Crab & Cray Cajun Seafood & Bar

We came here when they first open. We had the bone marrow, foie gras and rib eye served in a wooden cutting board. It wasn’t as delicious as the higher end restaurants but it was decent. We tried again recently and all of the items that they had before is removed. The crayfish was bland, the steak was rough, the garlic noodles super soggy and the list goes on. We also brought this to the managers attention and all he can say sorry.haha. He’s probably thinking sorry that your ass think we actually care. oh well never coming back again!

I really wanted to like this place, but I think I kept comparing it to Boiling Crab. There is quite a bit of parking, since there is no major grocery store (once one opens, might be a different story). The place itself is clean and has an open concept. I personally really like it, quite rustic in a sense.
So they sell seafood by the pound, but that includes corn, hot links & potatoes. You can get it without the hot links, but they still weigh in the corn/​potatoes. The menu also has a variety of other items, fish & chips, wings, pasta, jambalaya and more. They also have a full bar.
When you sit down, you get some shrimp chips, which are great to munch on. We placed an order of 2 lbs of the «bayoulicios» medium shrimp, no hot links. My cousin ordered fish & chips, we also ordered garlic noodles. The garlic noodles were a bit mushy, but had great garlic flavor. The food itself took a while to come out, which I was surprised about. Each pound of food came in it’s own bag.
Now this is where it was eh for me. The sauce that the shrimp came in was not thick, and as a result, I didn’t get the full flavor on the shrimp. It was good, but not sticking to the shrimp. The shrimp were also harder to peel and made quite a mess, moreso than I’m used to.
The staff is really nice and friendly. The fish and chips were pretty good and the tarter sauce was yum.

I ordered for pick up. Two ossobuccos and one fish and chip with Cajun garlic fries. My
Boyfriend picked up the order for me. I had the ossobucco last year and it was delicious. But today, I guess the add bacon (which I really don’t like in my food) as well as hot links. I think it’s unnecessary to add the hot links. It’s not even mentioned in the description. Also got less hominy. Probably cause the hot links take up so much space. The fish and chip had regular fries, not the Cajun I ordered. I tried calling the restaurant and told them what happened but I was put on hold and then they just hung up on me. I just don’t want to be charged for an additional order I didn’t even get. Probably the last time I eat from this establishment.

Firstly, if you guys are coming here for foie Gras or bone marrow, don’t. They’ve been removed from the menu, should probably update the Unilocal menu guys.
We got Cajun fries, Cajun wings, and shrimp on our visit.
Fries were good. Wings were meh, will prob never order again. Shrimp was good, as was the sauce. And it came with sausage (delicious btw) potatoes and corn.
Service was somewhat lacking though. She may have been the only server though so not a huge deal
Overall pretty good experience. Would eat here again if I was on this side of town. Wouldn’t go out of my way to come though

Ate here on a Wednesday and it wasn’t packed! My family wanted to try a new seafood place so we went here.
My experience was pretty good! Waitress were very nice and orderly. Food came in a timely matter! Great service! I only remember one waitress Esmeralda, she was very kind and helpful! Her service was great!
Food was great! We got calamari and 2lbs of shrimp. Flavors we got were «a whole 9 yards» and «garlic butter» both were tasty! My favorite was the garlic butter! «The whole 9 yards» was a combination of sweet and spicy. Both bags came with potatoes and corn! Calamari was crunchy and over cooked but tasty!
Environment was very family oriented! Very spacious when it comes to seating and many TVs to watch games and shows!
Overall, food and experience were great and I would comeback/​recommend this place to others!

NUMBER 1 spot for seafood. I always order crawfish, shrimp, and clams basically a whole combo. SUPER GOOD. Crawfish is important to me and it tasted so fresh! The sauce is so much better than most other seafood places. I used to always go to kickin crab but now this is my usual spot! I love how they open at 11am. Before most of the crawfish places don’t open til 3pm but this place is the most earliest that opened and I LIKE THAT. Friendly service. The raspberry tea was good also! My bf usually get oysters and it was indeed fresh. THIS PLACE WILL ALWAYS TOP ALL RESTAURANTS.

