I really wanted to love this place ... especially since the chef came to check on us more than our server and was determined to make sure we were taken care of and enjoyed our food. I suggested that a couple of my girl friends join me here for Dine LA. The best part of my meal was the salad - my girls did not have a "best part" lol. Each of us ordered the Hawaiin Cajun Platter but we each had different sauce. I was white and the other two had black and red. My girl with the red sauce left 3/4 of her food on the plate to be thrown out. YIKES. My other girl ate her black sauce plate but was open with the fact she would not be coming back. Now for my white sauce place. Bet you thought I saved the best for last ;) Um no. My plate was pretty bad. The corn tasted like it came from one of those Jolly Green Giant bags and had been in there too long cuz it was chewy. Several of my clam shells were empty - which made them more of a decoration than food. My crab was anorexic. No meat. But I lost my appetite for it anyway once I saw the green crab boo boo in the leg joint. Super gross. Did they forget to clean it???? I couldn't even enjoy my rice because the white sauce was actually too sweet & thick for me (crazy! my sweet tooth is fierce). And after awhile I got grossed out and tired of ripping shrimp's heads off. lololol. I will say that my Sweet Onion Sashimi Salad was on point! So good. I would have been better off ordering a large entree sized salad :) The salmon had a great flavor - not fishy at all. And the dressing was a light and refreshing vinegrette. Sweet onion slivers and almonds ... definitely my thing! Desert was a let down. Masala ... a ball of dough meant to be a donut, infused with "flavor". I could not taste the coconut flavor inside my ball at all. Tasted like a flavorless bread ball which is definitely a waste of calories. LOL Sorry my review is so sucky. Like I said I really wanted to like this place. I am a seafood girl and I enjoy getting my hands dirty but the food was pretty average, if not bad. I had to give this place 3 stars because the chef was so present & personable. In hindsight we should have called him over to talk about our plates ... but deep down we probably just didn't have the heart to tell him how disappointed we were ...
Yvonne H.
I went to crackin' kitchen during my lunch break and although the food was delicious, everything took extremely long to come out. There was only about 3 tables with people but it still took about 2 hours to get all the food. We ended up getting dessert to go. However the food was extremely delicious. I ordered off the dine la menu and I think it is very worthwhile! The flavors are good, but on the shrimp plate, the rice a little dried out. Even with such delicious food I was continuously concerned about the cleanliness of the restaurant. When we got our waters the cups were very dirty and there was even grass inside the water. Not sure how it even got inside the water. Overall the food was good but would hope that they become more established first. By improving their speed and cleanliness would really help.
Jeff K.
More like 3.5 out of 5 stars. This review is strictly for the dine la menu... I'm kinda sad they didn't offer a soda, since I believe they do it during Pasadena restaurant week. We went during lunch and got 2x dine la prefixed meals. We got the guava wings with salad, salmon salad, mussels with fries, shrimp rice and malasada. It's weird to think that a Cajun restaurant serves Hawaiian style food.. Anyways, the salad was light and refreshing. And guava wings were sweet and tangy. The entrées were just enough food. Between the mussels and fries and he shrimp rice, I prefer the mussels, Kentucky style.... I believe Kentucky style comes with bourbon and bacon as the sauce base. I don't know if this place was trying to copy Giovanni shrimp in Hawaii... But the garlic shrimp rice was just ok here. Not bad, not that great. Just ok. As for dessert... The malasada were kinda flavorless. I wished they injected some custard into the center or something. One thing that irked me was the time it took to get our food. Maybe we went when they were supremely busy or something.
Katherine L.
