Joe’s Crab Shack

I wanted to give less than one star to Joe’s Crab Shack if I had ever received food. We ordered beers, an appetizer which only arrived after we asked for the manager, and the food never came. The half filled Shack was ¾ empty and the excuse of the waitress said that the kitchen was backed up. Ironically, people that were seated after us, with their dog, got all of their food and drinks before we got our drinks. The manager apologized, offered to comp out meal, and offered gift cards. He then said he was watching over our table for some reason. We decided that it was a waste of time, poor service, and HORRIBLE dining. Or should I say lack there of. Have good luck if you wish to eat there.

I came here for lunch with the knowledge that others complained about service and food. I got the lobster daddy fest and everything in it was mush. I never got my corn and the potatoes were as mushy as the lobster. The service wasn’t bad which is why I gave it one star. I will never ever come back here. I am better off cooking my own lobster and crab. Stay away from this place. Not worth the money or the possibility of food poisoning. SERIOUSLY STAY AWAY

What a delightful surprise!
Despite bad reviews I’ve read, I wanted to try the classic seafood steampots they advertise on TV. I went at 4pm on Tuesday despite hearing that they had a $ 2 Tuesday which was rumored to make it impossible to get seated.
My party was promptly greeted by the hostess & seated immediately. I asked the hostess for a quick glass of water & despite the fact that hostesses don’t bring food, she had the server bring the water in less than a minute. Our server was friendly & super helpful in choosing our selections and making free substitutions to the things we didn’t want. She even put our bibs on us when I asked which selection would mess my clothes up the least!
The portions were large, served hot with plenty of meaty crab legs & at least 10 large shrimp in my pot from which I deleted the sausage, corn, hushpuppies.
Strong note of advice: They have 6 different spice boils for their seafood. You must pick the one you want or you will get a very salty old bay boil (which I overcame). My friend didn’t mind the saltiness at all. You can ask for less salt or choose herb garlic, cajun or other options. That’s up to you. There was plenty of parking at 4 & at 6pm, and a security car in the lot. I will definitely go back again.

I really hate giving establishments two star reviews but this is warranted. So, it’s post-​Pope Monday and we’re starting for dinner. I kept hearing about Joes so why not?
We walked in, greeted by the hostess. This place is absolutely dead. I mean probably about 15 people, including the staff in here. Not too unusual being that everyone was scared away and probably wouldn’t be returning until the following day. We’re seated at a booth behind a young couple and their bratty 6 year olds that should’ve been at home drooling in their sleep. That table was super annoying. Kids jumping on the seats, throwing food and the mother screaming obscenities at the kids half the time.
So we’re sitting there talking and realize about 15 minutes have past by and not narry a server to be seen. Literally, no one. Not even a «I’ll be right with you». Nada. Now we’re slightly annoyed, thirsty and hungry. Another five minutes passes by and our server, Tae as he so kindly informed us casually wanders over and says he’ll be right with us. I roll my eyes, look at the menu and decided that we should have our orders ready in case it takes him another half hour to come back.
He finally comes back. Takes our drink orders and walks away. Ten minutes later, he brings back a bucket with utensils. So I say, did you get our Coronas? He says oh I have to go to the bar. Another roll of my eyes. Sheesh and wtf…
My dining partner says, are you guys short staffed? He says oh no, they just sat me all at the same time. I look around and I’m like sat who? All four tables you have?!! Seriously dude. Then I take another gander around and there’s another server with two of his so called tables… soooooo sir, you’re on three tables alone but can’t seem to keep up? Yes because this place is just sooooo busy tonight.
Two stars. Only because the food was actually decent. But the service was so horrible, I wouldn’t come back to this location. If it’s this slow on a dead night, what happens when this place is slammed? Thankfully, I won’t be back to experience it. No thanks.

My friend and I shared the Boston Bean Steam Pot. It included 2 Lobsters, shrimp, clams, corn and potatoes. The lobsters were the smallest I’ve ever seen. We were later told that they were 1 lb each. They looked smaller than that and should have been thrown back into the ocean. They were puny and tasteless, not worth the effort to crack and eat them. The clams were also small, not even the size of a dime. The shrimp were OK but on the small size. The best part of the meal was the bi colored ear of corn which was perfectly steamed and sweet as could be.

