I've been here a couple of times and it's alright, just enough to satisfy my seafood craving. The service is okay, I order simple stuff os that's probably why they haven't messed up my order yet. I've only ordered shrimp so far and I agree with other reviewers that they aren't that fresh sometimes. I also feel like it's not as flavorful and a bit plain so I actually used the limes and salt a lot. I also ordered their potatoes, it was literally a boiled potato swimming in butter. I still prefer boiling crab in San Jose. Better environment, service and the shrimp is always fresh and more flavorful. read more

Amazingly DELICIOUS... always get cajun shrimp with sausage and potatoes... amazing...

I went here with a bunch of friends for my birthday and had a great time. Food was very good and every body had fun. Our server was ok could have cracked a smile here and there ..but everything else was good otherwise read more

I would not bring my dog to eat here and you food is served insida a doggy bag,utterly disgusting

I love coming here, but lately I've noticed the service isn't the same. I've had the same server about 5 occasions and she's rude and rolls her eyes if you ask for anything. I myself have worked at a restaurant so I know how it is, but if you simply can't get simple things like the check or extra sauce, why work here. I miss the old staff. read more

I was so excited to try this place out, my sister took me to a place called Hot and Juicy in Las Vegas so I brought her here to compare. Needless to say we were both very happy! Not only with the food but the service as well, our waitress was Ashley and she was super sweet and attentive. I will definitely be coming here again! read more

I love cajun shrimp and this was the only place closest to the safari we were staying at. Mmm it just wasn't cutting it, the flavors were off. I don't think I would go back read more

The shrimp is so low quality is freaking nasty I can't even peel them off with out the shrimp falling a part it doesn't even taste like shrimp the boiling crab is way better!!! read more

Great little hidden gem in Salinas. The potatoes with wild sauce are great. Shrimp was jumbo. Great Meal.

We come here at least once a month. Really enjoy there Kawa Banga Wild shrimp with a corn on the Cobb and lots of lemon. Service was good. They do have issues with gift cards. Where there machine was not working properly Would come again. read more

This place really hit the spot. Stopped in with my hubby on a drive to SF. We shared 1 lb of Shrimp Kawa-Bonga style (all three sauced mixed) with Medium spiciness. The shrimp were hot and good and we added lemon pepper french fries. They did not have the garlic bread that my husband wanted (at 1:15PM), but that wasn't a big deal to us. The cost was pretty good too! $14.50 for the shrimp and fries. read more

I'm used to going to boiling crab all the way in San Jose but now that I have crab bucket close by I have no need to go to San Jose. The shrimp is always so saucy and spicy. The only thing I wasn't a fan of was the fries. Lemon pepper fries were not that great boiling crabs are way better. But other than that this is a great place to come and eat. read more

So good! I ordered a pound of craw fish and a pound of shrimp, kawa bunga! Corn and sweet potato fries finished my meal. My boyfriend ordered 6 Cajun wings. BORING! Then he got to watch me eat for a good long while. I can't wait to go back! read more

Great food! My only suggestion would be to clean crab/shrimp if customer requests and charge a few dollars more. I, for one would definitely pay the fee to get what I want. Very nice and clean including bathrooms! Customer service is wonderful! read more

Ok so since it opened on 14' i Was very hesitant i coming because my freinds were like its an "ok" place to eat. On feb 15' i finally decided to give it a try. The first time i Came with my sisters and my uncle ambiance its ok it wasnt Busy like the TBC in San José we seated ourselves 15 min later WE asked for water 15 min. Then they brought us the menu 10 min later WE told the waitress we were ready to order she Came 5 min after she did the orders We asked for the bibs 30 min later we recieved 4 out of 5 orders and our appetizer lemon pe pper fries then 15 min later they brought me order #5 so poin of This is BAD service. Food Was ok its greasy though they put tooo much oil i ordered kawabanga shrimp with sausages TIP do not order the sausages they are a shame so tiny not flavorfull nothing like the Huge pieces like TBC so that Was my first experience on not a Busy night by the way i noticed some guys Came in that day and the good they recieved it like 5 min after the waiter greeted them and yes not kool bad bad service. however i decided to give them a secondmonday chance why not right we all deserve one! I went with my bff on a thursday evening we were seated right away service Was ok not warmy like other places it Was like what ever again got my shrimp súper greasy they need to tone it a lil but with that . Its a good thing they opened a crab bucket it salinas great idea its ok however they need to work on their customer service i rather drive to San José wait to get atended at TBC go shopping while i wait for my time to eat there and enjoy a great meal and recieve great service even though they are always Busy but by the means give The crab bucket a try :) read more

The Crab Bucket - Having fun with the ketchup - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Salinas, California

I can have this maybe once or twice a year. The sauce used in the shrimp is really good. However, it is extremely oily and it's difficult to enjoy the seafood without feeling like you're eating spoonfuls of oil. I wish the shrimp only had the spices and chilies without the oil. My stomach usually feels upset for the next couple of days after eating here. read more

