this trip. Total bummer when it doesn’t happen. Even worse when I drive there and you’re inexplicably closed.

Love this place. Not pricey at all to me.
Service is friendly.
The whole sha bang is on point.
I love their sauce, it’s thicker than any other crab joint. I dislike watery sauces.
I always get a pound of shrimp with rice!
And always need a fried side, either the calamari or fried shrimp basket. The cocktail sauce that comes with them is good!
Always down to come here. I believe my first time here (4 years ago) I was coming in literally 5x out the week.minimum.

DONT COME FOR LUNCH.
It’s basic as hell to write a Unilocal established place like boiling crab but either Spongebob was on break and someone put Squidward in charge of cooking or there was a change of management who cut quality.
Been to boiling crab a number times always tastes the same always tastes good. Came at lunch shrimp was bitter, had a strange texture and sauce tasteless and certainly not the whole shebang. Fries were undercooked.
Didn’t eat ¾ the bag and the boy always finishes his food.
I’ll probably still go to boiling crab though let’s be honest.

Long lines! So I ordered a pound of shrimp but couldn’t finish. It’s very good, but you come out of this place smelling like seafood. The corn was really good too.

This is your typical boiling crab, which seems to be all over the place nowadays. I’ve been to multiple locations, but this was my first time at this one. Same standard choices, and the food was as expected, so overall I had a delicious meal, and I’ll just name a few points for those of you who might want to try something else or haven’t been here before.
Typically, I order a whole pound of shrimp with the whole shabang sauce, which is all their sauces mixed together. I order teh spice level mild, and even then it’s quite spicy in my opinion, so if you’re really into heat you can go for medium or god forbid xxx. The sauce was standard, and I know some might say it’s slightly on the salty side, but to me it’s just fine.
I always always always order a side of cajun fries with medium level spice. Their fries are always extremely crisp/​crunchy and the cajun spice adds a wonderful flavor to them. Additonally, I find squeezing a little bit of the lime juice into my ketchup add so much flavor and freshness, when I dip these fries into it.
Another side I must have is their lemon pepper wings. A friend recommended it to me once, and ever since then I always get them. I’ve never tried their cajun wings, but my friend said lemon pepper is way better, so I just took his word for it. Their wings always come out hot, crisp, and packed with flavor. I feel like it is literally taken straight out the fryer and then delivered to your table, but somehow the wings aren’t oily at all. Pretty amazing.
Like I said earlier, your basic, average, run of the mill boiling crab. Service was decent, but this location compared to the others I’ve been to is a bit smaller. Still good food though, and that’s the main point right?

First off, the line here is ridiculous! Putting your name down and the check-​in process is pretty dumb… after you have your name down, in about 40−50mins you need to go back and wait in line to check in the hostess. We usually just take off and walk around Target to kill time. 1 – 1.5 hour wait. They expanded to the store next door so it’s a bit bigger but they have the bar in the new area so they didn’t add much more tables.
We get the whole shabang mild. Note that anything Medium and above is pretty dam spicy. We share 3lbs of shrimp between the 2 of us and add corn. IMO is pricey for corn but it’s just so good with the whole shabang! Note that you can ask for salt pepper and lime.
I had the fresh crawfish here once and thought it was alright. I wouldn’t get the crawfish again not really worth the money.

My all time favourite place to eat at when I travel to the Bay area i love seafood and so does my husband which makes this HEAVEN for us. We always have to order every single sauce it comes in from the menu and always with shrimp, crawfish, crab legs and raw oysters. So bomb! Did i mention it was my favourite place to eat at? can’t get enough of it

