Pros: Great places for boil seafood. The cajun spice hit the spot for me but too spicy for other folks in my party. A bit pricey but I didn't feel I overpaid. Lastly, I love the music they play, hip hop. Cons: The price. Forget fries and onion rings. The service can be better but I had no complaint read more

Gao's Crab - Seafood Boil with Cajun sauce - Seafood Near Me - Houston, Texas

Love this place first time here and will definitely come back ! Great customer service 10 out of 10 read more

If your restaurant closes at midnight just say that! My sister and I decided to try GAO's after sussing them out on Yelp! And discussing them, for like two weeks. We showed up at 12:05 on a Saturday night. We walked in and waited at the "please don't seat yourself" sign, as the girls behind the register looked at us in bewilderment. After about 15seconds too long of awkward staring, we left, with no greeting or acknowledgment from the staff. If we aren't supposed to seat ourselves, where is your host? Who is doing your greeting? Needless to say, we walked right back out the door. After a few minutes of contemplating in the car and talking to some other guests who had pulled up in the parking lot, we decided to take our chances. We were informed once we re-entered and walked directly up to the cash desk, that the kitchen closed at 12:30 and that they were only doing to go orders from that point on. We ordered our food and took a seat to wait for it. While trying to make our orders, we were informed that in order to get a lobster or lobster tail, you have to make an order by 8 o'clock so that they can go and get the lobster from the market , and since it was 12 AM lobster was completely off of the menu. Also, the girls that worked there had no clue which type of scallops they offered, sea vs bay . Granted, not everyone who works in food service is as passionate about food as I am, but the "hosts" were completely unwilling to even find out the information from the kitchen staff, as opposed to just offering a shoulder shrug and an IDK. My sister and I took seats at the multitude of open tables, because there was only one other customer group dining in at the moment.( red flag) my sister toon the opportunity to peruse Yelp! for any other option that would potentially give us a better customer service, and the ability to dine in. She found another option, and tried to cancel our order because we really wanted to dine in. The staff was very quick to reassure us that the food had already been dropped that it would be very inconvenient for them to cancel, and that they were willing to allow us to dine in because we were desiring to cancel. Overall the food was mediocre in seasoning, tasting more like lemon pepper than anything else, the customer service was bad, the hours were ambiguous, and I don't think I would return. The joy of late night spots, is that you get to enjoy them late night. If you advertise that you close at 1 am, but you stop seating guests at midnight, a FULL HOUR before close, and your kitchen closes at 12;30, yall really close at 12:30, and start treating your customers as inconviences at 12. Overall the food wasn't TRASH, but with the hoops I had to jump threw to get it, and the fact I wasnt overwhelmed with juicy seafood goodness, I don't think I'll be returning. Unless I have a crab leg emergency at 11:58 pm on any given day. Edit: they DO NOT devein their shrimp read more

Gao's Crab - Combo A with Cajun butter seasoning, mild spice - Seafood Near Me - Houston, Texas

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Gao's seafood seasoning is addicting!!! the mussels were really good. They also have a great deal on their beer pitcher as well

Great place! Super friendly staff. $45 all you can eat. It's pretty good price for everything on the menu. read more

Gao's Crab - Seafood Near Me - Houston, Texas

FOOD AND SERVICE 10/10!!! So yummy and will definitely recommend! There was no wait time and food came at a reasonable time! read more

Gao's Crab - Seafood Near Me - Houston, Texas

Worst wings I've ever received or ever seen in my life. Crab is good though. Won't be back but here's a picture of these midget baby wings read more

Gao's Crab - Seafood Near Me - Houston, Texas

Once upon a time Zain R. asked me if I wanted to grab dinner during the week. I was all like, "sure." And he was all like "cool." So we did. The end. Okay, but HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT THE SERVICE?!?!?!?!?! Nick greeted us at the door and hooked us up with menus and a rundown of the specials. Super friendly, and seemed to be watching over all the things. Michelle was working the entire restaurant, literally has everyone taken care of across all the tables. She was amazing. Always checking in, SO nice, and SO fast with anything we needed. Service was bomb!!!!!! To the foods: They have a free snack bar if you really can't wait. It has fruits, sweets, and a couple savory items. I would caution you to go lightly, as the combos are quite filling. We did grab some appetizers. I didn't care for the chicken strips or hush puppies. They're filler, and not worth it compared to the main attraction (the boils). They were out of Chicken wings and Calamari this evening, which is fine. If they were like the other appetizers I won't mind not having them, and even if they weren't I still feel like the Gangster Boss of Tatooine after the plethora of seafood I just enjoyed. The Fried Shrimp were good, and worth it. We also went with a dozen oysters in the raawww. They were fresh and tasty, well worth it. Check the pics. For the mains there are a la carte, combo, and AYCE options. We decided to opt for a combo. This particular combo had 2 snow crab clusters,1lb head off shrimp, 1lb of clams, 2 eggs, 2 corn, 2 potatoes, and 2 sausage. You the pick the seasoning and spice level. We went with the homemade Cajun, at medium spice. Delicious. I could do spicier, because heat don't scurr me. Zain likes his food spiced and enjoyable, so medium was a good compromise for us. The boil was A++ delicious, there was hear there was flavor, and there was quantity of all things. I feel like I put a lot of those creatures on the endangered species list. I'm about to watch Andor feeling like Jabba the Hutt. So satisfied. Overall, YASSS! Amazing service, thank you Michelle for being fantastic! The boils are bomb, the facility was clean and had a nice feel, ambience was on point. BYOB, and it closes at 1A. Give it a go! read more

