Karai Crab

I really enjoyed my experience at Kara Crab. Service was good and the food was delicious. 2 things really stuck with me since I was there a few months ago: 1. The fish and chips. Like omg. That catfish meat was so juicy and sweet, while the outer skin (batter) was crispy and flavorful (not oily either!). This is how you deep fry fish people; if you’re not sure, try their fish and chips out. Okay, enough of that fish cuz I’m getting hungry thinking about it while lying in bed… and I need to talk about the 2^nd thing that stuck with me about this place. I’m a sucker for good, friendly customer service… usually I wouldn’t mind mediocre food as long as service was good, but this place gave me delicious food first and topped it off with sweet service! We were abt to get ready to pay the bill and leave happily with our full bellies when the supervisor or manager or something asked us to follow him. We were a tad confused but followed him anyways. He brought us to a self serve soft serve machine for complimentary dessert! Dole pineapple soft serve or vanilla. What a unexpected and wonderful surprise that was. It’s not entirely about the dessert though; I genuinely felt like they wanted to do their best to make their customers happy and for us they did. I’m definitely going back since now I’m drooling just thinking about that catfish. Haha.

This is a must-​go-​to place for us every time I visit Honolulu.
There are a lot of cajun/​creole seafood restaurants everywhere, and coming from the Bay Area, I almost always compare every one of these places to Boiling Crab. And in my opinion, Karai Crab most definitely is up there and might be my favorite of them all.
The sauce is great, the crab is always on point and the seafood is delicious.
I’d be happy with just the food itself, but what makes this place special in my eyes is their service. The waiters are great and the manager, Jon, is the best. He always seems to care for every one of his customers and does his best to make the experience the best it can be. The waiters are helpful, and there is never a long wait for the food.
This place is awesome and if I could give it more than 5 stars, I would.

My youngest son had a craving for crab so after checking out the various options on Unilocal I chose Karai Crab because their service and sides stood out from the others.
We parked in the Willows valet lot. Turns out this place is owned by the same owner.
My hubby ordered Dungeness, my son ordered King and I ordered snow crab. I had to try the sides so we ordered Karai corn, mushrooms, and garlic noodles. They came first and were so delicious I knew I was in trouble!
The sauce selections and spicy level are great and the crab was delicious! If you want dessert they walk you to the Willows soft serve bar and take what you want. What a great combination!
And all the servers and the manager were genuinely nice and friendly.
I highly recommend Karai crab!

Karai Crab — a popular place by Hawaii locals. It’s part of the Willow’s restaurant. The menu offers snow crab, king crab, shrimp, catfish, dungenous crab, etc. It’s pretty simple — pick your seafood, add a marinade (Cajun, Spicy, Garlic Lemon, etc) and you are on your way. The seafood is always steamed very well and the meat is fresh. Our favorite is the dungenous crab with the Cajun spicy.
The place also offers garlic butter noodles. This wasn’t a favorite of mine. It is saimin noodles tossed with garlic, butter, and furikake-​style flavoring. Maybe I’m spoiled eating garlic noodles from several other well known establishments. I’ve tried the noodles three times, and all three times I was disappointed.
Drinks are pretty fun here! I got a virgin guava mai tai and it was refreshing. The selection of drinks are fun and reasonable.
The best part of this restaurant is the customer service. In all the times I’ve been here, the service has been outstanding. Everyone from the servers to the managers are welcoming and super helpful! I was so impressed that I’ve almost always left a 50−60% tip on our bill! These servers work hard for their money, so please tip them well!
Food Grade: B
Service Grade: A
Worth the Money Grade: B
Overall Impression Grade: B/​B+

I was taken a little off guard when they ushered us outside but I’m glad they did. The weather was perfect for a moonlight romantic dinner with my hunky hunny of 23 years. Our server, Leilani and she made all the right suggestions without being overly pushy and and was very gracious. dinner was perfect, the crab was well cooked and Jon the manager was so friendly and accommodating, very impressive. My husband and I had a great time, the food was delicious and we were satisfied without feeling full. We are definitely coming back when I’m the mood for crab!

