Howdy, I am a restaurant owner traveling on vacation trying all mom and pop establishments. Today was a first in my two week travels that I left a restaurant completely speechless because of how a staff treated customers. Your establishment was understaffed is your biggest problem. The staff that was there was trying their best. One waitress was handling the heat and guest with complete grace. The other waitress was disgruntled from the moment we walked in, I am sorry it's hot and you don't have AC but it should never be reflected on to the customer. Sam was completely unprofessional from the moment we interacted. I am not a soft soul, so someone speaking to me aggressively does not phase me but today was completely uncalled for and we won't come back. Sam needs to have some education on customer service and to not talk back to a customer for saying why did my salad take so long and come last. The rest of the table had almost finished their meal before she came out with the salad on a tray with the food for another table. All Sam needed to do was apologize for it taking so long. Everyone in this business knows a simple apology goes so far. To top it off she smarted off again while giving the food to the other table. I had to take a business call so I excused myself and the next thing I know Sam is following my family member out asking me not to ever bring her again. Absolutely uncalled for. She was giving Sam a tip of cash and wanted to explain how customers should be treated because our family member is also in the customer service business on your island and has access to thousands of tourist each season. Your business will not receive a positive word from any of us. read more

This is the 2nd time my husband, doggie, & I ate at this establishment. We could t be more pleased with our service, food, and atmosphere. Our waiter, Alex, was excellent! He even chopped up the chicken tenders for our dog!!!!!! The food is excellent and large in proportion for the cost. We try to eat here whenever we come to the beach because of the food and it's dog friendly. read more

This is an amazing place to eat! The ambiance is definitely a shack. With delicious food! Service was 10/10 Food was 12/10 I would recommend all seafood lovers to come and try it out it's a great experience!! read more

I've eaten at this place on 3 separate trips to Topsail Island, and I've gotten diarrhea all 3 times.

Exactly the kind of place we were looking for: bare bones seafood, roll up your sleeves and don a bib, sit and pick blue crabs and shrimp. The place is cozy and colorful, many windows for open air in nice weather. The staff were friendly and attentive and prices as you'd expect for the tasty seafood goodies. 4 stars as the wait for food was extended, despite the place being at lower capacity due to covid (they were only seating every other table and had some outside as well) and some of the employees were wearing their mask inappropriately or not at all. This was a month ago. Overall, we'll got back to this tasty shack when in town next. No frills seafood for the win!! Yum. read more

Ate here after my brother highly recommended. We went on Saturday and I had the peel and eat shrimp with fried green tomatoes. A pound of big fresh shrimp cooked with old bay seasoning. I am not a fan of tomatoes at all but the fried green tomatoes are an exception to the rule. Completely forgot to take a picture. Lol. But it was so good we went back Sunday. I had the crab balls to start. They were so fresh and the sauce was awesome as well. Then I settled on the crabby patty melt burger. It was good as well and very fresh. Cannot wait to go back. Service is a bit slow but isn't that the case everywhere and wait was about 30 minutes but that's not too bad considering the time of year and the fact it's the beach during prime season. Definitely not deal breakers for me. read more

Crab Pot - Crabby patty melt burger and fries - Seafood Near Me - Surf City, North Carolina

Everything is literally horrible. The scallops are swimming in a pool of oil, The "corn" sticks to your teeth in a terrible way, and if you're looking for flavor don't look to the coleslaw it's just another tasteless part of the meal. For $30, save your money and eat somewhere else! read more

Crab Pot - Fried seafood platter - Seafood Near Me - Surf City, North Carolina

The service was good but that's about all. The food was awful! Fried clams overdone and chewy, blackened shrimp was so over seasoned they were inedible and the fried green tomatoes were mush. The drinks were average. No way Id recommend this place. All four of us were incredibly disappointed. read more

This place is a must visit when we are in town. Excellent food and service. They're busy so expect to wait to eat. Great drinks and the food is amazing. read more

