J’s Crab Shack

Hidden Jem for great wings, seafood and music. Crab Shack is my wife and I’s weekly date night.

If you want to purchase some really fresh, delicious seafood, this is a great place. If you want a perfectly cooked, really fresh seared tuna steak, come here! The stuffed shrimp are awesome. The broiled scallops are tender. The salads are just ok, but you don’t come here for salad. You come here for seafood. And delicious French fries. But mostly seafood.

Oversize portions and great prices. The lobster bisque is fantastic.

While the food at J’s is always solid (I’ve been coming here since it was Tinkers), the last few times I’ve visited have incurred ridiculously long wait times. I came right before Christmas and, despite the restaurant being mostly empty (although, of course, I’m not sure how backed up the kitchen was with to-​go orders), we sat for more than an hour, which is an awfully long time to wait for a platter of fried seafood. I started with the caesar salad (very good, hard to mess up), and moved on to share the fried calamari (an extremely stingy serving mostly made up of breading) and captain’s platter (really, a combo of fried seafood). Food is decent, but the space is quite nice and a LOT larger than it appears from the outside. A nice combination of bar area/​full service, takeout and fresh fish market. I’m definitely still a fan but would only eat in here if I have plenty of time on my hands.

I was able to visit J’s twice in December 2015. The first time I got a Belly Clam Roll and it was awesome. The second time I got a Lobster Roll (with butter). It was great too. Enza the bartender was really nice, she made me and my wife some top –shelf Long Island Ice Teas that hit the spot. The second time I had a Naughty Nurse draft that was very good. I definitely recommend this place if you are looking for some seafood while in Hartford.

Great Place and Great Food! Affordable prices. Definitely worth going! Personally know the family that owns the place and their great people. The staff are nice and helpful.
Go check it out!

J’s is the place for fresh fried seafood at a good price! The portions of fish, clams, etc. along with bountiful fries are large. We often split one dinner and are very satisfied. They also have nice salad choices and refillable soft drinks. Beer and wine choices won’t break the bank.

good quality seafood! restaurant on one side, fresh seafood sold on the other side. very convenient. it was a little hard to find this place because it was kind of hidden. cheap food in large portions if you use coupons that come in the mail.

Being from Georgia we are use to having a full service restaurant, but that aside the food is WONDERFUL! The portion sizes are large and well worth the money. I had a fish sandwich that has 3 full pieces of light and flakey fish with fries and coleslaw for $ 8. The lobster bisque is DELICIOUS and only $ 5 for a 16oz container. We WILL be back!

The food is reasonably priced, but without question this place has the slowest service on the planet. We’ve been sitting here for 25 minutes and no one even acknowledged that we’re here. I absolutely HATE the service here. It’s so frustrating.
To their credit I mentioned something and the staff made up for their oversight. Very nice of them and they made it right. Nice.

J’s is a great place to go if you’re looking for fresh seafood at a decent price. I love the fact that the restaurant is also a fish market. If want good seafood without the fine dining prices, then check J’s out. My boyfriend is an oyster Connoisseur and loves ordering oysters in the half shell from J’s. Their specials are always a great value. At one point they were offering a twin lobster dinner with fries and coleslaw for $ 21.95. How can you beat that? Their lobster bisque and clam chowder will not let you down either. I have a variety of offerings from their menu and have not been let down. My boyfriend have ordered half a dozen oysters, a pound of snow crab legs, and a meal to share without breaking the bank. We always leave completely satisfied.
The service is always very good. It is exceptional when the owner’s wife, Enza is working. She is the best! She has established many relationships with her regular customers and goes out of her way to make you feel like you’re at home.
I almost wish I could see their ticket times because they pump food out like no ones business. I don’t think I have waited more than 10 minutes for my food. It is really impressive.
On certain nights J’s also has live music. I know that on Monday nights they tend to have jazz bands place, which is a great time.

The seafood at J’s always good in a pinch. The folks at J’s (Joe and Iris et al) are very cool. Margaux goes with the broiled salmon. I prefer the fried clams and shrimp. Now that the bar is always open you can wait for take out at the bar or eat in at the booths in the bar. Some nights they have live music. Maybe we will be playing there soon.

Been here a few times & it’s never disappointed. The food is consistent & bar service quite pleasing. Frequent nights with live eclectic music, very entertaining, but it can be loud for those dining. Give it a try, People!

Food was good but I’m glad to see a full bar at a fish market. Service lacked– there’s no table service, but we asked for lemons and extra plates from the roving staff a few times before being accommodated. But one person made our experience worth returning and that was Michelle! She made sure we had our drinks and was so friendly and welcoming, especially to our kid!

Went here because boyfriend really wanted lobster bisque and I wanted to go to a local seafood spot. The prices aren’t bad, they serve beer/​wine. The bisque was good, but the fried oyster sandwich was okay. I enjoyed the fries. I have eaten seafood all of my life so I have high expectations of what is considered good seafood. I plan on coming back here so this review may change.

Very good seafood!!! You wouldn’t guess from the location! They had a live JAZZ Band playing in the bar. You order at a counter and the food is brought to you! My only complaint is the lobster roll wasn’t on a New England split roll!

