City Crab & Seafood Company

11/30/09

GREAT SEAFOOD

by Wagnerp at Citysearch

If you want to eat some tasty oysters and are to far from from the oyster bar in grand central this is the place to go.

• Pros: Great place to get oysters
• Cons: slow service

10/15/09

Bad Experience

by MikeW1 at Citysearch

The restaurant had a "special" for a 2 pound lobster for $20. When I got the bill, each lobster dinner was listed for $40 - apparently the $20 was meant to indicate $20 for each pound.

The waitress deferred to the manager who refused to rectify this. $40 for a lobster is what you would expect to pay in an upscale restaurant, not this middle of the road joint. I felt really burned by this place, the manager didn't care.

• Cons: Screws the customer

08/31/09

Awful Service, Cold Food

by nicnoc at Citysearch

I ate at City Crab 6 months ago and the food and service were excellent, but on my most recent visit (8/22/09) the standards had dropped so low that it was a shell (pun intended) of its former self. We brought out of town guests with us, and it was a total embarrassment. I, personally, will never return of my own free will. Here are the details:

1. Our server didn't mention any specials, and when we asked he quickly mumbled something unintelligible.

2. Five minutes after ordering, our server returned and told me they had run out of crab legs. Yes, out of CRAB legs at City CRAB! This was at 7:30, and not the end of the night. 3. We waited an hour and a ten minutes for our entrees, our server ignored us the entire time and never ONCE stopped by to explain the delay. In fact, we were seated on the 2nd floor and he was nowhere to be seen on the entire floor. An apology and explanation would have gone a long way to alleiving our annoyance (several of us having worked/working in the restaurant business) but instead, we were left in the lurch getting hungrier and more irritated.

4. When our food finally arrived after the hour and ten minute wait, it was uniformly cold. I was stuck with cold crab claws, and the rest of the table was served cold swordfish or cod with cold mashed potatoes. We managed to get our server's attention, and without apologizing, he took the plates back to be warmed up (microwaved). After waiting so long, we were pretty livid. He returned with the manager (who had been lounging in a booth by the door watching TV the ENTIRE time ) who didn't really seem to care about our complaints. He agreed that, yes, the service was indeed bad, and quickly scampered back to his booth after assuring us he would fix the situation.

5. After such a crappy experience, we expected a good chunk of our meal to be comped, but we merely received a random $38 credit toward our $270 bill! Our food was worth nowhere near that amount, but we just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

My advice: There are MANY great seafood places in the city all competing for your business in this economy, and there is NO reason to settle for a place this awful when you're spending that much money. City Crab does not care about its customers or its food and it shows. From our party alone, they lost 3 repeat customers and 2 potential new ones, and I'm sure they will continue to lose more with their horrendous customer service.

• Pros: Nice atmosphere
• Cons: Service non-existent, management oblivious