I took my husband here for his first seafood boil experience while staying in Birmingham for a few days at the end of our road trip through AL. He wasn't initially excited because "boiled food is gross." To say this place made him completely change his mind is an understatement. He was absolutely enamored with the boils here, as was I (and I went to college in New Orleans, so I'm not at all a boil novice). We had the black mussels, snow crab, shrimp, and crawfish and would highly recommend all of them. The house seasoning is, as our waitress noted, the best choice. The food comes out blazing hot and lightning fast, and the service is attentive and super friendly. We thought it was a nice touch that the restaurant provides bibs and gloves so you don't have to smell like seafood all day!We enjoyed it here so much that we'll be going back again in our three remaining days in Birmingham to try their other offering: all you can eat sushi.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: 1 2 lb Black Mussels, The Crab Barrack Tasted so Good Combo, Seafood Boil Bag
Nadiezhda Cantu-Medellin
We have only had their sushi and it's one of the best we've had in town. So fresh and good!!! Now, the service makes you want to cry. Nobody is rude or anything, but they barely have any servers. It's kind of ridiculous and makes you feel like they want the place to fail. I don't get. We always say we're never coming back. But then we eat the sushi and know we'll be back for sure.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 5
Service: 2
Kendall Kendricks
Slow terrible service. Do not go here keep going waste of time and money. We had to serve ourselves sadly but literally. Sat at the table and didn’t receive drinks for an entire hour. I won’t go in details about the rest but just know everything was horrible. Oh and it was no one in the building but maybe 3 other tables with a party of 2 so they weren’t busy at all.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 1
Shemika Evans
The waitress was good but the owner or Manager was awful he confused the whole
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 3
Recommended dishes: Seafood Boil Bag
Nayla Mungin
I went to get some seafood from this establishment on Monday Jan. 15th and later that night experienced vomiting and diarrhea that led to an ER visit. I called the next day to let them know and to get a refund but spoke with someone who “didn’t speak english” and couldn’t understand me and was told to call back later. Thurs Jan 18th I finally spoke with someone by the name of Temekia Cook who was very rude over the phone and in person when I came in. She acted like she didn’t remember me and my partner from when we visited Monday night. The foreign person I spoke with also denied me calling as well. I was told to bring my discharge papers from the ER in by Temekia. She and someone else took 10-15 minutes to look at them and come up with an excuse to tell me. They said I didn’t have food poisoning despite taking a look at my discharge papers from the ER. Very unprofessional, used profanity just a terrible experience overall!
Food: 1
Service: 1
Tony Stewart
The place was empty and this should’ve been my heads up of what was to come. My server was awesome. She was polite, not knowledgeable, but sweet. We only stayed for her then quickly realized she didnt know anything about the menu then volunteered info that she has only had one thing on the menu!!! it’s says a lot when an employee won’t eat somewhere. she had genuine knowledge about a single item on the menu. The place had one table besides us and i found out why. In addition, this was the smallest “pound” of crawfish i’ve received in my life..My food was horrible. I got the wings and a pound of crawfish. The crawfish was extremely over cooked and bland beyond belief. The wings were fried to a crisp and doused heavily in lemon pepper seasoning.We ate one crawfish each then asked for checks. We took care of our server but will never be back. Worse crawfish ever. The fact that the building was empty now makes sense. Don’t go waste your money here. I brought the food home in an attempt to season and salvage. literally cooking on my stove and adding seasoning… but it’s about to simply go in the trash.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Chicken Wings, 1 2lb Combo, Seafood Boil Bag
Tony S.
The service was good. Not great because the girl didn't know anything about the menu and had no comments as pertaining to our food because she never had it. First red flag. She had no suggestions and seemed extremely unenthused about helping us order. It was our first time and we wanted to try and divulge into something assumed was awesome. the quantity they told us was a pound- complete lie. might've been half a pound but that pissed me off most. EVERYTHING WAS HORRIBLE. from the bland seafood to the flat soda- worst seafood restaurant ever. don't go spend you money there. it's a waste. we had two bites of our food, mutually, and were pissed. do not go waste your money. i literally brought my food home to try and add flavor... dumb decision, should've gone in the trash.