Came here for the dineLA experience on a Saturday afternoon. There weren't a lot of people in the restaurant, and we were seated rightaway. However, it took them forever to bring us food!! The $15 lunch deal for dineLA is pretty worth, as you get a 3-course meal out of it. My family and I came and we got to try all 3 of their options. The chicken wings from the appetizer and the house salad were my personal favorite. Though on the saltier side, I really liked the flavor. The Thai mussel pot was cooked in a coconut milk base. It wasn't what I had expected but it went well with the mussels. I would say that is probably my favorite. The garlic shrimp plate was huge, with two scoops of rice and some hawaiian mac & cheese on the side as well. The shrimp garlic sauce with the rice and the mac & cheese were fantastic. Although, I feel like they need to standardize their service a bit. We waited almost 45 minutes for our food to come out, whereas the table next to us that came in at least 15 minutes after we ordered got their food around the same time. They were offered gloves for peeling the shrimp so they don't have to get dirty, whereas our waitress never offered it to us. The main thing that irked me was the kitchen since it was VERY slow. The food itself was not bad but with the wait being that long I'm not sure if I would come back again.
Cheryl A.
Finally decided to try this place thanks to DineLA. Made a reservation using Yelp for 8pm. When we arrived at 7:55 it didn't look like we even need one, but better safe than sorry right? We took a while to order only because we were waiting for 1 more person from our party to arrive. Once he did, we all gave our orders however the waiter kept hearing the last order incorrectly. Also my boyfriend attempted to order a specific IPA but was told they ran out so instead he ordered a different beer recommended by another waiter. Luckily the appetizers came out quickly and were pretty tasty. The chowder fries were alright, pretty salty. The majority of us chose the salad with guava soy chicken wings and one ordered the salad with lomi lomi salmon. My friend felt her chicken wings were small and I felt that my wings were not fresh, seemed reheated. Our other friend received his wings much delayed from his salad, but his looked the best out of ours. I'd say the main course also took long to come out. So much so that we looked around the restaurant and there was only 1 other party of 4 that was already finishing up their dessert. Each person at our table ordered the Shrimp lover's combo in a different style. We all enjoyed it, except one of my friend's felt hers was lacking in sauce compared to the rest of ours. Too bad I couldn't share because she ordered mild while I got "fiyahh". It's hard to eat at a place like this and not compare it to Boiling Crab. Here they still have the white paper on the table, but you also receive an aluminum plate with your side as well as your bag containing your seafood basking in all the spices. I guess here they want you to empty the bag into the plate which we did after they explained. Then we tossed all our shells into the center bucket provided. Finally on to the dessert which was a choice of a malasada. You can choose from chocolate, passion fruit, vanilla or caramel. Our table ordered two chocolate (dark by the way) and two passion. What we received was 1 chocolate dripping on to the plate and 3 passion (1 of which almost had none and happened to go to the same person with the puny chicken wings lol). Once we got the bill, our waiter Octavio said the beer was comped since they didn't have the IPA my boyfriend really wanted, yet it was still on the bill. My friend had upgraded her rice to garlic rice and luckily that was adjusted because I clarified that she wanted to upgrade her rice and not get it in addition to her regular rice. When her order came, it had the regular rice and the garlic rice came out separately. This is why I clarified beforehand but â€. All in all, this place is pretty average but glad I still got to try it. Service could have been better.
Melody Z.
I've been to this restaurant twice and here is the reason for three stars: 1st time: I came here for dinner on Friday for crabs but was told there are NO king crabs or dungeness crabs after seated. I came in because I saw a red crab as the restaurant's logo and I ended up leaving the restaurant. 2nd time: I came in during DineLA and ordered Hawaiian Cajun seafood combo on the DineLA menu, and extra 1lb shrimp, and extra 1lb crawfish in the regular menu. I was gonna order dungeness crab but was told it's $45/lb!! Btw king crabs sell for $55/lb and you can get dungeness crabs for $10/lb at the market now. This is a rip off because the restaurant wants to get people in by a catchy DineLA menu, with the seafood combo only has half of a small, frozen snow crab. But if you want to order additional crabs you need to pay $$$ ridiculous price! Too bad I'm not a tourist. I also couldn't tell if the 'hawaiian cajun' flavor is true based on my travel experience in Hawaii. I came here for dinner on Friday both times, and the place was very empty. Maybe this says something about the restaurant located in the heart of old town Pasadena. Therefore, no third time to this restaurant for me.
