Crab Tavern

We had a great time here. The whole place was booked out for our Christmas party. The staff were good and efficient, the food was fab and the atmosphere was great. I can’t comment on the price as it was paid for by the company but overall I’d definitely come back here again.

So… Was rather excited having checked out the place online, however, found the food to be average and over priced. When the food arrived it looked great, but just lacked in taste and quality. For £110 for two people you would expect a little more for your buck. Service was ok, although it was a sunday and it was super quiet.

I was so excitied about this place when I heard a place serving Crab has reached London. But instead I came out in total disappointment. The food was okay and I know it is seafood, but I could not justify the price.
Although Crab is the focus point, you will find non-​Crab dishes (chicken, steak and fish) on the menu. But since it is about Crab I opted to try what they suppose to be best known for! We tried the Crab Tavern Platter which cost £10 per person and has to be minimum of 2 people. Each person got one each of the item on the platter. Overall it was an okay platter.
West Coast Bucket Boil cost £35 per person and minimum of two people. This consisted of Crab claws, mussels, lobster, potatoes, sausage and corn on the cob. It was nice and be prepare to get your hands dirty. But for what we got in the pan for £35 per person I thought it was expensive, even though it is seafood. There was loads of potatoes that lined the bottom of the pan and mussels was the main seafood that seem to what was in the pan.
The one dish, I could really not understand its price tag was the Best Legs In Town which was King crab legs at a price tag of £39! This was to me too expensive for what we got on the plate. It was not the best legs in town to me!
Out of every thing we had, the crab dish that was more resonable on the menu I would have to say is the Soft Shell Crab Burger for £15. You could order two of these burger with the price of one King crab legs!

Having visited the Crab Tavern twice in its opening weeks, the impression it had on me was that it is somewhat intriguing with its speciality in crab but is otherwise a little anticlimactic and confused. First off, one side of the restaurant has a wall plastered with cartoon crabs — reminiscent of something you may expect to see at a swimming pool and this side of the restaurant gives off a family-​friendly diner vibe with comfy booths to sit in, whilst the other side of the restaurant appears to try to be more stylish with high chair seating, wine glasses a-​ready, narrow tables and hooks underneath for handbags. The staff did not appear to gel as a unit and it was not clear who was the barman, the waiter, the host, the manager, or otherwise.
The wine menu is printed neatly on the back of the food menu but they have no non-​alcoholic drinks menu to speak of. When asked to make up a mocktail this seems out of their comfort zone as the result is an uninventive mixture of fruit juices with a disproportionate amount of chunky ice (served in a jar-​shaped glass).
The Crab Taster sharing platter is worth a try as the variety of crab bites is unique and well presented. The West Coast Bucket looks somewhat impressive but at £35 per head seems overpriced for what is essentially a small lobster, some parts of crab, some small mussels and then lots of potato and slim spicy sausage. The Singapore Crab seems very much like Crab doused in a spicy marinade whereby the flavour seems to be a separate entity to the crabmeat. The crab legs pretty much ‘cost an arm or leg’ leading my friends to say we would’ve been better off buying them at the market. Nevertheless, it did deliver the easiest to eat and chunkiest bits of crab on the menu. The potato mash is a decent side on offer, whilst the steak and chips was quite unremarkable and could’ve done with some side salad to spruce it up.
In conclusion at Crab Tavern you can expect somewhat inflated prices and bog-​standard food in a restaurant that seems to be confused about its identity. Worth a visit if you are a sucker for crab but let’s face it, there are plenty of other ‘fish in the sea’.

Situated in Broadgate, alongside a number of other restaurants and bars. It’s a good place to stop by for some lunch/​dinner. The restaurant itself is quite big with additional seating area downstairs as well. On a Saturday it can be on the quiet side, with the place not even half full and emptied out by about 9pm.
This place is good for King Crab Legs, «Best Legs in Town». It’s a steep £39 for 4 legs but they’re very meaty, very fresh so worth it in my opinion!
It might be more fun and atmospheric during the week, we were surprised by the choice of music… mostly from the 90’s!

Service was fine as you would expect from an American themed restaurant, what I wasn’t so sure was the price point, it was no real value for money for some of the dishes as almost £50 for a plate of chopped up crab leg was a major question mark for me, I know the location is right in the heart of The City district but competition is high within this space. Overall I think Crab Tavern has a brilliant concept, however I felt the execution was not quite there but that was as expected from the early days of any restaurant, London lack real quality mid market restaurants that focus on crab so Crab Tavern definitely has a great unique selling point that has the potential to take off.

