Crawdaddy Restaurant
Categories: Cajun/Creole, Seafood [Edit]
779 Story RdSan Jose, CA 95122 (408) 286-2729
Thanks for making us #1 Yelp!
Announced 17 hours ago
- Hours:
Mon-Fri 3:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m.
Sat-Sun 12:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m. - Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Private Lot
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Good for: Dinner
- Alcohol: Beer & Wine Only
84 Reviews for Crawdaddy Restaurant
One of Crawdaddy Restaurant's Favorite Reviews
I feel like you're always going to find two types of people in the world: those that haven't tried it before, and those that go on and on about it like they're a crawfish majors. That's because the experience is so interactive, fun, and tasty that it makes you wanna just go back again or tell people all about it.
I went with a group of 12 people but we ordered in groups of 4. My group got garlic fries, 2 pounds of crawfish (1 hot, 1 medium), 1 pound of shrimp (hot), 1 crab (~2 pounds, hot), and fried oysters. Seems like a lot but we demolished it.
Tips:
-- you might think you can handle spicy but be wary! Half of us loved hot, but half preferred medium. don't even think about the spiciest level (fire?) unless u've tried hot before.
-- The crab had a lot of good meat, but because of the thickness of its shell, the meat doesn't absorb the sauce that it's soaked in as well as the other dishes. Plus it's more expensive being at 'market price'
-- If all the table are full and there's people waiting, come back another time. It's a time-consuming meal.
-- The crawfish was my favorite, but the fries and the shrimp help fill you up.
-- We tried to save time/confusion by splitting meals. They lumped all our bills together into 1. They also didn't give us a grand total. If i wasn't happy with the food this would have been annoying.
-- Rock that bib. How often do you get to wear one? :D
Bookmark Send to a Friend Link to This Review
People thought this was:
Useful (2)
Funny (3)
Cool (1)
Who's your Crawdaddy? They should sell shirts there. I would have bought one.
Food: Great!
Get messy eating: Absolutely!
Atmosphere: Hole in the wall feel, but clean
Service: Friendly
Place to eat with friends: DEFINITELY!
Bookmark Send to a Friend Link to This Review
People thought this was:
Cool (2)
Not bad for my first time. Not even a crawfish lover either but I really enjoyed the spices and flavoring. We ordered I think over 5lbs of crawfish, corn, fried catfish and got down to business. Think the company helped, we ate a lot and laughed a lot. I would definitely come back. Nice, relax, laid back place w/ plasmas. Good place to chill and hang out w/ buds. Think beer is a must (even if mines was just a ROOT beer).
PS If I could slurp the juice from the bag I would...not recommended though. Spicy and flavorful!!
Bookmark Send to a Friend Link to This Review
People thought this was:
Useful (2)
Funny (1)
Cool (2)
Get ready to get messy but oh is it all worth it! Thanks to Carol L. for the recommendation of this place. I heard about it a couple of months ago when she first wrote the review and was dying to go and never got a chance until yesterday.
There was 2 of us and we got a lb of crawfish (hot), a lb of shrimp (medium) and the cajun fries. We loved the crawfish, it was my friend's first time eating crawfish so he had a fun new experience and actually really enjoyed it. The meat was very soft and when you swish it around in the sauce it makes it DELICIOUS! The shrimp was pretty good as well. I think in terms of taste I prefer the crawfish taste better but anything dipped in the garlic butter sauce is fantastic. The fries were good, more on the fat fries side so you can actually taste the potatoes and it had a coat of cajun seasoning on it.
As the waitress warned us before hand...when you start eating the hot it won't taste super hot but it will linger on your lips and lo and behold it did. But I think I prefer the hot over the medium.
Minor note but something I really appreciated about this restaurant is that the ice water they give you already has lemon in it so is nice and refreshing.
Tip for not getting too messy: scoop the sauce in the empty container they give you so you don't have to keep reaching in and dipping your hands in the sauce :)
Loved it and can't wait to bring more people to try it!
mmMmMMmMm... Finally got to try it out..
The Crawdads were superb..
Delicious.. I say...
We ordered a pound of the 'Hot' Crawdads with corn (50 cents extra each), chicken wings, and fries. They were all really good and really tasty. The broth was just heavenly, perfect amount of spices, lotsa buttah.. The coating for the chicken wings was delicious, although a little too salty in my opinion. The fries were good too, nice amount of heat to it. Overall I had a great time here and everything went down nice with two coronas and limes.
