House of Crabs

This was my second time here and it was worth the return visit. The décor is super cool — boats hanging from the ceiling, fishing nets draped along the walls, signs promoting ice cold beer, waffle sandwiches and fresh fried chicken (I’ve never seen fresh and fried in the same sentence before!). It’s a messy, delicious adventure. All manners are left at the door while you crack the crab claws, suck out the meat and slurp down your beer… mmm!

Dining here reminds me of being a kid again where you get to create a big mess on the table with your crayons and playdoh. However I think you need to be over 18 to enter this place (as it is above a pub) and the mess you’re creating here is with crabs and lots of finger licking good sauces.
The place has a nautical décor including a bar shaped like the front of a boat. When we were first seated, they served us pop-​corn while we looked at the menu. (I thought that was pretty random). We picked the mussels with Cajun sauce, the crabs with pepper sauce and we got lobster fries. — and we also got a jug for beer too.
The mussels and crabs came in a clear plastic bag with the sauce already mixed inside. And the way to eat it is to rip the bag open and pour its contents onto the table! We all had a food bib so we wouldn’t accidentally spill any of the sauces on our clothes and there were gloves provided we you can keep your hands clean. They also provided bread too, for dipping into the sauce.
The food was delicious, it got really messy (and no one got dirty) and it was a lot of fun!

I love this place. It’s unique and fun. How many other places are there where you eat with gloves on and concentrate on cracking crab claws? Messy and delicious.
I recommend the crab boil. The helpful waitstaff will tell you that king crab is sweeter than snow, and blue swimmer has the «crabbiest» flavour. My favourite is king crab with creole butter sauce, so you get the sweetness of the meat. The lobster fries are meant to be good but I prefer the cajun fries that come with a creamy dipping sauce.
Only one choice of dessert but it’s a great one.
TIP — there’s incredibly tasty FREE cajun-​spiced popcorn but NOT on Sundays!

I made reservation online here for myself and a couple of friends for my birthday, on the way there we were stuck in traffic and when I tried calling to let them know I couldn’t get through, when we got there the waitress was incredibly rude about it. The food was good which obviously made us forget about her attitude problem, then as the same waitress comes to clean up our table she just happens to tip over my drink on me.
For the price that was paid, definitely not worth the service, from that particular waitress anyway.

I really did not enjoy the very crude style of dining at this restaurant, I can appreciate the whole eating out of the bag experience but with dishes that are very saucy as these were, plates and cutlery would have been appropriate. I also think that the portions are very small. we tried the lobster fries as they were a signature dish and I was very underwhelmed with it.

I had booked in advance for 2 at 6pm (opens at 6pm) so no problem with service. It can get quite messy but really fun. I would recommend the popcorn Balmain bug, jambalaya rice and crab with garlic & pepper sauce. Although, not the best in value for seafood but still thoroughly enjoyed the novel experience (especially the awesome décor and atmosphere)

I was looking forward to trying this place after having a great experience in a similar restaurant in Hawaii.
I was so disappointed and the big difference was the service. Our waiter was rude in a condescending way, I felt it was because we are not 20 something and trying to be cool.
We were told most of the things on the menu were designed to share but the serving sizes are small and they are really only for one person.
I love trying places that are different and for that the HOC ticks all the boxes. Great atmosphere and décor.
We had crab, prawns and mussels from the boil. Food was nice and fun to eat. They give you few pieces of bread but it was at least a day old.
So disappointed in this place. If anyone is ever in Hawaii you must go to the Crab Bucket. Same style of restaurant but they know how to treat customers and the food is fantastic!

Messy and fun.
It has a proper American dive bar feel and I love it.
Don’t go if you don’t like messy hands!
Shout out to the snow crab with cajun sauce. YUM.
Friendly, helpful staff and great music vibes!
My only negative comment would be that the frozen margaritas are way too sweet for me. TIP: We usually buy some cans of Tecate beer from the downstairs bar and bring them up with us :)

This place lived up to my expectations as a fun place to eat.
The bar/​bistro crowd in the pub downstairs was rowdy and full of life, which was a great introduction to the House of Crabs. The restaurant was quieter, and not as busy, but a good feel all the same.
Service was prompt, friendly and helpful. The girls helped us ‘pair’ sauces and made sure we ordered enough to feed us all.
We had the clams, snow crab and prawns. Clams were a bit of a letdown as the clams had broken free of their shells and vanished into the sauce. Crab was great — a little dry, but sufficient. The prawns were my favourite, fat and juicy — and cooked just right.
A jug of Kosciusko pale ale went down well between two of us. Better value than drinking by the glass.
I would be happy to recommend, or go back.

