Joe’s Crab Shack

Very Clean. The restaurant was completely empty, with only 1 other couple eating and it took 15 minutes for a server to acknowledge us. I order Redfish and Lobster which came out old… the rice was dry and cold, the sauce on the Redfish was definitely out of date. My husband ordered the East Coast Platter. the shrimp were good, but the rest not so much. crab cake looked and tasted like a sponge, the fish was slimy. I did send my Redfish back and did not order anything else. The waitress only came by twice and carried a baby on her hip the whole time and the manager never came out to talk with us until I asked the waitress to get her. She was friendly but little to no help she just said yeah they changed recipes. This is the worst restaurant experience I’ve had in a very long time. The only positive thing I can say was it was clean.

Fantastic snow crab, fantastic redfish n lobster! Great service! Will definitely patronize this location again!

Very pleasantly surprised by our visit here! Much better than the pre-​Ike layout. On Mondays (I think?) kids eat free and they have ocean themed crafts for them. We had no idea, but it was awesome for the kids. The had a great time.
Sit on the patio next to the marina, you won’t regret it! Service was great and most of their plates are very affordable. I’m not much for chain restaurants when ordering seafood at the beach, but they didn’t disappoint.

So disappointed! My steak came out room temp and well done and already cut, my broccoli was still uncooked and cold on one side, the fries had been sitting and were stale. We spoke to manager and she discounted our ticket. My husband continued to eat until he found a hair on his shrimp and my sister found a hair on her plate. The manager said one was a hair and one was an antenna– they were identical. She did not offer any other compensation for our terrible meal. We will not be back.

I came here during spring break 2016. I was informed they were short staffed so my guy and I sat at the bar. The bar tender was totally green. They also sat babies in the bar! I HATE that! Prices have gone up at the crab. My usual steam pot seemed to be at least $ 5 more. I got the crab cakes. They were terrible! Cornmeal and more cornmeal. I didn’t taste the crab for sure. It was clean, but they wouldn’t even validate my parking for the lot next door. I will NOT be back. :(This WAS my favorite place to go for my B-​day. :(:(

I don’t expect a lot but I do expect when it’s a 2pm lunch that I am not waiting for 20 min to be seated and after writing down our own food selections and handing it to the waitress who shows up after 10 min of sitting at the table, we waited another 15 for food and it was wrong.
Tables were being cleared by the hostess, & food/​drinks from an empty table went flying at us b/​c it sat for so long. The manager was not helpful and the staff seamed just oblivious. Worst experience ever!

Service — delightful (5)
View of the warf — fantastic, active (5)
Proximity to Katie’s Seafood! — very convenient! (5)
Proximity to the strand with sneaky available parking for Mardi Gras (5)
Whiskey sour — 1
Fruit cocktail — 1
Crazy good crab dip — 1 crazy good if you like a cheesy dip with little to no crab flavour or meat. It just felt bland but fatty.
Hot tea w lemon — 5
Average — probably a 2.5 but can’t give half stars so I rounded up for our nice server Jarod (?)

We just had an outstanding lunch at Joe’s Crab Shack. The Crab Nachos were crazy good and the New England Clam Chowder was wonderful. We were greeted warmly and served by a very friendly waiter. What a fabulous lunch!

As I checked from Unilocal,I hesitate to go there due to low rating. But I want to give chance and really liked it! Food was very delicious and service was quick!

Food was terrible next time we go to Galveston gonna make sure to go local not this franchise! Shrimp was squishy, fish kinda cold and the calamari was nasty! Eaten there b4 they switched locations and it was amazing … They need to figure it out!

I was super confused by the low reviews. I went on a Sunday from a cruise ship, rolled my luggage right on in around 11am and could not have had a better experience. Everyone was super friendly from the hostess to the waiters and the food was consistent with other Joe’s Crab Shacks. We sat outside which was cooked by fans and had wire to keep the birds away, the view of the harbor was also nice.
If I find myself in Galveston again I will be sure to stop in. And if you’ve got kids I think they eat free, so yeah, seems pretty good.

First Joe’s Crab Shack I’ve ever been to. It wasn’t too bad. We came in during the afternoon, place was completely deserted inside. Most of the customers were sitting outside on the balcony overlooking the bay. You can see small fishing/​crabbing boats working on their catches for the day.
The service was decent. We ordered sandwiches, fries, and I got a platter. The food was good. It wasn’t great. What I loved most about Joe’s Crab Shack is the look and feel inside the place, it’s such an awesome dive-​y restaurant. I’d come back here only because the restaurant sits on the edge of the bay and it’s a pretty awesome view. I’m sure there were MANY great seafood spots in Galveston, but this was the spot my buddy wanted to go to because he wanted something familiar.

