CrabMee Arcade — Attraction in Houston

I have been to a couple claw machine arcades at this point, and this place has its pros and cons from what I can tell. For the cons, it was kind of pricey. Most machines were $2-$3 per play. The Gatcha machines are also a little pricey. On top of that, I felt like the claw machine was “deciding” when I should win. I would grab the prize and sometimes the claw would just let it go before even moving the claw towards the drop. But other times it would let me have it, it wouldn’t just drop it. I understand it dropping while it moves to the chute, but the claw was visibly just letting my prize go before even moving at all. At the other arcades I’ve played at, I’ve never felt like the machine decided I couldn’t win. It takes away from the experience. That’s not to say I didn’t win a lot, because I went home with a heavy bag. But I definitely felt cheated out of a few grabs, and it is frustrating playing the same claw 4-5 times for the machine to decide it will let me have the prize. So onto the good things - the inside of the shop is stunning with great photo ops, the plushies in the machines are good quality, there is a wide variety of different types of items too, like the gatcha machines and figurines. They also have the trade in system where you can win plushies and trade them in for points to get larger items/different items. The staff is extremely friendly and easy to approach. They are always walking around checking the machines, repositioning the toys in the machines to make sure there is always something able to win and nothing is stuck or unable to grab. You can even win larger toys by winning a smaller “special” grab in the machine. I liked that! All in all was an okay visit that I felt could use...

YOU WILL BE WASTING MONEY HERE.

Edit. Dropping this down to 1 star. My mother came to town and my daughter wanted to come here again. Every single machine just drops the prizes. The claws don't jiggle them out, they just open and drop them on purpose. We came during the Easter event and it was total BS. Now these machines are just dropping every single prize the whole time. This place is good to ruin a child's fun, or just teach them about crappy business practices. It's just not worth the money. The staff even said "It's my manager" in reference to why you don't get your money's worth here.

Just take them on a small shopping spree at a toy store or something. This is NOT WORTH IT. Cashed out our points and will not be returning.

Easter Event 2026

We spent 50 dollars today, and most of the claws on the machines open back up when they reached the top. They dropped the items due to the claws opening back up, not just shaking free. We spent this type of money and were completely done with our experience in 15 minutes, and only won 3 plushies. These items were nowhere close to worth that much money, and I understand the luck aspect to this, but when the machines claws open up AFTER grabbing an item, it becomes clear that it is a programmed response. We generally trade the items in for points towards other items, but we walked away with only 4 points today after spending 50 bucks. I just don't feel the value in coming here because the experience is so short lived, the items, while unique, are not worth as much as we spend, and with the Easter event it just didn't feel like we gained enough fun in that short of a period for the type of...

This place is no substitute for other claw machine arcades. I won’t be back.

Half of the full-size machines are little games where you have to pick up dice and roll for a prize and don’t contain stuffed animals. The rest are filled with very low quality stuffed animals relative to other arcades like this I’ve been to. The win rate was terrible. You can turn in stuffed animals and upgrade to little toys- but you’ll need MANY stuffed animals to do it. The big size machines take $2-$3 per play. If you combine that with a terrible win rate, it’s like a terrible carnival experience (very high cost, minimal reward).

The row of mini games were pretty easy and had a high win rate like other arcades I’ve been to, they were one of the only good things about this small arcade. The employees were extra friendly, which was the other positive review. Great for my daughter but not exciting for me.

They have a whole quarter of the store devoted to Japanese gumball machines that require special tokens. For a lovely $6-$8 per gumball machine you can get a small Japanese gumball machine toy. What a total ripoff.

I have a retail background and this place is set up as short term profit (average spend of $10-$15 for a $0.50 cost stuffy) that will leave customers unhappy and the won’t return, not longterm success. I’d def recommend driving to Chinatown to experience better places where you’ll walk away with some high quality stuffies after an actually fun...