Crawfish Cafe — Restaurant in Shenandoah

First of all, the food was really good! More specifically, the crawfish and crab were BOMB!! The prices for the crab were OUTRAGEOUS...but everything is these days! Probably some of the best I've had. We also had their shrimp fried rice, which was also pretty good. I don't care for sausage in my fried rice, but maybe next time I can request to have that out. My 6yr old had popcorn shrimp and loved it.

Now, the service was TERRIBLE...and I mean TER-RI-BLE!!! It took like 20 minutes for them to take our order and I'm not exaggerating! I actually had to get up and get the server. It was like they forgot about us or something. I literally should've just left...but, I was being patient. The guy did say it was only 2 servers in and apologized repeatedly...but sir, if I'm paying over $100 I just expect waayyyy better service.

The environment was okay. I think they had music playing in the background. The seats were spaced out well. As for bathrooms, they were clean, but there wasn't any tissue and barely any paper towels. My kids had to use paper towels to wipe! That's just not okay!! They also had a hand washing station before getting to the bathroom which I thought was a great idea...especially with how messy crabs and crawfish can get. But there was NO soap or paper towels! Why would you NOT have soap and paper towels at a hand washing station???

So, will I return??...possibly. Only because the server did kind of warn us they were understaffed. So hopefully they will have more help next...not to mention the crawfish and crab were amazing! But then again, maybe not because there were just too many balls dropped with the bathroom situation and the no soap for your hands...

So if none of that bothers you and you just want some amazing crawfish and crab...THIS IS YOUR SPOT! But if you like a great experience over all...just don't even bother with this place...there are better options!

Update: So we decided to give this place another try and it was 1000 times better. The food was still amazing. But I want to give an updated review on the service and the facilities. The service this time was great. Our waiter was very attentive. The bathrooms were clean and stocked with tissue and paper towels. The hand washing stations were also clean and stocked with paper towels and soap. It was like night and day from the last time we visited. So we will...

Go see Sherree at Crawfish Cafe! She is a wonderful server who worked closely with me to ensure I knew all of my Gluten Free meal options. She kept our glasses full of tea. Her shining smile made every interaction fill our spirit too!

The food....I will go and on about the food. My husband ordered the charge illegally oysters and was blown away by the flavor and consistency. This dish takes oysters to a whole new level; Im afraid he won't est them any other way now. For the main course, my husband ordered garlic noodles with blacked shrimp. He is not a man impressed by much, but the noodles were outstanding. For context, he loves Pho food.

I chose to go with a boil meal. I went with Sherree recommendation of the popular seasoning (TX kick garlic or something like that) in mild. At first, I questioned why I received two bags as Im used to everything being in one. Let me tell you....Crawfish Cafe has everything in its own bag so the cook time is PERFECT for each kind of seafood. The snow crab was spot on and I ate it last! The crab peeled LIKE A DREAM! It was not a hassle but a pleasure to pull out large chunks of meat so easily. The shrimp was nothing special so next time I'm going straight crab and mushrooms!

My husband is a bread pudding conoseuir and let me tell you....this is the king of breac puddings. He loves that it includes so many raisins and different types of nuts. It is filling and a great option to take home. It comes with ice cream but my hubbie says, "Don't you dare ruin a great bread pudding by adding ice cream on top!" I ate the ice cream and he ate/took the bread pudding home.

This restaurant will be our go to for seafood from this point forward. Sherree will be seeing us on the regular!

The only reason we gave the environment a 4 is because it is your typical decor and set up. Although we really did enjoy the table games set up for us, there really isn't anything super impressive about the environment. There is seating available inside...

I visited Catfish Café today around 4:30 PM and ordered a pound of crawfish with the signature shot sauce, and another pound with the signature + basil sauce. The basil flavor was delicious — I almost got it to-go but decided to dine in.

As I started eating, I noticed several straight crawfish in the basil bag. For those who don’t know, straight crawfish are not safe to eat because they were likely dead before cooking. I saw three at first, then four, then five. I told my server, who was very polite and offered to take it back. I said no need — just bring me a few good ones to replace them.

He checked with the manager, but they said they couldn’t do that. I kept eating, but then saw even more straight crawfish. I asked for the bag to be taken to the kitchen.

When it came back, it was clearly the same bag — they just added one piece of corn and one potato, thinking I wouldn’t notice. But I did. The straight crawfish were still in there. That was frustrating, especially because I expected better quality and honesty.

The server was respectful and professional, but the kitchen’s response was unacceptable.

In the end, they did refund me for the one pound of crawfish, which I appreciated — but it shouldn’t have taken all that to be heard.

Overall, I was really looking forward to enjoying my crawfish, but I only ordered a pound—and for half of them to be no good to eat was very disappointing. The most disappointing one is actually shown in the picture I shared; it’s the one at the bottom. It was the largest one in the batch, but also the straightest—meaning it wasn’t good to eat either. That really took away from the experience. I love the flavor and the vibe, but they need to seriously improve their kitchen standards and how they handle customer concerns — especially when it involves...