Bucket O’ Crawfish- Alameda

Kings crab legs were To die for! But garlic noodle was more oily than necessary. I like that you can order viet food from neighbor restaurant within the same compound. One of our go-​to places now!

this is the only crawfish place we go to. we make the drive across the bridge from sf just so we can have the combo of phở and crawfish at the same place. always get at least a pound of crawfish but tonight we got 4lbs. and we finished it all my wife and i. on top of that we had phở and garlic noodles for the kids. very kid friendly place where they can be loud and make sure you bring a set of markers or box of crayons for the kids to draw on the paper table covering before the food gets there. overcooked is the style of this kinda southern Louisiana food. this ain’t no upscale place where they cook each order separately. it’s prolly prepped and cooked on a simmering heat, that’s why the so called «overcooked» shrimp and mushy corn and potato. it’s been in a pot all day long and that’s why the crawfish is so damn tasty. hahahaha i can’t believe the food snobs.

Sorry, the doneness of the shrimp killed my whole experience here. Don’t get me wrong, the flavor was definitely there. I got all the flavors. But EVERY single shrimp was so overcooked that the shell wouldn’t even separate from the meat. Inexcusable, especially for a place specializing in a certain food.
When I am eating our at a place that cooks one type of food (in this case shrimp) I definitely expect it to be cooked and prepared PROPERLY. I can’t even express how disappointed I was to eat shrimp that weren’t even cooked correctly.
I don’t expect to come back. I came here only because Hang Ten Boiler was closed today and after today’s experience I am a little upset at myself for deciding to get shrimp anyways. I definitely don’t recommend this place unless you like your shrimp extremely overcooked.

Amazing and to me the place is way better then rockin crawfish. The flavor I had was amazing. The customer service was A1 as well.

My love for shrimp/​seafood is too real. I think I’ve tried about 5 or 6 Boiling Crab-​esque seafood options in the East Bay. Bucket O Crawfish falls toward the front of my list and is a solid 4 — good food, prices on the cheaper side, and excellent/​FAST service!
Half of the restaurant is Bucket O Crawfish while the other half is a phở restaurant. There’s PLENTY of room — there was literally no wait. With no reservation. At prime dinner time. ON VALENTINE’S DAY. Pretty much a miracle. Parking was also relatively easy. So I’d definitely consider this a low-​key kind of place that’s easy to miss but well worth a visit!
We went with the shrimp and clams in the combo sauce, adding some of the alligator sausage. The sauce is delicious, but I’m going for the spicy next time! The medium barely had spiciness added. The garlic noodles were pretty standard, but delicious (can’t really go wrong with such a simple dish though!).
I’ll definitely drop in again, and I’d recommend it to friends looking for a fast, casual seafood option. Everything about this place was easy and no frills, but not in a bad way at all. Definitely worth a try if you’re a fan of seafood!

The crab, oysters, shrimp n sauce were very good but the garlic noodles were way over cooked n nasty (Not Thangh Longs) but overall it was a little pricey but was good…

This place is actually bucket o crawfish and phở ahn dao in one building so you can choose what you want. The crawfish were huge and the clams were as well. The sauce was okay and i have had better but that’s not saying its bad. The prices were pretty cheap compared to other spots which is great and its not packed! The owner is super friendly and quick service.

Came in here blind, without looking at any reviews. Hey… it’s a nice thing to do sometimes right? not to have any bias or preconceived notions? It’s like living in the dark ages of BY (Before Unilocal). Like 2003 or something. I know it’s preposterous!
Anyway, it was a week night, so it wasn’t very busy. Still, the staff was attentive and cordial, giving us recommendations and clearing things regularly. We also asked if we could get stuff off the Phở menu even though we were sitting on the Crawfish side and they said it would be fine. If you’re party is split on what they want, this is a bonus, 2 places for the price of one!
Anyway, we ended up ordering off the crawfish menu, we got the cajun wings, the crab and lobster noodle soup, garlic noodles, crab fried rice, alligator sausage, and cajun shrimp. I enjoyed the wings the most, they were light and crispy. And good sized as well. The noodles were a favorite as well, but hey, how can you go wrong with buttery garlic starch right? =) The shrimp was market price, so ask beforehand, but all in all, not a bad deal. Everyone loved the cajun sauce. They were lapping it up!
In the end, we all agreed we’d come again and were glad we decided to go Unilocal blind. I realize the irony of now writing about not using Unilocal on Unilocal.So don’t bother pointing that out ;)

Great please with a reasonable price. Food quality was fresh and the staff was friendly. Will definitely come back

One of my favorite crawfish place. Friendly staffs, wide free parking space, plenty of seating, delicious food. What else do you need?.

