Crazy Alan’s Swamp Shack

Food was ok but the restrooms were NASTY! Even asked for them to be cleaned and… They were still gross! I could only imagine what the kitchen looks like after taking a look at the restrooms.

I should of checked here first. Everything looked good but looks are deceiving. The lobster feast for two smelled like ammonia. According to google that meant the seafood was not fresh and rotten. I will never eat there again.

I was actually in the Parking Lot at Saltgrass when I looked over and saw this building. We, both, love Seafood and Cajun and I’ve gotten the wife to the point where she isn’t afraid to try new things. Crazy Alan, did NOT let us down. On a Saturday afternoon they had an all you can eat Catfish & Shrimp (fried) special w/​Chicken Gumbo and Salad. I was surprised. The waitress found out this was our first time so she brought us both a Gumbo Sampler. She was a lil slow but all things considered I enjoyed the experience

Horrible food! The absolute worst lobster dish I’ve ever had. Shame on me for not checking the Unilocal reviews before stopping here! The lobster was way overcooked, the Alaskan King crab legs were old and smelled of ammonia. The melted cheese on the garlic bread was hard and chewy, as though it set out for several hours and was quickly reheated and then sent to our table. There was no snapper in the dish as the menu indicated. Geez, I could go on but what’s the point! It was bad, bad, bad!!! I think I’m going to go throw up now!
Later that same night…
As I drove home, I played the evening over again and again in my head. The more I thought about it the more I was compelled to call the restaurant and speak to the manager on duty. Upon calling the restaurant, a young lady answers «hello». I ask if this was Allen’s swamp shack, she then proceeded with her scripted phone greeting. I asked to speak to the manager on duty and I was immediately hit with questions of who I was and what I wanted. A gentleman by the name of Guillermo came to the phone and introduced himself as the co-​owner with Alan. I proceeded to tell my story of the poor quality food we were served. I explained to him that normally I don’t complain in a restaurant, I chalk it up to experience and go about my business and just not return. I write a review on Unilocal and be done with it. I mentioned to him that my experience was so bad that I felt compelled to call and talk with him. During the entire conversation I never felt as though he was honestly remorseful in any way. He did apologize and offered me an opportunity to come back and allow him to serve me again. To me, that is not an option. Once was bad enough, I absolutely could not endure that again. I am definitely standing by my one star, if I could give zero stars I certainly would. This was a $ 68 lesson learned. Save your money folks go somewhere else.

Disgusting!!! Ordered boiled shrimp and was served a rotten potato. Sent it back. Per manager didn’t even receive a discount on the meal because they replaced the potato. If zero stars was an option that’s what I would rate this place.

My wife and I had the ace special of fish and shrimp. The fish must have been frozen because it sure was not fresh. The shrimp was not much better. Thai is the second experience. The first was with the stuff
Ed flounder. It was covered in some sauce and was just pieces of flounder and only the tail was on three plate. I would guess for garnish. I would not recommend the shack on E I 10. I really do not want to even rate them with a star. In my humble opinion, they get zero.

Came by to eat on our way back from a doctors appointment. The place wasnt hardly busy busy at all. First, it took about 10 mons for someone to acknowledge we were even here to eat. Once our waitress arrived, she took our orders right away. The food took about 20 mins or so to come out, which was fine. Overall experience was meh. it was okay but wouldve rathers pappasitos across the freeway. Less attitude and more friendly over there.

Poor service! Awful food! Terrible drinks! The only thing enjoyable was the music and the décor.

I can’t believe this place gets such bad reviews on Unilocal!The food was great and the service was awesome. Lloyd was our waiter and did a phenomenal job! Tia took care of us, and Nicole made some bomb ass drinks! We’ll go again and be asking for Lloyd!

Pros:
Cool environment
Beer available (but overpriced like everything else)
Grilled Chicken was so-​so
Good music
Cons:
Cheap cheese
Terrible service
Stringy, poorly battered onion rings
Tasteless catfish
Messed up our order
Overpriced
Tastes worse than fast food
A whole in a glass and no offer to take it off the tab
Everything seemed frozen, not fresh
In summary, I’m just glad I was in good company, because this lunch was disappointing. The French fries were the best part. We won’t be back. Good luck to you if you go! h
Update: about 30 minutes after lunch, my boyfriend texted and said he has the worst stomach cramps now! Bah!

Really consider this place a 4.5 but my red snapper was a bit on the dry side. Seen mixed reviews before coming but it’s honestly a great restaurant especially for crawfish and crab legs.

The food wasn’t horrible. The staff tried to steal my new phone. It wasn’t until I became loud and husband called it, that it magically appeared from the back office. Never again. Can I give a negative star?

Most horrible service I’ve ever had. We were waited on by a lazy waiter that only kept making useless conversations with another table and ignored me waving my arms at him. I waited to complain to his manager for over an hour. He didn’t even bring our meal, it was left in the kitchen so long the cook had to bring it to us and we didn’t receive our appetizer until 20 mins after our meal arrived. The other waitresses assured me that the issue would be fixed and nothing was done. They also don’t know how to roll down blinds. My dad was uncomfortable because the sun was hitting his eyes and we politely asked them to roll down a blind and they failed, only to completely roll up the blind making it ten times worse. Customer service is key and they are hiring the wrong people. That waiter has to have been high because of how slow he was talking he was basically drooling. I’m not the only one of my friends that think this place has the worst service. I’m posting pics of their comments.

