Joe’s Crab Shack

No tip must mean no service.
My husband, sister, daughter and I came for lunch yesterday. The high chair we were given was broken, so we planned on holding her in our laps until our server came. We waited, and waited, and waited, over ten minutes. Finally, my husband approached the four employees who were standing and talking by the doorway to get another highchair that wasn’t broken. We did get one, and then we waited, and waited, and waited another ten minutes without a single person coming to our table. Not a hello, not a ‘I’ll be there soon’, nothing! Twenty minutes with zero service! One of the four people doing nothing but talking could have at least taken a drink order, or gotten us a server to do it.
There were maybe five tables with patrons. This is really unacceptable.
Needless to say, we left. We went to the Blue Ginger down the street and had both superior food and service.

Awesome!!! We love Joe’s crab boil! The crab is fantastic, the red potatoes, corn and sausage are great with the fiery seasoning. The clam strips and french fries were perfect. Joe’s is my wife’s favorite of all time and she is very picky about her restaurants.
We were seated within 5 minutes. Our service was A+ from Armon. The food came in a flash.
The atmosphere is fun and relaxed. We’d give it more stars if we could.

Shrimp toast! I love shrimp, but only by itself. Not with pasta etc. but the shrimp toast is the one and only exception. All of their food is great, really. I do agree other reviews that the staff is hit or miss, which has an impact on the experience. I’d give the food 4.5 stars and staff a 3. It’s definitely worth a trip in if you’re in the area.

Food was great but service was slow. Got a lot of food but a little overpriced.

My daughter ate captain’s catch for dinner at Sunday’s night around 7 pm, around 11 pm her stomach’s starting hurt and throwing up all night long. We’re spent all night at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

Service was fine. Food was decent. At first when i saw the portion size i thought it was a bit over priced for what you get but after learning that the gratuity is included in prices it made it reasonable. I had Dungeness crab steam. Good flavor. Suggestion would be to have the butter warmed by candle to keep it from solidifying. Between– 3 – 4 stars overall.

Joe’s puts Red Lobster to shame. The steamed crab is the best I’ve ever eaten. It’s definitely not inexpensive though. However the crab pots are huge and worth the price.
That’s the good news. The bad news is the service. It’s hit or miss depending on your server. More times than not, the wait staff have a «too laid back, I’ll get around to you when I feel like it» attitude even during slow periods. But, again, it depends on your server. A few of them are excellent.
The atmosphere is chill so have fun with it and relax. If you’re not too uptight, you’ll like the beach-​side shack theme.
One other note of mention, Joe’s Crab Shack is now a «No Tipping» establishment.

The service was terrible! We sat outside… went in to get our own stuff for table… now one around… not even the manager! Food was okay…
Bathrooms were filthy… I am surprised they haven’t closed the place… too bad…
Overpriced food… but good! They need new management!!!

If I could leave zero, i would. I can’t even begin to explain why I hate this place. Go at your own risk. Bartenders are nice but the late night manager gives it a bad rep. Attitude! Why work in customer service if you don’t like to serve customers? Smh

First visit. I ordered a cup of NE clam chowder, the East Coast Platter, and a soft drink — $ 26+ before tip. No bread or other munchies. The chowder was good, although the presentation was sparse: no extras, crackers, etc. The platter was not. The shrimp was under cooked. I’m not a big fan of semi-​raw bacon. The onion strings were okay, nothing extraordinary. The crab cake wasn’t anything special. I could not identify any crab parts. The fish/​chips was also very average. The fish, in fact, had an aftertaste. The slaw was good. The good news was that the three sauces were quite spicy and killed the taste of the food. I did not finish the meal.
If you want good seafood, go to the Fish Market, or to a lesser degree, Red Lobster. Both are no more expensive, and the experience at either is much better.

Lynnsey was an amazing waitresses! Helped me decide what to eat and gave tips on eating it! Joe’s classic was awesome. Boyfriend had the Arctic bay and was very happy!

I ordered a big plate meal and there was nothing big about it but the price! It was supposed to have two chicken fingers a piece of fish, fries, onion straws, and 10 shrimp. The chicken was small like McDonald’s chicken nuggets and you only got 2. The fish was around the size of two Gorton fish sticks tied together and it wasn’t very good. The ammount of fries and onion straws was acceptable but not great. I don’t like coconut shrimp so I asked for fried and they were ok but not great. The jalapeño shrimp were good and about the only thing on the plate that I liked. I was over all dissatisfied with the meal and found that for a seafood restaurant it did a poor job with this platter and at 21 $ that shouldn’t happen.