I wish there was an option to give negative stars. This was the worst dining experience I’ve ever experienced. From the time I walked in to the time I finished my meal, it was a trainwreck.
First, the hostess I made the reservation with upon walking in was very short with me. I shook it off though, bc it is Saturday night. I was told the wait would be 1−½ hours for our party of ten, and we were okay with that. However, because I used to be a hostess and server myself, I know that we could’ve been sat much earlier than we were. Multiple parties of 4 and 5 went before us, and a lot of the tables who left were next to each other. We weren’t even given the option to split. We had just endured a 6 hour road trip from Dallas and had two hungry kids. After multiple attempts to check the wait time, after the 4^th time we were able to sit on the patio that accommodates bit parties, which had 3 empty tables to sit our size already. Our wait time was an hour.
Next, it took about 15 minutes to get everyone waters. Again, i do understand that it’s Saturday night, but after waiting for an hour in the lobby you would think that this would be a priority. We make our orders. They come out, get this, an HOUR after we were seated. Some of my party ordered drinks and those came after the food due to a lack of mint. Also, our drinks were never refilled, and I had to wave down a different waiter for silverware. Unbelievable.
This is the time of the year when everybody is starting out their cruise/​coming back from one, so everyone is on vacation mode and looking to relax. I was appalled at the poor service we received. I am never coming back.

I have hardly ever seen waitresses so unfriendly. Anytime you asked for something it was like putting them out. Very inattentive in fact. Sometimes you would look up and only customers in the restaurant everyone kept congregating in the kitchen. Then we didn’t realize parking at the wharf could be validated at the restaurants so I ran all the way back to the restaurant to validate in the extreme heat and humidity of the day and she wouldn’t validate it. Said they don’t do that. That we could have had $ 5 taken off our bill but of course now it’s too late. So doubly whammy and expensive and not friendly lunch AND $ 15 to park. Prices are way too inflated and food is just average.

Can I give less than one star? Ugh. This place is horrible. Where do I start? No one to greet you. Hostess who stopped to talk to other tables. Our table dirty. Drinks that tasted awful. Server who came back 3 separate times to tell us the kitchen was out of something we ordered. Food delivered wasn’t at all what it was described on the menu. Bad all the way around. I had heard that this restaurant, although a chain, was OK. Wow — this place really proved that wrong.

I was looking for a quick place to go on the water, with my 4 year old nephew.
We arrived to what appeared to be a full parking area, which is very limited anyway. however once inside there was no one sitting inside and only a couple of tables outside. I ordered a margarita off the happy hour menu.
They were out of most of the draft beers one of the diners I was with was trying to order that was also on the happy hour menu.
Strange that no house wines are on the happy hour.
We had the calamari fried it was over cooked and hardly able to chew.
Crab dip was good, nothing remarkable.
My niece got the go fishin platter. I didn’t taste anything on her platter so I am not sure. She appeared to enjoy it.
The service for the amount of people that were there was just ridiculous. We waited 10 minutes at least before our order was taken. Another 10 minutes before drinks were brought to the table. a sprite, a tea, a draft beer and a margarita.
When you have only 3 – 4 tables and what appeared to be 3 – 4 servers, (however several of them were eating when we got there, and were still eating when we left) service should have been more prompt than that. Too many places on Galveston Island with top rated happy hours to waste any more money at this location, too bad too with such a cool view of boats and pelicans, seagulls and more than likely some dolphins. I should have taken into account the Unilocal stars and reviews like I normally do, but was just in a hurry to get in and out. Oh well that 60.00 tab was my bad.

I came here with no expectations so I did not leave disappointed. Happy Hour is a good price $ 3.00 16 oz draft for a Sam Adams (and other selections) also had a $ 5.00 cheesy fire balls. Not bad at all. Service was slow with only 3 tables total. I enjoyed the view and the resturant looked pretty clean.
If you are looking for fine seafood this isn’t the place but if you want to throw some popcorn shrimp down your kids mouth, run don’t walk here! !
I also noticed they have a fire pit and seating area, this would be a nice place for cocktails during the winter over looking the water.

Not crowded… maybe 10 people in the restaurant. Staff standing around.
No paper towels in restroom. Appetizer undercooked. I can see why this location gets an avg rating of 2.5 stars.
My server was one week old, but did a good job.
I forgot about the male server’s (luckily not our server) pants who were sagging down, showing his underwear! THANKS!
Ended up leaving after 45 minutes because people that came in 15 minutes after I did got their food before me.

Let’s say someone added extra numbers to the tip area and got way over charged in my bank account.
Extremely pissed two weeks now and still no check or anyone to even fix it. Manager trying to fix the situation was a joke. And the food was «okay» could pay cheaper prices elsewhere

The place looks pretty new and very clean. We did get a crappy waiter. He seemed new and very timid and quite. My husband and I shared an appetizer. It had calamari, crab balls and a crab dip. The dip was WONDERFUL! The other stuff was good too. It came with two little cups — 1 with marinara sauce and 1 with a ranch-​like dressing. Definitely not enough. But we didn’t see our waiter again.
We ended up ordering our meal through the manager. We shared one of the steam pots. OMG, that was heaven! I’ll definitely go back for that again!
Right off the seawall, great views of the gulf.
The only reason why I’m not giving 5 stars was because of the waiter.
Other than that, I’m a fan!