938 Crawfish — Restaurant in Albany

My daughter wanted crawfish for her Birthday. I had been to this place a long time ago with a decent sized party, we had enjoyed the food, it wasn't too far to travel, so I suggested this place. Never again.

The first strike was when the young man answered the phone the day before when I called to inquire about reservations. "We don't even do reservations no more". Hmm. I pause, but it's fine. The wait shouldn't be too long on a Tuesday night if they in fact are busy. Okay, I decide, we'll brave it.

2nd strike comes when I call on the way to the restaurant to check the wait. Same young man answers and I ask him how long the wait is. "We not that busy, BUT a group of 25 just walked in, so let me call you back." [click] The young man hung up.

By that time, we were 5 mins away, so we continued on to the establishment hoping that maybe we'd only have a little wait due to the large party arriving ahead of us. We walk in and there are several young children running about and more people entering who appear to be with the large group. We stand in the foyer behind a couple waiting to be seated.

Here's strike number 3: A young man walks from the back and ask loudly "Who all NOT with the group of 25?"

The young couple and I raise our hands. "Because we had 25 come in, I'ma have to shut down for 2 hours. I don't think I can serve nobody else. I can call you in 2 hours, but we close at 9:30." With that proclamation, the young host turned and walked away.

This was, in my opinion, the epitome of bad service. I'm sure the restaurant could accommodate more than 25 people. In fact, the first time I had dinner here, there were at least 10 in my group, the restaurant was packed to the gills and we managed to still be given good service.

I've since heard that the people who run this place have regulars and favorites that they cater to and the rest of the public don't matter. If that's true, then they should let their friends buy out the restaurant and let everyone else know this place is private.

Luckily, the night ended on a better note. We looked up nearby spots and headed to a place called Bag O' Crab in Berkeley. The parking was a bit tight, but the food was very good and everyone was happy.

As far as this place goes, they have fallen WAY OFF and I'll never recommend this...

I’m only giving this restaurant 1 star based on the horrible customer service! The food is good but who wants to dine somewhere where the serves are rude? The service was slow and there wasn’t that many parties in the restaurant. The server that was helping us was I believe from the pacific island and she was RUDE! We couldn’t even finish our sentences without her cutting us off. She rushed our orders and brought us the wrong food. When we told her we didn’t want spicy she swore we did order that. The person in our party has health issues why would we intentionally order spicy chicken wings. After trying to talk and explain to her that she was rushing our order and cutting us off she still wouldn’t budge to take the wings back. Saying it was miscommunication no ma’am you wouldn’t hush to let us finish our sentences. She didn’t offer to do anything about it as well. Oh she offered a shot of tequila lol what the hell is that? I have never been to restaurant that didn’t accommodate its patrons especially if it’s health related. The thing is we weren’t even trying to say we didn’t want the wings take them off the check we literally just wanted a different flavor that my aunt could eat. Next I asked for A cup of ice several times and waited 45mins just for that. My cousin order a drink from the bar that took another 30mins. I mean HORRIBLE SERVICE! We spent $600.00 $556.00 to be exact to have horrible customer service and rude waitresses. They will not get another penny from me. Also I ordered the players platter the menu says prawns baby let me tell you them was baby shrimp doo dooo doo do! Disappointed is an understatement and they were overcooked 😒 ugh just skip this place y’all! Save your money and make...

2 stars for the garlic fries and the combo seafood boil with combo sauce/no spice.

To start, when we arrived it took a little over 5 minutes for us to be seated because they were cleaning a table that people just got done eating at...even though there was PLENTY of empty seats and tables to accommodate a party of 7. Only after they were done cleaning the table did they tell us that the table they cleaned can seat a party of 6...um you’re lucky we had petite children who can squeeze together.

Once we started eating I was pretty satisfied with the Cajun combo with no spice. The chunks of garlic is really what kept me wanting more. Although the rest of my family seemed quite dissatisfied with the “Insane” spicy option.

Once we were done eating we all took turns to go wash our hands in the bathroom. As we waited the bill was paid and the waitresses hurriedly started to take away our food.

Without any verbal exchange they just took a plate and piled whatever they could, dragging away someone’s bib and SPILLING garlic oil on my boyfriends jacket!!

Once we told the manager the girl came by and asked what happened and all we received was an empty sorry and then walked away.

I understand restaurants can get busy but lack of customer service is no excuse. Hire more staff instead of having 2 to 3 girls working the floor...