Honestly one of the worst meals I have ever had. The Crab Pot was out of crab, Haddock, sweet potato fries and many other items. Was not that busy but we ended up waiting over an hour for our food, most of which came out cold and soggy... I felt bad for our server. read more

Other reviewers need to chill the heck out. Clearly, when you drive in the crab pot is no 5 star seafood establishment. So please folks, chill. Food here is not meant to be haute cuisine. It's plain old seafood steamed or fried. Take it or leave it. Know that the above is what you're going to get nothing more and nothin less. It's a pretty fun place just to hang, eat and have a long slow cool drink after a long lazy day at the beach. Not pretentious. And when you're on vacay, that is all that you need or want. read more

This place is a gem, great bar , food. And great hospitality. Salad , and shrimp appetizer were delish. Then had the fried green tomatoes with a soft shell crab sandwich both were amazing. The girlfriend had the crabby patty burger which was out of this world.! Definitely recommend read more

This place is rocking it. The wait staff is always super friendly. They have stepped up the food and they always have music, either live or great playlist.. read more

Crab Pot - Crab legs - Seafood Near Me - Surf City, North Carolina

We went here recently for a family dinner. The hostess advised us it would be an hour wait. We decided to wait . We were seated in less than an hour and proceeded to place our orders. The first three items we ordered they were out of. We asked for a glass of wine and surprise they were out of wine as well. Alternate selections were made and our food arrived. We ordered crab legs with Cole slaw as a side, which was an up charge. They were the skimpiest , most anemic crab legs we've ever seen. Bear in mind this was a $20 entree . The Cole slaw was watery and tasted like wet lettuce with mayonnaise. Honestly it was the worst seafood I've ever had at the beach. Seriously overpriced and just terrible.I cannot fathom how a restaurant attached to a seafood market can be this bad. I would highly recommend not even pulling in their parking lot. read more

Nice little find. Was looking for some sea food for lunch, and found this place by accident. Staff was awesome and all smiles. Food was ok, but I think it was a little over cooked. The appetizer was perfect... ask for the cheese covered fries with bacon and crab meat. You can thank me later! read more

Crab Pot - Menu - Seafood Near Me - Surf City, North Carolina

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Staff was amazing and friendly. Food was very good and was served in a timely manner. I would definitely recommend this place to my friends and family!!! read more

This will be a short review. Nothing overly exciting about this establishment. Food and service were mediocre. I will say it was somewhat busy and we were part of a large group event. It is an open air venue with live music and a full bar. Nothing really to rave about. If we return maybe we'll try the crab. read more

My friends and I were there on Monday and the place was packed. It was a holiday. We ordered the frogmore bucket, and king crab legs..... we live and Raleigh usually drive down about once every couple weeks. I have been coming to the Crab pot since I was a kid. My parents used to shag there. Will was the best server I've ever had in Topsail Beach hands down. We will come back just to see Will!! read more

This place should have 0 stars. We show up, I slide into a booth, slice my knee open with a screw sticking out UNDER the table we're sitting at. We order a few drinks... the waiter comes back... we don't have that beer, even though it's on the menu. We place our orders... we don't have any crab tonight for crab cakes or any other order that has crab listed... WTF... YOU'RE A CRAB HOUSE... we get the hush puppies, burnt... we get our fish sandwiches... gross... the kids won't eat any of the food as it's bland and generic... this place is a dump... and a waste of money... DO NOT GO!!! read more

Fried food and cold beer. Just a great combination for a beach restaurant. Try the mussels. Have the fried zucchini. Get a bottle of Coors Lite. If you are looking for a Michelin star restaurant, go elsewhere - somewhere not at the beach. read more

Ugh what a disappointment, in every way. Skip this joint, fresh seafood is a dime a dozen on the island.

