Crazy Alan’s Swamp Shack

I’ll give it three stars for the quality of the food. However, do not go by prices from Unilocal because the meal was $ 5 more than what it says on the Unilocal menu. And they told me they were not affiliated with Unilocal,and they would not honor the price.

This place is aptly named because it feels like you are eating in a rundown shack on a bayou. My parents took us here to eat and I was excited to try someplace new; however, I was not impressed with the atmosphere or the food.
First, the menu is described as creole, which it looks to be, but there aren’t many options outside of specific flavors, which my SO was looking for. She doesn’t do spicy food but came along with us, thinking they would have a few items that were a little calmer. She ended up ordering one their two less Cajun items: a ham and turkey sandwich. Cut into triangles, they hadn’t even cut the bread evenly and overstuffed it so that the meat and cheese – literally Kraft slices like you get at the grocery store – tried to fall out with every bite. While the rest of our food was good, I can’t say that it’s great. The fries and onion rings were the best part of the meal, but my chicken sandwich was lacking a lot of flavor, the boudain balls were too soft and not up to par, and the fried pickles were very salty. All in all, not what you think of when your mind lands in tasty Louisiana fare.
Secondly, they nailed it if they were shooting for sticky shack by the flooded bayou. Granted it had been raining all week, but the hostess tried to sit us at a table in the covered outdoor seating that was obviously wet from the recent rain. We moved inside but had to walk through the entry way connected to the smoking area before going upstairs to the non-​smoking area. Not sure what disabled individuals would do if they wanted non-​smoking. The entry and stairs smelled like soured water, the handrail was sticky, and the tables were a bit sticky as well. I get what they’re going for with the wooden slats on the walls, making it feel like a legitimate experience to match the name, but that sort of scenery doesn’t go well with those high of prices.
Lastly, our waitress was friendly and checked on us a few times, but my dad’s meal came out a few minutes after ours rather than with our food, and the waitress didn’t write anything down. So my SO got fries is stead of onion rings. The waitress got us an order when we pointed out the mistake, but that took another five minutes for them to come out.
All in all, I can see why some people think it’s a fun place to go, and I’ve heard they are famous for their crawfish. But we don’t plan on going back. The noisy and too casual environment wasn’t our scene and we couldn’t find much on the menu that excited us for those prices.

Worst crawfish I’ve had — flavor was good but they were so dirty I couldn’t eat most of them. Hope they read these and improve.

Came here a few time so so good, mostly for the crawfish season and always satisfied with their crawfish, and their stuffed mushroom also our favorite appetizer, we tried the gator bites and frog leg which is also good, tried a couples of meals so far good, and good service.

The food was excellent we had went here for mother’s day and there was a live performer singing and service was great. The only critique i would have is that some of the waitresses were wearing inappropriate shorts. Revealing too much, mainly because this is a family restaurant not strip club. We had our five year old with us so it seemed as though they could have worn longer shorts. If you want great cajun seafood this is the place. But may not want to bring your little ones here.

3^rd visit may 30, 2016
had $ 18.95 per pound boiled shrimp — a bit pricey… shrimp were big and fresh though. came w/​new potato & corn cob
melissa [the bartender] is awesome!
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been twice… the first time was about 5 years ago… i swear i thought the place was gonna fall down around me! but, the seafood was fantastic.
2^nd time was today… place has expanded and updated — no longer a shack!
i met a friend for cocktails — it was mothers day — about 1245p – musician playing outside – tasty bloody marys. friendly staff.
on my second round [and last] bartender melissa used my same glass for the bloody mary — hmm, i wonder how often that really happens and the public doesnt even realize it?!! ha!
but, when you’re a patron sitting at the bar… id rather have a clean glass. just saying.