Only one phrase can adequately describe this restaurant: when you come to eat at Crawdaddy, remember to "Dress for a MESS, not to IMPRESS!" This is one place that a 360 away from fine dining. It's finger food at its best; you will definitely have to work for your food as you peel off the shells of shrimp, crab, crawfish, oysters, etc...but once those tasty little morsels get into your mouth, it's heavenly!
The restaurant setting is certainly sparse, with paper tabletops and a roll of paper towels to use to wipe your hands... and you get a plastic bag to throw away your shells. I suspect the waitresses purposely don't clean up the trash, so that you can pile it on the table and count how many crawfish/etc. you've eaten. Kinda like counting sushi plates at the sushi bar ^__^
The crawfish/shrimp come in plastic bags that are loaded with hot and spicy Cajun sauce, which would really taste good in rice. The crusted catfish and Cajun fries are also to die for!!! Put on your bib, get those paper towels ready, and dig in!!!
If you're up for some adventure and don't mind "working hard" to eat, this is the place to go to. Large parties welcome...first dates...gotta think about that one ^__^
Bookmark Send to a Friend Link to This Review
People thought this was:
Funny (1)
I had my first taste at Crawdaddy two weeks ago and I loved it so much that I went back last night. Their specialty is the crawfish, but their crabs and shrimps also kick ass.
The steamed seafood is served in a plastic bag with cajun sauce within. You have the option to choose mild, medium and hot spiciness. If you are barely capable of handling spicy hotness, I recommend medium spicy for the shrimp because shrimps soaks up a lot of sauce and medium can be pretty spicy. I recommend hot for the crab because the crab doesn't soak up as much sauce with its hard armor shell. The crawfish tastes great with medium spiciness. If you are into hardcore spicy, then kick it up a notch and order hot everything.
I really like Crawdaddy and I wish they would have rice in their menu. The cajun sauce would go really well with the rice.
Also, their server Lannie is really nice and she really add a lot to my dinning experience. She is thorough in recommending dishes, eating method with customers. Thumbs up!
Bookmark Send to a Friend Link to This Review
People thought this was:
Useful (2)
Funny (1)
Cool (3)
If you like shrimp and/or crawdads, you must go here. The only other time I have ever had crawfish was in Savannah, GA. And oh my god, these were so much better, and the butter broth was ridiculously fabulous. So don't go here if you are on a diet, but if not, then you must go.
This is my all time favorite crawfish restaurant! They're boil is flavorful and not too greasy. The meat is saturated with flavor and the crawfish is the freshest that I've ever tasted! The tailmeat is the most generous that I've experienced so far. I would recommend ordering a spice level lower than you're used to since their medium was too fiery hot for me. It's easy to add to the spice later if it doesn't do it for you but hard to take away the heat after it's been added. I would also recommend their fresh oysters. The service is no frills, but they do seem to still pay attention to you when they have a full house. Works for me.
Bookmark Send to a Friend Link to This Review
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
Who's your Crawdaddy? That's the catchy tag line of this restaurant and luckily Crawdaddy Restaurant delivers.
I'll be honest. I've never had craw fish before in large quantities and the idea of "mud bugs" being served by the pound wasn't exactly the most appetizing idea. But I had heard that there was a new food craze from So Cal combining a Vietnamese twist to a Cajun classic and I figured it was worth a try.
We let my brother order since he had been before and he set up us well. We ended up with 2 pounds of Crawfish (mild/medium), 2 pounds of Shrimp (mild/medium), 1 Medium Crab, and a large side order of garlic fries. It was plenty of food for 5 people.
First things first, the craw fish were quite good. I found them to be tasty, possessing a great kick w/ the special spicy and garlic sauce, and overall, similar in shape to a mini-lobster but with meat that wasn't quite as plentiful or delicious as that of the king of crustaceans.
The shrimp, something I'm more used to eating, was even better with the same Crawdaddy sauce and were plump, juicy, and very flavorful.
Finally, the real and surprise star of the meal, given all we had heard about the craw fish, was the crab ($25). It was absolutely huge and surprisingly fresh with ultra tender meat that soaked up all the flavors of the Vietnamese Cajun sauce. A trip for the crab alone would be worth it.
In terms of decor, Crawdaddy has a reasonably nice interior complete w/ plasma screen tvs, dark wood tables and burgundy painted walls. The ambiance and style of this place though is completely practical and it works well. Each table is covered with a sheet of paper to catch the mess and diners are served with plastic bags for all the 1 lb orders as well as paper plates, plastic cups, and plentiful paper towels. In all, it works.
