The Rockin’ Crawfish

Why did I just find this place out so late? Eclectic wall deco with varieties of scripts, writings and signs, psychedelic lighting, metal cocktail glass that makes you want to just lick drink out of it. But this is a place to eat crawfish, and crabs, and oyster on a tray, and bucket of shrimps, and spicy clams and buttered corns.
Go after the high quality proteins from la mer? This is the place that no four-​legged will be found on table. Prices are reasonable. Look up to the wall for the seasonal prices.
Oh, you got tot try their mixed drink. It’s only $ 4.5 per each, Apple Blaze with sweet acid green and Marilyn Monroe with pinkish crème. I could never be happier with the special drinks.
Go. And go fast. This location will be permanently closed on August 4, 2014 due to lease arrangement issue. According to a poster on the wall. New TBD location will be in Oakland。

Wow, I’m so glad I gave this place another try. It’s now my favorite. Sorry cajun house.
Every rockin crawfish has a wait time, San Francisco just happens to not be that bad.
Park on clement or Anza.
Shrimp is big, they do not skimp on the sauce. Garlic butter is best, although my hubby’s favorite lemon pepper is from here. The onion rings and sweet potato fries come with plenty, and doesn’t taste refried. Sauce is soooo gooooooddddd, I just wanna drink it. *not really but you get it*
Place could be pricy, but worth the extra bucks to not go to San Jose!

Decent place.
They have HH M-​F from 4 – 7 where they have $ 1 oyster specials and buy 2 lbs of crawfish and get 1 lb free.
And there is no wait. It was practically dead inside.
I prefer boiling crab over this place but I guess it’s worth it if you don’t want to wait in a crazy line and come during happy hour.
Service is slow.
The deep fried Oreos were good.

1. Definitely not as good as Boiling Crab, overhyped or not.
2. About on par with Swamp, but in a very different style. The boil is less thick, but sweeter (I think there’s brown sugar and all-​spice in it) and definitely more heavily buttered. The actual shellfish (crawfish and shrimp) were noticeably meatier so that’s a plus over Swamp. We still prefer the boil at Swamp. They also have cherry stone clams.
3. The atmosphere is less dressed up, with a similar feel to BC.
4. The level of customer service is about the same.
5. They’re open on Tuesdays when Swamp is closed.

We were planning to go to another Cajun place but there was a super long wait so I called rockin and there was no wait. So we drove out to Richmond and it was hell finding parking. Definitely hard to find parking in this area but we finally found one across the way after circling a few times.
We ordered a few appetizer/​sides for our table. Calamari, Cajun fries and Cajun waffle fries. The calamari was soggy but still okay and both fries were good. I really liked the waffle ones.
For my main course I ordered a pound of shrimp, rockin sauce medium. The sauce has flavor but it’s really watery and could use some work. Overall it was okay.

Oh my, the wait is pretty long for groups of 4 or more without reservations so make sure you make it. My party and I waited 2 hours! But I heard rumors they don’t take reservations less than 6 people?
Finally we got seated and started ordering. There are three flavors: lemon pepper, garlic butter, and rockin’ combo. Spicy level: mild, medium, spicy, extra spicy. We ordered those flavors with the shrimps, clams, crawfish, and dungeness crab. Medium spicy was decent, but I loved the kick of the spicy.
Waffle fries was great and it came with ketchup and ranch. Half shell raw oysters are equivalent to $ 2 each with the choice of half a dozen, or a dozen.
If you can make it during their happy hour from 4−7pm on weekdays, you can catch some good deals! Not sure if their happy hour menu changes frequently or not so I’ll let you go check it out yourself.

Went here again and was left satisfied. The crab legs are, absolutely delicious. The Cajun fries are good as well and since they have different levels of spiciness I typically get medium.
The chicken strips were good and were made from quality chicken breasts. The dipping sauces were okay. (BBQ ranch and ketchup). Wish they had a special sauce!

December 2013
Ordered the garlic lemon butter clams, and the chicken strips, yes, you heard right… chicken strips with fries.
The clams didn’t taste very lemoney or garlicky. But they were buttery.
The chicken strips were the standard bar chicken strips and the fries had some spices on it.

Came in on a Saturday night, was pretty mellow and got seated right the way probably because they have been out of crawfish!
The ambiance is very much like the boiling crab, not as tasty though but I must say the size of the shrimp was pretty good and the service was nice.
Ps. The music was on point, feeling 2000’s hip hip/​rnb track!

