Blue Crab Grill — Restaurant in Newark

This is an update to my previous review. The owner personally reached out to me after my experience and showed me that he cares. He is very professional and takes feedback from his customers. I will return because of him. Thank you, Mr. Schmidt.

Previous review: Let me start out by saying we have been here many times and have always loved the food, service, and environment. Tonight, all of that changed. Beginning with the hostess when we first walked in (she was wearing a yellow cardigan and orange/red dress), we were very rudely greeted. We told her how many people and she says "how many? yeah, it's gonna be awhile." Okay thanks, good evening to you too, I'm doing well, thanks for asking. Let me mention, the other hostess dressed in all black was VERY polite and nice. Anyway, we got seated and were enjoying our drinks and appetizers. Then all of a sudden, the fans in the restaurant were turned on and created a strobe light effect, with constant flashing, directly at our table. As a migraine sufferer, I immediately felt nauseated and ill and knew I was getting a migraine. So, I asked the hostess in the yellow cardigan and orange/red dress (since our waitress was no where to be found) if she could turn off the 1 single fan above our table as I was experiencing aura associated with migraines. She very rudely said, "well it is hot in here." I explained my health condition and asked her to please come over to our table to see what I was talking about. She wouldn't. She storms off and then turns off every fan in the restaurant. I did not ask for every fan to be turned off, just the one above our table as it was creating a strobe light effect and causing a migraine and I could not sit and enjoy my meal. She then walks past us and says rudely  "there ya go, every fan is turned off." I will give her the benefit of the doubt and maybe it is a setting in which every fan has to be either on or off, but I did not appreciate how rude she was. Then I immediately felt cooler air as the AC had been turned on. This should have been on initially if it was too hot for your guests and staff, especially with the up and down weather we have been experiencing. I then see and overhear the hostess in the yellow cardigan and orange/red dress talking to another staff member and pointing directly at us and laughing. The rudeness and lack of professionalism is sickening. All because of a simple request due to a health issue. Anyone who experiences migraines will understand where I am coming from. Flashing lights can also cause epilepsy in people with photosensitivity. We will not be returning here. On the plus side, Mary our waitress was very nice....

My father has been telling me about this place for awhile. It is relatively close by to where he lives and he has enjoyed more than a handful of meals there over the years. He also likes stopping in for just oysters and beers at the bar. A couple of days ago, it was his birthday and I picked him up to treat him to dinner. There were 4 in our party and each and every one of us really loved our meals! Beers were tasty & fresh. And, while it may seem funny to rate soda, those too were very good, not low on syrup and plenty of carbonation. This tells me all the taps in the restaurant stay cleaned and flushed. The restaurant itself is bright and clean. The bathrooms were also clean. I can trust that the kitchen had to be as well.

For apps, we had raw oysters and the drunken clams. Clams were small, but tasty and served in a delicious broth. They came with a garlic bread that was also enjoyed by those who ate it. The oysters, unfortunately, were small and not plump. Thumbs down.

Our dinners were really excellent! I had the jambalaya, which was enormous and provided me with leftovers to take home. The dish is so, so tasty and jam packed! A bargain really for how much food is in that bowl. At least 2 sea scallops, big - not bay! Quite a few clams, shrimp and mussels, andouille sausage, chicken and a whole cluster of snow crab! My husband had the Bouille and raved about that as well. Also, a big dish. He had it over linguine while the menu suggestion is in a bread bowl, so certainly options! My father had the surf and turf. Steak cooked a perfect medium rare, nice lobster tail - not rubbery! And, of all things, he sang the praise of his baked potato the whole way through eating it. Ha! Obviously, very good. Definitely above average. My daughter had the penne in Alfredo sauce topped with crab. She also had leftovers. We didn't have room for dessert.

Lastly, our server was incredibly friendly and always around. We had no want left unsatisfied. This restaurant is doing a phenomenal job especially in this current climate when it is hard to attract workers, and prices are up for them across the board. Menu prices were still fair for the customer. It is certainly unassuming in a shopping plaza, but worth seeking out....

My best friend loves this place so we met here for dinner 8/9/25. I enjoyed my time with her and the service was excellent, but the food has some positives and negatives.

First of all I went here specifically for Fried Fresh Oysters (my favorite seafood) and before 6:00 pm on a Saturday they “ran out.” In addition, I overheard a different waitress telling another table that they “ran out of lobster.” Seems like poor planning to me for a seafood restaurant to run out of two major types of seafood that early in the day.

The waitress Yarley was phenomenal and the male host was super friendly. Both checked in on us often & were very attentive.

The complimentary rolls were fresh, hot, & delicious! The wedge salad was special made for us as a starter (without lobster) and it was great. Yarley even had it split up for us on two different plates.

I am not one who usually complains about wait times because fresh food is worth waiting for and I understand being a chef is not easy especially when it gets busy. However, when we arrived it looked slow and gradually got a little busier, but they did not appear slammed at all and the wait was VERY long!

We arrived at 5:55 pm and didn’t leave until 8:00 pm. On the waitress end everything was prompt. Our drinks and bread came out quick. Then we had our salad, but the wait between salad and two fried entree’s was at least 45 minutes if not an hour.

I got the fried seafood platter, but don’t like Calamari, so they graciously substituted more shrimp instead.

Our food was served hot. The fried shrimp & fish were good. The large scallops were delicious, however the crab cake was disappointing. If you’re going to call your restaraunt “Blue Crab Grill” your crab cakes should be on point & have some jumbo lump in them instead of looking more like a fish cake when you cut it in half.

The baked potato was good. The coleslaw was delicious and my ice tea was perfectly brewed!

The excellent front staff service tipped my review into 4 stars. If the food matched the service, this would...