crustacean

you must be kidding. dirty, over priced, sad, ugly patrons, obnoxious service, warmed up fast food, loser joint - stay at home and order pizza.

sometimes you can have a fabulous restaurant that serves delectable food, yet disappointing desserts. this is the unfortunate case for the famous vietnamese/pan-asian restaurant, crustacean . while crustacean restaurant originated in san francisco, i've o

take a 360-degree virtual tour of crustacean restaurant

great food but.... if i could give this place zero stars i would. my boyfriend and i had been to crustacean once before and really enjoyed their garlic dungeness crab and garlic noodles. so when valentine's day rolled around i suggested we spend our first valentines day here. big mistake. the hostess sat us upstairs which at the time i thought was way cool since i'd never eaten upstairs before but this time the circumstances were different...i'll get to that later.

first the menu was a special valentines pre-fixe menu that was $95 each with an added on 18% gratuity. if i had known this we probably could have waited until monday to go but my boyfriend is so wonderful he didn't even blink at paying that price. the first course was an array of weird stuff i guess the kitchen just wanted to try out, ahi tuna on a tortilla chip, hamburger on a stick (was yummy), watermelon, and shrimp wrapped in some kind of seaweed. next came our crab and garlic noodles which was just as yummy as i remembered, and then dessert, some cheesecake puff and chocolate pudding thing that they could have kept in the kitchen. but overall the meal was good, not $95 good, but good.

now let's go back to revisit that seating arrangement thing. after we were seated upstairs i looked around and noticed that there were quite a few african american couples seated around the dining room and as the night went on the tables around us filled up with more african american couples which struck me as odd since i remember the clientele during our previous visit had been very mixed. so when my boyfriend got up to go downstairs to the restroom i jokingly told him to see if there were any black people downstairs. much to my surprise and lament, when he returned he told me no.

dinner came and went and so we got ready to leave. i really thought my boyfriend was joking around when he said there were no black people downstairs until i got down to the last step to enter the downstairs dining room where there were nothing but white couples and a few asian people sprinkled in here and there. i was totally shocked and my boyfriend had to grab my hand and pull me towards the exit because i was just in awe at how different the dining room was. i mean we're on day 14 of black history month and this restaurant looks like woolworth's in 1962.

needless to say, the ceo is going to hear about this and i suggest that everyone on here rethink going to this restaurant that obviously doesn't believe in treating their customers equally.

lives up to its billing. we had the wonderful opportunity to eat at crustacean while visiting la from nc. located in an enticing area of beverly hills, the restaurant invites you in with an aquarium of large saltwater fish facing the corner at the street. inside, a three foot wide stream full of koi fish extends to the rear of the restaurant. it is covered with plexiglass so you literally walk over the stream to your seating. the menu has a beautiful history of the an family who left vietnam after the war and went from an aristocratic life to working 12 hours day at their first restaurant in sf. the dungeness crab is prepared in accordance with a secret family recipe and it was phenomenal. sweet and succulent. the sea bass was perfectly prepared as were the vegetables sauteed with garlic. service was great and the maitre'd constanly made rounds to ensure that guests were treated properly. the place was packed on a wednesday night. i highly recommend this restaurant.

vietnamese, beverly hills, and garlic noodles equals crustacean our food adventure tonight brought us to crustacean. originally we had planned elsewhere, but we were too late in planning and couldn't get a decent time for the ten of us. fortunately, one o

get crusted!. an excellent dining experience! crustacean is always on the list of stops when i have out of town guests. it's a marriage of the east & the west!

umm hmmm. i am a big fan of cultural restaurants unique to a particular city. just the familial background of this restaurant and the an family really inspires you to visit the beautiful place. once inside, you can't leave and are tempted to try the various items on their menu. the dungeness crab and their garlic noodles are their best entrees.

what a happy surprise!. we happened to walk in to this fab restaurant and had the best meal. the restaurant itself is beautiful, with the underwater stream and comfortable seating. with the help of a great waiter, he suggested the family "secret kitchen" noodles, the appetizer plate and sushi- we ordered a couple of the incredible lobster salad's (perfect summer meal) and seafood ravioli for our dining vegetarian. the ice tea was excellent and not overly flavored. we were very pleased at the entire experience and will go back. the food was healthy, delicious and very satisfying.i called the restaurant and told them how happy we were to have found the restaurant and will recommend it to every one we know in la and orange county where we live.
i also recommend checking out their web-site, filled with the history and how this family brought this delightful restaurant into being. the an family has created a restaurant that will please and have historical significance for many years to come.