So I typically go to the Curtner BC but it’s always crowded to the point where what is the point. I’m from SF, so when I do get the chance to go to SJ and go to BC, I am one happy camper. I personally don’t think we have a lot of places in SF that will satisfy my shrimp boil craving so when I came here last time, we went a litttleeee overboard.
So here’s the story, we went to Curtner and the wait was, according to the host that I had to track down after a good 5 minutes standing at the booth, 2 hours. We were press on time because we were trying to grab a quick dinner before the Lion King Musical, we tried our luck at the Capitol BC. Omg, the wait was next to none. The host was awesome, because he got to us quick, and although he said it’ll prob be a 15 minute wait, he was attentive to finding us a seat ASAP! Our server, was alright. Kinda hard to live up to after the great host but we came for the food anyways.
On to the food! So since everything has up in the pricing, so has their shrimp. So let’s put it out there, I haven’t been to BC in a minute so I was a little upset that the shrimp wasn’t 9.99 anymore but whatever, it’s surprisingly still cheaper than a lot of places in SF so no arguments here. We grabbed a pound and a half of shrimp, a pound of crawfishm everything mild with the whole shabang. a dozen oysters, fried calamari basket and cajun fries. Again, for two people, and we destroyed everything!!! And they do not skimp on the food. We prob left with a food coma, but I don’t regret one bite. Lol. And I guess we came at a great time but the crawfish were nice and meaty, so def a good experience.
Here’s a tip you may want to try, if not, i don’t blame you. I like to dip my cajun fries into the ketchup then the whole shabang sauce in the shrimp bag. Delicious!

The whole shabang sauce, ½ pd of shrimp and 3 corn… with a side of cajun fries, please!
This place will leave you satisfied and coming back for more! The wait, can definitely be very long (I’ve waited 2 hours before) but it is definitely worth it. The sauce is so GOOD. It coats the seafood and the corn so well. The whole shabang sauce is a little spicy to begin with so I would definitely recommend doing the mild. Even the mild I could feel the slight heat. The cajun fries are a perfect compliment with the spice of the sauce. This place does get very messy so before you start chowing down I would definitely recommend putting away the phone and tying up the hair.
TIP: try to come earlier to avoid the longer line.

Question is what’s with all the hype? Have you not had crab or shrimp or seafood at other restaurants? Do you love digging in trash bags?
Friday night, 35 minute wait equals to an interestingly weird experience.
The peeps ordered shrimp and crawfish each at 1 lb per person.
I did the dungeness crab.
Shared a dozen of oysters and some cajun fries.
Oysters were great. Sweet, juicy and fat.
Moments later, the friends received their orders. 3 bags of trash on the table. All three bags were leaking minutes later. First person who dug in said, «Eww the shrimp taste powdery.» We said that might be just the one piece that you had. She then said, «Taste weird. dry, not juicy, not tender, powdery again.» We asked the waitress to see if she can look into it. She said she will bring it back and make another one for her.
My crab came… leaking as I dug into it.
Pretty hollow, barely any meat. $ 35 bucks for a bag of trash.
As we all finished, the girl who was waiting for her order was still waiting. Nothing came back. We asked the staff to see what happen as the kitchen was suppose to remake another order.
They didn’t let her cancel. They said it would be right out.
Ended up paying, took the bag of trash togo, and perhaps to trash somewhere else.
Sorry, maybe i’m traditional, but I never understood these plastic bags and eating like a carnivore. It’s messy, it’s dirty, it’s uhhh weird. Oh and who knows if these plastic withstand the heat of the food. Are you sure there’s no plastic BPA leakage?

NOMZ. Boiling Crab is always awesome — I’ve been to this location twice now and the wait has never been more than an hour for a party of 4. Most recently, came here on a Saturday night and only waited half an hour. (No reservations and make sure you’re around when they call your name!)
I always order one pound of shrimp, the whole she-​bang, mild — perfect! Of course, they have crab, crawfish, oysters, etc. as well. Cajun fries are also BOMB! They also have sweet potato fries or lemon pepper fries — whatever floats your boat.
You will have to ask for salt, pepper, and lime now — they used to give it to all tables, but that resulted in a lot of waste so now it’s only by request.
Don’t forget your pen/​sharpie to leave your mark on the wooden planks on the wall!

Love the Boiling Crab… Even drove an extra 45 minutes, as the closest thing to this in the Peninsula was the Red Crawfish; however, it changed hands and we wanted something we knew would hit the spot.
First time at this original location, as we usually hit the larger location on Curtner Rd. Waited about 30 minutes around 6pm, and the place got really packed afterwards.
Too bad the dungeness crab was frozen at $ 16/​lb as we would have jumped all over it if it was fresh. Instead we got the gumbo w/​rice (nicely loaded with andouille sausage, okra, and shrimp), Cajun fries (good heat), clams in garlic sauce (tasty and mild), shrimp in Cajun sauce (loved it), and crawfish with corn on the cob in the whole she-​bang sauce (my favorite of the bunch). Gotta suck the heads!
Service here was super polite and attentive. Will be back for sure!