The Kickin’ Crab

We got the all in one sauce flavor and I can taste a little sweetness to it so I didn’t really like the sauce. Also most of the shrimp we got was soggy, means only one thing! It was very old shrimp that was frozen and thawed many times. And than the crawfish all had a very weird taste with many of them having a very thick black poopline! It was very nasty to kept eating.
The only thing we did like was because there’s no wait, but now we learned our lesson why it didn’t have a line! Customer service was great so that I’m not complaining. However for the restaurant and owner, if you charge your customer high price than please expect to give good quality food unless you will get many bad reviews! I guess I’ll go line up at overrated boiling crab now ^_^

I came here a few times and thought they were okay, still not as good as the OC locations IMO, but the most recent trip (about 2 weeks ago) was the worst.
Our food came out lukewarm to cold, corn in the order was refrigerator cold in a sea of warm shrimp. Our clams were lukewarm with me chewing on a couple more raw than cooked pieces before completely steering clear of them.
Garlic noodles are different now for the worst! They don’t use the original noodles and instead use spaghetti type pasta instead of egg noodles. The new noodles don’t pick up the flavors very well & I think in general they just changed the entire recipe bc it tastes nothing like before to everyone’s disappointment.
Decided to try their new sauce they created, I forget what it was called, KC something, supposed to be hot & sour?. I ordered a bag of shrimp, crawfish, and 2 corn in the kickin style at spicy spicy with a side of the new sauce. What I got was a bag of shrimp and crawfish missing the corn in the KC sauce with a side of kickin style sauce.
Service was kind of aloof, they forgot so many things that we ordered, with communication between the servers being non existent. It was not a packed house so I can’t really understand why or how with in such a short period of time the waiters that took our orders all forgot one thing or another. Our party had to ask & remind them about almost every other item. In the end we still never got the sake or my iced tea that I ordered. It’s okay I guess, maybe it was a sign from God to chill on the drankin & added sugar~
I don’t know if they changed management or what, but the last visit to this KC location was just disappointing, get it together people –both in the front and back! Not sure if I’ll come back again.

The service, workers, shrimp, sauce is pretty cool. The only thing that kind of ruined my experience was the «fresh» Dungeness crab and crawfish… We ordered both and it was far from fresh. The crab meat was a little scary and rubbery. Yes rubbery. We informed the waiter and they apologized and brought out another crab. Shockingly the meat was also rubbery. Asked if we could switch to a lobster and was turned down which makes a totally understandable business discussion. Ended up getting another pound of shrimp and that was that. Would have hoped for a comp on a lb of shrimp but whatever’s. Don’t think we will be going back and will decide to wait at the boiling crab.

If u don’t like lines and crowded places, this is the place for you. For some reason Boiling Crab’s wait was an hour and 30 minutes. We called KC and there was no wait!
Their prices are about the same, but their flavors are slightly different.
I got the pound of shrimp extra mild Kickin Style.
I like how he sinks are located outside the restrooms.

If you love kickin crab like I do, don’t go to this location. I’ve frequent the Costa Mesa location, Santa Ana, Garden Grove and they were all delicious with amazing service. This location sucked! The service was pretty horrible (slow/​getting their attn was a battle even tho it was slow in there/​they don’t check on the tables/​I had to bring the check up myself or we would have been there for much longer than we needed to be) and the food was crappy too (sauce was off/​crab was dry as dirt/​crawfish was undercooked). I was so disappointed :(Please keep in mind, my review is for this location only. The rest of them are still 100 in my book.
The only cool guy there (sorry I forgot your name buddy but you were the one that felt bad you had to charge for waters) was the only one actually working hard and super friendly.