My first impression walking into Crab & Cray was how spacious it is. There is so much room and different seating arrangements from an actual barside of the restaurant, to wooded booths for parties of 2 and 4, and higher tables. There was plenty of room and you should never really feel disappointed as to why a party of 2 has stolen your table because that table should’ve been put aside for a party of 4+ instead.
The service — Our server was Ku. He was really attentive and observant. There was an instance where another server brought out our dozen oysters since Ku was otherwise pre-​occupied. She walked by, dropped off the oysters, and basically disappeared. Luckily, Ku was walking by and noticed that we weren’t given the bottle of Tobasco and she didn’t actually stick around long enough for us to ask. I overheard him saying «you forgot the tobasco «and before I even had the time to smile from excite. there he was with «oh and here’s your tobasco. is there anything else I can get for you guys?» TALK ABOUT TRIPLE A+++ SERVICE. I didn’t even have to ask! I don’t care how many parties were there, this guy took care of us. My brother’s raspberry iced tea was always refilled before empty. Napkins were dropped off before we were out. I have no idea why anyone wouldn’t like this place based on service.
FOOD — so, like some of the other reviews have stated… if you’re comparing to OG places like BC (which I always do) you might not like it. The sauce is a bit sweeter and not anywhere near how thick BC’s sauce could get. If you lifted the bag of goods, the sauce is liquidy and you could basically see through it. Whereas, BC’s sauce is thick from spices and butter and you couldn’t see through it even if you tried. It wasn’t bad, though. I rather enjoyed my meal here and the garlic noodlessssss are to die for! Thank goodness my brother reminded me about parmesan on the side otherwise I might’ve actually died (since I’m extremely lactose-​intolerant).
The parking lot is a bit tricky so be careful … anybody could actually drive into you at any given moment because of the random islands and turns. It’s typically fairly empty, though, so you should be safe most of the time.

Ate there last night (¹⁄₂₃). Got seated promptly and service was attentive and friendly. There’s a very limited wine list (2 whites/​2 reds), so if you enjoy the fruit of the vine, best to bring your own. Our server said there was no corkage fee, but she admitted being somewhat uncertain about that. Remember that this is a Cajun seafood bar, so make sure to bring one that will complement the heat of the cajun spices.
They serve a basket of complimentary shrimp chips, which are actually quite tasty. I had a Moscow Mule, my wife a glass of the chardonnay. The MM was tasty, the Chardonnay was Carmenet.
We went with a build your own combo backyard boil: king crab, shrimp, clams, corn, hot links, potatoes. The Whole 9 Yards flavor, medium heat. We ordered a «toasted French baguette» to the order to sop up the broth. I added a cup of clam chowder and we got a bottle of Zinfandel to go with it all. The Zin wasn’t actually on the list; they recently removed it because it wasn’t selling well, but had a few bottles left. We figured it would go better with the flavors than the cabernet sauvignon, and certainly better than the pinot noir.
I was disappointment that they brought the clam chowder with the boil rather than as an appetizer. But it was very good clam chowder, maybe the best restaurant based chowder I’ve had in San Jose recently.
The boil is a hoot to eat. I recommend that you wear clothes that are easy to clean. Even though they provide bibs, you’ll get bits of stuff everywhere as you’re peeling shrimp or cracking claws. The broth was quite flavorful with just the right amount of heat. And the boil had plenty of stuff in it. We ate all of the hot links, corn, and potatoes and made a significant dent in the rest. Nevertheless, we brought enough leftovers home to turn into a dynamite soup for lunch. The «toasted French baguette» was more like a roll; we were hoping for a crunchy loaf.
While they provide wipes to clean up, you’ll need more than the puny little ones they give. Bring some of your own, or ask for more.
All in all, this was a good place for dinner. We’ll be back, next time with friends… and our own wine!