I called to make a 6:30p reservation at 3:36p on Sunday of memorial day weekend to make a reservation for 2 and a dog since they allow dogs but would need to seated on the deck. When they answered they informed me they do not take reservations it's first come first serve. That was fine, after we sat in traffic for an hour and getting there around 7p the restaurant was slightly busy but the deck was pretty much empty and only had about two party's of four, with about eight empty tables, the inside was consistent but overly busy. As I said we are a party of 2 with a dog that wanted to sit outside and when I get to the host stand we were now told they're not taking names, not giving a wait time, or allowing anyone new to come in or put their name down because there was a party of 19 and another party of 12 on there way at some point because as I said the traffic was terrible. The inconsistency and lies are unacceptable this was one of our favorite places to eat on our beach yearly beach trips, however, they will not be getting my business again. Unacceptable, disappointing, unprofessional, and rude. read more

Great place! Super food! Kar is a fantastic bartender! ONE ISSUE: why does the hostess wear shorts SO short ?! Extremely distasteful and I would definitely not recommend this to any families... you want good food not a young girls fanny hanging out. Have some class - no skin! read more

My son and I decided to give The Crab Pot a try even though reviews weren't good and I ignored my better judgement that told me to leave after seeing a 93 sanitation grade.. Shoulda listened to my instincts. Our server was less than welcoming and had no knowledge of the beers they offered. She looked at me like I had two heads when I asked if the had any local brews to offer.. Diet Coke it is. Her lack of enthusiasm should've been a huge clue. Fried pickle appetizer was fine. Not great, not bad, but came out quickly. I ordered 1 lb of Dungeness crab legs and my son ordered the steam pot for one. Food took quite a while (maybe 40+ minutes) for my sons.. but not a big deal. His stem pot came out first and he quickly said that it had no flavor at all. I confirmed. Seasoning? Old Bay? Nothing. All of the seafood was way over cooked, flavorless, and chewy. The butter was not butter at all.. some fake impostor. My crab legs were another 10-15 minutes behind. Again, terribly over cooked. So much so that I complained (something that I rarely do). She offered to have the kitchen cook up another lb but my son was nearly done and we were just ready to go. Neat place, fun atmosphere with wind blowing through the open windows, but the food was poorly executed. Your name is Crab Pot, after all. Seasoning is your friend and a little less time in the liquid. Oh.. and find some real butta! read more

We don't have enough bathrooms in our rental to support the end product. Waited 40 minutes for a restaurant that was wide open and then received un-seasoned, dry, bad, food. Cherry on top: the "crab pot" ran out of crab before we ordered. No crab at crab pot. Wow. read more

We had lunch and it was great. Sam, our server, was attentive and friendly. I am picky about soft shell crab and they hit the spot. I also had fried shrimp that was breaded just right read more

Hostess on Saturday really needs RETRAINING. I have short legs and preferred a table/booth; she said not available and I said we are not in a rush, we can wait. She started stressing saying I'm making her start a waiting list when no one is waiting?? I offered to get to back of line as others come and she walked off irritated. That was a first for me. She came back again and insisted I take a high table so I struggled with taking the seat at another available high table, trying not to fall. The best thing about the restaurant was Carl Newton singers/band that was on the schedule that evening. Never, ever going back! I'll catch the band when they are performing at the other beaches. Hopefully, they are more understanding. read more

So ok.. our 12th year here At Topsail, our first time to visit the Crab Pot. We read the reviews and it didn't look promising, but we took a chance. It is local and very much part of all things here,so we loved that! The food was better than the reviews stated, maybe it was a bad day for them? We had the scallops and they were great. The kids meals were fine too! Our waitress was fine and checked on us in a timely fashion. I love oysters so I ordered a side of them.... they were a bit overdone... so I asked for a second and they were fine. Veggies were great and so were the sweet potato fries! We didn't get a pot but several folks were there ordering them. I am posting pictures so you all can see some of what we got. This wasn't a bad experience at all. read more

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I'm only giving this 1 star because you have to for a review. If you enjoy standing outside and being bitten by gnats for an hour plus, while wondering why there are 7 empty tables, and no updates/people being seated... this is the restaurant for you. At least they let you order a drink at the bar while you wait. read more

Great local spot to get fresh seafood and cheap beer. Not any frills or fancy, just classic good food and great people. Really love that it reminds me of the older beach restaurants that were all about great food and great location. read more