Richard L.
Everyone probably heard of Boiling Crab in L.A. but it seem there nothing but Cajun copy cat out there, Crackin Kitchen is added Hawaii infused flavor into the mix. This is a new location just recently soft opening and grand opening soon. I came here when they first soft opening and was impress to see their large selection of menu and most important some very cool unique stuff they had that on one else has them. Their appetizer is very extensive and had the flavor of Hawaii. As for the seafood they had the black and white sauce. But for me I still prefer the traditional red sauce. The item that really would want you over to visit here is their Aloha Dessert is absolute amazing to watch on how they make it and also very tasty as well.
Michelle P.
We ordered the garlic rice, shrimp 1 lb with the red sauce, and I tried a guava chicken wing. Ask them for a sample all three sauces if you can't decide! All three sauces were very savory and flavorful, but I wanted shrimp, so I though the red one paired nicely. And it didn't disappoint! The flavors of the sauce is different from a Creole restaurant. It was a tad bit sweeter. The garlic rice was soooooo good! Probably one of the best I had. Sauce was very thick and had bits of meat in it. And guava chicken wings was savory with a bit of sweetness. Perfectly cooked on the outside and juicy on the inside. Cons: I also ordered the POG slushee drink I think it was. I couldn't really taste the alcohol and it was way too sweet. So I probably wouldn't recommend it. Also, the food took a long time to come out. It was actually pretty empty for dinner on a Friday night, but we really enjoyed it and hope to see it pick up!
Ang W.
The best I can say is that it's in my hometown. Nice decor, feels cozy and open. Unfortunately, the crab was not great. It was over cooked and the sauce did not permeate the meat well so it was a little dry. The menu says you can pick your heat level, however, the waiter explained it wasn't possible due to the recipe of the sauces (i.e. no chilis). Loved their drink menu, super yummy combos. Overall, I think for $55 per lb. and $200 for two people, we should have gotten the corn, potatoes & sausage along with. This is standard at all the other places (Boiling crab, etc.). I wouldn't mind the price if it tastes good. May go back for drinks or lunch special, but not for the crab.
Sandra Sprott S.
We passed this place in March, when they were obviously prepping to open this new restaurant soon. Now, months later, we passed by again, seeing the place up-and-rinnin' with great positive staff that are exited to welcome you are there guests. We wanted to try the 'special of the day' the Crawfish Etouffee. And while we were there, we also tried the Thais style mussles. But there were many things on the menu that I wanted to try, so I will be back... SOON!
We were in the area for another appointment around lunch time and we walked by Crackin' Kitchen. We love crab and my husband is from Hawaii so we decided to try it out. The restaurant was literally empty at noon on a Saturday (I guess maybe that should have been a sign?). We ordered a pound of the snow crab ($35) and a pound of the Alaskan king crab legs ($55). Both in the Maui sweet onion sauce. We waited about 15 minutes and then we were served. The flavor of the sauce was just okay, actually a little too sweet. The snow crab was pretty decent but the Alaskan king crab was absolutely not fresh. It was rubbery and just didn't taste good. We normally love king crab and for $55 for three crab legs, we really expected & deserved better quality. This was a disappointment and we will stick to our usual crab places in the future.
Suzy B.
Our first time here, very fresh seafood and unique cocktails. We shard spicy Cajun fries, king crab legs & shrimp . Venessa our waitress was extremely fast and very nice, always smiling. She was very helpful being our first time she really took the time to explain the process. Being that I'm too picky eating with my hands and. Having sauce all over my fingers we asked for the sauce on the side to dip and it was perfect for me. Thank you Vanessa
David C.
