Crab Cracker

Now open across the street in Park Place. Todd’s Crab Cracker.
Bigger, better, just awesome!

Went for one last lobster dinner, and it was awesome as usual. They make the best lobster, and now that they’re closed I’m not sure where to go! We’ll miss you Crab Cracker!

Sooooo I’m a little mixed about the place, I would think for the prices they charge it would be this beautiful dinning experience in downtown Kirkland which I hardly ever go to. Sadly no it was a little ran down and could use some work. But aside from that our waiter was very attentive and made sure everything thing was to our liking. I had crab fettuccine which wasn’t bad pretty flavorval noodles because I only had about 3 small pieces of crab in it. My friend had a pasta with bacon wrapped prawns which seemed to be the better deal portion wise… I’m thinking for 26 $ for a plate of noodles and a few pieces of crab in it, I’ll just go to mukelshoot seafood buffet crack some crab and throw it on top of the noodles they have there that way the crab would be plentiful ;-)

This place is going out of business end of 2013.
Sad since it’s a place that had good prices for good seafood and their own parking lot.
We like the happy hour Columbia crest cab for $ 5 a glass on happy hour.
The specials are always good here. They have an amazing halibut on special sometimes and it’s amazing.
The mixed grill is great too.
My favoritee are the really generous sized crab cakes. I believe there are 3 and comes with veggies.
The décor is cool, boats and boat yard accessories hanging from vaulted ceilings.
Great for large parties. The Bar tender is the best. Very nice guy.
The manager is very accommodating too.
Will miss this place.

The seafood has always been fresh and the service great (Thanks Lisa) The portions of crab in the pasta dishes are very generous. Recommended

Ok, I am gonna increase their rating one star. Been back a couple times over this summer and they have made some improvements. New tv’s that are from this decade! Better wine selection! Still not sure about dinner, but I’ll definitely be back for happy hour.
Also, love the goldfish for snacking at the bar. Silly, but they make me happy.

Decided to try this place out after seeing a Living Social deal for them. I lived in Kirkland for a few years and was always curious about the place so this was the perfect chance to check it out. Yesterday was my son’s birthday so we came here for dinner. I ALWAYS look at reviews before I try a place out and their reviews were very mixed so I wasn’t sure what I was in for and sadly, I was very disappointed. I’m a seafood freak and I’ve had seafood from many, many places and I know when your seafood is NOT fresh.
THE AMBIENCE: 7:00ish. Dining room is half full. The couple steps to a main dining room section are soaking wet from some sort of leak. There’s a «wet floor» sign but they’re sure to remind the elderly and anyone walking by that it is slippery. The carpeting near those wood steps were soaked. You sink into it when you walk by. It was weird but I guess I’m used to eating in restaurants where that kind of s&*# just won’t fly. Fix it or close that section down for the time being.
THE FOOD: Son ordered Chicken & Fries and I ordered the Crab Cracker Steamer Bucket. We RECEIVED Fish & Chips and the Mussel and Clam Steamer Basket. So of course needed to wait a little longer for our actual order. Crab Cracker Steamer Bucket: Full of shells. Empty Clam and Mussel shells. Seriously only half of what they gave me actually had meat in it. I tried looking in the broth to see if they just fell out. Not a single loose piece in there so essentially I just got ripped off. Again, SERIOUS FACT: The seafood is NOT fresh. You can tell when your crab meat has been freezer burned. I tried some of my son’s chicken. It didn’t taste cooked all the way and when I looked at it closer, you could see a very, very slight hint of pink. I was worried my son would be sick later on but fortunately he does have a tough stomach. I did also try the Manhattan Style Spicy Red Chowder. I’ve never had this elsewhere so am not sure if it’s normal for this to come with tomatoes, onions, and 1 potato in a watered down tomato broth but it was tasteless and definitely nowhere close to spicy. I think the best part of the meal is the warm store brought roll that they brought at the beginning of the meal w/​butter. Even the garlic toast that came w/​my meal was too big and really tasteless. So all in all, the food is NOT impressive. I really wish I could’ve loved this place but I just couldn’t.
THE SERVICE: Our waitress was being trained or something so there was another waitress with her the whole time. You would think in order to not make it awkward that the main waitress could’ve introduced her and explained why they were joined at the hip. It’s easy to figure out but I really wasn’t sure who to address each time I had a question. Our food coming out wrong didn’t seem to be a fault of theirs. She said she didn’t hear what my son asked for yet I witnessed the transaction and it was pretty darn clear. I mentioned to her that I had ordered the Crab Cracker Steamer Bucket and she said yes, looked at my plate and said «That looks like mussels.» Um ya… They take my plate to the back so that the crab can be added to the top of it. It would’ve been my preference to leave my plate where it was and bring the crab separately. I hate having to send plates back. The horror stories. So then I ask the waitresses while my son is in the restroom if they have a child desert for kids on their birthdays. Her response, «We have desert but you have to pay for it.» I just thought, «You mess up our meals, the food is not great, and you can’t even bring my son a scoop of ice cream, or piece of pie to make him feel special on his birthday!!!» I guess I should’ve expected that since they didn’t even have BBQ sauce or ranch for his chicken. They gave him tartar sauce.
Thank God my son is grateful that even dining at a place like this meant something to him. But I can guarantee he won’t be asking me when we can go there again and I have absolutely no plans to return myself.

