The Boiling Crab — Restaurant in Torrance

A friend and I decided to try this place out. It opened 3 weeks ago in our neighborhood and every time I drive past I see crowds gathered outside especially at dinner. They just recently added takeout but they don't do takeout phone orders you have to walk in to order. It's a unique place. Very large and loud inside. Wish they had an outside eating area but they don't. Prices are on the high side unless you choose one of the fried basket options which are reasonably priced. Most of the sea food items are priced per pound with a minimum of a 1 lb order except for shrimp which can be ordered as a half pound. Prices per pound for most Seafood items what they call the market price starts at $30 and above. I ordered the calamari basket and was pleasantly surprised they were very large rings and it was very shareable. My friend had the Shrimp Basket which came with fries. We didn't care for the fries as they are the type that are almost battered and super crunchy. They also had sweet potato fries but don't allow substitution even with an upcharge. I wish they had bread to dip in the butter sauces apparently people bring their own to the restaurant. Tables are covered with a waterproof paper for each new guest and food is brought in the individual bags to the table there are no utensils other than Seafood crackers for the shells but bibs are provided. We had to ask several times for certain things and it was disappointing that along with the basket we ordered corn and garlic butter and the corn and garlic butter came about 10 minutes after our baskets everything should have been delivered at the same time. Something fun though all of the wood columns and wood trim they will hand you a Sharpie and allow you to draw something. They're going to run out of space soon but it was a lot of fun for my friend who's an artist photo attached of what she drew. It's super loud inside so if you'd like to be able to have a conversation request one of the booths. They don't take reservations you have to get on a wait list when you get there. They quoted us about a 30-minute wait it was closer to an hour on a Tuesday night and we were there by 5:40. Not sure if the butter sauce is real butter or if it's margarine. The sodas/ ice tea are refillable which is nice. If you're planning on getting the seafood boiled in a bag, other than shrimp, expect to spend a minimum of $65 to $70 for two people not including beverages. It was an experience but due to the cost and long wait doubt I'll return. It's been over a week the ownership responded to my review. Wanted to add that I emailed the company to ask if they used real butter or margarine and a week later there has been no response nor did whoever responded to my review address...

I called the store at 5:30, to ask the wait time they said an hour and 30 minutes. Me and my friend got there at 5:50, now they tell us an 1 hour and 45 minutes. It’s not 7:20 they tell us 5-10 more minutes and we were fourth in the waitlist, we ask again now it’s you guys are sixth in the waitlist and the wait time would be 10-15 minutes. The hostess had an attitude and was so rude she was ignoring other people as well. Now it’s 7:55 we are getting seated, order our food and when the food comes out , we didn’t get all of the utensils that we needed to eat our food. When asking an employee, they just looked at us and helped someone else. I asked another employee they took so long to come back my food was cold. I asked for the manager. I didn’t want my food remade because we were already waiting for two hours which we shouldn’t have been and to just get utensils it took 20 minutes. All I asked him was for a discount or something because not only did we wait that long, their hostess was rude and it was my birthday. Daniel the manager had an attitude when I was asking for a discount like I was asking for everything to be taken off the bill. When he said he would take something off it had nothing to do with what I ordered, then suggested he could take off the rice which is 2.50, what is 2.50 going to do with me. When I ordered almost 2 pounds of crab which was now cold. He was acting like taking at least 10 dollars off was a lot when my bill was 122. He had an attitude the whole time with us but with other customers he was nice. When we asked for the corporate number he lied and said they didn’t have a corporate number and they only had an email. So we had to look up the corporate number because he didn’t want to give it to us to safe him from getting a complaint. I will never be coming back here again and especially now they ruined a birthday...

I’ve always been a big fan of Boiling Crab and have visited multiple locations countless times, but this experience was the most disappointing by far.

We waited 75 minutes on the waiting list. After finally getting the notification that our table was ready, one of my friends checked with the host, only to be told that it wasn’t ready and there were still 10 parties ahead. Just 7 minutes later, I received another message saying my name was taken off the list. When I went to ask why, the staff claimed we were 30 minutes late, which was completely false.

I even showed them the message with the exact time, proving we were only 7 minutes late. However, instead of resolving the issue, one of the Asian female staff members and a guy named Matthew were incredibly rude, dismissive, and treated us like we were lying. No effort was made to explain or speak to us with basic respect.

I honestly can’t believe Boiling Crab hires staff who behave like this. It’s disheartening to be treated this way by a place I used to love. I’ve never experienced such poor customer service at any of their other locations.

This visit completely ruined the brand for me. No explanation, no accountability, just attitude and disrespect. Sadly, I won’t be...