Decent crab legs, very nice flavor! I go here very often, compared to the other crab leg options downtown Chicago that aren't gonna cost you a arm and a leg this is one of the best but I've only tried 2 of them but there is only like 4 so read more

Really good place!! Very good prices and amounts of food. It is BYOB so that is great....but if u plan on mixing a drink u have to buy their juice , so that was that! Other than that it is a really nice place and cool vibe. Ordered the snowcard and it was a great amount and the seasoning was awesome!! I loves the brocoli as well. Will deff be back!! read more

Came here with family friends recently to watch the McGregor vs Maywhether fight. I was served their creole fried chicken, shrimp, and shrimp po-boi. Delicious!! read more

Went here with my sister because she wanted crab legs. Service was a little slow because they only had one person taking orders on a Friday night. We ordered the regular Margarita but sent them back because they weren't good. Tasted like medicine Got the Pomarita but that wasn't good either. We drank them instead of sending those back also. My food was good: crab legs & shrimp. My sister had issues with her crab legs lacking meat. The waiter took them back & brought her another order which were satisfying to her. The spice level was good. Overall the experience was good & so was the food. The drinks not so much but we did enjoy a shot of Patron before we left. I will return in the near future. read more

The main dish was simply outstanding!!!!! Clam chowder was a bit bland but had chunks of Clam and veggies in it. Servers are a bit hard to understand but very knowledgeable. Will definitely be back! read more

Madison Crab House - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Sorry excuse for clam chowder. Also one of the King crab legs was missing all the meat in it. So disappointed.

Came to Mad Boiler on a Thursday at 6:30pm and it was pretty empty which was alright with me! My husband and I ordered the Combo A which is 1 lb of crawfish, shrimp, and snow crab with the cajun/garlic seasoning. I have zero complaints and I am definitely looking forward to returning! Next time I'll probably skip on the crawfish but everything else was delicious. read more

Visited this restaurant when it opened and i loved it. This time was the polar opposite. I asked the bartender, waitress and cook what the seasoning was in soft shell crab and everyone was confused and said corn meal. Later in the process someone said cajun. I knew i should have left but thought " you liked this place before give it a try". Going out in my mind is a treat and this was not. The shrimp was overcooked and had a funky taste. I wanted to say something but it was so much trouble trying to discover the seasoning i figured it would be useless to ask to switch. I ate hungrily hoping for a fresh shrimp. Often spit out half ugh. There are better choices out there dont waste your money! read more

Very over priced. I mean veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy over priced. Stopped in for dinner and the server was very nice. We ordered a "boil" and it came out quick. The food was decent. We already knew the price and it was not matching up to what we where eating. I won't be returning. I'll wait for a new spot, or wait til I'm back down south. read more

Eh 50-50. Probably won't be back. I was craving gumbo..7 dollar later I get this little cup of sub par gumbo, best part of this place was the two guys behind me who had never eaten crab before and needed instructions from the staff as to how to proceed. read more

This place is a welcome addition to the neighborhood. Tasty, fresh, and great value, the service is subpar but let's be honest it's not like you're coming here expecting fine dining service. pleasant and a fun experience overall- we will be back. read more

Cajun seafood is fantastic, I just have to watch the amount of heat - like none, or so minimal, it's like having none. That's just the way it is. Mad Boiler has the spiciness many want, but they also can contain the edge for those customers like me. The menu was vast and just about every seafood freak will love that there isn't a sea creature not featured here. My friend and I split the blue crabs and the shrimp & oyster po boy, both of which were very good. Decent sides, albeit smallish portionwise, but tasty nonetheless. Good, not-greasy fries! I think if spice was my life, I probably would have enjoyed the seafood even more and could give this place 5 stars. As that's not the case, I'm going to leave it at 4. read more