Came to Salinas on a business trip and was only here for one night. Found this spot on Yelp so I decided to give it a shot. Initially, I ordered the cajun wings but once I got there, seeing everyone with their filthy hands and tables covered with peeled shrimp... I said IM IN! I ordered some shrimp with garlic butter and spicy sauce. The wings were amaze balls and so were the shrimp. The only reason I didn't give this place 5 stars was because the employees were very openly talking about how much a customer tipped them or lack of, I should say. Very unprofessional. Another reason I didn't give it 5 stars was because they took pretty damn long. Aside from that. 4 stars for finger licking food! read more

Eh. This place is fine. Can't complain a whole lot since the closest place like this is 50miles North. It's not nearly as good as the original, but It fulfills cravings locally for boiling crab-ish style Louisiana seafood. Boiling crabs sauce is much more flavorful with tons of chunks of garlic. I don't think I even saw one garlic chunk in my bag of shrimp. Also, the amount per pound seemed short. I ordered to go and was tempted to weigh the actual amount. The sausage tasted like hot dogs. I'll skip from ordering that next time. Corn was sweet, but they should just throw it into the bag of ordered seafood and sauce versus separate. Sweet potato fries were as expected. read more

usually order shrimp, but next time i am going with the spiciest because i got garlic on medium couple times and its not even a hint of spicy, its like a mild .. but shrimp is good, the potato fries are not at all, they are reallllly skinny and taste weird to me .. read more

The Crab Bucket - side of cajun fries - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Salinas, California

Ate here once and most everything is served with paper and plastic. I wish it was better :-( They served large uncut potatoes and it took forever to get our food which was just Meh !!!! read more

Lemon pepper fries were really good and so was the calamari. The sauce they put on the shrimp was...... too thick and it had a taste of powder chili idk it was weird. The shrimp were hard to peel most likely not coming back read more

i came with a party of 7. we were seated pretty quickly but once we were seated, we didn't get helped for about ten minutes. once we got our waitress (ashley), she was very nice the entire meal. ashley had to take her lunch & told us another waitress would be helping us but she wasn't as friendly or helpful. the food is pretty good, i recommend the kawa-bonga shrimp. i couldn't help but cringe at all the waste that is created at this restaurant. For example our drinks (including waters) were all given to us in to-go cups. But that's none of my business tho (kermit drinking tea). i would go back because it'll satisfy a craving a commonly have (cajun shrimp). it was nice to be able to go to salinas instead of san jose for the boiling crab. read more

This WAS my fave restaurant, until my last visit. The waitress offered terrible service: did not take our order down she just asked what we needed and "memorized" our order-SURE enough when food arrived, my order was wrong. I chose to not say anything, what the heck, all my past experiences have been great. Waitress disappeared for the entire meal. I had to waive another waitress for my fries. AND I had to get up to the counter for a refill on my drink!!!! First time ever my food was DRY. DRY. DRY. NO SAUCE IN THE BAG AT ALL. I decided to ask for the check, paid and left. How disappointing the whole thing was!!!! This WAS by far my very favorite place to eat. read more

Very fun atmosphere! Shrimp here is bigger than other places. Service is quick, nice employees. Flavors were very good and I couldn't stop licking my fingers haha read more

Fifth time here decided to give it one last go. Everytime I would always get a rude waitress... I got Octavia or something like that she was insanely nice. Great service but they had her running around doing everything when I asked about it she said she was not even a waitress. all i know is I will be requesting the bussers to serve me from now on! I would say it is a big improvement compared to the other times I've gone and I've never left more satisfied. Bought some more food for the ride home NOM NOM read more

Food is good but the service sucks! Sat there for 10 minutes without any acknowledgement from the waitresses. They have no sense of customer service in any way shape or form. I'm not sure why this hasn't been brought to their attention by management or the owner. I understand they may be busy at times but the service is the same when they only have 3-4 tables. read more

if at all possible, i would give a ZERO star. where shall i begin... the wait time to get on the wait list took a half hour. should have known it was gonna be a bad experience from there. from that point to us getting a seat took ONE hour. wouldn't have been bad if they would have said that to start off with and not the half hour they indicated. fast forward to the food. wait.... that's exactly why we did. we had plenty of time to look over the menu before we got seated. so we knew what we wanted to order and we did. splashed limes all over our table and left for another half hour before we got our drinks. once we go our food 15 minutes after that, we discovered that their "spicy" isn't that spicy it's sweeter than anything. their garlic noodles should be called soy noodles because they were drenched in exactly that! the shrimp was dry, the claw fish weren't any better. Overall experience was bad!!! this establishment lacks managerial direction. If you have a whole evening to waste this is a perfect place for you. read more

I ordered crawdads. They put some in front of me. Picked one up, tried to twist the head off. WTF? They weren't crayfish. No head. Asked waitperson how to eat the thing... she didn't know. I will never go back. I paid $24 for a beer and some inedible crustacians. read more