Okay to give a little background –1.) Living in Seattle and having a Cabin that provides me a lot of access to fresh seafood to cook with, I have very high expectations for Seafood Dishes 2.) When a place is charging $ 30 a plate, I expect it to be a damn good plate.
Let’s start off with the good — fun ambiance. My boyfriend and I had a few good laughs about the sunken, somewhat rotted boat out front serving as a flower bed but the inside is really cool. It’s maritime themed with lots of vintage decorations.
The food was extremely mediocre — we were there on a Groupon and not trying to spend a ton of money. In order to stay around $ 40 we decided on each getting a bowl of soup and one entre. We got the Manhattan Spicy Red Chowder — it was not spicy, and very salted. It honestly tatsted like it was from a can. The got the seafood linguine and it was decent — but I could of gotten something similar from a nice frozen meal.
The waitress seemed really unfriendly at first and didn’t bring us water too often — i understand the don’t like Groupon-​ers very much though. She ended up being OK, but that’s kind of how this meal was overall OK. I wouldn’t go back, to be completely honest.

Order the steamed combo on the menu. Cant go wrong with steamed mussels and clams steamed in white wine and butter sauce. Then sop it up all the natural seafood juice in the bowl with crispy garlic bread. All for 18 bucks. :) The price are a bit high, but you pay for the quality of the seafood. Fresh and catch of the day seafood. This place don’t seem like much from outside, but you’ll fall in love with the quaint and warm décor of a small sea side village.
I will be back to explore more of their seafood dishes that are caught fresh everyday.

I agree with others. Great people and some small charms but ripe for an intervention by Chef Robert Irvine. Clams were good. Pass on soup, crabs, fish, and glass wine. Run from the calamari.
You will want your money back. Go to Red Lobster and know that you will get consistently frozen seafood, but good biscuits.

To sum up my impressions of the Crab Cracker… been there, done that, next!
One of my favorite things to do when visiting family in the Seattle area is to chow down on the area’s awesome selection of fresh seafood. YUM. We’ve hit up all the touristy spots, but decided to keep it close to home this visit. Here’s the low-​down:
YAY’s:
— Great service. Our server was very nice, helpful and attentive.
— The parking lot out back had plenty of parking.
— The clam chowder was good. A little different than others I’ve tasted — a bit richer, with a hint of cream cheese?
SO-SO’s:
— The décor is cheese. Reminded me of the set used for the movie, «I Know What Did Last Summer.» The people at the table next to us looked like they had just come off the fishing boats, so maybe it just works for the area.
NAY’s:
— For the price, our entrees didn’t quite cut it. I had the Cedar Planked King Salmon, with garlic mashed potatoes and choron sauce. The salmon was dry; the sauce was bland and my mashed potatoes looked to have been pured rather than mashed (great for great-​grandpa).
— The lighting in the parking lot is pretty dim, so keep a look-​out when hoofing it over the potholes.
It was an interesting dining experience; for that price-​point, it was an experience I’d rather not repeat.

Looking through other reviews I have found that most people’s problem with this place is either the décor (outdated) or the prices (too high). Here’s a tip — check out the pricing before you go to a restaurant if possible, and then cease to bitch about it once the check comes because at that point you can’t say you were «surprised».
Let me level with ya. I live in Texas. The Gulf of Mexico is where any «fresh» seafood is available. Do you know how terrible that is? Do you?! If it doesn’t come out of the Gulf then it has to be imported. You will rarely find halibut in Texas.
The halibut dish at Crab Cracker was SO. GREAT. My taste buds are tingling with nostalgia. It was blindingly white and fell right off when you cut it. Halibut must be in season. I dunno. Whatever it was — ship me some! The Baked Dungeness Crab Newburg was also excellent. We don’t have crabs like that down here, I tell ya what. Gulf crabs are probably the inbred cousins of Pacific crabs, that’s how different they taste. Anyways, the calamari was close to perfection, and the bread they serve is delicious. There seemed to be quite a few people at the bar that knew the bartender so I get the feeling that this place /​does/​have a few regulars.
I would become a regular if I still lived in Washington (and I was loaded).