Saw this place opened up in the summer time but I knew that I had to give it some time before we gave it a try… You know, so they could iron out all the wrinkles and kinks. So the weekend after Thanksgiving, we decided to check it out.
First thing we all noticed was that it was uncomfortably cold in the dining room. I think they must be trying to keep the energy bill as low as possible at the expense of the guests. There was one of those space heaters on the floor by one of the tables, like really now? How classy.
Anyway, on to the food. I ordered a pasta dish, the Mardi Gras Fettuccine because I was thinking it might taste like the similar looking entrée from Cheesecake Factory. Unfortunately, it was super bland, and the noodles were extremely overcooked and mushy. Hubby had the Osso Bucco, which came with no real starch option, so it was just meat and veggies, which is fine I suppose. The shank was a bit fatty but did have a lot of meat.
Some of our friends had the shrimp/​crawfish which initially came out in a bag, and then was transferred into a big white bowl at the table. They seemed to enjoy it, so maybe that’s what you should stick to when dining here.
They have such a large space and it’s unfortunate that it doesn’t look like it is really flourishing enough to have a full house. Maybe it’ll get better soon… but I don’t think I’ll be hurrying back anytime soon.

Came in on a Thursday evening, 830pm.
Wasn’t that busy so we got seated fairly quickly, customer service was good & very helpful considering it’s our first time here.
Ordered the build your own combo: lobster, shrimp, crayfish, corn, potatoes & garlic noodles w/​the whole nine yards –mild.
After ordering they gave us some shrimp chips to snack on while we waited.
The garlic noodles came out first, too garlic-​y for my taste but the noodles were cooked aldente.
As for the combo, sauce wise I wasn’t really feeling it. I’ll probably try out the other flavors when I can. For some reason the whole nine yards just wasn’t for me, I guess it was just because of the sweetness. As for the cooked seafood everything was delicious, got a handful of pregnant crayfish, a good amount of potatoes & unfortunately they had forgotten our corn but when we notified our waitress she handled it very well and we got out 4 pieces of sweet juicy corn.
All in all I would probably go back, but not anytime soon. More like on a special occasion because of the pricing.

Overrated, the only good thing was the Backyard boil.
The ambiance was conflicting: décor has a Cajun/​Marina feel, but the music playing was catered to the younger crowd.
Luckily, we beat any dinner rush because we got there 530p, and surprisingly seated fairly quickly.
The introduction to waitstaff was fine. He proceeded to get our drinks while we decided on the meal
+ large booth seating
+ kids menu
+ friendly wait staff (at first) explained menu items throughly.
— customer service began to dwindle as more people started to arrive.
— Water was clearly tap, and ice tea no sugar?
+ Sodas, free refills
— We received kids items first, a cheeseburger-​the burger patty was to big for the bun and the cheese stuck to the bun.
— Next was the gator bites: doughy bite I have ever tasted. Whatever gator was there tastes frozen and was so small in comparison to the dough surrounding it. Tasted like a cross between pork and fish… boo
(Neutral) Dozen Oysters, was mediocre… I had better.
(Neutral) Clam chowder soup was ok.
Scallops I was told tasted to sweet for the liking.
Lobster roll, was small and tasteless, not much lobster, bread was cold and rest seemed raw-​like.
+/​-​The backyard boil, we were told feeds 2−3…NOT, more like good for 5. It had shrimp, king crab, and little or not enough sausages. I forget to mention, no ladle no utensils how the hell do we eat?
— After the bin, and napkins were given it was last we could see if our waiter until check out. Service was horrendous.
Would I go again? Not likely…

