Ventura Crab N Spice

Decided to give this place a try for Father’s Day and so glad we did! The hub was happy and full! Fantastic spices! Food was amazing. Your fingers are your utensils! You do have to work for your food and it’s pretty messy but it’s all worth it. Friendly staff! My only complaint, I wish they served Bloody Mary’s!

I ordered sweet potato fries, a pound of shrimp, crab legs, and brown sugar slush with grass jelly and boba. I am satisfied with my entire order and customer service! I will definitely come back!

Messy. Tasty. The shrimp were big and meaty. But they stll had their heads. And their eyes. Kind of bothersome to me. And their long antennas. Or whatever they’re called. A la carte it was $ 45.00 for the 2 of us. We got shrimp, sausage (which was really good) 2 corn on the cob halves. If we go back we’ll get the huge $ 45 combo more stuff and you can get shrimp, crab, etc. The wait person was very nice. No forks. No plates. Lots of napkins, thank goodness!

I loveee this place! I literally go like once every two weeks! It is so close to home and don’t have to drive to LA traffic for the same food, which makes my food that much more enjoyable. Everytime I have gone I have received great service. My favorite is shrimp with the lemon garlic and spicyyy! Also love the mussels with the same condiments. I seriously don’t get tired of eating here.

Crab N Spice Seasoning is the best with Shrimp and/​or King Crab Legs! So tasty and juicy! We love this place. Cajun fries is the bomb too. Can’t wait for our next visit!

Next time I go I am taking a jar of chopped garlic to add to my bag. That’s all I was missing. They have a happy hour from 3 – 5. So we got our shrimp at a nice discount. Should have read the reviews before we went because everyone raves about the noodles. Oh well. Guess I’m just going to have to go back for some noodles.

This is one of those places any seafood lover must give a shot once in their life.
My first time here. We ordered:
2lbs of crawfish — extra spicy/​hot flavor
1 lb of shrimp — mild/​lemon garlic flavor
½ lb sausage
Garlic noodles
Calamari
Red potatoes
Rice
3 beers total
Oh wow, clearly this was more than 2 heads could finish. Had plenty to take home!!! And we were BEYOND stuffed.
Shrimp was classic peel and eat, on point and very good. Crawfish was labor intensive for the tiny amount of meat inside. But still good. (Won’t go with the crawfish next time.) The garlic noodles are ADDICTIVE level good. The fried calamari was good enough. The rice was perfectly cooked and done correct to compliment the seafood. Same with the red potatoes. The sausage was great and complimented everything perfectly as well.
All in all, it’s a total eating experience with a crowd there to get their grub on with super friendly waitresses!
Don’t think about showing up in a perfect red lip and long sleeves. Your hands and part of your arms will get MESSY. Mark my words!!! When I saw people in there wearing bibs, I knew I was going to get my nails caked in food. In a good way :-)
A must try place.

I read many great reviews on Unilocal so when a friend wanted to meet there we jumped at the chance. You sign in when you walk in the door as they only take reservations for 8 or more people.
The ambiance is very casual and the restaurant is a bit small so there was people waiting to get a table after we arrived.
The wait staff was very friendly and accommodating as our whole party of 6 was not there at the same time.
We ordered fried green beans which came with a spicy mayo dipping sauce that was delicious. The green beans were perfectly crunchy and not greasy at all. I would order that again for sure. The homemade french fries that she recommended which also came with the same dipping sauce in half regular half cajun was also delicious.
We ordered 2 bags each of shrimp, crawfish, and king crab legs which come in 1 lb bags and you pay for by the lb. with your choice of seasoning and how spicy you want it. We ordered regular crab and spice in mild on everything. We also ordered corn on the cob and whole potatoes which was also smothered in the seasonings. The corn was really tasty but the potatoes were a tad undercooked.
Don’t wear your favorite blouse and jewelry as this in a messy endeavor. Plan on getting your hands dirty as we were covered in sauce. They do give you a complimentary bib and you can ask for gloves for an extra .25
Our friends seemed to really enjoy the experience but plan on working for your meal.

I’m giving a 5 star because this is the only place to get this type of seafood cooked and served this way here in Ventura city-​maybe the whole county.
1. Very clean inside and minimalist, which I like.
2. Endless parking– the place is small, but the parking is easy.
3. Good location and easy to find and convenient if you also have to go grocery shopping at Winco
4. Food– the quality of the seafood offered is excellent. I will concur with other reviewers about the mussels being the best! We had the combo with shrimp (huge), mussels, and crab and quail eggs (yummy). Try the spicy
5. Price — extremely reasonable. For 2 people you can stuff your face for $ 45 or less. Go with the combo and try different sauces if it’s your first time here.
6. Service-​Excellent and professional with a great attitude. The place is smallish and I think the biggest party they can handle might be 6 or 7.

