We come to monterey yearly for my nephews birthday. Mind you, theres 14 people in total. We always go to Bubba Gump. But this year, we were looking for something similar with good pricing. Well, we came here thinking it was going to be at least 150- 200 each family and be enjoyable. Nope, they charged me 205. They charged my sister 245, plus the tip they take out themselves, the food wasnt cooked right, and the next day, we couldn't enjoy the rest of our outtings we had planned due to the FOOD POISONING IT GAVE US ALL. WE will never be COMING HERE AGAIN. WERE STICKING TO BUBBA GUMPS. read more

This review is for Togo only, although I did go in to pick up.. did well on taking order and food came out in a good amount of time. We only ordered fried food: chicken strips, fish and chips, calamari and fries, and sweet potato fries. Everything was good, not exceptional but acceptable. I made sure to tip (15%) We got 2 ketchups and 2 ranch's. Good for fries and chicken, but would have been nice to have some cocktail, tartar sauce and lemons. Gave a ton of ketchup packet, but mostly thrown away.. maybe I should have asked, but I am way more likely to repeat business if corresponding sauces are at least asked about, or just served. read more

Night of 6-4-2021. First and foremost let me just say that the flavor of the every seasoning is amazing. This is why you see my review at 3 stars. This is why I'm so very disappointed that we will never return. We're from out of town. Had to come to Salinas to get our truck we purchased here serviced before our extended warranty expired. So we drove all the way from San Luis Obispo, ended up staying the night and chose this place for dinner. Two things bothered me: 1. The server never explained the menu. Idk if she's just used to not telling people how it is, or doesn't bother. The other servers did the whole, "have you been here before? This is how our menu works... have any questions?" speech but... she failed to mention anything. Not to mention the menu itself isn't too descriptive either. So we just figured it's like any other "crab boil" place we've been to where you choose 1-2 options of seafood and they all come combined in one bag with the sides you choose. i;e potatoes, corn, etc...Obviously per pound blah blah blah. We were SO surprised when she came back with 3 bags for each of us. Crab legs in one bag, shrimp in another and mussels in another. Come to find out each came individually bagged. And Priced! Now all three of us have food for a party of 10 (EACH!!!) The bill came out to just below $200!! *insert angry face emoji here* Not only this but now enter the second thing that bothered me... 2. No attentiveness. Came back twice to check on us. Not because they were busy. There was 4 tables occupied in the entire restaurant. Ours included. No, no. My partner watched her the entire time, bending down.... TEXTING. *insert eye roll emoji here* I tipped $0. On a $190+ bill. I ALWAYS tip. ALWAYS. I even give my partner "the look" because she doesn't like tipping and I think it's so rude not to. But tonight, I didn't even flinch. Just asked for our three GINORMOUS to-go bags (by the way, from another server we had to wave down) and got the $&@! out of there. Also, what's up with the dry a** limes cut thin filet style? read more

I ordered a to go through the phone. And all I can say is, it's overpriced and underweighted. I ordered 1 LBS shrimp and 1 LBS clams. I got home and saw how little the bag of clams are, and literally took out my food scale to weigh it, because of the price I paid for them. I could not believe my eyes. (Photos attached) The shrimps also did not seem like it was a pound (no picture, family got to it before I had a chance.) I compare this to Boiling Crab and Kicking Crab in San Jose, and let me tell you, the shrimps and clams are huge, and they actually give you a pound and then some, plus all the clam meat is still attached to the shell rather than CB's clams is filled with garlic, no meat...I'm just very disappointed for having to spend nearly $35 for these 2 things, and got what I got. So sad.. Next time,I'll just take a trip to San Jose and get my seafood fix there. read more

The Crab Bucket - Yes, I tared the bowl. - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Salinas, California

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I had been craving Crab Bucket for the longest!! I drove in from out of town to visit family and the first thing was stop here! Never disappoints!! The service was good, we got seated quickly and they took our order right away. The beer we had tasted a bit different but other than that the food was amazing! read more

