Crawdaddy’s SLO

«mess maker, mess maker… make me a mess»
I ordered the Kitchen Sink Shrimp and holy moly it was absolutely fantastic. All the flavors in my mouth were incredible, and my shrimp was oh so tender.
I love the whole concept of this place, but apparently everybody came in fo the tacos!!! They definitely have some great specials and attract the college crowd.
But, I was happy to be dining alone, because the huge butcher paper they laid down under my steaming bag of deliciousnes was desperately needed as were the roll of paper towels. I am sure I was a sight, but every bite was worth it.

If you enjoy waiting ridiculously long for your food, by all means please shower this place with your presence.
Came in with the girlfriend and ordered a garlic Cajun fries, fried seafood platter combo, a side of rice, and the a pound of shrimp with mild sauce.
Prior to ordering, the cashier did tell me that their fryers are slow/​down so the platter would be a bit late, which I replied is fine. We waited for 40 minutes just for the fries to come in.
The garlic Cajun fries, which costed a dollar more than Cajun fries, was definitely not worth. There was barely any garlic on the fries… It was all on the bottom. The fries were really blend as well, I mean how you gonna say you sell Cajun fries when you are hella skimpy about the Cajun powder/​flavoring? Smh hard.
Then comes the platter. The combo platter that took over 50 min to come. It was a crapload of breading. All over everything. The fish tasted frozen as the textures were off. Calamaris were breading all over. Shrimps were eh. The cole slaw had a nice dressing, which was the only positive thing about the food.
Then about another 15 min the shrimps finally came. By then no one is even hungry anymore. I don’t mind waiting for the food if the restaurant gave customers a warning beforehand, but holyshit a pound of shrimp took an hour to come out after the fried platter when the fried platter is supposedly to come last? The pound of shrimp did not even look nor feel a pound but whatever.
Oh yeah they also ran out of shrimp apparently. Overheard workers explaining to customers they ran out. Of all things to run out at a seafood Cajun place…
The workers also gave us an extra rice. Not because they felt bad but because the workers thought it hasn’t come yet when it was already brought out early.
Overall this place absolutely sucked. I really hope that this is a one time thing. The shitty experience, outrageous long waits, the average food provided really made me regret my decision of coming here. I been to Crawdaddys in SJ, and it definitely offered better experiences. This understaffed, poor example of a restaurant is really something people should avoid unless they step up their game.

Nice place, cool décor, and clean. I was here on Monday to try there 99 cent grilled or fried fish tacos. The tacos came and they looked really good. Definitely worth 99 cents. I like the Cajun seasons and fixings on them, and the tortillas are great. Had one problem. The fried tacos came out cold, and they took them back a fixed them with out a problem. I WILL BE BACK TO TRY MORE.

Talk about best fish tacos in the county!
I always get the bag of shimp medium hot, with the kitchen sink sauce! Awesomee

I had a group traveling on the train to Santa Barbara, so it was a quick and easy place to grab a quick meal. They serve beer and wine and my group was ready for fun. I ordered the pound of spicy crawdads. Everyone was trying them and digging the flavor. I was impressed and have been to the South too. This is the best place for crawdads without getting on a plane.
My wife’s salad was pretty big and she was happy. All 10 of us liked it and would return.
This place keeps it simple and easy. Cruise to the soda bar and grab some condiments too.
5 stars from Phish.

Wow! Have never eaten here before this week but have already been back for a second time.
Monday night I had the Calamari and loved it. Not greasy even for a deep fried food. Amazing sauce and the staff was great.
Tuesday I went back for the crawfish tacos… I hope they have a location near San Diego because I love this place.

Love this place.
I usually go on Mondays for their 99cent fish tacos. Each taco is filled pretty generously (I am usually full after 4) and they’re always seasoned well. I usually add a little bit of the red rooster hot sauce for a spicy kick to it.
It’s conveniently located near Cal Poly with its own parking lot. It’s affordable which is great for college students or someone looking for some good food but not wanting to pay a whole lot.

Gone for the second time. This time brought the wife and kids.
Hooked on the hush puppies and crawfish quesadillas. Quick service and great microbrews on tap. Not a fan of oyster tacos but not an overall fan of oysters.
Prices reasonable for feeding the five of us. All of us happy with our orders for the most part.
Will come back, maybe on Weds when the tap beers are all $ 3.00 all day. And get that crawfish quesadilla.

Went to Crawdaddy’s for the first time last week. I felt pretty ‘meh’ about the experience in general.
They weren’t that busy, but it took about 25 minutes to get our food. I got the fish n’ chips and an appetizer of fried pickles. The pickles were WAY over seasoned; I felt like I was chomping on a salt lick. They would have been tasty if not so salty. The fish n’ chips weren’t great either. The batter was heavy and not very tasty. The garlic fries had an exorbitant amount of garlic on them– wow. In general, they need to tone things down.
Pluses: they give you a heaping plate of food, so you will probably have left overs.
I’ll probably give them one more try, as the steamed bags looked good, and so did the fish tacos. We’ll see if I get back there.