For someone who had never had Crawfish before, the staff at Bucket o’ Crawfish were most accommodating, pretty much recommending our whole party’s order and teaching us how to best eat the Crawfish! Coming here was a shot in the dark and one I’m happy to have taken — I love how you can choose the level of spiciness in your food and the non-​crawfish options are delicious as well. Definitely recommend for someone looking for a fantastic messy hands-​on experience; the kids adored it!

Hella good and great service they were so nice here and we got to meet the cool who made out food! Thank u guys. The food was spot on and seasoned well and food was hot! Yah!!!

What a great place! Food was off the hook. Our group tried a little bit of everything. The Fried chicken wings were fabulous and the dipping sauces are super good. There is a green jalapeño dipping sauce that is just fantastic. We also had the calamari that has a special seasoning and comes with fried jalapeños and onions. YUM! On to the main course. We had Clams, Mussels, Shrimp, Crawfish, Sausage, potatoes, and corn. So good and the seasoning was perfect. And the Garlic noodles are great too. Our kids ate everything too.
Overall, great place. They also have some quality craft beers on tap too.

The concept of having two different types of cuisines (Vietnamese Cajun food and Vietnamese phở) in one building is a pretty smart idea, however, it’s not well executed.
Vibe and décor: I really like the vibe and décor from this side. It feels like any other Cajun seafood restaurants like Boiling Crab and Rockin’ Crawfish.
Service: The service I received was okay. The waiter appeared to be nice, but awkward… Not very jolly like how I want my waiters/​waitresses to be. Maybe I’m asking for too much?
Food: I was fine with the shrimp being frozen IF the sauce was good. However, I was really disappointed with the the combo sauce and the level of heat I asked for. I asked for medium… But there was no heat at all. Also, I ordered corn on the cob which seems to be frozen and not fresh :/​uThe cajun fries was probably my favorite… Regardless of it being frozen, it tasted WAYYY better than the pound of shrimp I had.
Final verdict: Do not come here. I only came here for their one year anniversary promotion. Let’s all stick with the Phở Anh Dao side Their phở is way better than Ao Sen.

Wow was that bad,
been wanting to try this place for two weeks and finally made it today about 430pm, ordered for the family takeout, had the shrimp basket, catfish basket, fried oysters, alligator sausage, corn, garlic noodles, cajun fries,
The Bad= corn was nasty overcooked dry chewy tasteless, cajun fries super greasy overcooked, shrimp fried with poop veins inside, catfish over battered mushy inside, deep fried oysters were horrible tasted bad could not tell they were oysters just a black mushy mess, no oyster taste, my son’s piece of catfish came with a curly strand of stainless steel brillo pad, very long wait for order even though there was only a couple seated with their small child.
The Good=Garlic noodles are good, alligator sausage
Is good.
The batter used is all wrong, super greasy, not restraunt quality at all. And nothing like Louisiana or any southern style. I lived in Lafayette Louisiana heart of acadiana cajun country for five years, «Bucket of Crawfish» has no resemblance at all

Our friends took us here a few months ago and we were impressed! My husband LOVES craw-​fish and he was not disappointed! My favorite was the shrimp. Got a spicy one!
It’s really cool too because you go in the front door and the Bucket O’Crawfish is to the left but there’s a Phở restaurant to the right. It’s like they share the space or something. You can site on the Bucket O’Crawfish side but order Vietnamese from next door. They’ll bring it over to your table and vice versa. Cool idea.
We’ll be back!

Hang ten was closed so we ended up here. Kind of put off by the fact that the restaurant is combined with a phở place. An odd combination…
I ordered the shrimp, Cajun, medium. The food was okay. I’ve had better Cajun seafood at other restaurants. The medium is not that spicy so if you like hot, go with something higher.
Can’t complain about the service. Our server was quick & always checked if we needed anything. But we were really the only ones on the crawfish side of the restaurant considering we came at a not busy time.
Not sure if I’d go back only because I wasn’t too satisfied with the food.

