The Boiling Crab — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I am writing this review to express my deep disappointment with the service and treatment my friends and I received at Boiling Crabs today. Our dining experience was nothing short of terrible, and I feel compelled to share our unfortunate encounter with others. I arrived a little late when my friends just started their dinner. Upon arrival, I politely requested to add a seat to the side of our table, which was initially agreed upon by one of the waiters. However, moments later, the manager and another staff member confronted me, stating that I couldn't sit there. He first said I need to be placed on the waitlist before I could have my seat, but there was obviously no one waiting on the list and the restaurant was full of empty tables. He apparently found his first excuse ridiculous and quickly supplemented it’s also due to some fire regulation. This inconsistency in their response was both perplexing and frustrating. What made this situation worse was witnessing a family with a child seated at a similar-sized table, precisely where I was initially told I couldn't sit. When I questioned the manager about this apparent double standard, he brushed it off by claiming that "the child is different." This response was not only unjustifiable but deeply offensive. Despite suggesting alternative seating arrangements, such as moving to a larger table or combining nearby empty tables, the manager rejected all our requests without any valid reasons, continuously citing the same questionable fire regulation excuse. The overall service we received was appalling, and the staff, especially the manager, demonstrated a lack of respect, empathy, and professionalism. It was evident that their priority was not serving customers but rather avoiding potential violations. Furthermore, I cannot help but notice a possible discriminatory undertone in this incident. The group allowed to sit at the side of a table was predominantly composed of white individuals, while my group, consisting of Asians, was subjected to different treatment. I expected a pleasant dining experience at a restaurant of this reputation and price level, but what we encountered was utterly unacceptable. I urge that Boiling Crabs addresses these issues promptly and takes...

Yesterday, I visited the Boiling Crab for the first time. I was actually looking for a brew pub that used to be at the same location. Though I miss the old brewery, I had a good experience, either way.

The specialty here is seafood: crawfish, crab, shrimp, lobster, clams and mussels. The seafood is placed in plastic bags along with a seasoning sauce (cajun, butter, garlic and other variations) and boiled. It's then served on butcher block style paper covered tables, along with any sides ordered, and people dig in. It's a messy meal: bibs, gloves, and napkins are needed and available; intended as a fun outing for families and groups of friends.

While I've enjoyed meals like this at similar restaurants, this wasn't what I originally had in mind when I came out here; so I ordered the breaded, fried catfish with cajun seasoned fries ($12-14), an order of similarly breaded fried oysters, and a couple of glasses of ale ($6 each - I originally ordered the Lagunitas ale at the same price - all the beers are - but they were out of it, at the moment, so I switched to 805). The fried foods came with small cups of a spicy hot red sauce for the oysters, of white tartar sauce for the catfish; and catsup for the fries.

The fish filets, oysters and fries were fine; decent sized portions, crisply fried, with no trace of oil (are these air-fried? I forgot to ask), as good or better than similar fried seafood I've had elsewhere in L.A. I appreciated the large strips of the catfish, which was a nice change from the single, flatter filets you see in many places. I did notice that the breading wasn't as salty as breading I've had elsewhere (I asked for a small cup of salt to add a bit).

The outstanding feature of this location was the service. The servers here are generally young, very friendly and very attentive, checking in on the customers regularly. I'll be back again, either for another round of the fried seafood, or can gather a group to try the boiled seafood at this location.

Please note that this is primarily a seafood restaurant. A definite "no go" if you have any allergies to shellfish, and there really aren't sufficient vegan/vegetarian options for those...

I am extremely disappointed with my experience at this Boiling Crab location. The prices on the menu did not reflect what we were actually charged, and when we brought it up to our server we were told “so sorry they were updated this morning.” Furthermore, we were “over served” compared to what we asked for. We asked for 2 pounds of blue crab, and when we received the bill we were charged for 3 pounds of blue crab, without notice. Absolutely not what we asked for and when there are 2 people eating who both order 2lbs and are BOTH given 3lbs; that significantly increases the price of your bill - again without being asked if that was okay with us or if we would be okay with the extra pound each. The service was also terrible. We had to repeatedly ask for simple things, like a spoon, gloves, straws, as well as rice which was completely forgotten by our server.

Now here is the kicker. We did not finish all of our crab so we took it home. When we got home, we questioned how much we were charged based on how much food we actually got, so we weighed the crab that was left. We were each given 4 blue crabs, I had 3 left. When I weighted them (in the sauce in the to-go bag etc), they were 1 lb 10 ounces. If 3 of them were not even 2 lbs, adding the one that I ate sure as hell doesn’t equal to the 3 lbs I was charged for. Then, we weighted 4 of them together, (one from my roommates’ leftovers, plus my three) and those 4 also did not equal 2 lbs, even with the sauce, to-go bags etc. This is blatant fraud. Boiling Crab Westwood is stealing from their customers. There is supposed to be a mutual agreement of trust between the customer and the restaurant for them to be charged fairly for the weight of food that they are receiving, but clearly that did not happen in this case. I will never...