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Absolutely horrible service from the min we walked in. Sit down and this brain dead server cant even figure out how to take our order . Then brings out my drinks drops it all over my phone and me doesn't even say sorry just laughs like it was a joke . Order our food got fries to start they dont even come out tell after were half way though our main food . 10/10 would never go back there. All the servers were rude af . read more

Amazing food! Michelada was the best I've ever had in my life! The sauce was on point! Shrimp were fat as hell and the crab was super fresh. Only reason I gave a point off was because the service wasn't the friendliest but they got the job done. read more

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This place is incredible. I don't know why so many people say the waitresses are rude they were very nice when we came to the restaurant, They took are orders and came out with are food like 15 mins later we ordered very fast service. read more

I had a home delivered cajun snow crab legs and the next day it was cajun king crab legs with side dishes of coleslaw and rice. The bag comes with some lil' packs of condiments, lime slices, and an exposed spoon (i threw this away). The crab legs are packed in a tied transparent plastic bag. I love the cajun flavor! We just had to buy our own shell cracker to use. It's a lil messy and takes alot of work to eat this dish but it's worth it. Great staff! I'd order the same items next time! read more

The Crab Bucket - Snow Crab Legs - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Salinas, California

First off It's loud in here! We were right below the music speakers. You must like hip hop music because that's all they play. We got here at 6.30 on a Friday night. I saw at least 4 open tables. After we were seated a continual flow of people kept coming in. At least 30 in about a half hour. Some people even left because they didn't want to wait. One lady just looked in the door and left. One family of 6 had to wait well over an hour to be seated. It was packed tonight, apparently Friday and Sunday are their busiest nights. So glad we got here before the crowd. Seems everybody complains about the service here. We didn't experience that at all. We walked in and were seated right away got menus and waters right away. All the girls were nice, friendly and welcoming. We told her it was our first time here and she kindly explained how it works here. We ordered our food and got our Cajun fries first. Which were really good. But we had to wait a half hour after that to get our seafood. We only ordered 2 items of seafood, shrimp and craw dads. I was glad we had the fries as an appetizer. I wouldn't get the craw dads again as they were very small. Alot of work for less than a inch long tail. But very tasty. The shrimp were nice and fresh. We'll come back during the week to try other items on the menu. read more

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Very good get for to go they were fast and my order was exactly like I wanted shrimps were big good quality

They have improved since the last time I came in. And I still love the fact if I am craving this type of shrimp I do not need ti drive 1.5 hours to San Jose. What I first noticed as I entered is that there were hardly any people. I came during lunch time around 1pm on a Saturday. I asked them if this is how it is during lunch hours so I can get the insider tip.. who likes to wait for food that they have cravings?! unfortunately it's hit or miss ... but by dinner time around 6pm it is usually packed. Second was a distinct cleaning cleanser odor. But after 10 minut s the odor went away or I just got used to the smell. As always I ordered the the 1 lbs of shrimp kawabunga style. They now have 1/2 of sausage which I also ordered and corn on the cob all in one bag... Yummy! My friend ordered the 1lbs of garlic butter shrimp style but he ended up putting his shrimps in my bag cause mine was tastier.. Oh yeah... We were still hungry after eating all that that we ordered a king crab. It was very juicy and succulent in the kawabunga sauce. They now have hand wipes after you are done with your meal which they did not have before. Also on the board menu I did notice they are offering ranch and cocktail sauce for purchase and noodles... :) Until next time.. read more

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Super sad. I've been going the crab bucket for over a year. Food is good. Service is forgettable. But today, was memorable. My order was missing an item, I politely asked to get a simple replacement. No big deal. Accidents happen. Instead i get an angry, what i am assuming is a manager, tell me they got the order right. That if a crab is missing a piece, it's because thats how they got it from the vender. So a customer needs to accept that, even though they charged customers for a WHOLE crab. I was upset, Crab bucket you lost a long time customer over something so trivial. read more