It was ok … Maybe because it was 2 dollar Tuesday it was extremely crowded. I will give it another try but at another location

This was our first time at a Joe’s Crab Shack and we were pleasantly surprised. The food was great and the service was excellent. The manager walked us to our table and explained the menu, pointing out his favorites, our waiter Dante was attentive and very helpful.
We had the bucket of shrimp and classic sampler for starters and we split the Crab Daddy Feast bucket for our entrée. Plenty of food for the 2 of us and everything came out steaming hot and delicious.

Went here tonight for $ 2 Tuesday and I am hooked!!! Only hurricanes are $ 2 don’t get ice!!! You can get shrimp, calamari, crab taters for $ 2 each. You can splurge and be full and tipsy!!! Jasmine was a good server. Food came out fast. Enjoyed my night!!! A little loud and parking is scarce by the restaurant but park on the business side and walk over. Enjoy!

The food was not bad, we ordered the sampler, burger, fish with rice and the lobster pie.
I would have give a higher rating but there were 2 major problems .
1. The chips and fries were wayyy too salty, to a point where I cannot eat them. We didn’t ask to return them since they were just chips.
2. The waiter, Keith, seemed to be not interested with his job. He never refilled our water until we asked him to come over. The food was so salty we needed more water badly! When Keith bought out our entrée, he dropped some of the chips on the table and seat. Then he said he will bring us some more chips but he never did. Ridiculous!!! Terrible service!!!

I usually go to Joe’s and have a great experience, but not so much lastnite. My food came out wrong and they simply removed the sausage and sent me the same plate. As I watched my date eat, I had to wait for them to bring me a whole new order. I also was blessed with two different waitresses. My portion was way less than usual and the waitress blamed it on having a new cook. I was completely disappointed.

I like the food here, but I am giving only 1 star because the service is absolutely terrible at this restaurant. The place is obviously poorly managed and the staff is totally unprofessional. Every time I eat here, there is some kind of calamity, like staff not showing up for work, or the place is totally understaffed, or something like that. Service is slow, for sure. This place is a joke!

The food at Joe’s is always consistent and there drinks hit the spot. If you in the mood for delicious crab but don’t want to drive to Maryland for it Joe’s is the place to go!!! Usually get the queen crab bucket and the crab dip!

Just ate at Joe’s with my family tonight, and all around a pretty awful service experience. We waited for 25 minutes for a table, when there were at least a half dozen tables available. Finally, I asked the server to seat us at a high top table in the bar area. We sat at this table for 10 minutes with no menus before someone had the courtesy to stop by and greet us. The food was OK. Nothing to write home about. Our server was slow, and pretty inattentive. Not worth the hassle. There are other places to eat.

First time here and I definitely will be coming back. The food was amazing and the servers were so nice. My server Canade was so kind and took time to show me and my girlfriend the whole menu.
We went on a Saturday afternoon noon and it was busy. The wait was not long. Maybe 5 mins at most. I don’t know why there are so many bad reviews. I had a pleasant experience and the food was very good.

It’s nothing more or less than what you’d expect, but they’re good at what they do.