The food was great. The prices were far. The service was great. The gentleman who may have been the owner was super friendly and too my kids next to get some ice cream. We wanted to go again the next day.

Get ready for a finger lickin’ good time! Food was very good. If you’re a seafood/​cajun lover who loves a lot of flavor and spice this is a great place to check out. Located next to The Willows in Moilili, this restaurant shares a space right next door with indoor and outdoor seating available. My friends and I sat inside. Very cozy, but not too cramped because it wasn’t busy for a Weds evening. Parking is available right across the street in the Willows lot or take your chances with limited street parking in the surrounding areas.
Looking over the menu, we all decided on ordering the Karai Combo $ 25 because of the variety (one mild and one spicy). We added the Snow Crab to it and it was the best I’ve tried in a long time – those legs were irresistible. I chose it with the Karai special seasoning. Although it was delicious, it is on the salty side because of it being cooked with a little too much melted butter. The shrimp tasted good too – well seasoned, and you can request for the «No Mess» (no shell) shrimp if you like. For the spicy lovers, this place doesn’t mess around. Take your pick from Medium (Cayenne), Spicy (Habanero), or Extra Spicy (Ghost Pepper). One of our Karai Combo bowls was with the Spicy heat, and being someone who doesn’t do spicy food too much, it did have my lips tingling after eating the sausage, but not so hot that it overpowered the food.
Service was super helpful, friendly, and attentive, even the manager was kind enough to offer his recommendation of their bread because it tastes good when you dip it in the sauce, AND gave our table a free bowl of shrimp! :D I can’t wait to come back here for dinner again.

This place is amazing food was great the atmosphere is beautiful the people were nice I will definitely go back

The best place for seafood on the entire island of Oahu.
The service was family/​friendly! The ambiance amazing with running waterfall and lagoon like setting outside. The snow crab was plump and tender. Portions were amazing and the cost for what you get is totally worth it! We will definitely return on this trip and every time we visit Hawaii!

Ambience was awesome. Just make sure u ask for outdoors. Outdoors is connected to Willows. Waterfall view.
Food was great! Hostess greeted us very friendly and offered us to sit at the bar since we were early for our reservation. Waiter was very friendly, he made conversation which you rarely find that they do that. Very informative and addressed my kids while ordering and almost end of meal. Valet service was very good.
Plan to come again and if not next door.

I hope the next time someone calls to ask if your restaurant is open, you don’t just say YES. Let them know that it’s open but full or have to make reservation first.
We went there yesterday and the girl was asking the guest in front of us if they would like to make a reservation for tomorrow instead. Whaaaat? There’s so much open tables inside and that’s all reserved. No sorry or whatsoever. I was so disappointed and we drove from waikele to there good thing we don’t have to pay for parking that time. You can smell the trash too if your walking outside, in front of their restaurant. Hope it’s not like that when you’re gonna eat there and be seated outside.

Amazing seafood and spectacular service.
My bf, friends and I came here for dinner. We were blown out of the water by how amazing the food was and the awesome level of service we received.
We ordered one serving of the snow crab and another of the snow crab with the added combo all in the Karai sauce. We also got the garlic noodles, bacon/​jalapeño corn bread and the chicken wings. Everything was delicious. The seafood was fresh, the garlic noodles were thick, chewy and packed with flavor, the chicken was flavorful and crispy and the corn bread was yummy.
Our server was super attentive too — constantly checking up on us to make sure our glasses were full and asking if we needed anything.
At the end of the meal, we even ended up getting free ice cream from the buffet next door. Obviously I splurged at this opportunity because 1. there’s always room for dessert and 2. how can you turn down soft serve pineapple/​vanilla ice cream! Yum!!!
This was definitely one of my favorite places we dined at during our vacation, and you can count on us being back the next time we’re in town.