Mickey Berry
We frequent two other Crab Barracks locations in the area and this is our first time at this one. It was clean and accommodating though we were the only ones in the restaurant. The food was fantastic! We had the boiled seafood bag with shrimp and lobster tail and corn and sausage and potatoes! We like the “medium” house mix but all the spice options are good. If you don’t like spicy, just choose the mild option. Friendly service, though the server seemed that they had to wear many hats including server, bartender, hostess, etc. We really enjoyed this place, though!!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Seafood Boil Bag
Eric C.
It is unfortunate that an otherwise decent all you can eat sushi experience was ruined by our server. We cannot recommend for lunch buffet, as it was an overall uncomfortable and unpleasant experience.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 2
Greg B.
Friday 12/8/23 1:30 pmCustomer: "May I have a sushi menu?"Server: "No. We're not serving sushi today."Customer: "But you have a 4 x 8 foot banner out front that says 'All You Can Eat Sushi!'?"Server: "Yes. We're not serving sushi today."Ex-customer: "So I guess I paid for parking and walked two blocks for nothing?"Server: "Yes. We're not serving sushi today."Screw this joint and their attitude! They're having two servers and NO customers should have told me all I needed to know. How much longer until this place joins the list of failed 5 Points South restaurants? $20 bucks says it'll be less than 90 days! Good riddance....
My friends and I went here and as soon as we walked in a waitress named Aspen hugged all of us and told us about her family problems, as we ordered she didn’t really let us order she just ordered us a bunch of extra things we didn’t even know. As the food began to come out it was completely random things we didn’t even know and we knew that we did not want them or even order it in the first place . She just kept saying it was whatever because she only made us pay the lunch time price and that’s it, at tryna time she had already printed our receipts out 10 minutes before. We first ordered water and the only word to describe it is quite literally creamy, it was awful. The miso soup was also super thick. We later ordered sprites but since she had already give us the receipt she said it was free and she’ll pay for it out of her pocket, after that she counted in front of us how much would be coming out of her pocket. She kept letting us know that the manager was looking at the computer to see if she had charged us for the dinner price because she claimed lunch ended at 1 o’clock. She touched us throughout and just made us feel very uncomfortable. When she brought the togo boxes she started putting the food away for us when we weren’t even done and even grabbed some of the food with her hand. I asked if I could add a california roll at one point but she said that it was too late because she would have to take all of our tickets back and re split all of our tickets. That already makes zero sense because it’s all you can eat, me adding something shouldn’t effect my friends tickets, and she had already printed our ticket out anyways. As she started cleaning our table up she found my friends ticket where the tip said $2, which was honestly deserved. She proceeded to ask my friend did she really mean to tip this and then said if you need your last $2 you can just keep it. Overall awful experience.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Max F.