Wish i could give 0 stars. This was the most upsetting customer service ever. The employees prioritized online and pickup orders over people who had been seated for an hour. I was seated and the waiter took our order. She came back with the drinks 5 minutes later which was great. Then it took an hour and half to get our food. I asked for an update twice and was given no time frame on when it would be ready. Definitely not coming again for a very long time. read more

Very Bad Service , First Time There Didn't Explain Nothing . I Showed Them Picture Of What I Exactly Wanted Didn't Get It , Our Server Was Very Rude No Common Since .. read more

Very expensive and not worth it pay for the small portion of seafood for high price and the food was not really all that good don't bring family unless you want to pay a rent bill here read more

Faster service than O'bag o crab. Food is good. Pricey but good. Worth the money I paid.

I mean ... what can i say... i been around the world and I've tasted seafood boilers of all kinds bbbbbuttt... what stands out the most here is the ambiance , very nice people. The prices are typical and far as the flavors they kick ass... i give them 5 stars because its its nothing that stands out better than freshness.... that's what separates my experiences from one another read more

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Terrible customer service, they refused to give me gloves and plastic bibs for a to go order.

We would eat here frequently when it first opened, was our favorite place to eat and watch the game on Sundays. The music is so loud we can't hear the tv or carry a conversation with our family. The shrimp is not as flavorful as before and has become so crowded and even on slow nights our waitresses never returned. read more

So glad they put a seafood bucket here in Salinas. No more driving long hours just to eat my kawabanga! Kawabanga mild ! read more

This place was a nice surprise! I have no idea how long it's been open, but my dad said he wanted fish for dinner so we came here and it did not disappoint! He had lobster for the first time which was exciting. Everything came out in these double layer bags that you could put the shells in and the inside kept all the juices and seasonings covering everything and the heat it. I have never seen that, at least in person and it was soo good!! Messy, but worth it! Even my son enjoyed it. read more

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they forgot my napkins , forks and ketchup for my fries they were in a hurry to give my food away to me . very unprofessional. y'all need to check and make sure the customer has everything in what they ask . This blonde girl had a attitude with me for no reason y'all need to check your employees . read more

terrible customer service. the waitress was super rude and seemed annoyed the whole time

First time going to the Crab Bucket. I normally go to The BoilingCrab in San Jose, but this place is just as good. It's very small so be prepared to wait to be seated, after ordering the wait time to get our food was over 35min. Staff was friendly and apologetic for the long wait. All in all a pleasant experience. read more

The Crab Bucket - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Salinas, California

This is my first time here. I came from San Jose so my expectations were low. All I can say is WOW. This place is soooo good. Came here on a Friday night. No wait. Winning! We were greeted and seated by the staff. They're super friendly and helpful. S/O Nicky. Okay, let's talk about their food! - Shrimp: Sooooo flavorful and they happened to give us a lot. It wasn't mushy this time. It was cooked perfectly but could've been prepped with less salt! - cajun fries & chicken: ehhh it was okay. I wouldn't recommend their wings but their fries were edible. HOWEVER, everything was TOOOO SALTY!!! ( I LOVE SALT) but it was too much for my liking. SPICE LEVEL: I got wild(the hottest) and it wasn't spicy AT ALL. read more

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I used to love love this place. Lately it hasn't been great. The flavors are still there but the quality is not. The shrimp stick to the shell and are soft not firm, the flavor is old, like I'd they reheat them or over cook them, I'm not sure. This has happened the last 4-5 times we've ordered food from here. I thought long about this posting this, but enough is enough. For the amount of money that we pay, we should be receiving only quality food. I'm not sure that I'll be back again, but if I do I will gladly change my review. Let's hope it gets better. read more