A new cajun boil restaurant located in the chaotic area of Downtown Pasadena, where parking is a real pain, and the weekend gets crowded and rowdy. Nonetheless, this brand new place (open two months) was pretty much completely empty except for us. Not a good sign. Walking in, I noticed that the prices for the MP seafood was exorbitant. $50/lb for lobster in your boil?! Those are Beverly Hills prices. And the SGV is full of boil places. No one is going to pay this. Staff was friendly and attentive. Then again, we were the only people there when we dined on a Friday night. There was mass confusion when I had questions about the menu. The website has one menu, and YELPers have posted other menu photos. None were accurate, and an employee informed me the menu has changed some 4 to 5 times since they have been open. A bunch of the combos are gone. The mussel bowls are off the menu. There's nothing for kids to eat like chicken tenders or anything like that. When we asked about some of the other combos we had seen on older menus, we learned that the clams had been 86'd for the night. Another somewhat frightening sign. Usually, that means something was found to be wrong with the clams. Ugh. Past the menu confusion, the cooking was another disaster show. It took forever to get our food. The small plate of garlic noodles took a very long time. They knew it, too, as they apologized when the food finally came out. They have a see through kitchen, and I swear I saw the noodles made twice. Also, I guess though we had two separate bags of shrimp, each with potatoes, corn, and andouille sausage, they seem to have cooked all our side items together and then had great difficulty separating the appropriate amount for each bag. I got two potatoes and the other bag had 5. I don't know how confusion was so high in the kitchen, as the kitchen staff looked like 2 to 3 people and we were, once again, the only table of diners. But how were the food and drinks? The cocktails are actually very delicious. They have some watermelon tequila drink which is very refreshing. Wish it had a little less ice considering the price, but okay. The garlic noodles were not abysmal but were not good either. They are not like most Asian cajun boil places. They are more cajun spiced. And the plate we got had very watery sauce on the noodles. The best part was the boil. The corn was under cooked. A couple of shrimp in one bag were possibly suspect of not being the freshest, but you get a good amount of shrimp and their red sauce is quite tasty. I'd like to come back, but I think I'll wait a while and see if they work out the kinks. There are too many other boil places that already have their act together.
Ross W.
We came back for dinner and tried a few new items. Clam Chowder was chunky enough, good flavor. My Shrimp Lover Combo came with 20 shrimps (!!!) among mussels, clams, potatoes, and sausages. Naturally I had a lot of leftover. The Cajun Lover Combo was similar except it had Snow Crab and fewer shrimps. You do get a healthy number of big crab legs. We chose the red sauce for both combos, and it was delicious. I noticed the absence of corn on the cob and inquired, so they brought it out later on. The surprise of the evening was Malasadas, the presentation. It was a work of art. Watch the video. The Malasadas taste good smeared with different sauces and fruits, arguably better than the ones in Hawaii. I hope this restaurant is here to say. This spot has changed hands quite a few times over the years.
Nancy N.
Pasadena Restaurant Week!!!! Lucked out, didn't even know they were participating, but I guess I was destined to sample their menu! Came in ravenous and left filled to the brim! A duo of appetizers, entree and dessert all came out to $27/person! A steal!!!!! We started out with Salmom Lomi Lomi, Ahi Poke, Guava Wings, Sweet Onion Salad. LOVED the Guava Wings!! It was melt in your mouth goodness with right amount of crunch and sweetness on the outside and tender juicy chicken in the inside. Definitely a must. Same for the Ahi Poke! Generous pieces of Ahi - fresh and light. Wasn't too excited about the Salmon Lomi Lomi but the hubby seemed to like it. As for the Sweet Onion Salad, definitely could skip this. On to the entree, based on the manager's recommendation went with the Thai Flavor Mussel Pot and the Shrimp Lover Cajun Combo. Dishes come out piping hot so you have to wait a bit to dig in. Thai Mussel Pot was delightful, light coconut flavor mixed with mussels and shrimp. Added bonus, you could request them to mix the leftover sauce with pasta for a banging dish for an extra $2. WORTH IT!! For the Shrimp Lover Cajun combo we went with the Hot spice level and it wasn't too bad, definitely a kick though. Expect large chunks of garlicky delight, you're definitely gonna be licking your fingers for this! And for dessert!!!! The instagram worthy Malasadas with an array of rainbow syrups. Was happy just to see them make this! Pro tip make sure you dip the Malasada perpendicular to the rainbow to get a combo of all flavors! Come hungry!! Left HAPPY!!!!
