After reading all the terrible reviews, I thought I had eaten at a completely different restaurant. But yes, this is the same Crab Shack, but under new management.
Normally, I don't expect much from these seafood shacks in Delmarva. They seem to peddle the same frozen seafood and sides that make my belly ache an hour later. My wife ordered a half dozen raw oysters and I just rolled my eyes. "Good luck getting any of the awesome local Chincoteague oysters at a place like this," I thought. Our situation seemed worse when they were out of the flounder, which I know is a locally-caught fish, and they offered catfish instead. But once the food started to emerge, we changed our tune. The oysters were the best we've had this trip, and the waitress told us that they have their own guy who brings them local oysters and crabs. The fried catfish basket came out with a dark brown cornmeal breading and hushpuppies, typical of overfried, disgusting fare. But we were surprised again. That dark brown was only the outer crust of light, perfectly-fried fish and hushpuppies. Our cup of New England-style clam chowder was the best part of our meal. It was very light on the cream, revealing a delicious combination of clams, butter, celery salt, and possibly Old Bay seasoning. My wife and I spent the rest of our meal trying to figure out how we could recreate the recipe. This is something that never happens at a low-rent seafood shack!
We will definitely be coming back to the Crab Shack next time we are in town.
We rolled into Chincoteague late, around 9, so our food options were a bit limited. Instead of closely studying our options, we just stopped by the Crab Shack because it was open. I wish we would have hit the Subway instead. The food wasn't terrible - but the dippy, amateur service ruined the experience.
We were seated though we were initially told that the restaurant was no longer serving. Then we waited a solid 15 minutes before anyway paid attention to us despite several attempts to get attention. Finally, someone took our drink order - or at least tried to. When I asked what kind of beer they had, she offered a blank stare. I had to go inside and check myself.
We were finally assigned a waitress and things moved relatively smoothly from there. The food itself - crab salad, fried flounder sandwich - was ok. But these people obviously don't have it together - the food isn't worth the frustration.
It's pretty clear that Chincoteague has a food problem - especially in the service departments. The reviews on yelp provide one horror story after another. It's a shame - because this place in particular - with it's porch and expansive outdoor seating area - has a lot of potential.
This was our first dining experience on the island. We had a late lunch after arriving on a Friday afternoon. Â Since it was late, we ordered some items to share, a steamed shrimp and hush puppies special, crab balls and fries. Â Everything was only ok. Â The shrimp didn't have enough seasoning, crab balls were gooey which was really off-putting. Â The fries were crinkle cut...like Ore Ida frozen crinkle cut. Â Yuck. Â They were like potato flavored air
It was ok enough that I would give this place another chance. Â It hit the spot at the time and the hush puppies were pretty good. The crab balls had a good taste and my husband enjoyed them...I just couldn't get past the gooey thing.
Sub-par food and poor service are the ways to describe this place.
My boyfriend and I enter after spending a few hours on the beach and wait by the counter to be seated. We weren't addressed for at least five minutes while the unpleasant hostess/cashier helped a lady pick out a t-shirt.
Finally she put us at a table outside. The people who were seated after us got waited on first. Our waiter finally came around after another waiter asked if we'd been helped. Throughout our whole dining experience the other waiter had to keep getting our waiter who basically acted like a stoner 20-something who could care less about helping us.
Once we put our drink order in it took almost ten minutes to bring out a water and an iced tea. My iced tea had half melted ice. Â The appetizer of the potato skins came about ten minutes later and tasted ok. Nothing amazing.
Later on our entrees came. I had two broiled crab cakes (the waiter had to ask me twice how I wanted them done since he kept forgetting). My boyfriend ordered the fish of the day which was talapia. My crab cakes were sub par and mushy and his fish tasted partially unthawed. I really wanted crabs but they said they were out... Yes, out of crabs at a place called crab shack.
