Crawfish Shack & Oyster Bar

Crawfish has a bit fishy flavor, everything is perfect except that. I love king crab the most!

Been here quite a few times. The restaurants has red décor and furniture and a few flat screen t. v’s. The place was packed around 12:30 for lunch on Saturday.
We ordered 2 pounds of mild crawfish and 2 pounds of spicy crawfish. $ 8.99 a pound. To be honest, the difference in taste wasn’t that large. The seasoning is unlike any other I’ve had before — leans toward a more Asian flavoring. Each 2 pounds came with some sausage, mushrooms, and one corn. We also ordered 1 pound of blue crab — ended up being three of the crabs. They were very fresh! We also ordered the fisherman’s catch — blackened fish with crawfish ettouffee and rice. The ettouffee was okay, not super creamy.
Overall great experience if you want a hole in the wall type of experience. Restrooms were not the best but hey I’m here for the food!

My favorite seafood place! Been here 3 times and the food is awesome! Steam boil is the way to go! Snow crab and shrimp spicy is the way to go!

Only in Austin would a sub-​par place have a rating of 4+ stars.
This is Asian style seafood, not Cajun. The crawfish were horrible, the fried fish was soggy, and the bathroom was DISGUSTING.

The food here is absolutely superb! My mouth literally waters just thinking of it. My family and I have ate here on several occasions and have never been unsatisfied. We’ve tried the shrimp, snow crab, king crab, sausage, corn and roasted potatoes. All if it was finger licking good! The atmosphere is very casual, welcoming; and the staff is very attentive and efficient. If you love seafood, you have to try this restaurant. You won’t be disappointed!

Prices were very reasonable, but portions were small. Ambiance was a bit melancholy, but the food delivered. Seating was tight and crowded. My girl’s butterfly shrimp and french fries were good, and my jambalaya tasty, but portion was lacking. There are better Cajun/​Vietnamese crawfish and boiling crab joints in San Jose, but this place had very reasonable pricing. Waitress was prompt and kept refilling my ice tea.

This place is really good, I love the seasoning they use its not too spicy so your lips aren’t burning while u eat. The snow crab legs where really good too. They also throw in potatoes corn n sausage with the crawfish. (2 pounds) Really small place tho so it gets crowded

First impression is the kids catfish nugget meal is almost all fries. This was definitely the case. My kids did enjoy the fish though what little there was. My wife and I split some crawfish. Their crawfish are good. They are a little more expensive than most places though. I’ll go back but probably not my first place to go to for crawfish.

My wife and I are in town for the weekend and something we can’t get at home in New Mexico is oysters on the half shell so whenever we travel, we look for a good oyster bar. We ate here this evening and WOW! Great food! We had 12 of the biggest oysters I’ve seen in a long time, and they were fresh and delicious with lots of flavor. They were served as they should be with horseradish, lemon and cocktail sauce on the side. (Of course, hot sauce was available on the table.) And then, we had the crawfish. I can’t the waterfall of flavor that these crawfish were surrounded by. The seasoning (we had medium spice) was perfect and the crawfish were meaty and delicious. There was a good amount of butter flavor along with the spice as well as two half cobs of corn and two small red potatoes. There wasn’t a lot of sausage but what there was was delicious.
The menu has a lot of options for those who don’t like oysters and crawfish, so I recommend going to their website to look at their full menu. Everything we saw coming out of the kitchen looked delicious. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys cajun food.

Had a great experience this time around. The place was busy but we didn’t have too wait long. My wife had her 3lbs of crawfish medium spice. I ordered a catfish po-​boy with hush puppies and some calimari. Our waitress was very prompt and our food was served quickly. Everything came out delicious. My wife really enjoyed her crawfish and she said the seasoning was perfect. My po-​boy was good and calamari was crispy. We will be back!

I love little hole in the wall kind of places. They are the best in my opinion. I am a huge fan of good crawfish and this joint is my favorite hands down. I always get the 2lbs crawfish boil which includes corn, sausage, potato, and mushrooms! You have the option to choose the spice level which is nice. The spices and flavors achieved in this boil satisfy my palate 100%. I have tried the snow crab legs also and they are very meaty. The oysters on a half shell are always a great start to a great meal. I highly recommend.
This place gets packed withing the hour of them opening ao plan to wait for a table. (Believe me, it is worth the wait) The staff are on the go making sure everyone is taken care of. It is a really great place!

