Seafood Soiree: A Night at The Boiling Crab
By wchung | 22 Feb, 2025

The Boiling Crab offers a unique eating experience without breaking the bank.

A restaurant that my people have been raving about the last couple of years has been The Boiling Crab. I’ve heard of the long lines, the worthwhile wait and the policing hostess who doesn’t let you put your name in for a reservation until most of your party has arrived.

Who would have thought that a branch of a Texas-based seafood chain would catch on like it has in the heart of Alhambra/Monterey Park (LA’s real Chinatown)? The taste that I was able to get tonight helped validate the claims, at least to my taste-buds.

On a lark I carpooled to The Boiling Crab with some friends, arriving early. As expected we couldn’t get our name in until the other half of the group arrived, but we arrived early enough to only have a 35 minute wait for a party of 8. One of my other friends had to wait 2 hours for a party of 3, so I think we just caught a lucky break.

There were a couple of us new to the whole experience. I stared in wide-eyed wonder at the riot of decor (Baseball logos, basketball jerseys and customer-drawn graffiti?) while my other friend sat us down and did the ordering. A healthy batch of shrimp in multiple sauces, fried fish, fries and a hefty dungeness crab. One beer later, the food came out in buckets.

One thing you have to know about The Boiling Crab is that there are no utensils. You sit at table covered with fresh tablecloth and get down and dirty with your saucy seafood. The shrimp came out in 1-pound baggies. With everything on the table, we dug right in. Our hands clawed, cracked, scraped, and peeled everything to a more edible state.

I’m not gonna lie. It was messy. Between the 8 of us, we probably used two rolls of paper towels. I had naively worn a white v-neck tee shirt to dinner. Though I was bibbed, one mistimed peeling of a shrimp stained my shirt for good. I might keep it in said state – a trophy from my virginal experience of The Boiling Crab.

All in all, I had a wonderful time. The food was delicious, the experience one of a kind. I did overeat a little. Seafood is a bit rich for daily consumption, especially cooked in The Boiling Crab style, but I can imagine myself coming back here quite often, especially when friends visit from out of town and I have to show them some of LA’s finest cuisine.