Crab Fever - San Diego — Restaurant in National City

Crab Fever- Train your staff better, especially Leslie!

I write this review in hopes that Crab Fever trains employees so that guests can have a better and safer dining experience.

On Father's Day, June 16, 2019, I received the worst dining experience in my life due to the inexperience and ineptitude of your manager on duty, Leslie.

As a result, I placed an order online via Yelp and Grubhub. I paid for my order online and received an email confirmation and drove over to the location as it said the order would take anywhere from 20-40 minutes to complete, about the same time it would take for my commute there.

At 5:15 pm, it was finally my turn in line. I met, I would like to point out that I was not "greeted", but met with a young, timid, inhospitable, and inexperienced employee at the cash register, Leslie. She informed me that my order had been canceled. I asked for a reason why as I had already paid online in full, drove out to the restaurant, and I did not get a call from the restaurant. Her reasoning was that they got too busy, so I asked her if they got too busy, then why were they still seating guests instead of shutting the doors to allow their kitchen to catch up? I also did not understand why take reservations for only parties of 8 or larger, just have groups come in first come, first serve style to accommodate everyone and keep business flowing instead of keeping seats empty waiting for parties to arrive.

I also asked why the restaurant did not call me and speak with me over the phone to confirm that I knew my order was being canceled. She tried to explain to me that it was unfortunate and frustrating for both parties because of the incident, but I told her that it wasn't because I had to drive all the way out and that I had a large and very hungry family waiting for food at home, but they would still get paid. Leslie had the audacity to try and seem like she too was a victim when it was that idiot that cancelled my order in the first place because they were "too busy". I get it, on busy dates wait times will definitely be longer, but that is not a legitimate excuse to CANCEL an order. They were too lazy and unprepared.

I asked to speak with the manager and she informed me that she was the one in charge. I did not hear her say that she was "the manager", so I assumed she was a lead of some sort. Her lack of experience in the restaurant industry showed. She did not know how to greet customers, how to answer the phones, manage staff, manage guests, or resolve issues. At times she would run off to the kitchen or just answer the phone without saying excuse me and prioritizing the customer in front of her.

The best solution that she could offer was to put my cancelled order back in and it would be next. I asked her how long and she said 20-25 minutes, which in my mind seemed excessive for boiled seafood. It should only take about 10-15 minutes since seafood is a quick cooking protein. I agreed since I was already there. Fast forward 20, then 25, then 30, then 35 minutes my order finally comes out and drumroll please it was still missing some parts and was messed up. So I had to wait even longer for them to fix the issues and I finally leave around 6:10 pm. Even though my order was supposedly "next", I saw other to go orders and guests receive theirs before me so I am pretty sure she forgot to put my order back in.

Before I left, I asked Leslie for 10 pairs of gloves to go and she begins counting them, but I stopped her and asked if she had washed her hands and she had no clue why she had to. I explained to her that I saw her accept and count money and she was like "oops, I will get more from the back" and tossed the contaminated gloved back into the unused pile of gloves. 12 people could have gotten sick from a food borne illness all because some idiot didn't realize that you can transfer pathogens from handling money. I stopped her and just told her that I no longer needed the gloves, although this makes me question the safety and sanitation of...

If you have any allergies or food intolerances, THIS PLACE IS NOT FOR YOU. I visited Crab Fever because I heard that they could accommodate people who didn't eat meat. Our waitress, Amanda Johnson, assured us that the kitchen could make a seafood boil with no sausage. My friends and I ordered the most expensive meal, $89 for the table. We were SO excited for our dinner and when the waitress poured out the boil, there were giant chunks of sausage. Obviously, we had to send this meal back for a new one because I couldn't eat the seafood cooked in sausage juice. She assured us that the kitchen would make us a new meal and about 10 minutes later, another boil was brought to our table and poured out. Assuming this was in fact a brand new boil, we all dug in and had a wonderful meal. I grabbed one of the lobsters and there is was..... A GIANT CHUNK OF SAUSAGE. The explanation was obvious, they took the original meal to the back, picked out all of the sausage, and brought back the same one, calling it a "new batch". We brought over the manager, Aaron Christoph, and he seemed unconcerned with this issue. I am someone who hasn't eaten meat in 3 years. When I accidentally have something with meat in it, I almost immediately throw up so I cannot have any sauce with meat juices in it. This boil MESSED ME UP. As I was being sick in the bathroom in my hotel, I called Crab Fever, begging for a full refund after this poisoning. Both Aaron and the OWNERS of Crab Fever were cold and unconcerned with the effect their negligence had on me. They offered me a gift card to their restaurant (AS IF I WOULD EVER GO BACK TO THAT PLACE). Seriously, if you need to avoid any type of food, do not go here. They will not take your health concerns seriously. So disappointed in the staff and owners...

DO NOT GO IN A GROUP OF 6 OR MORE. We went today for a birthday and we were 6 people. They charge an 18% SERVICE CHARGE that does NOT go to the amazing servers. That means if you have a bill of around 200 bucks, it's going to jump up 18% for a service charge and then we paid 18% tip to the server on top of that. Tipping the server is the right thing to do for good service! Service was great so this really isn't fair for them who told us a lot of the time they get stiffed when people come in thinking the service charge is the tip and they get left with 0 tip! What is the service charge for you may ask? Apparently it's for the table linings, napkins, and stuff for the table. Isn't that what a normal restaurant should be able to pay for anyways?! This was so wrong. As far as the food....very disappointing. The gumbo was like gravy and did not taste good. The seafood in the bags had no flavor. The lobster roll tasted like rubber. The Cajun pasta was so bland. The sweet potato fries were undercooked. I can go on, but just take my word for it, it's not worth it here at all. Run. Go anywhere else. So disappointing. UPDATE: So the owner responded to this post and is now claiming part of the service charge goes to the servers. So are your servers liars? Your shift lead and another server claim the service charge doesn't go to them at all. So am I to understand you have a service charge that says it is NOT A TIP at the bottom of the receipt. But now you say some of it DOES go to the servers? Are you making us double tip then? Your establishment sounds like a...