Food: garlic noodles were just OK. I wouldn’t order them again. I prefer thicker noodles and less grease. 1lb of crawfish and shrimp with the Cajun sauce. The shrimp and crawfish were fresh. The sauce was decent and nothing to rave about. The chicken tenders were good. Liked that they were juicy and hot.
Service: good. I was checked on frequently. Food came out fast. I came on a weekday around 5pm and there were only 5 other tables. No wait. Restaurant is clean.
Overall I would probably come back again since there’s no wait time and there aren’t other options in Ventura. They have happy hour from 4pm to 6pm Mon thru Thursday.

The service is great– we got there early so there was plenty of seating– I can see that it feels up fast– but they are expanding.
The waitress explained the menu as it was our first time–
We ordered one pound of snow crab and one pound of shrimp– the crab and spice flavor was suggested and we got it mild (it did have a little kick) beware the shrimp does come with the heads on them. As an appetizer we got fried calamari– some of the best I’ve ever had.
Everything came out quick– they had the proper utensils to help with the crab. It was a great experience and after– they have a sink to wash up– it is messy.

Came on a Tuesday evening and it wasn’t crowded. However, people were still coming in and out, so all tables were occupied the entire time we were there. We ordered 5 shrimps and 1 clams.
Their shrimp was fresh, jumbo, and juicy. Their sauces were buttery and full of savory spices. I liked the lemon garlic assasin8 the best. The clams were not worth the money … all the meat from a pound of clams would come out to about 1 shrimp. We ordered some rice to put the buttery sauce over for $ 1 per serving. The hush puppies were cute and yummy. Their calamari wasn’t too bad. Their clam chowder was decent. creamy but a bit too rich for me. We also ordered oysters, and they were nothing spectacular. My husband ordered the garlic noddles and he said they were not bad, but he would have liked them better if they were not so rich tasting.
Everything is savory here. I really wish they had some other vegetables aside from corn to offset the salt and oil/​butter in the sauces. The service is excellent. Miguel set up the table for us and catered to us the entire time we were there. Alicia took our orders and came back around to check on us often. The owner got us a bigger table for our party of 7.
They have a nice sink in the back, outside the restrooms, that is kept clean and stocked with soap and paper towels for you to wash your hands when you are done with your meals. This is a really thoughtful touch!

OMG! If you have been to the boiling crab then you know what kind of place this is, but Ventura crab n spice is BETTER!
So when you come here, don’t compare the food with boiling crab, forget boiling crab when you come here. Also there is no wait here :) but we came between lunch and dinner time.
I found this place randomly on Unilocal while we were visiting the area, we came here and the staff was very friendly, and it is a small place, there is only about 9 or 10 tables, which is better in my opinion, because the smaller the place the less noisy it is and my personal it is.
Now the waiter that helped us recommended we mix the crab n spice and lemon garlic seasoning together with the choice of spiciness level, so we did the mix with the shrimp and made it medium spiciness and also ordered clams with the same mix seasoning and made it SPICY! Now I recommend the spicy over the medium, I find it to taste a lot better when it’s spicy, and it’s not death defying spicy, it’s just a little spicy, to me at least.
We also ordered the garlic noodles, it was delicious! You gotta try it! And the Cajun fries are the bomb too!
5 stars! We will be back again, We would make a special trip just to eat here again.

THIS here, is a GOOD MEAL! FIRST of its kind here to mimic «The Boiling Crab» method in VENTURA COUNTY! There are others soon to be opening with similar cuisines, but this is all we have for now. Our first attempt at sampling their vittles, resulted in us leaving for plan B cuz the place was PACKED with a whole BUNCHA people standing around waiting on one Friday evening. The eatery in its current tiny configuration gets filled up fast! They are expanding, so hopefully the new area opens up soon. Next time we came was right at opening Sunday morning and we were able to go straight to a table. (Maybe I shouldn’t include that, hah!). Jerrico helped get us started, guiding us thru the process. Friendly chap, made us feel quite welcome to visit. Pricing is based on current market prices. Now that we’re here, let’s order a few things…
*LOBSTER: Had it prepared with lemon garlic & Crab n Spice (medium level) flavoring. Added some spicy sausage for a lil extra umph! 1 lb. of lobster turned out to be 2 lobster tails. All «hands on» action here so definitely need to keep that bib on cuz stuff be flying all over! This flavoring was delicious and the lobster was perfectly prepared, not chewy or gummy at all. Luved it!
*CNS COMBO (includes 3lbs. of your choice of seafood, 2 pieces of corn, ½ lb. of sausage, & 5 quail eggs):
–CLAMS: 1 lb. with mild coconut mildly spiced
–MUSSELS: 1 lb lemon garlic, Crab n Spice mildly spiced
–SHRIMP: 1 lb. with lemon garlic, Crab n Spice mildly spiced again.
*SNOW CRAB: 1 lb. with lemon garlic, Crab n Spice mildly spiced yet again.
Good quantity were given in the plastic baggies they were cooked in. My moms & Wifey were quite content once it was all said & done. The young squires also found this method of eating to quite an enjoyable except for one, and he stuck with chicken tenders. Everyone loved the flavor recommended and we could easily order this again.
*FRIED STRING BEANS: Crisp beans with a crunchy batter. Not too greasy either. Good stuff, nice alternative to French fries.
*CALAMARI: NOT gummy at all, perfectly cooked with a nicely crisp batter. Shoulda ordered two of these Cuz it disappeared too fast!
*CHICKEN TENDERS: Always has to be one not digging what’s in front of ‘em, and was inclined not to order anything extra cuz that’s the the kind Pops I am. But grandma felt sorry for her favorite & ordered this for him. So just in case yur special someone ain’t diggin’ what should be ordered here, there’s chicken tenders to fall back on. Wise decision to include this on the menu.
Yummy eats here that you have to get down & dirty with yur hands. Friendly & helpful staff make the dining experience even better. For a new restaurant in Ventura County, they got things firing on all cylinders. Just be prepared to wait if things are busy until they finish expansion. Easy recommendation :)