I swear this is a true story. Fifteen years ago, my husband and I had our first dates at the Crab Cracker. I used to wait for him at the bar during Happy Hour. There was always this old, flirty guy who would try and hit on me while I waited for my future hubby to show. Once he did arrive, we would usually get the steamer bucket, crab cakes and quesadillas, or sit down for a nice fish dinner.
The food was usually good and the place had a fun, wharf like theme to it like boats hanging from the ceiling, lots of nets and other sea type stuff.
Jump ahead 15 years… we had moved away many years ago and decided to go check out our old dating place for old times sake. We walked in the door and guess what… nothing had changed at all… including the old, flirty guy at the bar. The food unfortunately was not how I remembered it. The steamer bucket had gotten smaller and the crab cakes and quesadillas weren’t as tasty. It turned from fun to sad in a short period of time. There’s great potential for this place… it just needs an update.

This is more of a casual dining place although they do try their best to dress it up.
The food I would give 4 stars as the Crab Steamer Bucket was very good.
The ambiance or décor needs some sprucing up. The place is very dated and could use some fresh paint and new carpet. I think this would move it up the rating scale.
In theme with the dated nature of this place, the TV in the bar area was not a flat screen and not even on. But nonetheless, I would come back for happy hour as the specials looked pretty good and well priced.

I love the power of average because it always tells you exactly the rating for a place. In this case, the average rating is right on the spot.
We had a girl’s night out here because we had a deal that could get us 40% off our bill. I would agree that the food is slightly overpriced based on the overall quality, quantity and how old the place is but it’s not as bad as some of the reviews have it.
Service was a bit slow but friendly.
Dessert was fantastic, so I would definitely recommend skipping entrée and go for the dessert.

Over priced and average food. The kicker is we had a buy one entrée and get one free and I still think it was overprced. The waitress was nice and professional. The food needs a major over haul and the prices are high for area by about 20%.
Because of all the great places within 10 miles we will not be back.

From the past reviews, I passed this by, but my curiosity took over. We ordered salads and clam chowder to start, nothing wrong there. hmmmm? Ok on to dinner. Yummy dover sole and Salmon… I say it was great. Service? Very personable. So what could be wrong… no bugs, no dirt… maybe windows… no that;s window frosting for a salty charm… warped floors… nah!
Finally we figured it out! They CHARGED us for eating there! OMG! But we had cleverly looked at the menu and ascertained the prices… BEFORE we ordered.
Besides it was my birthday, my date paid… and I am happy,

Still a seafood fave of mine but I find the woman who owns it a bit snide, unpolished and full of herself. This is a casual, classic Kirkland experience, why pretend it’s anything more than it is?
Thanks for the offer of a glass of wine as consolation prize, but I can do better on my own.

We’ve been here twice now and I think this place in under-​rated. We’ve only been for lunch, but it’s great! If you love dungeness crab, this is a place you will really like.
The crab bisque is amazing, there are HUGE pieces of crab in it and the base is nice and creamy, but also has a great flavor with a little bite of wine or sherry or something. I plan on coming here next and only getting a bowl of it with a small salad.
The crab cakes are homemade and are freshly made every day and are served with a spicy creole sauce on the side.
My husband gets the tuna melt, and he seems to be happy with it.
It’s also a great place for kids. They have a decently priced kids menu and the food is high quality. Sometimes places have kind of gross food for kids, but here if she doesn’t eat it, I will gladly take it home for leftovers. They also put paper on the table (probably for crab cracking), but my daughter loved to go to town with the crayons.
The atmosphere is cool, it feels like it belongs on the water with old row boats hanging from the ceiling and nautical decore. You can see the staff cooking in the middle of the restaurant which I always like because you know there isn’t anything seedy happening. :)
I think it’s priced right and you get a lot of crab for your money.
OH, the desserts are good, too!

Microsoft Prime 2009 – 2010
Ambiance: 3
Food: 3
Value: 2
Disappointing; goto the Crab Pot instead.
We went there on a Thursday night, expecting a seafood feast at a good value, but our lofty expectations were not met. The place was sparsely patronized (perhaps a reflection of the quality). The place tries for a ‘by the wharf’ type feel with street light style lights illuminating each table. The service (perhaps the one redeeming quality of this place) was friendly and helpful.
We ordered the seafood bucket and the warm seafood salad (sauteed mixed seafood on greens). The food was a let down. Firstly, the quantity was mediocre. Secondly and more importantly, the seafood was not very fresh. Freshness is the most important thing about seafood, and this place did not have it. The clams and mussels taste like they’ve been dead for days. The crab leg tasted like they’ve been sitting in salt water for a week. The pumpernickel bread was the best thing (sadly)
Finally, the value wasn’t great. Their beers were pretty expensive. The wine was adequate but at $ 6 wasn’t a great deal. The meal was over $ 30, and was just okay.
The bottom line: goto the Crab Pot in Bellevue, which is much fresher. And when it comes to seafood, it is the most important thing.