Buena Park: Kickin Crab

The Buena Park mall is located just down the street from Knott’s Berry Farm. Even though its close to a tourist destination, its a rather dead venue with many stores coming and going all the time. The anchor stores are Sears, Walmart and Bed Bath and Beyond, which doesn’t say much about the mall. Apparently there has been a recent revival as they have been opening more family friendly restaurants from Wild Buffalo Wing, John’s Incredible Pizza, to Dickies BBQ, and the popular arts and craft show: Sugarplum, has made the Buena Park mall their new home.

The Kickin’ Crab is making their presence known, as they now occupy a corner location by the Krikorian Movie Theater, adjacent to the Sears department store. We came on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, and arrived at 6:00 pm.

Upon walking in, we saw that most of the tables were unoccupied, yet we were told it would be a 40 minute wait. We told the host and the hostess that we would come back in half an hour, as we went to check out something at the Bed, Bath and Beyond. Apparently, the wait was less than quoted, as we were passed on the wait list by 6 parties when we returned at 6:30. No worries! The host (who kept asking me 4 times what my name was) gave me the table immediately.

Outside

Inside view from the host station

It was Stephen’s first time to a Cajun “food in a bag” restaurant, so I chose the Combo 1 ($33.99) to share and ordered: 2 pounds of shrimp, 1 pound of crawfish, and the combo came with potatoes, corn and sausage. We added a side of the red rice.

The food came out piping hot, and we tore into the food without any problem. It was messy, and it was garlicky, and the medium was a tad spicy for Stephen, so I ordered another pound of shrimp ($9.99) but with the mild sauce to offset the medium spice. It worked. The mild is a buttery version of the medium, but no kick.

My only gripe on Kickin Crab is I wished they offered mints at the door, or, offered a cool dessert to cleanse the garlicky palate. As soon as you’re done with your meal, they slap the check on the table, so they could make way for the next wave of waiting guests. Our bill for 2 before tip came to $54.

Stephen really enjoyed his dinner, and we had garlic coming out of our pores for the rest of the weekend. Like Irvine, this location is opened for lunch.