Overall, this is a great and fun place to try something completely different and new. If you've never had craw fish, come here and give it a try. But I recommend you order a pound of shrimp and definitely a crab too. Luckily, all items are cooked in the same fantastic sauce that only differs in "hotness/spicy" intensity. On a dare, I drunk a strawful of the sauce and it definitely packs a kick. Frankly I'd LOVE to have some of that sauce over rice...maybe someday I'll order to go and save the sauce just for that.
Bookmark Send to a Friend Link to This Review
People thought this was:
Useful (6)
Funny (3)
Cool (4)
SPICY!!! 4.5 stars. I thought the sauce was a little too spicy. AND anything TOO spicy kind of kills the flavors overall. So the crawdads were good in flavor...
The catfish is off the hook. Meaty and the batter is very tasty. Fried catfish is generally a little thinner because the catfish already has a lot of juices and usually is hard to dry out, but because it was so meaty, the catfish held some serious juices. Pretty fresh fish too.
The cajun fries: Well, it's kind of a mixed bag here. I mean, if you're really feelin fiery and want something just as fiery-- cool. BUT after about 10 fries your tongue has some major blister problems. Just be prepared cuz this place wants you to sweat. Get some yogurt on the side (like indian spots) to kill the spices. Otherwise, you should be satisfied.
Bookmark Send to a Friend Link to This Review
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
I'm not a picky eater. I rarely crave for a particular type of food - I'm content with eating anywhere that is convenient for me - I used to never go out of my way to go eat. Well that was until I had 2 lbs of craw fish (med hot) with 2 sausages and 2 corns at Crawdaddy - and their chicken wings, fries, and fish.
After eating at CrawDaddy, I suddenly find myself craving craw fish. And more than often, I find myself driving about 25 mins just to satisfy my craving.
O yeah - and the music is awesome... and the people there are very friendly.
Bookmark Send to a Friend Link to This Review
People thought this was:
Useful (2)
Cool (1)
The Crystal Guide: ***
My crawfish favorite restaurant in Southern California is The Crawfish House. The food is very good and affordable down there. The crawfish craze has travelled up north to the Bay Area and there are 4 or 5 different locations in San Jose. There are 2 location on Story Road and one of them includes Crawdaddy. It has been open for less than a year . Prior to their grand opening there was another restaurant here before Bamboo Restaurant closed down.
Unlike the other restaurants, Crawdaddy only offers one flavor: butter. The flavor is rich with butter, herbs, and garlic. It was absolutely delicious the first time I ate here and this time as well. We ordered 1 lb of shrimp, 3 lbs of crawfish (medium), 1 crab, fried catfish and fries, fried chicken wings, and oysters. In other words, we ordered almost everything on the menu. They do not sell rice here so I came prepared with my big order of rice from Saigon Restaurant across the street. We had to run get rice from another restaurant last time we were here while we waited for the 8 lbs of crawfish to come out. I knew that I would need to pick it up myself this time. Here is what is on the menu:
Boiled Crawfish w/ Garlic & Butter
Mild, Medium, Hot, Crawdaddy Fire
- Corn on the Cob
- Louisiana Sausage
Cajun Boiled Crab w/ Garlic & Butter
Average Crab weighs 1.8 to 2 lbs
Boiled Cajun Garlic Butter Shrimp
Mild, Medium, Hot, Crawdaddy Fire
King Crab Legs
Fried Battered Catfish w/ Cajun Fries
Breaded Butterfly Shrimp w/ Cajun Fries
Chicken Strips w/ Cajun Fries
Chicken Wings
Deep Fried Oysters
Raw Oysters on the Half Shell
Cajun Fries
The crawfish (medium) was a little spicy but you need to enjoy it with like that because it is addictive. They provide cheap paperplates, plastic forks, and lemon to add to little plastic containers with salt . This is a very common way for Vietnamese people to eat seafood. I did not need to dip in the lemon salt blend because the flavor was perfect for me. The shrimp with heads did not soak in as much sauce and tasted like undercooked boiled shrimp. The crab's meat was solid and it was very good. I also enjoyed the fried catfish and french fries. It tasted fresh and was satisfying with my steam rice. Since it was Good Friday, I did not get to eat the chicken wings this time but I was told that the crust was light and fluffy holding in the moisture. The other plate that I declined to eat was the raw oysters. They were way too big like the ones at La Mere Michelle.
