Joe’s Crab Shack

They are not as good as they use to be. Smaller portions. Poor slow service. Food quality is not as good. Wish they would get it together. Has potential to be good again…

Fast casual seafood restaurant. While other locations have come and gone, this one has remained. Very fun atmosphere, the food is standard seafood fare while the drinks are tasty.

This place is so much better than Red Lobster. At Red Lobster you get simple crab legs or lobster. I can get that at the grocery store. Here you get a bucket or steam pot of both in seasoning that is so good. I can’t recommend one because I haven’t tried them all. Both times I’ve been here the crab tasted great.
They had a painting class going on when we got here. That’s not something I would normally think was cool but my girlfriend thought it might be a lot of fun and on second thought it is kind of cool. It looked kind of Bob Ross style.
We brought our baby with and the person at the door, without any hesitation, came up and held the door for us. That was so nice! I wouldn’t have been offended if he didn’t but it was really nice.
It was night Friday when we went to this location, maybe 745 or 8. After the painting class the place kind of cleared out. Maybe every other table was empty. I hope this place does good business because I really enjoy going there. I noticed there were a lot of waitstaff and I hope they’re all getting paid and happy.

$ 3 for SODA WATER?
Small tables especially when 5 people order the Pots meals
Distracted server
Not so great quality seafood, yuck lobster
The only person I can honestly say was super nice and helping was the manager, not sure her name but she was working Mothers Day around 2pm… She was great

Great food and service. No tipping allowed!

Joe crab shack is Not a bad restaurant. I just didn’t like the service there. The food was good though. And I was a little surprised that there was not an option to give tips. Reading through other reviews I found out that it was already included. A little weird.

So I went to the Schaumburg location and the first thing I noticed when I got into the restaurant was how long it took us to be seated and the place was by no means packed. The hostess was talking to her co worker by the bar and was not paying attention. Luckily our server was much more attentive. I do think the prices are a little high for what you get. My husband and I both got steam pots and the food was good. When it came time to pay and I saw no second receipt for tip and I asked my server about this, he stated, «we do not accept tips here» I’m glad I asked because I believe they include in the prices for the food, so I would’ve tipped twice!

I’m blown away by how long this place has lasted. We went for lunch on Friday afternoon and were one of only 5 tables that were taken. First thing we noticed was how expensive this place is. $ 14 for a salad or a low end crab pot starting at a staggering $ 32. I wanted crab but there’s no way in hell I am paying $ 32 for that. I ended up ordering the blackened mahi tacos and a bowl of clam chowder. The clam chowder was a yellow brothy liquid. It wasn’t creamy like clam chowder should be. The tacos were ok.
The most shocking part was when it came to paying the bill and there was no line to add a tip. We put a cash tip on the table. Then I get home and read the reviews to see if anyone else had a bad experience and I read that tips are included in the price of the food so in other words we double tipped. What a gimmick to screw their infrequent customers! Live and learn. Never again!

What a bad experience. From the time we walked through the door to the time left, we experienced terrible service. The hostess was bored, super slow, and barely moved to get us to our table and it wasn’t even busy.
Then our server ran my credit card on another customer’s check. The manager came over and simply said it was a mistake and that $ 150 was on hold on my card for their error. He didn’t offer to take anything off our check or give us a gift certificate for a future visit. I will never return.

It’s been a few years since we’ve been to this location, and I was really surprised to see how much the place had deteriorated. We were seated in a booth on an outer wall, and the wall and window frame looked as if a 5 yr old was given a caulk gun and allowed to run amuck. All I could focus on was the globs of silicone around the window frame and white caulk between every board on the wall. A trip to the ladies room proved that the run down conditions extend throughout the bldg.
BUT, if you can get past this (and the ridiculously loud music), the food was good. I had the blackened mahi tacos which were tasty, even though the pieces of fish were ²⁄₃ the size of the tortilla. The others in my group had fried shrimp, blackened redfish with lobster sauce, and steal. They each enjoyed their meals.