I am so torn on this review. For those who only read the first few sentences, let me say, the food was great. So why only three stars? I want to talk a bit more in depth about that. When you eat at a restaurant, what’s important: food or customer service? Well, both are, really. Now, how important each of these are is related to how you’re eating at the restaurant.
At Crazy Alan’s Swamp Shack, we almost exclusively dine carryout. Why? Because it is just not set up for people in wheelchairs. Sure, I’m sure they’d argue that they are compliant, but no one wants to be really singled out to be different, and that’s what their accessibility does to people. So we order takeout. That means the service is less important to us, and puts the focus solely on the food, right?
Well… that’s true, if you NEVER EVER have a problem with the place.
But we have. Had problems, that is.
First, it’s super noisy any time you call in to place an order. You’d think they’d have some sort of system in place for that to allow a hostess or kitchen staff some quiet place to take an order. But that’s okay, once you’re done YELLING your order three or four time to get them to hear you, the food is usually cooked quickly.
But what about if they make a mistake? Like they did with us. We ordered three sausage links with our first meal. Now, mind you, we were ordering the boiled seafood platter, extra crawfish, an extra lobster tail and sausage and all the works… but they left the sausage out. We called that night, and the person who answered the phone said she couldn’t help us, but if we were going to order from them again, just let them know next time and they’d throw it in for free. We thought, Great!~
So a few days later, after being SUPER impressed with the boiled seafood platter takeout, we ordered it again, and we mentioned the missing sausage to them again and the person taking our order sort of snippily said, «I can’t do anything about that. But you can add one for just…» Sigh. My friend, who had called in the order for me, didn’t argue. But then, three days later, we had company and ordered the platter again – now mind you, each of these orders was over $ 150.00 — EACH — and we’re literally asking for $ 4 worth of sausage that we PAID FOR AND WERE NEVER GIVEN, and we were told that we shouldn’t have waited so long to say something (we didn’t – we tried twice before, including the NIGHT IT HAPPENED) and that there was nothing they could do about it now.
I totally disagree that there’s nothing they can do about it now.
That, my friends, is a moment when it doesn’t matter how good the food is – and let me tell you something, the food here is pretty darned good too – I will never go back.
When 4 dollars worth of sausage that probably cost them a lot less than 4 dollars anyway is not worth keeping a customer happy when you are the ones who made the mistake in the first place by leaving it out, and I’ve called in three times that week with orders over $ 100 each, then I guess you don’t need my business that much.
Yes, it’s petty on my part. But there are a lot of good places around this area that serve crawfish and seafood, so I get to choose the ones I like based on the quality of the food and the quality of the services, and quite frankly, I’d rather go to Pooks or Razoos, even though I think Crazy Alan’s food is slightly better than theirs, and be sure to get the food I pay for and feel like I’m valued as a customer.
So that’s why, even though the lobster tail rocks and the crawfish are huge and tasty (though not well purge, they are flavorful and large!), and the sausage we did finally order is great. Their corn is a little blah and their potatoes are a little weird, but the rest of their food – the seafood itself – is just amazing, the boil (I think they call it the ‘bathwater’) is really good and they have a spicy option (something Pooks doesn’t give me (pout) but Razoo’s does (yay!)…I will still be taking my business elsewhere in the future, and thus my three stars.
So this is sort of a good review, in spite of the lower star value. I just have learned that sometimes you get what you pay for and sometimes you don’t. Sometimes, that saying is metaphorical and other times it’s literal. With my experience with Crazy Alan’s, it was literal and the customer service dealing with it was less than stellar.
So if you want good food and don’t care much about the service, don’t have youngsters, don’t mind a bar feel and noise, this is the place to get fresh, yummy seafood at reasonable-​ish prices in a reasonable amount of time. It’s also good for takeout – just check your order before you leave, because if you’re shorted anything, you’ll likely never get your money or food back.
And that is a lesson in how customer service can ruin a restaurant for one diner, me… YMMV.
Again, since I usually close with wheelchair accessibility issues – I went in one time, saw the setup, turned around and rolled out and ordered takeout!

I’ve seen several reviews for bad service, but the servers we met at the Swamp Shack were the best we’ve had throughout our stay I the Houston area, even on a busy Saturday during the Crawfish Festival. Food was excellent. So happy with this place we chose to go twice in one weekend, & the service was impeccable both times.

If you like over crowded places with terrible service and second rate food this is the place for you. I’ve eaten a couple of times and both times it’s been disappointing. Servers don’t seem to have any sort of training in customer service, kitchen seems to have given up attempting to make dishes passable. There are many other restaurants in the area look to them.

