Crab Hut

*** An updated post can be found here

I remember first reading about Vietnamese Owned, Cajun Seafood restaurants on my good blogging buddy Elmo of Monster Munching's site. He wrote about his meal at the Boiling Crab in Garden Grove. On future trips to the area I soon noticed several other of these Crab/Crawfish Boil places with names like the Cajun Corner and Rockin' Crawfish popping up. And so it seems a new "fad" was founded. Not quite as popular as the current Fro-Yo craze, but quite popular nonetheless.

If you think that a Vietnamese Owned Crab Boil restaurant is a bit of an odd combination, you wouldn't be the only one. But after considering that there are over 5,000 Vietnamese, and Vietnamese Americans Shrimpers fishing the Gulf of Mexico, it is much easier to connect the dots. According to this article, the Owners of a restaurant called Cafe Artist in Garden Grove decided to see how well crawfish would do in their restaurant, and the rest as they say, is history..... So I guess it just makes sense that the former Pho restaurant Bolsaa, has now become Crab Hut.

The Missus, a big fan of crawfish, displayed amazing restraint, by resisting the urge to be the very first customer when Crab Hut opened its doors. Instead, she decided to wait a few weeks, to let the restaurant settle into a "groove". So when the time finally arrived, She could hardly contain Herself.

On our visit to Crab Hut we found the restaurant's interior and environment to be...well, an interesting combination of various themes. First off, the ex-Pho(faux-Pho???) restaurant meets Gilligan's Island motif was a bit odd, but it could be because I had eaten at Bolsaa a few times. The ubiquitous Pho restaurant counter was still visible, and all the tables looked the same, except that they were covered with brown butcher paper.

Add to that, the loud techno pop music, combined with the large Plasma television showing Sponge Bob Squarepants, and you get a pretty surreal experience. There was a group of Young Men and Women working, all of whom were very nice and helpful.

You'll notice right off, that the prices are very reasonable; crawfish at $7.99/lb, shrimp at $8.99/lb. The process is simple you order seafood by the pound, and select a flavoring, "Cajun Sensation", "Garlic Butter", "Lemon Pepper", or "Full House"(which I think is akin to taking your cup  and working your way down the soda dispenser at the 7-11). A roll of paper towels is deliver to your table, along with some lime and a container of ground black pepper.

On this visit, along with our seafood we also ordered the Catfish with Fries($8.99). After all, why not finish the job off with something fried?

First off, I need to say that whoever fried this up deserves a raise! Or at least some praise. The round cigar shaped pieces of fish was breaded and fried perfectly, crunchy on the outside, and uber-moist.

The Cajun Fries were also fried perfectly. Both the fish and the fries were dusted with Cajun seasoning, but you could still taste the fish and potato. The only thing I didn't care for was the overly mayonais-sey tartar sauce. I wish Malt Vinegar was available...maybe next time I'll bring my own bottle.

Soon enough our seafood arrived in large plastic bags, first the Crawfish ($7.99/lb) ordered with "Cajun Sensation" at medium heat.

This pile of bugs included one piece of corn on the cob, and a few slices of sausage. The crawfish were cooked perfectly, though we found the tails to be on the small side. Not the meatiest, nor tastiest crawfish I've had, but pretty good overall. The flesh of the crawfish showed no signs of being frozen, that would be mushy, lumpy, dried out meat, or meat that had shrunk away from the shell. The medium spicy was more hotter than I thought it would be, and at times the flavor of the crawfish was lost.

This was still much better than we had anticipated.

I had a pound of Shrimp ($8.99/lb) with the same seasoning. Like the crawfish, this was cooked perfectly, the shrimp was nice and moist, and very tender.

These were meant to be eaten shell and all. I thought there was a bit too much sauce, and like the crawfish I thought the flavor of the shrimp was overshadowed. The Missus thought these were good, though She preferred the Crawfish. I thought the shrimp were much better.

In the end, we felt like this meal was an excellent value. I'd recommend that you NOT wear anything that will not survive stains(of course bibs are provided!). The service was good, and so was the food. We found the hours to be a bit odd, Crab Hut opens at 2pm during the week, too late for lunch, and too early for dinner. Of course, I'm not sure that you'd want to deal with a pound of bugs, and return to work with shrimpy hands and stained clothes. We were ever so thankful for the entire roll of paper towels and the towelettes at the end.....but Sammy and Frankie still kept sniffing at my hands for the entire evening!

