The Crab Shack

We finally come for dinner after so many people talking about this place! Firstly the location is awesome for a romantic walk before or after dinner, it’s right next to the harbour and often you can see cruise ships around, the night we go is fantastic weather and it makes thing more delicious! Although you have to be aware of the waiting time, it’s often at least 40 mins before you can be seated and they don’t take booking for small numbers either, food takes about 40 mins to arrive too!!! This is probably what brings it down for me…
We want a light dinner so only order an entrée, a salad and a crab dish to share, the raw fish entrée is very lemony compare to ones I tried in Tahiti which is more coconut taste which I prefer. The crab however is awesome! For me the meat texture is not the best, but the sauce (almost a soup for me) is to die for, I love love it, the strong and tasty crab with garlic chilli and lemongrass! It’s so good I have to keep drinking it with my spoon, haha…
I know quality of crab can’t be compare to other countries fresh crabs, but this place does satisfy my crab craving :)

Awesome fish and chips!
Great offers… We had the fish and chips with a soda for 19 $!
Staff super nice
The deco is really toward the crab fishing.
The booth are very nice to share a meal with friends.

Dropped in here for my brothers last night in Auckland — will definitely go again! :-)
All 6 of us loved it! Great seafood! Great zingy flavours! Great service!
Two of us tackled crabs — which was entertaining and tasty! Raw fish salad, squid and slow cooked pork excellent!
Looking forward to the next time!

Should be re-​named the CRAP Shack. The crab is not fresh and was not hot. Sauce is runny. Service takes forever and the cocktails are laughable. No recommendation from us but to go to Thailand and do it properly.

Pathetic service at Auckland branch.
I had been to the Wellington outlet a fortnight earlier and wished to share a similar experience with my partner. This outing was an abortion. I remain mad.
It was not at all busy when we arrived at approximately 5:30 pm on Saturday, 5 December 2015. I include time and date of attendance in the hope that management can raise my concerns with the staff member concerned.
The hostess/maitre’d asked us where we would like to sit. We were told when we chose seats overlooking the window that we would be restricted to bar snacks if we sat there (I don’t even know what bar snacks are). The waitress from the section stated she could accommodate us; rather than simply seat us where we wanted to sit the hostess got into a whispered confrontation with the waitress concerned, it would appear reprimanding her for her insolence. I fail to see what the hostess’ issue was given all sections were 80% empty? Poor service from the hostess given my expectation of restaurants that requests within reason are accommodated without effort.
Needing more than bar snacks, we chose the table as close as we could to the water, shunted awkwardly in the corner next to the entrance and staring at a potted plant rather than the harbour. We asked to move when our waitress came which was apparently no issue at all.
The new seats were as we wished, overlooking the water. My partner had asked to make sure that everything was piping hot — she is pregnant and food must be piping hot to be safe — to which the server replied, «oh it’s deep fried». Fair enough but the the crab cakes were gummy on he inside and gave little confidence that they were cooked.
My partner was unsure about whether the hollandaise had raw egg in it, another pregnancy dietary restriction. Obviously hollandaise has egg in it but «no, there is no egg in that» was the first response, which from the waitress before she thought better of and decided to check. She returned to announce «it’s ok it’s cooked» which was, as it turned out more accurate. The sauce had split and was essentially scrambled egg.
I can’t tell you about any of the other food as no one ever bothered to check whether we wanted to order anything else. We sat with dirty plates in front of us while the wait staff flirted with each other and otherwise whiled away the time not doing their job. I had considered getting a crab pot secure in the knowledge the kitchen would have to mess up pretty solidly for my impression to be any worse than it was at this stage.
When we left to pay we again encountered the same hostess. «How was everything?» she asked, so I told her «disappointing». I outlined why, stating the crab cakes were gummy and flavourless and the hollandaise had split. She paused awkwardly, said «everyone else has always liked the crab cakes… How would you like to pay?» failing to take notice of the fact I was holding my credit card. I have no confidence my comments were relayed to kitchen.
After this pathetic service the restaurant was not shy in audaciously asking us to tip. I consider this an outrage. This is NZ where tipping is not customary, and when we do, it is on the back of superb service, the other end of the spectrum.

We had a couple of drinks and an order of Calamari, while walking the wharf. The view from our table was impeccable. We were able to order drinks within 5 minutes with another 10 minutes to get them to the table. Hmmmm… in the middle of the afternoon? Hardly anyone there when we first entered. After the first drink we decided to order the Calamari but no one in sight to take an order. Finally after a 15 minutes we were able to order. The Calamari, had a beautiful and tasty bread coating, served with a cilantro, lime sauce.
A little pricey for a couple of drinks and appetizer, but good overall.
Would we return to the Crab Shack? Absolutely! It’s hard to find good Calamari!