Just okay unfortunately. Currently this is the only restaurant of this type in the Ventura/​Oxnard area. It’s a restaurant on the smaller side with concrete walls, floors, and ceilings, so it can get noisy.
I wanted to a lot of variety for my family so I opted for two of their two different types of combo meals: the CNS combo and the Family party combo. I opted for 3 pounds of shrimp, a pound of mussels, and 2 pounds of crawfish, I think. The best was the shrimp, at least that was the freshest of the three. The shrimp were large, ¹²⁄₁₆ size! The mussels were a close second, and the everything else (crawfish, king crab, and snow crab) were a very distant third. The problem with the crawfish, king crab, and snow crab were they so water-​logged from being frozen that they couldn’t absorb the spices and they also became chewy. You should check with your server to see if what your ordering is in season or not.
The extras that came with the order were just meh. The quail eggs were interesting, but didn’t absorb much flavor. My order was to go, so I didn’t get to experience the service. Overall, just an okay experience. I think if there were a little competition for this type of restaurant, things would improve much more.

Calling all seafood lovers! Seafood lovers unite ;)
So excited that we were finally able to have dinner here tonight for the first time! There’s no place that has the same concept like CNS, in the Ventura area, so I was super stoked to have found this place on my Unilocal feed. Many have compared this place to places like The Boiling Crab, Backyard Bayou, Crawdaddy House, etc… Basically you order different types of seafood/​shellfish (crab, shrimp, crawfish, clams, mussels, etc) and you eat with your bare hands and are served with different types of sides (rice, garlic noodles, Cajun fries). It’s fun because they lay out a piece of paper as your table covering and you just go at it. Before you get started don’t forget to put on the plastic bib that they provide-​oh and don’t wear white here ;) Tonight we had rice, garlic noodles, corn, sausage and quail eggs as our sides. The garlic noodles were pretty tasty, not too salty and with the right amount of garlic. For the main dishes we ordered 2 lbs of king crab legs smothered in the lemon garlic original CNS sauce and 1lb of shrimp smothered in the lemon garlic spicy CNS sauce. Both were very good options. I would have to say that the shrimp were pretty large and the king crab legs were pretty meaty and very sweet/​fresh.
Our food was out and ready within 15 minutes of ordering, huge plus! Everything was deliciously saucy! Overall the food was pretty tasty and so for that we will be returning customers. We walked in and there was no wait, pretty unexpected for a Saturday night.
I would have to say that the customer service from the Servers could be more personable and inviting. Our server wasn’t very warm and welcoming & even though we told her this was our first time visit, she didn’t go the extra mile to really make us feel really welcomed. Maybe she was having a bad night, but she will not be the reason stopping us from coming back because the food is why we will return. Some might find this place to be expensive, but the quality is on point so you do get what you pay for.
Expect to get sauce all over your fingers and maybe your face because you eat with your hands. If your one that can’t take mess, this place is not for you.

Unfortunately, I have to bump down the stars after going to crab n spice again yesterday.
The Good:
1. No wait time
The Bad:
1. Waiter forgot to give us an order of corn
2. Crab N Spice sauce (although representing the name of the restaurant) was still not as good as lemon garlic
3. Tried the lobster tail and the crawfish. Turns out I am not a fan of crawfish because there’s so little meat in these little creatures! So not worth the 12.50 $/​lb. Lobster tail was stuck to the shell which indicates that it may not be as fresh like some seafood restaurants in OC.
4. Garlic noodles — although no longer as greasy, is now way less tasty than it use to be! The noodles itself are smaller and less chewy. The flavor and sauce has reduce to nothing causing the noodles to be a bit bland.
Although convenient and close in comparison to an actual Boiling Crab, I am sad to say that I just feel like I don’t get much bang for my buck here in terms of quality and taste.

