Charleston Crab House — Restaurant in Charleston

This food was amazing, the service was terrible. Never in my life I’d expect blatant disrespect from the staff here. Imagine being put on the waitlist and was told it would be 20 minutes. 15 minutes go by and all of a sudden I’m not longer in the system. Imagine me, a black man, approaching the host asking what happened. The host was dismissive as though it was my fault or that I was the incompetent one. The thing that I can laugh at now is that there was another family who were also added to the waitlist and were told it would be 30 minutes (this was after I already waited 20 minutes) but then as I’m talking with the lady about what happened, she received a text message two minutes later letting her know their table is ready. Rather than the host fixing the situation that happened with my reservation being cancelled, she approaches the lady I spoke with that her table is ready and to follow her. Luckily the lady said no that her family will wait and that I should go because I was here first. The host had this look of disbelief as though why should the lady care that something happened to our reservation and the host said to the lady, “ are you sure” as though she can tell “those people” no and still seat her and her family. This was so disrespectful and demeaning at the same time. Honestly true racism at it’s prime. Mind you I received no apology from staff or the manager and even then we never received the dessert they were offering to us for my grandma for her birthday. Once we are seated, it takes 5 minutes for the waiter to come take our order, another 20 for the food and not one time did he check on us. Again terrible service very discriminatory if you asked me since we were one of two black families at this establishment. So once we finished our food, the waiter walked by our table three times before asking if everything was okay. By then, we wanted the check and were ready to go as we had additional plans after dinner. Not only did he go to the table beside us who arrived after us but received their food and check before us, he also checked up on the couple several times. Again terrible service but great food! After spending almost $200 there, we will never return to this restaurant since we were dismissed, disregarded, and down...

I made reservations for a party of 10 and stated we would be celebrating my mom’s 87th birthday. I was told that they don’t usually take reservations for that time of day, but would take mine for 1:00 PM

We had an additional adult join us and now needed seating for 11. I informed the hostess and he went to prepare our table. The seating was tight. I asked if we could pull tables together, he went to inquire (with the manager) and came back and said, he could not. Part of our party sat at another table, several feet from us.

As we completed our meals, two separate large parties arrived. In both instances, tables were pulled together to accommodate each party.

When I inquired, the manager said he was sorry but they expected 10 people and we came in with more. We came in with one more. He then said we should have been offered a different area to sit, as where we were seated they don’t pull tables together. He said, had he known, that’s what would have been done and the two people we encountered, the hostess and the server, were not aware that they could have offered seating in another section…Yeah Right!

He continued with his, “I’m sorry,’” I suggested he comp a meal as all he was giving at that point was an apology and a vow to train his personnel better. He did comp one meal after I asked.

The experience left a bad taste for all of us. We will not return.

Shrimp and grits were good as were the hush puppies and grilled shrimp. The red rice was mediocre and the broccoli...

A nice place for a seafood night out. The atmosphere is fun and characteristic of the Charleston riverside area. However, the service was rather poor and the food (likely as a result of the service) came out sub par - that being said, not bad, just not good either. I can understand food taking a while to make, especially on a busy night. What really pisses me off is being told "just another minute" and then waiting 20 minutes. Lying to my face or just making something up because you don't know makes absolutely no sense. I'd much rather the server go check on the order or just tell me the kitchen is backed up then to lie to my face and then bring out food 20 minutes later that has clearly been sitting for 5+ minutes in the window. This is what I believe made the food subpar - the crab meat came out like warm at best.

Normally, I have great experiences at Crab House in downtown Charleston, so this was a huge disappointment, as I had recommended the place to family (who came with me just to experience the hour+ wait for food to come out).

Biggest takeaway for the customer - go when it ain't too busy. The food can be good when it's hot and fresh.

Biggest feedback for the restaurant - I will never look down on a restaurant's staff for the food taking a while. Take your time, please. But, if a server decides to make something up to appease the table for 20 minutes instead of being honest and genuine about the situation, then the tip is capped at 5%, assuming no...