When I went on a Thursday night at 6:15pm, it was empty! The employees were super friendly and seated us right away even though our reservation was at 6:30. The waiter explained the menu to us since some of us never dined here before. The logo is so cute!
I got the no mess shrimp with garlic butter mild, which was very filling and delicious! My 3 other friends and I shared sides. We got 2 servings of garlic noodles (definitely recommend!), potato, French bread, and French fries (the seasoning and dipping sauce is amazing). A little pricey, but it was definitely worth it.
I’d definitely come back!

Karai Crab is a small seafood restaurant attached to the corner of The Willow. They even share the gift card which you can pick up at a discount from Costco. While the prices are pretty reasonable as is the discount from the said gift cards make this place a pretty damn good deal.
I always opt for the standard combo with an addition of crab (crabs/​lobster are seasonally priced, lobsters are randomly available it seems). You get to choose the spicy level of the sauce that your food will be swimming in. Since the place is called Karai Crab I usually just get the Karai Special which is full of tasty spices without being too spicy.
Instead of a combo which comes with little bit of everything (seafood, sausage, potato, etc.) you can opt to get individual seafood items as well but I think having a little of everything and sharing is always better. Combo with added crab is good enough for 2 very hungry people or 3 just hungry people.
If you dine in at the restaurant you can sit in the main restaurant which feels like a cafeteria or go outdoors to The Willow area where things will seem more up scale. But I personally prefer the inside since mosquitoes. I rather not be eaten while eating. Maybe if you are super nice the servers will bring you a treat from The Willow buffet!
My real preference is to just do take out since they do have that option. Since the dishes are huge and soupy they’ll pack it up in a thick plastic bag and literally give you a bag of seafood. Though I wonder now since the plastic bag ban just kicked in in Honolulu.

I don’t go to many of these kind of places but I really liked my experience here last night for my friend’s birthday. Initially, I thought that this place was rather small but they have more tables besides the main tables in front.
Even though they had tables open, they didn’t let us sit until a little after our reservation time. We thought it was a little strange but we went with it.
Ordering was very easy as there’s only a small menu of different kinds of shellfish, sides, and drinks. I ordered snow crab with Karai special seasoning and cayenne pepper heat, no mess shrimp with garlic butter seasoning and ghost pepper heat, and steamed broccoli.
The food was made fresh and came out shortly later for our party of six. I tried some of my friends’ local corn and sautéed mushrooms and they were delicious. I liked my steamed broccoli. Just watch out if you were expecting it to be healthy like I was. Steamed broccoli was served drenched in garlic butter with a little spiciness.
For $ 25, the snow crab portion was generous! It was over pound of legs. The shrimp order gave me about 11 – 12 medium sized pieces. Broccoli was a good portion too.
Service was great with frequent check ups and friendly service. Parking is shared with Willows restaurant across the street. It may be validation only. I’m not sure because I walked here. Street parking is limited.
I definitely want to come by again. I might even try the Wall of Fire challenge! It’s 9 super spicy hot wings in 10 minutes. The server told me it’s 5 times hotter than ghost peppers!

