My family came here last night and it absolutely became my favorite now in San Jose. We picked combo 4 with amazing price for 3lbs fresh crawfish + 2lbs jumbo shrimp + 1lb clam, sausage, corn and potato. Wow... I can't believe that "cheap, fresh and delicious". The amount of source is a lot that make foods very juicy. read more

SJ Crawfish - Cajun/Creole Near Me - San Jose, California

Good service good food. That's all I need. Love the combo #1 Shambalang, loveit. I recommend SJ Crawfish over other places, I enjoy eating here and probably the only place I would go to. Go SJ Crawfish read more

We had a pound of shrimp with corn and sausage. It was very good. We highly recommend SJ Crawfish

Great food. Excellent customer service. I love coming here to enjoy garlic noodle and their combo with SJ special sauce (medium). The staff is very helpful helping us to select the right order that suitable for us. This will definitely one of my stop by list for crawfish. read more

I like the new SJ because they have a more expansive menu (compared to the previous one). with various appetizers. The soft shell crab app is my fave. The old SJ did not have much, just a few fried items that weren't worth ordering. The cajun fries were bad: super thick with some cajun seasoning sprinkled on top. We just accepted the fact that eating at SJ was limited to seafood and, maybe, oysters. However, their sauce was BOMB and that was enough to keep us coming back. New SJ's sauce is somewhat reminiscent of its former self, but it's lacking something... Also, the service was kind of "eh". There was a sign at the register for some sort of discount. I mentioned it after the fact, but our server said it was too late as she couldn't do it and/or didn't know how. She made no effort to speak to the manager or another employee to see what could've been done. Sheesh, at least feign the effort. It was a hefty discount, like 15 or 20% off. She also didn't bag up our leftovers carefully so sauce leaked out of the bag and into my car. I live really, really close too! There are many other crawfish places! read more

It's a Vietnamese seafood restaurant for those wondering and it is honestly a really good place to go to. Personally I think the prices are quite nice for what you get and the servers there are super nice. There was a person that stood out to me the most and he was such a good server. His name was Anthony and he made sure often times if we needed anything. Most crawfish places I've been to is usually an order, food arrives, and pay after or before. It was a nice change of pace with having an actual server checking up on you. read more

The portions are good n hearty but the food itself lacks flavor, spice, and do I got a bit sick after eating here. I was overall disappointed as I payed quite a bit of money for something that wasn't even close to the other competitors around this area. I personally wouldn't recommend this place to a friend or family member. read more

Tried this place for the first time today since Kickin Crab didn't open until later. Got to say this place was really disappointing and not worth the money at all. We tried the most popular sauce they had for the shrimp and mussels and it was very watery and just full of garlic. Also, we ordered the calamari, which seemed to be something you can get from the frozen section of a grocery store. Only thing that was worth eating was the sweet potato fries. Service wise it was not the best. They forgot to put in the extra add ins we requested in the bag and the rice we asked for had ordered from the beginning, three times until they brought it out. Would not come back here. This place made boiling crab better. read more

Wanted to finally eat at a seafood boil place and splurge a little so I chose to come here because this was one of the places that I called and they were open even though it was 4th of July. Arrived after 4 PM and place was not busy at all so we got seated right away. I know this spot is known for "crawfish" but I went with the cluster of snow crab legs at $24.99/lb because my other half is allergic to certain seafoods which sucks and he knows it. So anyway added a corn, 1 potato, and an order of sausgas (5 pieces) with the house special sauce (thick garlicky sauce) although the server recommended the SJ sauce, I should've just listened but wanted to try something else. Other half ordered catfish with cajun fries and an order of garlic noodles. Food didn't take long at all, but like I said I'm gonna try the SJ sauce next time cause that house special sauce was super thick for me. Garlic noodles was good just FYI eat it as soon as it comes out. Other half thought his catfish was decent and while he watched me take out all my meat from my crab legs he enjoyed two coronas. Service was good nothing to complain about. read more

SJ Crawfish - My crab legs. - Cajun/Creole Near Me - San Jose, California

In search for some hometown cajun soul food... this place wasn't bad, something was missing ... the place was clean.. it lacked ambience, blues soul music... the experience is half of it I guess. We found the Poorhouse Bistro in the downtown area now that place was hoppin good! read more