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I am not usually a fan of seafood boils but Gao's Crab has totally changed my mind. We got the Combo B which consisted of 2 snow crab clusters, 1 lb. head off shrimp, 1 lbs of clams, 2 eggs, 2 corn, 2 potatoes, and sausage. The sides were okay but if I were to get another side I would get the fried shrimp. I really liked their oysters. But the best part of the night was the snow crab and the shrimp from the oil. Although it looked like it was going to be heavily seasoned, I loved the taste and how it permeated through the seafood. While the food was great, service was even better! Our servers were Nick and Michelle. If you're ever in the area and craving amazing food with even better service, I would head over to Gao's Crab. read more

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Taste and ambience was immaculate! Service was fast. I recommended the wagyu skewers. This was the second time coming and it was just as good as last time read more

Omg 10/10, great service, great ambiance, great food. I loved the seafood boil. Definitely would come again

Great flavor and always steaming hot !! I love this place but I'd like better alcoholic drinks options and seating is very small and close to others. But other than that super good !! read more

Great pricing for combos. Didn't try the AYCE option since we came too late but that seemed like a great way to try lots of different things as well. read more

Tbh, the food portion is amazing, and a full sausage is amazing especially with the big shrimp, the service always asking how we are, never been to a restaurant like that. The ambiance was quite loud BUT no restaurant will not be loud, also the free snack bar was good, and the customer sink was a cool idea that most seafood places should have. I rate it 5 stars / 10/10 read more

So good. So much sauce and flavor. And service was great. Everything tasted fresh I will say don't wear white like me lol read more

Gao's Crab - AYCE shrimp, crawfish, mussels, baby squid - Seafood Near Me - Houston, Texas

This is our 2nd time trying Gao's Crab. I'm not sure if this will delete my original review, but I just had to say something about our wonderful server. She was very attentive and sweet. She also spoke Spanish which felt welcoming to my MIL. We would go again just for her and the price of the drinks. I am the odd one out of my group so I got wings with my order instead of seafood. They were a little...over fried, but the parts I was able to eat were very good. If they ever do a wing boil, I would definitely order it lol. Good seasoning. A male server was off to the side laughing with a friend. There was no harm done until he gave our beer away to the wrong table because he was distracted. Our actual server solved the issue but it did kind of feel weird that she seemed to be handling all of the work. If nothing else, I hope she gets the recognition she deserves. Overall, not an awful experience. The actual boil, seafood or no, seems to continuously speak for itself in the end. Very good. Still no refills or paper plates offered. I'm not even sure refills are possible at this point especially since they are canned drinks, but I'd say the experience was decent enough to come back. read more

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Food is always great! I tend to go later at night so the service is pretty fast! The prices are a lil high if you don't get a combo! I added a lobster tail to my combo & it was over $30 read more

WAO! Gao's Crab is AMAZING. The food is excellent quality and fresh. There are not many customizations available to the menu, but as it comes is worth it. The service from our server Kenny was immaculate! His personality fit our energy perfectly. We had a great experience. Lastly, the ambience is family friendly leaving room for fun for all. They have fun drink options and the staff are great, ensuring a great time, every time! Try Gao's Crab! read more

The service is fast if there's not a lot of people. The inside is alright but at but cramped. I've come multiple times. Done ayce and their combo. When you order ayce they definitely give you more than a pound. So it's rare for me to even get another round. However I've also noticed that when you do a combo the pound is not the same as ayce. The flavor and spicy levels are delicious. The food always come piping hot so it adds to the spiciness. read more