Unilocal 100 Review Challenge 2015: ⁴³⁄₁₀₀
The Unilocal reviews had convinced me that if I love seafood, specifically Cajun seafood, then I MUST dine here. This is my 4^th «Cajun”/ seafood restaurant that I’ve tried in Oahu in just the last 4 months and unfortunately I would rank it 4^th among Crab King (Kaneohe), Kickin Cajun and Raging Crab.
The restaurant was pretty much empty at 5pm (opening time) on a Wednesday evening. We would’ve sat outside, because fellow Unilocalers describe it as «beautiful» but it was extremely hot & humid so we decided to dine indoors. The employees were all very friendly and informative from the time we entered til our departure.
The «no mess» shrimp was indeed the easiest shrimp I’ve eaten between the 4 Cajun restaurants I’ve tried. I ordered it in Butter Garlic, Mild and it was very bland. My friend & fellow Unilocaler (Traci M.) ordered hers with different seasoning and agreed that hers also tasted very bland. For $ 13 I got 14 shrimp which was not very filling but I didn’t opt to order any additional menu items after my disappointment with the shrimp.
At the end of our meal, when we received the bill, our server informed us that we could choose free desert from The Willow’s buffet. We awkwardly made our way to the buffet and grabbed a few desserts, the soft serve being the only outstanding dessert. This was a pleasant way to end our experience.
Great customer service and clean restaurant with both indoor & outdoor seats but I wouldn’t dine here again expecting «cajun». I’m glad I can say I’ve tried something new and dined at yet another restaurant that I’ve «bookmarked» (on Unilocal).
p. s. They have the cutest company logo :) (cartoon crab with flames in its mouth)

Here’s to my first so-​called «Cajun/​Creole» review in Hawaii. I’ve been to several of these types of restaurants in the mainland (specifically Seattle, Alameda, & Las Vegas). Boy, the mainlanders know what’s up. I’ve loved each experience so I just had to try it back at home. I was quite stoked if I must say so. Seafood (specifically shrimp & crab) is my FAVORITE. I’d much much rather have shrimp over steak or prime rib any day.
My friend (Rachel I.) finds this place on Unilocal & we decide to try it. Heard of it before? Yep, through Instagram posts & Snapchats. If sorted by highest review, it comes in 2^nd! Seen this place? Never. I swear I’ve walked around the area and never noticed it. Honestly, the signage isn’t that great. You look closed with the curtain. Possibility for improvement? :(
I made an online reservation through Unilocal which was quick & easy. You get an email confirmation & a text message to remind you. Simple & quick! Love it! We arrived at 5:00 pm on a Wednesday night. The restaurant was empty, completely empty.
SERVICE:
The host immediately greeted us & gave us a table. Our server, Jayden, was very pleasant & answered all questions we had. He gave recommendations. The food came out quickly, which is great when you’re hungry. He came by to fill up our waters & ask how everything was going. The manager also came by. The check came quickly after he noticed we were finishing up. The manager, waiter, & hostess thanked us as we exited. Keep up the good service!
FOOD:
It’s basically a three step process. Choose your seafood, seasoning, spice level. NOTE: This is NOT sold by pound. But, Jayden, informed us that for the shrimp, you get approx 12 shrimp which supposedly comes out to about 1 lb. This goes for both the shelled/​headed & «No Mess» options. Seasonings: Garlic Butter, Tropical Hawaiian, Lemon Pepper, Lemon Grass, and Karai Special is a mix of the Garlic Butter and Cajun.. Spice levels were Mild, Cayenne, Habanero, & Ghost Pepper. Ask for their specials.
Entrée: I ordered the «No Mess» shrimp with Karai Special, Mild for $ 13. There’s no head or shell on the shrimp. Seasoning not as strong on «No Mess» compared to shelled. Ehh, I’d give this 3 stars. The shrimp sizes were large. Cooked well. I really dislike overcooked shrimp. However, I didn’t taste any seasoning on it. The bottom of the bowl had a thick layer of what looked like oil. My friend also agreed that her Garlic Butter «No Mess» shrimp had little to no seasoning. In my opinion, the Cajun seasoning in the Karai Special was not spicy at all. If you can handle even just a little spiciness, I would recommend ordering the Cayenne at the very least.
Side: I ordered the garlic noodles with no green onions for $ 7. The noodles were very, very flavorful & had pieces of actual garlic. I liked that! However, I did notice that all my noodles seemed to be broken… meaning it was cut into shorter pieces? It was a little weird. I’m pretty good at using chopsticks if I say so myself but they were falling all over the place cause it wasn’t long enough! :(Maybe I just got a bad batch. Other than the length of the noodles, it was good! I liked having this side as an option! Other places simply offer fries, but the noodles were a good complement! Keep this on the menu! Is it worth $ 7? Probably not. The profit margin on it must be pretty high. I’d give it 4 stars.
Dessert: We were about ready to pack up & we got surprised & told we could get dessert at the Willows. Brownies, butter mochi, Lilikoi cake, Panna Cotta (whatever that is? Anyone know? Even the buffet server didn’t know! Yikes!), and soft serve! Woohoo! Dole pineapple and orange soft serve? Omg. Karai Crab, are you TRYING to make me pack on those extra pounds?! Thank you though! I had a small serving of pineapple soft serve, a Lilikoi cake, and fresh strawberries. Yum!
I was FULL. I mean FULL. Realistically, I’m almost never full. I get hungry 10 – 15 min after I eat a meal. It’s been 3 hours since I stopped eating & my tummy still feels like it’s about to explode. And. wait for it. I took home 4 pieces of shrimp & a portion of noodles. Say whaa? I have leftovers? How is this possible? I almost never have leftovers. And. I packed it before I knew we got free dessert!
PARKING: Apparently you can park with valet at the parking lot across the street. Other reviews state it’s $ 3 but I couldn’t verify that. When I came, there was no attendant at the lot so I opted for street parking. If you don’t mind a walk, both of us parked on Coolidge Street. You’ll be happy you parked far away after eating! :)
I was jumping between 3 or 4 stars. But I had to go with 3 stars because I literally thought it was just «A-​OK» which is 3 stars on Unilocal.Would I come back? I don’t think I would say, «Hey, let’s go to Karai Crab!» If someone invited me, I’d go again and try something different. Thank you, Karai Crab, for the experience though! I don’t regret going here, I just didn’t absolutely love it.