Best shrimp in town! We order 1lb of shrimp with pineapple sauce, garlic noodle, grilled babylona with onion, and chicken wings. Chicken wings are mediocre but the others are exceptionally delicious!! TIP: order the pineapple sauce and mix it with the garlic noodle :D Customer service is awesome. The waiters are attentive to our needs. read more

Had a sit down dinner at crawfish last week. Pop corn chicken- Do not advise to order because it was breaded so much that i couldnt taste the chicken at all. I was expecting a popcorn chicken similar to TapEx but it tasted like just the fried batter! This appetizer is HUGE size btw. Cajun fries- Do not advise because it was nothing special... literally like bigger McDonalds fries with cajun on top. It's nothing like Boiling Crab's delicious cajun fries. :/.... amount/size - same as popcorn chicken, good size amnt Butter garlic shrimp - Tried the mild version this time bc the spicy one was HOT AF!!! It was sweet and zesty but there was so little sauce compared to Boiling Crab or my all time favorite Crawdaddy! My boyfriend even complained that when he normally eats crawdaddy, he cant even finish it and theres lots of shrimp left. At SJ crawfish, theres definitely a lot less than other crawfish places. All in all, i'm sticking to Crawdaddy =/ I didnt have the heart to tell the lady boss that i didnt like the food overall. She asked my bf and I "I feel so bad that there is so much food left bc that means u didnt enjoy it... is there any way we can improve?" And i felt so bad i couldnt say anything but here it is lol... it seems like the new management really wants to hear the customers honest reviews to strive for better so one extra star for you :D read more

The BF and I wanted some seafood last night. We went to two different places before going to SJ Crawfish. First we went to Kickin Crab and the wait was too long, then we went to Crawdaddy and there was also a wait. FYI, the wait at Crawdaddy in Milpitas was mainly because they were understaffed, not cuz they are short of tables. Anyways, after attempting to go to those two places, we gave SJ Crawfish a try. And I gotta say, I'm glad we did! First off, finally a place with no wait on a Thursday night!! We ordered the Combo #2 ($38.99), garlic noodles ($5.95), and cajun fries ($5.95). I'm not a big fan of crawfish, and we usually share 2lbs of shrimp and he eats 1lb crawfish. None of their combos have 2lbs shrimp and 1lbs crawfish (like other places). So I kindly asked if we could substitute a lb of something for 1lb of shrimp. Our server was a really nice young lady, and at first when I asked she had a hard time answering back in English. I am Viet and I usually don't voluntarily speak the language unless you are an elderly or a much older person than me. But she seemed younger than me so she just went straight to talking in Viet to me as if it was so obvious that I could understand it (it's really not obvious cuz I don't look Viet lol). It shocked me like WHOA that came out of nowhere. It just caught me by surprise and we thought it was hella funny. We ended up speaking to her in Viet the rest of our time there and with some English. It was still weird tho...I personally don't like speaking the language to people around my age or younger. ANYWAYS, going back to the food lol. We were able to substitute 1lb of crawfish for 1lb of shrimp on Combo #2. I didn't think it was possible cuz they're valued differently, but they didn't say no, so winning! That was really nice of them. Garlic noodles were OK, I've tried better.. Cajun fries were typical fries, but they were really cajun-y, like almost spicy. Our seasoning was SJ Style (All the seasonings!!) in original/mild. The seasoning was surprisingly good. It had a little kick to it. And the shrimps were actually Jumbo shrimps! Overall, I thought it was good and I would come back. But I still like KC, Claw shack, and BP better. I would likely come back when I don't want to wait long at the other places. So I recommend trying this place out if you don't want to wait long!! read more

I didn't eat crawfish at this place for almost 3 years ago. I came here again because claw shack has long waiting list at the time we come. We ordered 2 lbs of crawfish & 1 lbs of shrimp but we added 1 more lbs of shrimp so total is 2 lbs of shrimp. When they brought it out, it was disappointed me because it's so little to compare with Kickin' crab & it didn't look fresh shrimp at all. Just let you know, I won't come here or refer anyone to come here. read more

