The Original Snockey's Oyster & Crab House

Giving one star because I must give something. Disappointing to say the least. My gf and I wanted seafood. She got the fried scallop meal and I got the broiled seafood meal. My food was below average. I know I could have done a much better job at home. The green beans were not fresh and over cooked (chewy,) the shrimp had a funny taste to them, the crab cake was tasteless. The only ok thing was the potato salad which also needed salt but at least it was edible.

My gf's plate was also sad; she had the cole slaw that looked more like baby food and tasted like mayonnaise with a hint of mushed cabbage and her scallops were tough. The only thing decent were the mashed potatoes.

We spent $56 for a meal not worthy at all. We will be replicating these meals at home and I'm sure we will do an excellent job. Hey maybe they should hire us to cook for them. Lol

Nice neighborhood seafood restaurant. I went for dinner with the LivingSocial deal for 2. The lobster bisque is simply great. The twin lobster tail dinner was just OK. The tails are a good size but not as sweet as I would like (perhaps not Maine lobster?). The pumpkin spice cake makes for a nice dessert with only a hint of pumpkin though. Loved the Birch Beer as a non-alcoholic beverage (should have asked where that is from).

I suspect the AYCE crab specials and oysters/clams during daily happy hour are the real gems, so I'll be back.

Street parking can be a bit tricky with all the narrow one way streets in the neighborhood so you might want to go early to make a reservation.

This place is on one of those lists for best places for happy hour oysters/buck-a-shucks/in this case: "Clammy Hour" in our fair city. It's been around for over a century so I'm sure it's on a few lists... both the good and the bad.

Walk in like you own the place. If you don't, then you might get overlooked and no one will greet or seat you. Also, don't try to make small talk with the staff... this is THAT kind of place. Old school... South Philly... we're strictly here to chow down... looks run down... and well, might actually be run down. Don't expect that anyone will ask you how your food is or if you need anything, you've got to assert yourself and wave someone over, or better yet, drop your voice an octave or two and just yell across the restaurant.

Clammy hour is a good deal. Not sure if I would come here for anything else. Also, street parking is way better than Center City so that's always a plus. Got a dozen oysters (they were a good size), half dozen clams casino (tasty, slightly spicy, definitely pepper in there), and a clammy mary. Their horseradish kind of sucked, but I ate enough oyster crackers to make up for it. All in all, if you come in with low expectations, it's a good value.

3.75

Snockey's Oyster and Crab House is celebrating their 100th year in business and even though their age shows on the interior, I found it to be clean and they serve good food. Their menu is vast, especially in the seafood department, although they do offer a variety of steaks and chops.

Upon entering, you are greeted by a raw bar, featuring a shucker going to town on a wide variety of oysters and clams. Everything was well on ice, but I was a bit concerned to see an overflowing bucket of raw shrimps barely sitting on ice.

Next we were "greeted" by a very crass young "lady" who basically screamed at us to just go and sit down, I asked if we should grab menus and she gave me a very emphatic and elongated NOOOOOO, "you will get menus". I wanted to stick a huge wad of bubble gum in her mouth, then she would have been complete.

On the opposite side of the long raw bar are two top tables and beyond that is a small dining room that fills up quickly, nothing fancy, kind of reminded me of sitting in a cafeteria. The service isn't very friendly or attentive and the food takes quite awhile to come out of the kitchen, however we did enjoy the food that we had and it was good enough to make us a fan.

Michael started off with half dozen top necks, they also have little necks and cherrystones, they were very fresh, pink and plump and he was really enjoying them. I, in the meantime was enjoying a small portion of "Mrs. Snockey's original oyster stew", the broth was perfectly delicious and the oysters were so tender, I would hate to see the large, as this was a huge bowl of stew. They also offer a great variety of chowders, bisques and soups, such as Philadelphia snapper.

We then shared an order of clams casino, which has ham, peppers, onions and a nice kick of spices, these were different and very good indeed. For Michael's entree he ordered baked stuffed deviled clams, these were large and very filling, they were good, but nothing to say wow about, pretty much on the dry side, although they were devilish with a bit of a kick.

I had just made a good sized batch of lobster, shrimp and crab scampi, which we ate for two nights, so I was basically hungry for a good steak, even though I was in a famous seafood house. I ordered the porterhouse and they were out of it, so I decided to go with the filet, but noticing adding a lobster was not much more for the surf and turf, I quickly changed my mind.

My filet was surprisingly tender, cooked a perfect medium rare and the lobster tail was broiled and cooked perfectly as well. Two sides come with each entree, hubs had French fries and Cole slaw and I had fresh sauteed green beans with lots of garlic and mushrooms and macaroni salad. The green beans were definitely the winner in the group.

The servers hand tally the checks and I happened to notice table after table complain about their checks, so when we got ours, it was way off, she did not question it, re-tallied it, so do be sure to check their charges and math.

They have all you can eat crab nights offering all types of crab, many seafood combinations and platters either broiled or fried. We both enjoyed the food enough that we will return. So grab your calculator and a piece of bubble gum and go!

