KOC Crawfish

Went here for dinner on a Sunday night with the fam. Wings were great! Ordered clams and razor clams, which were alright. The biggest disappointment came from the crawfish, small and didn’t taste flavorful.

The best crawfish seasoning I’ve ever tried. Honestly, I didn’t like crawfish and I didn’t order it. However, my friends did so I tried some… Wow! Really really delicious!!! I think I like crawfish now and I also found my favorite crawfish restaurant. It’s not Boiling Crab, it’s KOC Crawfish! YAY
Yesterday, I was dying for raw oysters at 10PM and was so glad we found KOC that is still open until 11. We, 3 girls, came there at 10:15 and ordered dozen raw oysters, grilled chicken legs, grilled shrimps, and Shochu. All of them were great. Also nice services.

This place is a sorry place for a crawfish shop. They have the workers drinking during the shifts with it can be their friends who knows but its not appropriate, i ordered togo from this place and I am glad it was togo because I wouldnt feel safe with my waiter drunk or even buzzed at work. NOTE TO THE OWNER how do you expect the workers to get home when they all took some shots and drank some beers!!!

Beware! This establishment is dishonest, check your bill before you pay or don’t even eat there. We were charged extra $ 12 for 4 lbs of live crawfish. When asked, they stated they forgot to tell us that combo prices are for frozen crawfish only and they charge extra for live. This was not disclosed on their menu. We had to ask them to take off the free drinks as well. I would never come back there!!!

Location: Its hard to look for a parking in front, but there are plenty of parking spots in the back. Many people might not notice, so they keep driving around to find one. However, nice interior decoration with Halloween theme going on right now.
Services: Great customer services! The staffs are friendly and helpful.
Food: One special thing that I love coming to this place is that it carries all my favorite street food dishes such as: duck tongue, frog congee and variety of Vietnamese seafood. I ordered 6 different dishes and satisfied with all of them. Although there are many Vietnamese restaurant opening in OC, not all of them creates such a real Vietnamese dish. I can say that the food here tastes pretty AUTHENTIC! Before eating anything, you should refresh your taste with the «bao tu ham tieu» soup! Then, ordering the appetizer such as fried salmon belly and duck tongue is a good choice! Many seafood dishes such as: oc mong tay/​oc gao … are all savory and delicious. Besides great food, its soju is pretty flavorful.
Recommendations: If you are a big fan of street food, give this place a try!

What to order:
Clams/​Crawfish/​Shrimp
Oysters
Mien Xao Cua (Crab Vermicelli Noodles)
Fried Salmon Belly
Servers are always attentive. I haven’t had a bad experience here.

The food here is pretty good! There are a ton of crawfish places, but I’m really picky about how I like my crawfish tasting…
The seasoning here for their crawfish is flavorful (but not too salty or powdery) and I love the side dipping sauce. The oysters are delicious, very fresh and tasty. Both Bluepoint and Kumomoto’s are good, but the Kumomoto’s are my favorite. I also like their Oc Len Xao Dua (sautéed coconut escargots).
I had their raw clams and Oc Huong, which were just ok. I wouldn’t recommend those, but try the 4 items I listed above! The ambience here is lively with good music, however it can get loud and crowded. I like the fact that they open late for those late-​night hungers!

Me-Thinks-Something-Sketchy’s Goin On! ‘Cause how can this place POSSIBLY be 4 stars, when there are so many good spots out there?
I could push for three, but definitely not four. And I hate to say it because I happened to notice that there was an old man working the kitchen on his own. But I have to be real– so… here’s the review:
Food:
The flavor was alright to be honest. But somehow, they got their spice scale all wrong. I got «Spicy» and there was absolutely no kick to it. And I tried some of the Mild and Medium, which I felt was just lacking in flavor. The razor clams were decent, but definitely not worth the price. And the oysters were decent with good sauce, but definitely not worth the price either.
Service:
The service was lacking. I feel like the waiter who was waiting on our table just couldn’t handle the workload, which was odd because there were only two other tables there at the time. I was watching and noticed there were four waiters/​managers standing around who didn’t bother trying to help our waiter. He was also fairly rude and not very accommodating to several of our fairly reasonable needs.
Atmosphere:
Does it matter? When the food and the service is lacking, How can anyone pay attention to the environment.
So, unfortunately I can’t come back here again. There’s just too many other delicious places to try in the OC. And too many places that do it all right, like Kicking Crab or Boiling Crab.