Having spent a few Saturdays around Broadgate Circle, I’d noticed this place and looked up their menu. Finding two things that I really like the look of (Singapore Chili Crab and a West Coast Boil), I asked my parents if they wanted to go, as they were also fans of the abovementioned items.
Booking a table on the weekend is easy. Broadgate Circle, being on the wrong side of Liverpool Street Station for most of the weekend traffic, is a quiet location on the weekend, and there was plenty of space. We elected to sit outside and ordered sparkling water and rose which were speedily served. Already knowing what we wanted, we placed our order with the waiter and relaxed in the shade.
A short while later, Dan, the manager on the weekend, came to our table and asked us how we wanted our West Coast Boil, explaining that it was served fairly mild. Wanting it as they served it, we asked for some hot sauce on the side which he was happy to provide. The food turned up and it was plentiful! I’ll load pictures with my review. The chili crab was a little spicy (could have used a little more kick) but the sauce itself was tasty and the crab cooked just right. It wasn’t quite the Singaporean flavour we were looking for, but was a very good facsimile and to be honest, while the main crab was good, the star was the soft shell crab also cooked in the sauce. Normal chili crab is good but you tend to lose some of the chili when shelling the crab (and the sauce is always on the outside), being able to scoop up the crab and have it with the sauce is a good step forward!
The West Coast Boil though, that was a treat. Lobster, crab, mussels, corn and a few potatoes for good measure. We wondered what we would get at £35 a head, but were nicely surprised at the amount received. With the exception of the mussels, everything was nicely cooked. The mussels themselves were just slightly over done, but difficult when boiling up everything together as must have been done.
We polished everything off but weren’t able to order anything else. The two (well 3 really) dishes were enough to feed 4 although we managed between the three of us, it was that good.
Total damage, £128 including a 15% service charge, which we were happy to pay, the waiter and manager dropped in on us at semi regular intervals to top up drinks, take shells away and generally see how we were doing. Like I said before, Saturday/​Sunday is a slow time for them as they do most of their business during the week when the City is operating. I haven’t seen it on a weekday night, but I’m more than happy to go on the weekend if it leads to a nice leisurely meal!
See you guys again!

Crab Taven is on the leading edge of the latest food trend to hit the city. Lobsters have come and (mostly) gone from the limelight but it seems the thought is to capitalise on our love of shellfish by moving just a little bit further along. Located as part of the new Broadgate Circle food hub, it’s very much designed to cater to suits in the City which two floors, massive bars, and a polished modern look.
Honestly I’m having a bit of trouble deciding on the value of the crab. Sure, the deep fried soft shell crab was good with a great crunch and a decent flavour. The crab roll on the other hand seemed to be a largely tasteless mess on top of a slightly stale brioche roll. The Singapore chilli crab was generous in volume yet the sauce was terribly bland. Singapore chilli crab is supposed to be rich and fiery yet this was little more than crab in tomato soup. So far, not impressed.
That being said, they do have some great dishes. The clam chowder was delicious and definitely worth trying and the crispy calamari was quite tender with a great crunchy batter. I really liked the steak tartare in both presentation and taste and the seasoned fries were excellent too.
Crab Tavern also does a few classic sandwiches and we tried the lot. The lobster BLT was an interesting idea but any flavour of the delicate lobster was overpowered by the slice of back bacon which dominated the dish. A oyster po’boy was well executed but ridiculously small to the extent that it may be a decent level side but would leave you hungry if you tried getting it solo for lunch. And for a tenner, you do expect a bit more than 3 – 4 bites. Finally, the shrimp Mac’n’Cheese toastie was lacking even a single shrimp (or they were chopped up so small as to be unnoticeable) and was little more than a thin grilled cheese with a bit of pasta. For £12 quid that’s akin to highway robbery.
We opted for a young Picpoul de Pinet which paired nicely with the seafood yet was light and refreshing to drink on its own. For £29, it was a good value choice. That being said, if you are looking for something on the finer range you might be out of luck as the most expensive wine is a 2013 NZ Pinot Noir coming in just shy of £47. But don’t worry, you can always select something from the relatively large sparkling wine selection with a £220 Krug Grande Cuvee or the £175 Moet Et Chandon 2004.
A start and main each plus a couple of glasses of wine came to around £35pp which was a bit punchy given the quality and quantity of food. While no means unreasonable for the City, it did leave me wishing I had just grabbed a burger from Patty & Bun. I’m sure Crab Tavern will do well with the lunch and post-​work drinks crowd, but if it’s really the «best crab restaurant in London» then I think the capitol needs to up its game.