Crafty Crab — Restaurant in West Melbourne

It was the worst experience I've ever had at a restaurant in my life. We waited 15 minutes to be seated, even though we were the only people waiting and there were several tables open. Once seated, we were just thrown at a booth with menus and the waitress took off without even a proper greeting. She then came and hastily got a drink order, which we gave to her. 10 minutes later we received drinks, and 15 minutes later she finally came for a food order. My husband sat needing a refill for 15 minutes, had to stop the waitress to ask for one, and then his drink was out of syrup. When he sent it back, she took the cup and disappeared for another 15 minutes. We stopped and asked about our salad, to which she responded that "it'd come soon"as she walked away and went to tend to something else. Then we see her as the cash register, my husband's cup no where to be seen. Our food finally comes out but she is in such a hurry she slings it at us without even looking our way. My husband, still without a drink, goes to another waitress at the drink machine and very politely asks for his dr pepper. He explained that he'd been waiting a while to which she let's him know there are only 3 people on staff tonight (we counted at least 4) and that they were all very distracted. She brings his drink, slams it down without speaking and runs off to the next table, no straw. He then returns to our waitress for a straw. She tells him she will get a drink, he tells her he already got one himself, she didn't apologize and it didn't phase her a bit that he chased his own drink down. Our food was amazing but we both were, once again, without a drink for quite some time and the waitress brings our checks and throws them down with us maybe 2 minutes into our meals yet had to be grabbed to refill our drinks. The refills where wrong. At this point I'm extremely bothered by the fact that we have been treated like an inconvenience and no one on the wait staff will even look at us THE ENTIRE TIME we were there. I was so bothered that I ended up requesting to speak to the manager. This is the only time I've ever asked to speak to a manager at any eating establishment but it was bad enough I had no choice. I watched 2 tables walk out while we were there and heard the table behind us ask a waitress who was passing by where their food was as they'd waited 45 minutes after ordering and had not received the first update on the status of their meal. All waitresses were on their head. I was SHOCKED to find out our waitress was the manager on staff. She explained to me that it was a crazy night and their supervisor was on vacation. I told her I could see they were busy and wasn't trying to be a pain but this was a terrible experience and as the leader I thought she'd want the feedback. She acknowledged that she should've paid us more attention but the table behind us (the ones waiting 45 minutes) wanted their food "right now" and had no understanding. I was floored that she sat there and talked about another table right in front of them verses actually conversing with me about our experience. I tried to explain that I'm also in management and would be embarrassed if my entire team ignored their customers and that they maybe needed a larger staff or different technique. I also explained I wouldn't be me if I didn't say something as I understand the challenge of customer service and wanted to give sincere feedback. She basically told me again that she should've apologized to us for the wait and she was glad I "got it off my chest and felt better." No offer to make anything right. Kept making excuses. I walked out with a plate full of deliscious food left on the table and disgusted because at this point I wanted to get as far away from that place as possible. I'm extremely disappointed and honestly hurt that I was ignored all night, by the manager none the less, and then my feedback wasn't taken seriously. I was so excited for this meal, and have friends who eat here frequently, but this establishment needs a total overhaul...

"If she don't like, why she come back, I can't guarantee that," is the response I received when explaining my last experience of having to clean/devain my shrimp at the table instead of enjoying my meal. Let me fill you in. I have been here about four times in the past with great service and amazing food. However, during a previous visit, I spent most of my time devaining my shrimp. I spoke to my server (who was awesome) about my last experience and asked if she could please ask the kitchen staff to ensure my shrimp were devained (which they normally are). This was the response from Kiki, the owner. The sad part is I heard her say this in a very mean and disrespectful way to my server. After the server tried her best to deliver the message as professionally as she could, I asked to speak to the owner. The owner, Kiki, came to my table and denied saying this. Instead she claimed she meant this as a way of literally asking why I came back if I wasn't satisfied, as if to say because I didn't like my experience before that I wouldn't come back. That my friends was sheer BULL. I saw the owner's body language and micro-aggressions as she reacted with my own eyes. It was almost like watching your children lie to you after you've seen them do something wrong. This is what I really didn't appreciate. After speaking to her about the last experience, speaking to her about her reaction, and how I was disappointed in what I saw, she said she would speak to the kitchen manager to ensure my shrimp were cleaned. My food did come and was prepared the way it was supposed to be, but the fact that I had to practically fight for what is supposed to be "ordinary," not to mention the comments, completely turned me off. Myself, and my group of 15 won't be back. This restaurant could really use this as a lesson learned...ALWAYS guarantee your customer the best service without personal bias when they aren't satisfied. That will in fact guarantee their return. Otherwise, you loose out on tables of 13-15 every Friday night and get reviews...

First and last time going here. Should have know that this establishment was “fishy” when we saw all the hand written signs all over the place. Huge red flag. Ordered close to $80 worth of food. Ordered a catfish plate and the king crab with extra shrimp. When we got home we realized they obviously over charge customers for the food. Smallest king crab I’ve ever seen and the shell was squishy. The shrimp was large but over cooked. The seasoning it came in was flavorful. Getting to the catfish plate…it wasn’t catfish. We were given tilapia and it looked like they took the whole filet and quartered it. That’s not what we expected in four pieces of fish. The cuts were tiny and they filled the rest of the plate with the side of onion rings. The onion rings were good but greasy. Called for a refund and got a fussy run around from the manager at first, but I remained persistent on a refund. First said they didn’t do refunds and they had a hand written sign on the register. Another red flag. Then they said we could get a refund only if the food wasn’t eaten. We took it back up there and got a cash refund bc we paid with a card. We as customers have the right to have correct orders. It seems like they are scamming their customers and blaming the customers for the establishments mistakes. All the hand written signs just tells us that they have continuous issues. We wasted our time going back and forth to get what we paid for refunded. I feel places like this shouldn’t be allowed to operate. Save your money and your time. Find somewhere else to get seafood or just make it at home. There are plenty of...