The Boiling Crab

Promotions Group Orders on Postmates | Eater

"The chain can be found everywhere from San Jose to Saudi Arabia, but Southern California was the birthplace of the Cajun boil favorite. Lay out some newspaper — well, find a newspaper, buy it, and then lay it out — on a tabletop and empty a couple of orders of shrimp, crawfish, mussels, and accoutrements like corn and sausage onto it for a backyard boil of your own." - Robert Spuhler

How the Boiling Crab Transformed Southern California’s Kickin’ Seafood Boil Scene | Eater LA

"On a Friday afternoon outside the Boiling Crab in Los Angeles’s Koreatown, about 20 people line up before the restaurant’s 3 p.m. opening — high schoolers with backpacks, baby-toting families, and couples all eager for the chain’s dripping red, Louisiana Cajun–influenced seafood boils. Inside, weathered nautical decor (ropes around wooden beams, prop sharks, and glowing sports TVs) and butcher-paper–draped expandable tables set a loud, communal tone; servers hand out bibs and gloves so diners can unpack messy plastic bags of piping-hot crawfish, lobster, king crab, and unpeeled shrimp, plus add-ons like corn cobs, smoked pork and beef sausage links, and red potato wedges, all drowned in a bright red, garlicky, spicy sauce. Their method veers from traditional Cajun boils — instead of smothering strained seafood with garlic butter on newspaper, The Boiling Crab coats ingredients in a bag with a garlicky, spicy chile sauce that can reach tremendous heat; sauces are customizable (Rajun Cajun, lemon pepper inspired by the Vietnamese muối tiêu chanh dip, and garlic butter), and most diners opt for “The Whole Sha-Bang,” a blend of all three, with heat levels ranging up to an XXX “I can’t feel my mouth!” intensity. Founded in 2004 in a Garden Grove strip mall by Vietnamese American couple Dada Ngo and Sinh Nguyen — whose love story began after meeting in Seadrift, Texas — the restaurant tripled its original space, expanded into a roughly 30-location chain employing over 2,000 people, and helped spark a wider Viet-Cajun seafood-boil boom while the owners still insist they’re a Louisiana-inspired Cajun boil rather than strictly Viet-Cajun. Beyond the food, the place thrives on a sense of community: long-tenured, enthusiastic staff, devoted regulars who visit hundreds of times, and a messy, show-off, celebratory atmosphere that many say copycat restaurants can’t quite replicate." - Jean Trinh

What to Eat in LA’s Koreatown Besides Korean Food | Eater LA

"The lines are long at Boiling Crab but the experience inside is well worth it. The restaurant was opened by a Vietnamese family that hails from coastal Texas, and their hybrid of Asian and Southern flavors will give you a spin. First, choose from 10 types of seafood (lobster, shrimp, etc.) which you order by the pound along with level of spiciness you want. The fruits of the sea are then cooked in a spice-heavy sauce and served to you hot and messy in a bag. Spicy here really means spicy, but the beer flows freely enough to wash down your three-pound bag of crawfish." - Oren Peleg

14 Best Keto-Friendly Restaurants in Los Angeles | Eater LA

"For all five people in Los Angeles who haven’t heard of The Boiling Crab, this Cajun seafood boil restaurant takes various shelled seafood (crawfish, shrimp, various types of crab) and tosses them in a sauce of the diner’s choosing. Lines at the Koreatown location get a bit out of control on the weekends, but fans of the garlicky crawfish eagerly brave the wait." - Euno Lee

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