I really tried to love this place. But I can like it, at the most.Their "all you can eat" sushi is appealing. Price for it is reasonable. Plenty of options to choose from.What ruins the whole thing is the unseen-before amount of rice they shuffle inside their sushi rolls or nagiri! I understand that they want to feel you up with the cheapest ingredients, but when you are basically served rice with a zest of fish, then maybe it went too far.The staff seems to rotate a bit. Hence service quality varies.The place is ok. Clean, but the all-black style doesn't quite match well with a fish restaurant. IMO.Practically no parking options since it is in five points.Worth a try, but keep your expectations modest
JoJo Felty
Excellent, had the catfish basket and a boil medium.... tons of food. Barley could finish it all.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Catfish, Sausage, Seafood Boil Bag, Fish and Chips and Shrimp
Ashley
Went in at 10pm(they close at 11) not crowded at all. We waited 10 mins to be seated then when the bartender came over she says we close in 20 mins so they only doing carry outs. Cool. But the food was horrible. The lobsters was rubbery. The shrimp was bland and rubbery. Crabs were nasty. The only good part was the drinks and corn. Waste of $90!! I will never go back to this location.Parking: Park in the back
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 2
Recommended dishes: House Special, Sausage, Seafood Boil Bag, Snow Crab Legs
I took my husband here for his first seafood boil experience while staying in Birmingham for a few days at the end of our road trip through AL. He wasn't initially excited because "boiled food is gross." To say this place made him completely change his mind is an understatement. He was absolutely enamored with the boils here, as was I (and I went to college in New Orleans, so I'm not at all a boil novice). We had the black mussels, snow crab, shrimp, and crawfish and would highly recommend all of them. The house seasoning is, as our waitress noted, the best choice. The food comes out blazing hot and lightning fast, and the service is attentive and super friendly. We thought it was a nice touch that the restaurant provides bibs and gloves so you don't have to smell like seafood all day!We enjoyed it here so much that we'll be going back again in our three remaining days in Birmingham to try their other offering: all you can eat sushi.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: 1 2 lb Black Mussels, The Crab Barrack Tasted so Good Combo, Seafood Boil Bag
We have only had their sushi and it's one of the best we've had in town. So fresh and good!!! Now, the service makes you want to cry. Nobody is rude or anything, but they barely have any servers. It's kind of ridiculous and makes you feel like they want the place to fail. I don't get. We always say we're never coming back. But then we eat the sushi and know we'll be back for sure.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 5
Service: 2
Slow terrible service. Do not go here keep going waste of time and money. We had to serve ourselves sadly but literally. Sat at the table and didn’t receive drinks for an entire hour. I won’t go in details about the rest but just know everything was horrible. Oh and it was no one in the building but maybe 3 other tables with a party of 2 so they weren’t busy at all.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 1
The waitress was good but the owner or Manager was awful he confused the whole
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 3
Recommended dishes: Seafood Boil Bag
I went to get some seafood from this establishment on Monday Jan. 15th and later that night experienced vomiting and diarrhea that led to an ER visit. I called the next day to let them know and to get a refund but spoke with someone who “didn’t speak english” and couldn’t understand me and was told to call back later. Thurs Jan 18th I finally spoke with someone by the name of Temekia Cook who was very rude over the phone and in person when I came in. She acted like she didn’t remember me and my partner from when we visited Monday night. The foreign person I spoke with also denied me calling as well. I was told to bring my discharge papers from the ER in by Temekia. She and someone else took 10-15 minutes to look at them and come up with an excuse to tell me. They said I didn’t have food poisoning despite taking a look at my discharge papers from the ER. Very unprofessional, used profanity just a terrible experience overall!
Food: 1
Service: 1
The place was empty and this should’ve been my heads up of what was to come. My server was awesome. She was polite, not knowledgeable, but sweet. We only stayed for her then quickly realized she didnt know anything about the menu then volunteered info that she has only had one thing on the menu!!! it’s says a lot when an employee won’t eat somewhere. she had genuine knowledge about a single item on the menu. The place had one table besides us and i found out why. In addition, this was the smallest “pound” of crawfish i’ve received in my life..My food was horrible. I got the wings and a pound of crawfish. The crawfish was extremely over cooked and bland beyond belief. The wings were fried to a crisp and doused heavily in lemon pepper seasoning.We ate one crawfish each then asked for checks. We took care of our server but will never be back. Worse crawfish ever. The fact that the building was empty now makes sense. Don’t go waste your money here. I brought the food home in an attempt to season and salvage. literally cooking on my stove and adding seasoning… but it’s about to simply go in the trash.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Chicken Wings, 1 2lb Combo, Seafood Boil Bag
The service was good. Not great because the girl didn't know anything about the menu and had no comments as pertaining to our food because she never had it. First red flag. She had no suggestions and seemed extremely unenthused about helping us order. It was our first time and we wanted to try and divulge into something assumed was awesome. the quantity they told us was a pound- complete lie. might've been half a pound but that pissed me off most. EVERYTHING WAS HORRIBLE. from the bland seafood to the flat soda- worst seafood restaurant ever. don't go spend you money there. it's a waste. we had two bites of our food, mutually, and were pissed. do not go waste your money. i literally brought my food home to try and add flavor... dumb decision, should've gone in the trash.
