The Boiling Crab

In my many eatings of over 10 countries and top Michelin restaurants, The Boiling Crab has a special place in my heart.  At one time I was logging weekly visits to consume this scrumptious seafood!  Its possibly one of the top 10 last meals on Earth for me. 

Even with the first San Jose location clocking at almost four years and a second location 10 minutes away, the wait on the weekends can still reach 1-2 hours.  I've had to default to Pho Y (see post HERE) across the street on multiple occasions when I was about to pass out from hunger while waiting.  Its best to come here right when they open (3p on weekdays and noon on weekends) to avoid the wait. 

The Boiling Crab offers a wide selection of fried items, but the sweet potato fries are the best fried option here.  The fries have a light crunchy outside coating with a soft potato inside.  They make for the perfect munchie in between chomps of shrimp and crab. 

The Boiling Crab has a bunch of different sauces you can choose from as well as choice of spiciness level.  Honestly, I've never had any of the other sauces, nor do I know anyone who eats them.  The winner here is the whole sha-bang, which is a mixture of all the sauces.  I'm a fan of the super hot, but the spice level of the hottest sauce (XXX) detracts from the flavor so I like to get the medium, which is perfect.  Cajun and spicy with plentiful garlic chunks, the sauce here is just magical.    

Most people like to get the crawfish here, but I find crawfish to be too much work for little meat.  So instead I usually order the shrimp, which are plump and juicy.  Make sure you dip the shrimp into the chunky parts of the sauce after shelling for full flavor impact.  I usually gauge about one pound of shrimp per person if I'm only ordering one other seafood item. 

The dungeness crab with the whole sha-bang sauce is another good seafood option.  I usually like to shake up the sauce in the bag and eat the crab last so as to soak up more of the flavor.  The crab does come whole, but have no fear, follow these SIMPLE instructions to crack up your crab like a pro.  Disclaimer: you do have to get down and dirty with your hands, but you ARE eating at Boiling Crab so its kinda a given.  First, take your thumb and stick it in the crab's butt (yes, I said butt - trust me on this).  There should be a hole that fits your thumb easily.  Keep on forcing your thumb in (seriously now, no joke here) until you are able to pry both the top and the bottom of the body apart.  It should snap off easily to separate the head(brain/kani miso/whatever you like to call it).  Now take the bottom half, which should have the legs attached and put one hand on each side of the crab.  Each hand should be grabbing a side with the claw and the legs.  Now snap that in half.  The ending result should be three pieces of crab:  the top half with the brains and two mirrored equal pieces that have a claw and 3 legs.  Easy right?!

The crab here is fabulous.  I like to come here around crab season to enjoy the fresh crab, but I've never really seen the crab season prices reflected here.  The cheapest I've seen it was $9.99/lb, where it averages around $12.99/lb during the year.

The sauce here is so delish that is a must to order a side of rice and dump the rest of the sauce in there to snack on when you get home. 

The Boiling Crab has been slowly adding items to the menu.  The gumbo is one of them.  You can order it with or without rice, but I prefer it with so the rice soaks up the gumbo flavor.  This is the first time I've ordered gumbo here, but it wasn't as good as I had hoped.  The gumbo lacked any type of spiciness and there were only a couple pieces of sausages and shrimp.  I did like the big chunks of okra.

        

Address:                The Boiling Crab
                               1631 E Capitol Expy
                               Ste 101
                               San Jose, CA 

Type:                      seafood

Popular chomps:    shrimp
                               dungeness crab
                               Alaskan king crab
                               crawfish
                               the whole sha bang
                               sweet potato fries
                               corn and sausage

Chomp worthy:      shrimp with the whole sha bang (medium)
                               sweet potato fries
                               dungeness crab with the whole sha bang (medium)