Update, that my wife gave this place another chance and her experience was far better… Original: My wife visited here on Tuesday evening with a friend from overseas, took a seat, waited 20 minutes before asking a lady if they could take their order, and the lady asked my wife to wait and after 10 minutes my wife and her friend left. There were staff floating around at the time not looking busy. My wife headed to the viaduct area and had much better experience for the rest of the evening.

The Crab Shack — what can I say. If you love crab & are wanting somewhere to relax with awesome sea views this is the place to go.
My family visited this place on an early Friday afternoon after picking up my son from school. We were able to grab a great high table facing the sea views. It was lovely to sit in a lit restaurant with great décor that represented the name of the restaurant well. We were immediately relaxed from a long week. Just what we needed!
We love crab so we were excited to check out the menu.
We ordered the following:
Spicy Chicken wings: Good enough portion for an entrée & real nice spicy chicken a lot of flavour!
Chips: Entrée Medium size serve but the chips were yummy — great crunch & fluffy inside with yummy seasoning (definitely order those again)
Bread: Was poor serving size: 2 little buns (but soft to sop up the crab sauces)
Spaghetti Bolognaise: Kiddies meal — small serving (had to order 2 for my 5 year old son)
Mud Crab: If you like spicy this is the dish to order. Good portion & that sauce is delicious definitely ordering that again!
Jonah Crab: Nice dish but disappointed on the flavours weren’t prominent e. g lemongrass, coriander
I didn’t have wine this time but the list had variety.
Can’t remember the desserts we had so that probably says something.
I’ve given this place a 4 rating.
Because I’ll definitely be going back, loved the flavours out of the Mud Crab, the restaurant had awesome décor & views (you relax once you’re in there– we don’t just want to eat we wanted to go out & relax somewhere) & the waiters gave great service. Although the dishes we ordered weren’t all fantastic the restaurant vibe & location made up for it!
Before we left my husband was planning the next weekend to come back.

I have been at the Crab Shak a couple of times. First time I loved it, great food and service. Now, the second time was around two weeks ago. The place was not busy and there was a good atmosphere, however, the quality of the service was below average, food took 45 min to come to the table, once arrived the crab lacked of sauce, and small.
One of my friends asked for gloves as he does not like to get dirty when eating and the waiter made fun of him instead of being helpful.
At the end of the night we asked for the bill and it took 30 seconds to arrive.
Unfortunately there is not going to be a 3^rd time for me and my wife.
The Crab Shak needs to train their staff better as they are the first point of contact.
I hope you guys take this on board for future customers.

Finally had a chance to try this! Even though I personally did not order any crab, I tried my friends plates, I will only review the seafood dishes. We took on board with what other Unilocalers had to say and ordered the soft shell crab and crab and crayfish cakes. The crab and crayfish cakes were really nice and the Saucey One (she loves her sauces…) fell in love with the Pacific island coconut onion sauce. It balanced really well when you eat it with the cake! I do have to say I won’t recommend it to people of they don’t like coconut, it is really strong.
The soft shell crabs. Wasn’t that great, too much batter (quite oily). Nothing good to write about.
The calms had a really tasty sauce that made you want to drink it! And they were all big and juicy!
We also ordered the Blue Swimmer crabs. Things DID get messy. The sauce was absolutely divine, had garlic, butter, coriander and chilli. The only downside was the crabs themselves had a weird ammonia after taste to them. Not quite sure what that was about.

Really fun Place with upbeat and charming servers. We had a very nice time at this place. We loved the Red Slipper Lobster with chili garlic butter. The blackened fish burger was good too.
The local beer in tap is varied and there are many options.

Make sure you come hungry and ready for the physically intensive exercise of cracking crab legs and scraping out the meat inside the hard crustacean shells. It’s a full-​on, time-​consuming real crab experience and you need both hands to get right in it– rings came off, and the delicious soup from our 1kg crab pot all over my hands and the mix of herbs and other things in the stew.
Loved the white bibs immediately and it makes it even more of a good time– to realistically protect the clothes and provide another means to wipe the hands. Two girls shared the 1kg crab– and it was a lot in addition to our spicy chicken which was half a kg of BBQ chicken wings with a yum five cheese sauce and the steak fries– highly recommend those sides.
Love the coastal Cape Cod USA theme with the hanging fish trawlers and nets and maps on the walls in the entire space. Very seafood orientated with more than just crab, with a full bar and lots of interesting meals– definitely worth checking out but be mentally and physically prepared for the hard work of eating

