Crackin' Crab — Restaurant in Amarillo

Response to owner: Thank you for responding, I didn’t realize there was a location on Soncy or that I was reviewing this location. It was the other location in town. I appreciate the immediate response and will definitely be coming to try your restaurant in the near future! Changed my review to 5 stars based on your timely response and because this wasn’t for your restaurant. I guess the other restaurant isn’t on google yet!

Just tried it for the first time. There wasn’t hardly anyone in there eating when we came, we were sat and got our 2 waters, didn’t get the lemons we asked for. Then, our waitress Khin was more than awful. She was leaning on the bar drawing something with markers. The other table in there had a waiter getting everything they needed and we waited and we waited. I finally had to say “are we going to get waited on?” So she came and took our order, told her it was our first time and she wasn’t very helpful at all. We ordered $100 worth of food between 2 of us which is fine for a higher end restaurant, but the service needs to be there. There was 2 people waiting on tables and a hostess that was on her phone and could’ve been helping them. We get our food and didn’t get any butter. Also needed refills and new gloves and had to wait forever for her to take a big tables order and then go put it in instead of just grabbing what we needed real quick. We were last to get waited on. Food was pretty good but they need help big time. It should’ve taken about 30 minutes for us to eat but we were in there an hour because we had to keep waiting on her. Also, there was no management to be found to even try to let them know about the problems we were having. Might come back one day but it’s going to be awhile to give them time to get their kinks ironed out, too expensive for less than fast food...

03/27/2025 - Met with a couple of people for a business dinner. As this was my first time at Crackin' Crab, I didn't know what to expect.

First, the restaurant was clean, had decent ambient lighting, and with music at a notable - but not excessive - volume. Overall, my initial impression was good.

The waiter James was wonderful and very helpful, answering my question about the difference between Snow Crab and Dungeness Crab legs. (Snow Crab meat is sweeter, but less of it; Dungeness is saltier, and there is more of it.) I ordered the Dungeness Crab legs, while both of my business associates chose the fried shrimp.

I WAS IMPRESSED. The Crab legs were cooked to perfection, and the quality of the sauce - medium heat - was AMAZING, just hot enough to be interesting, but not so hot as to be unpleasant. In addition, I was given a plastic bib and vinyl gloves to keep me from getting messy. My associates were equally impressed by their fried shrimp.

All together, we had an excellent meal, which contributed nicely to our conducting business. James was a fantastic host - friendly, attentive, and helpful. All in all, it was a truly enjoyable experience, with great food, great service, great atmosphere, and reasonable prices. I look forward to eating there again.

VERDICT:...

I am giving the 2 star for the service only!! I have to express my disappointment in my 1ST and LAST dining experience I had at this restaurant. I will definitely stick to Hook and Real for my crab and shrimp cravings from now on. Like my husband said, you cannot be more expensive and just be mediocre at best. The lack of flavor in the dishes was quite disappointing, especially considering we ordered 3 lbs of food with garlic butter, only to find a mere tablespoon of garlic in it. It takes just a small amount of time to devein shrimp, which is such a turn-off when the entire meal is gritty. The overall blandness of the food left much to be desired. Unfortunately, the chicken made my son sick; it was burnt and felt like jerky. He had to stay home from school because of food poising. That tells me the staff is not cleaning correctly. For $144, when I could have paid less at H&R and still enjoy my meal, this experience fell short of my expectations. I did express my concerns to the waitress who offered to exchange the chicken but that was after we paid the bill. She also told me about a sauce they have that would have been SO MUCH BETTER! But it was not offered...