Cavalier Crab Shack

Food was good, liked crab cake the most. Service not so good for getting food out of kitchen. Our server was good but strained because she was dealing with multiple tables.

Went here twice once was for my moms birthday. It gets lost with all the other restaurants right next to it but if you can get a seat the quality of this food is amazing. My mom had the surf and turf which came with steamed vegetables as well and I had a shrimp dish with mashed potatoes spinach and chorizo all mixed together. The presentation was perfect for a fancy night out and while it can be pricey, the quality is worth it. The drinks are expensive like anywhere in that area but my dish had such a great mix of salty, savory, garlic, and creamy that I didn’t need anything fancy with it. Favorite place I’ve eaten in Miami.

Drinks were 2 for $ 25 which is good. The paella was delicious. I would go back and I certainly recommend it. The service was ok. We had a question about the bill and the waitress could have explained it better in my opinion.

Where do I begin !? We stayed here and screwed up and went to another hotel restaurant to eat our first night and had a horrible experience! Since then we have eaten almost every meal here and have loved everything we have tried. All the food is sooo good. Their specials are always good and their drink prices are the best we have found. The hotel staff and waiters are very personable and accommodating !

This restaurant sucks! The only reason it gets 1 star is for the drinks!
We stayed at the hotel and were walking in when the man at the doorway (who gets you to eat at the restaurant) talked to us and offered us FREE shots if we sat down and ate there. My boyfriend and I decided we would get ready for dinner then take up the offer since we were not familiar with the area and didn’t have dinner plans elsewhere. When we sat down the man said they were having steak specials for the night. My boyfriend ordered the rib eye (medium rare) and I ordered the shrimp and crab salad. I was surprised when I was asked to choose my dressing as usually specialty salads are paired with a special dressing of some sort. The food came out and we were very disappointed my salad was just the bag lettuce you buy at the store with 4 shrimp and a lump of crab on top. My boyfriend’s steak was over cooked and when he told the waiter he said «sorry about that» and did not offer to fix it or anything at all, then my boyfriend asked for A1 Steak sauce and the waitre came back with an almost empty bottle and said «sorry this is all we have.» Umm… I’m pretty sure they said they were running a steak special and they run out of steak sauce? Weird!
Well we sat through the nasty food and then ordered drinks… These were actually good 2 for $ 25 and they were pretty strong and very large! We would have said this made up for the crappy food if the next incident didn’t happen… So we asked the man at the front about our FREE shots and he said «oh yah, you just need to tell your waiter, I forget that stuff» so then we hear him tell our waiter and the waiter goes «WHY?!» all angry and aggitated. We can hear them and see them, they were like 5 feet in front of us. So the waiter walks over and asks us «What do you want? Tequila or something?» We just kinda looked at each other uncomfortable and said Vodka. So the waiter walks over to the bar where we are sitting right in front of but outside (there is a large window in front of us where you can see the bar) you can see the conversation between the waiter and the bartender and you can see her getting visibly upset and looking at us. Then we see her pour us a triple sec shot. The waiter came back and gave us our shot. We felt very uncomfortable and told him that we could see the bartender getting upset at us. We were not looking for free stuff this was what we were told. He apologized and said she was new. I don’t know what that has to do with being rude and making a customer feel uncomfortable but whatever.
We paid our bill and grabbed drinks at the place next store (which were just as good and the same price.)
To make it short… DON’T EAT HERE!

The food is average. The service is not professional. The price is ok. The location is great. It is in front of the park full of palm tree.

Absolutely horrible. You couldn’t pay me to eat here again. Azalea was our «waitress» we only saw her one time and that was to take our food order.
Walking down Ocean Drive every restaurant tries to draw you in with specials, this time it worked for me. We stopped for a strip streak and two sides. The steak was so fatty and flavorless. We needed drink refills during our meal but sadly never saw our server. Had to wait about 20 minutes to pay our bill (which of course included her tip that wasn’t deserved).
Very very disappointed in the service and food was the only thing keeping this place at getting one star. Save yourself the time, energy and frustration and don’t come here.

I’ve been here twice with out of town guests, because let’s face it, what locals voluntarily eat on Ocean Drive?
Anyway, we were pleasantly surprised. It’s not cheap but the food is fresh and the portions are huge. We did not have cocktails either time, only beer. The selection is good and the beers are not overpriced.
The negatives were the extremely loud music combined with servers who had absolutely no command of the English language (although in a very friendly way!). You can make one or the other work, but not both.
In all, it was a good experience because the food is straightforward and fresh.

Don’t go, the bathrooms are disgusting and filthy… stay away

Had breakfast there, it was cheap and good. Definitely a place to go to save money and get a great meal.

This place sucks. Drinks are overpriced and food is awful. My grilled cheese (no I didn’t order seafood) was not grilled and had cheese that looked a little old.
My friends ordered a seafood platter and they hated it. Her lobster was too salty and fishy. Crab cakes tasted like crap cakes. And the oyster just had a slice of cheese on it. Gross. Would never come back again.

Went back and had another great meal here in their steak special. This time my girlfriend and I both enjoyed filets. Her medium and my medium rare were mixed up between our two plates and sides, but I will say the service was perhaps the best I’ve had on the beach so far, and both of our meals were to die for.
Ask for the «mushroom sauce» which your steak. It’s fabulous and the chef made some new sauce for us too — simply divine. Enjoy!!!

Not great but good… It’s a great lunch spot. It’s right on Ocean and great for people watching. Nothing really stood out but service was fast and they allowed us to take our time. Worth checking out.

