The Crab Shack — Restaurant in Hanahan

UPDATE: Taking this down from 5 stars to 3 stars.

I came across my older review and I must update this. Original review was a year or 2 ago. This one is March, 2025.

The last 3 or 4 times I've gotten food there, it's been a very big disappointment. I always get fried seafood - usually the platter with fried shrimp, flounder, oysters, and scallops. And it's usually a to-go order to bring home only 10 minutes away.

Every time, the breading is bland and falls off the seafood, except the shrimp. It's also cooked too long, so it's hard-crunchy, not light at all. It's even a very dark shade.

The oysters have been very small - some so tiny, you can hardly find them in the box or the breading. The shrimp are hard and chewy. But the most egregious thing is insulting the consumer by substituting some kind of I-don't-know-what round cut things and passing them off as scallops. They're not. Their texture is like chicken - like a chicken nugget. I'm not sure what it is, but it's been on the plate every time and I've had to throw them away every time. I hoped they'd change to real, good scallops again. I'm not fooled.

Even the trusty sides have been a disappointment. The red rice that used to be moist (sorry!) and soft was dried out and had a good bit of hard pieces in it, like it was yesterday's red rice.

The one thing that has been edible is the fried okra. But, I mean, you just pour that, frozen and pre-made elsewhere, from a bag into a fry basket and set the time.

I haven't gone back. I don't know if or when I will. It's such a shame that the quality has gone down so much and their ratings show it, but nobody fixes it - especially in a city where we know what local cuisine and seafood is supposed to taste like.

Ryan? Dan? Ashley? If you're reading this, please take note and do better. We really want this location to produce good food.

Original review: Fried seafood is great. Collards were a little tangy for my taste but still tasty. As always, big shrimp! We didn't have a wait and the service was very good. It's kind of dark in the dining area near the bar but the food...

Was planing on some crab legs for my birthday and wow was I disappointed. Mind you I never take the time to complain but feel for the price I paid for my meal I wanted to prepare others so you’re not disappointed. To start with my wife wanted to sub for raw oysters instead of steamed oysters on her meal at the price of $36.99 which seems like a pretty simple solution but the our waitress said the manager denied the request. Seems raw would have been simpler than steamed but no big deal. I ordered the 2 clusters of snow crab legs for $33.99 and mind you there are no offered breads, hush puppies or anything prior to meal unless you order and appetizer. When my crab legs arrived they were severely overcooked and had shriveled down to nothing. They were so small they wouldn’t have been worth $20 even if they were cooked correctly. One cluster came with two large legs and no pincher and the other had a pincher and no small legs. No consistency. They came with 3 pieces of potato and a half cob corn. A small child would not have gotten full on that meal. Very disappointed to pay $100 and leave as hungry as when we arrived. I’m sure the other food would have been fine do not purchase the crab legs ironically at a place called the crab shack or you will be...

I can't tell you what the food is like having not been able to taste it that was a very nice hostess there was at the door told me and my party of six that they was hosting a private and that it was closed due to the party in which Me and My Party found it odd that there was people at the bar people on the far-left an far right sitting at the tables and it did not appear to be a party we were outside and another couple went in and then another and it was told various lies on why they could not eat at this establishment finally the hostess told the truth and said that they were under staff and could not accommodate the customers and that she was told by her manager to lie and Granite I can be very understanding and it made more sense that it was understaffed versus the lies that she was telling us a little bit of courtesy could have went a long way maybe a sign outside telling people that will eat here for the night that the wait will be longer than normal something then to tell someone a flat out lie and to make and a employee do it because you as a manager could not tell the customers but you guys at last pick and choose which customers you was going to serve because people that came in there was a party of two was told a whole...