The Twisted Crab - Buford — Restaurant in Georgia

Certainly! Here's a detailed negative review of The Twisted Crab:

The Twisted Crab: A Disappointing Seafood Experience

While the idea behind The Twisted Crab sounds promising—fresh seafood served in a fun, hands-on atmosphere—the reality of dining here leaves much to be desired. Despite its lively vibe and bold promises of flavorful seafood boils, the overall experience falls flat, making it difficult to recommend this restaurant to anyone seeking a satisfying and quality meal.

Ambiance and Setting:

Upon entering, you're immediately greeted by a somewhat chaotic atmosphere. The décor is meant to be fun and nautical, but it feels more cluttered than charming. The bright, mismatched colors and haphazard design elements give off the feeling of a hastily put-together space rather than a thoughtfully curated restaurant. While the intention is to make it feel like a coastal retreat, it ultimately falls short, leaving the space feeling cramped and uninviting.

The noise level can also be overwhelming, especially during peak hours. It’s as if everyone is trying to shout over the background noise to be heard. The communal-style seating is a nice idea in theory, but in practice, it just creates a sense of discomfort, as you're often seated close to other diners who might not share your idea of personal space.

Service:

Unfortunately, the service at The Twisted Crab does not live up to expectations. While the staff is generally polite, they seem overwhelmed and not very attentive. On multiple occasions, servers seem distracted and disorganized, resulting in longer-than-expected wait times for everything from drinks to food. The staff is not particularly knowledgeable about the menu, and when asked for recommendations or clarification on items, they often seem unsure or offer vague responses.

Additionally, the pace of the meal feels rushed—your food arrives too quickly, and you're often left scrambling to start your meal before it gets cold, especially with the communal-style servings. The staff's lack of attention to detail when it comes to customer needs also detracts from the experience. For example, refills on drinks are slow, and it can take a while for your table to be cleared of empty shells and discarded items.

Menu and Food Quality:

The seafood boil is the centerpiece of The Twisted Crab, but unfortunately, it does not live up to its hype. For a restaurant that prides itself on its seafood, the quality just doesn’t cut it. While the selection of seafood—shrimp, crab, mussels, clams, and lobster—sounds promising, much of it is overcooked and rubbery. The shrimp, which should be tender and juicy, often comes out tough and overly chewy, while the crab legs are difficult to crack, with little meat inside.

The seasoning options are also a letdown. While you can choose from different spice levels, the flavor tends to be one-dimensional. The Twisted Special Sauce, which is supposed to be a signature element of the meal, tastes bland and doesn’t add any real depth or excitement to the seafood. Instead of a zesty, flavorful kick, it feels greasy and overly heavy, leaving you wanting something more vibrant and balanced.

The sides are no better. The Cajun fries are soggy and lack the crispy, seasoned punch you’d expect. Corn on the cob, which should be tender and sweet, is often overcooked, with a dull, limp texture that’s far from appetizing. The garlic bread is dry and overly greasy, lacking the rich, buttery flavor you’d want to accompany your meal.

For a restaurant that specializes in seafood boils, there is a clear lack of attention to the freshness and preparation of the dishes. It's hard to justify the prices when the quality of the food doesn't...

One of my new favorite places! We went around 2pm the Monday after Mother’s Day.

The food was absolutely amazing! It was all cooked perfectly and tasted so freaking good. It was the first time my husband and I have been and it didn’t disappoint. I got a seafood boil T5 I believe (crab, crawfish, (added) sausage, shrimp, potatoes, corn and (added) boiled eggs) and got it mild with the twisted crab seasoning. Everything was cooked perfectly and tasted phenomenal. I’m actually kind of picky as well and was pleasantly surprised that I instantly fell in love. I also might go up a spice level next time.

Our server, Sarah was absolutely amazing! She was so sweet and informative. She really made our first visit a memory. The host as well was kind enough to wipe our menu down as it was still wet from the cleaner they used.

My husband ordered chicken tenders and onion rings. His stomach unfortunately wasn't feeling well the last few days so he didn’t have much of an appetite for anything. However, he had some of his food and was pleased. The rest we took to go and our son ate the rest of his leftovers and was happy. Nice big portion of each tender and onion rings. Also, the cook was nice enough to give a nice big portion of BBQ sauce.