I really wanted to love this place ... especially since the chef came to check on us more than our server and was determined to make sure we were taken care of and enjoyed our food. I suggested that a couple of my girl friends join me here for Dine LA. The best part of my meal was the salad - my girls did not have a "best part" lol. Each of us ordered the Hawaiin Cajun Platter but we each had different sauce. I was white and the other two had black and red. My girl with the red sauce left 3/4 of her food on the plate to be thrown out. YIKES. My other girl ate her black sauce plate but was open with the fact she would not be coming back. Now for my white sauce place. Bet you thought I saved the best for last ;) Um no. My plate was pretty bad. The corn tasted like it came from one of those Jolly Green Giant bags and had been in there too long cuz it was chewy. Several of my clam shells were empty - which made them more of a decoration than food. My crab was anorexic. No meat. But I lost my appetite for it anyway once I saw the green crab boo boo in the leg joint. Super gross. Did they forget to clean it???? I couldn't even enjoy my rice because the white sauce was actually too sweet & thick for me (crazy! my sweet tooth is fierce). And after awhile I got grossed out and tired of ripping shrimp's heads off. lololol. I will say that my Sweet Onion Sashimi Salad was on point! So good. I would have been better off ordering a large entree sized salad :) The salmon had a great flavor - not fishy at all. And the dressing was a light and refreshing vinegrette. Sweet onion slivers and almonds ... definitely my thing! Desert was a let down. Masala ... a ball of dough meant to be a donut, infused with "flavor". I could not taste the coconut flavor inside my ball at all. Tasted like a flavorless bread ball which is definitely a waste of calories. LOL Sorry my review is so sucky. Like I said I really wanted to like this place. I am a seafood girl and I enjoy getting my hands dirty but the food was pretty average, if not bad. I had to give this place 3 stars because the chef was so present & personable. In hindsight we should have called him over to talk about our plates ... but deep down we probably just didn't have the heart to tell him how disappointed we were ...
I went to crackin' kitchen during my lunch break and although the food was delicious, everything took extremely long to come out. There was only about 3 tables with people but it still took about 2 hours to get all the food. We ended up getting dessert to go. However the food was extremely delicious. I ordered off the dine la menu and I think it is very worthwhile! The flavors are good, but on the shrimp plate, the rice a little dried out. Even with such delicious food I was continuously concerned about the cleanliness of the restaurant. When we got our waters the cups were very dirty and there was even grass inside the water. Not sure how it even got inside the water. Overall the food was good but would hope that they become more established first. By improving their speed and cleanliness would really help.
More like 3.5 out of 5 stars. This review is strictly for the dine la menu... I'm kinda sad they didn't offer a soda, since I believe they do it during Pasadena restaurant week. We went during lunch and got 2x dine la prefixed meals. We got the guava wings with salad, salmon salad, mussels with fries, shrimp rice and malasada. It's weird to think that a Cajun restaurant serves Hawaiian style food.. Anyways, the salad was light and refreshing. And guava wings were sweet and tangy. The entrées were just enough food. Between the mussels and fries and he shrimp rice, I prefer the mussels, Kentucky style.... I believe Kentucky style comes with bourbon and bacon as the sauce base. I don't know if this place was trying to copy Giovanni shrimp in Hawaii... But the garlic shrimp rice was just ok here. Not bad, not that great. Just ok. As for dessert... The malasada were kinda flavorless. I wished they injected some custard into the center or something. One thing that irked me was the time it took to get our food. Maybe we went when they were supremely busy or something.