AWESOME PLACE TO EAT. Not kidding; the crawfish was amazing! It even comes in three grades of fire — perfect for the more spice-​sensetive among us. They know how to dress a beer correctly, and their sweet tea is not tea flavored syrup. They really know their food.
We arrived around 5-​ish, just after opening, and didn’t finish until 7:20. People crowded in like they were starving, people outside on the grass, in the parking lot. We even got some more crawfish just for to-​go right before we left. Service was amazing, the waitress checked on us 7 or 8 times, always polite and on point.
Will definitely be back here again soon!

Spotted the restaurant at the last minute as its tuck led away in corner! Very glad I noticed it! Sampled the gumbo. exceptional! Entrée was the blackened catfish. I was floored! It was excellent. The wait staff is super friendly. I will certainly be back to try other items on the menu. Good lunch crowd so this spot is doing something right!
Very satisfied!

So on retread, I’m not so impressed. Both the crawfish and snow crab are cooked in some kind of oil and butter combination, which makes everything very greasy and heavy. In my two pounds of crawfish, I had three big boys, and 80% of the remaining were tiny. Very tiny. Had a half pound of snow crab as well and found it difficult to eat between the grease and the seasonings.
The oysters were Gulf, but there were rinsed and properly shucked, firm and tasty. Props for that. $ 12.95 for a dozen on the halfshell.
An average portion were dead when cooked, so neither props nor downage for that. Beer prices were average.
The service was pretty good, though.
On a whole if you want crawfish, Shoal Creek Saloon does a much better preparation and flavor, and the scenery is better.

This place is pretty awesome for a crab boil fix. The prices are reasonable for seafood (i.e. crab boils). I think two of us made it out under $ 44 (2 lbs of crab, extra mushrooms, extra corn, hush puppies, & drinks).
The reason for 4 stars: The wait staff is interesting a little forgetful, slow, and doesn’t check back on tables, etc. We ordered oysters on the half shell (never got them and wasn’t charged).

Good spot waaaay up north for when you want your fried seafood fix.
Service leaves a bit to be desired … I knew what was going to happen as soon as my waitress took my order and ran off without asking what I wanted to drink. Sure enough, my food came (via a different employee) and the waitress never checked on me.
I ate, paid and left without ever getting a drink. The waitress was busy, so I get it. But 10 oysters for $ 9.99(one dollar off at lunchtime, doused in Louisiana hot sauce, left me parched.

Expectations and first impressions… they can both be strange things, right? Crawfish Shack & Oyster Bar has 292 reviews and 4 stars, some posted by my trusted Unilocal buds, so I had high hopes and now mixed feelings ex post facto.
As for the joint itself, I envisioned something between Austin’s Boat House (albeit smaller) and the über casual (the «flooring» consists of tossed oyster shells), tiny Aw Shucks in Dallas. Well… first impression not at all as expected.
Smallish place in a strip mall; no patio or bells and whistles per se. Enter: a bit shabby and cheesy with plastic fish hanging on the walls, torn pleather chairs and stools, and aged laminate chipping away from table. I’m cool with that.
Then I went to visit the ladies to wash up before digging into what I knew would be a hand immersed feast. OMGosh. Sorry. Just bad. FILTHY. I could barely even wash my hands because the basin was full do to a clog. I will spare any additional details; suffice to say I thought about leaving at that point.
Well, I didn’t. I tried not to dwell, I really wanted crab, and my hubby seemed content (and a lil grumpy from hunger pains).
The waitperson arrived promptly, covering our table with paper (which I took as a good sign, as traditional crab boils are often dump & dive), we each ordered a beer from the limited selection.
Menu & the take on grub:
The hubster actually wanted 1 of 3 Cajun entrées on the menu and was a tad disappointed they are only offered weekdays (why only M-​F?; we dined on a Sunday). He settled for the Fried Catfish plate instead. One large cornmeal crusted filet, bland but cooked well, served with coleslaw he didn’t care for and a few burnt hushpuppies he didn’t even touch. Not a huge success.
Like I mentioned, I came for the crab. One lb Snow Crab, with half cob corn, 2 small red potatoes, and SWIMMING in… wait for it… loads of melted butter with tons of sliced onions and garlic. «WHAT is this hot mess all about?!» When it comes to crab of any variety, I’m pretty much a purest. Steam it up with a little seasoning and I’m good to go, maybe only the tiniest dip of meat in butter, but most times none at all. The crab should speak for itself.
There it was in all its «glory» so I went in using my hands, ignoring the «utensils» they provided me — a regular sized fork and a pair of $ store scissors. Lol. No plastic bib was provided even though I saw a huge stack of them outside of the bathroom with all of the other junk piled against the rotting walls; I guess I could’ve asked for one, but I consider myself a pretty good picker.
The crab was cooked well, sweet, a little slippery and hella greasy on the outside, but overall actually… good. Not great, not bad, good. The potatoes were yummy (the one bite I had anyway; my husband had to eat something other than one filet of fish). The corn was soggy, no snap (again, «donated» to the hubs).
Order of small loaf of bread was $ 1.25. A necessary evil if you want to sop up some of all that leftover butter, if your arteries hadn’t clogged already.
Overall: I left scratching my head with my stinky hands, crab flakes still under my nails –I was informed they were out of moist towelettes and there was NO way I was going back to that bathroom– perplexed by my quasi-​disgust and yet the fact that I somehow did enjoy the oddly prepared crab. Did I mention before that I L.O.V.E. crab? Hmm…
The saga continues. We noticed several people eating crawfish — the place is called Crawfish Shack after all. We’re suckers for mudbugs (both literally and figuratively — suck dem heads). Tgey were on the menu, we assumed they wouldn’t have any — waaaaay out of season at the end of July! After our meal, we inquired and were informed they’re served year-​round and they’re fresh, not frozen. Huh? Were told they were from Louisiana, but I’m going to make an educated guess here and state «imported,» Asia. Served in the same onion/​butter slurry as the crab. The waiter was kind enough to bring us a sample, 2 tiny bugs. No, just no. Wrong on every level. Other reviewers have raved about the crawfish. In season or not, again, no!!! Foul treatment to such beautiful little creatures that should be punishable by death. Folks, if you are inexperienced with bugs, this is NOT the place to start; and for those in-​the-​know, this is the place to avoid! Very nice gesture on waiter’s behalf though, so thanks for that.
The service was a-​ok. Very friendly; however, entrées delivered to table about 5 minutes apart and had to flag down someone 4 times for my husband to ask for a 2^nd beer.
Total with 3 beers was a mere $ 38. Quite the bargain. I can handle the strange yet yummy crab, but until CS&OB does some major house cleaning and repairs (I should have snapped photos; no exaggerations), I don’t think I’ll be returning. Kind of sad actually. Potential. Failed. On the fence about giving 3 stars, but 2 seems a bit unfair as I did mildly enjoy the Snow legs. ;)
[127 in 2015]