I'm not gonna lie I was skeptical reading all the mixed review we almost didn't come and try but decided to try it for myself. Party of 2, showed up around 6:30 on a Sunday, waited about 5 minutes while they set up the table. Our server explained clearly what the AYCE rules were, no crab legs, 2 hour limit, $12/lb not eaten, drink was included, and if one person ordered AYCE then the whole table had to get AYCE. We looked at the combos and they're pretty good priced but we wanted a bit of everything so decided on the AYCE. They unfortunately didn't have hush puppies so we got edamame, we got shrimp, crawfish, blue crab, and sausage, medium Cajun sauce. The sauce was GOOD, the crawfish were big too, I honestly enjoyed the whole experience. We ended up getting seconds and truly believe we got a good bang for our buck. We made sure to order what we thought we could eat and no more than that. The place is small, music a bit loud, maybe two three servers, we got taken care of by two, one even helped us learn to open our crab. Try it for yourself, everyone's experience is different, this time around ours was great! read more

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Food was super good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Recommend getting the snow crab special!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very tasty, have crawfish, mussels, shrimps. Upbeat pop music. Very hip. Server is very attentive. read more

WARNING ‼ you will be waiting a long time to get seated if you come on the weekends or later in the evening I waited about 1.5 hours to get seated. It also take a while to get your food which sucks for the AYCI because they have a 2 hour limit so if you have a large party I can see this being an issue, if it's just 2 people I think it'll be okay. There are a lot of rules to the AYCI so make sure to read them over before deciding that's what you want. If you can eat then it's a good choice but if you don't think you'll eat a lot it's not worth it. Alright if rating the food here alone I would probably give this place a 4/5! We tried the AYCI...we ordered the onion rings and apps and they weren't good...tasted kind of funny. I will rate the other things we got below: Shrimp 100/10 - we tried it with the NOLA and Cajun sauce and the shrimp was good every time Crawfish 1/5 - the crawfish was overcooked and I felt like it was missing flavor even with the sauces Sausage 3/5 - you get a pretty good link of sausage when you order...we dipped it into the sauces and it made the flavor of the sausage better. Potato 5/5 - MAAAAN them potatoes was HOT AND READY! In the sauce it made it 10x better read more

Like many, I heard of Gao's Crab on social media. I gathered my closest girlfriends to indulge in this great all-you-can-eat deal. We were seated quickly and the music they played was R&B nostalgia. We were given a short explanation of the terms for the buffet, the only exception was that crab was an additional fee. The seafood boil was tasty. Some items I liked such as the boiled shrimp and some I didn't like the shrimp balls but to each his own. The clams and mussels were also tasty and well seasoned. The soju flavors were good, my favorite was green apple. We were having a good time and had good service. Unfortunately later that evening I got violently ill. I did reach out to the owner the next day to report this but the response I got was not satisfying. There was no accountability and the owner/manager was insensitive to my concern and condition. It was a turn off and honestly I haven't eaten seafood since then. read more

Gao's Crab - Seafood Near Me - Houston, Texas

AYCE option is worth it!! Everything was amazing!! Come HUNGRY!! Jeremiah kept the vibe alive!! Great attentive service!! Highly recommend to make your way over, you won't regret it!! P.S. they have FREE appetizers & desserts!!! read more

Gao's Crab - FREE Snacks bar!! - Seafood Near Me - Houston, Texas

New favorite crawfish spot! Everything is amazing! Would def recommend the crawfish and snowcrab combos. As far as spicy levels I would recommend mild and work yourselves up. read more

They say 120 min for the all you can eat and it took almost 60 to get our first order of food. Service is awful and nothing like the rest of Bellaire. Avoid this overpriced cash grab at all costs. read more

Amazing seafood! They even have baby squid (my fav). The House cajun (mild) was not too spicy for me, and packed with flavors (sweet, sour, cajun). The best thing compared to all other seafood boil place: NOT TOO SALTY!!!!! Definitely come back! read more

Loved this hidden treasure. They had awesome snow crabs with great Cajun sauce on all you can eat Mondays. read more

Gao's Crab - 2 clusters gobbled all up - Seafood Near Me - Houston, Texas

Good food. Nice flavors. Attentive staff. Overall would come back and recommend to friends.

Quality:. Wonderful and fresh Flavor:. Tastes great. Price: $45 for buffet including unlimited soda read more

I was very nervous after reading all the reviews so we got there at 5:15pm and it was busy but not packed so we got greeted and seated right away. Staff were really nice and attentive! We got the House Cajun extra garlic and it did not disappoint! The flavor was really good and the claws were so juicy. I can see all the hype about this place! read more

Gao's Crab - House Cajun extra garlic - Seafood Near Me - Houston, Texas

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Do yourself a favor and go to another crawfish/seafood spot... waited over an hour to sit because they did not have enough servers. They had tables open but wouldn't seat people. They kept telling us we are next and wouldn't give us a solid answer. To put salt on the wound, a table that came after us received special treatment and got seat earlier than us because they said they are "social media content creator". So if you do go, let them know you are a content creator so you can skip the line. Protip. Due to the lack of preparation, lack of communication, and their inability to VALUE PEOPLE'S TIME, my party decided to bring our business to Crawfish and Beignets which is around the corner. Do better Gao, let people know the wait time so we can better gauge our time. I'm big back but NOT that big back. read more

came with my sister and my son, the restaurant was very clean, great food and service.

