These so called “Crab” places have been popping up everywhere, but the Boiling Crab is one of the originals, and sort of like the Starbucks of the “seafood in the bag” restaurants.
The original Boiling Crab is in Orange County near Little Saigon off Euclid, where the wait could be up to 2 hours long. The restaurant has expanded since, offering locations all over California and even in Dallas and Las Vegas. This location is in the heart of the Westwood Village by UCLA, and we came here on a Saturday evening and had no wait at all.
While we had no wait to get seated, it took forever for us to place our order. It was about 15 minutes, maybe longer for us to place the actual order for 2 pounds of shrimp, 1 pound of fresh crawfish, 1/2 pound of sausage and 1 order of corn. As I was ordering, I realized I had no idea how much the seafood was going to cost. The menu said “Market Price”.
I also noticed that The Boiling Crab changed their menu since I last came. They used to give you 2 sausage and corn if you ordered 2 pound of crawfish. I was told that they don’t offer that anymore, and everything is A La Carte. You can, however, order by 1/2 pound. Also unlike their competitor, they don’t offer noodles… especially the garlic noodles like say Kickin Crab offers.
Our food took about 20 minutes, maybe longer. I was getting a bit annoyed at how long it was taking, as other “Crab” places are much faster.
We finally got our order, and after taking the appropriate instagram photos, we started digging in. We decided on the “Mild” Shebang sauce and it was indeed mild. Stephen had only been to the Kickin Crab before this, and commented the Boiling Crab’s sauce was different. It was more buttery, less garlicky. He also commented that the Mild was by no means as spicy as the Kickin Crab, and wished they could have made it a bit spicier.
The shrimp was overcooked, and many pieces were hard to peel. That’s either overcooked, or the shrimp isn’t fresh. I’m assuming its frozen so let’s say overcooked.
The crawfish may have been “fresh” or live, but most of them were puny. Only 4 were the size of a jumbo shrimp, which was disappointing. I was still hungry after eating my crawfish, that I decided to order an extra pound of shrimp with a corn.
When I ordered the 2nd bag of seafood, it was already an hour and a half into our dinner. Apparently the server thought I was taking the food to go, as he handed me the check before I was done eating. Then, as I paid, the bag of shrimp came, and he offered to pack it up. I kindly declined, and told him I wasn’t done eating.
So to sum it up:
- This place is slow.
- The prices are not cheap ($75 for 2 of us) and there’s no combo like the other “Crab” places. I do like their Shebang sauce.. that’s still my favorite. But there’s so many other new “Crab” places out there.
Sadly, the Boiling Crab won’t be my go to place unless there’s no other place nearby.
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