SJ Crawfish - Cajun/Creole Near Me - San Jose, California

This place has really gone downhill. AVOID. place is half empty compared to other cajun restaurants with almost hour wait. There is a reason! The food here was really bad. Take my advice...don't go here. Left a really bad aftertaste too. read more

Wondering what this white worm like thing in the head of the crawfish. Ordered crawfish yesterday here & almost all of the crawfish had this. I've ordered here before but never noticed it until my friend pointed it out. She had ate at SJ Crawfish years ago & saw these white worm like things in it & now seeing it again. The crawfish has bigger bodies, wide, more flatter, & the white worm things. When you pull the head & body apart it can be long, stringy, & stretches apart. Has anyone else noticed this in their crawfish? Wonder where they get their crawfish. The flavor is great but wondering what was found inside. read more

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Huge shrimp! And amazing house special sauce. I was there yesterday! Gonna go eat again today!!

It's been years since I've came back to this place...and I feel that they have improved over the years. There was a point in time where I felt things weren't doing so great. Today, I had ended up at this place out of spontaneity. The jumbo shrimps are actually pretty big! I was shock. The Cajun sauce was on point for my taste buds...not too watery...and not too thick. The flavor was enough that it Coated every bite... Now I will be honest...there was 3 mushy shrimp out of the 1 lb I have ordered. Some would say that is bad...I'm giving a four star because I guess I understand it can happen anywhere. I think that 3 out of the one pound was acceptable...some might now. I have been to places where half the batch if not more was bad ...so I'm rating from my experience. With that said..the corn was good..so was the sausage..just the normal. I did order the garlic fries...it was not that great to be honest...passable at most. The cilantro was a good touch to it. There seems to be a bigger variety of stuff here that I did not try. The service was good and I guess I'm rating 4 star because over all my experience was good. The service was polite, the store clean, and neat the kitchen looks very clean . Great improvement to before read more

What happened to this place?? We used to come eat here a lot, but the crawfish seasoning and garlic noodles are not tasty anymore. We came here to eat last week and everything was off. The garlic noodle tasted full of oil, not enough butter, bland. We ordered several flavors of crawfish and the seasonings were off. Bland and too oily. Need more butter and flavor. The good thing was the waiter was very nice and crawfish was fresh (not frozen). Not sure if they changed chef or recipes? Not going back read more

Came here tonight after driving around undecided what to eat. Great service , we were greeted and waited on immediately ! Tamarind sauce was recommended and they brought us a sample . (Yummy) It's nice ,bright , and bathrooms are clean . 5lbs get 1 free deal ! read more

SJ Crawfish - Shrimp in tamarind sauce - Cajun/Creole Near Me - San Jose, California

SJ Crawfish is the best place in the Bay Area for mudbugs. We go several times a month and the owner is really nice. Lighting is great, good atmosphere, great spacing between tables you won't find anywhere else. Overall it's a good time and a better deal. read more

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Now that this place has new owners, it's so much better!! I love that they remodeled the place (especially that grimy bathroom). The sauce is still bomb too! I suggest staying away from the spicy flavoring because it's a bit overwhelming. I love spicy, but I don't like it to over power everything. My husband insisted on getting spicy and myyyyyy gaaaaaahd! My eyes were watering! It was still good, but as I said, it was overpowering. The new owners/staff are all really nice and attentive. This is probably one of my top to go places for cajun. read more

My bf and I got the deal 5 lbs crawfish + 1 free and it included a certain amount of sausages, corns, and a bread roll. I substituted the bread roll with another corn. The place was spacious and cute. The food was pretty good. I liked the Cajun sauce that they had, but it wasn't mind blowing because I've had better. I hope to try the tamarind one next time. The crawfishes were also really big! Service was really good but I wish they'd stop asking how my table was doing every 20 min after 2 times. It's just my preference because I don't like stuffing my face with food and answering them at the same time lol. They do care about the customers because they asked me and others how the food was and if the flavor was good. I really like that :) My BF and I came at 9 and they close at 10. It was so much food that we had to stay a bit after closing. I apologized to the girl that asked me how the food was and she said that it's all good and she had customers that came in AT 10 but they didn't mind. Service is 10/10! -1 star because it was pricey. Pricier than some crawfish places I believe. Not sure if you'll be able to be full with the amount they provided. read more

