Red Crab - Juicy Seafood — Restaurant in Charlotte

I visited this restaurant on Wednesday night with three friends. We were seated promptly around 6:20 PM. All four of us arrived together, were seated together, and placed our orders at the same time. Three of us ordered seafood boils, two for dining in and one to go. The fourth person ordered catfish with sweet potato fries for dining in.

The to-go seafood boil came out within ten minutes and our friend left. Since we all ordered together, we assumed our food would be coming soon after. But after about fifteen to twenty minutes passed, we noticed two tables who were seated after us already getting their food. That is when we started to feel something was wrong.

By 7:00 PM, our waitress came over and asked the friend who ordered catfish if she wanted regular fries instead because they were out of sweet potato fries. That made no sense at all. If the order had been placed when we ordered, why would someone just now be asking about a side item forty minutes later?

A few minutes after that, the waitress returned again and said the kitchen was running behind on seafood boils. That excuse did not make sense either because our friend who had the to-go seafood boil had picked up her food and had already been gone for nearly forty minutes. Another ten minutes passed and we still had no food. By this time it was 7:15 PM. We were hungry and frustrated, and we even saw staff peeking around the corner looking at our table, which confirmed for us that something had definitely gone wrong.

I got up to look for a manager and she happened to be walking to our table at the same time. She apologized and said the kitchen was backed up and that she would try to work something out on the bill. About ten minutes later, our food finally came out. The manager returned to offer free dessert, which honestly felt insulting at that point. Then she offered ten percent off, which came out to about four dollars total. We declined both. She then asked if we still wanted the food and we said no. By that point the entire experience had left a bad impression and we no longer wanted to eat there.

To make matters worse, someone from the restaurant responded to my friend's honest review and claimed that we did not arrive at the same time. That is a lie. We all arrived together and ordered at the same time. If there is any confusion, I would invite them to check their cameras and see exactly what happened. The fact that they not only mishandled the situation but also tried to spin the story publicly is unacceptable.

We were also told that the restaurant uses two separate systems and that to-go orders go to one side of the kitchen while dine-in orders go to the other side. Honestly, that is ridiculous. And more importantly, that is a management issue. They should take this experience as a learning opportunity to train their staff better and fix a clearly broken process.

We have been regular customers and have always enjoyed previous visits. But after this experience, I will never return. It was not just the delay that upset us. It was the dishonesty, the excuses, and the lack of accountability that completely ruined our trust. I will be reporting this to the Better Business Bureau and I have already shared what happened with people in my network, including a media contact who is considering covering this incident.

There were so many chances to make this right. But instead of being honest and taking ownership, the staff and management chose to deflect and mislead. That is unacceptable and I will not support a business that...

Loved it!!!—

Current update!! 9 months after..kept coming to this place a few times either with friends and or family!! And have also recommended it a lot. Along those times that I’ve been coming here, a lot has been changed.

August 18th - 25

Came with the family to celebrate my nephews birthday. My nephews first time being here. He order a tray along with his mom and as they were pleasantly eating their meal they didn’t notice that a rotten potatoe was being picked up and almost going into their mouth. Once they noticed it, we requested to speak to either the manager or the owner. She came to us and stated with a nasty attitude and all her rudeness that she couldn’t do anything about it that she could only give them 2 more potatoes. That it was something normal and that it was the seasoned that it had made it like that. She never allowed my husband nor my sister in law to explained to her why was the reason she was requested to come. The more that my husband was trying to explain it to her she kept repeating on top of them speaking (I can only give you 2 more potatoes) more than a few times as if we were asking her for something in exchange. Technically didn’t even allowed them to say anything. She didn’t ask what happened nor took the time to listen, and she surely didn’t even apologized. Found out that the manager is the owner herself. I had to stepped in and ask her to listen to them what they were trying to tell her, that they wasn’t requesting anything from her. And yet she kept going and going until I raised my voice a bit and asked her to stop and listen. That they didn’t want anything from her, that all they wanted was for her or for the people that work in the kitchen to do more quality control on what they’re feeding their customers. Cause not only the potatoe was rotten but also the shrimps are not being cleaned!! At the end she didn’t care and just went off..

With this said we will not be coming back! I hope you guys take this into consideration and take a close look at what you eat in this place!!!

We forgot to take a picture of how nasty it was!! But here’s a...

Nice chill spot..service is always great! Drinks are nice 😎. Very accommodating. This restaurant hasn't let me down since my first review still one of my favorites! Update 6/23/25 Food was extremely underseasoned, looks like a bag of boiled& steamed seafood topped with old butter sauce with remants of seasoning. Hushpuppies were so hard they could chip your tooth(im literally squeezing it in the photo)shrimp definitely was microwaved, snow crabs were steamed way too long and everything was thrown in a bag with old seasoned butter. I'll give them this everything was hot. but disgusting. This used to be my favorite restaurant in the city and would recommend several people whom have visited, this, this takes the cake. Like I paid over $200 for this just for it to be this. I should've gotten Wendy's. At least I would've knowingly been disappointed and saved some money in the process. The real Manager/owners were very apologetic and gave us an entire new meal even though I'm pretty sure one of the girls lied and said she was the manager which I knew she wasn't lol. Update 8/16/25 same exact issue food is over cooked and underseasoned. Crabs are stringy and hard to get out the shells I'm so irritated because I doordashed this food and I do not want to have an issue like this and drive up there. Sigh...food is literally sitting in a bag of butter old bay and garlic. Food was not hot as in temperature or spicy like in flavor its bland warm and I taste plenty of garlic with my stringy crabs and bland shrimp. I hope they resolve this soon as the quality/consistency has gone downhill...