Mr.Crabby's Cajun Seafood & Bar — Restaurant in McAllen

Won't be returning here. Took about 10 minutes for someone to come by and ask us for drinks in the beginning.

The food was ok. We got the fried gator for an appetizer and then I got the blackened catfish and shrimp. It was alright, but for a 27 dollar plate of food I would have expected more food, was like 7 shrimp and two catfish filets with a serving of rice (picture attached). My wife got a 14 dollar shrimp basket and she got more food than I did. Drinks were good though, my bloody mary was mixed well and had a nice kick.

Our server was not all that attentive. My rice order was wrong, I asked for dirty rice but they brought steamed. Which wasn't to big of a deal on its own, I just let them know so it could be changed. But he took my plate and it took them like 10 minutes to bring it back. Then at the end they tried to charge me an extra 7 dollars for a serving-spoon sized serving of dirty rice. In addition there was never really any offer to refill the drinks, we had to prompt the server for everything. And then at the end, it took them probably another 10 or 15 minutes to finally bring us the check. I just in general got an attitude that they didn't really care.

But probably the worst part of it, that soured me the most on this place, was the music. It wasn't the choice of music, I don't mind a variety of music, it was the volume. At around 6:45ish PM they turned volume up significantly, to the point where I had to raise my voice to talk to my wife across the table. And the volume was inconsistent to, at some points they would lower it, at others they would crank it up again. And they couldn't seem to let one song finish, they'd let it get a minute or two in and then change it. This place can't figure out if it's a restaurant or a bar...or even what song they want to hear.

Overall I can't really recommend this place, not when pappadeux is just a little ways down the highway, around the same price, way better atmosphere and food. Normally I go there when I have a craving for good seafood and we got the money to burn, but wanted to give this place a try,...

I’ll break this review down into 3 parts. Food, environment, service. I come from San Antonio so I’m new to the area, I decided to try this place because I was in the mood for Cajun.

Environment 10/10: I arrived and saw the exterior was really nice, I walked into this place and was immediately suprised of how nice it looked inside, the line was long but I was even more shocked that I waited no longer than 10 minutes. My first thought was “wow this looks fancy” we got seated and another thought was it is very clean for it being a messy food style. Seats were spaced out so it was nice to see they took CDC guidelines into consideration.

Food 10/10: I got the “Weekend Special A” as I waited for my food it took maybe 12 minutes to arrive, it was quick, my first thought here was “hm doesn’t seem like a ton of food”, but was I wrong. Halfway through I was full, and If you think about it, you don’t really heat up seafood or I wouldn’t take this as left overs because it wouldn’t taste the same. I saved the crab and lobster last, the shrimp was amazing, potatoes and corn really good, but what made me feel like Anton Ego’s moment in Ratatouille was as soon as I tried the lobster, it was phenomenal. The crab was phenomenal. What really really really made this a change my whole life moment was the Mr. Crabby sauce and garlic butter on the side.

Service: 12/10: As soon as we sat down we were greeted by Artaban, he had us laughing the whole time, he was extremely fast, checked on us multiple times, made sure our drinks and whatever we needed was taken care of, I haven’t experienced service this good in my 29 years of living. He was the greatest part of this experience, he made our whole week. I will definitely come back with more people, I think I might have my birthday here too. Thank you Artaban for making my hectic week, a...

4-11-25 We really wanted this place to be good! Fortunately, the food is good, but that is where the positives of this restaurant end. The decor is ok, but cant seem to decide if it is down town NOLA, or the middle of the sea. The walls are mostly wood covered, with the bottom half burned, while the upper half still raw, however the molding at the top is also burned. Do it all or none, but once you make the transition, stick with it. Fix the tinting on your windows. With it peeling the way it is, it looks terrible. Now for our experience. We were taken to a table that had not been turned from the night before. There was still a stain from a glass on the paper that covered the table, and a dirty plate in the pail. When pointed out, the waitress offered to remove things, but our food was already on the table. We could have moved to another table, but that was not offered. The afore mentioned pail also contains the "cutlery" which are packets of a plastic fork spoon and napkin, and a "bib". I ordered shrimp etouffee while my wife ordered the catfish basket. The etouffee was good, except for a couple of shrimp still had some tail left on them, and a few bits of bay leaf was so hard I thought I had plastic in my mouth. The catfish had little flavor and the fries in the basket looked as if they were frozen. To top it all off, the waitress walked passed us, dropping the bill off without a word. When we looked at it, it wasnt ours. It was for a party of 4, and triple what ours should have been. We asked for a manager and spoke with him about all the things I have written. He got the waitress to bring the correct bill, with an included discount of not quite half my plate. This will be our only visit to Mr Crabbys. I wish everyone else luck if you chose to try it...