Crafty Crab — Restaurant in Fairview Heights

When first arriving I wondered if they were closed. Only 2 other vehicles in the lot. It was 430 in the evening. I pulled up the website since I am not a local and they were open.

The feel inside the restaurant was cozy. You could hear music but wasnt loud like some places. It was more of a background noise. They had some wall mounted TVs, again I couldn't hear them they weren't loud.

Menu was limited as others have said l, but that's not bad. A restaurant shouldn't have a oversized menu in my opinion. The reason is you want a restaurant to be very good at everything they offer and not just a few things and the rest average.

Since I am traveling through i ask for a recommendation from the server. She recommended the number 2 combo. It included 2 king crab clusters, 2 hard boiled eggs, 3 or 4 potatoes, half a dozen ship at least, 2 cobs of corn, and finally some sausage. The seasoning I chose was the cajun hot.

While waiting on the food to come out the server brought a spring roll as a sample for free. Everyone loves free food and it was good. The exterior was very nice had a crisp to it. The flavor was very good, but the downfall was the filling. It was on the mushy side. I would have to say it was a little subpar for me I would have to give it about 2.5 out of 5. I wouldn't take away from them for that reason as I said it was free for a sample.

As I said the restaurant was pretty slow, there was only 1 other table seated that I seen. The food came out very quick within about 10 minutes. The crab leg clusters were amazing. They were good sized and had plenty of meat in the shell. The shrimp was also very good flavor wise. A few of the smaller shrimp were a little over cooked. The easiest way to tell is cooked shrimp form the letter c for cooked, while they form a circle or the letter o for overcooked. My biggest problem with the shrimp was the cleaning of the shrimp. Some of them were only half peeled so ending up with exoskeleton in my mouth was a let down. The potatoes were cooked very well they were soft, but not to the point they were mush. The corn was also perfect. And the sausage was cooked well also.

As I said previously I ordered the cajun hot. It had some spice to it you could feel the heat in your throat, but it didnt burn your mouth it was just perfect for the heat. After finishing off the main course I figured I would try dessert.

This is where I was let down the most. I asked for a dessert menu and was told they only had New York cheesecake. I am a cheesecake fan, but would have liked to have seen more dessert options. I ordered the cheesecake and wow New York would have been upset with them having their name associated with it. I wouldn't say it was the worst that could have ever been, but it sure wasnt really cheesecake. It was a cake bottom with a layer of about 1/4 cheesecake filling, then another layer of cake with about an inch of cheesecake filling. All that was topped with another layer cake with about another 1/4 of cheesecake filling on top. They drizzled chocolate over the cheesecake to the outer edges of the plate. It was a very nice looking dessert, but it lacked the firm texture a cheesecake should have. I'm not sure if it was frozen which I would guess it was. The top and bottom were a little warm the the very middle was firm and colder.

The bill, I was there for happy hour so I enjoyed 3 cold but not ice cold Coors lights. The seafood boil combo and the cheesecake also. Since it was happy hour 16 oz draft was $3.00 each. The price while no happy hour was just under $4.00. A little savings and maybe it's where I'm from I'm more used to happy hour for draft being $2.00 or less. In total the bill was about $57.00.

In conclusion I have given it a 4 star rating. I didnt really take off for the shrimp since they probably order them cleaned and deveined. I took off 1/2 star for the cheesecake. Like I said it wasnt horrible but I wouldn't write home about. I also took 1/4 star for pricing and value. Seafood is expensive especially shipped. Lastly 1/4 star for...

For a place that specializes in crab, they sure don't seem to know what they're doing. For starters, when I asked for my crab pot to be done without spice, I was told "mild spice is the baseline, it's not hot." I have a very low tolerance for spice so I reiterated that I really didn't want spice at all. The waitress assured me that I had to choose one, but that mild was basically no spice. Well, when I got my food, I did find it spicy. It wasn't so bad that I couldn't stand it, but I'd have liked it a lot more without spice altogether. Why in the world wouldn't it be acceptable to have a "no spice" option? When the waitress returned with our food, she didn't bring any crab forks, crackers, or butter for the crab meat. Every other restaurant where I have ever ordered crab provides these items. Crab is this restaurant's specialty, and she told us they didn't have enough crackers for the 4 of us who got crab. (Mind you, we were one of three tables in the place.) I think we only saw the waitress a total of 4 times the entire meal (again, the place was dead— I wouldn't have minded if it was busy, and she was kept away because she was working hard, but the place was empty and she was completely MIA). At the end of the meal, I had to open 4 packets of wet wipes before I found one that was actually wet. We all had this issue— most of them were completely dried out. Again, this is a crab restaurant... How do you let your wet wipes get completely dried out?! The restaurant was completely empty except for a table of drunk people that were being obnoxiously loud and a couple who seemed as annoyed as we were. No one asked the drunk people to keep it down— in fact we saw only one other person besides our waitress, who I assumed was the hostess, because she took us to our table, but then she and our waitress disappeared into the back for most of our meal. This was not my first time eating here, but it will be my last. My first experience I wasn't impressed, but thought maybe they were having an off day. This time around, it became clear that this restaurant is just poorly run. The food was not worth the price (over $250 for 6 people, two of which were kids meals, no alcohol or appetizers ordered), the service was terrible (and as a former server, it takes a lot for me to say that), and the overall experience just not good. If you want crab, try Red Lobster or a different specialty store. Crafty...

I do not recommend Crafty Crab Seafood in Fairview Heights, Illinois.

Our party of four with two adults and three children went hoping to enjoy a seafood dinner. Unfortunately, this was one of the worst restaurant experiences we’ve ever had.

We ordered appetizers and entrees:

Two kids (ages 5 and 7) had 1 lb of snow crab legs each, with sides.

The youngest (4 years old) ordered the kids' chicken wings.

One adult ordered king crab legs with sides.

The other adult ordered vegetables only — but was told that adding any seasoning would cost an extra $10!

Despite the restaurant only having about six tables occupied, the service was extremely slow. When our food finally came, everyone’s order arrived except for the 4-year-old’s chicken wings.

It gets worse — they had no crab crackers. The waitress said they only had one crab cracker in the whole station because customers supposedly steal them.

When the chicken wings finally arrived, they were undercooked — visibly red inside and unsafe to eat. We immediately sent them back and asked to have them removed from the bill. Instead, the waitress told us that "all sales are final" but we could either reorder something else or accept a replacement order of chicken. Given the extremely slow service and tired, hungry children, we declined.

Our total bill was $280 and we don’t know if they removed the $6 chicken wings or not — but we paid just to be done with the ordeal.

When we asked to speak with a manager or the owner, they refused to come to the table. Instead, they told the waitress to tell us they “did not want to do business” with us — no apology, no accountability.

To top it off, as we were leaving, a waitress asked the manager for help killing a live roach in the dining area.

This restaurant was dirty, poorly managed, and served unsafe, undercooked food. I will be contacting the health department regarding the raw chicken and overall cleanliness.

I wish we had read the reviews before going — their 3.6-star rating says it all. We definitely...