The manager gave 5 star service!
Our friends wanted a double date night and selected this spot because of the Costco deal (get $ 100 worth in gift cards for $ 79.99). This restaurant is connected to Willows with the option to dine in or out. The outside is connected to Willows and you get to enjoy all the views Willows offer. You can park on the street but that’s a challenge because it’s in a residential area. We opted for valet because we had a reservation to make. It’s $ 3 which does not include gratuity. Once we walked in the restaurant, we only saw one other table occupied. Guess we didn’t need reservations…
Being that it was so empty and there wasn’t much to look at inside the restaurant, we started to worry. Later we found out that most of their customers decided to sit outside to enjoy the Willows view. The décor inside was themed crab and we thought it was suiting. We all agreed the crab on the bib was cute. My friends were very excited so we played along not wanting to ruin their experience. Mink and I looked through Unilocal before coming so we knew what we were going to order and what to expect.
Our server was nice and helpful. The hostess actually surprised us when she came to check on us and to also bus our table a bit when we filled up our shell bowl. It was the manager that really made this place special! He was very personable and is one of the main reasons I’m writing this review. Not only did he made sure we had a great experience, he also brought over French Bread that were compliments of the house. Awesome gesture that put a smile on all our faces. He also brought out a small bowl of the extra spicy (ghost pepper heat) dipping sauce so we could try. I loved it!
Thanks to Unilocal,we knew that we wanted to order the Karai Combo with the Karai Special seasoning that was Spicy (Habanero Heat) and King Crab. We shared the Garlic & Miso Clams, Garlic Noodles and Bacon Jalapeño Cornbread. Our friends ordered the Karai Combo. This was literally the perfect amount of food for the four of us. While waiting for the food, my friend stopped and told me he had to ask me a serious question. He explained that they booked Willows to have their wedding and asked me if I could be his best man. Of course I told him yes and that I’m very honored. No wonder they were so excited all night. Now I have to write this review!
When the food came, they took a group photo so we could remember the night. The manager even took a picture and said he’s going to post it on their Facebook page lol. It was great they had a deep empty bowl for us to discard all the empty shells in instead of dumping it on the table. I found that the scissors they gave us for the King Crab was extremely useful. Didn’t need to use the double jaw lobster/​crab cracker. Now to the food:
Garlic Noodles were good and had nice pieces of whole garlic. It’s a nice starch to add to your order to compliment your seafood dinner.
Bacon Jalapeño Cornbread was ok. It was the only item we didn’t finish. Not what we were expecting and probably wouldn’t order it again.
Garlic and Miso Clams were good. I really like clams and this was my favorite appetizer dish. The French Bread came in handy to soak in some of the broth it came in.
Karai Combo was good. We all agreed the sausage really stood out in the bowl. Corn was sweet and the seafood inside had flavor. I thought that maybe they should have cut the potato in half so it could absorb some flavor. The seasoning wasn’t bad and gave the dish a little spice to it. Thank goodness for the ghost pepper dipping sauce!
The King Crab was very easy to access all the meat. Wish that the seasoning and flavors got into the crab meat. It was only around the shell. Great for presentation but didn’t do much for the actual crab meat. Again, thank goodness for the ghost pepper dipping sauce!
As we finished our meal, the manager again made sure we enjoyed our food and experience. He really is one of the best in customer service for food and beverage! After we paid, he heard that my friend was doing the wedding in Willows and took us to get free dessert. I love this guy! We finished off the night with an orange dreamsicle ice cream surprise. What a perfect night. As Angel H. said it «4 stars for the food and definitely 5 stars for the service.»