The food was great. The staff were considerate and welcoming. The price was fair ranging from mid to high. The atmosphere calm and peaceful. Overall great dining experience. A+

I am shocked how this restaurant screwed the waitstaff. They jacked up their prices and tell customers that service tips are included. They go as far as elimination the tip line on the credit card charge slip.
And how do they «pass on the tips to the waitresses?» They gave them a flat hourly raise to under $ 10 and hour! A waitress can make $ 20 a table on tips. They are getting screwed.
Where is the extra money going to? Wow. This is not a high end NYC Restaurant. It’s a down and dirty, t shirt wearing waitstaff restaurant.
Get real! Not going back.
This is why workers in 2016 want to unionize.
Shame on the corporate ownership
I was told this was a test store for this. As far as I can see, you flunked

When we heard about this place, through Unilocal,my mouth was watering like it is now just thinking about it. To me this has been the better crab bucket or cajun crab we’ve had in the past decade.
I was advised to make reservations because this place gets super busy. I did, but when we got there it was not busy at all. Go figure. We were seated right away, and the menus were provided with glasses of water. That was the best it would be.
Service got really slow. Still, we tried to not let it get to us because we just wanted to have a good time on our date nite, which has been difficult to do of late due to our conflicting schedules. I changed my mind and wanted to add, have, a coke. Had to call the wait over, then took awhile to come.
We love crab but wanted to have a variety of seafood to eat. Based on that we ordered.
KJ Steampot
I would have like to get King crab but this offered a better seafood variety. Along with the crab came mussels and scallops. This was drenched in a garlic wine sauce. That was the other reason. Once I see «garlic» I get focused on it. I will not order everything with garlic but I will give it some serious thought. This steampot was the way to go for us. M ate alot, so did I and we fought who would eat the last bites bc we were both full. It was delicious. Easy to eat, not too hard to get the shell off into that sweet meat. Many times I got the meat out in one whole big chunk, and gave that to M to eat who hasn’t eaten as much crab as I have in my life. Just trying to balance the scales. Good thing this steampot is more than enough for two, and was very delicious to eat.
Over all service was okay. It was hard to call the server too bc she was somewhere we couldn’t easily find. Didn’t have to wait too long she was checking in on us but would’ve been better if she was more available to customers. There was another couple in the booth next to us. I noticed they were getting a little frustrated waiting have their bill taken care of. But, the food was good.

Reasonably priced but the food is just okay. Our server was a little slow and unattentive too. Not impressed, but have still come here because of the fun and relaxed atmosphere. The combo boils or platters are good. I like the popcorn shrimp. Generous and strong signature drinks here too.

They get one star because the hostess was very kind and cleaned the dirty booth that we requested to sit in. I have always enjoyed my experience, I’m hoping they trade in their creative birthday songs for hot food, attention to their customers and correct billing. Once corrected, it took forever to actually pay the bill. The restaurant was half full yet our server couldn’t make his way over till we waved. We sent a platter back because it was cold and seemed to be sitting. My steam pot was good, but very greasy… not buttery… greasy. We watched the bus boy (not sure the title) literally sweep trash under the empty tables instead it into a dust pan. By the end of the night we just chalked it up to a host of new staff. I’m glad their service is all inclusive and servers don’t have to rely on tips for their salary. They still must do better.

The crab was delicious! Came on a slow Sunday night, our Server was Amanda, she was super friendly and at attentive:)

This might have been my first time at a Joe’s Crab Shack. I think I prefer to stay away from these in-​between fast food-​ish chain restaurants.
JCS is pretty standard in terms of seafood offering. Again, for a chain restaurant I guess it is good. I had the blackened red fish which comes with rice. It was a hefty portion for lunch and a pretty dollar.
JCS has a ship like interior theme to go with the whole seafood atmosphere. There is a community jar of silverware as well as paper towel roll for when you get down and dirty.

First time in Illinois was a one night trip to a town called Schaumburg. It was a long flight and cold outside. Just about a block away from the hotel I was staying it was a Joe’s crab shack. After a couple shots of Jamison’s followed by a few beers I don’t remember the dish other than it tasted great and the photo I found the next day.

If I didn’t have to come here for my husband’s birthday I promise I would not have eaten here.
The last time I was here was over 10 years ago. With my very own eyes I saw cockroaches here at our table!!! But that was years ago. With reluctancy I brought myself here today.
Let me start by saying that the place looks like it has been semi-​renovated. The staff is nice. Everything else is trash.
We had a party of ten and most left with one symptom or another. I think I had the worst.
Food to me was gross. I didn’t eat most of it. I gladly passed it on to my spouse. I ordered the king crab broil. Potatoes were soggy and gross. Corn on the cob looked like baby corn. I didn’t even attempt to eat the sausage, macaroni salad, or coleslaw. Hushpuppies were over fried. I shared the legs. I hardly ate and was still able to walk away with a tummy ache.
If I never come back here again, that would be too soon.

I’m a huge huge fan of seafood and I was looking forward to this place. I get satisfied even from average tasting seafood, that’s how much I love it. But the food here was just not worth the cost. Some of the items we ordered were just too salty to eat.
Pricey for low quality food = 1 star