Crabs Claw Inn — Restaurant in Lavallette

We had a horrible experience at this restaurant last night. After we waited a good 45 minutes for our table we were finally sat in the back corner of the restaurant where we had a beautiful view of the parking lot. After a brief wait, our server came over and within the first few sentences dropped an F bomb at our table. Seriously, at a place where the food is not worth the value (we’ll get to that) you probably want to be polite to your guests. After our sever dropped the tip making strategy of “I have a kid” on us, she finally took our drink order and we made her take our appetizer order. Out of the 3 of us at the table, I had an iced tea, my wife had a seltzer and a beer and my sister in law had a water and a beer, and the server couldn’t even remember who had what. A while later our appetizers came. We got oysters and crab dip. The oysters were good. The crab dip was ok. I think for $15 you can give us something better to dip in the crab dip than bagged tortilla chips. As the appetizers came we tried to order our entrees, to which our server walked away without taking our order. We ate the apps and after we were done for a while she finally came back to take our order. Maybe the kitchen was getting slammed at the moment and you didn’t want to put our order in immediately, but if we tell you we’re ready to order, take the order. We ordered really easy things too, or so we thought. Soup and fried seafood. Things that should be quick. We said the soups could come out first, which they did not as we’re sitting there for 45 minutes. After about 25 minutes the server came over, poured still water into my wife’s seltzer, took my sister in laws glass of water and never returned it and said our food would be out very very soon. All the tables around us that sat after us got their food much quicker than we did. We waited another 20 minutes for our super simple order to come out. We were clearly getting annoyed at this point and by the time our entrees finally got to us we were over this place and just wanted to leave. We hadn’t voiced any negative thoughts at this point but the manager came over to chat with us knowing that we had a really bad experience. We hadn’t eaten the some of the items on the table because our appetites were gone and we just wanted to leave. The manager’s solution was to comp a round of drinks and a side of French fries instead of the food that we were clearly uninterested in. Basically the stuff that was the cheapest cost to them. We said fine as we had plans that we were already late for, not thinking we were going out for a two and a half hour dinner. Honestly, we weren’t happy with the resolution but just had to get out of there. The manager then told us that the kitchen staff was very slow tonight, but if we told them we have plans they would have gone faster. This excuse given by the restaurant was totally ridiculous. Something I didn’t share until now is that I’m a chef, and blaming your kitchen on your servers bad job is really really unprofessional. Not to mention that the sidewalk is packed with people waiting for tables. I would think you would want to turn your tables as quickly as possible so people would have less wait times and sell more food. I didn’t analyze the kitchen, so I don’t know where the inefficiencies and breakdowns were, but on the service staff side, the mistakes are plentiful. Also, a $15 order of coconut shrimp should have more than 4 pieces per order. The value of the dishes just wasn’t worth it. I’m not really familiar with this area so I can’t make a better food suggestion, just don’t go here. If you want to blow a bunch of money on crappy food, this is the place for you. Otherwise, find...

Where to start: Let me just say this is during the Covid 19 pandemic so I am being very lenient. The first day restaurants were allowed to seat anyone inside, I visited a familiar place to me with high quality of food, and very fancy. I spent just about the same amount of money, and ordered just about the same food. With that being said, the quality at this first restaurant was amazing, taste, quality, temperature, and all silverware without even asking. Now i will compare this with Crabs Claw Inn which I was in love with until now.

The standard of quality was not at all up to par. I have been to this establishment for years. It held a special place in my heart. For the cost of the meals I would have expected just the same if not more compared to the above restaurant.

Food: My Filet Mignon was the smallest piece of meat I've ever seen. 4 pieces, over cooked (not like requested), and was dried out with no taste. My potatoes had no taste and were in this oil/grease on the plate. My extra ordered up charge of lobster tail was over cooked, burnt, and rubbery tasting. Never have i ever tasted something so horrid, and I've eaten bad seafood (not on purpose) that tasted better than this lobster tail. I also had burnt cooked shrimp. I guess for my meal the best part was the cheap dinner rolls that were fresh. No other bread and quality. For the other two meals depicted you could even see the chicken fingers were over cooked and burnt. The buffalo calamari had no breading, no taste, very rubbery, and oil/grease dripping all around it.

Covid 19 precautions. I get it. But still for the price of the meal, paper plates, plastic fork, knife, and spoon, inside with 1 napkin. The drinks were inside plastic cups, and the soup in a plastic bowl. Lower the price if your going to serve the lower quality food.

Waiter: Everything we requested came very quickly. When he asked how the meals went, and I responded, "terrible", he just smiled, said ok, and walked away.

Overall experience. Terrible. Will...

We have been going to Crab's Claw ever since it was changed from the Lafayette Hotel decades ago. Recently had the worst experience dining there as a party of four. Made the mistake of visiting on a Wednesday after the lifeguard tournament in Ortley Beach. After the usual 45 minute wait on the very crowded sidewalk in front of the restaurant we were finally seated on the porch room adjacent to the main dining room, which turned out to be a good thing, because it was karaoke night and, due to being seated so late, we were treated to the large, drunken crowd that spilled into our room. The shrimp appetizer was tasty, but way overpriced for five shrimp. The fried seafood combination was disappointing compared to our last visit as the piece of filet on the platter was a 3" square and also had several shrimp and fried clams. A far cry from what we have come to expect from this place. Someone in our party ordered the soft shelled crab entree and the waitress returned to inform us that they didn't have any. The rest of our party had dishes that were okay at best, but again, way overpriced for the size of the portions offered. We mentioned our dissatisfaction to a woman who appeared to be a manager of sorts, and she apologized and said she would mention it to her boss. By the time we finished our meal the karaoke crowd in the bar area had grown quite large and noisy. As we had to exit through the bar area, individuals in the crowd did not move to allow us to leave and were generally rude. It will be a long time before we return to this place we once had a great liking for, if ever. In retrospect, we should have chosen Bum Rodgers or Rockafella's on a Wednesday and most likely any other night as well. It is sad that I can no longer recommend this place as the restaurant of choice in...