my first time at Gao's Crab! 10/10 experience! I love the service and the food! Would definitely recommend it again! Right next to HMart so that's a plus read more

Very disappointing. We are crab enthusiasts and visited Houston from Dallas recently. Out of all the seafood restaurants in Houston, we chose Gao's based on reviews. We regret that. The all-you-can-eat is a good deal except it doesn't include crab legs (which is what we came for), so we opted for the boil combo A with crab legs 1 cluster, half pound shrimp, 1 potato, 1 corn, 1 sausage, and 1 egg for $32. The spice level options is from 1-10 and 3 is considered medium (shouldn't it be 5?). I chose level 1 because I'm not big on spicy, and it was waaaaay too spicy for me. It was hard to enjoy the food with my lips numb and tongue burning. The sauce itself was very oily and not the best. The crab wasn't sweet at all and tasted pretty freezer burnt. For the price, it was very disappointing. I also got one piece of shrimp that had odd black bumps on it and was very dry and hard. We spoke to the server about it and he made up something about them frying the shrimp to keep the shells crispy. We told him our other issues and he offered a free soda... I don't drink soda so we politely declined. Not to mention the service was awful. We had to flag someone down each time we needed anything. The complimentary snack bar is cool. That's about it. read more

Gao's Crab - Boil combo A - Seafood Near Me - Houston, Texas

It took 50 minutes from queueing on the mobile site to being seated. Very small inside waiting area (standing room only) for maybe 4 people max. Outside waiting area has a bench for maybe 6 people. Interior is very small. No air conditioning. Door is constantly being opened, making the establishment hotter. Host was very negligent in updating parties in queue. When a small table would clear up, my party of 2 and other parties would look at the empty table that is SLOWLY being cleaned and prepped. Table took close to 20 minutes to set up. Customers are constantly asking why are people not being seated and host would keep giving the crowd bs answers. No one was able to take our order. Tables that were seated after us were being attended to before us. Took another 20 minutes to put our orders in. We didn't order much at first due to the $12/lb waste rule. Just ordered 2 pounds of crawfish and head-on shrimps and 2 Sprites. 30 minutes go by and everyone but my party received food. I had to walk to the counter to ask about it. 5 minutes later, I got my order. Food was alright. It's just boiled in plain water and tossed in your seasoning. Kind of expected due to the volume that they have to serve instead of the water being seasoned as well. By the time we finished our first batch, we had already stayed almost 3 hours in total. At this point, I was not going to wait any longer for more food. I called the waiter over to just switch my AYCEs to individual orders. I did not even receive my Sprites. The AYCE diners are given a 2 hour limit to eat but I doubt this rule was being followed considering it's taking people long wait times for food. I left and was still hungry. Spent more time waiting than eating. Should change it to AYCW. TL;DR: Slow service, below par seasoning, no air conditioning, everyone complaining about heat and wait times. This is only all you can eat, but only if you can wait all day. read more

Unfortunately the food here is not to my liking. The AYCE is 40/person but no crawfish and no live blue crab ( was told not crab season). We ordered combo B with mild house Cajun flavor . The sauce was not flavorful and we got bored of the food half way. Things I like: they have a free snack bar with side dishes ( seaweed salad! )and deserts ( orange, cheese cake, sesame ball, fried bun). So you'll not leave the restaurant hungry. read more

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I've been here three times. The service is okay. Regular AYCE service. The food is okay as well and the restaurant could use some deep cleaning especially the bathrooms. We have the same server all the time who does his best to accommodate the customer load he's given. On my third time here, I left an expensive jacket with money in the pocket. I called the store and spoke to someone who confirmed the brand and color of the jacket and confirmed the table it was found. She told me they had it and to pick it up the next day since they were about to close. I drove 45 mins to pick up the jacket the next day and on arriving, the person working there said that there was no jacket found and that the person who I was speaking to did not know what she was talking about. Mind you, I did not list the brand of the jacket when I called. The server stated the brand and I confirmed. The lady who attended to me said she did not have access to the cameras when I asked her to look at the day and time when I left it. She stated that the owners in California are the only ones who have access and she will take my number and have them call me. This happened in September and as predicted, I never heard back from them. I will not be returning. read more

Gao's Crab - Seafood Near Me - Houston, Texas

Delicious food! My friends and I got the snow crab combo with crawfish and we thoroughly enjoyed everything! Staff were very polite and friendly. Would definitely recommend!! read more

Gao's Crab - Seafood Near Me - Houston, Texas