Got very sick was throwing up ordered $200.00 never again threw a whole crab & Garlic Noodles in the trash after eating 1/3 of the trio fries .....Will never eat here again read more

Chef Smelly's - The streak Lobster crab had me & - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Oakland, California

It was a late Sunday spring afternoon. Renee and I had just recently watched a segment/review of "Check Please, Bay Area" on tv on a restaurant by the unlucky name of "SMELLY'S" located in downtown Oakland (food destination) CA. The restaurant's food and drink is wonderful and professional. The staff was welcoming and friendly- Miss Connie was our hero! We found the food a true mixture of Creole and Cajun-fair delicious and ample for the money- we've got lunches for tomorrow. The bar is well stocked with a very knowledgeable staff. read more

Been here 3 times. I've had the blackened prawns over creamy fries, the lobster with mac and cheese and brussel spouts, the chili sauce chicken breast over creole fries and the deep fried corn. All are delicious!! The first time here, we had reservations at 6 but had to wait about 30 minutes to be seated although there were tables available. Then we waited another 30-40 minutes for the food. When it came out though, it was worth the wait. Cooked to perfection! Everything straight out the pan/grill. Hot and fresh. The service is alittle slow but it is because they are always busy. I would recommend in a heart beat! Going back tomorrow actually! haha cant wait! read more

I believed the hype and drunk the Kool-aid. Made reservations for Father's Day and was truly disappointed. Our table of four ordered fish. The fish was not seasoned and under-cooked. The fish was not cooked through, but outside was golden as if it cooked too fast. We had to use salt / pepper and hot sauce to eat the edges. The Mac and cheese were terrible. The noodles were overcooked and mushy. The lemonade was great, and the yams were pretty good. $180.00 down the drain. We didn't want to go containers. Thanks, but no thanks. read more

The food there is awesome the best sea food in the Bay Area I know I haven't been to many restaurants but baby let tell you the foods the hospitality is so pleasant and lad back with great customer service and a wonderful atmosphere it was worth the 45 min to hour drive from where I live but finding a parking place was difficult but it was worth the inconvenience and even those the food was a bit pricey but the food was worth every dollar me and my sisters paid so really no complaints at all the food the pleasant atmosphere the people was worth every effort to go and and enjoy great food and wonderful hospitality everyone who haven't eaten at chef smelly should take the time on any day to enjoy great food wonderful service and laid back and enjoyable music and experience god bless you chef smelly I look forward in coming back to enjoy your delicious sea food dinners read more

Last minute decision to make the drive from san jose to oakland just to eat here.. this was mine and my man's first time eating from chef smelly's. we arrived around 7pm (an hour to closing time) but we were able to get seated pretty fast and put our orders in. our waiter (i believe his name was christian) was so amazing! he made some great recommendations for us from the menu and his mannerism was outstanding. we waiting a really long time for our food to arrive but our waiter kept us entertained with good conversation. i ordered drinks from the bar and the bartender was nice enough to bring our drinks to our table when they were ready. we ordered 2 sidecars which is hennessy and something else i'm not sure but they were nice and strong we definitely caught our buzz lol! it was really cool to see chef smelly himself walk in and i had a small conversation with him at the bar. i offered to buy him a drink and he told me i did not need to pay for his drink but if i wanted to support the business i was more than welcome, and so i did! we did a quick cheers before i went back to my table. by the time our food arrived i was amazed how generous the portions were on both our plates! the food, 10/10 freaking amazing and so worth the wait and money! i will definitely be back and spread the word about this spot! thank you chef smelly and staff for our amazing first experience with y'all! see you real soon! read more

Chef Smelly's - a drink from the bar called sidecar - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Oakland, California

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The Dungeness crab and shrimp over garlic noodles was the bomb! My daughter and I shared this and there was still a lot left over. read more

Chef Smelly's - The Whole Dungeness Crab, Prawns and Garlic Noodles were absolutely amazing. My daughter and I shared this and there was still a lot left. - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Oakland, California