Definitely kid friendly. Only went during the day so can’t speak for the night.

I can’t wait to try their other food options and their adult beverages next time. It all sounded so delicious.

Spent $66.33 for both our orders. We did have 2 sodas and I did add 2 boiled eggs and 1/2 lb of sausage.

Cons: All MINOR 1.) I had to ask for extra sauce to go. I wasn’t even halfway done with my seafood and most of the sauce was gone. (Maybe because it was that good and it got all soaked up by the seafood.) Ha-ha. My server was so generous to get me more with no problem. Next time, I’ll just be sure to ask and get an extra side for dipping alone, while the main sauce gets soaked up by the seafood. 2.) The crawfish I got, a lot of them were really tiny. There was a few that were a good decent size. Normally, it can’t be helped when you get some small ones but definitely expected a lot more decent sized ones. I will note that I come from Texas so, not sure if my expectations for crawfish is high because of that or it could be just a one off batch. Either way it was still absolutely delicious and will order again. 3.) The booth we sat in had a lot of gnats on the table. We had to keep shooing them away for a little while. 4.) The window we were next to in our booth was not clean. Normally, I don’t really care about things like that but it had a lot of butter and grease smeared all around on it right next to me. I’m sure that could also be another reason for the gnats. I think it was just our booth as the windows didn’t look like ours did. Basically, it looked like someone was having a hard time with their seafood and flung all the juices everywhere. 5.) One menu had the po boy options listed etc. and while the other menu didn’t have it at all and had drinks and other stuff that wasn’t on the other. So, we essentially ended up sharing a menu. Not a big deal to us at all. However, if there was a big party someone might miss out on all the other amazing options they offer and wanted to note it.

Deducted one star for the minor cons listed above.

We will definitely be back, hoping at least once a month. Would...

We decided to celebrate a recent promotion for my husband by taking the family for a seafood boil. We ended up arriving mid afternoon about 3:30. We weren’t greeted with any fanfare, just a flat hi, how many? But hey, it’s middle of the day and there’s not much going on. We sit down and our table has a really cool paper tablecloth with word searches, tic-tac-toe, mazes, etc. Our 2 girls were excited. We were given paper plates, plastic forks and plenty of wet wipes. Our drink orders were taking timely. We placed our order for hushpuppies for an appetizer and then 1.5 lb snow crab, 2 lb headless shrimp, potatoes, corn, and 2 lb sausage. We got the twisted sauce and no spice. We asked for some spice on the side so my husband and I could add it ourselves. We realized we didn’t have anything to write with for the tablecloth so we asked our waiter. It took a while but he did eventually bring crayons but not enough for the whole table. We were given 4 big metal platters, more wet wipes, bibs and gloves and a huge stack of napkins. Even though there’s a napkin dispenser in the table. The appetizer came about 1 min before our boil did. The Hushpuppies were good and the sauce with it was delicious. We were given a bucket to put our scraps in. We opened up the seafood boil bag and distributed it among all of us. We quickly realized we didn’t have crab crackers. We decided to wait for a waiter to check on us. The shrimp peeled so easy and was so good especially dipped in the liquid in the bottom of the bag. We ate and ate and kept an eye out for our waiter or anyone for that matter. It was like the whole place took a break. Finally, my husband got up and walked to the bar to ask. A man approached him and just stood there. He was dressed is what looked like sweatpants and a dirty oversized tshirt. My husband asked him if he worked there. The man said yes so my husband asked for crab crackers. The man doesn’t say anything just walks away and appears with a plate of crab cracker, puts it on our table and walks away. A very odd experience. We get to cracking but the crab was completely cold by that point. It was difficult to crack and the meat stuck to the shell. We had to piece it out. We dipped it in the liquid left in the bag to warm it up. We never received the extra spice for me and my husband. Overall the flavor was good, not fabulous. I don’t think we would have had and issue with the crab if we had gotten to it when it was hot. I’m not sure we will be back given that seafood boil isn’t cheap. We were disappointed but had a good time celebrating with our family...