I just went here for dinner.
And for the first time ever in Unilocal history for me… I came to a conclusion.
What do you people who rated this place so well see in this place?
Admittedly, we came here at 7:30 on a Tuesday night in a celebratory sort of mood. It was bustling but a line was not coming out the door. Most of the people eating here seemed like families or college aged kids. Ok we thought… lets try something new. My boyfriend had done quite of a few things to help me out that day and I felt grateful and wanted to take him to out to dinner. It was a «something new» night and we were between Sonora Dog and this place. Sonora Dog would have wiped this place away… and that’s saying something because it’s a hot dog joint.
Service is fast. We were seated in 2 secs. Waitress came out, Jeannie I think was her name. She was very short and curt and asked what we wanted to drink. Drink orders in. Once they came out, she clarified that all they had was King Crab and crawfish under their «boiled» section. Bummer. We were wanting shrimp… not feeling that the work to benefit ratio was high on the crawfish we saw walking in, I ordered the crab and he ordered the jambalaya.
I mentioned to the girl that I wanted to get an order of bread too. She didn’t ask if we had been there before (we hadn’t) and we didn’t know the minutiae for ordering. But great… you can point out for me that you either have crawfish or crab. For 2 lbs of crawfish, you get a potato, blah, blah… But if you’re ordering king crab… I figured… well…it’s king crab. The most expensive thing on the menu. You know, when you go to steak joints, they typically will serve two sides with it. It’s hard to find a steakhouse actually that will just give you the meat. By. ITSELF. Smith and Wollensky come to mind… but hey, aged beef is no joke and I get why you only get the steak by itself.
This place… you have to ask for all the extras unless you order 2 lbs. So 2 lbs of crab would have come out to 44 dollars. That’s how much I would have had to pay to get a potato. An ear of corn… part ear. I bet it was formerly frozen. Maybe a mushroom… you get my drift. Unless I asked for each of these components separately.
So food comes out in 15 minutes. His jambalaya has overcooked rice. This tells me several things. Their food is old. They are cooking it and reheating it because the rice is broken down and is mostly rice mash. Because they keep mixing it to warm it up.
They are a cajun themed place who doesn’t know how to cook rice. They are also predominantly staffed by Asian people as well… who eat this… and are OKAY with it?! They even charge for a scoop (emphasis on 1 scoop) of rice!!! My boyfriend mentioned that I was being pretty critical about the rice… and you’re damn right I am. I didn’t just pay $ 8.95 for me to «treat you to dinner» to some smutty rice that tasted awful, was overcooked, and barely had any shrimp or sausage in it. This is slop. This is not ok.
Crab was ok. Overcooked. Methinks it either wasn’t thawed properly prior to firing or it was just overcooked. For shame. The seasonings were good and it had garlicky flavor… which I enjoyed. A tad salty. That’s why they’re getting 2 stars. And not 1.
Did I mention that it took 20 minutes later after we got our food before we were asked if everything was ok?! My boyfriend’s drink was empty. I told her I had asked for bread but to never mind since I was almost finished with the meal. She had this glib smug response that she went ahead to the back and had them «cancel» it.
It’s bread. It gets put on the toaster. You tell me somewhere back there you can boil water and get me an order in 15 minutes for king crab but then tell me you have to have them cancel toasting my bread? Let me bet something. You don’t bake the bread in house.
Not to mention the horrible shame I felt for having opted to go to this place to «treat» my boyfriend. I felt so embarrassed and ashamed. My fault.
I think we were mistaken because we had had a wonderful experience with seafood at Garbo’s previously in this Well’s Branch area because ordinarily… I would be reluctant to go to a place in the ‘burbs for seafood. Garbo’s was excellent and I’ll go back any chance I get. The caliber there is unparalleled. But we won’t find ourselves back here and we won’t recommend it.

