The Coosaw Creek Crab Shack

Katie, our bartender was very friendly and efficient. She made us some ridiculously good drinks and made us feel right at home. Great first impression of the restaurant. We’ll be back for sure! Two thumbs up

Food was subpar, not a lot of flavor. Over priced for selection and environment was not overly welcoming. The servers were talking about their tables were it could be heard. Corn was probably microwaved or sittin for a while it was cold and soggy not fun for corn on cob. Overall I wouldn’t recommend.

Great all you can eat crab on Thursday nights. They keep em coming and always nice and hot! Wonderful customer service. The back patio is so nice to sit out on too … Love going there for all you can eat!

Great place to get crab legs and she crab soup with friends and family. Especially if you have guests come in from out of town. Kid-​friendly. Natasha was our waitress and she was great!

Went for the $ 34 crab special on a Thursday night. Really great place to enjoy a cold beer and some good food at the end of the week! We sat at the bar and the service from Jennifer was quick and friendly. They kept the crab legs coming. Looking forward to the next visit, but I think I need to try something else next time– it was good, but I definitely took the «All you can eat» too seriously.

This restaurant wouldn’t even let us in to eat. Their hours are posted as open until 10PM, we got there at 9:25PM and they said we couldn’t come in and eat. Would not go back there or recommend this place to anyone. This is the rudest I have ever been treated at a restaurant in a long time.

Every morning Monday thru Friday I drive down Dorchester Rd fighting the mindless zombies commuting to work, and every afternoon I do it on the way home. I always pass the Coosaw Crab Shack on my commute. Now and then I often wondered if it’s still the same as it was years ago when I last visited or has it changed. Of course years ago I had an unfavorable opinion about this place based on service and mediocre food.
Well curiosity and boredom of the same old lunch experience, (you know, McDonalds, Taco Bell, etc…) finally got the best of me and I looked them up on Unilocal.I found some great reviews as well as a nice menu that wasn’t overwhelming to read. So two coworkers and myself decided to visit the Coosaw Crab Shack; let me just say we all are glad that we did.
Upon entering I immediately turned my attention to the cleanliness of the floors. They were shiny and looked well swept. Then the barrel of good olé Roasted Virginia Peanuts just beckoned me to grab a handful. How do I know they were Virginia Peanuts? Because I’m a Southerner and I know my nuts… ha ha. Anyway the waitress, Angel, was a breath of fresh air. That is to say that she made up for past experiences of dealing with some of the atrocious so called hospitality workers in this here general area. Angel never let a glass get past half empty, (I know, I know but I am not a pessimist). She also never interrupted my coworkers and I conversing over lunch. Let’s just say she knew when to arrive and when to leave which was greatly appreciated.
Now the food was another matter and deserves to be thoroughly critiqued in a palatable way so to speak. Our order consisted of two appetizers; Shrimp Zingers and Hot Crab Dip. I will dive into discussing the appetizers first. The Shrimp Zingers were a new experience for me, and I thought that I had tried shrimp in more ways than Bubba from Forest Gump. The shrimp were fried perfectly in a panko breading. They were jumbo and cooked to perfection. When I dipped that big juicy crustacean in the hot saucy concoction and placed it into my mouth the first thing that I noticed was a firm crust that did no crumbling under the pressure of my teeth slicing through the shrimp, really nice mouth feel. The next thing that I noticed was the flavor of the sauce and the bursting juiciness of the shrimp. This app was my favorite of every shrimp app that I have ever tried. Kudos to the Coosaw Crab Shack.
Next the Hot Crab Dip. The crab dip was served with lightly baked pita bread chips. The dip had a layer of cheese baked over the top. I liked the taste of the baked cheese but found that when you dipped a pita chip in it that the cheese stayed together and came off in one big layer. I had to cut it to my pita portion size to keep from hogging it all. The crab dip with the pita chips was better than most crab dips I’ve had around the Summerville/​Charleston area and I’ll give it an 8 out of 10. Really good guys.
The main dish for me was the Crabby Charlie. It’s an English muffin split in two and toasted and each individual slice had a slice of fried green tomato, a crab cake, all topped with pimento cheese and two slices of bacon on each. It’s all of your favorite Southern Comfort foods on one plate. Let me say that I was very impressed with the presentation as well as elated that the crab cakes were actually prepared properly; that is, not burnt and too crispy and not too soggy. I could actually taste the crab ummm. Another home run for the Shack.
Now I also ordered a cup of she crab soup because I always order she crab soup if a restaurant has it on the menu. I am an over stuffed rootin tootin sharp shootin Vladimir Puten she crab soup eating machine. In other words, I love the stuff and can’t get enough. That said, their she crab soup was better than average but can be made better by doing two things: 1) use less cream in the ratio, 2) use more sherry or serve it with a side of sherry for the customer to add. Oh yeah another thing, you have to offer Tabasco brand sauce, after all it is a Southern Icon and offers a more pepper taste without being too salty like Texas Pete. A few dashes of Tabasco Sauce complements most soups and dishes where the pepper flavor needs to come through and not the salt. I would have to say though that I would rate the she crab at a 7 out of 10.
My overall experience back after all of these years was a very pleasurable and taste bud delighting experience. Great food, great service by Angel, and a great atmosphere mad this a place that I will definitely revisit. So if you have been thinking about going for the first time or wanting to give it another try after all of those years like myself, then I would greatly encourage you to visit the Coosaw Crab Shack and enjoy.