This is still a favorite place to have crawfish (fried and boiled.) The service is almost always good and attentive. Ask for remoulade. It’s spicy and goes great with the crawfish. We like our crawfish spicy and these don’t disappoint. My husband loves the Seafood Gumbo while my grandson enjoys the chicken/​sausage variety.

The crawfish here was delicious! I totally recommend. The drinks were also delicious. I will be back but I will definitely try to go during less busy times. I was not serviced right away. I had to wait a good 10 – 15 minutes before I gave up and had to grab someone to get their attention. Only then did this person go find our waitress. Also our table did not have a working light so it was pretty interesting eating crawfish in the dark. But overall I don’t mind going back. Hopefully I’ll get serviced better.

I’ve never been to location but I have been to yall’s crawfish trucks like 2 times a week, every week.
Love them!!! Please put one in deer park!!!

Boudin balls were great. Crawfish were good. Crabvacado was short on the crab :-(. Nice atmosphere and good service! Somewhat pricy!

Sad visit to crazy Alan’s today… we waited 15 minutes for drinks, even longer to order. When they finally brought the appetizer out, we had no silverware or plates, so we watched our food sit while waiting for our not responsive waitress. They took forever to bring anything out… consistently. When our crawfish finally came out, it was without corn or butter… and we waited another half hour before we started eating to get those. I would understand slow service, but they weren’t busy :(…so if you visit, stay out of Kayla’s section!!!

Crawfish was delicious and a good price. Strawberry margarita was great too. I’ll definitely be back, We sat on the patio, because the weather was great. Good live music. A great place to day drink and have crawfish.

The process to get seated is about as convoluted as I have ever seen. We were seated 45 minutes into a supposed 35 minute wait. The crawfish were obviously not boiled in seasoned water.
Very disappointed

Enjoyed the atmosphere, live music was a nice touch. The crawfish were a little small as would be expected at the beginning of the season but were seasoned and tasted great. The wait staff was awesome very helpful and accommodating for a big group like ours around 20. Food came out quick and hot for a busy Sunday. Highly recommend this place!!!

I’m extremely disappointed in the poor design and concern for the safety of kids here. The high chairs are elevated, which is convenient for the high tables, however every high chair is missing the latches to keep the kids secure. They’re also unstable. Spent the entire visit keeping my one year old from making a 4 foot tumble from the chair. As a family with 4 kids, this is beyond unacceptable. Safety for your consumers should be number one, especially since a fall from that height would cause severe head injuries. I can’t imagine that a lawsuit related to a child’s bodily damages would be good for your touristy image.
The food was subpar to say the least. Bland. Cajun food is far from bland. We would have used hot sauce to aid in flavor, but the Tabasco was either extremely watered down or spoiled as it was no longer red but brown with a foul odor. The fried pickles had so much grease on them it was pooling on the pickles and the lettuce.
I’m so disappointed in this restaurant and was the biggest waste of $ 60, for lunch, I have ever spent.
We live 5 minutes away, and we won’t be back.

Went here for my daughters birthday. The food was acceptable for the area being that seafood is a dime a dozen. The only issue i had was with the service. Our waitress Aimee really seemed like she could care less that we were there. She had no enthusiasm and explained that she had stayed out way to late the night before and didnt go to bed until 5am and on got two hours of sleep before she got woken up by the people that she lives with. Had to ask for refills several times took all most twenty min to bring me wet napes to clean my hands. Would not recommend this place but if you have to go for some odd reason make sure Aimee is not your server!

Still love this place when I can make it. Taylor took care of me tonight– Mexican oysters– hot, spicy, different — and gator eggs– bacon wrapped scallops– yummy.
I love the outdoor ambiance — looking at the yachts– the breeze– cold beer– and the ahi tuna is great entrée to boot.
Staying in deer park– just 12 – 14 min away– bliss… My fav at the boardwalk. Thanks Taylor for great service ! my customers love it and turned me on to it 2 years ago. Going back ever since. When it’s crawfish season– theirs are fantastic! When I enjoy myself– I give 5 stars!
When I get good service — I mention names! Thanks again Taylor!