Surfing Crab (Cajun Seafood Boiled) — Restaurant in San Antonio

I am not the seafood lover or type. My seafood palette typically only consists of salmon and calamari, but surprisingly, surfing crab has been the only restaurant that has made me break out of my shell (pun intended) and dare try something new.

What I loved:

Menu—Their menu truly has a FULL menu selection, and actually has a lot of availability on “seasonal” food options. Even though they are a Cajun style seafood place, they also still have “American” selections such as burgers, fries, wings, etc. They also have a plethora of alcohol selections that are pretty strong and can/will do custom beverage orders that aren’t on the menu, you just have to ask (a lot of places only stick to their menus, so that’s pretty cool)!

Taste—Spoiler alert—their wings and fries (regular) are actually pretty freaking good and even if the fries have sat untouched for 15+ minutes, they STILL have their crunchiness—a lot of places can’t do that with their fries, so super impressed a seafood joint can make it happen. Again, I’m not the seafood lover at all, but when I tried their “daily special, garlic butter” combination, OMG I was blown away. I had never tried crab or crawfish in my entire life, but it was delicious! My favorite though? The little cut up sausages and corn that is included. Absolutely tasteful!

What could be better:

Service—I have been to surfing crab 5 times now since opening and every time I have been, service, unfortunately, is lacking. They are constantly understaffed and a couple managers most constantly be told to help out their staff, or must re-seat their customers in different sections in order to prevent overwhelming the servers they do have. So if you go, be prepared to wait at least 15 mins for your drink order and at least another 30 mins for your actual food.

Bathroom—I am not a huge public bathroom person, especially during pandemic times. All I will say is, unfortunately, surfing crab could do much better.

Cleanliness—be prepared to get your hands dirty! There is no way to eat this kind of food without dirtying your hands. They do, however, provide wet wipes. Also, this establishment does have that seafood, deep-sea fishing trip feel/vibe, down to the feel of the seats and table… There is always some kind of stickiness, everywhere…

Ambiance—again, this establishment does have that seafood, deep-sea fishing trip feel/vibe, down to the feel of the seats and table. There is a stale/stickiness feel to the air that is reminiscent of a deep-sea fishing trip. It is also very dark inside, especially if you sit near the bar in the middle of the joint, but does have some great looking/working tv’s!

Actually loved the food the most, surprisingly, and would recommend based off of taste! Stop on by, but be prepared to get your...

We ordered 5 pounds of crawfish with garlic butter sauce served with potatoes and corn plus a pound of clams. But the crawfish we ate really smelled really bad and was inedible. When we made some very clear complaints to the staff, he said he would report it to the manager. Everything was fine with the service so far.

But when the Asian man who was supposed to be the manager came and spoke in a very condescending manner that this was all they had, we accepted it and ate it, if we didn't eat it we had to accept it. They only have frozen crawfish and there is no need to change anything. What the hell is that attitude?

I was ready to stop everything and invite him to eat crawfish from his own restaurant but he kept refusing and avoiding the issue. He doesn't even dare to eat food cooked by his own restaurant so everyone should reconsider their choice before coming here.

Then he solved the problem by offering to take 10% off our bill for each kilo of crawfish. another stupid attitude from that asian manager, we are willing to pay a lot of money for quality food, money is not the issue.

Next, while the customer had not finished complaining, he smirked right in front of the customer and left with the words on his mouth, if you didn't want to eat anymore, then that's it.

While the Asian manager was terrible, the waiter understood our frustration and tried his best to apologize for our feelings. I appreciate the attitude of this waiter.

But there is a caveat here. To avoid any unfairness, even though I was upset about the food, I knew I should tip the waiter, so I decided to hand over the money and put it in his hand. But when I got to the door and looked back, I saw the Asian manager come up to the waiter and ask him something about the tip I gave. You should be careful about this for the employees and customers here, and for those who intend to work for this restaurant.

And finally, I am not sure if my review will help the future improvement of this restaurant or help caution for future diners who intend to eat here. But you should think carefully before eating here and I sincerely do not recommend anyone to eat here again because of these extremely bad attitudes and food. As for myself, my family and friends will definitely not come...

I went to this restaurant with my wife and two friends. The food wasn't terrible. It was edible, but the food wasn't the worst part. The worst part was the management and staff. My wife walked to the restrooms and on her way there she slipped and fell and hurt her knee in the hall. The staff moved the wet floor sign from the hall to the inside of the women's restroom because the restaurant was closed, so there was no warning the floor was actually wet. There were still a number of guests still inside finishing up. When my wife and I called it to their attention their response was, "there's a sign that says slippery when wet". They didn't even ask if my wife was okay. I pointed out that there were signs that said, "slippery WHEN wet", but no where was a sign that said "wet floor". I asked if they could give me the owners name, phone #, and insurance info just in case my wife woke up with worse pain. They said the owner's name is Frank, but refused to give me his last name and said they don't give out his #. They claimed to not know the insurance policy #. Instead they asked us to jot down our contact information and promised he'd call us back the next day. We did not receive a call from this so called owner, Frank or anyone from Surfing Crab. My wife's knee is worsening and we will be taking the appropriate action. They will have to deal with this one way or another and can not ignore us forever. They implied it was my wife's fault. The manager AJ then retracted his statement and said the bus worker was in a rush to leave at 10pm because the owner is cheap and doesn't authorize overtime. He said they might have forgotten to put the wet floor sign in all wet places. This was the worst experience in a restaurant and the fact that they didn't treat a slip and fall professionally and with courtesy is sickening. They lost customers and I will not recommend this place to anyone. The photo attached to this review is after her fall. They added the wet floor sign after an accident happened. Terrible safety protocols. Terrible service. Borderline illegal for not providing their insurance information when requested. Do not eat here and if you do beware of all the...