Came here for the dineLA experience on a Saturday afternoon. There weren't a lot of people in the restaurant, and we were seated rightaway. However, it took them forever to bring us food!! The $15 lunch deal for dineLA is pretty worth, as you get a 3-course meal out of it. My family and I came and we got to try all 3 of their options. The chicken wings from the appetizer and the house salad were my personal favorite. Though on the saltier side, I really liked the flavor. The Thai mussel pot was cooked in a coconut milk base. It wasn't what I had expected but it went well with the mussels. I would say that is probably my favorite. The garlic shrimp plate was huge, with two scoops of rice and some hawaiian mac & cheese on the side as well. The shrimp garlic sauce with the rice and the mac & cheese were fantastic. Although, I feel like they need to standardize their service a bit. We waited almost 45 minutes for our food to come out, whereas the table next to us that came in at least 15 minutes after we ordered got their food around the same time. They were offered gloves for peeling the shrimp so they don't have to get dirty, whereas our waitress never offered it to us. The main thing that irked me was the kitchen since it was VERY slow. The food itself was not bad but with the wait being that long I'm not sure if I would come back again.
Finally decided to try this place thanks to DineLA. Made a reservation using Yelp for 8pm. When we arrived at 7:55 it didn't look like we even need one, but better safe than sorry right? We took a while to order only because we were waiting for 1 more person from our party to arrive. Once he did, we all gave our orders however the waiter kept hearing the last order incorrectly. Also my boyfriend attempted to order a specific IPA but was told they ran out so instead he ordered a different beer recommended by another waiter. Luckily the appetizers came out quickly and were pretty tasty. The chowder fries were alright, pretty salty. The majority of us chose the salad with guava soy chicken wings and one ordered the salad with lomi lomi salmon. My friend felt her chicken wings were small and I felt that my wings were not fresh, seemed reheated. Our other friend received his wings much delayed from his salad, but his looked the best out of ours. I'd say the main course also took long to come out. So much so that we looked around the restaurant and there was only 1 other party of 4 that was already finishing up their dessert. Each person at our table ordered the Shrimp lover's combo in a different style. We all enjoyed it, except one of my friend's felt hers was lacking in sauce compared to the rest of ours. Too bad I couldn't share because she ordered mild while I got "fiyahh". It's hard to eat at a place like this and not compare it to Boiling Crab. Here they still have the white paper on the table, but you also receive an aluminum plate with your side as well as your bag containing your seafood basking in all the spices. I guess here they want you to empty the bag into the plate which we did after they explained. Then we tossed all our shells into the center bucket provided. Finally on to the dessert which was a choice of a malasada. You can choose from chocolate, passion fruit, vanilla or caramel. Our table ordered two chocolate (dark by the way) and two passion. What we received was 1 chocolate dripping on to the plate and 3 passion (1 of which almost had none and happened to go to the same person with the puny chicken wings lol). Once we got the bill, our waiter Octavio said the beer was comped since they didn't have the IPA my boyfriend really wanted, yet it was still on the bill. My friend had upgraded her rice to garlic rice and luckily that was adjusted because I clarified that she wanted to upgrade her rice and not get it in addition to her regular rice. When her order came, it had the regular rice and the garlic rice came out separately. This is why I clarified beforehand but â€. All in all, this place is pretty average but glad I still got to try it. Service could have been better.
I've been to this restaurant twice and here is the reason for three stars: 1st time: I came here for dinner on Friday for crabs but was told there are NO king crabs or dungeness crabs after seated. I came in because I saw a red crab as the restaurant's logo and I ended up leaving the restaurant. 2nd time: I came in during DineLA and ordered Hawaiian Cajun seafood combo on the DineLA menu, and extra 1lb shrimp, and extra 1lb crawfish in the regular menu. I was gonna order dungeness crab but was told it's $45/lb!! Btw king crabs sell for $55/lb and you can get dungeness crabs for $10/lb at the market now. This is a rip off because the restaurant wants to get people in by a catchy DineLA menu, with the seafood combo only has half of a small, frozen snow crab. But if you want to order additional crabs you need to pay $$$ ridiculous price! Too bad I'm not a tourist. I also couldn't tell if the 'hawaiian cajun' flavor is true based on my travel experience in Hawaii. I came here for dinner on Friday both times, and the place was very empty. Maybe this says something about the restaurant located in the heart of old town Pasadena. Therefore, no third time to this restaurant for me.
