The Kickin' Crab Chandler, AZ — Restaurant in Chandler

I normally would give a place another try before leaving a review. But we attended the promotion deal where leaving a review to get a free Cajun fries , so here is my honest experience for our visit::

This was our first visit to Kickin Crab to celebrate my birthday, and first time for my in laws to have these types of food. Our server was Ash. We first ordered fried oysters as appetizer but got raw one instead, which my father in laws was annoyed and set the tone for rest of the dinner unfortunately. When ordering, instead of telling them “garlic butter cannot add spice”, I think the server could’ve done a better job on explaining what could’ve been a better choice. The entire table (7 of us) ended up ordering garlic butter besides me and my husband and everyone later told me they didn’t like the food due to how buttery & unflavored they were ... The service wasn’t really there neither, there were no refills on drinks and had to ask buckets twice. Probably because we are a bigger table and the tips (18%) were added into bills automatically?

The place was fairly empty at the time we dined in but the food took forever. The clams were fresh, the shrimps were okay- some fresh some falling apart. The Cajun fries was normal fries added chili powder I think(?), which was okay. Overall, I think the place is alright.

What triggered and annoyed me the most was at the end when everyone was anxious to leave, I was asked to edit my review to add who my server was after leaving...

I really wanted to enjoy this place as it is closer to us than Angry Crab, but we experienced several frustrations that ultimately led to our decision to not return and stick with Angry Crab.

1. They don't take reservations, which is a frustration with Angry Crab, but once we got there, we realized why - 90% of the tables were empty.

2. Every bag on the menu is "market price" - not even the website shows the prices.

3. No kids' menu is available.

4. The ordering experience is far inferior to Angry Crab. You have to order in 1lb portions. Say you order crab and want to add some shrimp to the bag - you have to get a whole 1lb. At Angry, you can add 1/2lb of each of lobster, shrimp, clams, or mussels. Kickin' doesn't even have Scallops!

5. I was shocked to find the King Crab was $70/lb! I checked and it's only $55 at Angry. I paid $95 at Kickin' for king crab, shrimp, and corn. For $2 less at Angry you can get king, shrimp, lobster, and sausage.

6. Our total bill was $335 (with automatic 18% gratuity added for 6 people) - I was shocked to see they charged us $1.50 for ranch and $0.75 for tartar sauce! I don't expect to be nickel and dimed at a place like this.

While I can't complain about the service (nothing special), overall, the ambiance with the RGB lighting and stark atmosphere leaves a lot to be desired. This place is in direct competition with Angry Crab, which we've been to a dozen times and wanted to try something new, but sadly I don't think...

Ordered a pound of mussels and they weren’t cleaned well. 5 of them still had their beard attached. They offered to “remake them” but I’d already eaten most of them and just spit out the beard if I got one so I felt bad getting a whole new order. On top of that, my sausages were stone cold (which they did take back and reheat) but it was hard to get over the original unpleasant texture and taste due to biting into them cold. Both of these things ruined my appetite and I couldn’t enjoy the rest of my meal. The service from our actual waiter River was 5 stars, one of the best I’ve seen for a grand opening albeit it was pretty slow. I’ve been to most of the seafood boil grand openings and kickin crab is the only one that had no good deals (not even one deal on food) for their opening day, bummer. Was expecting a discount for the issues especially since only the soda ($1.50 off) was discounted for opening day. I was super excited for this place to open as some of my favorite mukbangers say this is their favorite seafood boil. Kickin crab sauce is definitely on the sweet side. Food left me feeling sick and underwhelmed won’t be back considering it was pricey and manager didn’t approach us or try to leave a good impression for opening day by offering a discount or apologizing...