Crab & Spice

Came in for some yummy food and was not disappointed. We were the last to leave the place and they were very accommodating. Also attentive to the point that they realized it’s our first time there (since they’ve never seen us). We went with the recommended spices and it was delicious. The seafood melody was not disappointing. I loved the ultimate mix and it was delectable. I was licking my fingers throughout the meal. I think I would actually sip the sauce because it was so good… too good.
I wish I’m in the area more often because I definitely would like to stop by whenever I get a chance!

Absolutely loved this place. All seafood, no utensils, big roll of paper towels and big plastic bib, yes it is messy, if you add potatoes keep in mind 1 piece is 1 potato cut in half, I orded 2 pieces because I thought it would be just 1 potato… but they are good, soaks up the flavor. I had the headless shrimp husband had the shellfish mix, we both had the ultimate seasoning, which is delicious, medium for heat level, and it was pretty calm able to enjoy the flavors without a lot of burn, each had a drink, came out to $ 60, and we were both full. It was a lot of fun and very tasty, nice atmosphere, waitstaff was nice and very knowledgeable, if you want the crawfish call ahead, they had just ran out and are waiting for the next shipment.

Amazing seafood and a laid back, casual atmosphere. My husband and I shared the mixed 2 lbs of mussels, snow crab and shrimp and added corn and sausage. Seasoning was perfect and the food came out really fast. We are already planning our return trip!

I gave this place a second chance and I must say they redeemed themselves. This time, the flavor of the sauce was soaked into the meat of the crawfish. Also, portions weren’t frozen. The spices also were hotter. Service was much improved and the waitress was very attentive.
This time in addition to the crawfish we had the seafood medley. Muscles were good. Shrimp a little over cooked still (harder to peel), and the crab legs were good also.
Only complaint I had was the size of some of the crawfish. They were tiny and really had no meat in them.

This is a casual, unique (as far as I know) concept to the Chicago area. The menu is straight-​forward. Choose the seafood of your choice, type of seasoning, spice level and they boil it in a bag for you. You can add corn, sausage, or potatoes for an additional cost. They have a few other sides you can order as well like fries, wings, rice, garlic bread, etc. It’s almost an all seafood menu so if you don’t like seafood this place is not for you. There is a full bar. Service is good. We went on a Saturday around 6pm and it was packed so expect a wait on weekends. It’s seafood so the price per person is on the higher end.

The is a no frills low boil place. You choose your seafood, shrimp, mussels, crablegs, crawfish, etc. Then you pick your seasoning and extras, such as corn on the cob, kielbasa, potatoes, etc. They also have sides such as French fries.
They serve the boil in a bag, which has the potential to get very messy, you may want to take advantage of the plastic bibs they provide. It was delicious!
Not a fan of the fact that they serve the fries well in advance of the boil. I would have preferred to have them served together.
The service was excellent! Although I didn’t drink alcohol, they do have a full bar and the margaritas looked great!

This place is great. Now I haven’t been to Angry Crab but I have been to the most popular one of them all, the Boiling Crab in California. We’re talking extremely long lines (1 hour and 45 minute wait) but for delicious food. I got the shrimp, whole sha-​bang medium spice. When I came back home, I missed the Boiling Crab so much that I searched for the most comparable restaurant to the Boiling Crab as possible and so we came here. Initially, no wait which was a huge plus. We ordered shrimp, C&S medium spice. And then I wanted crawfish and so I asked if they were live and she said yes and so I ordered them. The food came, the shrimp was delicious but the crawfish were definitely not live, they weren’t even fresh to be honest. The flavor was very similar if not spot on to the Boiling Crab. Their spice levels are not very high. Medium at the Boiling Crab was enough to make me sweat but medium here was like a tickle. If you’re a spice lover, get hot or maybe ask them for something beyond hot because medium was very weak.
All in all, this is a great place that is both reasonable and comparable to the Boiling Crab. My only tips are to wear gloves if you have cuts and you’re ordering spicy and stay away from the crawfish.

The service was good. The seafood medley was great and the price was good. Do not waste your money on the Dungeness crab. It was too expensive for the portion and the meat you get. Empty shells in the bag added to the overall weight and one pound only nets you one half of the crab. Not enough meat for the trouble or price.

My husband and I were anxious to try this place in the old Clara’s space last weekend. While the food was good, I don’t think we will be back. It’s super casual — as in picnic tables casual. Nothing comes with an entrée (not even bread for the table) and they deliver your piping hot, steaming food in flimsy plastic bags (open with care!). Thank god they had a bar. One glass of wine, seafood medley and king crab legs (4) = $ 65. We were snacking 3 hours later. Very unsatisfying.
The owner tried telling us the concept is «all the rage» in California. I think not.

