Blue Crab Seafood House — Restaurant in Victoria

3.0 star rating 25/7/2018 our dinner for 4 experience @ Blue Crab in Coast Hotel Victoria

Q. When Does a 5 star VIEW = a quality and FIVE STAR fine dining experience.

A. Depends.

If the service is sincere and attentive, the hospitality warm. If all dishes are correctly executed. If the price demanded is the same as the menu offered.

Our experience at Blue Crab last evening:

The VIEW is wondrous. Watch the busy harbour: Seaplanes. Big Ferries, mini FERRIES. Boats. & more. It sparkles in the late afternoon sunshine.

Located inside the Coast Hotel in James Bay, Blue Crab is an attractive comfortable restaurant. Complimentary underground parking, take lift up to lobby and restaurant.

Arriving at our reservation time, no one at greeter station 'pls wait to be seated', we stood for several minutes.

Given a 'windows on the world' table for four. Impressive. Wow factor views.

Given a 'FRESH sheet', "specials of the day" menu.

As we were catching up with 40 year friends, a very happy occasion, it was a great evening.

We chose 48 dollar mains X 3 with the 'special' wine match, a local Chardonnay, @ 35 the bottle, as offered by the 'daily sheet' and confirmed by server. One 42 dollar main from the same 'daily sheet'. We pointed at the menu. He took the order.

We opted for starters from the regular menu.

Crab cakes really well executed dish 19 bucks for two little ones. A spicy aioli accompanied, as did a slaw. DELICIOUS. My fresh green salad 12 bucks also excellent. Toasted nuts. Fruity bits. Tasty balanced dressing. Generous portion. One of our party started with a chowder. Very good said he.

3 mains were the 'crabby halibut' daily special 48 bucks a pop. (HODGEPODGE said the menu) Luxury ingredients suggested. Topping of house special CRABmeat over the fish disappointed a little. no 'lumps', but wispy dry salty fibres suggestive of crab. 'Swimming in milk', as advertised. Wife's steelhead trout dish @ 42 bucks was one of the best mains she's ever had. Lightly deftly cooked. Moist delicious. (I know, she let me have a taste). Thumbs up.

Service. As mentioned earlier, a tardy greeting / seating. Basic. Barely functional, not 'host of the year' stuff. No refilling of wine glasses. Ditto H2O. No one asked me whether "everything's all good ?" UNTIL he was clearing away the main plates, cryptically inquiring if he could get me a 'doggy bag' for my uneaten overcooked dry halibut! No thanks. IT'S OVERDONE. DON'T CARE TO EAT.

The bill had no adjustment for the largely uneaten main. It included a 20 dollar OVERCHARGE for the clearly marked and confirmed by server (35 dollar 'matching' the halibut main dish), local Chardonnay which drank well for THAT price point.

Inquiries at the pay station and requests to speak with a manager were brushed off. (NONE 'available')

We paid as requested.

Value?

Starters excellent. 3 out of 4 mains ok. Wine good, then the 'over charge'. 70 bucks a head for the experience. Service as described.

Rating in this forum?

Is two a cruel rating? There were some fine moments. Is 3 stars too high?

Can't call it a 4 / 5 , too many 'stumbles' for the 'fine dining' league. Tuff call. Can I ask the video referee?

We took an average opinion of four diners arriving at 3.0. (As host, mine was a...

This is a MUST-TRY restaurant.

Many painfully mistaken people on Yelp and Google Maps alike will say that this restaurant is overhyped, or that it is harboring and hiding hundreds of extremely small french soldiers.

But the lips of those who tell and guard truth and integrity in the culinary world may remind you that many foolish Americans said the same of our beloved statue of liberty, whom hosted only 30 or so french soldiers, and they didn't even do that much!

I can only await with bated breath the beautiful day that France finally recognizes Canada for its similar valor, and awards it a similar statue.

The dishes I tried were the Lobster Pappardelle, The Romaine heart salad, and the Smash Cheeseburger.

The first thing to note is the basic bread they brought with all seafood items. It was ludicrous. It drove me and my beloved band of trained mini-horses to near insanity, all of us fainting briefly upon trying the crispy, fluffy, decadent, buttery, garlic encrusted slices.

The lobster pappardelle was a marriage of rich, tomato cream sauce, and fresh lobster and prawns. I like to imagine them all packed in an underwater club, with all the little critters dancing to barnacle songs, much like the beloved film, The Little Mermaid. Maybe instead of eating mindless creatures, relieved from a drab life by a merciful fisherman, I was eating happy shrimp, who died satisfied after a long night out.

The Romaine Heart Salad was the most interesting blend of flavors of the night. It was sweet, piercingly tangy, and somehow so intense and nuanced that words escape me. The cheese was fresh, well held up, and complimentary to the crisp leaves of romaine.

The Steamer Pot had a rich and amazing cioppeno base, and went amazingly with the mini-horse killing bread.

The ambiance of the room was complicated. The weight staff was well intentioned but disorganized. they only gave us one napkin for a party of 17 mini horses and one human, and we needed to ask for utensils. When I cut the napkin into eighteenths, suddenly I was the bad guy??? You gave me the napkin, with a knife INSIDE it. Most mini-horses are not meat eaters, but they were difficult when asked about the vegan options. Upon asking for extra napkins, there was a steady stream of them, like a malfunctioning sushi conveyor belt, and by the end of the meal we couldn't even see the check under a sea of napkins....

I am writing this review after having contacted the management directly, with absolutely no response. I would not have written this had there been any acknowledgement of my complaint.

First - greeting at the door was unfriendly, and dry - just very matter of fact, here is your table, as if this was some side-of-road diner somewhere, not an upscale restaurant. Hostess forgot the kids' menus.

Our actual waiter seemed stretched thin, not rude per se just not attentive, rushed, didn't make eye contact passing by, literally had to say 'excuse me' to get his attention, never checked on us unless called upon.

My husband wanted Fat Tug - couldn't get it as the keg was out. I waited at least 30 minutes for my sparkling wine to arrive, tables that came after us were served drinks before I was. My children ordered $7 peach 'sparkling' lemonades which actually weren't sparkling at all, they were completely flat. They liked them, so I said nothing, but definitely not what we ordered.

I wanted the beets and goat cheese salad, and asked the waiter if I could maybe add chicken to that, to which he said I could but he recommended I add halibut - I said okay i will go with his recommendation. Halibut was delicious, but when the bill came i was shocked to see that the upcharge for this one piece was $38 making my dish basically a $60 dollar salad.

There were several dishes on the menu with halibut in the $49 range, so I dont know how in the world my salad came to be $59, and i most certainly should have been warned of such upcharge.

Let me tell you, I have never paid $59 for a salad before, and it 100% was not worth it. I believe if a server recommends an add on that triples the price of your dish - your customer should be forewarned.

Finally, the order of wings was really bad. The children liked it, so again we said nothing, but they were absolutely the tiniest, driest wings I have ever seen. We ordered salt and pepper, and the wings did have salt and pepper on them but also had sweetness to them which makes me think that they were originally something else (sweet chili or honesty garlic or something like that) $260 later and we are quite disappointed. The way my email to management was ignored - unacceptable for the supposed 'caliber' of this place.

This is sadly a tourist trap type of thing, and not one that will be on my 'regular'...