WE USED TO BE FREQUENT CUSTOMERS. AT TIMES UP TO 3-4 TIMES A WEEK!!!!! UPDATE: Dined in on Tues night 1/22; called before driving over (5 min) to make sure it was still okay to dine in. Guy said yes. We were the only ones there. It felt like we were a bother and they wanted to leave. Our food was rushed and thery threw both orders in one bag. Sooo upsetting since we were frequent customers. Gave it another shot today; Thurs 1/31 (this time we arrived with plenty of time). Who ever cracked the oysters open did such a HORRIBLE job that there were very hard to enjoy with broken shell all over the oysters. We couldn't quite make out what had changed since we asked... They decided to change the recipe 2 months ago. BIG MISTAKE!!!!! FIRST REVIEW: Love the Shrimp - Kawabanga Wild! Oysters are the best in town (when in season). Wings weren't good. Cajun fries with ketchup, tapatío and lime; mmm, mmm, mmm to die for! Service needs improvement; it's a hit 'n' miss. Some are great. Others slack off a little and don't pay too much attention to their tables. But we come back for that shrimp!!! read more

If you love crawdaddy's and the kickin crab then this is NOT the place for you. I am a huge fan of Cajun food and we were so excited to try this place on my husbands birthday last month. We spent over $120 in food to go! When we arrived to the house which was literally 4 mins away we started eating. A few things we noticed. The flavor was bland on most items. We ordered super spicy and it wasn't even spicy. The Cajun fries were way over salted, and to top it off the shrimp was way over cooked, super gummy. Everything felt very generic. We were so disappointed I called the place and explained the situation and was hoping for either a refund or if we could have the order remade since we didn't touch much of it. She simply said "oh it's because when you take it to go the bag is closed so the shrimps keep cooking" So what's the solution? She said she would let the cook know. I guess this isn't the food to take to go but the flavors were off, I guess we are just used to better service elsewhere. I am a small business owner and I would have expected more of a solution rather then excuses. I would have even agreed to half my money back since we ate about only 1/3 of our food. But either way good luck to them during COVID and I hope this review helps them succeed in the future and make it right with future customers. read more

So today I ordered crab bucket and when I came home I saw the lemons looked used. The shrimp themselves were also not good, previous times they come well done but this time they lacked flavor and were watery. Very disappointed. Will not be coming here again read more

The Crab Bucket - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Salinas, California

I've been to this place once and that was enough I thought the prices were inflated and the food was okay. I think this place might be overrated but I was looking at some of the reviews and they're not too many good ones. I think the way they have the food price is kind of tricky you got to watch what you buy because when you get their bills going to be extra high. I hope this review will help people that are thinking about going to this restaurant. It's always good to read the reviews before you go to a place. read more

4 pieces of crab legs, with a gallon of so called flavor but instead I got flavored oil for $60. Too expensive, and messy definitely not worth it. read more

You can get more for less in Louisiana! Far too overpriced for what you get. The fries are indescribably awful and the seasoning is overly salty and weirdly flavored. The price was a complete shocker compared to the quality. Do yourself a favor and don't waste your money. Staff was nice, place was completely empty when we came (there were 4 of us) and two of the people in our party had their dinner served roughly 25 mins before ours even came out, which made for a long wait as they were done long before we had started eating. read more

Finally, a creole/cajun shrimp & crab joint in Salinas! If you're familiar with the famous Boiling Crab or Kickin' Crab in the San Jose area, then this place is the Salinas version! Medium spicy was probably equivalent to a mild in the other establishment I've been at. The sauce was good but can be salty. The rice ran out and had to wait 20 mins for the rice to cook, so i cancelled the rice. But definitely have the rice with the sauce to balance out the flavors. I guess since they just opened as The Crab Bucket, they got so busy fast and the servers looked a bit overwhelmed! Time to hire more people since this place is the next big thing in Salinas! read more

The Crab Bucket - kawa banga! - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Salinas, California