Holy shit Ventura Crab N Spice! :O
If you have that Boiling Crab craving and reside in the 805, look no further than to pay a visit to CNS!
My family and I wanted to try something new for dinner and I remembered about this place from Unilocal friend Vivian. Tonight would be a perfect time to go out and luckily, it was only a 10 minute drive with 15 – 20 wait: O which is WAY better than driving 1.5−2 hours and waiting another 1.5−2 hours. AIN’T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT!
We ordered 2 CNS combos ($ 40 per CNS combo):
1^st combo had 1 lb shrimp, 1 lb mussels, and 1 lb crawfish (all in SPICY Crab N Spice)
2^nd combo had 1 lb shrimp, 1 lb clams and 1 lb crawfish (all in MEDIUM Lemon Garlic)
Each CNS combo came with 2 corn (yummy), ½ lb of sausage (scrumptious) and 5 quail eggs (meh, I don’t eat eggs).
Also, please order the garlic noodles. You won’t regret it :9
Both flavors were really good (Lemon Garlic was a standout than CNS) and the spiciness was almost the same kinda lol. I really like eating shrimp because your reward from peeling is much greater than the work getting to it. But in crawfish, you put in so much effort to get the head and armor off for a small body meat that it just doesn’t seem worth it. Clams and mussels are equal to me haha.
The customer service was amazing and they go above and beyond. One of the reasons why we had an awesome experience and they do their best to accommodate the patrons.
I love how they have a sink hand-​wash station near the unisex bathroom. So clever to just have a big sink for those who just want to lather and rinse off the spicy goodness from their phalanges than to occupy the only restroom in the restaurant.
Ugh I can’t wait for next time, CNS! You are my true love lol

FINALLY, Ventura County has a cajun seafood restaurant!
(Okay so this isn’t Boiling Crab, but for those that have been to Boiling Crab and want to try the new local Crab N Spice (CNS), just take it for what it is.)
Food:
— I ordered 1 lb of shrimp with the Crab N Spice sauce, mild.
Like I said, this isn’t Boiling Crab, but the flavor is good. A tad salty from the spices mixed in with the shrimp, but I like the sauce itself.
— Their mild spiciness level isn’t really mild. I should’ve ordered medium instead.
— If you like your steamed rice wet and slightly overcooked, you will love their rice. I do!
— Get the CNS combo! It’s basically 3 lbs of a certain list of seafood of your choice, also they added quail eggs, sausage & corn all for $ 40. Good value & it’s good for 2 people.
Service:
— Good and friendly! The servers kept checking back on us and refilling our water cups.
Restaurant:
— Small place, can only seat about 30 people at most. If it’s crowded, expect a wait.
— Clean
— They have a sink accessible outside of the restroom to wash your hands after you drown your fingers with their sauce! lol

Unlike a lot of other people, I’ve never been to Boiling Crab so I have nothing to compare my visit to.
I’ve been hearing so many things about this place. I knew they had just opened so I didn’t want to drop by on the first week.
My friend and I came in yesterday for a super late lunch meal. As soon as we drove in we saw a ton of people outside and I was instantly discouraged. We checked how long the wait was and were told it was 30 mins. We left, but turned right around mostly because nothing else was open and we drove there and didn’t want the effort to go to waste.
We put our name in and ended up getting a spot in 10 minutes. 20 mins less than we were told so that’s a plus.
In hindsight, we should’ve ordered the special that comes with 3 lbs and 3 sides since we were starving, but we weren’t sure if we could handle it. We both had zero desire to take home leftovers.
We started with the calamari which was delicious and an order of oyster. The oyster which I was told were from the Gulf of Mexico were hands down some of the best I’ve had. We inhaled the whole plate in under a minute.
We then ordered a lb of shrimp with the crab n spice flavor and a lb of clams with lemon garlic. Both were ordered with medium spice which I thought wasn’t nearly spicy enough. There was also a side of garlic noodles and corn. The shrimp were enormous. We ate the whole bag. The clams were pretty good too. I think because of the lemon garlic flavor.
The service was so-​so. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t horrible. In my opinion, what they need to work on is having everyone be a bit more organized. I say this because not even 30 seconds after someone took our drink order, someone else came over and asked what we wanted to drink. Also, the guy who brought out the food kept bringing them to the wrong tables. He didn’t seem to care either. It’s not that hard to attach a table # with the dish you’re taking out. Our oyster order was given to a different table twice.
They’re lucky the food is good that I let the mishaps slide.
I would definitely give them a second chance once they’re a little bit more settled and have beer.