About.com Rating

The Bottom Line

We sampled four appetizers, one bowl of soup and two entrees at Joe's Crab Shack. Our bill, excluding beverages, tax and tip, came to about $62. Not bad!

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Pros

• Reasonable prices
• Kid friendly

Cons

• Food is nothing to write home about
• Not vegetarian friendly
• Gift shop on premises

Description

• There's a quite large playground in front of the restaurant, and a small arcade on the inside.

• Joe's Crab Shack has a gift shop in the front of the restaurant.
• The decor is comprised of wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-floor knick knacks, watchamacallits, and doodads.
• I hear that in the evenings the music and the servers add to the campy ambience. Not so at lunch.
• Pretty extensive kids menu.
• If you go to Joe's Crab Shack and you don't have a coupon, your AAA card will get you a discount.

Guide Review - Joe's Crab Shack

We stopped at Joe's Crab Shack at Arizona Mills, Tempe, for lunch one day. For appetizers we ordered the Crab and Shrimp Double Dip, Crab Balls, Crab Cake, and Fried Calamari. The Crab Balls and Crab Cake were disappointing. All breading. The Double Dip was good, but somewhat bland. The calamari, even though it was breaded, was the best of the group.

For entrees, we ordered the Snow Crab Legs and Coconut Shrimp Platter and the Broiled Shrimp Combo. As our server suggested, the crab legs at Joe's Crab Shack were small but tasty. I'm not much of a crab legs lover--it's too much work for me.

More than eating them, I enjoy the challenge of trying to get one decent sized bite out of the shell at once. But I digress. The server was right. They were tasty, but the portion, 5 skinny crab legs, was definitely small. The coconut shrimp were lightly battered in a tempura style mixture--good. Unfortunately, the shrimp didn't have much flavor. As far as the broiled seafood was concerned, the crab-stuffed shrimp was the winner on that plate. The Clam Chowder was probably the best choice of everything we ordered.

Joe's Crab Shack place has some cuteness value. The kids will like it, and it might be suitable for a reasonably priced office or family party. But when we are thinking about where we'd like to go to have some fresh seafood, Joe's Crab Shack probably won't be our choice.

_{All prices and discounts subject to change without notice.}

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