Before going to the Angry Crab, some advice: Wear clothes you don’t mind getting messy and bring lots of booze. The new BYOB Cajun-style seafood restaurant gets packed at dinnertime, so track down the server doubling as a host and get your name on the list. You’ll probably need to wait for 30 minutes to an hour, but once you’ve cracked open a beer, it’s not so bad.
Especially because the wait is worth it. The menu is simple, with seafood like clams, crabs, lobsters and shrimp sold by the pound and tossed with your choice of spice—lemon pepper, garlic butter, Cajun or all three mixed together. While the lemon pepper didn’t offer much flavor, the luxurious garlic butter and spunky Cajun spice really complemented the seafood. Then choose a heat level. The second level offered slight spice, but the third made my lips burn, and that’s what I’d get again.
Don’t miss the two-pound Dungeness crabs, which are packed with sweet meat. They’re a mess to eat, and you need to really work at them with crackers. The tender crawfish and plump shrimp were easier to unshell, and we dipped everything in excess garlic butter at the bottom of the plastic bag, which is how the food arrives to the table. There’s not much beyond seafood, though Cajun fries sated our hunger before we ordered, and steamed rice helped quell the spice.
Some post–Angry Crab advice: Take a shower, as my hair smelled like garlic the next day. Gross, yes, but it just reminded me how much I can’t wait to return.
Vitals
Atmosphere: The space features marker drawings all over the walls, nautical decor and TVs tuned to sports. You’re not going for atmosphere.
What to eat: Dungeness crabs ($17.99/lb) and shrimp ($14.99/lb), with garlic butter or Cajun seasoning.
What to drink: Angry Crab is BYOB, and when it comes to spicy seafood, I don’t think you can do better than cheap beer (we brought High Life). Prefer wine? Try a dry Riesling, which will help balance the spice.
Where to sit: You have zero control over this, but if you offer to share space at communal tables, as we did, you’ll be seated sooner.