I am glad that I don' t need to go to Orange County to satisfy my craving for crawfish now . Unfortunately, it was very expensive. Our bill came out to over $150.00 which is expensive compared to Crawfish House. In OC, you get some crawfish with some sausages and corn with your crawfish. In San Jose, you have to pay for everything. Pound per pound, I prefer eating in LA. You will definitely get more for your money.
My craze currently is Crawfish, and I'm hooked to this place like a crackaddict! Just within the last two weeks, I've been eating here over 5 times already! All I can think about is their sauce.
I like spicy food, so I always order the sauce to be medium and by the time I'm done eating.... my lips are red and burning from the sauce! Its so good, my boyfriend slurps the sauce by itself! (I really think that Crawdaddy's should seek a trademark on their recipe to prevent future restaurants from copying their technique because a little birdie tells me that the sauce is made from scratch, even better! They've developed their own, original sauce!).
Although, I know that much people don't really like to work for their food, especially the tiny morsels of meat within the crawfish, but there's other alternatives. At first, I wasn't an enthusiast of crawfish and hte belief of such a small amount of meat, but in the end I just got suckered into the craze. They have crab, shrimp, and king crabs leg, which is also delicous by the way. But I would mainly recommend only the shrimp and crawfish.
Since I've also tried SJ Crawfish, too... in comparison of sauce, Crawdaddy's wins hands down, plus the crawfish is bigger at SJ Crawfish, and their corn on the cob doesn't really mesh well with their sauce, though. On top of that, their deep fried catfish tastes very fishy and the texture of the batter is just gross because its too hard, reminding me of sandpaper for some reason. Besides those minor details, overall they really try their best to give good customer service and make your experience wonderful there.
So if you like spicy food and cranking open crawfish...MMMmmmm... =)
Bookmark Send to a Friend Link to This Review
People thought this was:
Useful (3)
If you want a crawfish fix and you're not in Texas or Westminster, this will have to do. But beware: it's not your typical down-and-dirty, cover-your-bib, leave-with-your-hair-smelling-like-cajun-boil type of place. They might line their tables with butcher paper, but they bring you plates and clean bags, with the expectation that you will eat neatly on your plate, and discard of your shells as you go along. It's just not the same when you're the only table piling your empty shells high onto the table because your hands are too covered in the boiling liquid to bother using the discard bag.
The seasoning is okay. I ordered spicy, and it was manageable. At the Boiling Crab or Cajun Corner in Westminster, there was no way I would be able to get through with their spicy seasoning. It might be that they use a LOT of butter at Crawdaddy. If you like a little crawfish with your pot of butter, this is it.
People have been praising the cajun fries here, but what I ordered and was served was a standard basket of frozen fries with some seasoning shaken on top. Nothing special about it.
If you think you're getting a fair deal paying $10.99 per pound for crawfish here, keep in mind that you can buy them fresh at a wholesale place for under $2 a pound. Considering that's the public price, and the restaurant probably pays even less, you are not getting a deal at all. But again, if you're not in Westminster where you pay only $6.99 a pound, or in Texas, where you pay even less than that, this will have to do.
I visited a friend in the O.C. and he was telling me how he LOVES the new Vietnamese craze -- crawdad restaurants. He explained how they serve crawdads in a bag with all these spices. Wait... stop... I'm Vietnamese, that's not Vietnamese food... iConfused!
So when Huy H. wrote about a Vietnamese-owned crawdad place that opened in San Jose, I just had to try this new So Cal craze!! My friend and I ordered a bag of crawfish (they come in 1 lb. bags) and the fried oysters. The waitress told us it wouldn't be enough food, so we ordered the seasoned fries too. Wow... we left STUFFED. You can't go wrong with oysters, the fries were cajun spiced, and the crawdads totally hit the spot. The crawdads are served whole, head and all! You can choose from Mild, Medium, Hot, or Crawdaddy Fire. We ordered them Hot, which was the perfect amount of spice for us, leaving our lips tingly at the end. However, we both can handle our spices pretty well, so if you're not a spice person, I'd suggest going mild or medium. (Pics uploaded.)
My friend is from Texas, so he was able to tell me how this place was a little different from traditional Cajun food... he called it Cajun food with a California/Vietnamese twist:
- The crawdads in the bag came with a sort of sweet-tasting garlic juice/sauce. He says this isn't how it authentically is.
- Lots of garlic. According to him, Cajun spices are authentic, but not garlic.
- They gave us a plate with salt/pepper and limes to squeeze over the salt/pepper. This is totally a Vietnamese way to eat seafood.