The food was ok customer service is great. Our server She gave us great customer service. I think only thing they need to work on is spice up the food more and make sure food is hot. Better proportion.

Very good food and customer service.

Tasteless seafood, just steamed with absolutely no flavor. Food at Joe’s Crab shake taste 10x better and a lot more for the price too.
Waitress and hostess was nice people but that is about it. If you want real seafood, this place is not the place.
There is no point in going deeper into this for I will not return to this place on my travels again.

Great place for seafood! We had the buckets. Good value. Crab legs, oysters and giant shrimp! Mmmmm :) I’ll definitely be back!!!

I chose Coosaw Creek for dinner based on the positive reviews. I cannot add to those. $ 20 for a plate of «Captain D’s» quality food will not encourage positive thoughts. The cole slaw is 50% mayo and literally oozed out of the bowl as it was canted by the rim of my plate. One fillet of my flounder was under cooked and had a wet gelatinous texture. The hush puppies and service were very good, but not enough to lure me back.

Traveling for work & wanted to grab a quick bite close to the hotel (near the airport) in Charleston.
Read some previous reviews extolling the virtues of Dorchester Rd’s Coosaw Creek Crab Shack
I believe I was over-​sold.
Mid week, sat at the bar. waited longer than I cared to for a beer. Good brew, Palmetto IPA… seems the regulars /​locals dominate the bar-​keeps attention, regardless if there is 2 – 3 (that’s the number this night) or a crowd. I can only think how long i would have waited then.
Atmosphere is divy seafood shack on larger scale, which is fine, no snobbery here. but could really use some updating and perhaps an overall deep cleaning.
Ordered the she-​crab soup. very good to excellent.
Crab cakes for dinner. less than spectacular. slightly over done. kind of like a crab burger, rather than a cake. flat and crispy. but not so much in a good way.
Accompanied by 2 sides of my choice. greens and corn on the cob. well. shame on me. the corn was totally over cooked (boiled within an inch of it’s life) greens just didn’t cut it. very little flavor, again over done. I get it, slow cooked greens are the best. but this just didn’t work.
Would I go back. I just don’t know. maybe this was just an off night.
Considering where I was, and the on line reviews. I tend to doubt I’ll be back. there’s plenty of completion in this town.

This place has a good family vibe and the servers are definitely used to kids. We had just missed the all-​you-​can-​eat crab by 15 minutes, but we appreciated that they sat us with kids 30 minutes to closing. We didn’t feel hurried and the food quality didn’t suffer. I’d definitely like to try this place again (perhaps after another Frankie’s Fun Park outing). I’m really glad this didn’t turn out to be a tourist trap, considering pickings were slim at the hour we were looking.

Good stuff!
Great for kids… yum. Service was good. I like the free peanuts too, kept kids busy:)

Service is always good. The crab selections are great, try the hot crab /​cheese dip. We generally like the pasta specials and try to come at least once per month to catch them when they rotate.
The chocolate layer cake is very good, if you like heavy chocolate. We save room for it.

pretty decent place came for lunch. have family near here we were visiting. friendly staff. reasonable prices
daughter had the burger with pimento cheese– THIS IS THE LOW-​COUNTRY– you should be using Palmetto Cheese (there is no substitute). the fried green tomato on it was a nice addition, BUT you need a better bun that is toasted and doesnt get completely soggy while eating and turn into mush and fall apart. maybe a ciabatta bun?
the she crab soup was pretty good, although i have had better.
the crab and shrimp pot was just ok. did not flip my senses or anything
the crab dip was a great starter
again its an ok lunch spot

Thursday nights are all you can eat crab for $ 34.00. They have rotating seasonal microbrews, and all your local favorite beers, along with a variety of mixed drink cocktails.
Amanda was our waitress and she was the epitome of friendly attentive service. If your in the mood for crab check this place out.

We love the Crab Shack! This one in Coosaw Creek is our favorite. GREAT service all of the time but this past visit we had Sarah D. as our server. She went above and beyond to give us great service!
The food is always good. Menu staples like crab stuffed flounder are delicious but menu changes up monthly. This place makes a fried green tomato and crab cake sandwich at lunchtime that is out of this world. The chef does make it if requested for dinner.
Variety of drinks including seasonal concoctions like caramel apple and candy corn martinis.
Five stars!

Really great service here. Friendly and really helpful. I couldn’t open one of the oysters that was part of the seafood buckets, and one of the waitresses offered to help. When I joked that they gave us a rock instead of an oyster, they offered to replace it!
They have monthly specials. In September, you can get two entrees for $ 15 each. I got a crab duo, which includes a crab cake and a cluster of crab legs. Apparently, in the South, they put Cajun spices on the crab legs?! It adds a lot of flavor. The crab dip that came with checking in on Unilocal was not shabby for a crabby shack. The bucket in the middle of each table is for putting the shells. My mom got the grilled platter with grilled scallops, fish, and shrimp. Wow, the scallops were really fresh! I dipped them in the butter that came with my dish and it was really excellent.
To finish off the meal, I got some peanuts to go. I thought Boston had the best seafood, but this place makes me question this notion. If I ever come visit, I would come again.