I liked this place so much that I went twice in one weekend. It isn’t the freshest, best seafood that you are even going to have. However, for what it is and the price — it’s pretty good. The concept is cool — pick your food and eat the food in a bag with your hands. Get super messy.
The first time, we had a great waitress. She was knowledgeable about the items on the menu and even suggested mixing salt, pepper and lime juice for an awesome dipping sauce that I will forever use. She suggested the snow crab over the king crab — she said it tasted better and was less expensive. I got it and it was very good — but I needed more. On my second visit I got 2 pounds and that seems to be the right amount of snow crab if that is all I am eating. My hubby had the head on shrimp and mussels — I tried both and those were also good, but the crabs have my heart. I did the three sauces mixed together with medium spice; perfect. We tried the garlic bread and sweet potato fries — just okay, but the seafood is what shines here. Great addition to the neighborhood, can’t wait to come back.
This should go without saying, but prepare to get messy.

Prepare to get messy ! One night my dad and I were looking for some dinner in the area, and decided to try this place out. The space where Crab & Spice is, used to be an Italian restaurant we used to frequent before it moved (Claras). It was kind of neat to see how much differently the space looked after the remodel. The restaurant is very casual and low key.
Upon glancing at the market prices for the different types of seafood on the menu, the prices seemed pretty reasonable for the amount of seafood you get. I opted for the crab legs with the 3 standard sauces mixed together. I also ordered a piece of sausage and garlic bread. The seafood here comes in a plastic bag, and they give you a bib in order to spare your clothes. The 3 sauces mixed together with the crab legs was an excellent choice. I loved the crab legs, and the sausage and garlic bread was fine.
The food was memorable, but the staff here was just pretty average and non memorable. Our waiter didn’t have much enthusiasm, and was hard to find when we were looking for our check. If you enjoy flavorful seafood, Crab & Spice is a good option in the Woodridge/​Naperville area.

I loved loved loved this place!!! I went there tonight with my husband and everything was ridiculously delicious… that i had. My husband wasn’t pleased with his stuff. He ordered oysters which weren’t prepared properly… there were some hard parts that are normally
Removed. Also, his crawfish wasn’t very good either.
My stuff, however, was fantastic! I ordered the snow crab with potato and corn. Holy moly!!! Everything was delicious and perfectly seasoned. I will absolutely return to Crab & Spice… possibly tomorrow! Yum!!!
Service was adequate.

I definitely enjoyed going here! It’s not going to be the worlds best seafood but I wasn’t expecting that. I went for inexpensive crab in the Midwest and that’s what I got! It was very good to me.
They tell you that they boil everything in a big pot and then throw it in a bag with whatever sauce you choose. I got the medium spicy Cajun, it was quite tasty and nicely spicy.
For the price I enjoyed the seafood, I was quite full at the end and learned how to deal with whole shrimp so that was a interesting experience. I got a few potatoes in the bag but the sides aren’t the focus, the seafood is.
I will definitely be back and our service was great, I don’t know why people didn’t just flag down a server. The place is very open and the servers congregate at one end where they can see all the tables, I’ve been to several smaller places that do that. It wasn’t hard to get someone’s attention when we needed a drink refilled or something.

This place is weird but probably awesome.
1. Seafood is their specialty and there’s a variety to choose from, as well as some chicken options for those who are shellfish phobes.
2. They serve the seafood out of plastic bags. Yep.
3. But it’s delicious?
I am a cheapa$$ at heart, so I got the mussels in cajun seasoning. When my order was ready, I was given a huge plastic bib (yasssssss) and a plastic sac o’mussels in orange liquid. I ate them with my bare hands and threw the shells at my crappy waiter. No, I threw them on the table but my waiter was really crappy. No jokes.
The mussels were really good! I also sampled sweet potato fries (awesome), regular fries (boooooring) and the garlic bread (good). My little boo got the chicken fingers with fries which was 2 small chicken fingers with like a pound of fries which wasn’t the best ratio I’ve ever seen in my life.
All in all it was an interesting experience — good food, bad service, sinks in the dining room because stuff gets really messy.

Came here tonight. Was so delicious! Will list my favorite/​least favorite parts–
Likes:
1. No puny shellfish! We got the shellfish sampler and the crab, mussels, and shrimp were meaty and delicious.
2. I read reviews here that said the hot wasn’t hot. I disagree. The Cajun hot seasoning was plenty hot but still allowed us to taste our food.
3. We also ordered the mussels in garlic butter because we loved the Cajun mussels so much. Full of real garlic! Delicious!
4. Service from start to finish was awesome. Who I assume were the owners were super attentive and great. Loved the (necessary) hand washing station. You will get messy here!
Only dislike:
Beer and wine menu weak. Need more options!