- Hiphop/R&B remixes playing. With a Cajun place, you expect Blues or something, but no... instead, you hear R&B with that continuous remixed beat in the background and all the songs lead into each other (remember, from like the late 90's, early 00's?).
Nonetheless, we totally left the place grinning. It was delicious, and Lani's service is great! Thai and his dad are super-friendly too! I keep coming back to satisfy my craving, and bringing different friends each time to help them spread the word!
Bookmark Send to a Friend Link to This Review
People thought this was:
Useful (3)
Funny (2)
Cool (4)
This place...how do I put this.....SUCKS!!!! Ok so Im a HUGE fan of mudbugs but I didnt even get to try the food here. The place had a low end feel with 2 flat screens turned way way too loud. The roll of paper towels and cheap paper plates where a nice touch though. My bf & I ordered drinks and our dinner.....after waiting 40 minutes in a semi-full place I had enough. I let our waitress know that we were going to leave if our food wasnt served by the time our drinks were gone. She didnt really seem to care either way. We did end up leaving.....went to the Fish Market and had a great dinner!! Oh and the menu here bites too!!! Talk about limited choices YUCK!!
Yes the crawdads are great, the sauces are fantastic, but I would say that that freshness isn't a priority with this place. We always order at least a lb. of crawdads and have taken them to go. I've had a few that were mushy but I can forgive that. The shrimp on the other hand are absolutely horrible. And that has been on at least 3 occasions. Mushy and gross, like they were prefrozen and then thawed, you can always tell when you break open the shells and your fingers practically push right thru. Yuck.
Stick with just the crawdads I guess, because they are good, but it's too bad about the shrimp. It would make for a great combo if they could get these fresh. Haven't tried the other items.
We love this place! Been there at least 4 times now and each time, the flavor and freshness has been consistently perfect! We used to be a big fan of Cajun Crab House until they changed the recipe and owner. Now, their crawfish is frozen sometimes and the sauce is soo watered down. This place is definently worth the extra drive to go to! Crawdaddy's recipe and their promise to keep the crawfish fresh is what will keep us coming back for more!
Bookmark Send to a Friend Link to This Review
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
We drove all the way down from SF to try Crawdaddy--and it was totally worth it. Four of us got 1 lb of shrimp, 2 lbs of crawdads, an order of fries, and fried oysters. Great food, very nice staff.
One word of warning: the medium is VERY spicy. My lips were really really red and inflamed by the end of the meal. I was with a Thai guy and even he was having problems (we couldn't discern between medium and hot either). Next time, we'll order the mild.
Bookmark Send to a Friend Link to This Review
People thought this was:
Useful (2)
Funny (2)
Cool (1)
Who's yer daddy? Crawdaddy!
Came here for dinner after working out at the gym, what a way to cancel out our workout! But, it was totally worth it!
For $20 we ordered 1lb of crawfish with two corns, and the breaded shrimp with the cajun fries. Everything was soooo good! We got the mild seasoning and it was just enough to tickle my tastebuds and leave me wanting more!
I was kinda suprised that it was vietnamese owned, but hello, we are in San Jose! Anyways, they were playing really good music, Biggie, Mos def! Wonderful! If this place turned into a club after, I wouldn't mind staying! This place was full of college students and early 30's folks.
We are definitely coming back and going to order 2lbs and the oysters!
If I could drink the buttery juice the crawfish were in without thinking of what all that butter would do to my body, I would have drank it in a heartbeat!! However, I did drown my cajun fries in it and it was delish!
The one thing I think they could have put inside the restaurant was a sink area, a la Bath and Body Works, so that way you wouldn't have to trek yer way to the bathroom to wash your hands!!
Bookmark Send to a Friend Link to This Review
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
Cool (2)
I will be honest that I was not expecting much from this place. I've eaten freshly caught crawdads at Yosemite and didn't think they were all that. After making a trip up North to see family my lil bro insisted on trying this place. This is of course from a guy who didn't like Lobster Shack which I absolutely LOVE (minus the high prices). So like I said before, I wasn't expecting much.
We ordered two pounds of shrimp and crawdads that were medium and mild, fries, and a whole crab medium spiciness for a party of five.
The fries came first which were fresh, hot, and VERY tasty. Then came the shrimp, crawdads, and crab. ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. Each bite was a blast of flavor dancing around on your taste buds. Pure deliciousness and heaven. With so much flavor, how could you not suck the living hell out of the crawdads, shrimp, and crab? This is by far the ONLY restaurant that has made me want to go again the next day. Crawdaddy, you are most definitely my DADDY!!
