Mr. & Mrs. Crab - Gainesville — Restaurant in Gainesville

We had horrrible service tonight and will not be doing another large party here again. The only reason for 3 stars is because of the food and my partner and I have been here a few times without too many issues.

In summary, we waited about 30 minutes to get everyone's drinks, an hour and 20 minutes to get everyone's food, and had to track people down to get the things we needed for our table.

The details: Because of the food in the past we allowed our son to pick here to celebrate his 10th birthday. We called a day ahead and made a reservation for 12. We were asked to call 30 minutes before we got there to confirm our reservation. The day of we called about 40 minutes before the reservation and they said they would have our table ready. My family and I got there about 5 minutes early. Our table was not ready yet. They had one lady pull tables together to make room for us. We thought nothing of it, just felt bad that we were in the way of the entrance. Luckily they were not very busy.

Once we were seated we were introduced to a female waitress and told that she would be our server. About 15-20 minutes later a male waiter came and took our drink orders and our appetizer order. After another 10 minutes or so we finally got most of our drinks but were missing a few. We went ahead and ordered our food then. 45 minutes after we got there we were still missing drinks and no one had came by with our appetizers or to refill drinks. Someone in the group stopped our waiter and he walked to the kitchen and brought back our appetizers. A few minutes later he came by with the rest of our drinks.

An hour into our dinner we got our food, missing 2 peoples' food. Though we asked, we never received any silverware, bibs, plates, shell crackers, gloves, or anything until we tracked someone down. We tried to find someone for some forks so at least the kids could start eating their Mac and cheese. The lady up at the front went and grabbed the thing we needed.

All of this and we were still missing 2 of our guests' food. One ordered wings and the other just a normal shrimp/sausage boil. We watched several tables get their food before my 2 guests, even though those tables came in after us. We had to track someone down to check on their food. After an hour and 20 minutes of being there, my guests finally got their food.

When it was time to cut the cake, I asked for a knife. We waited another 10 minutes and had to ask again. The waiter said he forgot. After we sang happy birthday and cut the cake, the wait staff started singing happy birthday to another table. My son asked if they were going to do it for us. They did come to our table after they finished and sang to him too. We finished up, paid, and left.

This was the first time my other family has been here. For the amount we spent tonight, the service didn't meet basic standards. My guest said they would never return...

The dining area has enough decorations to keep your eyes busy for a while. Our waiter was prompt and helpful. We ordered the crab boil in the special sauce per a kind ladies recommendation we met in the lobby area. They don’t have brewed tea but the fountain tea was acceptable. The he crab cakes were edible but likely out of a bag. We didn’t have to wait long for our boil in a bag . The first thing I noticed was the shrimp that were deveined were a little dry. However, the couple I found that had not been deveined were soft and juicy. The sausage was tasty but bordering on overcooked. About the crabs… Our trusty server went awol for a while after giving us our food and we were left to assume they didn’t provide claw crackers. I explained to my date that likely people stole them and that’s why we didn’t receive any. Furthermore, I told her that it was still possible to recover the meat from the claws even without the proper tool. So, I set about breaking into those things with fork and fang. Let me tell you, those were some of the most well armored crabs I have consumed in my 40+ years of crab consuming. Through the fire and the flames I proceeded to rend the paltry supply of meat from those crustaeous devils for my woman. Finally our waiter made his appearance and I immediately began to confront him about our situation. Turns out, they had both butter and claw crackers for their customers. After returning with the butter he asked if he could shuck the remaining crab for us to which we replied with a hasty yes. As we began to indulge ourselves in our recently acquired butter he pops open a crab and says “eh, I’ll get y’all a better crab.”… So, he took off with the crab while we dipped our remaining meat in the butter. As I stated earlier, paltry amounts of meat for the effort. When he returned with our replacement crab, only then did it occur to me that we had been duped. The new crab was loaded with delicious moist meat. Apparently, our originals were so overcooked the meat had shrunk to dry particulate in comparison. The sauce was amazing and tempting to just drink it from the bottom of the bag. The corn was tasty but also slightly overcooked. I was guilty of not knowing what to expect and therefore let the experience get out of hand. When I return, things...

Horrible customer service. I called ahead and placed a to-go order. The order included a few menu items as I had some family in town. We pick up the food, pay, and head home. Once we get home I noticed that one of the food items (~$15) was missing, and I immediately call and notify the employee. I tell the person on the phone that I have just taken the food out of the bag and I am missing my item. I ask for a refund on the item or store credit. I had just arrived home after work and did not want to have to drive back to get the missing item. I would if I have to, but would prefer credit or something at this point. The person on the phone says they will have to speak to a manager. A few minutes go by and they couldn't get a hold of the manager. I was told to just stay on the line. After a few more moments they say they'll call me back soon. After about 30 minutes, I get a call back from one of the staff and they immediately say all they can offer me is 15% discount on my next order. I start to explain that I would really prefer my money back or credit for the value of the missing item. The person disappears in the middle of my explanation and the manager gets on the line to repeat the same line. She said all she can offer me is a 15% coupon on my next order. I said that I would be willing to come by and pick up the missing item, and a few other suggestions. But she insisted that she couldn't trust me that the best they could offer me is 15% coupon. So at the end of the day, they took $15 dollars from me, I had an incomplete order, and they wasted over 30 minutes of my time.

I'm never coming...