The Kickin' Crab — Restaurant in Buena Park

Today I ordered the Cajun Trout meal for lunch to go cause it is usually busy. When I got there I noticed the place was 3/4 empty and I asked the server to bring my food to the table cause I was going to eat there since there was plenty room. The server proceeded to tell me that he would have to ask the manager if I could sit at a table cause I had ordered to go. I was completely shocked! I said excuse me? Now I can totally understand this policy if the place was full and there was a line but it was practically empty? The server didn't even take my food out of the bag to place it on a plate or something. I opened the bag and immediately asked the server, "Is this trout, it looks like tilapia"? He said it was trout. I then started to eat my "trout" and it was so over cooked, hard and dry. Since I was at lunch, I didn't have time to go anywhere else so I just drowned the fish in tarter sauce and ate it. The worst fish meal I had ever eaten. Another thing, what kind of rice was that??? I thought it was poorly made Mexican rice cause that's what it looked and tasted like? Who serves fish with that kind of rice? It should be served with a rice pilaf, a plain white rice or something like that to compliment the Cajun flavors. This wasn't the first thing I have tried from the Kickin Crab. I tried the clam chowder and I wasn't very impressed with that either. However, before I give them my "I will never go to that place again" thoughts, I will give them one more chance and try one of the combo meals. Not sure when I will make it back to this place again but if I go back and the combo meal isn't spectacular, I will NEVER eat there again and I will be certain to scream it to everyone I know! As far as I'm concerned at this point, I'd rather go to Joe's Crab Shack, Boiling Crab, Crusty Crab, Red lobster, etc. for about the same price. One last thing, I NEVER write reviews but I was so disappointed I was...

This was our first time at this location but we've been to 4 other Kickin' Crab locations (Westminster, Costa Mesa, Irvine, Santa Ana). The mall it is located in seems to be a very sad and dying mall, so I hope it gets revitalized in the near future. The food was on point and consistent with the other Kickin' Crab locations. We appreciated that this location opened at noon today. I learned the Costa Mesa location was permanently closed and the next closest location to me didn't open until 3pm before I found this Buena Park location. We were on our way back to Orange County after a weekend trip to Universal Studios so we had the opportunity to detour and stop by the Buena Park location for lunch.

Food is always great and the service was fantastic. The servers all seem to work together and were on point with checking on us and helping us out (multiple people took care of us and we didn't just have to wait for our one server here and get ignored or brushed off by other servers). We did the 3 pound combo (Kickin' style mild) along with an order of garlic noodles. It was delicious and we couldn't finish it all.

All I have to say is bring a location to South San Diego! I'm down there often and I'm bummed that I can't bring people to a Kickin' Crab down there. There's a Boiling Crab in Mira Mesa but it's not the same, but that's the next best option down there. I've tried other Cajun seafood places down in San Diego and even the highest rated one in the Chula Vista area according to Yelp was disgusting to me (their everything spice mix was unpalatable in...

I wish I could rate the food, but that did not happen... so this is solely based on customer service. We had a family gathering of about 25 people that were meeting up for dinner. We were met with a sign that stated a whole bunch of rules... see attached... we were fine with most of them, I get it, I've worked in restaurants before. But... the 2 cards per table.... there are 8 families and this is not a cheap place so we did not have cash on hand to pay with just 2 credit cards. They told us 4 cards is the best they could do... ok whatever. We had a solution that we would dine at different tables and then we would just hang out after. So we asked to just be seated by family where ever they want. Well, they told is that they can't do that. Since we already asked for a table for 25, they have to stick to that. I asked if they'd rather get a check for 25 people or none, they said their boss would. Ot allow them to break the rules, and since he was not available, they're in charge and they have to follow the rules. So after a lot of back and forth, we decided 1 person could pay for the meal and then we can cashapp each other. Fine. But then, we just couldn't get over the "no standing" rule. Are we in kindergarten??? I don't understand that rule at all!!! We went to another Cajun seafood place down the road and loved it! This place missed out on $700 tonight and more of that...