It’s
not very often that my girlfriend and I get out to Rochester; so after working
a charity event for my cousin on Saturday afternoon in nearby Pittsford, I
promised to take her to Joe’s Crab Shack.
We had seen the commercials and after realizing that the restaurants
were not solely on the coast (who knew a coastal
destination wasn't required for "fresh" seafood) it seemed like fates had aligned for us to sample some of our
favorite cuisine.
We
arrived without a reservation at around 7:15.
We were told (and accurately so) that there would be a twenty-five to
thirty minute wait for a table for two (despite there being three open tables
right behind the hostess station (tables that remained open throughout the
evening). After the thirty minute wait,
we were seated at a table, in what might be the loudest restaurant I have ever
been in. The music was blaring, which
forced the people to speak loudly just to be heard. I understand having some music in the
background, but this was ridiculous. We
were greeted with not only a book of specials, but also a large menu (over four
pages packed full of dishes). It seemed
relatively unnecessary in my mind to have that many options on the menu when
your specialty is seafood, but I’m no restaurant owner so what do I know. Our server, Jaymie (I shit you not, that’s
how she spelled her name, and Microsoft Word’s spell-checker program is going
to have a heart attack if I keep using it) was very helpful in picking out the
dishes, offering us time to look on our own and even a helpful suggestion (the
Cajun steam pot has better crab and more flavor) before taking our order. We ordered an appetizer and a steam pot each.
The
appetizer arrived shortly after, one of their seasonal platters containing a
cheesy crab dip, homemade fried clam strips and what basically amounted to
seafood salsa. As the server (not
Jaymie) placed our plate down, she mentioned that they had dropped some of our
clam strips on the floor, but no worry, they were putting more in. Great.
I understand accidents happen, and they were being proactive by not only
putting more in, but also telling us instead of having us wonder why there were
so few clam strips on the plate. The
appetizer was garnished with tortilla chips for dipping in both the crab dip
and seafood salsa. Our chips were mere
crumbs however, like the kind you find when someone sits on the bag, even
though ours seemed fresh which was doubly unforgivable. Eventually, Jaymie came over to check on us
and brought more chips because she didn’t like the look of the ones we got (of
course she brought them after the dips were eaten). Throughout the appetizer and on through the
entrée, we saw neither hide nor hair of our remaining clam strips.
When
Jaymie dropped off the non-destroyed tortilla chips, she mentioned that our
food should be coming right out. Ten
minutes later, instead of dinner, we were treated to a show as every server in
the restaurant began to start a choreographed dance. At that point, I determined that if I was
ever a server at an establishment such as this, I would promptly shoot myself
in the face. Ten minutes after the show
(and about fifteen minutes after we were told it would arrive), our food made
its way to our table. My girlfriend
received the Cajun steam pot and I received one that prominently featured Old
Bay Seasoning and had more shellfish than hers (though the official name of it
escapes me). Each came with a sausage,
an ear of corn, and potatoes. The
seasoning on mine (and hers as well, was only prominent on the one side of corn
that was facing up when they sprinkled it on the pot. Other than that, each component in the pot
tasted just like the steamed version of the seafood, not special in any way, as
their name ad description on the menu would lead you to believe. The Cajun pot might have tasted a little bit
more Cajun-y, but the cooks forgot to put the sauce on it (which Jaymie brought
out and gave to my girlfriend on the side).
Aside from that, it was just a pot of steamed seafood, with a generic
sausage and bland potatoes and corn. The
seafood was tasty, but it’s hard to screw up steamed seafood, except that half
of my clams were not open when I got my pot.
We
finished our meals and were ready to go, just waiting on our check, but Jaymie
was nowhere to be found. She had dropped
off our meals, refilled our waters and that was the last we saw of her until my
girlfriend went to the bathroom and Jaymie was in there talking on her cell
phone (obviously out of the eye of her supervisors). Not long after that, Jaymie delivered our
check, we paid and left.
Verdict:
The
food was tasty but nothing special, especially for the price. The appetizer was actually very good, but the
fact that half our clam strips were on the floor and our chips were crumbs made
it a less than desirable dish. The
standards in that restaurant in terms of food quality are obviously pretty low. For the same price we paid for two steam
pots, we could probably do the same thing at home, if not more, especially
since their “seasonings” were only superficial.
The service started out okay and slowly devolved into somewhere between
negligence and rudeness. The
choreographed dancing was ridiculous and lent itself to a general air of
carelessness. The atmosphere in general,
while lively and colorful, was too much of each and way too in-your-face to be
an adequate dining venue. This may be a
decent place for a special event like a birthday or something, but for two
people going out to eat, I would steer clear.
Joe’s Crab Shack, by far, fails to live up to the expectations, and
there’s a very good chance we won’t be dining here again anytime in the future.
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