Everyone probably heard of Boiling Crab in L.A. but it seem there nothing but Cajun copy cat out there, Crackin Kitchen is added Hawaii infused flavor into the mix. This is a new location just recently soft opening and grand opening soon. I came here when they first soft opening and was impress to see their large selection of menu and most important some very cool unique stuff they had that on one else has them. Their appetizer is very extensive and had the flavor of Hawaii. As for the seafood they had the black and white sauce. But for me I still prefer the traditional red sauce. The item that really would want you over to visit here is their Aloha Dessert is absolute amazing to watch on how they make it and also very tasty as well.
We ordered the garlic rice, shrimp 1 lb with the red sauce, and I tried a guava chicken wing. Ask them for a sample all three sauces if you can't decide! All three sauces were very savory and flavorful, but I wanted shrimp, so I though the red one paired nicely. And it didn't disappoint! The flavors of the sauce is different from a Creole restaurant. It was a tad bit sweeter. The garlic rice was soooooo good! Probably one of the best I had. Sauce was very thick and had bits of meat in it. And guava chicken wings was savory with a bit of sweetness. Perfectly cooked on the outside and juicy on the inside. Cons: I also ordered the POG slushee drink I think it was. I couldn't really taste the alcohol and it was way too sweet. So I probably wouldn't recommend it. Also, the food took a long time to come out. It was actually pretty empty for dinner on a Friday night, but we really enjoyed it and hope to see it pick up!
The best I can say is that it's in my hometown. Nice decor, feels cozy and open. Unfortunately, the crab was not great. It was over cooked and the sauce did not permeate the meat well so it was a little dry. The menu says you can pick your heat level, however, the waiter explained it wasn't possible due to the recipe of the sauces (i.e. no chilis). Loved their drink menu, super yummy combos. Overall, I think for $55 per lb. and $200 for two people, we should have gotten the corn, potatoes & sausage along with. This is standard at all the other places (Boiling crab, etc.). I wouldn't mind the price if it tastes good. May go back for drinks or lunch special, but not for the crab.
We passed this place in March, when they were obviously prepping to open this new restaurant soon. Now, months later, we passed by again, seeing the place up-and-rinnin' with great positive staff that are exited to welcome you are there guests. We wanted to try the 'special of the day' the Crawfish Etouffee. And while we were there, we also tried the Thais style mussles. But there were many things on the menu that I wanted to try, so I will be back... SOON!
Restaurantji Recommends
We were in the area for another appointment around lunch time and we walked by Crackin' Kitchen. We love crab and my husband is from Hawaii so we decided to try it out. The restaurant was literally empty at noon on a Saturday (I guess maybe that should have been a sign?). We ordered a pound of the snow crab ($35) and a pound of the Alaskan king crab legs ($55). Both in the Maui sweet onion sauce. We waited about 15 minutes and then we were served. The flavor of the sauce was just okay, actually a little too sweet. The snow crab was pretty decent but the Alaskan king crab was absolutely not fresh. It was rubbery and just didn't taste good. We normally love king crab and for $55 for three crab legs, we really expected & deserved better quality. This was a disappointment and we will stick to our usual crab places in the future.