**SEE PICS**
With my shellfish allergy, «crab shack» means ‘proceed with caution’. Of course, there wasn’t much on the menu for me to choose from — so I opted to make a meal out of appetizers.
I ate alligator. ALLIGATOR! I’m a chicken-​turkey-​pizza type of gal, so this was well outside of my scope of flavors. I don’t have anything to compare it to, but it was well-​seasoned, tender and delish. As cliché as this sounds, it did taste like chicken — with the consistency of a steak. The grilled alligator was served mixed in fries with a great sauce/​grease. A dash of lemon really set the whole thing off. Next time, I’d like to try this dish fried. In the pics, you’ll notice it doesn’t look very appetizing. Trust me, the smell and juice on the fries will convince you to give it a shot.
As a creature of habit –and Virgo– I have my go-​to dishes. Spinach and artichoke dip is one of them. This dip was VERY good and probably one of the best I’ve ever had. I don’t recall seeing it on the menu, but there was something different about the spinach. I’m thinking it was a mixed green situation going on. No complaints, but I wish I could find the same dish in DC. (The search begins!)
Mai tai: I’m guessing this was made with blood orange or tangerine. It had an orange-​y taste, only better.
We were able to snag the good (daytime) Happy Hour special, which was well worth it. The portions were big enough to be considered an entrée.

I decided to try this restaurant for lunch since they seemed to have decent prices and it wasn’t that busy. My parents were visiting from out-​of-​town and were hungry so we all ordered off of the lunch special menu. I had the chicken sandwich and they both had the grouper sandwich. We all liked what we had and the portion size was good. The food wasn’t great and the chicken was a little burnt; however, I have learned you can’t expect great food on South Beach. The waiter was really nice although very busy b/​c the bartender didn’t show up so he was tending bar and waiting tables inside the restaurant. If you don’t order off of the lunch special menu, it’s going to be extremely expensive and probably not worth it. Stick to the specials and you’ll get away with decent food at a great South Beach price.

The food was decent, at best. We only ate there when we did because we stayed at the hotel upstairs (The Cavalier) and it was convenient to just run downstairs for lunch before heading to the beach.
It was definitely overpriced for the quality of food served, however their happy hour and lunch specials were decently priced.
The drinks were strong, so you definitely get your money’s worth there.
One time, our waiter took about 30 minutes from the time we were seated to ask us if we wanted anything to drink. I asked him for a larger glass of water because I wasn’t feeling very well and wanted to stay hydrated — he said he would bring me a normal sized glass and would come around frequently to keep refilling it… he never did until I got up and complained to the hostess and others on the wait staff.

Sadly, I want to give more stars to the Crab Shack, but the poor service killed those chances.
I came here with a few of my friends one night after a vacation to the Caribbean. None of us have ever eaten in Miami (we’re from California) so we chose the restaurant with the best prices for drinks as well as food selection on Ocean Drive.
The seating was awesome! It is great to people watch and eat right on Ocean Drive. The drinks are great too! Their $ 10 64oz mixed drinks are very fun. I had the salmon and linguini alfredo — very very good. My cousin had the 5 blue crabs, also good according to her. So it seems A-​OK, right?
WRONG
We never got water, which was requested. My cousin never got crab crackers until asked for halfway into the meal. We had about 5 different people serving us (manager, waiter, hostess, busser, other waiter)…who am I tipping again? And when we were ready to pay we had to flag down a different waiter to get the check and then again flag down the hostess to take our money. On top of that, I was forced to pay a 19% gratuity for a party of 4. I’m not sure if this is a Florida thing, but in California we don’t charge 18% grat until 6 people or more. I’m a waitress and I know how hard I work to get a 20% tip and based on the lack of seated tables at the restaurant, there could have been a lot more attention payed to our table. With much better service, this restaurant would be an easy 4 stars. The requests were so simple and no-​brainer — I’m very confused why the service was so lacking.

I was pretty disappointed with Cavalier — it wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t great either.
I am a HUGE crab fan, and was VERY excited to see that they offered whole crabs — very hard to find in Chicago where I am from! i have also had whole crabs before in Florida and they were AMAZING, so I was expecting these to be the same.
They instead were very small and hardly had meat in them. They weren’t horrible tasting, but didn’t have much flavor in them at all — only a little bit of seasoning. My husband got the lobster ravioli, and that was just ok as well. Nothing too special about it, and we weren’t particular fans of the sauce that was used for it.
Luckily we did come during their 50% special, but i couldn’t believe the regular prices on their items and non-​special items — waaaay expensive for such a casual place and mediocre food.
I wouldn’t say not to try Cavalier, but I push you to go either — there are a lot of other seafood places in the area, and many other good-​smelling restaurants down Ocean Dr. to try.

I love coming to the Cavalier Crab Shack. Their food always seems to be 50% off! This makes their prices normal for South Beach. I would not pay full price here!
The food is fresh and delicious! I highly recommend their Crab Spinach Dip. It is a must every time I eat here. Their Crab Cake sandwich is also delicious!
I have eaten here several times, the food and portions are consistent and always good. Service can be a bit slow.

Review of the Hotel’s Restaurant: Cavalier Crab Shack
Ocean Dr. is full of pushy hostesses trying to drive you to their restaurant. Our group settled on Cavalier Crab Shack and were not disappointed. They had 50% off their menu, and 8.99 lunch menu selection, and $ 5 drinks. No catch. I spent $ 13 on a delicious grilled salmon with two sides and had a $ 5 bahama mama. Good food and drinks. Service was satisfactory. The ambiance would be my only complaint: it looks plain and cheap.