King Crab House — Restaurant in Arlington

Sooo, yeah. Odd experience. Ill give the overview and then details..

Food-Terrible! Ordered lobster, the 'main battle' (large) claw tasted rotten and the whole thing was not cooked properly.

Price?- 2 people, ~$150

Atmosphere-In one word-Unique-

Worth the money?- Wont be going back. Fun to try something new.

The details. I went here with my physically handicapped mother. Lets try something new.... The parking was not conducive to the physically challanged btw. The decor looked interesting so we tried it out. Once inside we were greeted instantly and guided to our table with a friendly smile. The hip hop music and graffiti on atleast half of all surfaces set a unique feel. Especially when set against a feaux ship in the middle of the floor that is made of real solid wood and surrounded by nice flooring. Settleing in, we looked over our menue... It was actually a placemat with the list of ingredents, but i digress. We ask the server (never did get a name) for the prices and specials. He went off to ask his boss for the prices... We were informed that they were not sold by the Lb and would be about $25 each. We each ordered one and decided to split the dozen oysters. After 4 or 5 corrections we find out that the server had no idea what he was doing or what the actual price of anything was... He tried, ill give him that. It was actually $25 per lb and 'they are all 1.5 lb lobsters'.

The waiter eventually brought the oysters out and was kind enough to bring me a sample of the sauce to try. They we delicious! We ate them all with gusto! Yum yum. Then comes the magic gumbo. Hot enough that it should be boiling but wasnt. Somehow it was immune to ice. Both when placed in the plastic bowl as well as when surrounding! Hmmm.

The lobster was, well, in all honesty the worst ive ever had. The tail was overcooked to the point of being difficult to chew. The large claw had been damaged at some point in the lobsters life and had a flavor of a prosthetic limb at the bottom of the sea... Bad enough to have to spit it out in front of the server.

We decided that we needed drinks to wash it down. After being informed that the full bar didnt serve our first request, we opted for a simple margaretta. Somehow i ended up with a non-alcoholic drink and my mother a double...

All in all i was left with the impression that this used to be a nice place and had been taken over at...

I used to be a regular here. My bestfriend and I would meet here because it was close to her office and on my way home so a nice spot to meet for drinks and dinner.

Fast forward a year and here we are. I'm not sure when, but we began to notice a steady decline in the quality of service we were beginning to receive. The place didn't look as clean, the bathrooms, which weren't always spotless, were now increasingly dirty. There was entirely new waitstaff. The only familiar face was the bartender Chris who always does his best to fulfill your drink order.

Fast forward again to tonight. An old friend's mother and sister were in town for a visit and we all went here for dinner. The service was slow, Chris, as per usual, did his utmost best to fulfill my friend's drink request, however my jack and coke tasted watered down. Half the food came out a full 10 minutes before everybody else, but both were missing their corn. Ultimately I was disappointed as everyone knew this was one of my favorite places. After a ''just ok'' meal we departed. I popped into the ladies room to wash my hands and was completely mortified and disgusted. The bathroom was completely and utterly filthy. The trash can was over flowing onto the floor, there were paper towels and tissue paper all over the floor in both stalls. One stall had a puddle of something around the toilet on the floor, the handicap accessible stall had toilet paper on the floor and not one but 2 rolls of toilet paper were just laying ON THE FLOOR and the lid on the toilet was askew. I was disgusted. Had I seen that before I ordered my food I would have never eaten a thing.

After several disappointing visits I can honestly say I don't know when or if I'll ever be coming back. The place has a "when the cat's away the mice will play" type of feel to it and while I don't mind loud hip-hop music when I'm at a bar, I don't need to hear cursing rap music when I'm trying to have dinner with my friend or my...

Our normal seafood boil Cajun place was much too busy, so we decided to try King Crab house instead based on the reviews.

The pros:

The flavor on the shrimp and crawfish boil was on point! We opted for the combo of sauces in medium spice. Great flavor! Lots of seafood included in the bags. Extra dipping sauce provided. Yum!

The service - very good! Our waiter was kind and attentive enough w/o being overbearing.

The decor was fun, you can write on the walls.

The crowd - not dead, but not super busy.

The better ifs and the reason for three stars:

The bathrooms were FILTHY! Not enough soap, broken dispensers, the sink, walls, soap dispensers, paper towel dispenser all looked like they hadn’t been cleaned in months. My husband visited the men’s room and had the same experience. Unacceptable.

If they aren’t cleaning their bathrooms, I’m willing to bet the kitchen is also not clean.

There was a waste basket by the waiter prep stand and it was also filthy. Trash cans don’t need to be spotless, but when they’re near the kitchen and completely out in the open and visible, the outsides should be wiped down instead of disgusting old caked on sauce drippings all over the outside. The writings on the wall are cute out in the dining room. In the bathroom, it just looks like graffiti.

I don’t think we will visit again unless the cleanliness was taken care of. In fairness, the dining room was...