The Twisted Crab - Lynnhaven Mall — Restaurant in Virginia Beach

I visited the Lynnhaven location on Friday evening, April 29th, with some co-workers - I had made reservations for 7pm. We were celebrating a recent promotion that I had received and I chose this specific location because it has always been my favorite. Mind you, majority of my co workers had recommended a Boil Bay location but I had my stomach set on this spot. We were a party of 12 and the restaurant had a few other large parties when we were there. We were all seated at around 7:15 and ordered around 7:45. Our Waitress was Kelsey, and judging from her attitude, we all could tell it had been a fairly busy day for her - no problem for us, we all work in customer service and know what it is like being understaffed, so we completely understood. An hour passes by, so it is now around 8:45pm, and we had never received any type of update from Kelsey, our waitress, regarding our orders. One of my co-workers brings this to her attention and was told the food would arrive momentarily. Within 5 minutes the food came. My order and another person's order in my party was incorrect. Kelsey takes the order, no type of apology or empathy, and returns it. So the other 10 people in my party is enjoying their meal, after an hour or so wait, while me and the other guest wait for our order to be remade and corrected. It is now 9pm. We wait 15 more minutes and still did not get an update. I asked to speak to a manager and was approached by one of the floor managers, April. I let her know what had transpired and that while we understand mistakes happen, this was unacceptable. Our table was pretty much finished with their food and me and the other guest was still waiting on at least an update to ours. April said that the best she could do was take 10% off of the item that was incorrect - for me, that totaled around $4 and for the other guest, it totaled around $3. Given our check total was around $50+ for each of us, this was completely unacceptable, but April - the manager, said that was the only discount she could provide as a manager. Our food came out at 9:27pm and by this time, the other guests in my party had finished their food and everyone, including me, was ready to get on with our night as we had plans afterwards. I told Kelsey that I no longer wanted my food because now it is just a to-go order and I had plans after the restaurant and did not want $50+ of seafood just sitting in my car. The other guest got his meal wrapped up and took it home. So I came in hungry and 2 hours later, I left the exact same. I do not normally write reviews, but this experience was completely unacceptable and honestly, quite embarrassing because this was the first experience 7 of the guests in my party had at a Twisted Crab due to all of the positive things I had to say about the restaurant. Good food is served here and a lot of friendly staff I have encountered over my previous visits here. Please do better, or find a way to make this right. Kelsey received a very generous tip from all of the guests in my party - 18% mandatory gratuity and we honestly do not feel it was deserved. We never once received an apology or any concern towards the...

Let me begin by saying that this is a mixed review. Hands down, the food is great! Everything we’ve eaten has been wonderful! My daughter asked to go last night as her “last meal” before having her wisdom teeth removed the next day. The visit started out well. The restaurant was not busy, about 50% full. We were greeted and seated quickly and in a friendly manner. Our server came and was really personable saying hello and thanked us for waiting as she is pregnant, had knee surgery and was training someone. No worries, been there done that. Completely understand. We placed our order. When they returned with our drinks I ordered an additional adult beverage and waited. And waited. Our food came, no drink. The person being trained asked about the drink at the same time I questioned it. At this point the trainers mood started shifting. She brought the drink to me, blamed it on the bar staff and stated that she’s the manager, got on them about it took $2 off of my drink. I thanked her and smiled because I do understand that delays and rarely the fault of the server. She checked to see if everything was good and it was. Then it went down from there. Waiting for soda refills, I had to flag down another server. He got our server. She came over, we ordered and added an order of Cajun fries. And waited. Waited some more. No big deal on the fries but the drink would have been nice. My kids, young adults, were talking about waiting so long when another server over heard and offered to help. She went to our server who finally brought the fries. Placed them before me and admonished me by saying something to the effect of here’s your fries. They take longer because they’re fried. At this point, my daughter ate about 10 fries and we were ready to go. Since our server was also talking care of two large tables I decided to simply go to the front, get our bill and pay. I didn’t want to have to flag her down again because she made it clear she was annoyed with us and was less than friendly. Not sure why because all we did was ask for one refill on drinks and ordered more food. The nice young lady at the front pulled up our bill, I asked about the discount on the drink. She asked the server who came to the front, briskly told me the total, said she didn’t charge for the fires, plunked the slips on the counter and walked away. No thanks for coming. Nothing. I have no idea what I paid for as I never saw an itemized bill. I have been in customer service for 30+ years, have been a manager and a trainer. Difficult customers are part of the job but someone asking for drinks or about their order is not difficult. She was rude and I feel sorry for the young lady being trained because that is not how you take care...

The Twisted Crab is located in the Lynnhaven section of Virginia Beach. It is located at the end of a shopping center at the corner of Phoenix Dr. and N. Mall Dr. This place is fairly easy to see from either of those roads. Since it is part of shopping center, there is ample parking available here. You can get up to the entrance via step or a ramp, which is good for those that need it to get up to the place. My visit here was on October 24, 2020.

The place looked really nice and clean when we came in. It was at a busier time, but everything was socially distanced well in here when it came to tables and such. There are signs about it, as well masks required as you come in. Hand sanitizer is also available. Although we dined in, there were others that came in for take out, so take out is also an option here as well.

Once we came inside, we were immediately greeted and were seated. Within a few moments our server Kayla came to the table. Like most places these days, there is a QR code to look at the menu electronically. However, they will give you a single use menu to look at if you request it. She asked us for our drink orders and gave us time to look over the menu. She was really quick with getting the drinks to us as well. We were then ready to order, and both my mom and I went with the Shrimp Basket with Hushpuppies.

After about 10 to 15 minutes, our food came to the table. This was not a big surprise overall since the place was busy, and all the servers were all over the place. Apparently they weren't set to sections that day. Anyways, the food came out nice and hot. The shrimp were great. They weren't over-breaded and they were hot. The cocktail sauce to go with it was good as well. For the hushpuppies, they were great and hot too. They were also nice and soft. I definitely like when they're softer too.

Due to servers being all over the place, it took a little while to come back and get us the check. I had a coupon, which is what brought us in to begin with. We didn't order enough and were just shy of the amount to be able to use the coupon, but our server gave it to us anyways. Kudos to her on that.

Overall, this was a good first experience here. The food and service were both great experiences for this visit. Prices are more than reasonable for what you get here. There are quite a few options on the menu and I definitely plan to come back and try something else on the menu then including some different sides. If you're in the Lynnhaven area and looking for a seafood place, this place is worth...