Stinkin Crawfish of West Covina — Restaurant in West Covina

I have been going to this place for years. I love the food here, everything I've ever ordered from the menu has been delicious. I especially like that they offer free dessert at the end of your meal. The sauce and seasoning they use for the seafood broils have the best flavor from any cajun style restaurant ive been to. The food is also moderately priced for the amount you get and they offer some great happy hour deals as well and delicious micheladas. Unfortunately my reason for leaving this review despite all the great experiences I've had before is a negative one. My girlfriend mentioned she had a craving for some cajun food after a long day of work. So of course being the amazing boyfriend i am, i offered to take her to our usual favorite go-to spot for cajun food. We made the drive out after a long day and got there at 8:40 p.m. which i realize is late considering the kitchen closes at 9pm. Ive worked in the hospitality industry before and understand how annoying it can be to get last minute dine-in customers. I hated it myself but it was a nature of the business and dealt with it with a fake smile on my face. Unfortunately we were not offered this same courtesy. As we walked toward the restaurant i could see that half of the chairs were already ontop of the tables clearly preparing to close well before the posted closing time. There was also customers still dining as we walked in finishing up their meal getting ready to go. For some reason we were snidly told by 2 waitresses that were just standing around that they had already done last call for food and we were turned away. Not even offered the courtesy to at least order food to go. It is clearly stated on their door that the kitchen closes at 9pm and they leave the dining room open till 10pm out of courtesy. I don't understand being turned away considering their policy is clearly posted there. It is really a shame due to sheer laziness and poor customer service to be turned away 20 minutes before the posted closing time for the kitchen and 1 hour 20 mins for the dining room. Im usually not one to complain but i feel that reflects poorly on this establishment, considering im actually a big fan of this place. I am really disappointed by this and...

It's one of those nights where I'm trying to decide where to go eat. Looking through all or most of the reviews posted, I know half of the people who wrote a review. Lots of good things said about this place especially when I see happy hour and oysters in the same sentence. I look at the clock and it's closing within the hour I'm looking through these. Phone gets tossed over the shoulder into the back seat. Shift into first gear and stand on the gas pedal. Out of my way folks, no time for Sunday drivers in this lane or that lane.

The open sign is still lit, where's my phone... I walk right in and I hear, how many?? One dozen please. How many for a table, just one order will do. You have time, don't worry. What would you like to drink? You mean I made it? Sweeeeeeet!!

The oysters are not on the special since I missed happy hour but the scallops on the half shell are on the board. I'll take a half dozen plus a pound of shirmps. Just lemon and pepper is good. I was told the Stinkin' Special sauce is the popular choice. I asked him what is in the sauce and I got that funny look. I told him if the sauce is mainly butter, I'll have to decline. He went to the kitchen to double-check but it can be done with margarine base which is different than butter. He brought over a container for me to dip instead of drowning the shrimps in it. I guess he knows me too well as I tend to drown my food. The sauce seems much smoother and with all the garlic in it made it seem much better than Boiling Crab. No waiting either is what I like the most. I had soon found out I am talking to the manager when I made such a comment. I did not know there is already a location in Downey and one in Whittier in the works. Right next to my other favourite burger spots.

For all that I ordered so far, my tab came up to just under $20 and I get free fried oreos for checking in. Couple of beers on tap means we have to get a small group over here for dinner. Who's with me? Call out so I don't forget you...

Ok...ok...so we the fambam get to the spot sign in on a piece of paper at the kiosk desk which is being unattended.

So we literally have to yell from the front door all the way to the back to get staff's attention lol! And ask do we wait inside or outside, salty staff says outside we'll be with you "right now" we're like ok. So we're outside waiting and waiting and see people coming in after us being seated.

About 40 minutes later we went inside and asked why are people coming in after us being attended to? Waitress had no answer...the answer might have been they just forgot about us and have horrible communication within the staff about who's on the list and who's next. Again all staff with salty attitudes and I mean for their mistakes lol! So waitress finally sits us we ordered our food and drinks.

We finally get to eat, staff only comes by once to give us our food and drinks and then they just don't come back to offer refills and check if everything is alright. So big let down here on customer service. They are really understaffed.

Moving on to the food it was pretty good and good portions for the "Crabby Lobsters Combo" we added garlic fries as well, that were also pretty good and added more peeled shrimp and garlic bread all pretty good, so not knocking on food just their horrible poor salty attitudes which is the reason we won't be returning to this particular location and not recommending it to friends and family. Also read some reviews if you dine in you get free dessert which we didn't get.

Even though we received horrible customer service we still left a tip, even though they didn't deserve it. Place was pretty clean too parking is small so little difficult to...