Shaking Crab (Bronx) — Restaurant in New York

I respectfully tried to handle this with management however I was dismissed ignored and completely pushed away. On Friday 3/28/25, i attended an event at shaking crab with two of my friends. We get in , grab a table and this is where the problems begin. As we sit , eventually a server (who didn’t even introduce herself with a gray crunchy bob) came to bring us menus. She takes our order which included spicy calamari, a shrimp basket, loaded fries, and 3 margaritas (two which were in pouches and one glasses). The first red flag was when a completely different serve came to our table with ONE margarita pouch when we order 3 drinks. This serve was completely confused when we told her we order 3 drinks and she looked and said the serve (who originally had our table) didn’t put in the order for all 3 drinks. We brush it off because again we were there for an event and didn’t make it an issue. The second reg flag was when 1 order of food came out , and again we still are missing 2 drinks. A few minutes later another order comes out . Then shortly after the last order and still 2 drinks are missing. As a restaurant and business, customers shouldn’t be served their food before their drinks. Eventually the drinks came and we begin to eat our food. Half way into our meal, the same server who gave us our menu comes back and places the check in the middle of the table. Which had me confused because we were still eating and she never once came back to our table until she brought the check. When she came back to collect the money from the check, one of my friends ask for a to go box. As we look at the check the bill came up to 151.97 with an 18% gratuity. We were all co fused on how a meal that only contained appetizers and drinks could possibly total over a hundred dollars and to add on a tip when the serve did absolutely NOTHING was crazy to me. However we didn’t make it a big deal and still paid. Now the problem comes when we had to step outside for a second. We let multiple people in the establishment know that we was stepping out and will be back to the table and food. Not even 10 minutes out, we return to our table taken and food gone. We expressed to everyone including the server how we wasn’t finished with our food and it was thrown away. Let’s keep in mind my friend asked this same girl for a to go box so why throw our food away. She completely dismissed us and was nowhere to be found for the rest of the night. The next day I was told by someone who does business with this establishment that I can file a complaint directly with the manager and you can see in the text below. I was respect and received no response. So I called and explain the situation, I was told the manager had to talk to the serve to get the story. Which made no sense because I told her the story, it was nothing to go back to get because I expressed many times we wanted our food and we wanted it replaced since we paid over a hundred dollars and it was thrown out. Today 3/30/25, after not hearing back after the first initial call, I called back and spoke with the manager who was pretending she wasn’t the manager and was basically told because I was there for an event and told the people who was throwing the event that I was coming back that it didn’t matter because they aren’t shaking crab staff. I asked to speak with the manager (not knowing that was the manager) and was told the manager wasn’t there and they couldn’t inform me when she was going to be there. After letting them know I was coming up there to speak with the manager. I was told I wouldn’t be allowed back anymore. To ban me because yall threw my food away and all I wanted was it replaced is crazy to me. They literally will scam , rob and take your money. Along with a lot of illegal things that go on that I can really talk about!!!! DO NOT GO HERE!!!!! THE SERVES ARE WACK RUDE UGLY DIRTY AND DISRESPECTFUL! Which is why they are always getting violated. If you wanna go for the food, I would suggest going to their other locations. WHITE PLAINS...

Before writing this review, I want to say Max (my bartender) was great! Great energy, very attentive, and great service.

On July 1st, 2024, I came upon Shaking crab. I was going to chipotle, but I noticed Shaking Crab. I heard such rave reviews about it on Instagram, so I decided to try it for myself. I arrived promptly at 4pm and waited for them to open at approximately 4:05pm. As I entered, I was greeted and sat at the bar. Max helped me with my drink of choice and explained the menu to me. I wanted to try out the all you can eat menu. I ordered fried pickles to start, and I ordered crab legs and shrimp. I added eggs to my order, and I told Max to pick a sauce of choice. I received the fried pickles, and they were lightly breaded—not crunchy, but just simply okay. I received my boil shortly after. I started with the shrimp. While the shrimp was cooked, it was completely flavorless, and the sauce on the boil was off-putting and lacked flavor and salt. I continued on to the snow crab legs, and they were old and overcooked. I cracked one open, and it didn’t crack. The meat inside was hard to get to and was again flavorless. I proceeded to try another shrimp, but at this moment I realized I would not be able to finish. I asked Max to ask the kitchen about the quality of the seafood and if all the batches were coming out like this. If so, I will order something different. In the time that she went to go consult with the kitchen, I started gagging at the bar from the food. I am not someone that throws up, so I took a minute to understand how I was feeling. I ran to the bathroom and immediately started vomiting. When I came back, with my eyes watery and my skin pale, I told Max that I would pay for the pickles and my cocktail, and I would buy another cocktail with her, but please do not send out another order of seafood. Max gave me soda water to settle my stomach. My dining experience was ruined, but I enjoyed my time at the bar. This is where things turned left for me.