We're a crab house but we might not have any crabs or wet naps to clean your hands with. Oh yeah here's some gross fries since we ran out of the corn you ordered. We're still going to charge you for the price of corn though.

Never again.

Hmmm - considering there are only three reviews on here and they are all 5 stars I have no idea who Carla is ranting about. I guess after 99 years in business a place will have all kinds of loyalists, even those that see scary yuppies hiding behind the mummer's museum. ;)

So I've been here a few times now. Clammy hour that people rave about is worth the rave. the raw bar was as fresh as any I've been to in town. Today they had a 1 1/2 pound lobster dinner special for $22. Yum. Clammy mary's (a bloody mary with three raw clams) are $4. Consider the clams are 50 cents each, and you're really paying $2.50 for that drink.

So - a friend and I had:

Three dozen raw clams, two dozen raw oysters, a dozen clams casino, two dozen shrimp, the lobster platter, 2lbs of snow crab, and 5 clammy mary's. The bill - $114. Heck I've been to places recently where that's been my BAR bill for five drinks.

It's family owned and run. The staff is pleasant. Bathrooms are clean. Not easily handicapped accessible because of stairs and the configuration of the vestibule. There is a children's menu and some standard desserts, such as rice pudding, cheese cake, pies, key lime, and an uber chocolatey thing.

So what are you waiting for? There's ample parking in the neighborhood. the food is good, cheap, staff is nice, the only thing missing is you!

I've eaten at Snockey's many times before. The last time I was there was about two yrs ago. I got sick but assumed it was due to me stuffing my face during clammy hour. I recently tried them again on a Sunday, once again for clammy hour.

So where should I start. The service was awful and extremely slow, the beer was flat, the oysters were not chilled....served on a tray with 3 pieces of ice. I absolutely love oysters and have eaten them at many places and never before have I had them served at room temperature. The clams casino and littleneck clams were mediocre, the deviled clams were blah, just filled with stuffing and the crab soup was nothing but watered down veggies probably diluted Campbell's. The decor doesn't bother me since good food can be served at the worst looking places.

Finally, when we got the check (which was hand written by our waitress), there were many mistakes. Like I mentioned, we were there for clammy hour, which they advertise on their site and in the restaurant. The oysters were .83 vs. the advertised .75, the pick n peel shrimp was charged .50 vs the advertised .40, the flat beer was charged 3.25 vs the 1.99, the clams were .60 vs .50. We politely made mention to her that a few of the prices were wrong. She said that the prices were changed but did adjust a few since the prices were on the table. Yes, it's only a few bucks but it's the principal. I also understand inflation and the increase of cost but don't advertise one price and charge another. After correcting a few, the waitress' math was wrong, obviously she tried doing it in her head. Instead of wasting our time on asking her to adjust it again, we just paid the bill.

I am not usually harsh especially since I love hole in the wall restaurants but seems to me this hole in the wall needs to be cemented up and closed down. The food is nothing special here. Yes, oysters are cheap, even at .83 cents a pop but spend an extra .17 cents and feel confident about what you're about to digest and hit up Oyster House on Sansom or McCormick's & Schmidt's for their happy hour.

After going to Route 6 last night for restaurant week I was reminded that I never reviewed Snockey's! I've been here three times and it's always been for the all-you-can-eat crabs.

One time, they ran out of crabs. It was pretty early during the dinner hour, so I don't really know how that happened. I mean, if you're going to offer up a special like that wouldn't you make sure that you had the supply ready to go? Another thing that bothered me was that I was told I couldn't get the happy hour drink specials unless I was physically sitting at the bar. What is that about?

The joint is, overall, pretty damn dirty. "Grimy" may be the best word to describe it, actually.

I'll pass on going back here again.

I have ordered take out several times from this place and each time, the order arrived extremely later than the estimated delivery time and food was extra cold and unpalatable...

For the latest order, clams casino arrived raw and covered in some watery vinegar bell pepper mixture...the worst I've ever had. I spit out the first bite and threw the rest away.

Extremely disappointed in the quality of "food" of this establishment.

My wife and I decided to dine at Snockey's due to a Living Social deal and had a miserable experience.

Let's start with the service. The gentleman serving was very nice and pleasant to talk with, but the actual service was lacking. It took a very long time to place our order and when the food finally came out the order was incorrect. Our appetizers came extremely late and did not come out together. The shrimp cocktail was mediocre and not very pleasing to look at. The additional appetizer of six oyster arrived and we're not chilled very well, but they were the best part of the meal. The entrée's were barely edible. The lobster tail was rubbery and cold, and we were each short a lobster tail which arrived about 10 minutes later.

The price was extremely expensive for the quality and amount of food. The additional appetizer, of six oysters and a glass of wine, cost an additional 30 dollars. The total cost of the meal without the Living Social was $120.00 this included two appetizers, two entrée's, a piece of cake, two non-alcoholic drinks, and a glass of house white wine. With the Living Social deal it was $90.00.

I will never return for any reason what so ever to Snockey's! I can't believe this place is still in business. The owner should be ashamed of what they pass off as food and what they charge for it.