Crab Hut
4646 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111
858-565-1678

Comments

[clayfu]

aiyah! i was just putting up a review of this! haha. We went over the weekend, delicious place i liked it very much.

Time to tuck away this review for the later months!
btw everyone in my party said the shrimp >> crawfish.

[howie]

This looks like a food fad I could really get into!

I confess to not really getting the current yogurt and cupcake craze.

[Darlene]

Glad that this place got favorable reviews from you.

I wondered about this place when I went to try out the frozen yogurt at the neighboring Yogurt World and peeked at the restaurants. So straight to the point, next time I visit this shopping center it won't be for froyo but for some crawfish.

[Captain Jack]

Great post Kirk,

This place is high on my must try list. I just have to suck me some crawfish heads. Do you think they fly the bugs in fresh?

[Kirk]

Hi Clayfu - Geez just go ahead and post already!!! BTW, I forgot to mention the parking lot from hell....

Hi Howie - I don't quite get the fro-yo thang either.....but it's probably because I'm soooo unhip!

Hi Darlene - I hope you enjoy yourself.

Hi CJ - If my hunch is right, they get their crawfish from Direct Seafood in Garden Grove:

http://directseafooddc.com/

This is the company that one of the founders of Cafe Artist started. Supposedly, they get their crawdads from Louisiana most of the year, with Sacramento supplying the crawfish from June to August.

[Candice]

Hi Kirk - foodie minds definitely think alike! This is my next review for CityBeat. Wasn't the catfish the best? I think they are switching to more normal lunch hours soon.

[bluegirl]

I tried Crab Hut about a week ago on a Sunday. We had a dungeness crab that weights 2 lbs drenched in garlic + cajun sauce at hot level. I gotta say.. it was really gooOood. My only complaint is that they don't have their liquor license yet.. and some beer would have gone really well with the food =P. But they'll get it by mid July.

[clayfu]

yes. WORST PARKING LOT IN THE WORLD.
BY FAR.

[elmomonster]

Sweet! The decor looks like they followed Boiling Crab down to the color of the paint. Looks pretty cool though.

[Kirk]

Hi Candice - That's funny! The catfish was very good.

Hi Bluegirl - You do get your money's worth here.

Hi Clayfu - LOL! There are a few places on ECB that give that parking lot a run for its' money, I'm hoping the really bad configuration is temporary.

Hi Elmo - Funny, a carbon copy....

[Ellen Brenner]

This place sounds terrific! I confess I have yet to get the hang of crawfish, but maybe that's only because I have yet to go to a place that serves good ones (from your description of thawed frozen ones, I now think that's all I've had so far). So I think I'll drag one of my spicy-food-loving friends along sometime to give this place a workout.

[Alex]

That section of convoy is always packed. I was there the other day and they've added so much stores. As if they have enough parking. But that yogurt world there is always packed!

I have to try this place one time when I'm craving some crawfish. Great post!

[Kirk]

Hi Ellen - I think Crab Hut is an excellent value, and the Crawfish were pretty good - don't forget to suck dem heads!

Hi Alex - Thanks! Yes, this mall has been going trough what seems to be a eternal renovation. We've tried Yogurt World...and to be honest, I really don't get it....

[The Office Goat]

Awwww... I HATE crappy parking lots/situations. Is there an adjacent stripmall that one can park at without getting towed or door-dinged?

[Kirk]

Hi TOG - I would try to park on Convoy, there is an adjacent side street - I think it's called Opportunity Road, or something like that. I'm not sure what the parking situation is like on that street.

[Yvonne]

Hey Kirk,
does the shrimp and crawfish taste similar to the crawfish places in Orange County?? I've been to those before and it was good.

[Yummy]

mm, i tried this place before, it's very good and excellent pricing. Yes, i agree with you, the parking is so small, very little room.

[Kirk]

Hi Yvonne - If you mean those crawfish places in Garden Grove/Little Saigon, then I'd say yes.

Hi Yummy - I hope that the parking lot gets reconfigured when construction is completed. That still won't resolve the problem with lack of parking though.

[Paula]

I love the KO seafood bag!!! I get it every time I go there. My husband cant hang with me but he gets the oysters and shrimp. Negative is the parking! I just stop going inside the parking area cause I know there is never parking, usually park a block away. Too bad I'm getting relocated back to the East Coast so this is probably the best seafood in SD.