Words can not describe the terrible experience that I had at this place. At one point, The Crab Pot was an excellent restaurant. At some point the business changed hands or was sold, or something took a terrible turn. Now, it is a shame we have a company like this on the coast of North Carolina. Surf City is a wonderful, quiet, family oriented coastal town, and this place is here to take advantage of vacationers looking for some fresh seafood. They charge a premium but you would be better off getting a sandwich out of the dumpster. Seriously. I made the mistake of going here a few years ago. I was server unopened an inedible clams. Instead of butter they brought over some goop oil or something. The waiter stopped by to ask me what I thought of the goop. I told him it looked disgusting and had the consistency of jelly. He replied with something like "Yes, it is disgusting, it really isn't for human consumption, everyone hates it". I asked him why they were serving it then and he just shrugged and left. They didn't even carry butter. You can't make this kind of thing up. It is probably the only restaurant I was forced to get up and leave without eating ANYTHING. I paid them about $80 for my wife and I's terrible experience and 2 poorly made drinks, went to Food Lion and got sliced turkey, mustard and bread so we could at least get a sandwich. I really hesitate before leaving anyone any sort of negative review. Often, I just ignore the bad and reward the good. But, this is a company that should be avoided at all costs. If I can save even one person from having a bad experience, I will. This place is a bruise on the coast of North Carolina. I am amazed they are still providing such a terrible experience. I may even send a letter to the attorney general asking them to look into this company's practices. Please do not confuse "The Crab Pot" with "Surf City Crab". They share the same driveway. The other company sells fresh seafood that you take home to cook yourself. I highly recommend that business. read more

I give The Crab Pot 3 1/2 stars but decided to round up. Came here with a group of 6 people while on vacation in Topsail Island Beach. All we wanted since the day we got there were buckets of crab legs and a local recommended this place to us. After reading some of the reviews on here, I felt very hesitant to come here but we had a good experience and I would definitely come back. For appetizers we got fried pickles, clam chowder and ceasar salad. Someone on here said the clam chowder tasted sour so when my boyfriend ordered it I was a little scared but it was actually very delicious. For the main meal, everyone ordered the create your own steamer bucket. My boyfriend and I shared 2 pounds of snow crab legs, 1/2 pound of muscles and a 1/2 pound of shrimp. Yes, the shrimp is still shelled so you have to peel it yourself (oh, the horror). I saw someone on here complained about having to peel the shrimp yourself. Really, STFU with your first world problems cause peeling shrimp is not difficult so quit complaining. Everyone enjoyed their meals (lobster, dungeness crab, corn, hushpuppies etc). The only things we didn't like were the muscles because they were dry. My friend who ordered clams with her steamer pot said they were dry too. I also found it weird that they gave all plastic utensils on the tables. And the soup and salad were served in "to go" containers instead of in an actual bowl or plate. read more