Bookmark Send to a Friend Link to This Review
People thought this was:
Funny (3)
Cool (4)
I've never been a craw fish place, so I was excited to try Crawdaddy. So I gathered up a few friends and made the journey from SF to SJ. Was it worth the trip?
We ordered 3 lbs of craw fish, medium and spicy, shrimp and garlic fries. Craw fish is much like shrimp in that it's easy to extract the meaty reward (a lot easier than crab). For the amount of meat vs labor involved, I would say the shrimp was better. Craw fish tastes slightly closer to lobster than shrimp, but is unique. I'm not sure if I'm hooked on it yet.
However, I did have a great experience. I've discovered something new to add to my palette and the the 50 miles was worth the experience. Maybe I'm just not a huge crawdaddy fan, but I'd come here for the shrimp.
Four stars for service, very nice, cool and friendly but a tinie bit unorganized. I really like the idea of spicy licking finger food and a bib... it's fun. Food was really good and inexpensive, which is the best.
Improvements:
-soggy corn (they were busy so that's forgivable)
-how about garlic fries? (they use the ingredients anyways) doesn't have to look all mixed up n pretty. A clump on top is just fine.
Overall, I like it and will be back.
Very nice staff! They were all very friendly and helpful.
I ordered 1 lb. of crawfish and 1 lb. of shrimp both of them medium spicy. The flavoring on the crawfish was very good but they looked like bugs (eww!) and there was so much work for so little reward. The shrimp was more hearty but the flavoring wasn't as memorable as the crawfish. They also gave rolls of paper towels to everyone which was very funny. Also, it took quite long to make and some of our shrimps were overcooked. But nevertheless, 5 stars for the service and the pleasant surprise that I got from this restaurant!
Bookmark Send to a Friend Link to This Review
People thought this was:
Useful (2)
Cool (1)
We ordered the following between 2 people: 1 crab, 1 lb crawfish with 2 corns on the cob, and a small order of chicken wings...yes we're fatties in training.
The crab was very good. Lots of meat and the sauce that came with it was perfect. I'd say if i wanted some crab that wasn't horribly priced, I'd go here. The crawfish was pretty good, but I think $10/lb is overpriced. To be fair, it was very tasty. I just can't justify paying $10 for a pound of it though. The chicken wings were alright at first, but they were just really salty. Better than KFC but I've had better at Toyose in SF.
If you want to go for a nice crab and watch a warriors game at the same time, go here. If you want crawfish, boil them at your own place and save yourself some $$$.
If you're Vietnamese and you plan on opening a business, you better trademark, copyright or patent your shit right away.
I mean GO, like, NOW!!
Because if you don't, someone's going to steal your idea, throw on a fresh coat of paint or whatever they need to do to make it better, and make more money than you. Viets have a Murphy's Law, too. It's called Phuc's Law:
Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong because another Vietnamese person stole your idea.
How many friggin' Viet nail salons do you see, especially east of Senter Rd. in San Jose? About a billion? I think more. What was the latest trend to have meteoric rise and ultimately go down the shitter? Real estate and mortgage offices. You don't have a lady named Ngoc calling to see if you want to refinance your home anymore, do you? It's because all the businesses recently filed for Chapter 11.
Now what do we have here... crawdad restaurants? WTF?? They're popping up more than Pinkberry in So Cal. I never, ever grew up eating this stuff. Ever! And I've had weird shit such as duck blood (tiet canh), grilled snake, reindeer (yes, Rudolph) and hot vit lon (commonly known as balut.) [No, I haven't tried dog, you bastards.] Although nowhere near as gross as the aforementioned "delicacies," there is absolutely no enjoyment in eating crawdads.
You want to stick your hands into a bag full of steamed crawdads that are drenched in juice and seasoning, rip off its head from its tiny little body, and suck what from the thing? The meat? Where in the fack is the meat?? Piece of ass frickin' rip off. Not worth the effort or the mess you make on your shirt and behind your ear; those damn plastic bibs never, ever keep you clean.
So how can I give Crawdaddy four stars? Well, I've been to several Cajun crawdad places in the Bay and one down in So Cal, and I must admit that Crawdaddy is the best. The crawdads are big and seasoned better than the other places, though I'd rather eat something else like their deep fried catfish. The place is also well kept and the service is above-average (which isn't much, I know) for a Vietnamese restaurant.