I’ve always liked Kickin’ Crab, especially the Milpitas location. However, my visit here did not meet the same expectation.
I’ll tell you right now: the food is pretty good. It’s just the service that went wrong.
I came by one night with a couple of friends after witnessing a dreadful 1 ½ hour wait at Boiling Crab.
I ordered a pound of shrimp with Kickin’ Style sauce as well as a side order of rice. My two friends shared a similar order (with sausage and no rice) as well as an order of garlic noodles. All of it was pretty good for the most part.
But the food came kind of late, which was a bummer since the restaurant wasn’t terribly packed.
The garlic noodles came especially late. Our shrimp came out first, and after about 10 minutes of waiting, we asked what the deal was with the garlic noodles. After checking in with the kitchen (and witnessing confused faces all around), it turns out our server forgot to put the order in.
It seemed like a sort of off night. The servers were all over the place and forgot to bring out the «essentials» like lime and salt and pepper. We even heard the table next to us complain to their server about service.
What I’m pretty ticked about is the fact that they charge for water. It’s $ 0.35 for a cup! I mean, I know we’re in a drought, but I have never been to a restaurant that charges for water (the unbottled kind, anyways). Seems outrageous.
All-​in-​all, not their best. The one in Milpitas nailed both food and service out of the park. It’s such a shame that the Rowland Heights location can’t match it.

Being a pretty big fan of Boiling Crab, I felt iffy about trying other places cause I always end up comparing them. However, my friends and I did not want to wait 2 hours so this was our only other option. The wait here was only 15 min. However the girl skipped our name and didn’t say sorry but guess das cool. Anyways it turned out pretty good. got the pound of shrimp with extra mild spice of kickin style. Also the garlic noodles were yum and Cajun fries complimented the seafood.
Price: it was decent. Market price/​lb of shrimp. Couldn’t do half orders which I usually do cause I can’t eat a lot so meh. Garlic noodles were $ 10 which is on the pricier side but you do get a butt load. The Cajun fries for $ 4 bucks was sooo worth for the taste and amount we got.
Service: They checked up on us here and there. Not sure if the servers have set tables but two diff workers came up to get our drinks and orders… And the other guy put down a new set of bibs when we were already wearing them wut lul it’s ok though and the same girl forgot about our limes heh
I would come back here to check out their other appetizers specially to know the wait is not bad at all

TLDR;
1. Charge $$ for WATER
2. Food was cold
3. Sauce was too salty (Kickin’ Style)
4. Shrimp + Snow Crab legs were not fresh!
5. Expensive Combo #2 and wings compared to King Crawfish
Maybe I’m just super unlucky and got the worst of all? So at first I was going to dine in with my boyfriend and mom, then noticed that they charge $ 0.35 for water and was disappointed. They upped the price for everything too to compensate for the minimum wage increase. We ordered the #2 combo (1.5 lb crab leg, 1 lb shrimp, 1 lb clams), cajun wings, and fish n chips to-​go.
1. Self explanatory. Charge for water? really.
2. Our bag of food got cold really quick. They were all in the same big bag too so the heat should’ve retained even better. But nope, everything got cold in like 10 minutes. I tried Boiling Crab and King Crawfish. Most of you probably ate at Boiling Crab or other places before, so you would know that the shrimps were still freaking hot even at the end of your meal.
3. A lot of reviewers here said their sauce was not flavorful enough? yeah they’re not very flavorful; because all my family and I tasted was saltiness, like bad MSG-​style salty
4. The worst seafood are ones that aren’t fresh. Only ¹⁄₃ of my shrimps were edible… the rest were so soggy that I didn’t even bother peeling. You could just feel it. (I’ve uploaded some shrimp pictures) Added with the super salty sauces, my mom and I didn’t even want to finish them at the end. The snow crab legs on the other hand were just OK. Too much water coming out (meaning not fresh) and not sweet enough. Again, the saltiness of the sauce overpowered the flavors.
5. Compared to King Crawfish, King Crawfish charges $ 4 more for their combo #2 (which is almost the same), but the combo comes with 3 drinks, 6 raw oysters, and ½ lb more of snow crab legs. King Crawfish’s wings are $ 7 and comes with 10. Boiling Crab’s wings are $ 10 and comes with 10. This Kickin’ Crab charges $ 8 and only gives you 6. You do the math.
Overall; I would give this place a negative star if I could. I’d rather wait the 2-​hour wait at BC than this. Or I just go to King Crawfish nowadays with no wait and a much better combo deal. Never coming back again!

Some of the reviews made me second-​guess coming but I’m glad I did!
The shrimp is good not as good as BC but a close second. The Cajun fries are AMAZING! Seriously ¹⁰⁄₁₀ on that item!
If you can’t get in to the BC this is definitely a good plan b, I would definitely come again! Also, service was great!

