Crab Fever - San Diego, National City CA

When you're ready for a seafood boil, Crab Fever is a local go-to spot! It was a piece of Southern Louisiana style food that I love to eat. You can get messy or use the gloves they provide. A bib is necessary for all those juicy goodness if you enjoy that! Crab legs/Corn/Sausage or shrimp are my favorite.

Really love this place. The food is delicious. Our favorite go-to seafood boil. Unfortunately there is a new policy where 18% tip will be applied to all dine in orders. Usually this applies to parties of 6 or more. I like to tip. But it should never be mandatory. It’s all based on how good the service is. Will not be dining here again.

We faithfully visit Crab Fever, today for the first time they now have a REQUIRED 18% added to EVERY dine in bill, regardless of the service. That’s ridiculous! TIPS should be at your own discretion based on service. I will never return to this establishment!

The service was excellent. Which should be expected for the included 18%. I had the oysters ($4/11?), cajun frys ($7) and club soda ($3). My total was $24+ (including service fee)
I like the presentation of the oysters, how ever this didn't help improve the quality/freshness of the oysters which for being near the bay should have been better. Apparently, the are from Wa and not local. Which I found odd. The cajun fries didn't fit the bill. They taste like from frozen seasoned fries. Also charging $3 for club soda seemed excessive. Very disappointing. As, for the service charge I feel if business included this it should be more toward 10% (minimum consideration) then ppl may be more likely to tip up. Also, I was not given a paper receipt l, even after inquiring/payment.
Overall service is great, food quality is poor and grossly over priced for the quality.
I personally wish I would have eaten earlier, at the harbor.

The shrimp and crab meat egg rolls are to die for! However, the sauced wings weren't good. The chicken didn't taste all the way cooked thru and the sauce looked like it was just thrown on, not good. The shrimp basket is pretty good. And that 18% GRATUITY for food that was subpar, is ridiculous. I also just looked at my receipt again, and while i didn't get charged the 18% gratutity because there was only 5 ppl at my table not the 6, they still took an almost $10 tip from that i had no knowledge or say in. It was exactly a $9.49 tip for a waitress who wouldn't have gotten nowhere near that amount cuz she had an attitude when i sent the plate of wings back and when she messed up my order by giving me something that i didn't order. Lost a costumer.

Great food and service, unfortunately the prices and the xtra 18% for dining inside is too much

Other than today, I would’ve given them 5 stars. I ordered extra crab that I paid for and didn’t get and my seafood egg rolls were old, smelled badly, and tasted horribly. This was definitely an off day and it’s just about cost them my business forever. I don’t play about my money or my food. I’m really disappointed!

Best bag boils ever. If you haven't tried this place u need too! Excellent food and service, a little on the high end for pricing but worth it.

Great seafood, service and ambiance, in National City! I like when they give out the gloves! We took our time and staff was attentive. This is our second time here. We will visit again next time we are in the area.

Called 4: 15pm told me 15mins will be ready, went in to pick up 25mins later due traffic said not ready yet waited another 25mins. Ordered clam, mussels, crawfish, shrimp 1lb of each, corn sausage but looks like theyre all half lb. Of each. I buy here alot and i buy the same thing Everytime so i know the amount of food i get. I dont know if you add sauce to make it pound each coz as what i said looks like half pound each! Spent $90 and tip on it btw

Combo #3 tiny crab cluster
The pinky on the king crab and a bunch of empty clam
Shells! And to top it off the garlic bread for $4
I mean they said a whole piece of garlic bread I wasn’t expecting a 4” diagonal slice and $8 for a side of fries for the kids

I'm suprise this place is open. 18%added to the check not for the waitress but for the table covers and the kitchen workers? That's the explanation that we got when we asked. We still left 18 % for the poor waitress because that extra charge it's not her fault. Food was tasteless.

What a dump, place is half full, yet they say sign in and wait outside?
Waited 20 minutes, then left. Waste of time. Crabby Joe's is better!

DO NOT GO IN A GROUP OF 6 OR MORE. We went today for a birthday and we were 6 people. They charge an 18% SERVICE CHARGE that does NOT go to the amazing servers. That means if you have a bill of around 200 bucks, it's going to jump up 18% for a service charge and then we paid 18% tip to the server on top of that. Tipping the server is the right thing to do for good service! Service was great so this really isn't fair for them who told us a lot of the time they get stiffed when people come in thinking the service charge is the tip and they get left with 0 tip! What is the service charge for you may ask? Apparently it's for the table linings, napkins, and stuff for the table. Isn't that what a normal restaurant should be able to pay for anyways? ! This was so wrong. As far as the food.very disappointing. The gumbo was like gravy and did not taste good. The seafood in the bags had no flavor. The lobster roll tasted like rubber. The Cajun pasta was so bland. The sweet potato fries were undercooked. I can go on, but just take my word for it, it's not worth it here at all. Run. Go anywhere else. So disappointing.
UPDATE: So the owner responded to this post and is now claiming part of the service charge goes to the servers. So are your servers liars? Your shift lead and another server claim the service charge doesn't go to them at all. So am I to understand you have a service charge that says it is NOT A TIP at the bottom of the receipt. But now you say some of it DOES go to the servers? Are you making us double tip then? Your establishment sounds like a bunch of cheats.

They seafood boil is pretty good. Not better then crab boil but it can compete with they right cook in they back. I rated it a four star because they food was great, but my seating area had a vent from they A/C that made me extremely cold and I had to put on a sweater to warm up.

The customer service was great (hence the one star). The woman that took our order was amazing! However the seafood was disgusting. Why is it sweet? It doesn’t even smell good but I thought maybe I am not being open minded plus there are no refunds so I’m stuck although this is our first time eating here. Over $350 for a family of 5 only to have to add our own seasonings once we made it home and tasted it all. The food was definitely NOT FRESH. Have you all ever heard of old bay seasoning? Where are you getting your food from? We are new here from Mobile Al “the Bay” fresh seafood is not scarce there. I was so disappointed. We will definitely not be eating there again. I really hope it’s not like this all over San Diego. Yuck!