We frequent two other Crab Barracks locations in the area and this is our first time at this one. It was clean and accommodating though we were the only ones in the restaurant. The food was fantastic! We had the boiled seafood bag with shrimp and lobster tail and corn and sausage and potatoes! We like the “medium” house mix but all the spice options are good. If you don’t like spicy, just choose the mild option. Friendly service, though the server seemed that they had to wear many hats including server, bartender, hostess, etc. We really enjoyed this place, though!!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Seafood Boil Bag
It is unfortunate that an otherwise decent all you can eat sushi experience was ruined by our server. We cannot recommend for lunch buffet, as it was an overall uncomfortable and unpleasant experience.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 2
Friday 12/8/23 1:30 pmCustomer: "May I have a sushi menu?"Server: "No. We're not serving sushi today."Customer: "But you have a 4 x 8 foot banner out front that says 'All You Can Eat Sushi!'?"Server: "Yes. We're not serving sushi today."Ex-customer: "So I guess I paid for parking and walked two blocks for nothing?"Server: "Yes. We're not serving sushi today."Screw this joint and their attitude! They're having two servers and NO customers should have told me all I needed to know. How much longer until this place joins the list of failed 5 Points South restaurants? $20 bucks says it'll be less than 90 days! Good riddance....
Restaurantji Recommends
My friends and I went here and as soon as we walked in a waitress named Aspen hugged all of us and told us about her family problems, as we ordered she didn’t really let us order she just ordered us a bunch of extra things we didn’t even know. As the food began to come out it was completely random things we didn’t even know and we knew that we did not want them or even order it in the first place . She just kept saying it was whatever because she only made us pay the lunch time price and that’s it, at tryna time she had already printed our receipts out 10 minutes before. We first ordered water and the only word to describe it is quite literally creamy, it was awful. The miso soup was also super thick. We later ordered sprites but since she had already give us the receipt she said it was free and she’ll pay for it out of her pocket, after that she counted in front of us how much would be coming out of her pocket. She kept letting us know that the manager was looking at the computer to see if she had charged us for the dinner price because she claimed lunch ended at 1 o’clock. She touched us throughout and just made us feel very uncomfortable. When she brought the togo boxes she started putting the food away for us when we weren’t even done and even grabbed some of the food with her hand. I asked if I could add a california roll at one point but she said that it was too late because she would have to take all of our tickets back and re split all of our tickets. That already makes zero sense because it’s all you can eat, me adding something shouldn’t effect my friends tickets, and she had already printed our ticket out anyways. As she started cleaning our table up she found my friends ticket where the tip said $2, which was honestly deserved. She proceeded to ask my friend did she really mean to tip this and then said if you need your last $2 you can just keep it. Overall awful experience.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
I really tried to love this place. But I can like it, at the most.Their "all you can eat" sushi is appealing. Price for it is reasonable. Plenty of options to choose from.What ruins the whole thing is the unseen-before amount of rice they shuffle inside their sushi rolls or nagiri! I understand that they want to feel you up with the cheapest ingredients, but when you are basically served rice with a zest of fish, then maybe it went too far.The staff seems to rotate a bit. Hence service quality varies.The place is ok. Clean, but the all-black style doesn't quite match well with a fish restaurant. IMO.Practically no parking options since it is in five points.Worth a try, but keep your expectations modest
Excellent, had the catfish basket and a boil medium.... tons of food. Barley could finish it all.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Catfish, Sausage, Seafood Boil Bag, Fish and Chips and Shrimp
Went in at 10pm(they close at 11) not crowded at all. We waited 10 mins to be seated then when the bartender came over she says we close in 20 mins so they only doing carry outs. Cool. But the food was horrible. The lobsters was rubbery. The shrimp was bland and rubbery. Crabs were nasty. The only good part was the drinks and corn. Waste of $90!! I will never go back to this location.Parking: Park in the back
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 2
Recommended dishes: House Special, Sausage, Seafood Boil Bag, Snow Crab Legs
Nice brown eyed
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5