Review: Crab's Seafood Shack

(Credit: Leah Starnes)

Crab’s Seafood Shack is a great new casual dining establishment.

Formerly Trio’s Restaurant, the owners recently decided to revamp the location to better serve the area as more people opt for casual and fun dining. Crab’s features a fun, by-the-beach style, television filled interior with a full bar and delicious seafood, poboys and salads.

Crab’s is the place to be for a great time of relaxing and throwing back a few drinks while watching football, NASCAR or other seasonal sporting teams. Happy hour is daily from 5-6:30 p.m. with 2 for 1 mixed drinks, wine and $2 draft beer. Be sure to try out one of the bucket bottle beer offerings or beer by the pitcher.

The food: Start off with some peel n’ eat shrimp, fried calamari, gulf redfish cakes, cheesy fries, alligator bites or crab cakes. The Crab dip and fried crab claws are good for sharing before choosing from a wide variety of menu items.

Poboys are served with a choice of fries or slaw and you can order a half or whole sandwich. They offer oyster, shrimp, redfish, tilapia, snapper, catfish, grouper, flounder and crawfish poboys sure to please the appetite of a seafood lover.  Soft shell crab and crawfish tend to be seasonal so watch their menu for the perfect time to order these dishes.

The burger choices range from cheddar, black and bleu, bacon cheddar, Santa Fe Crab, to the “Sea of Cheese” burger which is a must try for a cheese and burger lover.

Salads come in two sizes, one as a side item or the large for a meal alone. The grilled chicken, house fried shrimp or fried crawfish are excellent but the crabmeat salad was a great choice as it was loaded with crabmeat and was fresh and tasty.

The corn and crab bisque or shrimp and chicken soup are served by the cup or bowl and have a quite tasty made-from-scratch flavor.

For an entrée the seafood platters are served grilled or sautéed complimented with a salad or side item.  A huge selection of seafood offerings abound including redfish, tilapia, snapper, catfish, mahi mahi, grouper, salmon, scallops, shrimp or soft shell crab. You won’t go away hungry after one of the platter choices.

The oyster selection is great although seasonal, featuring raw half or dozen, Rockefeller, casino, crab baked, Santa Fe or a sampler platter. We chose to share a steamed bucket after feasting on our appetizers and soup which is served up with shrimp, sausage, corn and potatoes.

They also offer king crab, snow crab, stone crab and combo buckets. The buckets for two are for real hearty eaters as we couldn’t quite handle the huge offering.

The side items compliment the seafood shack style with fries, corn on the cob, boiled red potatoes, cole slaw and stewed cabbage.

The drink: Crab’s features a full bar with mixed drink specials, buckets of beer and pitchers of your favorite draft beer, wine by the glass and non-alcoholic beverages of soft drinks and tea. We enjoyed sharing a bucket of beer so as not to worry about service during a crowded lunch hour. It was an all-around great bar scene with plenty of seating and attention from the bar staff.

The scene: The owners have changed a more formal dining establishment to a fun, by-the-beach style relaxing atmosphere which seems to have an ever-growing following. The plentiful flat screen TV’s  are a must for the sports fan and with the décor of giant crabs and lobsters lining the walls you might just forget you aren’t about to step outside on the beach.

Bottom line: Crab’s Seafood Shack is sure to continue to make a name for themselves with their laid back, casual feel and great seafood offerings. They are open daily from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. for that quick lunch Monday through Friday and open 5-10 p.m. nightly. On Saturday and Sunday they open at 11 a.m. and remain open until after the final score of a ball game is announced. A fun time surely awaits you at Crab’s seven days a week with some delicious food and drink to boot. 

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