First I would like to start off with all the positives. Unfortunately there are alot of negative things to say as well. The wait staff and managers we are very friendly and warm to great you and get you too your table. They explain everything you may have questions about and our happy to show you how to use all the tools they give you. The food use very good I ended up getting the ragin cajun steam pot with crawfish on the side. The taste of it all was delicious and tender. About half way through the meal my wife felt and drip on her hand, we look up and the are vent was dripping on us. SERIOUSLY! Hard tell how much landed in her food. The manager came over and apologized but didn’t even attempt to clean it up. So we finish our food and pay the very pricy bill and start back to the hotel. About this time my stomach was upset but I figured it was from over eatting as I sometimes do. But about an hour later I couldn’t stop sweating and getting sick. We figured out it had to be food poisoning. Nothing else could have caused it and it was not a fun experience. Really in conclusion the food was good but I don’t know if I would eat there again. Pretty scarey stuff to deal with and it could have been a lot worse. So if you go there watch out for leaky ceilings and undercooked seafood.

My husband and I took his parents (my in-​laws) to Joe’s Crab Shack on Sunday night for a belated Father’s Day celebration, my father in law chose the restaurant in fact. We had a great server, her name escapes me unfortunately and we did not keep the receipt. We received our drinks quickly and our waitress was very attentive yet considerate of giving us time to select our dinner choices. She asked if we were coming for a special occasion and we mentioned it was for Father’s day (before my in-​laws arrived). She told him happy Fathers day when he arrived and also as we were leaving which was very thoughtful.
My husband, father in law, and I each ordered our own bucket of crab and my mother in law ordered a shrimp meal and we ordered two side salads — our meal in the end was $ 124 plus tip for four people. My bucket of crab arrived ice cold. The butter was not melted, the crab legs were cold as was the corn on the cob and potatoes as though they had not been cooked.
Our waitress profusely apologized and said she would get me a new bucket. My family’s food had arrived (hot) so I asked them to please eat while I waited, as I did not want their food to get cold. I had ordered a side of coleslaw that I ate while waiting for my food to arrive. I was told I couldn’t substitute the corn on the cob and potatoes my meal came with for coleslaw, which was no big deal.
Fast forward twenty minutes my hot steaming and delicious bucket of crab arrived, which I promptly started cracking open and eating. Our waitress didn’t deliver the bucket — the manager brought it, which I would expect. She came to our table and didn’t say a word, she extended the food to me and walked away. She didn’t say she was sorry the food arrived cold, didn’t apologize for the fact I had to wait to eat my meal, didn’t offer to comp our drinks (we ordered two waters and two ice teas), didn’t offer a free dessert or I don’t know maybe comp the meal I ordered that arrived cold? I thanked her for bringing my food and my table was very shocked that she didn’t say anything to us when she came by with my food.
This was my first experience eating at Joe’s Crab Shack, and it was unfortunately extremely unpleasant. The food was tasty and our waitress/​server did a great job given the fact that I was served an ice cold meal. I’m severely disappointed that the manager who brought my food didn’t apologize.
I realize things go awry at restaurants and feel the food mishap was not handled appropriately. I maintained a pleasant demeanor towards our waitress as I don’t blame her that my food came out cold but at this point I don’t have a reason to return to this restaurant again. I can order seafood for this price at another restaurant, customer service and handling mishaps correctly is what keeps customers coming back not just quality food.

Boyfriend and I had a hankerin’ for clam chowder so we stopped by. Been well over a year since we were last there. Best waitress ever was Jessika! Very attentative to our table and a great personality! So… first is the chowder. We both got a bowl and it was not good. They thought maybe it was in the tureen too long so they had a new batch brought out. (It was not made by Joe’s… an outside company and the manager tasted and an thought the same thing) The new bowls had the same issue. So we sent them back, also. So i tried the lobster bisque… absolutely scrumptious! I was ready to lick the bowl! So then he ordered a hurricane and I got a draft. BF said his was really good. Then we ordered the Reel Big Catch to share. It also was very scrumptious! Loved the onion straws. Fish just fell apart… so tasty. Their cole slaw was very good. We asked to speak to Mike, the General Manager and he was super nice. I thanked him for assisting with the chowder issue and wanted to tell him how great Jessika was. The disappointing part of the evening was the restroom. It did smell like a non-​flushable park restroom with water evidence of all the toilets leaking. Needs freshened up and updated in there. Otherwise I will be back for the lobster bisque!

