Crab Du Jour Cajun Seafood & Bar — Restaurant in Raleigh

It was my husband’s birthday (I did not tell the staff) and so it was a special night for him. When we walked in, there was 3 booths sat, no one at the bar (or bar tender), no one at the host stand but 2 men at the cashier stand. They asked if we were dining in, we said yes and they pointed to the empty host stand. Finally a guy walked up and said “just the 2 of you?” and walked us to a booth that had trash underneath. We sat down and ordered 2 Crown and gingers and hush puppies. Our server brought the drinks and went to the back. After the first sip we both realized it was Crown Apple and ginger. When the server came back, we brought it to our servers attention that we wanted Crown Royal not Apple and he said it was all they had, in which my husband pointed to the menu where it said they had Crown Royal and Crown Apple. He took the drinks and said “I’ll see if they have any”. Before he walked away, I asked to order because I noticed that every time he left the table it was taking too long for him to come back. Finally the hush puppies came and they were darker than they should be. My husband stated, “they could have taken these out a little earlier”. Then the correct drinks showed up. Afterwards, the food showed up and it was delicious. I have not complaints about that, except it could have been hotter (temperature wise), but it tasted amazing. The server asked if we needed anything, I said no and he went and sat at the cashier stand. (Playing on his phone) I realized that I did want something, butter. I turned around hoping to make eye contact with the server, but he never looked up from his phone. My husband said “don’t worry babe, if I see him move I’ll get his attention.” Well, we ended up stopping another server to get us the butter. He brought it out, but it was oil. Not butter, but OIL. At this point, we’re almost done with our food, so we didn’t bother asking again. Finally, our server came to check on us, we asked for the check and the server brought it to the table. Of course, the check had 2 crown apples and 2 crown royals on it. We walked to the cashier stand, (we didn’t say one word) he said “oh that’s not the right one” and then gave us the correct check. We paid and left, and completely understood why there was only 3 other tables in the building. Poor service, poor atmosphere (the music selection was in such poor taste, not family friendly at all). Don’t get me wrong I love all kinds of music, but the music that was being played was clearly for the staff and not the guests. I don’t think we’ll be returning to this...

Made my own boil. Crab legs, lobster tail, eggs, and steamed rice in du jour mild sauce. Got home (other side of town) only to see the forgot my rice. Called multiple times and ask I got was a vn that hasn't been set up. A waste and loss of 2.00. Then they have the audacity to charge 18% gratuity to ALL orders. Maybe if you all cared about what really matters, you wouldn't have to force that on ppl and they'd willing to tip.

When I first arrived, there were two security guards at the door. They were very cool with a great sense of humor, very helpful. Tried to convince my bf and I to eat in. However the music was ENTIRELY too loud. Seems more like a club scene... like TGIF on wake forest rd. They offered to get us a little quieter space on the inside. Very much appreciated. Out comes this tall African American chick. She didn't acknowledge us, even after TRYING to make small talk and them telling her multiple times it was us that needed special seating. She had a bad attitude written all over her face. She did spend time speaking to the two guards outside though. Based on the way she was dressed and the make up with the huge eyelashes.... let me shut up, I'm sorry. I should've just walked away when there was talk about her quitting. She gestured for us to follow her inside, where she had another young lady help us with seating. Again, it's so loud in there, you can't even have a conversation. I tapped the young lady on the shoulder and told her we'd just do carry out instead. She lead us to the carry out side where we ordered. The young lady behind the counter was very nice and knowledgeable. Almost forgot to mention, there's a horrible smell in that place. Another sign that I should've walked away.

There wasn't much sauce in boil, good seasonings/flavor, the crab legs taste fishy (not all that good), the lobster tail was so over cooked, I had to scrape it out the shell, and one of the potatoes were bad. I guess it's a good thing I didn't get my steamed rice because it would've been dry.

This place is not what it used it.... food, service, environment. Sigh. This was my go to. On to the next...

Stopped in for a dinner with 9 guests in late August 2024. The seating started with 9 and we lost 4 on the way so the final tally was five guests. The Good: The atmosphere was fun. The decorations left no doubt that seafood was going to be the main menu attraction. The food was outstanding. We sampled multiple items: chilled cocktail shrimp, boiled bags of snow crab, sausage, lobster tails, sausage potatoes and corn. The Cajun season at mild and medium temps was just right and hit the spot. The singing of happy birthday to one of our guests was just over the top enough to embarrass the hell out of her so hats off for that as well! The price points for what we received were very reasonable as well.

The Not so Great: We were seated as a party of five (waiting for 4 more to get there) immediately on a semi busy Saturday night. It took our server Ty almost 20 minutes to come and visit us. He said he normally waited until the whole party was there to take a drink order. Fair enough, but still not the greatest way to treat the guests that are already there. He was engaging and polite and apologized for the delay so we were AOK with the response. The service from there was definitely spotty. A fish and chips basket was served about 10 minutes ahead of the boiled bag meals. The mountain of shells, plates and empty drink cups were never cleared at any point as they were piled up. All things that should be done as they are SOP in any sit down restaurant. Those oversights didn’t do anything to lower our enjoyment of the meal or the venue but is something that could definitely be worked on. The other thing that was surprising was the lack of actual silverware. Plastic tableware made it difficult to cut potatoes or dig into crab shells that didn’t open just right. Something to look at by the management there.

Overall we had a great time and enjoyed our evening there. The food is exceptional and if they address the slight service deficiencies this will be an overall five star destination. Thank you for an enjoyable evening...