I hate to give bad reviews, especially of new restaurants, so hopefully this goes to improve operations and food quality here at KOC.
The Good
We ordered a pretty wide spread of items and all of it was OK, but I’ve had better.
Razor clams — each order comes with 4 large razor clams and 2 extra sides of spicy sauces, green is mild and red is very spicy (maybe habanero). The clams were good on their own without the extra sauces.
Oysters — a dozen of oysters for 20 bucks, expensive! The oysters were pretty small, you could get a better deal somewhere else.
Chicken wings, KOC flavor — fried with a dry rub. They were dry, but flavor wasn’t bad.
Crawfish — since this is in the name of your restaurant, this should be the BEST item here. The flavor was good and less oily than Boiling Crab, but it was not spicy whatsoever. I got the medium and tasted no spice, my boyfriend got the spicy and that tasted like a ‘mild’ would be elsewhere. The crawfish was also small — isn’t it crawfish season?!
Shrimp — again, good flavor, but totally overcooked. The shell was stuck to the shrimp and hard to peel. Portion was oddly small… the extra corn was 75 cents and it was literally ¼ a corn.
The Service
Service is almost as important as the food to me, so because our service was so awful, I would probably never come back.
Strike 1
One of our friends is allergic to shellfish but can eat mollusks (clams, oysters, mussels, etc.). He ordered clams and asked the waiter if they could be cooked separate from the crawfish and shrimp. The waiter LECTURED him, his exact words were ‘it’s ironic that you’re at a seafood restaurant if you have an allergy’ and proceeded to tell him he should have a back up plan and carry and Epipen around. Rude… and awkward!
Kind of a slap in the face, right? Other restaurants will just accommodate. Or don’t, that’s fine, but don’t lecture your customer like you’re a medical professional and make him feel bad for visiting your restaurant due to his allergy. There are other items on your menu, and had you just cooked the clams in a different pot, there wouldn’t be a problem.
He eventually came back and told us the clams can be cooked separately.
Strike 2
The waiter takes our order twice. Why? I don’t know, but he took it once, then he said he had to take it all over again. This wouldn’t have been a big deal but continue reading for why it was.
Strike 3
Not all of our food came out. Most of it came out except an order of fries and 2 lbs of crawfish (our friend had to share with someone else since his order never came out). By the time we were all finished eating it still did not come out, so we canceled both. The waiter looked confused when we told him we had an order of fries… why are we still having this conversation after you took our order twice?
You’re Out
Sorry, but I wouldn’t come back. Service is an essential part of the dining experience, so don’t lecture your customers, forget to bring food out, act confused when we told you we ordered something, or look annoyed when we complain about our missing food.

The food was just okay and the experience was pretty awful. Giving it two stars since the food was decent and they seem to be new and will hopefully improve.
We ordered razor clams, oysters, wings, shrimp, and crawfish for the table. Razor clams and wings were pretty good. Oysters were ok, a little disappointing since they weren’t as plump as boiling crab but more expensive. Now for the shrimp and crawfish which should be the highlight of the meal since the place has crawfish in the name. The KOC sauce is pretty good, not as oily as boiling crab which I liked. However spicy is not spicy at all. The crawfish were tiny and the shrimp was overcooked. When I tried to peel the shrimp, it kept breaking off. The portion also seemed small. Again I’m comparing to boiling crab where I usually just get half a pound of shrimp and I am full but here I ordered a pound and it definitely wasn’t filling. It came with one potato and a small piece of sausage and I wonder if they secretly included that in the weight. We also ordered extra corn for 75cents and it was the smallest corn I have every been served at a restaurant. I almost started laughing at how small the corn was. And the crawfish and shrimp are more expensive per pound than boiling crab.
Now for the poor service. My friend can’t eat shellfish like shrimp and crawfish but he can eat clams and mussels. He asked if they cook the clams separately and the waiter scoffed at him and said no that everything is cooked together. He asked if they can make an exception since he was allergic and the waiters response was ‘I think it’s ironic that you would come to a crawfish restaurant if you are allergic.’ Wtf?! Who says that? Do you only have ONE pot back there that all your seafood is cooked in? He proceeded to then lecture my friend by telling him that he should always have a epi pen on hand. We were all speechless. He proceeded to take everyone’s order. 10 mins later he came back and re-​took our orders. Apparently he messed up the first time? But clearly two times still wasn’t enough since my husband ordered 2 lbs of crawfish that never came out. After 20 mins of waiting while everyone already got their food and us asking about it a few times, we just cancelled it. All and all, a pretty crappy experience.