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Awesome if you like 1. Terrible waitress 2. Overprice 3. Dirty I have been coming to the Crab Pot once a year for the last four years and although it has not bad not necessarily my selection, my wife really does love the crabs. So here we go for the annual Crab Pot dining experience. Well this year was way worse than all previous. First off they closed the order window and now you must order from a waitress - actually sounds nice until you deal w/ a waitress. She was terrible to start with. She wanted to tell us that the only way to get water to pay for it because they only served it in the bottle - Right then she wanted to tell us that all refills cost and are not free for sodas etc. So we deal with that - no problem. We now order and one person orders a dozen crabs and another orders half a dozen. Apparently they only had a dozen left. Because they get them from the seafood dock behind the restaurant. So we deal with that. We then get our food she crap soup - not the best in fact I feel that I could do better. So we have to track down the waiter at the next table to get some crackers with the soup -- because - ta da - our waitress is no where to be found when we needed her - Surprise. We had our food brought to our table and really it was just simply OK. Of course we did not get tarter sauce, cocktail sauce or any other condiment. In fact the crab cracker that was given to us did not work and when we finally told our waitress her statement was that all were the same. Needless to say we did not get another crab cracker. Well Guess what our bill came and if our waitress wasn't perky. I have no idea why because they added a 15% Gratuity - apparently it states on menu for parties of 6 or more we take 15%. Very nice way to end the meal. But wait more. After we paid our bill we walked to the back of the parking lot to fresh fish market the same one that provides the crabs to the restaurant - yea that one. But, before we discuss that one. I need to address the restroom cleanliness - or shall I say lack there of. Well my son and I went to use the restrooms and we could deal with it however women, another story. One of the persons in our party decided that the restrooms were so bad that they went to the Hardees next door. Imagine that how embarrassing if you are the owner. So, back to the rear of the parking lot and the fish dock. So we are talking to the attendant and my son asks him why they ran out of crabs. He looks perplexed and says we have plenty of crabs. We then explain about the order and he stated all I can tell you is that we have plenty of crabs and if the restaurant needs crabs we have them. All in all it was probably the worst restaurant experience I have had in a few years and the kicker was the meal cost $78.07 for three of us (gratuity included). I really think it was a $35.00 meal / experience. Never again will I doubt the YELP ratings. I wanted to show my wife the reviews but because of the past years she wanted no part of it. So my fellow YELPERS take head in the reviews. There are so many other choices while on the island don't waste your $ or your vacation night out on an overpriced restaurant that just doesn't care. Do what we are going to do next time.. Purchase the crabs and some old bay and cook them at the vacation house and eat them on the dock with all the free water and refills your heart desires. :) read more

Crab Pot - Overpriced and they force a tip for terrible service. - Seafood Near Me - Surf City, North Carolina

This spot was recommended to me and I wasn't let down. I was able to walk in and grab a seat at the bar around 7:45pm on a Wednesday - no prob. I enjoyed the crab balls and the red potatoes along with the margarita. I asked the bartender to make my margarita on the less-strong side, and she happily obliged and made it very tasty. I'm also very relieved to say that no one gave me an issue for having a service dog. read more

Went here many years ago, and it's still a Topsail Island staple. The connected seafood market is excellent, but unfortunately this is nothing more than a hot, swampy, glorified bar that happens to serve up a little mediocre seafood. read more

Whooooooo, lives in a pineapple under the sea???? If you didn't guess, we had a Crabby Patty and a Shrimp burger. Both were excellent! Fries and rings were tasty. Sam, our waitress, was very good and knowledgeable. Would definitely recommend. read more

We had an interesting experience here. Computers messed up our order so we ended up waiting longer than we thought for food. Our server (who took wonderful care of us) was completely honest and told us she messed up but would take care of us. The drinks were amazing. The food is plentiful and delicious. I had blackened shrimp and scallops. There were almost 20+ shrimp and 6-8 large scallops. Each bite was amazing. While we did end up waiting a while for our food...once we got it we have no complaints. We will be back and highly recommend this place. read more

Seats very uncomfortable. Waited 1 1/2 hrs for food. Waitress dropped tarter sauce on my husband's lap and no apology. No curtains in windows and the sun was in our eyes the whole time. read more

This is a family friendly seafood restaurant with very personable staff. If you want good steamed fresh seafood buckets, then this is a good spot. Crab ball app is also really good. Hushpuppies are delicious, but you need to get a side of them. We only got 2 per person. read more

They weren't very busy when we got there but we had a 45 minute wait to get a table. They finally buzzed us and we ended up sitting at the bar which we could've done from the beginning. Placed our order and after an hour and 20 minutes we finally got it. There was nobody in the place, relatively speaking. People sat down at the bar after us and got their food. All we did was order shrimp, oysters, and mussels. When we received them they weren't even hot. All we got was a thank you for your patience. No I'm sorry, nothing! Go to Topsail Steamers, yes you may have to take it home with you and cook it but it was so much better that anything we got. But they give you a bucket and instructions on how to cook it. It's hot and fresh and it was so much, so much better. read more