88 Boiling — Restaurant in Houston

I live around the corner from this place and it always looks very busy, but it is a very sketchy place so we never EVER had the urge to pop in. By sketchy i mean it is an old Church's chicken, zero parking, seedy people, and on top of everything there is a drive thru.

But we have found many gems in our neighborhood including Cafe Pita Plus and Pho One, so maybe we were being judgy?.... Next thing you know my friends from "inside the loop" are making the trip to this shack. How bad could it be if so-and- so likes it. Checks yelp, "babe the reviews are pretty good, lets try it out!". After some coaxing, and a hankering for crawfish + not wanting to drive very far, we relented and tried it out yesterday. WORST. IDEA. EVER.

I'm writing this in between bouts of projectile vomit, everyone in our party is EXTREMELY ill today. The first person to experience something was my boyfriend, starting around 2 hours after the crawfish yesterday, it is coming out of both ends for him. I thought maybe he got a bad one, until my friends texted saying they slept in the bathroom, and my illness started around 5 AM. Fever, chills, vomiting, diarrhea, metallic taste in mouth, sore extremities- the whole 9 yards. Everyone has had to call off of work today.

We had 5 pounds of 88 special flavor boiled crawfish, between the group. It is NOT your regular cajun crawfish. Extremely oily and heavy on the garlic. I have been eating crawdad's my whole life and I have never tasted anything like it. That is not to say we did not enjoy it- it was pretty tasty, actually, going down. Just very oily.... like a marinade instead of a boil. If you are looking for a good-ol-cajun-boy style crawfish- keep it moving!

If you are interested in having a stressful time parking; waiting upwards of an hour for a seat/order to be taken/to get a foot in the restaurant/and get your food; feel like you are eating at my asian grandmothers public housing in downtown LA; and be extremely ill- then you should definitely check...

I'm a crawfish LOVER that have been cooking them live for over 25 years. It was NOT good at all. it was a waste of my money. I cook them MUCH better at home They're priced at 8.99 a pound for small to large (few large mix) in the store they're between 2.99 -4.99 live. I had to sit in the drive thru line for about 30 minutes. Remind you, I had already placed my order over the phone and was told it would be ready in 15 min. When I did finally get to the drive thru window, it took like 10 minutes to serve me. I asked if I could taste one before purchasing and was told no. I figured if I'm buying 4 lbs at 8.99 a lb I should be able to taste ONE before I buy. Anywho she said no, gave me the bag of crawfish that were warm and NOT hot because I had sat in line for about 40 minutes. The crawfish were muddy and not purged good at all. Very gritty and DID NOT HAVE A GOOD FLAVOR AT ALL. They were bland and not seasoned well at all. There were some dead ones cooked becauae some of them had a straight tail (indicates that they were dead when cookes). This was by far my worse experience with crawfish, period. I'm from Louisiana and ANYONE from Louisiana that is a true crawfish eater like myself would totally agree with me. I didn't feel like cooking any crawfish that particular day and googled "best crawfish restaurant in Houston". They came up and had great reviews. Either it was the employees or comany giving the reviews or someone who have no idea what crawfish are supposed to look and taste like. When I boil mine they are hot red in color, FULL of flavor and very juicy. Not just a lil flavor on the shell but ALL the way through to the tail and body. I pick them fresh myself so they're no dead ones and I purge them myself as well so they're very clean.Guess I'll have to stick with cooking...

I was having higher expectations for this place due to the 1500 reviews. However, I am disappointed overall. The environment is not like the picture shown 5 years ago. Seems like they didn't renovate or deep clean the restaurant for the past few years. The space is crowded, and the light is dim. We ordered crawfish and combo fried rice. The crawfish was a little salty and nothing to complain about the fried rice. The thing that I really want to complain about was their service. My friend brought us here and doesn't know why she stood at the counter instead of sitting down in the first place. Her English wasn't that good, which the waitress does gave her an attitude, and I can sense her impatience. Finally, when we set things straight for our order, she asked for here or to go. We said dine in she gave us this attitude like I thought you said to go. I wonder than why you ask us for here or to go if you already thought or heard that we said to go. After we sat down, she came over to ask for the drinks. We ordered two waters and a beer. She said that'll cost us $8 since we already paid for the food at the counter. Well, they gave us two cups of tap water, which they later on didn't dare to charge us for it so we just paid for that extra beer. I understand that you guys have enough business already, but please don't give your clients an attitude and a hard time just because your English is...