I want to preface this review by first saying this: I’m not the kind of person to write scathingly negative reviews of any place, ever. I’m not even the kind of person to ever care about writing reviews, period. I’m generally very laidback and can take even bad experiences in stride, and move on with the rest of my day like nothing ever happened. If you look back at my posts, I’ve only ever really written a couple of these reviews before, either because something was so mindblowingly good I think they deserve the slight boost in business, or because something was so insanely terrible it not only offended my senses, but I literally have to take action and do something about it because for the love of god, places like that shouldn’t exist.
This is one of those moments.
Ladies and gentleman: Joe’s Crab Shack at Bala Cynwyd is the worst restaurant experience I have ever been to. A year ago! I waited an entire year to say this. So you know I’m not just being reactive about something that happened earlier on in the day. I can honestly say I hated every bit of that experience.
Let me tell you a little story…
I had just moved to Philadelphia back then. In my hometown I used to see commercials for Joe’s Crab Shack all the time, and since we never had one in my neighborhood, I was so excited to check it out. I love seafood! I especially love shellfish! Yes, it was actually my idea to go there with my sister and brother in law. Out of everyone, I had the most reason to be totally thrilled for the entire experience.
Do you have any idea how it feels to wait 45 minutes for a table, when there’s 20+ tables that are completely vacant? To have to go sit at the bar and order a cocktail because the hostess is just so busy standing around twirling her thumbs instead of seating you at a table? Literally. I’m not exaggerating. There was ZERO reasons we had to wait for a table … when there was like 30 people in the entire restaurant.
You know what the real kicker was? I wasn’t even that mad then. The real deal was that approximately every 5 – 10 minutes, the ENTIRE staff just stops doing whatever it was they were doing, to all stand in the middle of the dining room, and start DANCING to whatever song was blasting on the speaker system. THE ENTIRE SONG. It became so apparent to me that the reason why we had to wait so long there, was because literally NO ONE was doing their job. That, everyone, is INSANE. That’s absolutely insane.
But even then I wasn’t that mad. Because we moved over to where the hostess was standing, and asked her what the hell the deal was. You know what she did? She pulled a waiter over, who grabbed some menus, and started to walk us to our table. Yes! Finally!
Nope. He grabbed the menus, walked us over to a random table, a song started playing, and he STOPPED right in the middle of sitting us at a table, told us to go back and wait, while he joined up with everyone else and STARTED DANCING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RESTAURANT. HOLY. WOW. That literally KILLED me. I was THIS close to having a complete and total meltdown. This was the most inefficient, poor excuse for a restaurant I have ever, ever, ever in my entire LIFE seen.
I wanted to leave but we had waited so long at that point, my sister (who was pregnant) was so hungry she just wanted to eat something. We’re finally seated, we pay like way too much money for the worst dining experience of my life, the food wasn’t so great but it wasn’t so bad either, the waitress only popped by to take our orders, drop our food, and give us the bill.
I understand that these places are franchises and that the management and business practices change depending on location. But I can say with absolute certainty that I am never stepping foot in another Joe’s Crab Shack for as long as I live. And after reading this, maybe you won’t either.
Thank you for reading.

Our servers name was Brittany & she was friggin awesome!!! The service was great & the food was delightful!!!

Where to start. When I first walked in I was pretty confused. I didn’t know if I was in an aquarium or a damn gift shop. I mean I can understand the sharks and crab décor but the hippy T– shirts, threw me off. all the waiters and waitresses had to wear them. I was expecting them to bring me a crab with a bong .
The food average. I mean it was good but nothin to brag about. I ordered this drink called «Red Sangra». That was delicious. I order the «Lobster Daddy Feast» seeing how it was father’s day. It seemed appropriate. Crabs were really good but the lobster was rubbery. Not that special.
The waiters write there names on a paper towel and stuff it in a roll of towels. It was cheesy to me but I guess it’s to keep the other waiters off there tips but it’s whatever.
The waiters bring you these bibs when they bring your main course but what I didnt notice till after I ate was that the waiter wrote on everyone’s bibs little quotes I guess to fit the theme. Mine said and I quote «I got crabs». I didn’t know whether to laugh or get pissed. I laughed about it, granted I have a since of humor because I was eating crabs.
When the waiter came to get the check I didn’t leave a tip. And I wrote on the receipt, «I got empty pockets»
Lmfao I got humor too
This place is will cost a pretty penny. If you wanna take the family out to this place you better wait until your tax returns. Lmfao. Most appetizers average at $ 15 — $ 20. And main courses start at $ 30.

I want a huge fan of Joe’s Crab Shack. I got the peel and eat shrimp and a side salad. Nothing to write home about.
Even worse the service was very slow and seemed like they didn’t even notice. I was not impressed enough to go back

The Service is terrible every time.
I ordered the Surf & Turf burger. It took 35 minutes to be made.
I requested water several times. It took forever to get it. My food came out wrong. I had to wait 20 minutes for the to add cheese to it.
The burger was really good nonetheless :) It comes w popcorn shrimp & onion strings. Add cheese & chipotle bbq sauce to it if ur dope.
I recanted the events of my terrible dining experience to 2 mgrs & got my meal free.
Thats cool, but i come prepared to pay, eat good & delivered quality service. So i suggest hiring staff w High School diplomas & common sense.