The food was so bad, I’m probably more mad at the fact that I’m taking so much time writing this review right now. So you know there’s always people who say, «This place is better than Boiling Crab, that place is better than Boiling Crab, blah, blah, whatever… etc.» Are you outta your mind?! Seriously, if it was better than BC, why is BC the standard to compete against?! Kind of like when people say their new phone is the iPhone killer? Yeah exactly, like that!
Anyway, the food was just insanely awful. This review could be taken as an exaggeration, but it is quite the opposite, frankly an understatement. The Dungeness crab, Clams, Mussels, Shrimp, Snow Crab, and Crawdads were obviously frozen and had been sitting for some considering the meat was cold, brownish, and discolored. Even worse was the sauce they drenched it with; absolutely no flavor. I think I might have been better eating them with ketchup. I think the only thing that probably wasn’t bad was the actual bowl the food was served on. Jesus!
On one note, I will admit for an Asian restaurant, their service was quite exceptional. From the inflated cost of food that we ate, I still tipped the waiter 20% just by service alone. I at least hope they don’t assume the extra tip was in any way a compliment to the food. Honestly, I kind of wish that the service was bad also just so I could continue this rant, but I will give credit where it’s due.
All in all, the food was god awful, but the service great. I guess they’ve got to sell something, right? So if you’re in the mood for some great service, this is the place to be. But if you’re looking to take someone you don’t like to grab some food, look no further fellas!
–Jerry, out! (drops Mic)

I came with a friend and we ordered the Combo #3 with garlic butter and lemon pepper sauce and shared it. The seafood itself was good but the sauce wasn’t that great. I think I need to try another sauce?
We also got alligator sausages and a small order of garlic noodles. I loved the garlic noodles but didn’t like the alligator sausages. The sausages basically tasted like it was doused in spiced beer… ick…
The servers were all very nice and attentive.
They have a handwash station and lots of big screen TVs to watch sports game!

I had a Groupon and I wanted to try this place before it expired. My family and I came here one Sunday night and the place was empty so we were seated right away.
Other reviews have already pointed out that it’s essentially two restaurants in one establishment. You can order food from both places but will receive two separate bills. What was odd that once I mentioned we had a Groupon, they moved us from the Vietnamese restaurant to the Crawfish side. No biggie.
The food itself was not very good. The sauce was odd tasting, and the serving sizes were extremely small. The garlic noodles were delicious but extremely small.
The waiters are a bunch of extremely friendly high school kids. I loved how attentive and pleasant they were with our every request.
I would not come back to the Crawfish restaurant, but the grilled pork dish we ordered from the Vietnamese side was pretty good. I would definitely come back for that.

The Bay Area definitely has the seafood game on lock, and often times it’s hard for upcoming seafood restaurants to keep up with names like Spenger’s or Alioto’s; whom have been in busy since the beginning, and this is exactly the reason why I’m glad to say that this place can hold its own against the big boys. The service and quality of food here are both excellent, the staff does a great job in accommodating everyone of your dining needs, while the chefs work hard and fast to present top notch shellfish. Here you can order each item individually by the pound or you have the option of choosing from a few different combos (#4 Has It All). After you select your fish of choice, you have a few options for seasonings (Mix Em All, It’s Scrumptious) and spice level (Mild To Crazy Hot). Damn, all this reviewing has got me hungry, I gotta go get some Crawfish ;)

Worst experience ever! Food was mediocre and getting yelled at by the Owner was not cool.
The location is split amongst a Vietnamese restaurant, which initially I thought was a great idea because we can have the best of both worlds. I had a Groupon and asked in advance if I could use it and pay a separate bill for the Vietnamese. I was given a go ahead to do so.
However, the insane Owner of «Bucket o Crawfish» comes over and yells at me for ordering from both sides and tells me that my Groupon is only valid if I ate at her place only.
Sorry lady, but this was the worst customer service and experience I ever had-​let alone I had two young kids with me.
Plus the crawfish was mediocre! I don’t think you’ll be seeing me or new customers coming! C’est la vie lady!

