Is the Crafty Crab Worth The Experience? A Dining Review

You expect nice, plump, fresh seafood when you come to Florida. You want all the goodness that the sea has to offer. We ended up at the Crafty Crab in Brandon, Florida.

You may think, I thought you lived in Florida, so why is this such a big deal? Well, yeah, you are pretty much correct. I live in Florida. I am a Florida native, but when you are craving seafood, you always want fresh seafood.

Of course, you could go to places like Red Lobster, Joe’s Crab Shack, or Pinchers for seafood, but it’s not what’s going to hit the spot.

Now, this leads to what you came here for… How was it?!

How Was the Service at Crafty Crab?

The restaurant opened about a week and a half ago, from what I have gathered in the reviews. So, it is a new seafood joint in town. No problem.

I went in knowing that there may be longer than usual wait times and things maybe not run as smoothly as in an experienced, seasoned restaurant. No big deal, right?

We went to the Crafty Crab around 6:45 pm on a Monday. No big deal. It was packed to the gills, so we had to wait for a table. Cool.

We get seated about 15 minutes later at a table. In a packed dining room. It’s very, very NOISY! Whatever, everyone is talking and having the time of their life.

We wait. We wait some more. And we are still waiting for someone… ANYONE to take our drink order.

It took probably 20 minutes for a gentleman to come over, out of breath, to ask if someone was helping us. Uh, no. He got us our drinks and said someone should be coming by to serve us.

Okay. Cool.

Well, this led to another 30ish minutes for the same out-of-breath gentlemen to say I am so sorry. Have you been helped yet? Again, no, we have not. Well, okay, I guess I can help you.

Now, keep what I say here in mind until we reach the end of the review; you will see why.

We ordered an appetizer of mozzarella sticks, and for our entrees, we ORDERED the ½ of snow crabs and headless shrimps with our respective seasonings and how hot we wanted it. 

It took ANOTHER half an hour to get our appetizer. YES! To get our appetizer of mozzarella sticks. You’d think they were back there MAKING the cheese. We will save how the food was until later in this review.

He drops off our appetizer, and he’s like it’ll be a while for your main dishes to come out. Say what? Okay.

It took an extra 45 minutes for our entrees to come out. During this time, I saw a lot of staff standing around looking bored, or they were looking highly confused as to what their job was. 

How Was the Food?

Now, we get to the best part. The food. How was the food? Was it better than their lackluster service?

Let’s start with those mozzarella sticks, THEY SUCKED. They had to have been sitting out for 10 minutes because they came and were COLD! Essentially they were cheese sticks with breading. The flour they used was not seasoned either. It was all around a disappointment.

Onto the main course, that was AMAZING! The shrimp and crab were fresh. The potatoes were perfect, along with the corn. It was so good. It seasoned just right. Yum. I couldn’t ask for a better meal.

Overall Thoughts

Overall, the Crafty Crab menu wasn’t huge, so you would have to be in the mood for crabs, crawfish, shrimp, or oysters. When we went they were not serving their drink menu. It was strictly food. I know a lot of people love having drinks with their seafood, but it didn’t really matter to me. The Crafty Crab drink menu is below:

Would We Be Back?

The answer is simple as it can be. We will NOT be back whatsoever. I don’t see Crafty Crab even being around in a few months to see if it’s worth it because of the terrible service we got. I always try to give places the benefit of the doubt, but this was a very expensive “failure” on their part.

**Update: We did go back a few times after I wrote this review. Things were a lot smoother. The food was amazing. I didn’t order an appetizer any other time I went, so I really cannot comment on that. 

Need More Central Florida Restaurant Recommendations?

If seafood is not your thing, there are many more delicious restaurants throughout Central Florida. You can view what we highly recommend in our dining review archives.