Had a great experience yesterday night when I came in with my boyfriend. The food came out pretty quick and the flavors were on point. We ordered two pounds of shrimp, oysters and garlic noodles. The oysters were the best I’ve had in awhile, super creamy and smooth. I couldn’t get enough! Unfortunately, they changed the garlic noodles, which is a little disappointing. The noodles are thinner and my bf described it as «more peppery.» I know it tasted a little different but I couldn’t really put my finger on what it was. I added some tabasco into mine and sauce from the shrimp and it was really good! I still miss the old garlic noodles though. Shrimp was great as usual. Service was amazing, everyone was super friendly. I found it funny that ²⁄₃ highlights of this location are actually names of the employees rather than food, so I’m not surprised at the excellent service at all.

Do not come to The Kickin’ Crab with the expectation that it will be the same as/​better than The Boiling Crab. You will be disappointed! Probably wouldn’t have tried this place but my mom wanted to try it for her birthday.
Food: My mom ordered the lobster and we shared a pound of shrimp, Kickin’ Style, with sausage, corn, a side of sweet potato fries, and an order of the garlic noodles. The shrimp were pretty large but I couldn’t enjoy them as much because I felt the sauce was lacking flavor. It’s nothing in comparison to The Whole Shabang at BC! The sweet potato fries were good, but take note that you have to order the butter on the side or they will serve it on top of the fries. The sausage was definitely not as good as the Andouille sausage at BC and the corn was a bit too sweet for my taste. However, my mom was very happy with her lobster! The highlight of our dinner was the garlic noodles. I absolutely love garlic so these noodles were heaven for me. What wasn’t so heavenly was the horribly intense garlic smell lingering on me the next day. I was a walking garlic.
Service: We were the only ones in the restaurant and our server still managed to screw up. He brought out everything except for the sausage but I thought they were taking longer to make for some reason. That wasn’t the case. After quite a while, I walked up to the counter to ask him if they were still being prepared and he said «Oh yeah!» and frantically ran to the back to put in the order.
Overall, this place really is just okay. Some might love it because there’s usually no wait, but you get what you wait for! I’d personally rather wait an hour and a half at BC and be completely satisfied than come here, not wait at all, and leave disappointed.
Side note: My mom and her boyfriend recently went and he said the shrimp was really hard to peel and they were falling apart. Not sure if this is a common occurrence but be aware of it! They won’t be coming back either after that experience.

My first and last time coming! Tried this place only because going to boiling crab was probably going to take about hr to get us seated! Good this about here was there was only two parties in the whole restaurant!
We were sat Immediately! But here’s where it goes down hill!
Waiter dos not explain the menus at all! I had no idea what I was ordering! Took him 30 min to take our order!
Didn’t come around asking for refills!
And almost 30 min for us to get our check corrected after we had already explained how the check was to be split!

We stopped by the night before Thanksgiving at 730−8PM because we really wanted Boiling Crab but it was closed.
The biggest advantage over Boiling Crab– NO WAIT.
I got a pound of mussels in kickin it/​mild, while my friends each got a pound of shrimp in kickin it/​medium. To those of you who can’t do spicy– mine was literally not spicy so mild is a safe way to go! It wasn’t bad, esp for 9.99/lb (for the mussels, I’m not sure about the shrimp).
Now unfortunately, I have to compare to Boiling Crab. Boiling Crab is spicier, heavier in flavor, and comes with far more sauce. I found myself tilting my bag to scoop more sauce into my mussels because at Boiling Crab they fill a good portion of your bag with sauce. Most of the time I wasn’t able to get much sauce into each mussel though.
If you want the seafood in a bag/​big experience without all the people, The Kickin Crab is not a bad option. However, I will say that tastewise Boiling Crab is better.
Save yourself the trouble of competing for spaces right outside the complex and park in the garage! The service was also pretty good.

I go to this location about 3−4times a month. The parking is horrible but it doesn’t get as crowded as other locations. We always get the cajun fries to start off then combo #2 kickin’ crab style, spicy with Dungeness crab, shrimp, crawfish which is enough for about 3 people.
Oh yeah and they blast their music really loud and i realized its just the kickin’ crab thing.
I wish they would turn it down a little bit… other than that everything else is perfect.

