Hawaii's Crab in a Bag trend

i've always seen ads on cable tv for Joe's Crab Shack. it sounds so cool to have a bucket of seafood brought to your table where you pour it out & go at it! bare hands & a plastic bib to protect your shirt are all you need. i'm happy to say that Hawaii finally got similar concept restaurants started here.

our first taste of this messy deliciousness was at Crab City for dinner. we did hear the wait can be long (over 1 hour) and parking sucks. it's affiliated with JJ's french bistro. we found street parking a couple blocks away & our wait time was about 35 minutes. since we were there within the grand opening period, it was BYOB. i think they've since obtained their liquor license. they offer seafood by the pound (snow crab, king crab, shrimp, clams, mussels, lobster etc) or you can order a combo. three of us were dining so we went for the combo bag which included crawfish, shrimp, clams, mussels, potato, corn cobettes, sausage with snow crab (they also offer it with dungeness or king crab). we were also able to choose our seasoning in different heat levels. we went with the garlic butter medium heat. it was tasty! we also tried a side of sausage, chowder, fried oysters. the best part was we could buy french bread (i'm assuming it's from JJ's) to sop up all the sauce. OMG!!! so yummy!!! we didn't know that the side of sausage could also be seasoned anyway you want. the server brought it with cajun medium seasoning on it just so we could try it. wow!! that was good stuff too. i think we ate two french rolls each just scooping up all the sauce. MMMM!!!

side sausage with cajun seasoning medium. definite re-order next time.

our combo bag with garlic butter medium seasoning. oh yeah, we also loved the simple seasoning of salt & fresh lime juice to dip the seafood in. who knew something so simple would be so tasty?!


my next try at crab in bag was at Ragin' Crab on Keeaumoku for Tammy's birthday. it was a mix of people so some had their own bag & another who doesn't eat seafood just went with chicken wings. sadly, they didn't offer bread as a starch option. one of my friends was fine with that because she dumped her bowl of rice into her bag & ate it from there. haha! the combo i shared with the birthday girl was with dungeness, clams, mussels, shrimp etc. the seasoning was on the mild side for me. it was good to experience & compare.

birthday girl ready to attack some crab.

the victim & the victor. we did have to wait a little for a table & it was packed & of course parking was not easy to find in that area.


we heard that Willows opened their own crab place so we went to check it out. it's Karai Crab next to Willows & you can park in the same lot. we went on a weeknight so it wasn't busy at all! yay! actually we were the only people in the restaurant. we went with another combo snow crab, mussels, shrimp, kukui sausage, potatoes, clams & crawfish with their Karai Special seasoning (combo of cajun & garlic butter) medium heat level. we had to try their garlic bread & bacon jalapeno cornbread. i think we also had fried catfish & fries. what's different was the seafood came in a bowl, not a bag. i didn't feel we had enough sauce.

 cute bib! they also had temporary tattoos.

mmmm! that was some yummy garlic bread! yes, that's butter melting off of it.

 fried catfish with a yummy remoulade & fries.

our combo with snow crab, but where's the sauce?? bacon jalapeno cornbread on the side. it was ok there. glad we didn't have to wait. best thing: garlic bread, everything else was meh.

the latest crab place opened in my hood! hooray! Cajun King is in Waimalu Shopping Center across from Best Buy on Kamehameha Highway. we had to try it! parking in that shopping center can be a pain. there's lots of restaurants so it gets very crowded. we went early & luckily found parking without hassles. it wasn't too busy yet, so we were seated immediately. we were set on a combo, but couldn't decide on the seasoning. my mom can't handle spicy but my sis & i wanted at least medium. the server suggested we get the combo with mild heat & a side of the medium heat sauce. yay! problem solved. we also ordered an extra side of sausage. what makes this crab place different from others is that they offer seafood chinese style. like salt & pepper shrimp or lobster and black bean clams or scallops. cool. we tried the black bean clams. very tasty!!! sadly, they only serve rice or fries, no bread. i wonder if we could bring our own??

 our tools of mass destruction.

combo with snow crab, shrimp, crawfish, clams, mussels, potatoes, corn & sausage with cajun/garlic butter seasoning mild heat.

black bean clams! 

a mussel from the combo bag dipped in the side of cajun/garlic butter seasoning medium heat. wow! so yummy!!! we dipped everything in that sauce! sausages, potatoes, clams were taken to the next level with this sauce. we even took home the leftover sauce. the next day i cooked up some gouveia portuguese sausage & poured the leftover sauce into the pan to coat the sausages. OMG!!! so so good!!! i wonder if i can just keep buying the sauce for myself?? ok the other weird thing was that they serve rice but no utensils. the man on the table next to us cavemanned it by scooping it out of the bowl with his hand and shoveling it into his mouth. ack! being a group of three ladies, we had to find a better way. my sis scooped out a bite size portion & shaped it into a rice ball that she popped into her mouth. haha! classy! they're also supposed to have lunch specials here, but we haven't checked that out yet.


we've not gone back to any of these crab places for a re-try. but i would like to go back to Crab City most of all. i want to try their cajun medium in a combo bag with lots of french bread for dipping. if Cajun King let us bring our own bread to dip, they'd be on the re-try list fo'sure.