Headed out to the city for Father’s Day lunch and while driving along Cleveland Street spotted the House of Crabs sign at Norfolk Hotel. Would this place be the same as Raging Crab, which absolutely loved in Honolulu?
The place looked promising from the paper table sheets, gloves, paper towels, and bibs. Even the way the menu was set out — pick your seafood (mussels, clams, prawns, and crabs) and then your sauce (Cajun, Mexican, Oriental, and Lemon & Pepper).
But the place was missing GARLIC BUTTER and the option to mix all the sauces in one bag (the whole shebang). We ended up opting for a bag of Cajun snow crab and Mexican Prawns.
The snow crab was delicious, rich and sweet with a delicate texture as I stripped the shell off. It didn’t need the sauce as it tasted that good. Now for the Cajun sauce, I wasn’t really a fan of it as house of crabs interpretation of it was too sweet and all I could really taste was the cumin spice. I was expecting more cayenne pepper and spicier.
On the other hand the Mexican sauce was a hit with our table. The hot sauce covered the sweet juicy prawns and the we used the side of bread to mop it all up.
Other menu items we ordered was the prawn roll, lobster donut, and lobster fries. I would definitely order those snacks again when I return.
This place is just so much fun, the mess you make and eating with your hands with no care in the world. The funny thing was my bib was so clean at the end of the meal even though I managed to splatter the sauce everywhere else.
Our waitress was really fun, cool, and efficient. She also gave me a pair of socks and a box of brownies for Father’s Day before we left.
If you have had boiled crab over in the states, don’t expect it to be the same as raging crab or boiling crab but for Sydneysiders this is a cool place to dig into crabs and prawns with a really cool atmosphere.
Note: I’m told this place really gets packed out at night, we walked in around midday when they just opened and it started to pick up around 1:00 pm.

Why would you name a restaurant after a down at heel knocking shop?
After other glowing reviews, I wanted that crab. But my hopes and dreams were shattered into a million bits of broken crab shell.
I tried booking at table for Saturday night, at 11am on Saturday. I was informed that I could do that but the restaurant manager would have to call me back, which for all intents and purposes, she did, at 3pm just to tell me they were booked out, but that they did leave a 3^rd of the restaurant open to walk ins. Ok, I like crab, Ill have a crack at a walk in with a group of 4 with money to burn.
Arriving a bit later at 8:40pm. with the premise that this might help our chances, we were firstly pretty much ignored by the hipster staff (perhaps my reputation precedes me?). Then finally informed that there were no tables free and that they could call me when one became available. Fine. The question I asked was, what time do you close? Pretty simple, I thought. The answer «it depends» wasn’t very helpful.
We managed to finally get the answer that the pub itself (The Norfolk) closes at 12pm. Great. We had a rather tasty drink downstairs in the packed out pub, then the staff said that if we were outside on the footpath we were required to be seated, even if we didnt have a drink.
Going well so far!
I did get a phone call at 10:16pm, presumably to tell me there was now a table. But by then we had moved on to Mexico– food and liquor. Best decision I’ve ever made.
Put succinctly:
If you want to eat here you could try booking a week or maybe a year in advance.
You could probably go for Harry’s singapore chilli crab down near central and have crab and actually get served.
If you dont mind being treated like cattle, by all means give it a whirl.
I probably won’t be back.

What a hoot! This place packs in so much fun. Order your crustacean of choice, bib up, dig in and get messy. Brilliant for birthdays or to bring a group of acquaintances/​strangers. First date venue? Bold!
For the sauce, you’ve got to get the Cajun — cinnamon, cayenne pepper, finger-​licking good. Don’t gloss over the sides though. We gobbled down Chorizo Occcy balls, kale salad and the cheesey lobster fries, om nom nom.
The downer was that its rreeaallly noisy, we could hardly hear each other speak. Also, that unisex toilet — a tad awkward. All in all House of Crabs is howling good time.

I’m a fan of the food, the wait for a table (an hour) is a little long and you have to flag down the staff to order. The House of Crabs delivers though, the food is fantastic, beautiful huge prawns, crispy well spiced fried chicken, I’ll be back to try the crab and mussels.
Thank goodness for the beer garden downstairs at The Norfolk and the fact that they take your mobile number when you are put on the wait list.

You never picture yourself proclaiming «I want crabs! I want crabs everyday!!!»
But this place kind of does that to you.
Fans of Boiling Crab or any type of seafood boil rejoice!!! House of Crabs has landed so you can get your crab on!!!
Found atop the Norfolk Hotel, this place is a freakin AWESOME joint to come with a group and a great place to get messy… maybe not the best place for a first date.
Pick from 500g of Mussels, Little Neck Clams, Old Prawns, Blue Swimmer Crabs, Snow Crabs, or King Crabs, and then pick a sauce from spiciest to mildest: Cajun, Mexican, Oriental, Lemon & Pepper.
After you order you get bibbed, and you can put some latex gloves on so you can get as messy as possible.
We ordered Snow Crabs with Mexican, Little Neck Clams with Oriental, and Yabbies with Cajun. It’s a messy meal, but man is it so worth it.
That being said, go with the Cajun every time, the other sauces don’t hold a candle to it.
Protip: There’s currently a special for Yabbies for $ 34 and honestly they’re the best bang for your buck. You get 4 Yabbies per 500g that come with much more meat than you would with the Snow Crab legs or bundle of Clams.
So how’s the rest of the food?
Well, the Creole Corn and Buffalo Cucumber are forgettable, but why would you order them at «HOUSE OF CRABS?»
The Lobster Fries are decent as are the Fried School Prawns.
The boneless Fried Chicken is LEGIT and comes with Aioli or Chipotle Mayo.
The Lobster/​Prawn Roll is buttered to death and one of the best I’ve ever had… I would really come back just for this roll, even though it’s on the exxy side.
The Neopolitan Ice-​Cream Waffle Sandwich is a potpourri of awesome if your mouth.
If you don’t want to get down and dirty with the boil, get two Lobster Rolls and the Waffle Sandwich and you will be full and happy.
Note: They also serve several great cocktails and some good ol’ Budweiser.
I WANT CRABS!!!