***EDITED RESPONSE AFTER OWNER’S MESSAGE***
Tan (or Ryan), thanks for your strangely fast 3 minute response to this review. Although I will not be back to your restaurant, and even if I did I would not ask for you to give me special attention. I would come in secret to see if all of my bad experiences are true the second time.
As an owner of a restaurant you should be aware of all things that occur in your restaurant and shouldn’t need to give special attention only to Unilocalers just to boost your fake reviews. Service and genuine care should come standard. Ask anyone. Please let me know if I’m wrong.
******END OF RESPONSE******
Why the Hype?
Was wondering why this place got such rave reviews, then I figured it out. Some of the 5 star reviews are fake. Seriously, go check them out towards the bottom or the next page, I’ll wait here…
Are you back yet?
How about now?
Hi again… did you go check them? Notice a lot of the five star reviews at the bottom were generic in it’s writing and the reviewer had only one or two reviews. That’s Unilocal Validity 101. You’re welcome.
Server issues
No, not the server that all your computers are connected to at work, I mean the person who is supposed to greet you, meet you, tell you about the menu, answer your questions, take your dinner order, bring your food out, ask you how your food is.
It’s a faulty server when he makes you order 3 separate times, forget to bring your food out, then actually not ever bring your food out, refuse to separate the clams from the crawfish and tell you that if you have a food allergy to shellfish that it’s «ironic» that you’re there then you should carry an effin EpiPen around!
Maybe you need to carry a helmet around so you don’t hurt yourself walking around. Owner or manager of KOC, if you are reading this, you’ve got to get rid of this guy. You have got to know who this server is without even naming him.

i think you’re allowed to call in for reservations because when i got there, there was a table reserved so we had to wait about 30 minutes for a table to open up.
very small place, so reserve if you can, or don’t go with a huge party.
the servers were very nice and got everything we asked for pretty quickly.
pros:
— crawfish was good! and very fresh. i think since they’re new, they probably get better quality crawfish than other places
— i really liked their sauce
— FREE tea and soda!!! i think this might have ended though? not sure. but even after this promo, its free refills so thats pretty good
— sticky rice with ruoc and chinese sausage — this is a pretty good dish! everyone liked it
cons:
— there was a combo for 3 lbs of crawfish, shrimp or clams (mix and match) for $ 30. but i got 3 lbs of crawfish and they charged me $ 35. so please look at your receipt! if you’re buying crawfish 3lbs at a time, get the combo or else tell them to change it on the receipt!
— the cajun fries are just regular seasoned fries. no cajun seasoning. i mean still pretty good but no need to call it cajun fries (this isn’t really a con)
UPDATE
11.17.2015
it wasn’t crawfish season and they still charged $ 12 a pound. they said it was fresh but it didn’t taste like it to me. their quality really went down from the first time I tried this. please lower your prices to match all the other crawfish places around here.

This place cheats you depending on the server. If you get the male, he pretends to speak limited English to confuse you on how the menu works. And yes, they automatically assumes every Asian that walks through the door speaks Vietnamese.
The Combo 1 clearly states ‘Mix Any Three (Crawfish, Shrimp, Clam, Mussel) for $ 29.99; minimum 3 lb.’ And so we did. We were charged individually by market value for the crawfish and shrimp. And you guessed it, they also cheated us on the amount of food. I don’t even want to get into the seasonings — Cajun or Louisiana. Basically, they don’t have neither one down.
As for the razor clams which I came for is totally overrated. The texture is like octopus but lacks its own flavor. All the yumminess comes from the sauce, garnishing and Vietnamese Mint. $ 12.99 for four pieces. Overpriced.

Recently came back the other day with some of my friends for some appetizers, crawfish and drinks. Customer service was very good and the food was good just like how I remembered it. Fresh crawfish is $ 12 a pound. A little pricey but still worth it since the sauce is different but still tasty! I am obsessed with their signature soda which is still free and comes with free refills! My only disappointment was we barely got any soft shell crab with our order :/​there used to be a plate full of cut up little pieces of soft shell crab but there was barely any on our plate. Took one star off for that):

I had to check this place out based on all the good reviews, but IMO it was really just alright… None of the dishes really stood out or kept me wanting more.
We had razor clams, coconut snails, buttered escargot, salted fish fried rice, and a beer tower. Everything came out really quickly and was barely warm. The only thing I really liked was the fried rice and beer tower. The accompanying sauces for the seafood wasn’t all too great either.
Service was friendly and they checked up on once but I had to flag down and ask the waiters FOUR times for waters before we received them. They had forgotten every time. I ordered the waters in the very beginning along with the beer tower and food. We got everything but didn’t get the waters until about more than half way done.
I might come back to try out the crawfish next time but I’ll probably skip the dishes mentioned above.

