The Crabby Shack — Restaurant in New York

I love to support business owners of color. I must say however that I was very disappointed by this location. First of all the place opened at 3pm. I came in at 4:30 pm. How are you out of crab clam chowder in an hour and a half. Wondering if this was due to poor planning and ordering on the part of management. Secondly I come from California. I love seafood and eat it very often. So I'm very aware of the prices. However you charge me $20 for a clawster roll or even $15 for a crab roll that is put on a hot dog bun is insulting. Use a hoagie roll and dress the roll with lettuce and tomato. Third of all I ordered a shrimp taco and a crab taco. Wanted to try the three different sauce options separately (meaning I would pour them on my tacos myself so please put them on the side which is what i asked them to do).I Was told I had to pay $0.50 for the third sauce which I was fine with. Received my order and low and behold they put the lemon aioli sauce on one taco, the chipotle sauce on another, and the wasabi on the side. Well hello I very well can't get the true flavor if the sauces and which i like because I never got to try the wasabi. No i didn't ask them to fix this as I noticed once I left the location. Fourth of all the drinks they have sound very appealing but at $3.50 for a 16oz the mango strawberry lemonade I had was not worth the money spent. Lastly when i finally tasted my food i could not finish my roll or tacos as crab is already salty enough. Why add more salt to it. There is no need to do so. My blood pressure almost went thru the roof. Needless to say I would not recommend this place and believe that is someone else opened a crab place in this neighborhood flavored the food more tastefully with more reasonable prices, this location will surely be put out of business. Sad to say and i hope this business makes some changes for the better....

As an overview, let me say that my dining experience was entirely decent. I would have happily paid $15 or even $20 for the dining experience I had. My main rub is that I really expected more of a wow factor from my $33 order. Now for the details...

The good: I placed a seamless order for a lobster roll, a bag crab chips, and a craft soda. Based on wait times quoted by seamless, I expected it to arrive in about an hour. It showed up hot and juicy in just 15 minutes, and I was ecstatic. The order was accurate, and the soda was truly delightful.

The meh: I REALLY love lobster rolls. I would drive hours for a good one, and I was drooling at the prospect of being able to order a hot lobster roll right to my door. When I took the first bite of this lobster roll, however, sparks did not fly. There was nothing wrong with it, per se. I just really wasn’t blown away. Perhaps it was the house lobster sauce (it hid some of the delicate lobster flavor). Perhaps it was the potato roll (I tend to be partial to brioche). I can’t say why with any certainty, but I can say that I have had superior lobster rolls at this price point. For a mid-range lobster roll, I would expect more.

The takeaway: This place deserves another chance. While I won’t entrust them with making me another lobster roll, I would be interested in tasting their crab roll, or perhaps a few of their crab tacos. I’ll revisit this review when I have a chance to try something else.

And for a good Brooklyn lobster roll? I suppose I will just have to subject myself to the exorbitant prices and unbearably pretentious staff over at...

Lapin and I came here on Sunday as we were both craving crab. We ordered two crab tacos which were good. They were packed with crab but they felt like it was missing something. Lapin said it was because the dressing overpowered the delicate taste of the crab. We also ordered the famous crab roll which was ah-mazing. It was packed with just crab meat...none of that filler stuff like salad you would get at other places [Sagaponack -- I am looking at you]. And of course, we ordered one pound of Alaskan Snow crab legs with 2 sides. To be honest, it definitely didn't feel like a pound. And the sides were a bit skimpy. We ordered the corn on the cob (2 pieces) and the potato was just one potato cut up into quarters. I wish they had more seasoning options available like at other crab boil places than just plain Old Bay, which was strong and overpowering on some of the crab legs and other pieces it was bland. To wash it down, we had hibiscus soda which was pretty interesting. Lapin liked it more than I did.

On a side note, apparently this place is BYOB as I saw some customers drinking and the owners didn't say anything. To order [we were a bit confused by this at first], you place your order at the cashier and give your name and then you can pick up your order. And be sure to ask for your receipt because the prices do fluctuate and after doing the math we were charged a lot more than listed but the cashier didn't give us a detailed receipt just a total receipt, so we are not even sure how much we actually did pay for...