I’d say that for the location it is not a bad place however I don’t think I’ll be returning. It’s a quaint little place with tables that are modern picnic benches. Minimalistic. No problem. Service was fine. It’s a small place and service is also minimal you order your fish and they bring you your drink and that’s it. We waited a bit for a pound of shrimp. We partners ordered fish and chips. For seven dollars they got fries and two tiny pieces of fried fish. Meh. My shrimp came served in a gallon of the garlic butter. They had an odd taste and for having the shell on them still 13.99 a pound is unreasonable. Not even deveined. Gross. If you like eating shrimp with their pooh vein still in them, then come on by. It was a 33 $ dinner and I’d had rather gone to portillo’s.

Yesterday we ordered here shrimps and calamari appetizer to-​go. Shrimps were excellent! I love their garlic butter style, shrimps with this sauce are tender and smell just amazing. I could not wait until we get home because of that smell in our car. Also we tried Cajun style shrimps. It was real delight for my boyfriend, he loves spicy food.
Prices are reasonable, their stuff was great. We were waiting no more than 10 minutes.
I would recommend this place to visit for sure!

This place was ok. The flavor for the C&S was good but the lemon pepper didn’t taste that great. Their spicy isn’t that spicy either. The oysters were pretty fresh but the shrimp size wasn’t as big as the shrimp from Angry Crab. My favorite is still hot and juicy but this place had no line. The tables were like picnic tables.

Sorry, I won’t be returning.
I was really excited to hear there was a cajun crab boil near me opening up and I had fairly high expectations coming in today but I was left disappointed. I’ve been to cajun crab boils in California like the Boiling Crab and Claws, but I know not to compare them so easily since their seafood is a lot fresher than ours in the Midwest can hope to be. But I have visited The Angry Crab in West Rogers Park and had such a great experience, comparable to that of the CA crab boils I’ve been to, that I hyped up Crab and Spice so much in my mind thinking it would be the same.
We ordered 2lbs of shrimp in a mix of cajun and garlic butter sauce. I guess no one else has done this before because our waiter said he check to see if it was possible. We also asked to add sausage, corn and potatoes to it. Then we ordered 1lb of mussels in a mix of garlic butter and Lemon pepper.
The food came out surprisingly quick. It may have been because business was slow, but it just seemed too quick. The shrimp meat was pale, as if it were steamed or just boiled in water and not with the sauces. The flavor of the sauces did not penetrate into the meat at all, like it was precooked in water and tossed around in the sauce briefly before being put in a bag. I had to dunk it in the sauce in the bag after peeling to get any flavor. The sausage, corn, and potatoes were also treated as side dishes and weren’t mixed in or cooked with the shrimp we ordered it with for some reason. The mussels were my ultimate disappointment. They were teeny tiny black mussels, not the big and meaty green mussels I was anticipating. Also, the white rice we ordered as a side was slightly mushy and my mom said it tasted like it was starting to go bad.
What we ordered was definitely not enough and I was still hungry after eating everything but we were so disappointed that we just decided to leave regardless. Wr ordered the same amount of food at Angry Crab and we were stuffed to the brim. Idk what happened here. If you’re not in the area I wouldn’t go out of your way to go here. I would head to Chicago and visit Angry Crab for some good cajun boil even if the wait is 5x longer and the prices 2x higher. If you are in the Woodridge area it wouldn’t hurt to try. The prices are reasonable for what it is and you may like it the same way some of the other reviewers did. It just fell flat for me.

For more than a few months I watched the sign of this new restaurant (in the same location where Clara’s used to be) finally got a chance to visit this weekend. We were welcomed by the proprietor Ron and his wife for lunch who explained to us cuisine that inspired them. It is mostly Cajun with very fresh seafood in a very minimalist setting. you pick your choice of seafood in increments of lbs and they cook it with your choice of seasoning. We didn’t know what to pick so we choose a 2 lbs of seafood medley (split with my wife) in hot Cajun seasoning with some corn and rice.
It was a delicious and interesting meal, albeit a bit messy. So it you are not used to eating seafood with your hands (or suffer from OCD) this might not be a place for you. But if you like to support new sort of food experiences in the suburbs and new entrepreneurs, then you should certainly stop by to support Ron and his team. Let’s spread the word.