The Kickin’ Crab

I would definitely think that Kickin’ Crab is on par and an alternative for Boiling Crab. Their flavoring is not exactly the same, but it’s pretty similar. I LOVE their garlic noodles!!! It is a must try if you enjoy garlic even if you might smell like garlic for the next 3 days. Their shrimps are a hit or miss though. sometimes they are very big and fresh, but other times they are small and mushy. I recommend coming to Kickin’ Crab if you are in a large group since they have combos that you can order to share. I’ve been here a couple of times and I always get one pound of shrimp with all of the sauces combined. I don’t eat much so it always fills me up, but if I am a friend I am willing to split three pounds through the combos. The combos are nice because you can choose to have other seafood besides shrimp for around ~$ 35. It’s definitely worth trying!

I’d totally give 10 stars if it were an option.
Stopped by today around 11:30, was greeted multiple times by different waitresses, was given the choice as to where I wanted to sit, and a menu immediately followed.
I ordered 1 pound of shrimp, & 1 pound of Crawfish, in a mix of all their sauces and medium heat. I asked for them bagged separately. Food was out in no longer than 10 minutes, HOTT, fresh, and juicy!
I dug right in, and it was amazing! The waitresses were really attentive, kept my water filled and was there when I needed a box to go.
The music: was on some sort of throwback playlist, when Are You That Somebody came on by Aaliyah I damn near sang karaōke for the whole restaurant! LOL.
Will definitely be back when I’m in that area!

Well done Kickin Crab. Lived up to the hype, shrimp was scrumptious and the garlic noodles were fantastic.
Yup!!!

This was my very first time here and loved it. Everyone has been talking about this place and it was awesome.
I had the crab legs and shrimp spicy.
Potato & Corn!
I highly recommend this place but being a bib

Kickin crab does not hold a candle to boiling crab. The taste sucks. I tried twice thinking something was wrong the first time. Nope. Reason why there is no waiting here.

This rating is only for the service we got yesterday, sunday, mar 13 2016. Shoutout to the crews that were working yesterday between 3−4pm. 3 asian guys and 1 latina.
We usually just get an ok service everytime we were here before (2 ½ — 3 stars) but yesterday was exceptional.
We were seated immediately and the host was really nice. Our orders came out in a timely manner, our drinks were refilled without us having to ask them, all four workers were constantly checking on our table to see if there was anything else we need.
That was a first for us because before, when we’ll eat here, we always have to flag the servers for drink refills, or when some of our orders takes too long to come out like rice and extra sauces.
I was gonna ask one of them for their names so I can post it here on Unilocal and let the management know how awesome their workers are but, my friend kept teasing me about one of the servers who is kinda cute so I got embarassed to ask.
Anyways, great job guys!!!

Been to other Kicking Crab locations, but this was the first for Irvine. Never knew this restaurant was such in a busy location! There was a lot of cars and parking was a hassle. The town center they’re located at has several of Asian food too. Lots of variety in this location. It’s just the parking sucks. Good thing was this place looked packed, but didn’t have a wait time to be seated. It was a bit cramped being that it was during dinner, but service was good. Ordered the Kicking Combo #2 that was shared between 3 people. The portion seemed moderate, everyone was full from it, so that’s always a plus. Decided to get it mild with kickin style, the spice wasn’t too bad. It did have a kick to it. Also ordered calamari, but it was okay. Wouldn’t order it again next time, maybe order the cajun fries. Although would come back when in the area again. Don’t forget to ask for lime and S&P. It always goes hand and hand with seafood.

The kickin crab is my new favorite spot! Gerald gave me service that was kind, attentive, precise & timely! The food is out of this world! We had lobster, shrimp, crawfish & Cajun fries. How they cooked everything so perfectly is a mystery & the rub they use is something they should market & sell! The atmosphere is fun & the music makes it seem like I’m chilling at a bbq w/​my friends. I will be back & ask for Gerald every time!!!

Me and my buddies LOVE. This place. We get the Combo #1 /​2 lbs muscles & 1 lbs Shrimp. Also, calamari with a side of the new «Fiesta SPICY, SPICY sauce» to dip in. The bag comes kicking medium and the garlic is awesome. Be careful, it can stay with you for a day or so. Get yourself a bag and a handful of Corona Light’s and it’s the best meal around. When we get our favorite waitresses, Amy and Jace it’s a perfect day at «the crab».Enjoy

I prefer this place to Boiling Crab because the wait is so much shorter and it’s basically the same thing. I’ve never waited long for this location, max is probably 25 minutes.
I always get the pound of shrimp, kickin style, medium spicy along with the Cajun fries. It’s always so good and I love it with the lime salt and pepper mix. The garlic noodles are also pretty good although a little heavy for my tastes. The oysters are good although I’ve had better but I would get the oysters if I’m craving it.
Service can be a hit or miss sometimes but usually it’s on point! There was just one time when they forgot our order and we had to wait for our food to come out.
Overall I would recommend this place although don’t come wearing any nice clothes because they won’t be so afterwards. This place gets messy fast.