My husband and I have tried this place a total of three times. We were actually fans before an encounter with the UPTIGHT, CRABBY, and RUDE OWNER tainted our experience- just check out his response to other's reviews to see what I mean- defensive!! I referred quite a few friends to this restaurant, but won't be doing that anymore. We'll just continue to refer our friends to Two Fish in Hyde Park or The Angry Crab. At these two places, you don't have to put up with the headache of rude customer service. I was actually planning to have a fun dinner at the Mad Broiler with 20 of my friends until we had a bad experience with the owner of the restaurant. Our first time here was great! The food was good-- we had the King Crab legs and the headless shrimp, and sides of corn. We tried the Cajun dry rub and the Sweet chili sauce-- both were yummy. The margaritas were yummy. Our server was fantastic--upbeat, attentive, and offered speedy service. We also tried the crab fried rice, which was exceptional. We weren't bothered by the prices--some say it's a little expensive, but we were fine with it. It was a Friday around 6:00 pm, and the place wasn't packed. We just walked right in- easy. The second time-- a few days after our first visit-- my husband came back to order two containers of crab fried rice "to go" and brought it home immediately. We were both put off by the foul taste and smell- abnormally fishy. For anyone who knows seafood, the smell of it should never be overpowering. Although, there's no doubt that they use fresh crab; the taste and the smell of the fried rice was a little off putting. It didn't taste right and certainly didn't taste like the first time we had it. We really enjoyed the crab fried rice during our first visit. When we brought the crab fried rice home that evening, the restaurant had already closed, but my husband decided to hold onto it until the next day because he wanted to bring it back to the restaurant to advise the manager just in case it was bad and to get two more orders. Mind you, the containers were full so it's not like we ate the fried rice, and were trying to get more. The following day, my husband called the restaurant and spoke to someone, who mentioned our scenario to them. The person placed an order for two more fried rice sides for my husband to pick-up. My husband assumed that when we turned in other bad rices, we would get a replacement-- no hassle-- no charge. Upon arrival at the restaurant, my husband was "greeted" by the OWNER of the restaurant who was DEFENSIVE, ARROGANT, UPTIGHT, and LACKED PROFESSIONALISM. Initially he told my husband that he wasn't going to give him new orders unless he paid for them, and he insisted that something was wrong with us because his food is good, fresh and "blah blah blah"... he was a complete JERK to my husband. My husband told him that it seemed like he was having a bad day, and the OWNER responded "My day was good until you came." After a lot of back and forth and lots of tone and attitude from the owner, we got new orders of fried rice where he slammed the bag down in front of my husband and walked away... No apology, no "I'm sorry that your order wasn't up to par...nothing".... Of course, when my husband said "I didn't have to come to your restaurant, I could've gone to Angry Crab," the owner didn't like that.. In all fairness and objectivity, I will say that those new orders of fried rice were much better and didn't smell overwhelmingly fishy or taste overwhelmingly fishy, but the OWNER'S ATTITUDE was as fishy as it gets. He definitely needs some polishing! I heard him speaking to one of his employees in the same manner. No one wants to deal with piss poor service when there are many places in Chicago who do crab broils--- with better food, more inexpensive food, and better service. In the restaurant business, if a customer is dissatisfied, the first line of defense should be to accommodate the customer. All the guy had to do is say "I'm sorry that you experienced this, but we'll replace it right away." We weren't asking for a barrel of crab, we were asking to have our TWO SIDE ORDERS of crab fried rice replaced with no hassle. The third time-- after much reluctance, I returned with a friend as I promised her I would go with her-- this was before the encounter with the owner. She wasn't too impressed and said that she liked The Angry Crab better. I was quite surprised again that the place wasn't packed at all (Friday night at 8:00 pm). There were more empty tables than filled ones. Now I wonder if this was due to other patron's dissatisfaction with the customer service or perhaps, it's still a new restaurant and people haven't heard of it. Either way, the OWNER needs a quality check on his attitude and his response to criticism. Learn how to work with your customers, not against them! If the owner pouts and says "Fine, go somewhere else," take your money and listen to him! This place won't be open for long! read more

Madison Crab House - After I posted a 1 star review, the owner private messaged me this.... Stay away! - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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Being new to Chicago and having recently moved to the West Loop, I'm always looking for convenient spots to dine. The West Loop gets a little carried away with being too trendy and this is one of those spots. I ordered the crawfish and it was rubbery. I ordered the catfish. It was crispy, but lacked much flavor and seasoning. There's a place in LA called The Boiling Crab, and I think this place is a bad copy cat. The service sucked! The manager or whoever the dude is with spikey hair walking around seemed to have a stick up his butt. When I asked him about my food order and mentioned the timing (took a long time), the dude told me that "It's what people have to do just wait.... And then he walked away." I didn't know that they were offering smart ass on the menu. Thanks dude. You really made me feel good about waiting for 45 mins in a practically empty restaurant on a Saturday night. read more