Great seafood in Hartford. Very casual. Fried shrimp and clam strips are great as well as snow crabs lobster. Great service quick seating as well

Stopped by with some people from work and I was rather pleasantly surprised.
The Good:
The delightfully whimsical interior complete with large fish tanks and a decorative wall mural depicting an undersea world really tickled me. Table layout is set up for functionality so you can move around and not risk sticking your backside onto someone’s plate (it’s happened more times than I’d care to admit). Service was fast — even during the height of a lunch rush, the food was out before we’d barely sat down! And yes, the food… Really, really good looking fried seafood abounds here. Everything looked delicious. I say looked because I had to eat light and got myself a New England Clam Chowder (which was outstanding). I don’t even like fish, and I was drooling over the look and smell of my co-​workers’ fish and chips plates and lobster rolls. Their menu covers most of the basics and the prices are pretty good, especially for the very generous portion sizes. Also, bonus points for having a fish market attached — you can see it through an interior window, but but it has its own entrance so you don’t have to smell it. Even more bonus points for having old school arcade games in both a «game room» and in the fish market.
The Bad:
You order from a counter and they bring out your food. I wouldn’t really care, except the staff constantly emerge from the back screaming out numbers at the top of their lungs. It’s amusing at first, but gets annoying quite quickly. During a lunch rush, I couldn’t even hear the conversation at my table because of all the shouting. Also, some of the tables are not maintained well. I found several to be wobbly and nearly launched a co-worker’s drink into low orbit. And yes, by low I mean the floor.
The Ugly:
J’s is in a very lively neighborhood and it is very easy to miss since they are so far back in their lot.

Sheesh, reading through some of the previous reviews, one could get the unfortunate idea that J’s is out there to promulgate a PERSONAL affront to anyone that sets foot in the establishment. A few thoughts about my visit this past weekend:
Location: 3 out of 5
I’m not familiar with the Hartford area at all, but I noticed that much like where I live now, it takes about 30 minutes to get anywhere. For example, during the weekend I made my way from Southington (my ‘home base’) to and from the following: the airport, Southbury, Branford, Hartford, and Portland. Driving to J’s seemed to take a little less than 30 minutes from Southington, and it was nice to see that the restaurant had free parking.
Customer Service: 4.5 out of 5
I had a very polite but casual young lady who helped me through the ordering process. I mean, there’s not a whole lot to do when it’s counter service and porters bring out your food from the kitchen whilst saying your order number, but I thought the young lady was very nice. The roving staff also go about and clean off tables, though I found it quicker just to do it myself since the cleaning supplies were easily in sight, and I’m not exactly the most high maintenance person when it comes to eating.
Décor: 5 out of 5
Looks like a ‘shack’, smells like a ‘shack’, feels like a ‘shack.’ Not one bit pretentious, and the only thing that maybe didn’t belong was the fancy’esque aquarium in the center of the eating space that had among other species of living critters, one of those foul looking eels from The Little Mermaid, and a puffer fish.
Selection of seafood: 4.5 out of 5
Look, being from the Raleigh Durham area these days, excitement abounds when the prospect of getting fresh (er) seafood exists. Sure, we have places that serve lobster, crab, scallops, fish, etc. but the ‘sea to plate’ time is going to be a bit longer, and there are just things that for one reason or another, don’t exist anywhere except for the northeastern part of the US. For example, I’d be extremely hard pressed to find a place here that does a proper steamers, and likewise — it’d be hard to find a restaurant here that stuffs one type of seafood into another type of seafood, turducken style. Anyway, I came for the lobsters and fried clams that day, and was pleased that both were available. You name it, they probably have it available.
Quality of seafood: 3.75 out of 5
I got the twin lobster dinner with a side of fried clam strips, and the smaller of the two lobsters was overcooked. His little claw was on rubbery and the tail was a bit chewy, but I do appreciate the fact that the lobsters were cooked with the requisite amount of salt in the steam/​boil reservoir. The larger of the two lobsters was just a tad overcooked for my liking, but not much different than the many times that I myself have screwed up at home. The clam strips were delightful, and probably some of the best I’ve had up and down the seaboard. The lobsters, as an FYI, were from Maine and therefore not the soft shelled ones, but instead — ones that can survive moderate transportation.
Value: 4 out of 5
Can’t really complain given the amount of food I ate (and for being on vacation). Twin lobster dinner was 30 $, a side of fried clam strips was a little less than 10 $, and the draft beer was maybe 5 $. And yes, I ate everything. By myself. Including the green junk in the lobster heads that people say is «poisonous.» Whatever.
Overall: 4 out of 5
Strong 4 star experience. Not the most elegant of locations, and it doesn’t have a view overlooking any body of water, but the food was decidedly pleasant, the people were friendly, and I liked the non pretentious atmosphere of the restaurant.

I had J’s Crab shack yesterday, my plate was supposed to be fried sea scallops. I was extremely dissatisfied with the plate of food I had first of all the sea scallops were cut on half, over cooked poor quality. I remember when J’s Crab shack was Ti jersey on New Britain Ave well there totally same ppl but poor customer service and food clearly not the best.
I spoke with the Mgr Doug and his explanation for cutting the scallops were because if he kept the scallops whole they wouldn’t be cooked thoroughly. and he stated I would have only 8 whole scallops instead of cutting them gives you 16 pieces. It’s clear that Mgr Doug has been ripping off everyone including myself I will continue to eat at real seafood restaurants Main Seafood in Windsor and Chowder Pot in Hartford. I have loved food all my life and as a foodie there is nothing I hate more than a awful plate of food. It’s sad as Doug couldn’t understand that having 8 whole scallops to a foodie better to palette than 8 scallops sliced into 16 pieces what a joke.