Our first time here, very fresh seafood and unique cocktails. We shard spicy Cajun fries, king crab legs & shrimp . Venessa our waitress was extremely fast and very nice, always smiling. She was very helpful being our first time she really took the time to explain the process. Being that I'm too picky eating with my hands and. Having sauce all over my fingers we asked for the sauce on the side to dip and it was perfect for me. Thank you Vanessa
A new cajun boil restaurant located in the chaotic area of Downtown Pasadena, where parking is a real pain, and the weekend gets crowded and rowdy. Nonetheless, this brand new place (open two months) was pretty much completely empty except for us. Not a good sign. Walking in, I noticed that the prices for the MP seafood was exorbitant. $50/lb for lobster in your boil?! Those are Beverly Hills prices. And the SGV is full of boil places. No one is going to pay this. Staff was friendly and attentive. Then again, we were the only people there when we dined on a Friday night. There was mass confusion when I had questions about the menu. The website has one menu, and YELPers have posted other menu photos. None were accurate, and an employee informed me the menu has changed some 4 to 5 times since they have been open. A bunch of the combos are gone. The mussel bowls are off the menu. There's nothing for kids to eat like chicken tenders or anything like that. When we asked about some of the other combos we had seen on older menus, we learned that the clams had been 86'd for the night. Another somewhat frightening sign. Usually, that means something was found to be wrong with the clams. Ugh. Past the menu confusion, the cooking was another disaster show. It took forever to get our food. The small plate of garlic noodles took a very long time. They knew it, too, as they apologized when the food finally came out. They have a see through kitchen, and I swear I saw the noodles made twice. Also, I guess though we had two separate bags of shrimp, each with potatoes, corn, and andouille sausage, they seem to have cooked all our side items together and then had great difficulty separating the appropriate amount for each bag. I got two potatoes and the other bag had 5. I don't know how confusion was so high in the kitchen, as the kitchen staff looked like 2 to 3 people and we were, once again, the only table of diners. But how were the food and drinks? The cocktails are actually very delicious. They have some watermelon tequila drink which is very refreshing. Wish it had a little less ice considering the price, but okay. The garlic noodles were not abysmal but were not good either. They are not like most Asian cajun boil places. They are more cajun spiced. And the plate we got had very watery sauce on the noodles. The best part was the boil. The corn was under cooked. A couple of shrimp in one bag were possibly suspect of not being the freshest, but you get a good amount of shrimp and their red sauce is quite tasty. I'd like to come back, but I think I'll wait a while and see if they work out the kinks. There are too many other boil places that already have their act together.
We came back for dinner and tried a few new items. Clam Chowder was chunky enough, good flavor. My Shrimp Lover Combo came with 20 shrimps (!!!) among mussels, clams, potatoes, and sausages. Naturally I had a lot of leftover. The Cajun Lover Combo was similar except it had Snow Crab and fewer shrimps. You do get a healthy number of big crab legs. We chose the red sauce for both combos, and it was delicious. I noticed the absence of corn on the cob and inquired, so they brought it out later on. The surprise of the evening was Malasadas, the presentation. It was a work of art. Watch the video. The Malasadas taste good smeared with different sauces and fruits, arguably better than the ones in Hawaii. I hope this restaurant is here to say. This spot has changed hands quite a few times over the years.
Pasadena Restaurant Week!!!! Lucked out, didn't even know they were participating, but I guess I was destined to sample their menu! Came in ravenous and left filled to the brim! A duo of appetizers, entree and dessert all came out to $27/person! A steal!!!!! We started out with Salmom Lomi Lomi, Ahi Poke, Guava Wings, Sweet Onion Salad. LOVED the Guava Wings!! It was melt in your mouth goodness with right amount of crunch and sweetness on the outside and tender juicy chicken in the inside. Definitely a must. Same for the Ahi Poke! Generous pieces of Ahi - fresh and light. Wasn't too excited about the Salmon Lomi Lomi but the hubby seemed to like it. As for the Sweet Onion Salad, definitely could skip this. On to the entree, based on the manager's recommendation went with the Thai Flavor Mussel Pot and the Shrimp Lover Cajun Combo. Dishes come out piping hot so you have to wait a bit to dig in. Thai Mussel Pot was delightful, light coconut flavor mixed with mussels and shrimp. Added bonus, you could request them to mix the leftover sauce with pasta for a banging dish for an extra $2. WORTH IT!! For the Shrimp Lover Cajun combo we went with the Hot spice level and it wasn't too bad, definitely a kick though. Expect large chunks of garlicky delight, you're definitely gonna be licking your fingers for this! And for dessert!!!! The instagram worthy Malasadas with an array of rainbow syrups. Was happy just to see them make this! Pro tip make sure you dip the Malasada perpendicular to the rainbow to get a combo of all flavors! Come hungry!! Left HAPPY!!!!