The Crab Shack and Matterhorn — the best of Welly has come to Auckland in the first half of 2015!
I had been to the Crab Shack in Orleans when they open exclusively on Sunday and Mondays.
But I have to say, nothing compares to this Simon Gault eatery.
The vibe is spot on and there’s an excited energy about the place. The décor feels like something out of the States with a relaxed Hawaiian feel — heck even the cocktails come with cute umbrellas.
Recommendations:
— The soft shelled crab is a must order! We ordered another portion of it because it was so juicy and unlike other ones which are just crispy tempura batter, you can truly taste the meat.
— The bread. Yes, order the Manuka smoked bread. I don’t even like bread and I was the one who suggested to order seconds.
— It is probably wise to wear the bib that comes with the crab. I realiesd this only after I saw the flecks of crab sauce on my friend’s shirt.
Avoid:
— Going on a Saturday night in a group. They only take bookings for groups of 10 or more so we ended up waiting for an hour before we got seats.
— The cocktails were yummy but priced at $ 20, there wasn’t enough alcohol in it to justify the steep price.
I was surprised the whole bill came to around $ 35 per person — I was expecting a lot more for crab! Mind you, we didn’t order the Red King crab which was $ 112 for 700g. Instead we got 1kg of the Nelson crab pot with chili-​garlic butter. Admittedly it was hard work and messy digging the meat from the crab but also part of the fun! We also ordered the spicy wings and ½ pound of Shark Bay tiger prawns in a lemongrass and chili tomato sauce and I can recommend both. I didn’t order any mains or burgers so if I were to go back, that’s what I would try from the menu. But I can confidently say you’ll be satisfied from the crab pot and shack boards alone. Plus I think you’ll agree that they’re more fun to share and eat!

Simon Gault’s newest addition, The Crab Shack, don’t get too excited, I was very disappointed.
This place is heaving with tourists and locals mostly young thinking this is the hippest place to hang. In my opinion they have to raise their game a huge amount to keep business and not become just another bar. The views of the Cloud are lovely at night and I love the imaginative cray pot light shades hanging all over the ceiling.
I was quite impressed with the woman on the pass, making sure that food was in fact sent back when all that tables were not ready at once. Pity the kitchen didn’t look to be very well oiled.
I had to get the Atlantic golden crab with my friend. But before I could tuck in and make a gorgeous mess I had to done the big white bib they provided. Yes the soupy liquid at the bottom of the pot with coconut and pineapple was great and sopped up with my sweet interesting Manuka smoked bread, but a bit of a novelty at $ 52 for the two.
My Cesar salad jar was the pits — all Cos lettuce and nothing much else but some sparse dressing. Never mind the prosciutto and croutons. A $ 15 rip off so I got a refund for this.
Then comes dessert and another refund. The woman on the pass had clearly gone home and a very runny newly made mousse was delivered to our table by the unsympathetic cocky ‘talk to much’ Matre-​D. Instead of admitting they had run out and offering us another dessert they made a dessert that was no way going to set in 5 minutes.
I loved the 80’s music flash backs playing on the TV’s and the cocktails are great. I’m not keen on the toilets that look like you’ve walked into a London train station. This place hopefully will get better otherwise unless you have a craving for crab then I wouldn’t bother.

Headed to the Crab Shack with a bunch of girls from work to celebrate a birthday and was not disappointed.
Started with a bread n dips plate that surprised me by both the size and they crispy fried bread/​taco totally yummy and the fried squid.
I ordered a main of a fish burger which was very large, there is no way you could pick this beast up and bite into it. This was washed down with the cocktail special, not sure what it was called, but the flavors of Ginger Beer was welcome on such a hot day.
The bar area outside is where you want to be, sitting inside gets noisy and warm on a hot summers day.

We chose to dine at The Crab Shack on a busy Saturday and despite an hour in the bar waiting for a table, we had a great time. We had the spicy chicken as an entrée and it was mildly spicy and delicious — we fought over every last piece. We also shared the Crab & Crayfish cakes which were moist and fragrant — we’d definitely get these again.
For mains we had the Big Auckland Fish Burger and the Pork Belly which was very moreish. The burger was perfect — a bun that was slightly crispy on the outside but soft and fluffy in the centre, crisp, fresh veggies and a thick battered piece of fish. On the side were a very generous portion of thick cut chips and some creamed corn, all washed down with nice cold Kiwi beer.
The atmosphere is lighthearted and fun — staff were dancing between tables towards the ends of the evening — and the view over the harbour can’t be beat.
It might be new and exciting, but I think the allure of the Crab Shack will continue through the summer!

