Crafty Crab — Restaurant in Raleigh

I enjoy sharing reviews because it helps me when I'm seeking destinations. This was unexpected in every way. We know things change from day to day,incident by incident.

This was our first time at this location. It is a new restaurant in this midtown area. We arrived at a loaded parking lot (Friday night), but more parking was on the side and back. Easy parking. Great!

Since it was 2 of us, we sat down immediately. The option of a booth o table was available. Great!

They appeared to have many workers on staff. Very spacious location. It's more of a party, club atmosphere. There are lots of big screen tvs playing various things (sports, TV shows, etc..); nothing to be heard but seen. There is a live DJ mixing music next to a bar. The music was extremely loud for us. For some people, it was obvious they enjoyed it, because of the dancing at their tables and singing a long with the music. Again, we were new to this location.. We attended a Crafty Crab location, and the atmosphere was very different from the other one.

Our waitress was pleasant and helpful in our food selection. Our appetizer choice was loaded crab fries (fries, crab meat, and cheese sauce). The fries were cooked well, but it was not a lot of crab meat. The crab meat was real crab and not imitation. We appreciate the real crab.

Our main meal was lemon pepper wings, a shrimp basket with onion rings, and a crab broil (1/2 lb crab and 1/2 lb shrimp w/o head)

The shrimp basket was plentiful. Fired shrimp were a nice size and taste well. Onion rings were a bit oily.

My husband was not happy with the lemon pepper wings, it taste like it was fired in old grease. 😳 Though the portion size was great, the grease overrides the enjoyment.

Crab boil was good. I did the crab flavor with medium heat. The seasoning was just right. 2 potatoes and a piece of corn. Portion size was good for me, 1 claw is equivalent to a 1/2 pound, and a 1/2 pound of shrimp was plentiful in portion and size. The medium heat was just right for me.

Our food came out, but it took a while before our utensils came out. Just a suggestion that the waiter brings it out after we make our order. The server clearly forgot it. We also had a while to wait on condiments. It caused my steamed food temperature to not be as hot when I was ready to eat it. Please consider encouraging this approach.

There were lots of people, and it appeared to be lots of waiters, but our waiter was so busy we were nearly through with our meal before she refilled our water cups and checked on us. She was sincerely apologetic. We appreciated her thoughtfulness to apologize and ask about our meal.

They are constantly cleaning when people leave. It smells clean and fresh. Whatever solution that is used has a powerful, strong smell and keeps the place never smelling harsh. Thank you.

As we waited on our check, a roach walked across the floor, we got our waiters attention as to not bring too much attention to it, but her hands were full and she showed it to a few other coworkers who did not immediately assist to kill it. Finally, a brave young lady did.

We know that no place is perfect and that we did not read up to learn of the atmosphere. We chose to remain and see if the food outweighed the noise level, but on that evening, we were not as impressed as we thought we would. The roach made our choice to return an...

On January 20th, I visited your establishment with my boyfriend while traveling through Raleigh. We ordered seafood boil platters, and I feel compelled to address the multitude of issues we encountered during this visit.

First, I noticed the absence of a visible sanitation grade, which immediately raised concerns about the cleanliness and safety standards of your restaurant. Despite my reservations, we decided to proceed. Unfortunately, my skepticism was warranted.

The seafood boil we ordered was missing several items and arrived cold. When I brought this to the staff’s attention, the missing items were eventually provided, but the dish tasted microwaved. To make matters worse, the steamed rice that accompanied the meal was also cold. When I requested fresh rice, the manager—a man wearing a red NC State hoodie, with an unkempt appearance and an unpleasant odor—claimed there was no more rice available. A hostess later corrected this and brought us fresh rice, which suggests a serious lack of communication and professionalism within your team.

The manager’s poor hygiene and dismissive attitude further soured the experience. Every time he walked by, his odor made it nearly impossible to enjoy the meal. This is unacceptable for anyone representing the leadership of your establishment.

Additionally, I observed a child—who appeared to be of middle or elementary school age—cleaning sections of the restaurant while dressed in Hello Kitty clothing. Employing a minor for such tasks is not only unethical but also a violation of labor laws and safety regulations. This will be reported to the appropriate authorities, as it is a serious legal concern.

To conclude our meal, we ordered cheesecake for dessert, only to be told that not only were you out of stock, but the kitchen staff had already left for the day. Having worked in customer service myself, I am well aware that frozen cheesecake simply requires packaging, which highlights either negligence or dishonesty from your staff.

This experience was, without exaggeration, the worst dining experience I have ever encountered. The lack of professionalism, poor customer service, food quality issues, and apparent code violations make it abundantly clear that this establishment is operating far below acceptable standards. I will be sharing this experience widely and taking further action to ensure these issues are addressed.

If I could give zero stars, I would. Rest assured, this matter will not...

We had come back in March for my birthday given we had such a great experience for Valentine's day. I had reserved a spot for 10 and was very excited to dine her. My best suggestion is to NOT HAVE parties here. We went on a Monday, very slow. No one was around but maybe 3 other tables and I honestly had the worst service. Now my food was fine but others had issues and missing seafood or messed up drink orders. Mind you the place is not busy and it took 40 min to get 4 coctails, 1 bottled beer, 1 cran and vodka and like maybe 2 other mixed drinks. We asked for them to be made 3 times and finally went to the bar our selves to get the drinks. It was over 45 min to get the bottled bud light for my mother. We had to wave down the server to get missing items. The coctail we asked for and what we got were two different things. We got our app after our dinner which was crab fries or something. Absolutely no crab.. just call them loaded fries at that point.. an hour for food and we ordered food with our drinks. It even took 30 min to check out. One friend had to almost argue with the server about what she ordered and to have the drink taken off since it seemd more like a cosmo with no ice the a vodka cran. Manager did nothing about the experience, never even came by the table. I am unsure if the server needed help but it was clear that the manager and other employees sitting at the bar had no intention to help. A family memeber (55) accidently apilt water and was trying to get napkins or help to clean it. WE HAD TO ASK for napkins from the servers talking right in front of us at the bar and then they left him to clean it. Very sad. Since we were a large party they auto add gratuity which is fine but given we were not actually served, that was the most he would get from us. They tried to auto add gratuity to my mother's bottled beer reminder ( it took 40 min or more and we had to get it our selves from the bar) she 100% argued for the tip to be removed and it felt like that was a fight.

I'll keep it at 2 stars only because Valentine's was ok.

Old post from V-Day

I really enjoyed coming here. A few things were off but it was Valentine's day. A great place for a date and to have a little fun. Server was very nice and helpful but might have been overwhelmed. Wasn't at the table much but when he did come by he got...