From old horror show, to family fun place back into the 3rd tier in hell, once upon time if you were not a long shore man you would not set foot in Bonk's payable by loosing your teeth, then a rotund Irishman took it over and made the locals watch their mouth, crayons were given to my child, and the music was a nice level in the background, so I didn't have to yell to my wife. Because of the attentiveness of the jolly Irish host "Joe" I believe his name was, I decided to return with some partners from my workplace this is lunch mind you, the common place hug I received from "JOE" was nowhere to be found so I could not help but associate that with the change in the locals and employees foul mouths, the elderly waitress was curt,, pompous, and a down right embarrassment to the guests I bought thinking the happy family atmosphere was still around, then came the food, I actually had an anxiety attack what if my boss gets food poisoning? I feared for my job, then I took a bite from my order and that is when I had a full blown "I am freaking out here man" moment, I asked the red headed sweet pea of a waitress if she could partially reheat my soup,she politely snatched it from my hand, which in turn soaked my single threaded dress shirt and I had Court that afternoon, then the real twist of the knife came THE BILL I was charged for 2 soups I guess the microwave reanimated a new fresh bowl of soup, so that the other cuff of my dress shit could be coated and stained for Court, I was with coworkers so I paid the bill in the legal system that is call extortion. We left with my greatest court room smile so that my coworkers and future (I HOPE) law partners would believe nothing was wrong, I wore my suit coat so that my newly colored cuffs could not be seen, now  the staff and regulars treated us like we didn't belong there but my credit card cleared for the meal so my money was good enough, but not good enough for respect, On my way home that evening I stopped by to inquire about the dinning host that made you feel like you were entering his home, and one of the regulars said he was fired, he did not go into details but bad business move Mr.Bonk, the guy found crayons for my kid to keep him happy, he hugged me the second time I stopped for a beer, he pulled out the chair for my wife don't know if he had anything to do with the cooking but that must have went into the same crapper as the staff's attitudes...
Review Source:Bonks USED to have good crabs, but since they changed hands, their crabs suck & are WAY over-priced. Can't really get good crabs in Philly anymore since Boncela's closed. Damn shame.
EDIT:
Went back here on 1/20/2013........other than seeing old friends that I haven't seen in a while,(we chose this place as a gathering point) there was not an improvement over my last visit. I know it's winter, but how does a "crab place" NOT HAVE BLUE CRABS???? All they had were snow & king, which we had to settle for. Could've went down the street to another establishment that starts w/ the letter B & gotten blue points..........also, here's a question.......HOW DOES A BAR RUN OUT OF DRAFT MILLER LITE, arguably the most popular beer on the planet?? (They did have bottle & cans, but that's not what we wanted!!) NOTE: There were 3 taps out of commission on HOCKEY SATURDAY, not just Miller Lite!!  There are how many beer distributors in Philadelphia that they could've gotten a keg or 2out of ? Inexcusable.........Also, 2 of our party left early & put $20 on our table to help defray the cost of the check; the rest of us went outside to smoke, & lo & behold, when we went back, the $20 was gone.....my buddy inquired  to our waitress as to where the twenty went, & it materialized in her shirt pocket. "I didn't want anyone to walk away w/ it" was our response. Well, we weren't leaving, so did she think this was a tip? And, the service was atrocious. SSSSSLLLLLOOOOOOWWWWW as hell. Really wasn't that crowded, & it's bar food......our 1st order of food took some time,(and it was average a @ best) but I ordered a 2nd order of snow crabs, & they took 1/2 an hour to arrive. Crabs take 10 minutes, & that's tops, & the crowd had thinned by then, so what the hell took so long? Overall, I was glad I got to see old friends,& maybe it was just a bad day, but too many inexcusable things happened; I figured I would give them another shot, but after all this, you won't see me here anymore. Godawful.
My husband and I were in the mood for crabs and heard about Bonk's. We drove an hour to get there and were happy to see that the place was nice. We ordered the crab bisque and steamed clams and the  Jumbo Crabs @ $8 each.
The bisque was quite tasty, not great, but good enough. As soon as we saw the clams we ordered we thought uh oh. They were those cheap white clams that come from the very polluted China waters. We thought a place that supposedly is known for seafood would serve top necks or little necks, not those cheap clams from China sold in Asian supermarkets.
And we were equally disappointment with their crabs! The crabs were at best medium and light in weight and had zero flavor. If you are going to have a crab for a logo and charge $8 each, you should really have great crabs. We eat crabs all the time and we consider ourselves connasieurs. But these crabs were out and out awful. I would never go back here, not because of the crabs, but because they had the audacity to serve white clams from China.
Bonk's is a local's local bar. Â Came here for an Eagles game one Sunday, the place was filled with lifers from around Port Richmond, customers and employees.
We came for crabs. Â #1 blues were about 7 dollars each. Â There was a special on for what they called rock crab, at two for 4 dollars. Â These crabs came cleaned and split. Â They had the same shape and flavor as a dungeness crab, except smaller and with black tipped claws. Â I can tell these came in frozen and reheated, but they were good nevertheless. Â Blue crabs are served dirty (whole, delicious "mustard" and all) with or without a pool of Bonk's juice; a briny, spicy boiling liquid that sends the sea bugs to their graves. Â Then they were all washed down with dollar pints of Bud Light (shitty light beer is the only beer to have with crabs). Â And to top it off, the fries stay impossibly crisp forever. Â No joke.
Maybe the lukewarm crabs when served were an issue, but I can't remember. Â All I can recall is a bright white light followed by shell fragments everywhere.
Sticky, licky, sucky, messy, dirty and wet. Â There is something better than sex for sale in Port Richmond, and no, it's not heroin.
Bonk's crabs.  Blue crabs in insanely spicy  briny murky seawater were the best I've had in Philly.  They were delivered less than hot, which irked me straight off, but were so tasty I forgave it.
Fries were crisp and well-seasoned, with a side of melted white cheese that smoothed out the hot heat of the crab broth.
Wings were good, Â of the well-done school. Â Not the best thing on the table, but respectable.
Deep-fried beer battered crab nuggets were hot grease perfection, dipped in a side of tartar sauce.
Dinner for three with a beer each, four jumbo $8 crabs and many fried basket things was $23 each. Â Â Better than sex, but you still need a shower afterwards.
Bonk's is a Crab Paradise...
perfectly seasoned crabs, coupled with good fries, pitchers of cold beer...the check wasn't bad considering I was with 5 other people and we had a few rounds of shots as well...
the only thing missing were bibs, but we managed to keep the crab squirtage-spillage to a minimum...
and we went on a Weds., it was also karaoke night...
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