Red Crab Bar — Restaurant in Odessa

At first appearance, the restaurant looked empty. No one at the front for seating at first, but the sign says wait to be seated so we waiting a few seconds and was approached by a smiling face young man. The menus could stand a professional touch and are falling apart. They have tall tables and short tables, which was perfect for me. Also booths and seating at the bar. I didnt really know what to expect going in. A look at the drink menu put a huge smile on my face. I have no idea if they have sodas because the milk tea had me from the start. They have another menu for alcoholic drinks. We would have had a waitress, but she disappeared. Thankfully, the young man opted to wait on us. It really wasnt that busy so i have no idea where she went. Maybe she only wanted to wait on the larger group, than just the 2 of us. We were generous on the tip, so her bad. The food menu has either crab/crawfish broils much like Joes Crab shack might have, as well as fry baskets, appetizers etc.. To start we asked for gumbo and fried pickles. Fish basket and shrimp basket and beef rolls. The gumbo isnt gumbo, it was a congealed kind of sauce, but not roux. The majority of the flavor was in the cilantro, strangely, that topped it with a fourth cup of boiled rice in the center. At first i thought the okra lent it the slimey texture but there really wasn't that much in it. The shrimp is not the tiny kind, and the cooked onions sat trapped in the jello consistency of what would have been the roux. The fried pickles didnt meet the standards we are used to from having them at other places. The fish was flaky and moist and the batter had a good flavor, not too salty. It sat atop the real treasure we found, which was the fries. Same for the shrimp basket. They were partly butterflied and fried it what looked to me like, the same batter as the fish. My disappointment in the main dish i ordered was that it didnt automatically come with the hush puppies. Why not? It wouldnt cost you a ton to let us have a dollop of seasoned, fried cornbread batter with a sauce like they have at Big daddys.

They didnt have the beef rolls so we opted for pork, which i dont really care for. I havent had the chance to try them yet, we were hoping to eat before the drive in movies, but it did take them so long to get it out to us, as other reviews have mentioned. Perhaps due to being made to order. I got ANOTHER boba tea, mmmmm. All in all, its up to par with the mid restaurants in this town, but not quite fine dining. Its great for bar food. I think with a few tweeks, if the owner even really has a passion for feeding people good food, he would have a "reel" hit, if he/she tried. Create a signature sauce for your hush puppies like catfish and co had, and offer it as a given when someone is seated, like chips and salsa. Really try to set your restaurant apart from the ones who dont care about their business. Roll your sleeves up, yall....

Taking into account this is located in West Texas, 5 stars for my initial experience. Too often W.TX businesses are hit and miss; either really good and the next visit a month later horrible, but for now reviewing this first visit, it was 5 stars for me. It was pricey, but with several drinks, seafood tray for two and appetizer I take into account 1) it’s W.TX 2) it’s seafood 3) it’s post-Covid, I wasn’t surprised at a $217 bill for me and my wife for 5 - 22oz draft blue moons, 1 Bloody Mary (do Not recommend, tasted like cloves, but didn’t count off of stars due to different tastes of bar tenders, this isn’t a five star restaurant requiring Michelin star consistency), “Date Night Tray” with 2 each, lobster tails, snow crab clusters, 1 lb shrimp, 1 lb crawfish, sausage, corn potatoes and added eggs. Everything except crawfish was cooked to perfection, crab slid out whole (not over cooked or too frozen), shrimp not tough, lobster was about a minute or 2 away from being tough, but appreciate the fact they use splint lobster tails which is the tastiest and best value in my opinion. Not as sweet as Maine, but better value. Not fishy like Rock lobster. Calamari appetizer was THE BEST WE’ve had in W.TX, including the upper scale steakhouse / restaurants between midland and Odessa, as well. Was just really refreshing to have good cooked shellfish out in the desert. Hook and Reel, Crab Station, Red Lobster, etc. Always overcook the crab to the point the meat sticks in the shell, shrimp is tough (or it’s old and sticks), etc. Place was clean (should be, it’s new) and the service despite other reviews was exceptional when we went. Our waiter was attentive and we really didn’t have to ask for anything. Hopefully this place stays open and stays consistent. For everybody that had a bad reception we, hopefully they understand this is a new restaurant and crew and obviously have issues ti work on and work out. I think they’ll only get better as time goes on, fingers crossed. Will update in future as we...

Great place! Love the size of the margaritas and love the seafood! My fiancé and I usually get the seafood bag every time, cause it’s the best around, this time we decided to flip the menu around and try something else out. We still had that taste for seafood so we decided to go with one of our favorites…fried catfish. Hadn’t had it in awhile. The fish itself is nice and soft, literally breaks apart in your mouth. Unfortunately so does the breading. Breading is understandably grainy but usually doesn’t disburse in your mouth like million of tiny bee-bees . (Not to sound funny) I would definitely suggest changing the current breading for something that’ll stay together and on the fish, or is it not battered using eggs? It’s either missing something or needs to be replaced or tweaked.I would hate to have for this not to be my only place to go for my seafood craving. I am originally from Louisiana, so I crave for it more than the average person will eat it. Definitely wouldn’t mind being a taste tester for it! :) I would like to point out that there are no hesitations and no questions asked. Me and my fiancé came in a little around 9pm and I preferably wanted the patio so it could be us. I thought I would have to explain that but as soon as I said something about the patio, the guy immediately said, “I’ll BRB I’ll go get the key.” As he came back our server walked us out there and immediately tended to us. I’m horrible with names but if you we my server with the two individuals on the patio and the host that for the key no questions. Thank y’all! Wonderful Cx service...