Crafty Crab in Lakeland - Phone Number, Reservations, Reviews

This is a unique restaurant although it reminded me of the kind of place I used to make a lot of arrests in when I was in Law Enforcement as it's very dark inside. There is a large Liquor Bar that is centrally located. Our Server, Terri, was very helpful in explaining and serving our meals. The Menu is very interesting but don't fear the prices because you can have a reasonable price meal in spite of the otherwise unique "Cajun Style BOIL" offerings which involve ending with your meal choice being presented in a "clear type of balloon". You can "make your own combo" choice of the intensity of the spice package before the boil so you don't have to possibly suffer with something too intense. My granddaughter thoroughly enjoyed her half-pound choice of the crab legs. I chose the Fried Oysters 12 piece meal, with onion rings, which was great. We will definitely be back to try additional offerings. Remember: TIP you Wait STAFF or STAY HOME!!

We decided to eat at Crafty Crab for my friends birthday. Desiree was our server. She was amazing. She treated us like family. The food was wonderful. We will definitely go back! Thank you Desiree for being so sweet and kind!

Our waiter Tyler couldn't have been more perfect. He was kind and attentive without being overbearing. All the food in our party was excellent. I highly recommend & hope I get Tyler on my next visit.

This review is in regard to my DoorDash order. This place is absolutely wonderful! So many options and when I got my order the sauce combo, freshness, with level of heat was amazing. I tried to call and tell them how much I loved everything but there was a language barrier 🥲

Yummy!!!! Best seasoning out of all the new crab places around. I want to thank Neph for always making my experiences very unforgettable. She starts making my favorite drink as soon as I walk thru the doors and remembers exactly how I like it. Her attention and kind approach always complements the meal and makes me feel like a valued guest.

my food wasn't season well. they put only a little. the crab legs we're bland

I never leave reviews but, today I am. I’ve been a customer of crafty since they opened. The business has been rocky. There is no consistency in the food portions or sauce. But my server nef is the best! I won’t even dine in if she isn’t in the restaurant. She works everyday but Tuesdays (FYI) I’m telling you this girl can do it all. She will make sure you are satisfied each and every time despite the restaurants shortcomings. She treats everyone as if she’s known them for years (some of us she has). You sit at the bar with her and she’s making your drink as soon as you step foot in the door. Her memory is sharpe. Haven’t seen her in some time and she remembered my whole order the girl is good. Was good to see her last night. We love Nef! You deserve a raise! Ps Wednesday she always plays the best music! 90s RNB it’s a vibe. I want her playlist! Check her out.

Late lunch.. clean quick and good...

My LORD it's so nice in here so peaceful good eating and drinking

I just want to give an extra shout out to the manager Neph. Incredible service, attentive, and an all around a blast to be around! Despite the rudeness and uncomfortable vibes of some of the others, I would continue to come back JUST for neph's upbeat spirit, and all around fantastic service

1st of all Princess was a absolute joy, even though quite busy going tables and back & forth she was wasalways pleasant and we were well taken care a smile. Now the food was just ok. The Kitchen made several mistakes on the food QUALITY and again on the quantity. Sauce was perfect but the blue crabs were over cooked to point barely no lump meat just looked like chopped tuna. After 2 returns I gave up. Lastly. The Music in right rear seating is too loud can barely have a conversation because you can not hear person at your table. (Granted there is a bar there but speaker in corner may need to be tuned down.) Overall my friend swears this is usually a good place just not Tonight.

Tyler made my dining experience a great one, food came out quick and he made sure we didn't feel rushed to order. He saw me struggling with my crab and brought out utensils for such without me needing to ask. The food was better than I expected and the prices reflected the quantity and quality of the food I will definitely come back if the time ever comes.

This place has been consistent on every visit😃😋! I enjoy visiting the location in Lakeland

Recently ate dinner at Crafty Crab. I ordered catfish with sweet potato fries. I also ordered the coconut shrimp appetizer. My guest ordered a seafood boil. The boil included green mussels, shrimp, potatoes, eggs, and corn. Everything tasted good and enjoyed the entire experience.

Very nice place to relax and eat great food..

The best waitress is Miss Princess

This was my first time, but will not be my last!! Excellent food, wait staff was awesome and the prices were great! Loved everything.

Bidenomics has made its way here. We used to go here 3-4 times a week. Last night- Less crabs, less shrimp and less sausage. I mentioned it to the waitress who told the manager. I was expecting the manager to come over to justify this, he didn't even try. That's how I know its true.

Shrimp Boil with Andouille Sausage is the Best !!

Food was well seasoned and tasted very good. Although it was mothers day and the back tables were still empty, service should have been on point. They had orders backed up. Their mothers day special is recommended.