I’m glad to finally see a Kickin Crab open up in this area and of all places Diamond Plaza! I used to always eat Kickin Crab when I would visit my grandparents in Orange County but could never talk myself into driving that far just for a meal since I can be a real house potato sometimes. Surprisingly there has been little to no wait every time I’ve come in so that’s a good thing for me. Their food and service is on point and always hits the spot when I am craving some good Cajun. I can always rely on their food consistency and quality of service so there are never worries of my drinks running low or anything like that.
My Usual:
*1LB of Shrimp Seasoning: Kickin Style Spiciness: Spicy ($ 9.99)
*Garlic Noodles ($ 8.99)
*Grab some Cajun fries too if you’re really feeling hungry.
** If you’re going in a group however I would recommend picking up one of their combos to save yourself some time and fighting. You’ll thank me later.
I’ve always wanted to splurge and get a lobster but… I’ll see next time I go. Keep up the good food and quality service Kickin Crab team!

I didn’t want to wait 2+ hours at Boiling Crab so we decided to dine here instead. It’s located in the Diamond Plaza Shopping center next to Creamistry. Good luck finding parking. It’s a mad house because, well, you know. Asians x’s 5000.
I called in advance Saturday evening around 6pm to see how long the wait was. «No wait» said the guy over the phone.
Sweet.
Baby needs to eat!
The menu is easy to read with combos on one side and ala cart on the other. We ordered a side of broccoli and cajun fries along with the Kickin’ Combo #2 — Dungenous Crab, mussels and shrimp– in the Kickin’ sauce.
The broccoli comes in a small styrofoam cup. It’s steamed with no seasoning. Standard, but I needed the greens! The cajun fries come in a basket loaded with seasoning. They weren’t spicy at all, but they were covered with seasoning so just beware if you’re not a fan of heavy handed seasonings. Our bag of seafood came and we all dived in. The sauce isn’t a garlic bomb like Hot n’ Juicy in Vegas, but it’s yummy enough to dip rice or veggies in to amp up the flavor of the more bland side items. The shrimp and mussels were cooked perfectly, but after inspection of the crab (I ate a couple legs too), we found the crab to be cold. The body was definitely undercooked, so there was no way my cousin was going to eat the insides. We talked to our server and they had the manager come by who apologized profusely and had a new crab steamed up for us. I am not the type of person to send food back, but because I’m pregnant now I’ve had to take extra precautions to make sure everything I eat is cooked thoroughly! Our new crab came steaming hot! Thank you!!!
My advice to those ordering a combo– maybe ask if you can have the crab cooked separately to ensure it comes to your table hot.

Came with my family, ordered 1lb of shrimp and steamed rice for the side dish. It was delicious, but I think it was a tad more seasoned than the Boiling Crab. but I wasn’t about to wait 1 hour and 15 min for basically the same thing and waiting no minutes at all. Over all, the food was great. Everything was cooked perfectly and I must say (the Cajun fries were way better than the Boiling Crab), regarding seating area, I would choose this place. Only if your not the type to want to be around a lot of noise like at the Boiling Crab.
Food was cooked great!
A little over seasoned.
Fries = PERFECTION
Costumer service was okay, it was hard grabbing their attention, the reviews on here about the service not being attentive is true.
4 stars because over all, the food was good.

3.5 stars
Kickin’ Crab has made its way to Rowland Heights off the Fullerton exit, right on the left of Creamistry (which is newly opened as well). I wasn’t sure what to expect when walking in. I had been to the old cajun seafood restaurant that was previously here before and it looked completely different than any other cajun place. Nice open and modern layout with plenty of seats. Waiting for a seat doesn’t seem too much like an issue here (for now at least since its still pretty new). We came on a Friday night around 615pm and left around 730pm. No huge crowds!
Ordered 1 pound of shrimp ($ 9.99 market price at the time) Louisiana Flavor — mild! The sauce was decent, but nothing out of this world. My shrimps were pretty huge. In the end I counted I ate about 18 shrimps. I gave about 6 to my boyfriend so I had a good amount! We ordered 12 sausages ($ 2.99) for our shrimp and i didn’t like it at all =(I heard the sausage flavor at this Kickin’ Crab is different than the one in Chino Hills? WHY!
Cajun Fries ($ 3.99): YUM! Basket full of nice and crispy cajun fries. You can taste that mild kick of cajun but it isn’t overpowering.
Overall, we had good service throughout our time at the restaurant. Parking wasn’t an issue when we came. Although you might not find a spot right in front, there are plenty of other parking inside the plaza or even underground.