If you have to work for your food, there’s no better place than The Kickin Crab! We had shrimp, lobster, and mussels in the mix with corn, sausage and potatoes. It was so good and the perfect amount of spicy, I would have licked the juice from the paper table cloth if it was socially acceptable to do so.

Good service, clean restaurant. Went on a quiet weekday afternoon
One pound of crab was way more generous than I thought it would and it was delicious!
They should offer a lunch menu.

One of my favorites places for crawfish and then some! The service has always been great for me even when there’s a line. I’ve been following one of their staff Kathy T who used to work at the south coast location and then moved to Irvine. Kathy consistently provides excellent customer service each and every time. I never need to ask for anything twice because she’s always on top of it. My kids love chatting with her because she’s so nice and personable and we always leave with smiles on our faces because she provides exceptional service.
About the food… The crawfish Kickin style seasoning is always right; very flavorful and evenly disbursed. I use the sauce from inside the bag and add it to my salt pepper lemon dip — divine! I really like that the Cajun seasoning is tangy; not salty like some other places.
–I love their calamari — tasty and light not drenched in batter.
–Their chicken wings are also really flavorful and lightly battered.
–The sweet potato fries with side of butter is always crunchy.
–also love their garlic shrimp noodles — flavorful and filled with chunks of yummy garlic.
My go-​to place for Cajun crawfish.

Me and my boyfriend came here for a date. The parking was a struggle, it’s literally in this Asian market center and it is really crowded!
Anyways, the food was amazing and fun to eat (no silverware)! I never laughed and smiled so much before, between us and the others around us it was a great time!
We ordered crawfish and shrimp, and garlic noodles and Cajun fries. All of which was really good.
We left a big mess and my fingers smelled for a few days but I can’t wait to come back soon!

I really REALLY wanted to like this place, since I think that there should be more Boiling Crab-​type restaurants to reduce the long lines.
The dinner started out normal enough. We arrived at 8:00 PM on a Saturday night with a party of 6. It took about 25 minutes for us to get seated and the waiter tossed a few bibs on the table and asked us if we would like something to drink. We ordered a couple of the lychee sake 350 ml bottles for $ 13 each, a coke, and 5 waters. They only brought us 4 waters, but that seemed like an honest mistake.
We then ordered an order of the spicy kickin’ combo #1 (2 lbs. shrimp, 2 lbs. crawfish, 2 corns, 2 potatoes, and 4 pieces of sausages) for $ 32.99, an order of spicy snow crab with clams, more shrimp, sausages, and corn for another $ 40, and some sweet potato fries for $ 5. They forgot to bring us our sweet potato fries, both orders came out MILD, and none of the seafood was very tasty. Half of the clams were closed, the crawfish and shrimp were rubbery, and the corn wasn’t sweet at all. We waited to complain to the wait staff, but it took them about 30 minutes to check up on us, and of course we had eaten most of the blah food by then.
So we complained about how the order wasn’t very spicy, and asked about our sweet potato fries, and the waiter came back and told us that our orders were entered into the machine to be MILD, and our sweet potato fries never came. Instead of offering us some replacement food, the waiter informed us that the spicy is really spicy. OK then… so we ordered a couple more pounds of spicy shrimp and some sausages. The next order came out and it WAS spicy, but the sauce was overly salted. It tasted almost like Tabasco with a bit of salt… sour and salty.
All in all, it came out to about $ 30 per person including tip for 6 of us.
In summary… a 30 minute wait for some overpriced, not so fresh, overly salty Cajun food with mediocre service that is about 30% more expensive than Boiling Crab? No thanks.

I eat at kickin’ crab a loottttt and each time it never disappoints! Of course my go to is the pound of shrimp spicy with the kickin style sauce~ I’ve gotten the mussels, clams, King crab legs before and they were very delicious! Since I love oysters I always order oysters here but honestly, the oysters here aren’t that great. The Cajun fries and sweet potato fries are really good too! This one time me and my boyfriend got the combo #2 and it was way too much food for two people but I would recommend 3 or more people to get this because it’s really worth the price.
The service her is really attentive and fast like 99% of the time. Out of the 16 262 652 times I came here, I only had a bad experience once.
The wait can be long at times but I usually on the weekdays so it’s not that bad.

Imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery.
This review is close to a decade late. In the event you didn’t live in OC around 2007 you wouldn’t realize that Cajun themed restaurants that equipped you with no utensils, a bib, and a bag loaded full of sauced crustaceans on a long picnic table were all the rage. This is before Halal Guys, Poke Bowls, Acai, Macarons, Waffle Sandwiches, Mochi, 85c, Asian Fusion, Food Trucks, and KBBQ but not before Boba, Pumpkin Spice Latte or Phở.
Same rage, same lines, same hype.
At the time the undisputed king of «Cajun in a bag» was Boiling Crab and thanks to the two hour plus lines people were ready for a knock off. Enter: The Kickin’ Crab. A complete recreation of Boiling Crab that soon garnered similar lines to the original.
The menu is straight forward and sharing is obviously encouraged. They offer 3 combinations for party sizes of 2, 4 and 6 respectively along with a la carte options, beverages, beers, and in a telling fashion of the expected demographic; sake and soju. The prices are actually quite reasonable and the restaurant attracts a young college aged crowd peppered with post-​hipsters and people my fathers age that are just learning about the «seafood bag» phenomenon. The atmosphere is fun, unpretentious and thanks to the sauce that can get everywhere… messy.
What about the food itself Aaron?
Got it.
It is a credible rip off of Boiling Crab which is to say quite good. The shrimp really are the stars of the show as they seem to soak up the spicy and bold sauce even better than the clams. The crawfish (or «mudbugs» for those of you that speak Creole) would be the runner up in the seafood flavor race rounded out with clams and then mussels. The corn cobs are a perfect side for the meal and when washed down with an ice cold beer it is hard to complain with the all around experience.
My only gripes are the lines and more importantly hassle. Working 1 – 3 minutes per item to free a thumbnail’s worth of meat gets tedious fast. The bag will get cold halfway through eating it thanks to all of the peeling involved and as it cools the flavor profile shallows. Another personal qualm is I dislike eating with my hands without a delivery mechanism like a bun, pita, wrap, etc. Not that I would ever fault the restaurant for my opinion on that matter.
The Kickin’ Crab is a decent option if you are fiending Cajun in a bag in Irvine and it seems like it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon if the lines are any indication.

I give this place a good 3 stars…
Compared to the beloved Boiling Crab, as for quality I don’t think it compares to their food. But, I do like how it’s in Irvine and the convenience factor is a one up.
One dumb thing is that Diamond Jamboree keeps updating their plaza with more and more upcoming eateries and finding parking is literally like going to a trip to hell. My blood pressure seriously sky rockets every time I come here on a weekend night trying to fight other people for parking. Literally fighting… I’ve had some run ins with disrespectful people out on the parking lot.
Even though it’s close to where I live, sometimes the lack of parking steers me off from coming…
But I do like the all the different selections you can get at Kicking Crab. Garlic noodles? Yum. Raw oysters? Eh ok. Calamari? Tolerable.
I’ve never really waited too long for a seat here compared to Boiling Crab so that’s another reason why I tolerate Kicking Crab. It’s a good alternative if you live close by and don’t want to wait ridiculously long for a seat. But beware of the dreaded parking lot!

There are not many places in South Orange County to get Cajun Seafood. This location of Kickin’ Crab in Irvine, is still a fun place for me to meet friends who have never tried seafood in a bag expeience before.
This Diamond Jamboree parking lot is still not my fave, drive with caution, many Asian drivers, young and old. Gets a bit dicey at times and is extremely crowded because of the other restaurants and stores in this popular Irvine shopping center.
I like the fact there are sinks in restaurant not just bathrooms to wash up as this is a hands-​on, messy experience. I have had crab, crawfish, shrimp, garlic, seasonings on my clothes, in my hair (wear long hair back or up, is my advice), hands, fingers, etc. Staff continues to be friendly, helpful and accommodating here. Love the Kickin’ Crab combos, medium spicy with the Dungeness Crab.
Also, I cannot eat here without the yummy Garlic Noodles to accompany.
It’s a fun place with good eats.

When we are in the area, we come here when we need to satisfy our seafood cravings. If stopping by for lunch, we normally try to arrive before they open. Sometimes there’s a line before they open… and the restaurant can quickly fill up shortly after. This restaurant is located in an extremely busy plaza, so parking could possibly be a pain. Service is fast and employees are friendly. They offer everything you might need to get down and dirty with your meal such as shell crackers, bibs, and gloves.
We normally order dungeness crabs or crab legs. We add sausage and a side of rice to our order. We usually get the sauce Kickin Style/​Mild (a mix of lemon pepper, cajun, and louisiana with very little spiciness)… fingerlicking good! We’ve also tried their sweet potatoes fries which were yum. They have other food options such as different starters, soups, and items listed as their favorites… but what we are looking forward to trying next are their garlic noodles!
Stop in and give them a try if you are ever nearby. Be ready to tie your hair back and roll up your sleeves. Depending on what you order and how you eat, you may end up leaving with seafood smelling fingers that may linger for a few hours. Also, don’t wear white if you can avoid it! You don’t want to end up with sauce splatter stains on your clothes!