So if you're looking into opening your own crawdad place... don't bother, Crawdaddy has its niche covered. The next Vietnamese business sensation is going to be the drive-thru nail salon. Get your nails done in less than three minutes! You can go ahead and steal my idea.
Don't say I never did anything for you.
Bookmark Send to a Friend Link to This Review
People thought this was:
Useful (7)
Funny (24)
Cool (9)
My homie Thai opened this place up last year. Though, I'm not a big fan of crawfish, I still came out to try some to support him. You can order by the lb and there are usually specials if you order multiples. Actually, just tell Thai (the bald short viet dude) that you want the Van The Man discount. He might give it to you or he might just look at you funny and tell you to get the fuck out and charge you double. Nah really, tell him that you read my review on Yelp. What's the worst that can happen?
Anyway, they also service other things like sausages, corn and chicken strips. The catfish and Cajun fries are pretty decent too. He's always coming up with new stuff so be sure to come back and try those as well. The place isn't huge, but does has a big screen TV. It's pretty clean for the most part and one thing I love is that they just give you full rolls of paper towels to clean up with. It reminds me of Hooters without the "hoots". Maybe that's what you need buddy to increase sales!
Van The Man's Must try : the Crawfish extra spicy
Bookmark Send to a Friend Link to This Review
People thought this was:
Funny (1)
The crawfish here are really tasty but they might have given me medium instead of mild. It really made my lips tingle but the sauce was still great. The shrimp that my friend ordered tasted like they were previously frozen though.
Yesterday, my bf and I ate here and we were happy to say "Finally! Found our favorite crawfish restaurant!"
We ordered 1 lb of crawfish, 1 lb of shrimp, 1 crab and 2 corns, all at the medium level of spicyness. Everything tasted really good; nothing was overcooked. The crawfish were really big too -- especially compared to some of the other crawfish restaurants we've been to in SJ.
They sell their crawfish for $10.88/lb, but I think it's worth it since other places sell theirs for $9.99/lb... but their crawfish end up being tiny as hell. Next time we'll probably skip the crab because we realized that the flavors don't really get into the crab meat like it does the shrimp or crawfish.
The ambience of the place is also nicer compared to other crawfish restaurants -- I thought it was cleaner and the music was really good! The girl who was serving us was very attentive too, she was always making sure to refill our sodas and see if we needed anything. We were very happy so we left her a big tip. :)
Yum, we'll be back!
Today, after bookmarking this restaurant and waiting and waiting until the right night, I finally got my crawdaddy on.
I ordered togo over the phone. We got 5 lbs of medium spiced crawdads and two lbs of shrimp.
They offered to undercook the shrimp for me so it wouldn't be overcooked when we ate it.
But I will start off with the good stuff. The crawdads. Oh geez. Amazing. The sauce wa SO spicy that us whimpy white folks had tingling lips and coughing fits. But it was so worth it. We enjoyed the work for the little morsels of meat. I think next time we will get mild (and I LOVE spicy food. Be prepared.)
The shrimp were very disappointing. I love all things shrimp, but when we tried to peel these ones, the head came off quick and then I couldn't get the rest off!! The peel was so thin and the meat was...well I only had one cause I couldn't get the damn peels off!! Then the one I did eat had a sandy vein in it that was all dry and weird. I only heated them up when I got them home, so I know they were not overcooked. I would have to question the quality or freshness as I am a shrimp expert.
Crawdad expert I am not. These were my first crawdads but I will be returning for more. I really enjoyed them and I thought that it was worth the price. For the record, I am never ever in the area that this restaurant is located in, but I will be now. Crawdaddy is good, but I will only be eating the crawdads from now on.
to be honest this place i s not that great! if you think it is go 3 blocks down to crawfish restaurant. that place puts crawdaddy to shame.
Having only been to the Boiling Crawfish (http://www.yelp.com/bi...) before for crawfish and giving them a 1-star review, I didn't have high expectations for this place. But it actually turned out to be pretty good!
We had a lb of crawfish in each of the 4 spicy sauces. I loved the spicier ones and was able to handle the spiciest one just fine. But it could be because I would dunk the tails in the lime/salt/pepper mixture.
- corn: tasted like it was cooked hours ago and then just placed in the bag to reheat. it didn't have the corn crunch that you get from just cooked corn
- sausage: decent
- fish and chips: the fish was too thin and not as juicy as I would've liked. it wasn't oily though. had kind of a cornmeal/shake-n-bake batter
- cajun fries: good. someone in our group loved them, but I thought they were just ok.