I’ve been meaning to check out Crab & Cray ever since they opened. I’m normally not down in SJ often, but since I spent most of my holiday break down there, I decided to grab myself dinner on Wednesday, December 30^th. I placed a takeout order through Eat24 (
) at 7:45pm. I showed up around 8:05pm to pick it up.
Build your own combo ($ 58)
*Make it with: Maine Lobster
*Choice of 1^st item: Shrimp
*Choice of 2^nd item: Manila clams
*Choice of sides: Garlic noodles, Corn, Hot links
*Special instructions: Bayoulicious, Spicy
I originally ordered Dungeness crab, but they didn’t have any due to the algae problem. They offered Alaskan king crab legs as a replacement, but since I was going to have crab the next day, I decided to get the lobster. It’s a whole lobster, so I actually found it a little hard to eat as I didn’t have any tools to crack it open. I ended up going all cave women and tore it apart with my hands and teeth! Not pretty, but got the job done. I did wish they served the lobster cut up so the sauce could penetrate the meat more.
The shrimp and clams were good. I know a lot of people had issues peeling the shrimp, but I didn’t. The shrimp didn’t stick much to the shell for me. The clams were good and meaty, but I was disappointed I got 2 – 3 that weren’t open. My bag had the least amount of clams, so that was a bummer.
For the sides, the garlic noodles were overcooked, so mushy. The hot links were meaty with a subtle spice. I just wish there were more pieces. I think there were around 5 altogether. The corn, taste wise, was fine. But they are on the smaller side.
When ordering through Eat24, they don’t give you a choice of sauces or spice. But I looked through all the pix on Unilocal and saw that as an option, so I noted the sauce and spice level I wanted. I was debating between the whole nine yards and bayoulicious, but after reading the former was sweet, I decided on bayoulicious. It was flavorful, but I found it too lemony. There were certain clams that absorbed a lot of the lemon flavor. Kinda felt like a lemon smack to the mouth. The spice level was fine. Had a kick without being overly spicy. I could have used more spice as this felt more like medium to me.
Overall, my cajun craving was satisfied, but I do prefer the a certain establishment a block or so down the street. I think their sauce is better. But if I don’t want to wait, Crab & Cray will do. Their combo is a good size and would have been 3 meals for me if I stayed down in SJ longer.
For a place called Crab & Cray, I was disappointed they didn’t have crab. That’s cray cray, right?!

I feel this place has gotten a hold of their sea legs so to speak. It’s been open for the greater part of this year and its star rating is accurate: on-​the-​fence, hit-​or-​miss menu items ahoy!
I’d stay away from anything fried here. For example, most creole/​shrimp places you’d be safe ordering a fried catfish/​popcorn shrimp basket right? Not here; very soggy, very salty, almost like they were microwaved frozen foods. There’s also the high-​end section of their menu containing things like lobster bisque and the like that aren’t that much better.
I’d recommend the Backyard Boil of seafood in a bag. I mean that’s why you come to these places, right? to get your hands dirrty! Can’t go wrong with a 13 lb. bag o’ shrimp with your mood in flavor & spice for the day. Not the No. 1 place for Cajun by all means, but worth a try n’ sample if you’re in the Evergreen area.

When Crab & Cray first opened, we were a little concerned by some of the negative reviews posted but also figured most new restaurants have some kinks to work out when getting started. I’m glad we finally tried and weren’t terribly disappointed. I wish I could give them a 2.75 stars that would be Meh… This place has potential…
The food was pretty good, the selection great and the price competitive with nearby places that serve similar food. But the service was a little rough as is described by some of the other reviews. One example is my Ice Tea was brought with what appeared to be a rotten lemon… really gross. It took me quite some time to flag someone down and when I did she didn’t apologize just went and grabbed me a new glass with a bowl of fresh lemons. Okay, I won’t hold it against you in particular, but come on, don’t you look at what you’re serving? That was pretty much how the rest of the experience while we sat with very little attention from the servers
Bottomline, I’ll go back again but we’re going to give them a little time to iron things out a just little more. If things are better I would definitely update my rating.

Came here for the first time a couple of weeks ago to taste the difference for myself between this new establishment and the famous Boiling Crab. The food was pretty good except I found that the dishes were quite salty. Not too salty, but enough for me to pause for a moment. I noticed the seasoning tasted a little on the tangy side with some hint of pineapple, different from the Boiling Crab preparation sauce, but not bad. There was no wait, the waiters were attentive to our needs, and they provided us with plates as needed.
Their garlic fries were my favorite! I was a little disappointed with the combo we got, in that they gave us a lobster that was quite difficult to eat. It just didn’t work. The portions of the shrimp given were great though. Definitely enough for four people. Next time I want some tangy seafood, I’ll definitely come by here to check out some of their other menu items.

Attention review readers! I, too, came to the crab & cray Unilocal page hoping to find redeeming reviews for the low overall rating, you are not going to find it here. If you’re pressed for time, please proceed to your nearest «Boiling Crab» or «Kickin’ Crab».
If you’re still here… its time to face the harsh reality… this place is sub par.
Service:
Service is very slow. Although every member of the staff was quite friendly and cheerful, the lag time in service on a seemingly not so busy Friday night was shocking. The service can be looked over when considering how polite everyone was. The food also took excessively long to come out.
Food:
–Shrimp chips come out with every meal, i loved ‘em.
— Crayfish spicy w/​whole 9 yards: forgettable.
— Jambalaya: Nearly inedible; needless to say no box was needed.
Everything here looks good, but just falls disastrously short. Save your money. Go somewhere else.