Another Cajun seafood inspired restaurant that is trying to break into the already saturated Cajun seafood genre. Does it beat out the coveted Boiling Crab? Find out in my review below.
This restaurant just opened up recently next to Creamistry. It is located in a busy Asian plaza so you can expect parking a bit hard to find if you come later so arrive early to avoid this issue! Inside you will find a spacious interior surrounded by many TVs. It is truly incredible how many they can fit in here; everywhere you look there will be a TV which is nice. The interior is also decorated with various things that remind you of the beach and I definitely felt the vibe.
Onto the menu, if you have ever been to any of these places, then it will be instantly familiar with you. If not then I’ll break it down really quick. You have your selection of various crustaceans to choose from. Anywhere from crab, lobster, shrimp to crawfish. Most are sold by market price, you then select the sauce you want depending on your preference but I highly suggest getting the «kickin style» which includes off the seasonings. Next you select how spicy you want it, props to this place offering the first «extra mild» option that I have seen at a restaurant. Since I can’t really eat spicy food, I opted to try that out to see how it would be like. So if you are someone who is afraid of spicy food like me then I suggest you get this!
Here is what I ordered:
1 pound shrimp «kickin style» extra mild with 6 sausages and an order of calamari which was more than enough for myself.
The staff is very friendly and approachable. I think since it’s still new they wanted to provide the best customer service around. Whether it stays the same, only time will tell. The only complaint I have is fairly minor, instead of lime they give you lemons. Now some people may not care but limes are the way to go since they are more sour and potent than lemons.
Regardless, give this place a shot because it is worth going to if you don’t want to wait in the monstrous lines of boiling crab!
CC out!

Very solid 4 stars. :)
While spending some time on my favorite site (tee hee) I came across Kickin’ Crab on the Hot & New Businesses. I am quite pleased with my decision in coming here tonight:
SERVICE:
Impeccable. Everyone was great! I loved how that even though we had a designated server, the rest of the staff made sure that we had everything we could possibly need or want. Our glasses never went empty.
PROCEDURE:
If you’ve been to The Boiling Crab or any of its less than thriving counterparts, then you get the gist of this spot:
Step 1: Pick Your Seafood
— Shrimp
— Mussel
— Clam
— King Crab Legs
— Dungeness Crab
— Lobster
— Crawfish (seasonal)
Step 2: Pick Your Seasoning & Spice Level
Lemon Pepper
Cajun
Louisana
Kickin’ Style (all of the above combined)
Garlic Butter (can’t be made spicy)
Extra Mild (can be combined w/​kickin’ or LP only!)
Mild
Medium
Spicy
Spicy Spicy
FOOD:
We ordered Cajum Fries, Cajun Calamari, the Pan Roast, 1lb Kickin’ «Spicy» Shrimp, & 1lb Kickin’ Extra Mild (friend of mine can’t handle spicy lol) Shrimp
The fries & calamari were very yummy! Pan Roast was nothing special nor worth its price. Our lbs of shrimp were good but their seasoning is not as good as the Whole She-​Bang! seasoning from BC.
PRICE /​PORTION:
Prices are average and I think very appropriate to the portion sizes. Especially the fries! Haha! At $ 3.99 — that’s a fuhreakin win! For the 3 of us it came out to $ 65 including 15% tip. :)
DECOR:
I love it! Imagine a sports bar next to the ocean. Sort of lol. Let me attempt to describe it better: LOTS of tvs on both sides of the walls, random beach like stuff (crabs, star fish, anchors), and some empty beer bottles and cans. Solid tables with aluminum (?) chairs in red and blue (very nautical).
SUMMARY:
— Great customer service
— Great for big groups
— Looking to watch the big game while you chow down? This is the spot!
— Decent Prices
— Convenient hand washing station [outside] the bathrooms
— Those yummy fries ;)
— Serves beer & wine
— Can split check up to 3 cards
sorry its so long! xoxo