- king crab legs: good also but it was simply steamed
- shrimp: hit or miss. i had some that tasted mushy like they were frozen and defrosted.
I would def come back for the crawfish. I think it was their sauce that makes it way better than the Boiling Crawfish.
Bookmark Send to a Friend Link to This Review
People thought this was:
Useful (6)
Cool (6)
I was surprised to see the tables lined with white paper, customers wearing bibs with dirty hands and piles of eaten crawdads. Tree hugging people must hate this restaurant. With all the paper being used for tablecloths, paper cups & plates, plastic forks & knives, plastic bibs, all those paper towels used for wiping those mouths and fingers down. I try to recycle, but no, I'm not going to boycott this restaurant.
The paper menu was peculiar. All the prices ended with 88 cents. The crawdads were $10.88/lb. Catfish was $9.88. Cajun fries was $3.88. I've never seen that before on a menu. Probably because 8 is supposed to be a lucky number.
After I ordered a pound of crawdads, one sausage, cornmeal fried catfish & cajun fries, I decided to sneak off to Walmart to shop a bit. Since the waitress said it would take 20mins, she said she could call me when my order was ready.
I received a call shortly, I hurried back to the restaurant, only to find that my food wasn't ready. As I waited, one of the waitress asked me if I would like something to drink. I said I was okay. Two mins later, a guy who worked there asked me the same question. Before I could answer, he said, "Let me get you a free drink, on the house!" He grabbed a chilled bottled water and placed it in front of me. Wow..I feel like a crawdaddy princess. The great customer service offset the long wait.
After driving for 20 mins with the aroma of crawdaddys and spices filling up my car, I rushed into the house to open up my dinner. The catfish was breaded with cornmeal, not oily or greasy at all. The cajun fries weren't anything special, tasted like they threw some spices on the top. The crawdads were delicious, hit the spot, a bit small though. The spices/sauce on the bottom of the bag was really good. The sausage...it was thrown into the bag, but the thing was half a sausage? It was clearly cut into two pieces, with the other piece being who knows where. Hmm? 50 cents for a sausage was what it said on the menu. I sat there scratching my head. Did the other part half of the sausage get lost in someone else's order or am I supposed get only half a sausage? Nevermind the sausage, the spices in the crawdads and sauce was fingerlickin' good.
Next time, I'm going to order two lbs of crawdads, definately no sausage, and perhaps a corn. And ask for lots of napkins.
Bookmark Send to a Friend Link to This Review
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
When the Rex show that my boyfriend and I planned to go to was sold out - stupid lady on the phone said we didnt need to reserve tickets because they had "lots of seats still" errr.., we came here for dinner instead. Gosh this place was soo packed it didnt look like there would be a table avaiable, but luckly the guy was just cleaning one off and as soon as he laid a new piece of butcher paper on the table he called us over to take a seat.
Not the cheapest meal.. it's like $10.88 lb for crawfish. We each ordered a pound of crawfish.. his - hot, mine- mild, two corn, a dozen oysters, cajun fries and Coronas. After we ordered, we got a brand new roll of paper towels, a plastic baggy (from observing the other tables, it's for garbage), and two bibs. Thank goodness for those bibs because I was wearing a white shirt! Food took awhile, but then again the place was packed. The fries were fries.. it comes with a spicy ketchup dipping thing.. oysters were fresh and very very cold, and the crawfish was soo good! It's their sauce - it's amazing! We should have ordered more corn because it's so good when it soaks up all the sauce in the bag. The crawfish is soo good, that you forget you're eating in public - it's a seriously messy meal... Did I mention thank goodness for those bibs?! Only suggestion is that they put a sink in the hallway so that you don't have to wait to go in the bathroom.
Who's your crawdaddy? Love the name and the crawfish. I usually go here for crawfish whenever I am in San Jose.
I went here last night, and did it hit the spot! I'm craving for some more!
I'm not so into crawfish (I think it's just too much work for such little meat). But their crabs (Not the STD kind), fried oysters, Cajun fries, and especially their butter garlic shrimp! The bombbbbbbbbbbb!!!
Bookmark Send to a Friend Link to This Review
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
Funny (1)
Crawdaddy Restaurant rocks!!! Went there with my sweetie. Good stuff. Tried almost everything on the menu. We loved the crawfish, all the fried stuff including the catfish, shrimp and oysters. Service was ok but I'll give it 5 stars anyways because the food was excellent dude!
Bookmark Send to a Friend Link to This Review
People thought this was:
Useful (1)