Came here last night to treat my cousin out for her birthday. We showed up at 4:35pm and there were already 25 people in front of us in line. The doors are supposed to open at 5, but they didn't open until 5:20pm, so several people gave up on waiting and had left. Once the doors open, there was only one cashier taking orders, so it's a really slow process. They do take debit card now so that's a plus. We placed our order around 6:20pm and grabbed a table. Tables are first come first serve. Then, you wait for them to call your order number and pick up your food at the counter. At 6:50pm, a whole 2 hours and 25 minutes after we first fell in line, we FINALLY got our food. We ordered the 1/2 crab, blackened shrimp, and garlic noodle combo, the extravaganza fries, and another combo that came with Mac and cheese, green beans, and sweet chili shrimp. All of this cost $110 before tip, so definitely a bit pricy. You could get crab fries for $20 here, or get them from southern comfort kitchen food truck for $10 to put the pricing into perspective. The food itself was pretty good. Shrimps were juicy, the garlic noodles tasted almost like my favorite ones in San Jose, and the sauce on the sweet chili shrimp was delicious. The Mac and cheese had a slight kick to it and the green beans were nice and soft with just the right amount of seasoning. Would I wait for 2.5 hours for this food again? Probably not, especially when I can get the same food for cheaper elsewhere without having to wait forever. read more

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Thank you for accommodating my family's dine in birthday celebration! From the music, to the drinks and most certainly the food! We wanted to incorporate our creole roots in this birthday meal so thank you for cheffin it up! The Crack n cheese is EVERYTHING and I loved the homemade tarter sauce AMAZING read more

Chef Smelly's - Combo Fried Red Snapper and Prawns, Mac and Cheese and Garlic Green Beans - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Oakland, California

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So based off Instagram I assumed a lot of things that were not true. Let me start with the positive things first. I was able to pre order the food on GrubHub at 4 PM for a 5:45 PM pick up on a Thursday. I ordered three things a side of brussels sprouts $10, chili blackened prawns over garlic noodles $33 and the lamb plate without garlic noodles just 3 shanks of lamb $35 (I assumed they'd come with at least some mashed potatoes) for a total of $85. The order was ready at 6:10 PM. I assumed there would be a line or a long wait to get to the front so I got there early to pick up 5:45pm There was no line and there was no wait, we were assisted right away and the staff was very nice and accommodating. From my understanding this is a lounge nightclub that serves as a kitchen during the day. There is an outdoor seating area for guests who would like to eat at the location, we opted to take our food to go. While we were there we noticed a couple of mistakes were made and food was given to the wrong people, then when they realized it 15 minutes later they tried to get a customer to come back with the food. My recommendation is check your order before you walk away because the staff isn't verifying it before they hand it to you. since the staff handing the food out are actually the staff for the lounge security guards and door staff they just hand over the bags given to them by the kitchen. So check your own food with your own hands! Don't put so many expectations on the people there. So we get our food we check it and we were slightly disappointed. The garlic noodles make up a lot of the plate ( the size of chow main noodles) and two skewers of prawns with a total of 8 prawns over the noodles. The Brussel sprouts were small and a small portion for the price since I've gotten bigger portions for less at other places. Then the lamb chops, three delicious and well made lamp chops on a bed of greenery. In a sweet chili sauce as well which I wasn't a fan of on the lamb chops but waited to come home to Sacramento to make some mashed potatoes and corn to go as my sides. Overall I'll say I've had a better lamb chop plate at Cheesecake Factory and I can make the prawns over garlic noodles at home. The hype is great on social media I waited years to come and try it out but definitely disappointed. See pictures below for our food. Maybe if I try it out again I'll try and order exactly what's on Instagram. read more

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Nothing was worth it. Lacked seasoning and wayyy too much garlic. I was not expecting my garlic noodles to be sweet, my catfish to have no flavor, the mac and cheese to taste like cafeteria mac, and to wait two hours to get my food. Our bill was $215 and we all felt like we wasted our money and time! And the gratuity and fees are ridiculous! I will neverrrr return or recommend anyone to eat here. read more

Chef Smelly's - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Oakland, California

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Everything always on point love it here if you never been here it's a must try!!!!! So yummy!!!!

Food was amazing and good as the photos look. I can't speak for the rest of the staff but I will say the bartender Adrian had amazing service, very friendly and attentive. Would recommend read more

Saturday February 27th 6:41pm I ordered the surf & turf w/ garlic noodles $60.20. No line I walked right up and they were able to take my order and my #35 got called forpickup at 7:50pm, Still trying to figureout why it took an hr.. Garlic noodles are the bomb, beef was tasteless and chewy, crab was overcooked and chewy. I can see this as a 1 time thing for most people Its over priced, the wait is extremely long for no reason glad I never had to stand in one of those long lines. Nowhere to park, prices change every other week because I saw someone post the same dinner and paid $45 and another $50 and mine was $60. The hype is real it got me there. I wouldn't recommend it but I'm happy to support a black owned busines. You have to try it once and form your own opinion, this is just my own whole heart honest opinion. I wish the business well. read more