If I were to compare it to boiling crab, SJ is way better in terms of sauces and the size of seafood! We tried the house sauce, Sj sauce & 49ers. Sj & 49ers sauce was the best. Sj had a little more sweetness and 49ers had the perfect balance, it didn't just taste like regular Cajun butter. House sauce was too basic and a little too salty. The size of the crawfish and shrimp were nice and plump, very fresh tasting. Garlic noodles were also delicious. The service was incredibly nice, would definitely come back if we were in town. read more

I've tried a lot of different places in San Jose and I have to say SJ CRAWFISH is my favorite. I love the sauce here and especially for all the spicy lovers, the spiciness here is super spicy. Totally recommend this place. read more

I'm only reviewing the chicken wings......it was terrible! The wings were anorexic...and I think overpriced for 8 flat and thin wings, for $9.99! Place was very loud when we got there....table had no napkins....... read more

This is the worst restaurant I've ever been to. Food is not fresh and full of odors. I suffered from abdominal pain for 4 days just because shrimp and crawfish and especially, as a Vietnamese, I found them cursing their staff badly. Never and never come back. read more

Very impressed. I researched and read reviews of the top 10 cajun places near San Jose. Decided to try this one because it had good reviews, but fewer reviewers (hoping that it's not so crowded.) Without naming the other two competitors I tried, let me just compare. 1) The Crawfish seemed "fresher", juicier, than the other comparable place. I went during lunch and it was not crowded. The crawfish came out slower than the other places - which means that they didn't start boiling until I placed the order, rather than having a lot sitting there and ready to eat. 2) Service was fine, polite, efficient. read more

Guess what? it's closed and we are still here eating a mountain of the best mud bugs in the Bay Area. The atmosphere is pleasant and bright. The tables have ample space between them. Great place to take your friends or family. Excellent group dining and well worth the trip. read more

SJ Crawfish - Cajun/Creole Near Me - San Jose, California

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Best shrimp in town! We order 1lb of shrimp with pineapple sauce, garlic noodle, grilled babylona with onion, and chicken wings. Chicken wings are mediocre but the others are exceptionally delicious!! TIP: order the pineapple sauce and mix it with the garlic noodle :D Customer service is awesome. The waiters are attentive to our needs. read more

-1 STAR it was cold in there and we were wondering how will we enjoy eating our food while freezing our butts off -1 STAR lighting was dark and we went around 5:30pm, it was super dim and they didn't turn on all the light until we were almost done with our food -1 STAR the sauce wasn't as good as I expected, but then again their sauce has Tamarind and Pineapple in it.. if you don't mind a tangy/sweet sauce then you'll be fine eating here The service was "eh". It wasn't the best and the waitress was always unsure who to help first; the people already seated or the people walking in the door. Bathroom wasn't stocked, no toilet paper and the strength of the flush is weak. It's an okay place if you're in need of satisfying a shrimp craving. My first choice was Kicking Crab but they were way too busy. Not saying I wouldn't come here again, but this place wouldn't be my first choice. Overall, they're a good place. read more

Today must have been an off day for them or something and I'm super disappointed!! I came here with my kids for my birthday lunch around 12, we were the only ones there. This is our second time coming here since the first time was amazing. Decided to order combo #1 with the 49er sauce, mild and garlic noodles. The shrimp was on point but that was it. Crawfish was tiny as hell because it isn't in season, smh. I already know mussels come frozen but come on, at least have it hot and not cold! The server forgot to put in my garlic noodle order and had to send it in and acted like nothing ever happened. Told them how I felt and all they did was apologize and not try to help with the situation. We were the only ones there, so how can you mess up?!?! read more

Pass by here all the time and finally tried out sf crawfish the other night. My only complaint was the crawfish were different sizes from small, medium, large to super large. It was alright though. The flavor was good and loved their special house sauce. I cant eat spicy so the spice level was perfect. Great place to hang out and have a couple beers. Will come back to try to garlic noodles. read more

Yummy large crawfish. Sauce is slightly sweet. Very friendly service. Serves beer. My go to for crawfish. Not much of a wait.

