Thursday, October 6, 2011

Dirty Dinner at the Boiling Crab


My suburbs dwelling friends convinced our informal dinner club to venture east yet again, this time to try out the Boiling Crab. If you like seafood and don't mind being dirty, a trip to Boiling Crab is well worth your time. They steam seafood, dump it in plastic bags filled with spicy sauce, and then bring the bags to your table for (likely rapid) consumption. I would love to go back with my boyfriend in tow (he loves seafood as much as me), but next time around I would make a few adjustments to my Boiling Crab strategy.

1. Don't waste tummy space on anything fried (except for the sweet potato fries) or the corn. The oysters and catfish came recommended, but mostly they tasted bland compared to the saucy steamed seafood. People on Yelp also rave about the corn, but it's clearly not very fresh.
2. The "medium" spice is pretty spicey. I would go mild unless you have a high tolerance.
3. Wear old clothes (you will make a mess and smell) and short sleeves (once you get started, you will not have a clean hand to pull up a falling sleeve).
4. Snow crab legs are the best value. 
5. Go early early early! We went at 5 on a Sunday, and still had to wait 30 minutes for a big table.

The Boiling Crab (Alhambra)
33 W Main St.
Alhambra, CA 91801
(For those on the west side, there's also one in Koreatown.)

2 comments:

pink horrorshow said...

Haha, I haven't had one of these dinners in AGES. I don't even care for crab but donning the bib and digging through huge piles of crab is so much fun :)

amy said...

cara, that looks like a great way to spend a sunday dinner. the restaurant looks like it was plucked off of the atlantic coast too!