Wild Crab — Restaurant in South Bend

First impressions are imperative when it comes to the restaurant industry. I will break this review down into three sections: Service, Food, and Atmosphere.

Service When walking into a restaurant, the first thing I would expect is to be greeted. There were three employees standing around near the entrance to the dinning room, but no one behind the counter to greet guests. We were not greeted for at least 3 minutes and the three employees near us didn't seem to have any urgency to getting us seated.

Once we were seated, our waitress came over, explained the menu and took our drink order. It took 10 minutes to get our drinks, a water and diet coke. We also placed an order for an an appetizer once our drinks were brought out and that came out about 7-10 minutes later.

Once the rest of our party of 4 arrived, we ordered our entrees. These took 25+ minutes to come out, but while waiting for our food, food that was not ours was brought to our table three separate times by three separate servers. Talk about being disorganized.

Food The food was good and had good flavor. My only critique in this category is we received some hush puppies that were cold in the center. I had the fried shrimp and chicken tender basket. The portion size was great and price was acceptable.

Expect to spend about $20-25 a person to eat here if you want to do the boiled seafood. Maybe even more if you want things that are market priced.

Atmosphere From the moment I walked in, the restaurant felt hollow and dead. The person behind the bar looked bored. The three employees I mentioned when we first walked in looked like they were just standing around talking and had nothing to do. There was very very faint music playing in the background, but nothing that reminded me of an island, crabs or anything tropical for that matter.

Overall, I don't think I will be returning here. If all you go to a restaurant for is the food and you don't care what else happens, then go ahead and try...

A few weeks ago myself and my husband went to the Wild Crab for dinner for the second time the first time we ate there it was fantastic! I don't know if there are new owners or new management but we are never eating there again! After waiting for over an hour to b seated, we were seated in what appeared to b an enclosed patio/possibly garage area that was FREEZING! Waited a lil more than a half hour for wait staff to come give us menus n get our drink order, then another 20 minutes before she returned with our drinks n took our order. Our appetizer arrived at the same time our meal did! We ordered a crab boil which should come in a bag, but instead came in a foil turkey roasting pan. We had ordered the regular seasoning NOT SPICY but received EXTREMELY SPICY seasoning so strong and SALTY I couldn't eat! Our meal was drowning because the roaster was like half full of whatever spicy salty liquid they had used! I complained to our waitress and she said she would bring me another meal but she NEVER RETURNED to our table! Finally I said enough and we decided to leave, I stopped to use the restroom before leaving and I truly wish I hadn't because it was absolutely disgusting! Trash piled up and outta the waste basket almost as tall as myself! Toilets desperately needed cleaned and I found our waitress in the bathroom apparently not feeling well on the phone asking someone to come get her because she was sick! I realize places get busy and staff get sick, but the conditions were implorable and if u can see that your staff is ill SEND THEM HOME! We grudgingly paid our ridiculously expensive bill and left, I'll say it once more, WE WILL NEVER EAT...

The food itself was pretty great, we did build our own combos of the seafood boil.

I don't recommend getting the sausage. It leaves you wanting for more flavor.

I did not enjoy the fact we got a piece of "net " which in my opinion & my husbands appeared to be more of a hair in the boil.

They did say it was a net, and no apology or anything was done and thats fine we didn't expect anything free nor did we want to leave once they replaced our food.

It just brought the mood down a couple notches for the entire experience

They did replace the food with entirely new food, and left the old bag with us while they brought a new one so no doubts.

The bathrooms are pretty gross, doors are greasy and you can tell since they're a matte black and they shine were people touch them.

Our server was alright, but I did feel pressured into tipping more, and felt bad

We got a tab of $103 for only two people and thats understandable since its a seafood boil, but she did underline the 18% tip recommended

We only left $10 in cash. And she did give us bev. To go since we never got refills on our drinks during the meal.

So I just felt a bit guilt tripped. They do have a sign at the door for parties over 6 people they add I don't remember if 10-15% tips to your bill.

All in all it was ok. We MIGHT go back but it the experience left a lot to be desired

The food alone great. But our personal experience...