Charisma was angelic. She took care of all our needs...... amazing If we were not happy with something, she took care of it and had something else out right away. They had everything you needed, even hand gloves in condom rappers.. 😆 It's definitely an experience. Best cajun seafood I have had since New Orleans. More to come....

Not bad. The menu was confusing but we were able to figure it out. The waitress was pushy and came by every 2 minutes it seemed to get our order, then when we got our food, came before we had even gotten the bag open (which was a mission itself). The snow crab was good. Not a fan of their signature seasoning. Hush puppies were good and crunchy. Potatoes were not cooked all the way, too salty of sausage and soggy corn. Heard a lot about this place, so we were hopeful. But we won't be back.

Very fun experience, seafood was great tasting. We will happily return here tho I my skip the raw oysters next time as they weren't the best

We come here specifically because the manager/owner Daniel is absolutely amazing!!! We have been coming faithfully for the last 2yrs because of Daniel

The crawfish were a little on the small side however it was very tasty and the service was very quick and attentive. Unfortunately one of the servers had a problem with management and she began a shooting match until she was ultimately fired. While it was entertaining, it took away from my dining experience.

So a few things to say, Food was very tasty service by princess was also excellent. On the downside i seen how the manager everyone was calling him danny or daniel was very rude and disrespectful to his staff, me and my girlfriend also witnessed him fire one of his employees tonight for reasons unknown. Overall the food and service was great, as for the management the manager seems very rude and not too nice to his staff.

10 out of 10 for sure the best seafood that I've ever had!

Crafty Crab is an excellent restaurant with outstanding service. Kayla went above and beyond to assist me during my visit, answering all of my questions and ensuring I had a wonderful experience. I highly commend Kayla for her exceptional customer service. I did get word she no longer works there, as I seen her manager Daniel bashing and shaming her in front of the entire restaurant. Pitiful excuse for a manager, and can say I will no longer be back. His utter disrespect to his employee alone has made me want to never go back. I wish Kayla luck in all her future endeavors!

Everything was great but the manager Daniel is super rude!!! Mean hateful nasty I will not be returning 👎 He was in there acting a fool! Ruined the whole experience

Came in and Daniel helped me he was rude hateful. The food was nasty! Talked to me awful! Will never ever be back to a crafty crabs again!

Service is always with a smile, go there often enough you'll recognize some of the patrons so the food must be good, we all keep coming back

The food was fresh and I enjoyed my experience there

Love love love this place ( Crafty Crab ). Went there with family a few times, we always get the sea food platter, the potatoes, the corn, the crab.... yum yum 😋 if only they weren't so expensive, but indulging once in a while is good with me 😊.

The waitress was friendly and attentive

Hands down my favorite in lakeland

Great food at good prices. Was not busy and we got a table immediately. Pleasantly surprised with the kick on the mild spice level. Really wish there had been a more diverse dessert menu - even a brownie & ice cream or chocolate cake would have been perfect.

Great service and food. I really like the decorations and vibe as well. Pricing was good, better on some items than others compared to similar places we have been lately, but good overall. Recommended!!

The music was too loud. Clean place staff friendly. Service was fast and quality of the food awesome. The prices are very good 👍

First time eating here. Good was amazing. Service fantastic. It's a expensive as any other crab restaurant and worth every penny. GO! You won't be disappointed.

Worst service I've been here before but this time the service was so bad the food was nasty it wasn't even crowded and our waitress she forgot about us

I had the seafood boil. Crab sausage headless shrimp corn on the cob potatoes with the boom seasoning. It was awesome

I was pleasantly surprised as this place is in a retail setting. Service not that great, but foid was spot on.

Bag was scrawny with barely any sauce and the crab was over cooked

Food was good but what made the visit amazing was Nef! She’s the best manager I’ve met. She was very professional, friendly, and relatable. I will be back just because of the experience she brought. She made sure our drinks were perfect, our food hot and fresh, and the environment very familiar. Despite the surrounding uncomfortable environment the other servers provided, she made the effort to redeem our visit. 10/10 will visit here again. Ask for Nef!!

Food was great and our waiter Kayla was superb. Will be coming back soon.

Surprised once we walked in. Service was very good we had Kayla for a server. I had the fried shrimp...excellent! My wife had boiled bag. She loved it! Oh ya had the crab ragoon too... wicked good...

The service and food was good. I ordered the oysters platter and it was seasoned perfectly. They also give Vets a discount. Not too many places do so that's definitely a plus. I definitely will be going back again.

Got food poisoning from this location after having the hush puppies and shrimp seafood boil bag.