I had prawn jambalaya, it was tasty for the first few bites. Then it became too spicy. I drank 3 full cups of water at the restaurant and 2 cups at home. The next day I had nausea. I won’t come back.
The sevice was friendly but slow. I think they need more waitress.

This is our third time coming here and possibly maybe third time was a charm. Our first time was when it was their grand opening and they were low stock and most beers were not available, which was very disappointing along with the staff being new and all. I’m glad we came back and gave them a which I thought it be our last time here. I liked our service much better this time and our waiter (Bob) was very tentative and gave us extra everything: napkins, salt and pepper and refills for our water and soda.
Food was fresh, I was actually full this time. I picked from the side menu rather than to not get full off one dish. I loved the clam chowder and their shrimp cocktail.
Thanks Bob!

My wife and I stopped by for a late lunch. We stood by the front host area and waited for someone to greet us. We made eye contact with a couple of the servers, but none came over immediately. After a couple of minutes, finally one of them greeted us and took us to a table. We just ordered a couple a appetizers and some oysters. We had the bone marrow and foie gras. The bone marrow ($ 9) was good as well as the foie gras ($ 21). The bone marrow was worth the price but the foie gras wasn’t. It was descent, but I’ve had better with that price range. They had a good selection of oysters, with a price range of about $ 2 something each depending on the type of oyster.
FYI, we were there on a Saturday afternoon and couldn’t order any drinks from the «bar» menu since the bar didn’t open until 3pm. At least they had a decent selection of bottled beers to choose from.
They give you a plate of shrimp chips to munch on while you look at the menu. They were pretty tasty. Good with a nice cold beer. I would come back to this place the next time that I am in town.

THEIR BAR IS 5 star!!! It’s a separate establishment next door. The bartenders are cool and nice, definitely great people.
Gabriel is the man. He’s pretty awesome and has great ambitions for 1735! Kudos to him and his bartenders.
The restaurant please review below:
This place is one stars maybe two stars at best. My friends and I got here around 7? And was told the wait would be 45 minutes, that was not the case turned out to be only like 20 minutes. The only issue is that they gave us one of those automatic number systems that would vibrate, it didn’t we had to double check with the host.
SERVICE:
Bad. Our waitress never refilled the water, she didn’t even know or remember the menu or what the item on the menu was. What kind of joint doesn’t train their guys to know the menu inside out. If your waiter/​waitress doesn’t know the menu — well then something is absolutely wrong with how you’re running the place. Clueless and useless, I don’t mean to be mean but damn.
She kept coming up to us and asking if we were doing good, but she never refilled water or took away dirty dishes. We had to hand it to them, wtf?
FOOD:
Uh wow. Their food deserved one star at best.
My party ordered:
Calm bucket appetizer
Shrimp bag with bayou flavor
Jambalaya
Osyter’s Chef special
The oysters, well the CHEF special is 10 for half dozen and 12 for a dozen. The rest of their oysters list is 2.75 to 3 dollars PER oyster! That would had been 36 dollars for a dozen kumamotos. That’s just a huge rip off, especially since many restaurants don’t even charge NEARLY that much for oysters. The oysters were alright. They were «fresh», but definitely not something i’d get again.
The clam tasted gross. You can totally taste the tap water it was soaked in and the wine it got cooked in. Not even reduced!!!
The shrimp was not as great compared to kicking crab or boiling crab, total joy kill right there. There was also ONLY TWO PIECES of sausages… the restaurant owner is CHEAP
Jambalaya was too spicy. The sausage was skimped and not worth it. They literally took one small slice of sausage and cut that up into smaller pieces, JUST ONE piece.
I don’t understand how you can open up a restaurant and call it great food, but end up making crappy food
Overall, I am never coming back here again. I will ONLY go to their BAR SECTION as it’s literally an attachment separate from their restaurant establishment.