My boyfriend and I went here. I was disappointed to not find too many cajun items. Although there were some cajun items on the menu, I would have liked to see more cajun type of items. Having said that if you are looking for good food, then this is the place for you. The fried catfish was not greasy and cooked just right. The frog leg’s were good as well as the ahi tuna wrap. Which the wraps are not something you would expect from a cajun inspired place. Nothing was spicy and what we had for lunch tasted like the old bay seasoning was used. I think I will only go back if I am in the mood for a good fried catfish dish.

Not good. I have been waiting for the crowd to die down so we could eat here and I am so disappointed. Everything was overcooked. I’m pretty sure there wasn’t even salt and pepper on the food. There are no seasonings or sauces on the table. I had to ask for silver ware and was given one fork and one knife for my husband and I. No one checked on us the entire time we ate our overcooked, dried out shrimp and crawfish.
Don’t waste your time or money :(

i was born and raised in new orleans… and so my expectations for cajun food is extremely high. i have always been faced with disappointment here in california when they try to pass off their mediocrity as «cajun»
i had the oyster poboy and garlic fries for lunch and the fries were amazing… but the oyster poboy was meh… the oyster weren’t fresh and left a bad aftertaste in my mouth.
my friends had the crawfish tacos and quesadilla and they seemed to have enjoyed it. so perhaps next time i will try something else.

kind of like our own Angry Crab out here. the place was empty though so we were nervous. but they have the «buy a bag of seafood, pick your sauce, pick your spicy level, dig in». the shrimp was good but a sauce was kind of greasy/​buttery. we also had the seafood combo, which was a huge plate of deep fried goodness. big pieces of fish, shrimp, bay scallops, and calamari, fries, and coleslaw. it was enough to make me almost need a Statin.
friendly service and good location. huge building!

Fast food Cajun style? I think that about sums this place up. Went here for dinner for the Husbands birthday and wish we had made a different choice.
Husband ordered the Maui Maui Po’boy with garlic fries and I ordered the 1lb crawdad boil seasoned with the «kitchen sink», medium spicy, with a side of white rice. For $ 13+ dollars a person we were expecting more.
The Po’boy looked to be a good sized sandwich but upon inspection there were two sad, thin, tiny piece of over cooked fish inside and the garlic fries were bitter. The crawfish were very spicy, though besides being overly spicy the kitchen sink spice combo was pretty tasty. The crawdads themselves however tasted as if they were less than fresh with a distinct muddy/​dirt aftertaste. I know they are called mudbugs but these went too far. The white rice was prefect for soaking up some of the seasoning and taming out the spicy.
This place has potential to be a fun place to bring the family for a down a dirty meal (they roll out butcher paper for the table and put out a roll of brown paper towels to clean up with. As well as provided plastic bibs). But they really need to address the quality and quantity of the food being served.
We probably won’t be back unless we see some stellar reviews about changes.

–1 star: sat in a booth near the soda fountain and saw a line of ants on the wall/​window sill
–1 star: for the prices. Coming from LA where a pound of shrimp from Boiling Crab is only $ 9, $ 13.50 for a pound at crawdaddy’s is a bit much.
But I will return for the monday and tuesday specials on the fish tacos for 0.99 and the crawdad tacos for $ 1.50. I preferred the grilled crawdad taco over the fried crawdad because #butter
The oysters were good but on the small side.
If you’ve been to BC, the kitchen sink is supposed to the equivalent of «the whole shebang» but doesnt have a strong enough taste. But at least i’m not having thise BC burps…

Update: have been here a few more times now. They do have combos for the steamer bags, and they have pokè! Their menu has expanded a bit, for the better.
Now for the reasons I’ve dropped a star– Why do all of the young girls who work there wear shorts so short and tight that for some their girl bits are kina showing (camel toe farm) the guys all wear pants? I’m confused. I don’t like looking at that while I’m eating my fish taco. :-/​the seats put your face right about that. Yeah. Well. Ok.
They are getting orders wrong way too often. The last two times my order has been mixed up. Then today, I bring my folks and it gets worse. They mucked both of their orders up and didn’t even bring me my tacos. Sorry. That just. Ow.