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Ok, so I really wanted to like this place. I remember seeing this chef on social media years ago, and my mouth watering by the pics. So when I was in the area and seen I was down the street, omg I had to go! -Sadly, this food is something I will never have to have again. Super overrated! Noodles were like eating a bowl of cereal and in so much butter. What do I mean? the noodles were way too sweet, not savory. The noodles were floating in butter, I nearly felt like someone's arteries would clog as they ate. The fried shrimp was very salty, the crab meat was missing flavor, the blackened shrimp looked pretty but was also missing flavor. Fries were good. Cheese sauce not for me. Maybe it was just a bad night, I don't know... The presentation was amazing! I give them points for that, but the wait and then eating the food, I don't have to have it again! Just being honest, but I really wanted to like this. read more

The food here is flavorful. I got the trifecta prawns, crab, and garlic noodles. I had drinks as well and those were nice. Good crowd lots of people small place. read more

Chef Smelly's - Half Dungeness Crab, Garlic Noodles, and Blackened Prawns - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Oakland, California

I would only recommend visiting this establishment if you have the intentions to waste 3-4 hours on grabbing a bite. The service experience has probably been one of the worst I've had in a while. Once my party & I were seated, we literally waited over an hour for our 2 appetizers, the only drink options are water and lemonade, or alcoholic beverages which was a huge let down. We finally got to place our order with our waiter who wasn't paying great attention to detail, he actually messed up my order unfortunately, we weren't trying to make a big deal out of it so we ended up keeping it. I asked for a refill of my lemonade & I never received it! Although it wasn't free. All of our food came out within 30 minutes of each other. Very time consuming for some food that is definitely over hyped & over priced. The ambiance was very mediocre! Good music but everything else felt last minute put together. Not a good look, no organization whatsoever. Also didn't understand why the bathrooms were in the center of the restaurant extremely unsanitary. We also ordered dessert which didn't come until we were paying the bill ready to leave. Speaking of the bill, the process was so unorganized! Initially we were charged more than what we had received, we stood there for an additional 15-20 minutes having to correct our bill & confirm our order. I'm not going to lie, I had high expectations for this being my first time here & I'm super disappointed. read more

We had reservations today at 1:00 and were sent a confirmation. No one is here. This is sad i was really looking forward to it.

Food was super good vibe was great and staff was so friendly . I got the crab and a shrimp boil that they had as a special it was so much food I had enough to take home read more

Chef Smelly's - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Oakland, California

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Mediocre service. Lobster completely over cooked like biting into rubber. Food is not very flavorful. Only thing this place is good for. Is to get you drunk from a drink thats only supposed to taste good. read more

customer service and the people here are just very friendly and helpful. The workers are just wonderful and know the true meaning of great customer service, thank you read more

Chef Smelly's never misses. I come here frequently and always feel welcomed as family. The quality of service and food go hand and hand which brings me back! ASK FOR BIG to serve you! read more

Seems like Gumbo was made yesterday and I got what was left in the pot it was super thick with little to no shrimp and very little crab. Not a great value for $40. Ima take it home and add crab and shrimp to it. I'll work it out. Needless to say the steak and fries were amazing the garlic bread was absolutely amazing!! My son had the garlic noodles and chicken strips he loved it absolutely amazing!! I also had the grilled oysters which were really really really good!! Owner is super nice and asked for a picture of us!! read more

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The line to get in moves faster than you think, and the wait is well-worth it. The best southern food I've ever had outside of my time in Georgia. The fish and shrimp were perfectly fried, and the crack-n-cheese was delicious. read more

The food was delicious, A true 5 Star Chef. If you want some Real food , and Don't want to be disappointed get some Chef Smellys or You are missing out !! That part ..... read more

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Food was good... definitely big portions so you definitely won't leave hungry. My only critique about the food would be that there was an excessive amount of butter used. Service was decent. Gratuity is automatically added to every bill, even if you're a party of 1.. that was strange, read more

Ordered for the first time yesterday and the food was hella good. Seasoned very well. Wish you put asparagus and corn on the menu. Will be coming back. The price is high, paid a little over $200, which is understandable because of the quality and portion amount. I couldn't finish all my food. My personal opinion I would add a bit more flavor to the shrimp. Everything else like I said was seasoned to perfection. The line wasn't bad. Had to figure out what to do for over a hour while waiting for the food, but I highly recommend. *Ate some of the crab before taking photo. read more

Chef Smelly's - I ate some of the crab before taking the photo - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Oakland, California