3.5*
Not feeling so «Quan Nhau» today? Come here. They got cool beer towers, cute soju shots/​towers and pretty decent grub! Prices are decent and the staff’s great. Friendly and helpful.
Newly remodeled. Clean and somewhat modernized.
CF is surprisngly pretty good. Fried/​grilled shrimp, coconut snailsand are fries not too shabby either. Ask for fresh oysters…2 kinds. Had them several times and it was decent.
Soju shots are a buck/​50. Diff flavors available to get you there.
Plenty more dishes available I haven’t yet tried but I’m confident it should be decent.
They also got TVs and cool music.
Cool, cool.
Final thought…
Cool little joint if you just wanna have a mello time drinking, grubbing, mingling and/​or watching the game without having your ears blown out by «The Voice» competition going on stage which is usually the case @ most Quan Nhaus.
Great alternative.

The restaurant is small with a decent amount of seating and has a cute logo. We thought that this place would suck because there wasn’t anyone inside. I heard they opened a few months ago so maybe they just need to market themselves better. We started with the razor clams with garlic and green onions and grilled shrimp skewers. Everyone gets a free tea drink, so we tried the peach, passion fruit, and guava teas. My peach tea was the best– it even had some jellies too. We decided to try more items for the menu, since the food was so good so far… Next, we ordered the clams with lemongrass and KOC style chicken wings. The clams were delicious and pretty spicy for the medium level. The wings were okay, but the sauce made it taste better. We wanted to try more items, but were too full… Service was quick and attentive. I would definitely come back!

I’ve been here a few times now and everytime is enjoyable. It is a crawfish house so you gotto order the crawfish. The sauce is pretty tasty and not overpowering. Even when crawfish season is over, they still have premium frozen crawfish which is good enough to satisfy my craving. The star is the clams though. Big and juicy. Never overcooked. I like the Oc Mong Tay also. It is not tough like other places. The is very spicy. Not the for faint of spice. I’ve tried couple other dishes like Fried Chicken cartilage and Mien Xao Cua. Skip these two. They are dry and lack flavor. Xoi Chien is actually pretty good. It has green beans in it.
Service is top notch. They stop by to clean our plates and check in often. They gave us two rounds of free soju shots on my birthday dinner. Another passion fruit tea at another time.

I’ve been wanting to try this place ever since it opened up and when I finally got a chance to, it did not disappoint!
Since my friend knows the owner and it was also his birthday, the owner gave us a beer tower on the house. It was so sweet. I’ve never seen the beer tower anywhere and was impress by the uniqueness of it.
My favorite dish was the razor clams. I’ve never had it anywhere else that’s better and normally I’m not even that big of a fan but here, I had to order 2 dishes of it to satisfy my cravings. The Thai-​style clams in the claypot was also good and their salad is amazing. The only dish I didn’t like was the quail eggs with the sour sauce. The sour sauce was just too overpowering. I’ve yet to try their crawfish but I heard it’s good so I’d come back for it.
The servers were friendly. They constantly came by to switch out our dirty plates. Good service + good food/​drinks at a decent price; I’m a believer!

I am not sure if this place is trying to be a club or a restaurant? This place is definitely not 5 stars either. The music was bumping and playing songs with curse words in it when children were present, not a good idea in my book.
The food came out quickly but maybe a little too quick everything was a little bland. We ordered the razor clams, a pound of shrimp «KOC style» and Cajun fries. The shrimp didn’t have as much flavor as Seafood Shack or Boiling Crab. I don’t need it to be super spicy or anything but flavor would be nice. The razor clams were decent and HUGE! The best part of the meal was probably the fries.
The staff was friendly but young and a little unprofessional. There was a big party in the restaurant that was super loud and being a little crazy, they seemed to be friends with the servers. They made the dining experience a little unpleasant. I couldn’t hear the people at my table and they couldn’t hear me. I feel there is a lot better crawfish places in Garden Grove.