Went in with a group of us , at the time they were not busy at all. Waiters didn't seem care much as we stepped into the door. Lady works at the bar saw us as well , neither did her come to get us seated till we had to walk up to them and asked if we needed to be seated or just grab any table. Sat there for over 10 minutes with no services at all, again they were not busy at all. Water named Andrea walked passed by us serval times didn't even bother to provide menu nor water, even worse ignored us when we tried to get his attention. Customers sat next to us said they had to wait a long time to be helped and food is salty, so we stood up and left, once again , as waiters saw us leaving , they did not bother to ask why. Overall experience is disappointing, considering a lot competition in this category , not going to go back and definitely not going to recommend this place if you wanted to have a great enjoyable dinning experience . read more

My husband, mom, and I split combo A which was $40 and included a pound each of craw daddies, shrimp, and crab legs (with potatoes and corn) and we didn't finish it all. (I thought it wasn't gonna be enough food). The prices were good and the food tasted even better. read more

This was the best seafood I've ever had in my life. I got a pound of snow crabs with the Cajun seasoning. It was spicy and flavorful. You have to try this place. read more

This was our first time dining at Mad Boiler! Great feel, awesome music, and incredible eats! We will definitely be returning!

Hands down, the most delicious crab/shrimp/lobster roll I've ever had. But boy was it expensive. The meat was all very succulent, tender, fresh, melt in your mouth. All too often, seafood is overcooked to the point of being rubbery and tasteless. read more

I finally made it to this place and I guess I set my expections too high ( I frequently go to The Boiler in Skokie). From the moment that I walked in, the service was so so and it was not even crowded. Only 1 menu per table, is there a shortage or something?? Plus our server was not that friendly either. Service should be part of your dining experience. I tried the Cajun Noodles and they were just OK plus needed more seasoning too. After we added more Cajun much better. I did enjoy my pound of head on shrimp with garlic butter and the cajun rub (level 2). I most likely will not go back at this time, a little overrated compared to other Boils that I go too.. read more

The place was lonely when we arrived but everything was delicious. The seasoning was delicious, we got there during happy hour, half off beer and the customer service was great. Would definitely recommend. read more

The same comment it's my third time and the same dish taste different each time. Also ordered the crab fried rice...it's just sticky rice with some minced crab meat and eggs. It's overrated. I was disappointed. The flavor was okay but again for the small amount $12 is a rip off. I did alert management. Of the boil places this one is slipping on the scale of ones to frequent. read more

Really enjoyed this place and this will be in the rotation of regular places I will be going to now. Went with my boyfriend last night and we straight up grubbed!! They give you the tools to get down and dirty, ( gloves, bib, tray for shells) and that's what it's all about!! This is no first date resto ; ) !!! Everything we had was delicious, we had the snow crab legs, lobster tails and muscles in the coco curry sauce ( think Thai sauce) with level 3 heat ( BF and I like the heat) and we had the shrimp ( heads off) in the sweet chili sauce, level 3 as well, both were outstanding and I can't honestly pick which sauce I liked best and we may actually go higher in heat level next time! We also had the fries and they are great, they have some kind of batter that gives them a crispier texture, so good. Here is why I didn't give it the 5th star....the sign is off putting, sorry, but it is, it gives it a suburban strip mall feel, I live in the WL and with all the cool things going on in this hood, I think aesthetic wise they could have done better. Inside decor is fine for what you're doing which is really getting down to the seafood and going nuts with your bib and gloves on. I wish we would have gotten the King Crab legs, I forgot for as much work as crab legs are snow is just too little reward for your hard work. My only other issue would have been that I felt this place should be BYOB. You're drinking wine out of plastic glasses ( made sense for the mess you make) and your paying a decent amount of $$, which I didn't have a problem with because the quality and amount of food was worth the price, but say I was able to BYOB I would have gone for the King Crab!! Just my opinion. Just to break it down, I really enjoyed my visit and I have a list of people I want to bring here who will enjoy a fun seafood experience. The staff is wonderful, very helpful and attentive at keeping the food off you!! Sorry for the lack of pix but this is no place to have your phone on the table, next time I will take pix before I am gloved and bibbed!! Check this place out!! You won't be sorry!! read more

My girlfriend and I wanted to check this place out when it opened recently. Since both of us grew up eating great seafood in Maryland and Maine, we had high hopes for this place since seafood in Chicago is always hit or miss. This place was a hit! I got the fried Shrimp Po'Boy and my girlfriend had the lobster roll. The lobster roll was buttery and the meat tasted really fresh. The batter that the shrimp was fried in was excellent and they were the perfect size. We'll definitely be back! read more

