Fatcrabs Rib Company & Seafood Shack — Restaurant in Corolla

We were seated at the bar after just a few minutes wait. We went in hungry, which was a huge mistake. We ordered right away. We got the crab chowder and it was served in a paper bowl. All corn, no crab. We ordered 3 dinner items. The server never came around to check on us. I see now why they do self service beverages. So that servers never have to come back to your table after taking your order. There was another party at the bar that wanted wine/beer and bartender (loose title) never came by for them either. They left. She finally returned to us after 30 minutes and we asked her about our meal. She said a large party had ordered right before us and it should be out soon. BTW, the restaurant was busy, but not full. There were many open tables. 30 more minutes went by and we flagged down a server to bring over a manager. This place has a simple, no frills menu. Not fancy by any means - very basic. So after an hour, we were quite annoyed that no one had come by to touch base with us. Manager arrived with a big attitude. He went on to say that the kitchen was going as fast as they could. (We watched meals come out of the kitchen for the entire hour. I think we saw a total of 5 plastic baskets of food the whole time.) If that is how fast the kitchen goes, no wonder it was an hour and we still had nothing! When the manager came over with attitude and no apologies for the delay - it made my husband very angry and defensive. My husband firmly expressed his dissatisfaction and the manager (also loose title) loudly yelled that if we didn't like it then "get out". At one point, another manager yelled, in front of many children, including ours "Get your a$$ out of here!" I am still in disbelief that this happened and the way that it happened. I've never been in that type of hostile situation in my life, especially in a public restaurant. It was very uncomfortable and awkward. The managers and/or owners need training in customer service. Specifically how to handle an upset customer whose food hasn't come out an hour after they ordered. There are many outstanding restaurants in Corolla/Duck and this is not...

On the plus side, the manager (owner?) and our server were laid back and nice. The manager was one of those people who says things jokingly but if you don't know him it can come across as downright rude. We experienced this ourselves along with another couple who came in for lunch. He said to them something like "ya have to wait for her to seat you, didn't you see the sign?!?!" And he was totally joking but I could tell by the look on the lady's face that she was irritated by it and so was I though I don't remember what he said exactly to us. I'm not the best "social cues" reader, so I think it would be hard to distinguish between "is this guy that much of a jerk or is he just being playfully annoying?".

Aside from that the food wasn't too good and we were disappointed in that. I had the crab cakes which claim to be "the best from here to Hattaras" and I'm sorry but....no. I have eaten a lot of crab cakes up and down the OBX and these are actually some of the worst I've had. Just not very flavorful, bland, ick. Please don't claim to be the best if you aren't prepared to back it up. My husband had a seafood platter and it was so hot his mouth was on fire. Please understand that we eat a LOT of spicy food. He's a regular curry eater and we both love New Orleans cuisine, but this platter was too spicy for him and that says a lot lol. Though spicy it was ok - he just couldn't taste much other than the spice. Kind of ironic considering how bland my crab cakes were.

On the plus side, the fries were great! The sweet tea was great! And we ordered a pound of brisket to go which we ate for dinner and it was good - though pricey ($16 for a pound which didn't equate to much meat really).

The laid back atmosphere was nice and the resident doggie "Buddy" was so sweet, he was the highlight of our experience at Fatcrabz. Neither of us thought it was worth the money and I wouldn't go back or recommend it to anyone as a solid choice, but perhaps we were there on an off day. I might would return for the brisket and to say hi...

Super awkward experience. We dined in for lunch. Love the music, the atmosphere, and great menu choices. Our mother has been trying to get crab dip all week and we were so looking forward to it. The crab dip was a small portion for $16 but looked great, and was served with homemade potato chips. The fried potato chip flavor was overpowering and took away from the dip, so we asked if there was any way we could get some type of bread... even just a sandwich bun toasted, and offered to pay whatever upcharge needed to cover the substitution. It was explained to us that they could not sell us just a bun because they needed to save them for sandwiches... our server double checked and confirmed it was not possible to give or sell us any bread to use with the dip. Instead, they offered to take away the crab dip and removed it from the ticket. I’ve worked in half a dozen restaurants, and have never heard of someone willing to lose profit on an item like a $16 crab dip in order to save some buns (which could have also been profited off of as we offered to pay whatever needed for them). To take the $16 item off our tab and throw it away, instead of finding a way to help us enjoy it was shocking to us. We felt very uncomfortable for asking something that seemed so simple. Our tab was $65 for 3 people without the crab dip and I am still in awe that this happened. If there was truly no way to ring in a miscellaneous item, would it not have made more sense to just give us 2 buns? This would have been a 5 star review outside of this confusing part of our experience. All we can do is laugh now, but really wish this could have been handled...