Uncle and I came here to the Bucket O’ Crawfish side of the restaurant. This place houses 2 separate menus… you walk to the right, its Phở Ahn Dao vietnamese and to the left which is only open for dinner is Cajun/​Creole/​asian fusion.
I’m a newbie to crawfish and seafood boils so this was something different. Ordered the #2 Combo which had shrimp and crawfish with corn-​on-​the-​cob (thumbs down that it tasted like frozen corn) and a potato. it was recommended we get the garlic butter and creole seasoning which was a great suggestion as it had great flavor, heat and lots of garlic. Yum!
Also, ordered the deep-​fried catfish and french fry basket… i was a little hesitant at first as Im not a fan of catfish (eeww…dirty bottom feeders!). Surprisingly, they were good and almost tasted like cod sprinkled with cajun spices
Our experience with crawfish was of course messy, and had to ask the waiter how to eat them because those shows on tv sure make it look like fun… anyways, we wondered…‘do you just rip the head off, slurp their brains out and voila?’
Our waiter came out with a pair of gloves and showed us to eat the tail part, then rip off the head and just suck away… and if you really wanted to get into it, you can break its little legs and suck there too… the crawfish that is! he was so patient and didn’t judge us on our lack of sucking skills. Props to him!
Overall, good food… pricey but in range with seafood boils and the lady who came to our table (I’ll assume the owner) was really nice and hospitable like it was her own home.
Would i return. Sure! Not crowded at all on a Wednesday night!

My only point of comparison is Rockin’ Crawfish in Oakland or when we do crawfish boils at home.
Cons:
— they really need to turn up the heat.
— menu is a bit confusing … so they should just make it a point to walk you through it.
— I don’t like eating when i’m cold and can’t feel my fingers.
We ordered 1 of the combos — the crab and shrimp, a lb of crawfish — all Crazy Mix and then later, a lb of the garlic butter mussels. The crazy mix was okay — next time (if there is a next time), I will just stick to the garlic butter. The garlic noodles are tasty though. The shrimp was over cooked.
Ambiance isn’t bad — bar area and a huge other room … probably good place to watch the game. Service was friendly.

I am visiting my sister who lives around the corner from Bucket O’ Crawfish from So. Cali. My sister has been waiting for this place to open for a long time b/​c she is craving some cajun seafood. Her past Cajun Seafood experience like mine is Boiling Crab and Kickin’ Crab.
The restaurant is actually part of a Phở Restaurant and in front of a hotel/​motel. So when you walk in it is very spacious. It would be great for large parties. The menu is very straight forward. They have a variety of seafood for the cajun boil: Crawfish, Shrimp, Clams, Mussels, King/​Snow/​Blue Crab. Next, you pick your sauce: Cajun/​Garlic Butter/​Lemon Pepper or Crazy Mix (All 3 Flavors). Last: Pick your level of spicy. You can also have add ons such as corn, potatoes, and alligator sausage. Also on the menu, there is fried shrimp, catfish, calamari or wings.
So what did we order?
2lb Shrimp Crazy Mix Mild and 2 lbs Shrimp Crazy Mix Medium + Corn+ Alligator Sausage
— I have to say the shrimp was cooked really well. Keep in mind, all the shrimp is with heads. (If you are looking for headless shrimp, this is not your place.) The sauce, it tastes pretty good but they could improve it such as make the sauce more concentrated and more crushed garlic pieces. I have to say the alligator sausage was okay because I wasn’t used to the texture. It seemed a bit soft and soggy. I wished they offered regular hot sausage links instead.
Fried Catfish Basket w/​Cajun Fries
— The fried catfish were catfish nuggets instead of fillets. I did enjoy the catfish nuggets pieces. It was served with cajun fries and their fry sauce and tartar sauce. Not all the pieces were crispy according to my sister but I enjoyed it.
Cajun Fries
— The fries were medium cut and seasoned just right. It was also served with fry sauce.
Garlic Noodles
— The garlic noodles tasted buttery and garlicky. It tasted good but the garlic pieces were a lil too toasty. They could improve it by larger garlic pieces, not too toasty garlic and definitely it needs to be served on a plate and not on that paper tray.
Service: 100% Awesome!
Atmosphere: TVs Check, Spaciousness for Small & Large Parties Check and Place to Tag Your Name Check
Hand Washing Sinks. Super awesome after peeling some seafood.
This was only the 2^nd day of opening and over time, i know this restaurant will be poppin!
I wish they had set combos like Kickin Crab b/​c it would make the ordering process much quicker and easier.