My Complaint. About this place. Is that. W/t all the mess that comes W/t. All this. Kaotic place I. Forgot my. Car Keys in the table along w/t my change of. 80.00$. Came. Back I not even 10 mns. Till. I have to take the garbage out n there they were my keys laying in the garbage. But no money No where To b found. B nice if who ever cleans n picks mess. Mess. Would take their time to see if customers forgot their valuables there. read more

I'll keep this review short and sweet, first two minutes there waiting there was a little kid that threw up her entire meal, the parents were nowhere to be found. Then I ordering appetizer, The waiter straight up took it to the wrong person (we had a large crowd that night, thank God he didn't put it on my bill) then I asked was the best crab, so I got the snow crab outta the whole pound of crab legs probably a quarter pound of meat. A Word of advice reteach all the men servers because they suck at customer service. read more

Y'all. When it's busy their service sucks. It was my family and I who came here after church and we were waiting to be seated. A good three or four parties came after us, then they had the audacity to help them before us. I love the food here though. It's really good. read more

Walked in heard some ghetto ass music playing and thought there is no way im aitting here listening to this. Im sorry but im really not trying to listen to Fetty Wapp full blast while im trying to conversate and enjoy my dinner. Felt sorry for the older people in there trying to wat. Probablycouldnt even hear eachother talk. Dining room fail. read more

Customer Service is horrible . The food is ok depend what day you go . Shitty customer service . Decent food .

Recently visited the Crab Bucket. It's not the fanciest joint in town but the food was definitely tasty! We ordered Snow Crabs, Shrimp and Clams and had them Kowa Bunga mild. Everything we ordered was very tasty and the shrimp were especially sweet. Also, they use just the right amount of garlic... helps avoid the day 2 stench that you get from similar type places. The only thing that was ok, was the rice. Wish they would serve better rice. :) Looking forward to going back. read more

Mostly enjoyed dinner here. As an Asian, I'm used to my seafood being cooked with pungent spices and have often disliked the typical American way of steaming seafood and dredging it in melted butter. The Cajun flavors here really make American-cooked seafood more palatable to me. I would've given 4 stars if the salt content was a little lower. Good to try the restaurant, but I think I could do better at home with some Old Bay Seasoning. read more

We came here for the first time and I was not impressed. First of all I ordered the king crab, shrimp, 2 orders of snow crab, 3 fries and rice. It was rather pricey and we left hungry. I believe I paid about $78.00. I don't think I will be returning here. The customer service was ok but not very friendly. Anyways this one gets checked off my list. :/ read more

Delicious food! Crab, shrimp, corn and Cajun fries .... Yum! Service could be a bit faster.

I love this place...we just moved here a couple months ago and my daughter was in town for a visit and craving crab legs...we looked and yelp and WOW!!!! Best snow crab ever!!! read more

Everything is Greasy but very good. The king crab, the Dungeness crab, the shrimp and some fries. Serves beer and wine. I was a Little concerned about the food being boiled in plastic but the flavors and shellfish goodness outweigh my concern. read more

I commute to work each day only to see the hole in the wall named "the crab bucket" never mustered up the courage to enter the doorway kept watch by the guard named "Jose". Till one faithful day my wife wanted shrimp in a different style she was so accustomed to, we turned into the driveway shared by the other stores; "thunk" went the vehicle as the sidewalk scraped our undercarriage, already off on a fabulous journey. Pulling into our assigned parking location we look around and grunge, this is no place for a restaurant we think to one another. We open the doors and step out with cation, shutting the doors we quickly lock and scurry away to the entrance under the cutesy crustacean. We are watched as we pass the one they call Jose and my wife sits at the first table despite the sign "please wait to be seated" and I don't blame her, the run from the car to the safety of Jose was quite exhausting. We are greeted by a soft "hello, how many?" I reply "three" and follow the waiter to our newly paper rolled table and sit. Taking a glimpse of the bar like atmosphere and grown adults wearing bibs as if they were kings at a feast, not cozy at the least. One star befalls us at this point in time. Waiter comes and provides our eatery, lain before us a solo bib. We order drinks I call out "coke" my wife sings in the voice of a angel "tea", the little one has.... dun dun dun... "apple juice" we wait as the waiter swiftly moves along the floor as if they were the flash and returns to us with our beverages, "are you ready to order?" "Yes" we reply, 2 lbs of shrimp at market value quickly written down and given to the cooks who hastily create our "kawabanga" shrimp. They come, the bags that hold our glorious feast has arrived and plopped down in front of each of us. In advance I unravel the rolls of paper towels that sit beside us. And we are left alone to eat like the animals we are, grab a shrimp and admire their scrumptious juice covered crustacean bodies. Pull off the head and suck out the juices, pure bliss... rip off the legs and quickly remove the exoskeleton to expose the inner meat I so passionately desired, dip the now naked body into the juice filled bag and swiftly popped off the tail while slipping the shrimp into my mouth in one fell swoop. Absolutely fantastic! The bag quickly becomes depleted and our meal finished. Sadness washes over me like a wave as I desperately crave more... we pay and leave as a tear rolls down my face. Till next time my newly made crustacean friend "the crab bucket" I love thee. Scene end fade to black. read more