I’d been wanting to check out the Boiling Crab for awhile since it was the newest restaurant to pop up in my neighborhood. My friend, Laura, and I tried to go once for lunch, only to discover they only opened for dinner. What!
A few weeks ago we were browsing around the farmer’s market in Mira Mesa and then decided to head over here for dinner to try it out. I’d heard kind of a mixed bag of reviews about the place, but I always believe that I have to try it for myself before I can judge.
Laura and I weren’t quite sure what to expect from this place. They place a big sheet of paper over the table and hand you some bibs and menus. No utensils for you, my friend! Here’s Laura with our bags of steamy food and disposable cups of water. I’m pretty sure everything in this place is disposable. Maybe they really hate doing dishes here – makes for an easy cleanup, anyway.
Everything here is sold by the pound – but you can get 1/2 pound amounts if you don’t want a full pound of something. One thing we did notice is the lack of vegetables – pretty much the only veggies they have are corn and potatoes. We kind of wishing for a salad or something, but I suppose that doesn’t really fit the seafood boil theme.
[shrimp, sausage and corn mixture]
We ended up sharing 1 pound of shrimp ($10 per pound), a half pound of sausages ($8 per pound) and 2 corn on the cob ($.75 cents each).
The seasonings they have available are Rajun Cajun, Lemon Pepper, Garlic Sauce or “The Whole Sha-Bang!” which is a combination of all three. We got it with garlic sauce. The shrimp and sausage came in one bag and we ordered the corn in a separate bag with just butter.
The shrimp are cooked with the shell and heads on. Shrimp heads don’t bother me exactly, but I’m not really into eating them (though I know other people are). The flavor was … just okay to me. The shrimp were a bit overcooked resulting in a slight rubbery texture. I didn’t think the shrimp soaked up the flavor of the sauce at all – they tasted like the shrimp were cooked first and then just tossed in the sauce later so not a lot of transfer of flavor. The sausage was fine, nothing to sing about, and the sauce wasn’t really detectable on there either.
The corn on the cob were really awful. The corn was really mushy and lacked any kind of flavor – it tasted like frozen corn on the cob tossed in a weird sort-of-butter-like sauce. I actually complained about the corn and the manager came by to ask me about it and I told him the truth. He said the corn was usually much better when it was cooked in with the sauce and he gave us another round of corn free of charge and didn’t charge us for the first two corns.
[corn with garlic sauce]
Yeah… these were not any better. At all. Still tasted really mushy and flavorless, with maybe slightly more flavor than the other set we got, but still not really enough improvement to entice me to eat it any further than one bite.
[half dozen lemon pepper wings – $5]
We also ordered the wings with their lemon pepper seasoning. It came with a container of ranch sauce.
The wings were, again, just okay. The lemon pepper seasoning wasn’t terrible but I didn’t think it added a whole lot to it. The wings were a bit dry and slightly overcooked. The ranch sauce was horrid to me – all I could taste was a weird chemical taste that just turned me off, so I ate the wings plain.
[cajun fries – $3]
We also got a basket of cajun fries. We specifically asked if these were really spicy and our waitress told us they could make them “mild” spice so we asked for that. Either I’m a super wimp (possible) so they just put way too much cajun seasonings on these fries – just, way overboard if you ask me. Laura and I told thought they were too spicy and we balked that these were the mild fries. They were a nice and crispy, but just had way too much seasoning going on there.
Miss Mira Mesa was our waitress. I think I knew that was thing. Maybe she’s voted in during the 4th of July festivities in Mira Mesa? Geez, what kind of community member am I?
I’m still kind of smiling here at the end, but I think I’m really just posing since I wasn’t super happy with our meal. The shrimp were just okay, not outstanding, the sausages were okay, the corn was inedible, the fries were way too spicy and the wings were just passable. But, good company was had even if I didn’t enjoy the food.
I do think I need to carry around my own disposable bib for dining out though since I have a tendency to get sauce all over my shirt (case in point). All in all though, I don’t think I’ll be coming back here, sadly enough.
The Boiling Crab
9015 Mira Mesa Boulevard
San Diego, CA 92126
(858) 695-9025
Hours:
Mon-Fri 3 pm – 10 pm
Sat-Sun 12 pm – 10 pm
I’ve been to the Boiling Crab on Convoy and had delicious meals both times. Sad to hear that the Mira Mesa place is subpar. Do I dare try?
But I do love the “crooked glasses look” on you.
Are you sure you’re not thinking of Crab Hut? Apparently Boiling Crab is a chain and the one in Mira Mesa is the first in San Diego.
Hi Dad – I think that one is the Crab Hut – very similar. I haven’t been there but I want to try that. Maybe our experience was just a bad night? Yeah, yeah, my glasses are always askew.
I’ve never had Boiling Crab in SD, but have had good experiences in the Irvine area. Sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy it! I love Crab Hut (same concept) on Convoy though, maybe you’ll have a better experience there?
Hi Steph – I do definitely want to try the Crab Hut! I’ve heard better things about that restaurant so it’s on my “to visit” list!
I’m glad to see I was not the only one who was “underwhelmed” by the Boiling Crab.” For the sake of full disclosure, I’m originally from south Louisiana and, yes, a Cajun girl. First of all, serving boiled shrimp and crawfish in a plastic bag? Aside from the fact that this is just wrong, it seems to be a sign that the seafood was boiled without any spice and then bagged and soaked in whatever flavor you order. The “boiled shrimp” are reminiscent of a recipe called “Barbequed Shrimp,” but even that dish is not served from a plastic bag. Second, “Cajun” does not mean “drowned in hot spices.” Yes, Cajun food is spicy. But the spice is blended with other herbs and spices to give a spicy yet flavorful taste. Drowning something is spice means that you either have no real idea how to cook “cajun” or you are covering for a lack of flavor in other areas.
Chutiya Desi…doesn’t know the difference between Boiling Crab and Crab Hut!
Its funny, I do a lot of my dining with my child, and we both were not impressed with the boiling crab at all….but we love the crab hut on convoy. Way better seafood there. and the crawfish are delicious. I will not be returning to the boiling crab either.
Hi SC – yeah, I doubt I will be going back here. What a shame!