Wife and I went this evening (1-22-24) in celebration of her birthday. Exterior of store isn’t particularly inviting, but it didn’t stop us from going in, and we were so glad we did. We were seated immediately and our server, Kayla, got our drinks out quickly. She was an awesome server, answering our questions and making her personal recommendations when we asked. We ordered the lobster special which came 1 tail, half pound shrimp, half pound snow crab legs, 2 potatoes and 2 corn cobs. We added an order of hush puppies. EVERYTHING was delicious!! The shrimp were extra large and the crab legs were meaty, sweet and without of a fishy taste. The garlic butter was a pleasant surprise. I highly recommend this restaurant and count yourself lucky if Kayla is your server.

Delicious, definitely one of our favorite places to have great food and enjoy time together, our food was so good and the drinks were good too. We can wait to go back again.

Out of all the seafood establishments I've tried this by far is the absolute best! Amazing staff, fast and friendly service.

Besides the loud female workers who make it unpleasantly noisy, the foods amazing and the manager is great. Would come again.

second time coming and just as good as the first time. the food is delicious. clean fast cheap seafood. the boom sauce is so amazing.

I had the pleasure of having Tyler as our server. He was pleasant and attentive, excellent customer service!!! Will definitely recommend this establishment.

Big oysters we had the large platter big shrimp large clams food was sensational

The menu leaves somethings to be desired

If you want great seafood this is the place. No big box restaurant dinners, all fresh and delicious.

It was my husband and I's first time in, and it won't be our last. Princess waited on us and was wonderful the whole time. My husband and I got a half pound each of headless shrimp and snow crab legs, then added on a half pound of andouille sausage, and everything was delicious.

Great food, fast service and good atmosphere

Told my daughter we could go out to eat to celebrate 🎉 her starting massage 💆 school 🚸. She wanted to go to Crafty Crab 🦀. It's her favorite place. It was my first time and I was not disappointed. I wish I had more than 2 thumbs.👍

If you like seafood boils, this is definitely in my top three across the whole state. I had the no head shrimp with their boom sauce and medium heat and it was fantastic. Also, I’m always pulling a large trailer for work and the parking here is very convenient, plenty of room to park a truck and trailer.

The food here was AMAZING and on top of that the staff are really nice I just had a really good time here so if you like seafood visit here NOW

I had a good time the food was perfect the service pleasant and the waiters were friendly there was a very nice waitress I should have asked her for her number 🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭

We went here for the first time after stopping by the Lakeland Mall one evening. We had never been to one of these boil-in-bag places, and thought we would give it a try. I'm so glad we did because everything was delicious, and pretty well-priced. We ended up sharing a bag with a pound of dungeness crab legs and a half pound of shrimp. It also came with sausage, potatoes and corn. We added a bag of clams as well. For the crab/shrimp bag we got the garlic butter and the Cajun seasoning and for the clams we just got the garlic butter. The seasoning were phenomenal. And while all of the seafood was tasty and cooked perfectly, the sausage was a surprise hit of the evening. We will definitely be back and next time we plan on ordering a non-boil side item like french fries to go with it, just to get us a different taste to break things up with. Overall great food. What we ordered was plenty for 2 adults who can eat a lot of seafood. Only negative was that our server was super slow when it came to refilling out water, and with the seasoning we definitely could have used a refill mid-way through. Edited to add: we went back a second time and the service was much better.

You can spend 150 dollars on one order of seafood boil and they will still make you pay for a foil pan. Smh

CRAB BAGS!!!! Totally worth getting messy for a good crab bag. Always great servers and nice theme inside

This place is incredible 😋😋 Food was well made and with a lot of flavor 😋 👌 Recommended 💯 %

Service and flavor are way better than competitors.

Food was great but the waitress was horrible we never got any refills at all ordered over 100 dollars worth of sea food and got the most terrible service this place could be 5 stars if they got better servers! They don’t come to the table and ask if we need anything took us forever to pay the bill got tired of waiting so we walked to the front and paid…

The food was really good. The service was horrible and the atmosphere was unwelcoming. Almost seemed in their way.

Food was okay the flavor was bland and the potato's where a little under done service was good didn't care for the music but it wasn't loud or anything just not my preference and don't fault them for that I'll probably go back because it is closer to home then other places

Our waiter was amazing!!! Love this place!!!

If you love crab, This is the best crab I’ve ever eaten. Nice servers, they know what they’re doing. Great sides too.

Dinner party of 8 tonight, Kayla was our server. This lady took GREAT care of us. Way better than the last time when our party was only 3. No one ever wanted for anything, she was on top of it all even though she had a few other tables at the same time. Food was great and service was impressive. Thank you Kayla for making my wife’s birthday meal a great time!!!

I recently dined at Crafty Crab and I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of food and service. The seafood was fresh and cooked to perfection, and the portion sizes were generous. The staff was friendly and attentive, making my dining experience even more enjoyable. I would highly recommend Crafty Crab to anyone looking for delicious seafood in a comfortable and welcoming atmosphere.