This is the place to go for the best garlic noodles and food around. The wait may sometimes be long but it is so worth it!!! Pick anything from the menu and know that it will be mouthwatering good. read more

Food was good , really enjoyed fried oysters service nice service really enjoyed bar service

Chef smelly food ridiculously priced, they don't give you enough food for the outrageous prices, it's too dark in there I had to use my phone as a flashlight to see the dark colored menu & it's loud in there read more

Awesome food and service. The ambiance was great as well. Big served us, and he was very pleasant. Was on his game. We will be back. Great portions for a great price. Thank you Chef Smelly, Big and all of the staff. read more

Chef Smelly is the bomb. Service is 100% everything to me. I had a small issue; contacted Chef smelly and he personally made it right immediately w/o hesitation. The food was plenty and very tasty prepared by Smelly personally. Get this rib eye...oh my, the steak melted in my mouth. Would I go back? Thats a big YESSS. If you havent tried Chef Smelly, you must definitely put this place on your bucket list...Thank you Chef!!!!! read more

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It was AMAZING! Good vibe. Had the salmon and noodles. So good! Music was cool, ppl were nice, chef came around. Be prepared to look for parking. Came just before 7 on a Friday. Lucked up with a close parking spot, didn't have along wait to order, for drinks, or for food. Can't wait to come back! read more

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food was absolutely delicious hands down ! everything on my plate was fire !!! service was a 12 out of 10 . I will DEFINITELY be back soon ! read more

Over priced, sticks and sticks and sticks of butter. I mean anything tastes good with sticks of butter in it right? For the fine dining prices we paid to eat on top of plastic folding tables and chairs. On top of that my stomach felt like shit the rest of the day although I will give it three stars for the nice service even though I felt like they rolled their eyes at me more than six times. read more

What Hella sucks is watching someone grow from minimal business to a major business to only realize that it's a complete bunk. The lines are dumb ass long without being able to call in on top of ordering your food early to only have to wait for it and then pay a pretty chunk of change. Once you've waited 30 to 40 minutes you get advised that they are either out of what you ordered or don't have it. Which I don't understand why you don't say to begin with. You clearly value your time which is why you don't order ahead of time yet you expect people to come in and order and waste their time while paying a pretty penny. At this point it makes more sense to just book a private chef and enjoy the experience . 2+ years of waiting to go to total crap. Bay Area foods makes the spot look hot but I'm assuming bc he gets priority due to the media. I get it I absolutely am in love with the concept of it being a local ran business and supporting him in his daughter's vision but respectfully there needs to be some changes to make it better flowing so it's a life long business. read more

Be prepared for long lines and high prices, but recognize that there's a reason for both. Waited an hour and a half to order and get our food, paid $50 for my dinner and I have no regrets. In fact, I'm already planning my next trip back! I ordered the half crab with four prawns over garlic noodles. Despite the fact that it's not crab season (meaning it was frozen crab) it was DELICIOUS!! Never would've guessed the crab was frozen, had a ton of flavor. The prawns were just as amazing. And then there were the garlic noodles. Chef Smelly must use a ton of garlic every night because they were the most garlicy noodles ever and in the best way possible. Just plain amazing food. And it's a TON of food so I had lunch for the next day as well! read more

Chef Smelly's - Half crab, four prawns and garlic noodles - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Oakland, California

I walked past this restaurant the other day & could not stop myself from walking in because of how amazing the garlic smell coming from the front was. The food was delicious. I ordered crab & garlic noodles, and I thought it was very delicious and reasonably priced. I ordered a margarita that was pretty awful, but the bartender was super sweet to comp the extra shot I ordered to throw into it. The noodles were good, but a but much & a little sweet - I liked it, but ended up throwing away my leftovers. They weren't great the next day. The inside was nothing to brag about, it was fine though. They were clearing all of the folding tables & chairs everyone had been dining on away by the time we'd finished dining. read more

The experience was terrible, Waited a 1hour and 20 mins. Was to crowded and very hot. very loud. not much room to move around. The Mac and cheese was soggy and the yams was two sugar. The fish and the prawns was fried pretty good and was still hot. Only ordered things to fry. so don't understand how it took so long. by the time my food got to the bar I was disappointed. only wish I had left after 30 mins. wasn't worth 86 dollars. The hostess and bartender was very nice. read more

This place is amazing!!! Such a chill spot and the food is NEXT LEVEL! Oysters Rockefeller was perfect, so flavorful and cooked perfectly. The bartender is always on point too. read more