Redeemed an Amazon Local offer. $ 20 for $ 40 food.
Located in the Inner Richmond district It’s a narrow retail space. Contains a bar so maybe it was a bar at one point. The interior has a distressed look. Lots of purposely written wall graffiti located throughout, even the restrooms. The music was too loud for my liking.
The three of us ordered family style off the regular menu. Happy Hour M-​F 4p-​7p. Pitcher of beer $ 12 and buy one bag and get the other free. As we had a coupon we couldn’t double dip.
Ordered —
*calamari as a starter
*a bag of crawfish
*two bags of shrimp
*six pieces of sausage
*three ear of corn
*pitcher of Anchor Steam draft beer
*one glass of soda — free refills
Roll up your sleeves. No flatware or plates. Just a roll of paper towels. Make sure you wear your bib. Lots of squirting.
We ordered mild. We especially enjoyed the whole shrimp. Cooked perfectly in the bag. Steaming hot. The crawfish was good too but so much work for so little meat.
We paid an extra $ 40 plus tax as we ordered so much food.
Lots of street parking as we ate early. More like supper.
Next time we will need to come for HH.

Came here with a living social deal and sorta wish I bought an extra one for sometime in the future. I don’t think this place is worth the $ without the deal but for a first time it’s nice checking out. Wednesday night for dinner has the place about half full.
We ordered 2 lbs of origional rockin crawfish flavored shrimp ($ 12.99/lb), calamari ($ 8.99), sweet potato fries ($ 5.99), and 2 pieces of corn (.75/​corn). Calmari was a little too thick with too much batter. The sweet potato fries were delicious. Even though I ordered shrimp to be nonspicy it still had a nice kick to it. The sauce it was soaked in was lacking. It was watery and didn’t have enough garlic. By the time I got to my corn, I couldn’t eat it because it had soaked in the sauce for too long and every bite I took my mouth was on fire. Sweet potato fries really help neutralize it though :) I suppose their sauce will be a bit spicy since it is Canjun flavored.
Observations: Great place to catch up with a group of friends without waiting in ridiculous lines for ALMOST the same product. The service is superb here and very friendly. There are several huge TV screens so you won’t miss the big games. Awkward that you see people eating with gloves on. Suck it up and get the full experience. Don’t forget to tag the wall before you leave!

Came here since I had a LivingSocial deal. Would return even without a coupon!
The outside looks kinda dark (I believe it’s painted black) seemed more like a bar than a restaurant, which threw me off. The inside is chill (graffiti all over EVERYTHING!) Cool spot to hang with friends. Definitely want to come here for HH one day!
The price is pretty standard of these Crawfish places (maybe even a tad cheaper?)
The seafood is REALLY fresh like all the other reviews say. My dad used to work in a restaurant and agreed as well which is always a good sign. He always knows when a crab has been frozen.
Must: CLAMS IN GARLIC BUTTER SAUCE. om nom nom.
I just wish the sauce was thicker so it could cling to the seafood better but not a biggie!

I got the livingsocial coupon so we came here to try. It was A-​OK. The food was tasty but the service was not attentive (but fast as long as you can get their attention).
We ordered …
— 1.5 pounds of crawfish with mild garlic butter sauce. Taste good but we realized that there really isn’t much meat in the crawfish. We probably will not order crawfish again. Pound for pound, the shrimp probably has a lot more meat.
— 1 pound of clam with mild rockin-​sauce — Excellent.
— 1 pound of king crab with mild rockin-​sauce — Excellent. Lots of meat. Taste good. Maybe we will order medium sauce next time.
— corn and sausage (they put that inside the clam bag) — OK. So so.
— cajun fried — nothing to write home about. Will not recommend it.
Overall, the food is quite good. It was fun to eat shell fish in a bag. I will not order crawfish again but will try the shrimp. I also others getting the seafood gumbo, will think about it next time if we go again.
Oh, the bathroom was dirty — see picture.

Messy.
Delicious.
Servers can be difficult to hail.
That’s about it, really.
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OK, let’s not cheapen the quality of Unilocal reviews. Here’s some more detail, if you’re so inclined.
Despite sitting right next to the counter, it was difficult to hail the servers at times. They were pretty friendly and willing to answer our questions about the menu, though.
The breading on the zucchini fries slips off too easily. The ranch it came with was pretty good. But the star of the show, the seafood, is solid. The minimum order for seafood is 1 lb, then you can continue to order in half-​lb increments. The crawfish are a little on the small side… but since they sell them to you by weight, I guess you can have the illusion that you’re getting a lot more. The Cajun spice seasoning is a bit salty, but flavorful. We chose Rockin’ Combo with volcano-​level spice for all of our meals. The volcano spice was actually decently spicy. I wouldn’t say Rockin’ Crawfish is my favorite restaurant of the «shellfish-​in-​a-​bag» type, but it’s not bad at all.
4 stars, rounded up from 3.5. Gotta give them props for their perfect health score.

