老高手抓海鲜休斯顿店Gao’s Crab Houston — Restaurant in Houston

Factual things to know as of 1/24/25: -$45 per person ages 11+, $20 ages 4-10, kiddos 0-3yrs are free for AYCE (all you can eat) -any food not eaten is an addtl $12/lb -2hr time limit -snow & king crab are NOT part of ayce can sodas included (no limit stated) if they're busy, you need to be on the waitlist or you dont exist as there is no one at the door to greet you. (there is a standing floor sign with a QR code). AYCE is everyone or no one, Cannot mix and match meaning there cant be orders for AYCE & orders for combos/bundles at the same table plenty of parking in strip mall

PROS: employees were pleasant the dining area was clean they dont skimp on the food (shrimp were jumbo, sausages were about 6" fat links, my turkey neck was large about the size of a fresh ear of corn🌽 ayce has a decent selection (see images) food was hot off the stove food wasnt overcooked

CONS: There was only one employee on floor to take orders so it took a bit to get his attention. I just started calling over any employee I saw. house cajun sauce was nasty to our group... none of us 4 liked it. It is overly garlicky, chalky, and does NOT have a cajun flavor at all. It ruined the meal. The spice levels are hotter than other boil places (2 in our group love spice and always get medium or hot but this spiciness was a bit too for their liking) the leftover food charge... I get it aims to deter waste/over indulgement but there was no way I was going to pay more for food I didnt eat simply because I didnt like the taste and wasnt going to take with me. Personally, I think they should provide each table with small samples (especially the sauces) then limit how much food can be ordered at one time to 1 oe 2 lbs and require that is consumed in full before addtl can be ordered. If folks want to take leftovers with them okay fine, charge for that. I forced myself to eat 70-75% then just trashed the rest. No one ordered seconds.

Unfortunately but quite frankly this was a waste of $195 for our group. We only wound up here because the Korean BBQ place we intended to dine at had a 2hr wait so we opted for this place instead (had never heard of it before). This makes the 4th or 5th seafood boil place I've eaten at and have yet to be impressed. I highly recommend trying to get a sample of the sauces first. I will absolutely stick with regular chinese buffets like Vstar, China star, etc. from now on. Better taste, better selection, better value. No more boil...

I was excited to try Gao's Crab because I love all-you-can-eat seafood, and I’d seen some pretty glowing reviews online. Unfortunately, my experience didn’t quite match up to my expectations or the TikTok hype. The place was much smaller than I imagined, and honestly, it felt a bit… ghetto. It was cramped, everything was paper or plastic (no real plates or silverware), and the seating made it feel like you were dining in a communal space rather than a restaurant.

While my server was really friendly and accommodating, he disappeared for a while to go on his lunch break, and then it felt like no one was checking on us. I get that with a $45 all-you-can-eat deal, service might not be top-notch, but still, it left a lot to be desired.

Now, let’s talk about the food – it was fresh and super tasty. I loved the flavor and the quality, but there were a couple of hiccups. I asked for headless shrimp, but was served shrimp with the heads still on. Not a huge deal, but it made me wonder why they even asked if they weren’t going to accommodate it. And then there was the baby squid – it still had the quill (that little plastic-like thing inside). It wasn’t the worst thing in the world, but it’s definitely not something I expected.

What really bothered me though was when I overheard the manager asking other customers about their experience, but when I was leaving, he didn’t even acknowledge me. It felt like my opinion didn’t matter, and that left a bad taste in my mouth (no pun intended).

Oh, and they ran out of sausages and clams – the two things I was most excited for. If those items are that popular, common sense would be to stock up more, right?

Overall, I can’t say I’d rush back to Gao’s. I’d rather stick to my local seafood boil spot and save myself the drive to Bel Air. I may give it another try if I’m in the mood, but I’ll be managing my expectations a lot...

It’s a lot smaller than expected. Based off all these influencer videos they did not make it clear bbq and crab are entirely separate menus and places. I am extremely disappointed i didn’t get bbq. Anyways walk in…i am Latina but i do not know Spanish. My friend i came with is as well but she knows it and looks it for sure. The waitress who waited us automatically started speaking Spanish as she was Spanish herself . I was the one who chose the place and knew more about it than my friend but she was only talking to my friend who knew it and when i spoke acted as if she didn’t truly understand me. She served others who clearly didn’t speak Spanish so why couldn’t she speak to me…. My friend needed butter once we got her food and she wasn’t around so i had to yell excuse me to get someone’s attention after some time…entire time after we got our food she did not check on us… the other waitress who was black and I am assuming a buster male Latino assisted…. If i had cash i would’ve tipped them properly.

Now for the food. We got squid ,mussels ,crawfish ,shrimp, crab ,and sausage. Now they weren’t skimpy but they were definitely not fresh like the influencers said they were. That crawfish was terrible. We got the house medium. Medium wasn’t really spicy but had flavor . I’ve also had better flavor. Shrimps good size Mussels decent Squid was something new to me in that way. Sausage was not bad. I liked it enough. Corn was fine. Wish it was sweeter.

I was looking for cold noodles , lamb, eggplant etc like these influencers led it all to be in one place but it was not…i will not be back for sure. I was so...