Bag O' Crab — Restaurant in Salinas

We went here just because we were going by. No expectations. Overall it turned out pretty well. They just opened 5 days ago, so I'm a little more forgiving to some imperfections.

Food overall was very good. I was able to get the Cajun fish and sub my rice out for more salad, so my dinner turned out pretty keto friendly. I did ask for ranch and it came with the default dressing on it, but it was pretty good anyways, so not too bad.

My brother got the chicken wings. We had asked the server if the winds were breaded and she said no, but they were definitely beaded and had a good amount of sugar in the seasoning. Overall pretty tasty, just didn't realize what we were getting.

My Wife really enjoyed her bag of shrimp. This is what probably all of us would get every time we go and it's not close. Sauce was great and all the things you put in are amazing. She got Shrimp, sausage, corn, and potatoes with some Cajun sauce. Really impressive looking. It's messy, but looked like fun.

Server was really nice and attentive. We had a couple issues where we didn't get perfect information, but mostly fine. They don't have a soda fountain, so the 4 cans of soda we got were $10 which isn't my favorite. Particularly when they serve some spicier foods. We asked about refills and they brought more and then charged us. Guess I'll take a second to complain that they have diet coke when coke zero is just clearly better :)

In the end we ended up spending a little more then intended and didn't get quite what we expected, but had a good time. One last note about the automated food runner- while I always like technology being used to optimize operations, I feel like the noise it makes is a bit much. I can't imagine if it was actually busy in there and it was just going off the whole time. Would be absurd.

We will be going back. If they just fix up a few things I'll be sure to bump it up to 5 stars. Go try it out.

Update: went again today and honestly everything was great. Service was on point and my whole party got the bags of shrimp with sausage added, which is just the best thing on the menu. I really want to give it 5 stars for now, but the drink situation really is just unforgivable. Serve spicy food and only sell cans of soda that are $2.50 each? Ew.

Update: Downgraded to 3 stars. Have been there a couple more times. Been getting busier and the service quality has dropped a decent amount with it. Drinks not staying full and just hard to catch anyone to help us. Check took a while to get to us. We were also told by the server that they said they won't be getting fountain drinks ever. Spicy food with canned drinks a large restaurant is a bad joke. Fix it.

Update: THEY DID IT! Fountain drinks!! Also this time it was the cleanest we've ever seen it and the server was great. Pushing it back to 5...

Dined here for lunch on a Sunday. When we first arrived, it wasn’t too busy. We were seated right away and had our order taken within a reasonable time. My dad ordered a small bowl of clam chowder and a side of garlic bread, my mom and I each ordered a basket of fried fish with garlic fries and for my daughter, we ordered the basket of chicken tenders with fries. Each of our meals (not including drinks) was about $11 each, which isn’t too bad.

Once our order was placed and we received our drinks, it was a bit of a waiting game. Their robot server (interesting but not necessary, since the waitress still came over and handed us our food off the tray) first brought out my dad’s clam chowder, about 10 minutes later came the 3pc garlic bread/Texas toast. Then another 10-15 minutes after that came the rest of our order. Would have been nice if everything came out all at once.

Their fried basket options have pretty big portions that could easily be enough to share (especially young kids), depending on everyone’s appetite. The garlic fries were probably the best part of the meal for me. The fried fish had a good crunch but because they're thinly filleted, they were a bit dry. Had to liven them with a good squeeze of lemon juice and tarter sauce. I also tried some of my daughter’s chicken tenders. I prefer crunchy breading in which these seemed to be more of a flour batter. I found the flavor on them to be lacking as well.

Overall, I found what we ordered to be a bit lackluster. Their seafood bags I would hope are better as that is probably what they are more known for.

I also have to wonder how much single use waste this restaurant generates. Before ordering, the waitress brought over a small stack of paper trays, plastic bibs, packets of plastic gloves, hand wipe towelettes, plastic utensils, a small plastic condiment cup with a dash of mixed salt and pepper and a tied plastic bag with lemon wedges. Our drinks (a water and 2 iced teas) came in plastic cups, we ordered an apple juice which was in a plastic bottle. The chowder came in a to-go soup bowl with lid, the bread came on a paper tray. The only reusable thing we saw was the metal fry trays lined with a sheet of paper that our fried food was on.

I'm sure its easier for them to just pickup up the paper table cover with everything on it to toss away when faced with the aftermath of a table eating a seafood bag but if we didn’t use this stuff, do they just guess and put it back in their supply (not very sanitary) or just throw...

UPDATE 9 July 2021 Decided to revisit because I was craving seafood. Bao was our server (Christian is awesome too!) and on point with our order. He checked on us regularly and made sure everything was perfect.

They finally had fresh oysters..DON'T ORDER THEM!!.. For $11 we got the six smallest oysters in the ocean! The shell was literally 2" long.. I was very disappointed. Don't make the same mistake. Stick to the bagged seafood and the chicken wings, most of the time they're consistent. 😀

When this place first opened, it was great. Portions were large, quality was great, and service was excellent. The last three times I've visited, one weekend lunch and dinner (different days/weekends) and today's weeknight dinner, everything has gone downhill!

The bench seat cushions were not wiped down and covered with what seemed like salt or sugar or something. We had to wipe them before sitting down.The table was greasy under the butcher paper laid on top of it. (Grease showed through the paper). We asked for a different table.

The #3 combos portions have gotten smaller and tonight's was so small, that for the first time, we didn't have to ask for additional sauce. The king crab portions have gotten much smaller, three skinny, small pieces instead of four big, full ones. The sides don't come in the metal baskets anymore, they came in disposable trays!. We had to ask staff for the plates, bibs, cutlery, lemons, etc after the bag came. She didn't check on us but one time during the meal. But then waited for the payment folder after I asked for that too!

This use to be my "go to" spot for seafood boil, I won't be coming here anymore. It seems management would rather cut corners than provide a positive experience with consistency in food service, portion, and taste. The three main reasons customers...