Just letting you know they upgraded the garlic noodles and I have to tell you it is so good you guys. Apparently they get it from the same vendor as another popular seafood place but it still has that SJ style taste. Been coming here for two years since I moved to SJ. The couple who run the place love their food and show it in how well the quality of seafood is each and every time I visit. The shrimp you can tell was super fresh and extra delicious I love my seafood super spicy and this is always the place to get it. Thank you to the owners for always providing the best seafood in San Jose! read more

I went on a Saturday during lunch time and the place was rather empty, which made me have second thoughts about eating there, but my sister wanted to try it so we ordered: Fried calamari head- it was delicious, they were super crunchy and the seasoning was perfect. Garlic fried oysters- they were fresh not frozen with a garlicky crunchy batter. I loved it. Fried soft shell crab- again we were not disappointed. The crabs were cut up in good sizes so that there was a good ratio of crab to batter. Also very crunchy. And finally we had 1lb of shrimp, I was just going to get the normal Cajun sauce since it was what I was used to but the server recommended to try the tamarind or pineapple because it is also Cajun based sauce just with a hint of either tamarind or pineapple. I decided to try the tamarind and I am so glad that I did. The sauce had hints of tamarind that gave it a unique flavor. I definitely enjoyed it. The place was really clean and I love the decorations. The service was also great, my water cup was never empty and they actually serve water from water bottles. I would definitely come back and try some of their other stuff. They have a great variety to food. read more

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Way better then the old SJ Crawfish. The crawfish is fresh and their sauce is amazing. For appetizers I ordered calamari head and shrimp skewers. They were seasoned just right and I would definitely just come back just for those. Then I ordered shrimp, clams, and crawfish. At first I ordered medium, but it wasn't spicy enough so I asked them to make it spicy and they were happy to do so. The clams were so huge but my only complaint was that the crawfish was hard to peel. I eat crawfish a lot and I know how to peel crawfish but for some reason the meat kept sticking to the shell of the crawfish. The service wasn't so great, but when management took over it was a lot better. I don't expect that much from the service though because they are fairly new but it does need some work. The waiter had no idea how to take our order for crawfish. Some things I feel like they could improve on is that they need bigger cups. They use the small white styrofoam cups. Also, they should have the roll of napkins instead of giving us a stack of separate paper towels. It would be less of a hassle for them, since people won't be having to keep asking for refills on water and more paper towels. read more

Would love to say Sj Crawfish exceeded my expectations,, BUT unfortunate for ME,, IT DID NOT.. this review is for the boil.. Sauce; VERY LIGHT amd thin AND the spiciest WAS NOT SPICY enough for me, YOU also do NOT HAVE the option to choose what flavor sauce you would like.. So, to say the SAUCE WAS not my style.. Shrimp; WAS VERY over boiled to where I just wanted to give up because after I FINALLY GOT the shell off there was a little piece of shrimp left.. FUNNY THING WAS, THE guy working kept asking me if everything was tasting ok.. I TOLD HIM the shrimp was poorly overcooked and he just swept it under the rug ( no problem for him) I just didn't underst and why ask if HE was NOT willing to fix the problem.. Corn and sausuge.. I ordered each for .80 cents.. IT WAS HILARIOUS to literally find ONE Little piece of cut up sausage in my bag..THE CORN WAS delivered layer on and just thrown in my BAG.. LOL WEIRD.. FRIED RICE: Was delivered to me in the middle of my meal and it was dry and a little to salty for my liking.. Will say I have def. Had better.. THIS PARTICULAR PLACE is not on my top Fave. good luck read more

I hate going to crawfish and having to wait 2 hours for a table. Came here because the the wait was short. Staff was super attentive, food was good, and short wait times. Need I day more?! Definitely will be back!! read more

This place is solid. Kicking crab had like a two hour wait. As a catholic on a Friday I ain't waiting that long. Service was good food was good. I was disappointed that they were charging 2.75 for a can of pop... read more