To start– I’m a firm believer in Unilocal! ( Unilocalanista, if you will) I’m also very picky about eating mudbugs/​crawfish. So, based on the reviews of this place, I had no real reason to try it out besides. My lovely sister. We we’re going for lunch one day and she mentioned this place. So naturally– I Unilocaled it. After reading the mostly one-​starred reviews, I wasn’t big on coming here, but I didn’t want to be a party pooper so we came.
Our waiter was very friendly and had great customer service! He recommended we get their «home-​seasoned» crawfish, and told us that he makes it himself. He said most of his customers come in and request him to make it because it they liked it so much. After tasting it, I see why!!! We ordered half crawfish and half shrimp– and it was delicious. So flavorful. Also, the manager even came to our table and gave us tickets for their upcoming crawfish festival!
Overall, great experience. Hopefully more Unilocalers have an experience like mine when dining here :) ps– the margaritas aren’t bad here, either.

This is my second visit here. The first time I a kept it basic with a burger and it was good, not the best.
Ugh, where do I start. The hostess was not interested in being at work on Sunday after all it was a beautiful afternoon. Strike one! So hopefully things will get better. Well, it didn’t except our waitress had a great personality and did her best. We sat on the patio and it was full of patrons but Swamp Shack had only 2 servers working the area. Strike two! Moving on to the food. Presentation of the food here needs work. Cheap plastic plates with food slopped on it like moving thru a school lunch line. Please stay away from the pasta dishes here. How can a seafood place use salad shrimp in a pasta dish. This alone should result in a name change to Red L***** or You Know Crab ****. How can any food establishment on the Gulf Coast call themselves a seafood place and use salad shrimp in any of their main dishes? This is a fast trip to closure. Strike Three and they are out!!! In our party we also had Boiled Crawfish and Shrimp with the trimmings. Both were OK. The fried pickles may have been the best thing going for this meal. I may return again for the fried pickles and a burger but nothing else.
WOW, I was so hoping the 2 star rating on Unilocal was untrue but it is not. This place needs help with presentation, quality, and taste of it’s food to survive with all the competition next to it.

I had lunch today the blackened red snapper they cooked it to leather ! Very Disappointed
The shrimp is good I should have just ordered it ! The portion of fish was small and not seasoned well !
Service was slow to half ass
Music was too loud priced way too high!

We went here to celebrate my sister’s bday. The servers and hostesses seemed inexperienced but were friendly (the bus boy seemed the most professional of all of them). The food was nothing to get excited over. The frog legs were decent, I was scared to eat the raw oysters after trying one (and I love raw oysters) and the crawfish was a waste of money. VERY small, no flavor (even the spicy had NO seasoning) and most of the crawfish was WAY overcooked so it was mushy and unedible. It was VERY busy so maybe that was the problem (that’s why we didn’t complain to the manager) but I would NEVER go back.
**also to add an 11% gratuity was added to each of the bills (with the horrible food and service it was insulting)
Also out of their control but noteworthy: we had to sit outside (we mentioned heaters would be a great addition) and requested NUMEROUS times to be moved when a table became available… never did in over 2 hours. We were with 3 small kids and the table next to us was loud and cussing like crazy. Not their fault but don’t sit small children next to a table of loud drunks. Also, some wait staff and hostess training would go far. Just FYI.

Food here not so great but the service was good. I do believe that they are trying to have a good product but everything has too much cajun spice that you cant taste the shrimp or chicken.
I had the corn chowder but it was too spicy. also had a chicken dish that was very blackened. Its like the chef lost his taste buds and thinks more Cajun spice is the solution.
I expected better!

We stopped by here for some crawfish. They were out of crawfish which was quite a disappointment.
We were disappointed in just about every aspect. The ambience was okay, but other than that it is something we will definitely avoid from now on.
The service was very slow getting everything. I had drank two 22oz beers before our food arrived, quite a while.
All of the food was over cooked. The lobster tail was rubbery, the crab shells were soft and wouldn’t crack, the t bone steak was brown (ordered medium rare).
Nothing was really well seasoned, there was certainly a strong level of seasoning in the gumbo, but most of that seasoning was salt.
They offer a free appetizer if you like them on face book. We asked about it no less than 6 tines before the manager begrudgingly came over and verified it on our phone. Was very short as if we were doing him a tremendous favor. Just don’t offer it if it is going to be a hassle.
We won’t be visiting again.
UPDATE: I was contacted by the manager through Unilocal and he did apologize and even offered some comps if we tried it again. I didn’t respond because I would feel uneasy as if I had written my review to get something which isn’t the case. That said, I do think this shows a good service effort so adding a star. I will retry them when back in town to see if improvements have been made and update my review then.

I just finished my meal and unfortunately the food was horrible… Definitely not worth the trip… It’s almost impossible to mess up crawfish… Drop the bugs in seasoned water with butter and garlic and bam there you have it… This place managed to mess that process up. I ordered spicy crawfish and got cold, bland and soggy. Crawfish should be steaming hot since they are supposedly made to order. I also ordered sausage and expected three or four links and got a two inch link cut in 6 pieces. Sausage looked as if it was sitting for 3 days… Brown and green colored. Definitely not edible… Place is so new they don’t even have a liquor license.
There is no consistency with employees dress code. You’ll see everything from undersized spanx to colorful leggings. Save your time and money and just go to Crawfish Shack in Crosby. Their bugs are spicy, hot and fresh. Plus you can take your own beer in a cooler… I really think this management needs to regroup and do a revamp of this place and do a in debt overhaul of employee dress code and etiquette… I gave one stars because you have to pick 1 – 5. If not I would of gave them negative 5 stars…