Stax Crawfish Boil

So finally getting round to submitting my review of Stax Crawfish Boil.
Can’t really split into a list of pros and cons as each good point had a little kicker to it…
Food was flavourful but not quite at the spice level that I would have expected. They had dips (eventually) but a bottle of hot sauce would have made things a lot better!
Drinks were tasty as well but a little pricy after what we had paid for the food.
Staff were very good at keeping us topped up on crawfish, but not necessarily the other bits, the corn was excellent and the sausage really good, just not enough of it!
Tables were a little cramped but we dealt with it in the end, and once you’re all digging in, we didn’t seem to mind the small quarters.
The only cons that I really had were the following:
We were standing around for ages after the start time, the staff hadn’t managed to clear out the previous people and tidy up. When we were sitting down, a couple were still eating from the prior sitting (what’s the point of putting and end time if you don’t enforce it and it delays the next group?)
Garlic bread… That was a real disappointment…
All in all, I enjoyed it, but organisation could have been better, the food a little spicier (London palates aren’t that wimpy) but ask me to go again and I probably would do!

This is a difficult one to review. Like some of the previous reviews I’ll try and list pros and cons.
First the cons:
Preopsterously poor organisation with 6 person tables (3×2 person stuck together) being sold as 8 person tables. No news about what’s going on for people having to queue almost an hour past advertised start time, and a bad attitude from staff to begin with.
We were told we couldn’t order drinks while we wait. Then we were told we could, ordered them, but we didn’t get them until we sat down.
If I hadn’t paid in advance I would have got up and left by now. This place is completely ridiculous…
Garlic bread might as well have been made of granite. It was rock hard, and not massively tasty.
I did not get to try the coconut lolly.
Now the pros:
The staff are really nice, once you’re all seated!
When you’re sat down and the crawfish arrives, you suddenly don’t mind being cramped together and the proximity can work quite well. We exchanged some corn for sausage despite there being 4 in our group and 4 in another group all at the same table.
Contrary to previous reviews, the crawfish is pretty good. Sure it could do with being a bit more spiced up, but it’s certainly not flavourless. It’s still pretty good.
The sausage is delicious and so is the corn.
The strawberry ice lollies are delicious! The brownie needed 10 minutes longer in the oven which is disappointing for a company who bake cakes every day, but it did taste nice.
Would I do it again?
Not for the price paid. £27.50 was pretty steep for the amount of food I got, and the amount of hassle it is peeling crawfish. It would be worth it for £20 though…
So one star knocked off for the price and one star knocked off for the really poor start to the evening.
Otherwise it was a nice experience :)

The Crawfish Boil. It started wonderfully. Then descended into a night of, glory, shame and immense fullness. One thing is certain. I’ll never look at my crawfish with mango dressing salad from the Co-​Op the same ever again. To put it another way, I don’t think I can ever eat that salad again.
Upon arriving, I’d known that the venue was a converted garage type railway arch, but it was pretty to cool. We grabbed some tables and it wasn’t long till garlic bread started coming out. It was pretty good and we made sure not to each too much and save space for crawfish. On drinks, others mention that it expensive. I’ll definitely agree on this point, particularly if you went for alcohol. If you’d paid full price for a ticket, it would be a little hard to stomach. However at half price for the Crawfish Boil, I though £6 for a jug of the amazing pink lemonade was reasonable. Perhaps the first drink free would have been a nice gesture, or even tap water on tables.
The main event started off well. The sweetcorn was nicely spicy along with the sausage, which I liked a lot more than the crawfish. I’d prepared all week on how to eat these blights on our waterways, but when it came down to the crunch, these are not even remotely like prawns. Why?
Eggs. Soo many of the ones I picked up were obviously pregnant and the sight of the mountain of eggs in each, all yellow like pus is seared on my mind. If that doesn’t make you curl, some were filled with a black ink type of liquid and lots of stuff in the digestive tract. I’m not usually squemish with food, but I did feel a little sick seeing all this. It was rare you would get a nice piece of crawfish, but when you did, they were pretty tasteless. The spiced butter was good, but I have a feeling the crawfish themselves were not seasoned well. As when we got to our 5−6^th container, it was almost as if the crawfish were simply being boiled in hot water. Put simply, I liked the sweetcorn more than the main event.
The dessert was great. A delicious real strawberry ice lolly and chocolate brownie. Like others say, they kind of were trying to restrict this, but I managed to swing the lolly and both the white and choc brownie. Honestly, again, I’ll go back to the half price point. If you’re charging full price and stating all you can eat, then you better be prepared to honour that point, even if it costs you. To be fair, the staff, were perfectly pleasant and were probably only trying to do their jobs. There was no rationing on the crawfish though, that’s for sure and the staff even accommodated extra requests for more or less sweetcorn/​sausage.
Simply because I’ve learnt that I hate shelled crawfish, I’ll never go again. It’s just not for me. But for half-​price, I would recommend this as a new experience for somebody that might like crawfish. It’s loads of fun and you haven’t lived until hit in the eye with some spicy crawfish broth.
Good job to Alex and the Unilocal team with the waterproof ponchos. They were seriously handy and I wouldn’t go to one of these without them!

I will break this down into Pros & Cons
PRO
–I got in gratis courtesy of Samir (big thanks)
–It was all you can eat
–Atmosphere was cool and fun; especially at the table I was sitting at
–Newspaper on the tables & trash bags taped to the end (a must for any boil)
–Yelp rain jackets (nice touch)
–American cocktail sauce
–Fruit popsicle (aka iced lolly)
–Margaritas were tasty but…
CON
–A loaf of bread with a smear of something & sprinkles of parsley is not garlic bread
–Tasteless crawdads without having been cooked in the required creole seasoning
–Cold, undercooked potatoes
–I didn’t know corn on the cob could be tasteless
–Margaritas were expensive at £20 for ½ a jug
–Brownies (er, were they?) & only a small square
I’m told the proprietor is American and wanted to bring the delights of the Louisiana Boil to Britain. I’m skeptical about that because being an American who has eaten my fair share of authentic boils, we all know about the seasoning — it is crucial to get it right! Could they not even smuggle in some Old Bay Seasoning? Heck, I’ve got 2 in my cupboard now and willing to share!
Based on the reviews of the night before, I wanted to go in the hope that it was an off night for my fellow Unilocalers. It was not. I saw every point in those 2 and 3 star reviews from 30 Aug being repeated. The one thing that was different is that BOTH lollies and brownies were offered.
The one off price of £15 is appropriate for this but not a penny more.