I have a friend back home that is always on the hunt for a Crab Shack in each city he visits, so I was super excited to try this one out and rub it in his face.
We ordered the corn and crab dip and chips which came with a sweet potatoe dip and a guacamole. I thought the corn and crab would be my favorite but it turns out the sweet potatoe was the best.
We ordered the drink of the day (something with rum and lime) because the server said it’d be $ 10 but we got charged $ 15 a piece, because it wasnt quite happy hour time. That was a little let down.
However, our server was very nice and the establishment was very cool… front the lobster and crab cages hanging for the ceiling to the location right on the dock.
This is definitely a place every tourist should try.

When I read about Simon Gault’s new restaurant I was super keen to try especially after quite a few good reviews. Upon entering, you can tell that they really got the ‘crab shack’ décor spot on especially as it is well situated on Princes Wharf. There is ample seating and a real casual indoor/​outdoor flow. We ordered a round of drinks and in the midst of making my piña colada, the bartender stopped to serve other patrons (not too impressive). Just before we were finished with round of drinks and fresh popped popcorn, our table was ready.
Our server was generally attentive and answered our questions but it was confusing as she highly recommended the fish burger to one person and then talked it down to me when I debated about the two other items. The full range of appetizers are worthy of four Unilocal stars. However, my cobb salad was overflowing with immature yellow/​white iceberg lettuce. Tomatoes were cut too big, shrimp/​crayfish underseasoned, and the mozzarella anonymous in flavor. Overall, it was a pretty disappointing and pedestrian salad for $ 22 in a Simon Gault restaurant. Would have preferred a classic cobb salad from a local café.
The pot of paddle crab ordered were undercooked, the fish burger was underwhelming, and a beer I had ordered was completely forgotten. We expressed our discontent and was visited by the manager to smooth the waters. So I tip my hat to that level of customer service.
All in all, I would recommend the Crab Shack for a bucket of beers, pot of crabs, and a game of cricket or rugby, but don’t waste your money on the mains. And remember, at the end of the day it is a touristy Viaduct restaurant and will draw a certain type of crowd accordingly.

for some reason i havent had good crab in new zealand for a loooooong time (actually not even sure if that was nz… maybe was asia…). The crabs here were cooked in a delicious garlic butter sauce but the let down were the crabs itself… there were too soft for fresh crab… it should have some stringy chewy-​ish meat… i dont know whether its over-​cooked or not that fresh? It was fun to eat tho if you’re into that thing haha bring your date here if they’re willing to get messy for some crabs they maybe a keeper hahahhaha
first things first… the food we ordered at the bar when we had to wait 1.5hours for a table…
Spicy fried chicken with 5 cheese sauce (or something similar) was fried but not spicy (not enough to be labeled spicy fried chicken) and they forgot the cheese sauce… so just bland fried chicken lol. Calamari was pretty normal compared to the other places you can get it. tasty and fresh.
After waiting a very long time (with lots of tables that were empty for those that put their names down earlier…) we finally got a table and ordered very quickly. The honey bread was strangely interesting. it was sweet and savoury. nearly like a dessert… my taste buds were a tad confused. half pound prawns were too sweet… clam pots were ok but it was the mussels that tasted good in the pot. already talked about the crabs. so the best dish for the night would be the crab cakes… i actually REALLY REALLY liked them… wish we ordered them by the bucket lol.
Would i come here again? only for the experience. not so much for the food. i really need to lower my hyped expectations when trying new places! ruins everything…

Not quite sure how it took so long but we finally have a full time crab shack in AKL and by no other than, Simon Gault. Add it to the empire…
I came here last night for a group dinner at 6:30 (I may or may not have been 15mins late) and already there was an hour wait. Clearly, I am not the only one who is excited about this new addition! Thankfully, after about 30mins we were shown to our table.
The menu features four different types of crab as well as a couple of burgers, main dishes (fish of the day, steak) and bar snacks/​starters. It read like a more modern, seafood orientated Lone Star menu.
We got way too excited by the entrees and ordered double portions of the calamari, crab cakes, manuka smoked rewena (Maori bread). Unfortunately I couldn’t try the bread but the calamari was delicious, lightly battered, crispy and served with three sauces. The only problem was the sauces were served in had high sided vessels, which made it challenging to dip. The crab cakes were nice but the coconut sauce they were served with was overpowering.
Onto the mains… I shared the paddle crab, which was served with a deliciously garlic butter sauce. It was messy and hard work but I kind of think that is half the fun! As for the side of chips they were thick and crunchy but lacked sauce and salt.
I thought the waitstaff were energetic and enthusiastic, which matched the whole atmosphere of the place.
A fun, themed spot for a group dinner, I only wish they’d get rid of the TV’s!