Since our waiter never came out to check on us I had to go inside the restaurant to complain about the fish. He took it off our bill but we didn't want anymore at this point. The other waiter got the "manager" for me who said the cook tasted the fish and said it was fine and the other two people that ordered it that night didn't complain. Â So only two other people got the fish from open to close... Â Anyway I couldn't believe this lady was actually the manager since she basically had an apron on and was covered in cooking greases, but maybe the manager is also the cook??? She promised that they'd have a better fish of the day next time like salmon... which I believe was already on the regular menu...
I had to go In to request the check which took awhile for him to bring out. I didn't leave a tip I was so annoyed. Â The other waiter noticed my unhappiness with the experience and said he'd take care of me next time and that he would even cook the food himself. Â Nice offer but there won't be a next time.
Service was a little slow but they gave our party of 5 complimentary soft drinks for wait.  Food was ok.  We ordered crab dip appetizer, crab cakes, fried clams, steamed shrimp, chicken fingers, and chicken wings.  Their hush puppies were very good.  The cole slaw is  more like a pepper slaw but still ok.  Do not sit outside if possible - flies were terrible even with several citronella candles on the table.
Review Source:Our experience was not good. We sat there forever waiting for service. Finally she came and took our orders (five of us). Waited again an eternity. My husband got up and found the waitress to ask her what is going on. She apologized and said something about the cook having a hard time. The place was not that crowded. Waited a bit more and just when we were about to stand and leave. The food finally arrives. We were very hungry at this point and even with that being the case, the food was terrible. Never Never will we go back.
Review Source:Great fries, fish, soft crabs and crab cakes, and a great atmosphere. Â Eating on the deck or white sand with palm trees around. Â Seemed like we were somewhere tropical. Â Hush puppies were a little dense and Meg thought the soft crab breading was a little salty. Â Other than that, everything was pretty good. Â We had seafood stuffed potato skins for an appetizer that was amazing. Â Although they didn't have any plates so they gave us little bowls. Â Weird...
Review Source:3 stars with the potential to grow to 5.
We sat outside which is a very nice atmosphere, and they're renovating to make a beachy section outdoors that could easily make it 5 stars. The steamed crabs were great, hush puppies and fries were good, the beers were cold, and the prices were reasonable. Â The location's pretty convenient too.
But, the inside looked sort of like the inside of a bowling alley. Not worth eating here and not being outdoors. Â More significantly though, our service was really poor. Â We had to wait 15 minutes for a table, but after being seated it was another 15 before we saw our waitress. Â After that she only came by once to get our order. Â Someone else brought the food, and eventually we had to ask another waitress to ask our waitress for the check. Â Then had to go inside and track her down after she had taken our credit card. Â That may be an anomaly, but definitely put a damper on the whole experience.
Verdict for now is that if you sit outside here you'll be able to count on a good meal. Â Once they complete what look like some fun upgrades and if the service comes up a few notches, this could easily stand to be a 5-star joint.
The Crab Shack was just opening back up for the season when we were there, so they were a little scattered with the drinks and food (we couldn't get tea because they didn't have their coffee maker set up; no biggie). We ordered oysters on the half shell for an app and they were great. We also had the crab cake platter which was a huge portion and very good. The crab cake was probably the best one I had on the island and the steak fries were very good. The service was great even though they were running between the guests and getting the kitchen set up. They have a deck in the front to eat on and it's very much a beachy/shack atmosphere, but it's great and a lot of fun to enjoy. We will definitely be back to the Crab Shack!
Review Source:We ate here early on a Saturday to beat the evening rush on a nice summer night. The service was nice - very friendly and attentive server - and the food was delicious.  As the name implies, it is a "shack" so don't expect anything fancy, but it was comfortable and clean.  Its a typical  beach town place.  The food was very good - but again, it is called Crab Shack, so it isn't fine dining.  I'd definitely go back....and I'd be tempted to dine only on hush puppies, because they were AWESOME!
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