CrabShack — Restaurant in Worthing

27th April 2025

When Mich promised me a bike ride in April as part of her Christmas-present series of monthly 2025 activities, neither of us was particularly convinced that struggling up hills at different paces was an enjoyable way to spend a day, but the only flat-ish option we could find that didn’t involve a train elsewhere I’d done before: cycling along the coast to Worthing. Conundrum. But when we realised we could pair the ride with a trip to the Crabshack, with tables available outside on what was forecast to be an unseasonably nice day, the prospect all of a sudden became a lot more exciting.

In actuality, getting there was a big part of the day. The nice parts of the route along the seafront and particularly in and around Shoreham port as we pedalled and gossiped two abreast were very nice; the less nice bits along the roads and into the wind initiated the pleasant feeling of those first few pangs of hunger when you know you’ve got a decent meal to look forward to – and that justify ordering maybe slightly more than you would otherwise. It was also my birthday in a few days, so why not?

We took a table on the edge of the restaurant’s tented outdoor patio, with the sea just about in view but sheltered from any passing pesky seagulls. The weather, the exercise, the welcome and the general mood of the day led us to a beer each as we perused the menu; there was a Jamaican stem ginger and rum sticky toffee pudding on the specials blackboard, also contributing to our all-round inducement to indulgence. We didn’t stand a chance.

There were a couple of non-negotiables that we built our order around – the pil pil prawns and some kind of crab, obviously; you can’t visit a place with an eponymous speciality without trying it. Sharing everything, we went for crispy squid and a starter portion of the dressed crab, those prawns, the crabcakes, and skinny fries topped with… more crab. Oh, I also treated myself to a birthday oyster – the best of the weekend by a mile (sorry Petit Pois).

It’s genuinely difficult to find a flaw in any of it. Everything tasted like it had taken its daily exercise at the same time that we did, swimming around in the sea as we rode alongside it, being caught and prepared as we locked our bikes up. Nothing was overthought either: the mix of white and brown crabmeat was perfect with just a dab of lemon mayo on a hunk of multigrain bread or with a forkful of salad leaf; the prawns – massive and of almost unprecedented texture – had infused just so with the tomato, chilli and paprika of their new red pond. The fries didn’t even need seasoning.

The only critique I can come up with is a subjective reflection of my own tastes: the ratio of squid to batter was slightly unfishy for me; the pil pil sauce was heavier and therefore more of a main dish than you might find as a Spanish tapa (although if La Tasca had served prawns like these they’d definitely still be around); the crabcakes were simply my least favourite of the three crabby varieties we ordered – perhaps the least fresh-tasting on account of their preparation. We washed it all down with very strong cocktails, I blew out the candle on maybe the best STP I’ve ever tasted and, too full to cycle, we got the train back to...

Sunday 20th July 2025. Having wanted to eat here for a looong time, we finally managed to book a table for this weekend trip to Worthing and we couldn’t wait. We had a table booked for 12:30.

Unfortunately we had a mini family crisis - Son couldn’t find his car keys so we had to empty all bags and re-search hotel rooms and bags, sadly no keys found. Our Daughter telephoned at 12:30 to apologise and explain, asking if we could still dine, and that we would be 10/15 minutes late. The older sounding lady on the phone was INCREDIBLY rude and said that “it would have been nice to have been told” and “well I can’t guarantee you’ll get enough time to eat, you won’t have much time left on your table” our Daughter politely explained that we would be there ASAP and the lady grumbled that “we’ve already had to turn people away, and you’re late for your table”. My Daughter was quite upset at the way she had been spoken to. My husband then called back - to re-explain and to again apologise and he said that if it was too much of an inconvenience to seat us, we would sadly cancel if they couldn’t still fit us in, we were assured it would be fine. (it was a different lady and she said that once we arrived they would sort things out). When we arrived, we again apologised and again explained. The older sounding lady then said that she had sorted it and we would have enough time at our table. Please note that when we entered the tented front area where we were seated, there were at least 3 or 4 other tables empty. We felt a real tension and terseness from her - as though she had gone out of her way to seat us - we were only 15 minutes late and we had called to explain and apologised many times.

The food was lovely but the atmosphere was very tense amongst the staff.

We overheard several rude comments from the older lady to other members of staff - grumbling about a staff member taking a picture at the request of fellow diners! The gentleman server - perhaps her husband (it looked like they were perhaps the managers/owners) grumbling about a large party/table “taking up too much room” and on a different occasion, we overheard the man say something about asking a table of people to leave if they didn’t go soon - or words to the effect. So… all in all, perhaps it would have been best if hadn’t gone. We dared to ask for salad cream and were told by the man “it’s not 1970” !?

We enjoyed the food but were incredibly disappointed at how we were treated, the lady was VERY rude to our Daughter on the phone and quite brusque with us. Very very disappointing. We will not be coming back, or...

We have been before but were disappointed today. Started trying to book a table on Saturday for today. Rang and got a recorded message asking me to phone back after 3pm as busy. Fair enough. Rang again after 3pm and phone was answered but was told they were too busy to take any bookings so to ring back on Tuesday. Never encountered that before in a restaurant but booked for today although as it turned out, they weren’t that busy so hadn’t needed to book.

Cockle and prawn popcorn brilliant. After he took our order, our waiter didn’t come out at all to ask if all ok but I noted that the other waitresses were really attentive. We didn’t get any condiments so went and found them ourselves and nobody asked if we had all we needed.

My crab sandwich was tasty but the bread was very black on the top so the crusts weren’t edible. My husband had the fish burger, which wasn’t cheap, but which he said he wouldn’t have again although the crab mayo served with it was great. Unfortunately, in the burger was a massive fish bone which my husband had bitten down quite painfully on.

We sat for quite a while for our waiter to come and clear our plates and after 20 minutes when he didn’t appear, we called one of the waitresses over and she took our plates and brought the dessert menu. We told her about the bone and she apologised but weren’t sure that it was taken seriously and in hindsight maybe should have asked to see the manager.

Hopefully we have just been unlucky today but it was the first time that I have ever known my husband, normally a very generous tipper, not to...