What a fun place! For less than $ 100, five of us were able to feast like Cajun royalty. We feasted on peel and eat shrimp, mussels, baskets of Cajun garlic fries, baskets of garlic bread, sweet potato fries, seafood gumbo, Cajun crawdad tacos, Cajun fish tacos, blackened ahi tuna po’ boys and oyster and shrimp po’ boys.
Our server was really wonderful. Even though this is an order at the counter affair, he made several trips to our table to check on us, deliver our food, put down butcher paper, take away items, deliverer tools (bibs and utensils). He walked us through the menu and was so helpful and patient as we made our lunch decisions.
Everyone seemed happy with their selections. I like how you can choose your seasonings and spice level on your seafood specialties. We chose the «Kitchen Sink» treatment, which is a blend of all the seasonings, including the cajun rub, garlic butter, garlic lemon pepper and wet cajun sauce.
The Cajun-​spiced shrimp boil is the way to go here. One pound of finger-​licking good peel ‘n eat shrimp swathed in a spicy butter sauce. Will definitely be ordered this again! The gumbo is thick and hearty, brimming with shrimp, andouille sausage, celery and Cajun spices and should be a part of your Crawdaddy’s experience. The tacos were nothing too special. They are shrouded with lettuce and I couldn’t really make out any distinction between the crawdads and the fish. The oyster and shrimp po’ boy was overrun with lettuce and featured a little too prominently in the sandwich but still a worthy selection for this price.
Indulge in fresh seafood choices and Cajun flavors in a relaxed atmosphere at Crawdaddy’s. I’ll know we’ll be coming back soon.

This is just an initial review and I hope to update it w/​more info later.
Facilities:
Excellent location. Right near fwy exit and plenty of parking. Beautiful décor. Very amusing nautical theme. This place has unlimited potential.
Service I received today:
Meh. You order at the counter and they bring you the food. After the food was dropped off, I realized I would need to go to the far end of the restaurant for cutlery, napkins, ketchup, and whatever else I’d need. I was the only person in the restaurant and the young staff were loafing around and yakking so I would have expected the server to at least ask if I needed ketchup for my fries. If that’s too tall of an order, then so is leaving a tip!
Food I received today:
I ordered a shrimp po’ boy. Now I’ve eaten my share of po’ boys in Louisiana so I knew what to expect. For this reason, I was surprised at the stingy number of shrimp. I mean, google «shrimp po’ boy» (like I just did) and you’ll find images of sandwiches piled high and deep with fried shrimp. This one came with 5 small shrimp. Also, there was very little flavoring. I challenge you to find an image of a po’ boy with the same or less shrimp than my photo of this sandwich!
When I placed my order, which came with fries, I was asked, «regular, garlic, or sweet potato?» I said, «sweet potato.» So I was surprised when she then threw $ 2 onto the check. The issue is that garlic and sweet potato are an upgrade that cost more but she didn’t mention that when asking me if I wanted them. Boo! Yes, it’s written on the menu but I didn’t study the whole thing.
There’s a lot I do like about the place and I’m definitely coming back to try more options. I look forward to returning to try their big bucket of stuff dumped on the table. It appears that you get a lot more for the price than you get at the Cracked Crab. I’ll give an update when I get back there to try it out.

Came for Fish Taco Monday ($ 1 each I believe) and I didn’t have the greatest experience here.
Ordering here is Carl’s Jr. style where you order from the front, you get a number and get your food brought to you. I came with a group and since we all ordered similar things, the servers would just ask «X crispy/​grilled fish tacos» and we would just stare at each other in confusion since we all pretty much ordered the same thing.
I got 2 crispy fish tacos and 1 grilled fish taco. I was pretty disappointed by the fish tacos because they were so freaking bland. I mean, they were definitely not bad, but I might as well have been eating a taco with white rice ’cause they really didn’t taste like anything. Those fish died for nothing. :*(I guess I did like the grilled a little better but it was still bland. I would never come if it wasn’t Monday. They do have $ 1.50 crawfish tacos on Tuesday which I have yet to try.
It’s pretty much self service after you get your food because the servers never stop by. One of my friend’s order of fries never came so I went up to the register to see if fries take forever to make here or if they just forgot (they did). The manager and server were really apologetic and quick in getting us our fries but it was kind of just another strike on top of an already subpar experience. If I’m not paying for decent food or decent service, what am I paying for?

Bottom line: I am impressed.
We came here at about 9:30 on a Friday (30mins til closing). It was pretty empty besides another table so it was nice to just take in the place and all the work that was put into it. Staff was very friendly. Great set up, love the décor. It would be great for parties. I mean, I’m not sure how crowded it gets at a normal lunch/​dinner time but I think it would be able to accommodate large groups easily.
For the shrimp, coming from the bay with Boiling Crab /​Craw Station /​Kickin’ Crab, I give 2 thumbs up to this place. Of course, it’s not EXACTLY like Boiling Crab, but for some reason I thought it was really close and still in my opinion, delicious. I think it does a pretty good job at satisfying that cajun shrimp craving for me. However, the shrimp are a lot smaller here and overcooked as they cook more in that steaming hot sauce after it’s brought to the table but they give a lot a lot of shrimp to compensate for how small they are. Also, the limes they had I think were kind of dried out and less juicy.
Besides being like a Boiling Crab, they also have other things on the menu, like tacos and sandwiches. My boyfriend got the Cajun Blackened Ahi Po’Boy with Garlic Cajun Fries and he thought the sandwich was amazing. It was a nicely seared ahi sandwich with cole slaw that he really enjoyed. Not too many places have seared ahi sandwiches like that.
Overall, we will probably be back Crawdaddy’s!