The manager on duty approached me at the bar and opened up the bill. She explained that because I ordered all you can eat and I ate the pickles and some of the seafood, they wouldn’t take the food off because I didn’t like it. She offered to buy me another drink, but no food would be coming off. I explained to her that I have worked in the industry for 8 years, across 3 cities, at top restaurants. If I simply didn’t enjoy a dish, that is not a reason I would send it back. It made me sick, and that is a problem. The quality and preparation of the seafood are in question, not my taste buds. The manager had no remorse and didn’t even acknowledge that the food indeed made me sick. I wanted to speak to the owner, but I was told the manager gave the manager the instructions for the bill.

I am completely and utterly disappointed at the management of this establishment. I was the first person to walk in that door. I was excited to try Shaking Crab, and I came there ready to receive quality food and great service. I left with food poisoning for the day and a bill, with no food taken off. I have never worked in any establishment that would not take accountability for the food quality and take it off the bill. I just moved back to the Bronx after 8 years, and I wanted to spend my money at a local business, but instead I left sick, hungry, and disrespected by management. A 77$ bill , which I still tipped on top of , because my service was not lacking , but the food was not worth the bill. I could only eat 2 shrimp , have a crab leg and half a boiled egg , before going to the bathroom and throwing it up . I will definitely come back for Max and Max only, but I will not come back to eat at this establishment, and I will not be recommending it to anyone else. I am hoping management will reach out in a professional manner, but I have...

The Worst Dining Experience I've Ever Had – Terrible Service and Poor Management

I honestly don’t even know where to start with my experience at The Shaking Crab, but it was hands down the most horrible dining experience I’ve ever had. From start to finish, the service was abysmal, and the management was completely unprofessional. I’ll never be returning, and I strongly urge others to avoid this place.

First, we were greeted by security who sat us in the front of the restaurant. This area was not ideal, especially when there were plenty of empty tables further inside. We politely asked if we could move to one of those available tables, and the security guard gave us major attitude. Right off the bat, that set a really bad tone for the night.

Then we finally got our drinks and one appetizer… and waited. And waited. Over an hour passed, and no one had taken our order. I had to keep adding time to my parking meter just to stay, and still, no one came to check on us. It was getting ridiculous. At this point, we were just trying to be patient, but there was absolutely no sense of urgency or customer care.

In the meantime, we were told that our original server, who was apparently the manager, would be stepping away, and another server would be handling our table. So, we waited some more. During this entire time, all the staff—and I mean ALL of them—were hanging out at the bar on their phones. The bar wasn’t even busy, there was one couple sitting there. I get it if there’s a lull in service, but to have the entire staff ignoring customers for over an hour while scrolling through their phones? Completely unprofessional.

After about 90 minutes of waiting with no food, no attention, and absolutely no communication, we asked to speak to the manager. She was completely indifferent to our request, passed our table multiple times, and never came over to address the issue. This is the point where I was honestly shocked—is this how they treat their paying customers?

If being short-staffed was the issue, then they could’ve at least been upfront about it and told us that we'd have to wait over an hour to get our orders taken. But I don’t think that was the case here. The reality was that the staff was simply too busy on their phones to care about the customers.

Needless to say, we left without eating anything. We were so frustrated that we ended up driving 15 minutes away to Hook and Reel, where we were immediately greeted, seated, and served, and had an absolutely wonderful meal. The food, drinks, and atmosphere there were fantastic—everything that The Shaking Crab should have been.

I can’t even begin to express how disappointing this experience was. Terrible customer service, terrible management, and a complete waste of time. If you value your time, money, and appetite, do yourself a favor and go somewhere else.

I will never return to The Shaking Crab, and I strongly do not recommend this place to anyone. If you want a nice, enjoyable meal, take your business somewhere that actually cares about...