The food, environment, and music are amazing here. It was my first time eating crawfish and I was super excited to finally try it. You know a place is good when there’s a crowd on a Monday night.
We ordered a pound of crawfish, pound of shrimp (both with garlic butter and medium spicyness), chili cheese fries, and a lychee saketini. Lemme tell you, if I didn’t have to work the next day, I would have gotten three of four saketinis. They’re only $ 4.99! The chili cheese fries were on point. The chili was meaty and flavorful without having too many beans. The only thing was that the fries were a bit underdone. I like them more crispy, especially if they’re gonna be smothered in chili. The crawfish was ok. It’s a lot of work for so little meat. However, the shrimp was amazing. They were huge and cooked just right.
I’ll be sure to try the other options (lobster, clams, crab) and definitely will order the shrimp again. I was not disappointed!

I am a fan of the Oakland location, and may be one of the few that prefer Rockin’ Crawfish to Boiling Crab. I disliked the sauces I tried at BC and after waiting 1.5 hours for them, they are dead to me.
I ordered one pound of the shrimp with lemon pepper sauce, medium. I remembered the hot being more intense, but the medium was too mild, so hot it is for next time. Their chili fries and fried zucchini are tasty, but one fried appetizer is enough for 2.
The service was good. People were constantly checking on us and refilling our drinks. I’ll be back.

Most of their menu is based off market price (crawfish, crab, king crab legs etc) so if you’re complaining about price — do me a favor and stop eating. PERIOD. Go home.
Anyway.
Price will vary DUH because it depends on the market.
The night I happened to pop in, crawfish was at $ 11.99/lb. A little higher than usual but you have to take in the fact that it’s currently the end of crawfish season out in NoLa. And yes, their crawfish are from NoLa. Those mudbugs were still pretty big and meaty when I went though.
Went with the rockin combo, original and it had a little zinger kick to it. Just an eensy baby kick, what I wanted. Buttery enough but I think I wanted it a little more garlicky.
We also got an order of cajun fries. When the waitress asked us how we wanted it original mild spicy or whatever, we just said original (obviously because I get heartburn from spicy) and yea… our fries came out and they were just plain fries. We had to clarify that we ordered cajun fries and she said because we ordered original we didn’t get the cajun seasoning. *sigh* Why are they called cajun fries then? She was cool about it and tossed it in the seasoning for us. And they didn’t ask if we wanted steak fries or waffle! I would’ve wanted waffle :(
Shirley Temple was pretty bomb at Rockin’ Crawfish. Tasted like it had some fresh strawberry pulp in there and not just grenadine.
Rockin Crawfish also has TVs so you can keep an eye on your favorite sports team while getting down and dirty.
I’d come back for some more finger lickin’ goodness.

3.5 stars. I’d been craving crawfish for weeks! Finally met up with a girlfriend and came to Rockin Crawfish. It was a Mon night, so super chill. There were plenty of free tables when we got there and we were seated immediately.
We got Crawfish, Shrimp and Clams, all rockin combo in a variety if spice levels. The Clams, which we got at medium spice, were nice and juicy, but the medium didn’t have much flavor compared to the other two spice levels. The Shrimp, we got at spicy. This was my fav since it had a little bit of a kick but had a nice spicy garlicky cajun flavor. The Crawfish, we got at volcano. The crawfish were nice and plump, but the volcano wasn’t super spicy like I wanted. More or less, it tasted almost exactly like the spicy sauce except volcano had a hint of a lingering kick. Overall, the sauces were a little on the watery side. I’m used to the thick saucy Boiling Crab sauce and these were a little thinner.
Service was good. Our server was attentive and good at keeping our waters refilled. Afterwards, you can write on the wall with a sharpie, which I thought was weird, but I decided to partake and write a little something. Overall, this definitely satisfied my crawfish craving!