This was my second time eating Karai crab.
The first time we had no idea that this place even existed, but a friend that works in the kitchen told us to come by and check it out.
Service: Upon entering its a cute little place, im guessing you can make reservations because that’s the first question they ask when you walk through the door. The staff is super friendly. Always making sure your okay. The owner I believe walks around also, super cool and friendly guy! This time the waitress got my order wrong, I had asked for potatoes with my shrimp and then quickly told her to change that to corn. She then made the change but when my food came out I had the potatoes lol! Wasn’t a big deal to me, but they ended up giving it to us on the house. That was awesome.
Food: we ordered the shrimp, with the garlic butter mild. And the snow crab with the garlic butter mild as well, it was yummy! Can’t forget the side of rice, and the potatoes and corn which were also very delicious. I have yet to try the Karai sauce that they say is good, between garlic butter and a Cajun mix. I was so stuffed but HAD to try dessert! It was a warm bread pudding with vanilla ice cream and a caramel drizzle! OH MY GOSH! It was super delish that’s a must try.
We will definitely be back when we are in the mood for some seafood!

I finally got to try the food over here tonight and it was awesome. We got two Karai Combos (Karai Special and Garlic Butter), both in mild with one Dungeness Crab. The Karai Combo comes with shrimp, clams, mussels, potato, corn and sausage. Both of the sauces were good but I preferred the garlic butter. I’ve had fresher Dungeness Crab but it was still very good. The winner in the bowl had to be the shrimp. It was firm and plump. I just dunked it in the sauce. Yummers! I also ordered rice and just ate it with the sauce. My husband doesn’t like shellfish so he ordered the fried catfish. He said it was good but he’s used to it being made southern style with cornmeal instead of tempura batter. I thought it was delicious but I’m local lol. As we were leaving, the table next to us got two bowls of king crab. That looked really good. I’m going to have to try that next time.
They give the best service here. The workers are all so nice and friendly. They kept the water glasses and Pog drink filled all night. They also give kids a free dessert at the end of the meal which was Ice cream. My son got the half vanilla/​orange and it tasted like orange dreamsicle, so good. They also had hand towels at the end that were shrunken and dry. The manager poured hot water on it and it started to expand. That put a smile on everyone’s faces.
4 stars for the food and definitely 5 stars for the service.

Muito bom! Recomendo!
O ambiente é simples mas o atendimento é impecável, super atenciosos.
Caranguejo muito bom.