Kicking Crab: Irvine, California

In 2004, a little restaurant called the “Boiling Crab” opened up in Garden Grove, California, serving up Cajun style seafood in plastic bags, on top of tables covered in waxed butcher paper.  It became such a hit, people were lining up for hours to dine here.  Of course, with success came copycat restaurants, and there are plenty in just Orange County… with one of them being the Kicking Crab.

While the Boiling Crab is still considered to be the best in “Asian” style Cajun seafood, the Kicking Crab holds well in their own right, and best of all, some of their locations are opened for lunch, while the competitors don’t open until 3:00 pm.

The Kicking Crab recently announced they have live, fresh crawfish /crayfish available.  I went on a Tuesday  with my 2 coworkers to the Irvine location, as they were the closest one who was opened for lunch.  We started off our meal with a basket of sweet potato fries, and decided on sharing the combo Deal #1, getting 2 pounds of the fresh crawfish, 1 pound of the shrimp, and then adding another pound of the shrimp at $9.99.  In addition, we added another 2 more corn cob at $0.75 each, making our order 2 pounds each of shrimp and crawfish and 4 corns, along with the sausage and potatoes.

The seafood came piping hot, and served inside a huge plastic bag.  We were offered bibs to “protect” our clothes, but it still didn’t really help, and we used up half a roll of the paper towels to wipe our hands and face as we broke open the hot, juicy mess of seafood, peeling and eating the spicy goodness.

At the end of the mess, we looked at the check.  It came to $20 a person with tax and tip for the meal, which was quite reasonable, as we left with garlic and spices coming out of our pores.

Kicking Crab has multiple locations, but the Irvine one is located at:
2740 Alton Parkway, Irvine, CA 92606 (Corner of Alton Parkway & Jamboree)

The down side of coming to this location is the parking can be awful.  They do have a parking structure, but if you park near the Kicking Crab side, you may find spaces there. Oh, and if you do come here, don’t wear white.

Inside the bag of seafood goodness