I’m somewhere between three and four stars on this one, but since there are so many other positive reviews, I figured knocking off a star wouldn’t hurt.
We showed up at the beginning of the dinner rush. The restaurant was full and we had about a 10 minute wait. After we were seated, it took several more minutes to get menus and even longer to actually put in an order. The place isn’t THAT big and there are maybe 15 tables, but I felt that the place was understaffed due to the popularity and the fact that the waitresses seemed to be overwhelmed.
We ordered a dozen oysters, a soft shelled crab po-​boy and 2lbs of spicy crawfish. Everything came out at a different time. I expected the oysters to come out first, but I thought the other two items would come out together. Instead, it took a loooong time to get the crawfish. While we were waiting, the guy next to us finished his meal and wrote a very unhappy note on the back of his check (I don’t think he paid…) that the crawfish were underdone. Ruh-​roh. He ate a lot of them, but it didn’t really bode well.
The oysters were the best thing we ordered. They were huge and fairly inexpensive ($ 12.99 for a dozen). There isn’t exactly a lot of skill that comes with serving oysters though. The po-​boy was ok. Not super flavorful, but not bad. The crawfish were good, but maybe not worth the 45min wait it took to finally get them. Some (very few, though) were a bit underdone, but the spices on them were really good.
If I were to go again, I’d try on a weekday when they aren’t so busy.

This is a mom and pop shop that specializes in seafood. Very small inside, but big in heart. Plenty of TV’s so you don’t have to worry about missing the game. Very friendly and accommodating staff. There were about 5 of us and without us asking, the waitress moved us to a larger table before we got our food. She said she wanted us to have enough room to eat our crabs and crawfish comfortably. She won me over with that small gesture. This is the level of customer service that will keep me coming back.
Our orders consisted of boiled snow crabs with corn, sausage and potatoes (sausage is extra), boiled crawfish which also comes with corn and potatoes, steak and fried shrimp, a catfish poboy, and a shrimp basket. Being the food connoisseur that I am, I sampled everything. My actual order was 2 pounds of snow crabs. They we big, juicy and full of meat. The seasoning was awesome. It was a combination of crab boil, with butter and a variety of spices. It was spicy enough but not overwhelming. Needless to say, the crabs were totally awesome! The crawfish were the same too. I can’t wait for crawfish season to get in full swing. The crawfish are definitely better when they are large. Right now they are still small, so you will have your work cut out for you.
The fried shrimp and the catfish poboy were delicious. The shrimp and catfish were well seasoned and lightly fried. My Uncle and his friend enjoyed their meals to the fullest! Lil cousin had the steak and shrimp. Of course you can expect a 15 year old to order a steak! LOL! According to him, the steak was cooked as ordered, medium well. When he cut the steak, I saw the juices flow for myself. He said it was well seasoned and cooked to perfection.
I can’t say anything bad about this place, but I will remind you that it’s small on the inside so that makes for limited seating. There were 5 of us and we went about 8:00 on a Saturday night, and we were able to walk in and sit down immediately. This may not be the case when crawfish season gets in full swing. Just remember to exercise patience if the restaurant is full when you arrive.
Whether you dine in or take your order to go, you cannot go wrong here. This is the best I’ve had in a very long time. Well done Crawfish Shack!