+Service was perfect.
+The wait staff brings markers and chalk to your table so that you can add artwork of your own to the walls. Not sure how long this will last since I imagine the walls will be covered soon.
+Loved the fried basil that came with the calamari.
+Shrimp and clams were cooked perfectly.
–The cajun waffle fries we got just tasted like spicy fries. I didn’t get any cajun flavor.
–The rockin combo sauce could be better. The spice just isn’t the most flavorful. Also, I think sauce is a bit too thin to really flavor the seafood.
–The little paper cups that hold the salt-​n-​pepa and should hold your lime juice just don’t really work. My juice was seeping through the paper. I think they should stick to the little plastic cups.

3.5 STARS
I was craving head.
The juicy, succulent kind.
MmMmm…
Shrimp heads and crawfish heads that is so I cancelled our reservations for Postrio (again) so we could try this East Bay favorite at their new SF location.
A lot of people seem to rave about Rockin Crawfish’s Oakland location and compare it to Boiling Crab. Maybe because we don’t have many BCs in the Bay Area? Nonetheless, Boiling Crab will always be the reigning crustacean king in my book.
*~*~*~*M E N U*~*~*~*
Like Red Crawfish, Craw Station and nearby Cajun House, Rockin Crawfish offers a similar menu with Cajun Fries, Wings, Gumbo, and Fresh Oysters, etc. for appetizers and Shrimp, Crawfish, Clams, Crab (Blue, Dungeness, or King Legs) and Lobster for the mains.
There are 3 seasonings you can choose from: Lemon Pepper, Garlic Butter, and Rockin Combo Sauce with 5 levels of spiciness: Original, Mild, Medium, Spicy, and Volcano.
They also offer Saketinis but they didn’t have alcohol available that night. BOO!
*~*~*~*F O O D*~*~*~*
For the SEEfood diet, we ordered the Clams ($ 9.99/lb), Shrimp ($ 11.99), Crawfish ($ 13.99/lb) and Lobster (MP: $ 29.99).
Make sure to add Corn ($.75 each) and plenty of delicious Sausage (6 pieces — $ 2.99).
Our SEEfood Meal:
Almost all the seafood was über fresh and cooked to a perfect sweet tender doneness. The shrimp was my fav as they were large and plump, as were the clams. The crawfish were small but full of yummy head goodness for sucking. I would skip the chewy lobster though.
Now to the most important part, the sauces! They were a bit disappointing as they tasted similar to one another (same base?) and all had different spice levels even though we ordered Medium Spiciness for everything.
*Rockin Combo: My fav sauce of the night as it was full of robust Cajun seasonings that was garlicky, oniony, peppery, and tangy with a buttery finish.
*Lemon Pepper: Lacked both pepper and citrus but this was the spiciest. Add a squeeze of lime for more of an acidic punch.
*Garlic Butter: Tasted like the lemon pepper. Definitely needs more garlic and butter.
*~*~*~*S E R V I C E*~*~*~*
Although the staff was friendly and our waitress was a complete sweetheart, they were green and needed more training.
We weren’t provided with plates or utensils and when I asked for some, we were given flimsy paper plates (sauces soaked through and spilled onto the table) and plastic forks. What the heezy?
After we received our last bag of seafood, our bill was laid on our table. Uhh ok? I moved the bill aside so we can start on the crawfish, then our waitress came over to pick up the «paid» bill. I had juices all over my face (Yah, I’m a slob) and my hands were drenched with sauce so how can I’ve possibly paid the bill? It’s totally unprofessional and a complete no-​no to bring the bill to customers while they’re still enjoying their meal. Did I mention, that we were the first and only customers of the night so what’s the rush?
Our waitress was very apologetic but still that shouldn’t have never happened.
*~*~*~*A M B I A N C E /​D E C O R*~*~*~*
I loved the urban street vibe with bold reds, red brick walls, graffiti wooden panels, and 6 flat screen TVs surrounding the spacious dining area that accommodates about 50 people with 8 tables and counter seating.
*~*~*~*P A R K I N G*~*~*~*
Easier street parking than nearby Cajun House.
Rockin Crawfish has a lot of potential to be one of the best Cajun Seafood joints in SF (Cajun House is my current fav) if they iron out their kinks with the sauces and with the service.
At the end of dinner, we were given markers and chalk to tag the walls without getting busted and cuffed by 5 O’s. I let the man do the honors and what did he write?
Me: «WTF!!!»
Him: «What? It’s the name of our future kid.»
Me: «Wow, you must want our ‘future kid’ to come home every day with a black eye!»
Him: «Hey, it’s better than what you call me!»
Me: «What’s wrong with Snookums?» =(