While this place’s décor is supposed to look kind of ‘shabby beach house, ’ it’s really starting to look just plain shabby. The food and service were a little shabby as well.
Atmosphere —
Exterior and interior are supposed to have a ‘shabby beach house’ kind of look, but they’re really just looking worn out these days. The parking lot was about to fall apart with pot holes when were there (in May). Things didn’t seem upkept either inside or out and everything from the tables to the menus seemed sticky. The music was so loud I had to walk around the table to hear my son talk. I was a little grossed out that the only source of napkins was a roll of cheap paper towels sitting in a bucket on the table. I understand what they were going for, but the roll was almost used up which means that 50 other guests before us were all handling the same towels with food-​covered hands. Hmmm.
Service —
The server was friendly, but not in a hurry. The place was not very full so I’m not sure where she disappeared to for such long periods of time. Everything was a wait. We were seated close to the entrance and had to listen to a lot of griping and personal discussions between the rest of the staff who had a general ‘don’t care’ attitude.
Food —
The best description is ‘so so.’ We had the combo appetizer which had very good crab dip, but everything else was generic fried bits of things. Both my husband and I got seafood combo platters. My fried shrimp were a little bit mushy on the inside and my calamari tasted like over-​seasoned breaded rubber. The plain fried fish seemed good, but overall anything fried seems overly greasy even for fried food. Our friend got seafood pasta which was good, but the sauce was pretty oily. I had no desire to finish my plate. definitely not worth $ 14. Perhaps the Steampots are the way to go here, but I wasn’t willing to spend $ 25 at a place like that.
Restrooms —
Ok normally I don’t pay attention to restrooms at restaurants, but this deserves a mention. It was gross. The best comparison is when a public park has a flushing toilet, but it’s still crappy and in the woods. The door into the restroom didn’t close all the way. Inside the floor was dirty, it smelled strongly of outhouse and had no air circulation, and the faucet didn’t work right so hardly any water would come out. Sitting by the sink was a large dirty cardboard box of soap refill. Yuck!
Overall, the feeling of this place was «we don’t care anymore.» I hope I don’t visit again.

Overall good experience. I’m from Florida so seafood is always on my things to eat list. Waiter was pleasant. Crab pot was amazing.

Arrived at the bar at 6:45 pm. Had to grab the bartenders attention to get a drink. 15 minutes later we got one. They were not that busy for a Friday night. So then we get our table, the server didn’t say his name. We did have our drinks from the bar by the way. So after 15 minutes again, he had not returned. I found the manager asked him to send our server over. We ordered our food.
My wife had a steam pot crab legs, her friend had the craw fish, I had the big catch and my friend had the smaller version of the big catch. The craw fish were over cooked.
Still no server to check on us, looking into the restaurant I see a person who appears to be another manager, so I get up again. Ask him to come to our table because we had a problem. They remake her food.
The server came to our table asked if we needed anything, a glass of ice my wife said.. Wait… wait. Wait. 15 more minutes go by. No ice. I get up again (anybody keeping count? This is now number 4 times I’ve had to do this) I go to the bar and ask for a glass of ice.. The bar keep hands it me.
Bottom line, this place use to have excellent customer service, maybe 10 years ago.. Now, the service sucks. I can only imagine what they would do if it got really busy. They need to hire people who love what they do, not people who want a job to have a job.
Done. … not going back.

My all time favorite! We come here for special occasion only. Little on the pricey side but can get coupons on retailmenot app. Great crabs and shrimp.

Stopped in here because my girlfriend had never eaten at a Joe’s.
Exterior: as with all of these restaurant it has a nautical theme to it. It’s very appealing and fun. It might be me, but we had a hard time figuring out how to get into the parking lot. We approached from the back side of it and drove around the entire restaurant just to get to an entrance to the lot.
Interior: the nautical theme continues into the restaurant and is once again a fun atmosphere. There is a bar on the right rear wall and seating everywhere. Groups of all sizes will find someplace to sit without a problem. To the left of the entrance is a shopping area to buy all sorts of Joe’s stuff with funny sayings. The restaurant appeared very clean.
Staff: our waitress was friendly and personable. She did a decent job of checking up on us, though wasn’t the best.
Food: we ordered calamari for an appetizer and it was very good. We didn’t expect the amount of calamari we would receive, so we were pleasantly surprised. My girlfriend ordered the fish and chips and loved it. I ordered the fish and clams and didn’t like the fish. I have no idea what kind of fish it was, but it just didn’t taste good. It was a different type than what the girlfriend ordered. The clam strips were good though. Our portions were huge so we weren’t able to finish our plates and took it home.
Overall, this is a chain fish restaurant in the middle of the nation (read: far from the ocean). If you have a hankering for seafood and don’t have many options, it’s an okay place to go. If you have other options (that aren’t chain) you may want to check those out first.