By: Donna Iadipaolo
Crazy Crab, (located at 2800 Washtenaw Avenue in Ypsilanti), offers more than delicious meals for the entire family—it offers a unique experience. Crazy Crab is a great place to go for lunch or a late dinner. The atmosphere and food presentation provides entertainment while you eat – definitely a unique experience for kids to enjoy.
Crazy Crab’s signature menu item is their Louisiana-style “seafood boil,” where one can get an entire bag placed before you at your table filled with seafood, a boiled egg, corn, and a potato—along with the various flavors and spiciness you choose…and the combinations to choose from are endless.
Once served, it is then your job to figure out how to best break the bag open (without letting all the juices flow all over the place) and devour everything that is boiled and spiced.
For instance, if you select the “Make You Own Seafood Combo” you first pick the seafood you would like: snow crab, shrimp, lobster tail, black mussels, crawfish, or a combination thereof. The next step is to pick your flavor, namely: cajun, lemon pepper, garlic butter, all mixed, or no flavor. Next, pick a spice level: mild spicy, medium spicy, hot spicy, extra hot spicy, or not spicy.
For the seafood choices, the most popular selections are reportedly the snow crab and shrimp.
The boil automatically comes with an egg, corn, and potato, but you can exchange the ingredients, if you’d like.
When the bag was placed before me, I could not untie the knot, so I punctured it. Everything was well-favored and tender. The crab legs took a little work to get the meat out but were not too spicy, and delectable. The lobster tail had a good amount of meat on it and the spices selected added even more flavor.
The King Crab was out of season so unavailable, but the regular crab was a nice substitute. We thought the portions were pretty generous. And the corn, egg, and potatoes were a good accompaniment.
Overall, it was a pretty messy experience, but you are provided with a bib and even gloves and lots of napkins to clean up. The wait staff was extremely friendly and patient with questions and drink refills.
There are no children’s menus, but the various dishes could definitely be shared. In fact, many people just order different bags and then share from all of them.
We also ordered the hush puppies which were extremely crisp on the outside and squishy on the inside.
The atmosphere is fisherman-themed. There are nets scattered about as well as crabs, lobsters, and other creatures of the sea.
Crazy crab has other locations in Oak Park, Southfield, Waterford, and Warren. Despite being open since April, the Ypsilanti location is still advertising their “Grand Opening.”
Short Course:
Kid friendly: Kids really dig cracking into the crab and the fun of getting a bag placed in front of them to go through. The decor of the restaurant is a fun fisherman’s theme with nets and crustaceans.
Kid’s menu: No kids’ menu, but multiple bags can be shared, plus they have chicken tenders and fried shrimp as well.
Anything healthy for kids: Seafood is a great lean protein choice and vegetables are available. However, choose the boiled options over the fried ones, if you want to be healthier.
Food allergy concerns: Not recommended for those with seafood/shellfish allergies, but they can accommodate for allergies, just ask the server.
Noise Level: Quiet
Bathroom Amenities: Clean and manageable
Highchairs: Unknown
Avoid the Wait: Ample seating available and you can also order online.
Crazy Crab 2800 Washtenaw Ave, Ypsilanti, MI 48197
Open: Sun – Thurs 11a.m. – 9:30p.m. / Fri- Sat 11a.m. – 10p.m.