Came here on a Sunday night. Came around 5:30pm and it wasn't packed at all. That kinda gave me a troubling feeling because other places like low country and angry crab are usually always packed. But I tried my hardest not to compare this place to low country because they weren't trying to be like low country. We were greeting and seated promptly. The waitress took our order. We had 2lbs of crab legs, 1lb or crawfish, and 1lb of shrimp head off. The sauce was good. We had the garlic butter sauce and the garlic butter with Cajun rub on another items. I liked the Cajun rub with the garlic butter together. The heat level was trash. If you like spicy food the heat is nothing for you. The medium heat barely has anything to it and the spicy (next level up) is barely any different from the medium. We eventually got the hottest level that they had and that was like a level 3 out of 5 at low country. The food was good but I felt like sometimes the carb was missing a lot of meat. Sometimes I got hollow shells. I'm not a expert on seafood so I'm not sure if this is common. The shrimp was good. Overall good experience but not better than low country or angry carb. read more

Stopped by while visiting Chicago and found this gem, the food was great and the service was excellent, I would highly recommend it, we had the shrimp, crab, Cajun fries, mad wings, and the gumbo...yes we pigged out, the only complaint I would have would be to have more chicken and sausage in the gumbo but the flavor was pretty good anyway, a nice stop for great food and service read more

I can't believe the lack of communication. The waitress couldn't understand English at all. It took 3 to 4 ppl to understand want was being said. My order wasn't right 2 times finally 3 times the charm. I'll go to other crab broil here in town. read more

Great Sunday afternoon pit stop! We were headed to Angry Crab in Wicker Park and I'm so glad we looked at Yelp before making the drive. We found the Mad Boiler and fell in love with this neighborhood gem. It was a perfect day for outdoor dining and the server's suggestions were amazing. Highly recommend the Cajun shrimp pasta! read more

Food was very good. However it was pricey to begin with and to get 4 shrimp in the jumbo shrimp Cajun pasta was underwhelming to say the least. The $16 meal should have been $10 tops based on what you get. read more

Best seafood boiler in the city. Fresh food, Big portions great sauces and priced accordingly with awesome service.

I am there twice per week. Mad wings are delicious. Pound of shrimp and lobster tails for $50. Great service. I like the take out better but people that are there seem to enjoy themselves. A good entry for the neighborhood of sports bars, pizza joints, and high end restaurants. read more

The orange martini w/our cajun shrimp noodles, 3lbs.of shrimp, snow crab legs & crawfish meal was excellent. We will definitely return to try more on the menu. read more

Yesterday was my third visit to Mad Boiler. I'm giving them 2 stars because the first two visits were great. Great crab legs, great seasoning. Yesterday? Terrible. Very thin crab legs that were overcooked. I literally had to scrape the meat from the inside. I mentioned it to the waitress and she brought me another thin overcooked cluster! I also ordered the cajun rub. Barely any in the bag. Then I was charged $1 but extra seasoning. Very small potatoes. Not sure what was going on but it was waste of $100. Will probably stick with Low Country. read more

Absolutely the best seafood in the area. The Cajun Shrimp Noodle appetizer was superb. The seafood was fresh and well cooked and the flavors we tried, garlic butter, spicy Louisiana and coconut curry were all delicious. The prices and portions are perfect, especially considering the freshness of everything. read more

The prices here are pretty decent for a seafood joint. Ordered their combo a which came with a pound of snowcrab legs pound of headless shrimp and a pound of crawfish. My girlfriend ordered cajun fries and potsickers nothing special about the potstickers and the Cajun fries were decent. Overall the boil its self was pretty good was hoping for a bit more spicier flavor to the sauce but might just ask for extra spice next time. read more

really tasty!! and loved all the sauces they have, especially the chili and garlic one. I like how the seafood has the sauce flavours already in them, unlike some other similar venues in Chicago where the seafood is still bland and there's only sauces outside the shell read more

The Cajun shrimp pasta is super yummy! The staff is friendly and accommodating! It's another great find in the west loop:)

Kinda expensive and not as well done as some of the other seafood in a bag places around. It's a bit frustrating they won't allow you to get 1/2 or 1/4 lb portions of stuff to combine in an order. Also, the spice mixes seem to vary a lot between overtly strong to fairly weak in flavor. read more

I took my girl to eat here the other day it was our anniversary prices were mediocre food wasn't bad service was a little slow that's the reason why I didn't give it full five stars what I remind commended not based off this visit I would have to try it again to recommend it to anybody could have been an off night I will say one thing the chicken wings were good read more

we love this place and enjoyed the dishes we ordered.if you love seafood, you would love this place. the dry rub is the bomb.