Flying Chicken is now The Crab Bucket aka similar to San Jose's Boiling Crab, Crawdaddy, The Kicking Crab, etc etc that type of joint. Overall nice dining area, just opened as of being The Crab Bucket so it's actually busy there right now with only 2 waitresses. We didn't have a long wait because we came around 5:30 after 6:30-7 it got crazy busy! Everything taste fine, got the Kawa-Banga which is basically all the spices together. I usually always gets mild at Boiling Crab and think that's spicy... But mild here wasn't spicy at all, so if you want spicy kick it up a notch or two. Prices are the usual for seafood places like this, but their shrimp is a dollar more per pound compared to places else where. Also, me and my family thought we got more out of a pound elsewhere "we've eaten at boiling crab plenty of times.".. Here it seamed like we got less for a pound, so we ordered more. Shrimps- Good Clams- We loved! Crab- Good, but pricey... Varies Corn- Good when mixed in w/the sauce Lemon Pepper Fries- Okay, bit salty Service- Fast & Good but we were there before it got busy If you never been here before or ate at places like this be prepared to get your food served in a bag, eat on the table, eat with your hands, and have smelly fishy stinky hands! read more

The Crab Bucket - The Kawa-Banga!!! - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Salinas, California

The Crab Bucket is the best idea to bring to Salinas. I love the Boiling Crab from San Jose and this is just the same! My friend Vanessa and I walked in, but the first downfall was the wait. Once we actually sat down our waitress "Michelle" was just delightful. Her customer service was just great! As my friend Vanessa and I enjoyed our own order of a pound of shrimp kawa-bunga style and an extra pound of sausage mild we did notice it wasn't as hot as expected. Next time I might have to go a bit spicier :) we also ordered Cajun and lemon pepper fries. I would recommend the Cajun fires over the lemon pepper fries simply because they had more flavor. This place is my new favorite since I'm a huge seafood lover. You can't go wrong with this place. I only wish this place the best. read more

The Crab Bucket - 1 pound of shrimp and a pound of sausage! It was delicious but I think I might go a bit hotter next time! - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Salinas, California

This place is the bomb.com! The girls are all friendly, looks like they love thier job wich in turn makes for great service and an even better experience. We ordered some oysters (fresh raw goodness) nice size to them but as a Mexicano I was like wheres the Tapatio? Also got some shrimp, uuuf suck suck slurp slurp... Soo good Kawa-Bunga. Finally tried Crawfish; fun to play with. Tasty little suckers but not much meat to them. Id still order them again. Overall a great dining experience. Only flaw I would say is the wait. An hour from the moment we sat down to the moment they brought us our food. But once the food hits the table the hour long wait goes out the door and your tastebuds take over... Worth the wait and the price was cheaper than I would have imagined it to be. 50 bucks for 1lb of shrimp 1lb of crawfish 1/2 doz raw oysters some cajun fries and two 805's read more

The Crab Bucket - Little critters. Crawfish! Not much meat but fun to play with. - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Salinas, California

This is one of the only places in town for crab/seafood so I can see the demand and desire to want to come here, but the service is horrible! The place can be cleaner And it took 45 minutes before anyone came to check on us and take our order! It sucks because we were hungry and it was close to closing! The food was ok, they make it to your desire of spice, we also ordered some pasta, it was ok, prices are a little up there but it's expected for seafood, def not better then boiling crab! read more

5 stars for food alone, but the service... WOW it was so bad. 4 stars wouldn't even be fair. When we got there, we only had to wait like 5 minutes, but when we left, OMG you should have seen the line. There was literally a crowd of 12-15 people standing outside. That might not sound too crazy, but it's not a big storefront so I had to elbow my way out. The prices are very comparable to that of Boiling Crab -- $12/lb for shrimp, $11/lb for crawfish, $12/lb for green mussels. My boyfriend and I got a pound of each of those, plus Cajun fries and our bill came out to $42. So prices and food are fantastic, but the service... After we were seated, someone came to take our drink order and then just walked away. She brought our drinks, and we said we were ready to order but she was like "hold on" and left, and didn't come back for a while. It took 30 min for our Cajun fries to come out, and then another 20 for our actual food. No one ever checked up on us, until we flagged them down for water and the check. The staff just seems really inexperienced and were very inattentive. This isn't the place to come for a quick meal, but their food IS very good and their prices are fair. read more

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Wil mess up your order then gaslight it was your fault. I do recommend you eat somewhere else. The food is not worth it.