grab a yabby

grab a yabby is a hip and happening seafood bar on beaufort street, just at the back of block of shops near the iga. bright and airy, the menu consists of mainly seafood, but also some steak andribsoptions. our waitress, rory was a delight – she made us feel welcome and explained the menu in detail to us.

my expectation was very high because i was looking at photos and review however it was a let down. beefribsfull rack ended up with with 2 smallribscoasting around 40 or more!!! i talked to the waitress that this is a rip off. yabbys were average.
don't recommend.

amazing seafood! my favourite dish is mussels cooked in tangy red sauce!! porkribsare also very delicious and tender. the staff are very attentive!

went for dinner last night, great service and great food will defiantly be back, had the porkribsand chicken skewers.
very tasty herbs used and tender moist ribs, what a find...
well done guys.

the beefribsare my favourite they are so tender they fall off the bone, unfortunately i’m not a seafood eater but there are so many other options steak, chicken it definitely is a place full of flavour with something to suit everyone’s taste! definitely 5 star!!

went here with my kids on the holidays. had such a blast eating with our hands. my favourite has to be the fisherman's basket in grab a yabby special. kids loved the crunchy porkribsand the magic dust fries. definitely will come back here again.

food: good, kitchen: slow, value: poor, service: average/developing.

we were disappointed with our first visit to grab a yabby. we were hoping for a good lunch and ordered one lunch special, crunchy chicken wings and chips ($15) andribsand chips ($24), but came out dissapointed.    

there was very little to the lunch special's portion and nothing special to note.  for a $15 lunch special you get 3 chicken wings, chips (or salad) and a soft drink in a glass. the chicken wings taste and texture were good, but the portion of 3 wings of average size is poor value compared to any lunch special in perth.

theribsand chips were a reasonable portion size but average overall when compared to otherribsmeals around perth.   rib meat was tender but not fall off the bone tender.  taste was good. 

the service:  there was only 3 tables occupied (we were the third) in the restaurant, with one table of 2 orders on the table and eating, the second table getting their orders progressively. our 2 lunch items took about 30 minutes to get to the table.   i can only guess theribswere cooked to order from scratch which is good i guess, but the lunch special was just ridiculous. 

based on our first visit, we probably wouldnt go back, but grab a yabby has a great setting and decor, great laneway location in mt lawley that backs onto a parking lot.  there is a lot going for this place, but its obvious that the operations need to be polished up to be successful.  give it a go, and share your review.

great concept. you pick your seafood then your sauce and then they cook and you eat. being in perth we are blessed with great seafood. but unfortunately the prices of seafood in perth is pricey at retail value. so this place has to be amazeballs for it to have a chance and the seafood taste was i would say above average not overly amazing. the dinoribswas more tasty and we enjoyed it. was a good experience but fell short of amazing..

the food here is average. we ordered all the sliders and wings for starters. the wings were delicious, crispy and well seasoned. the sliders were average. we ordered the crayfish combo which was pretty messy to eat which makes sense why you put a bib on. that was also pretty average. the dinoribswere tendered and flavour was good. food and drinks came out slow and we had to follow up a few times. the service wasn’t anything to rave about. it was good to try but i probably won’t be coming back.

we were hoping the actual dining experience would be an improvement on the booking service as both myself and my husband left two messages on the contact mobile number, and sent an email with a couple of questions and no one bothered to get back to us. someone finally answered the mobile on the third attempt and third day of trying. i don't understand how a business cannot return contact requests within 48 hours so wasn't too impressed but thankfully the actual  dining experience was a bit nicer. once our questions were answered i booked online for 6 people for sunday lunch. it was a lovely sunny winters day and the restaurant was quite stuffy and warm. we asked about some ac and was told it wasn't working. after about 10 minutes we asked if some of the sliding doors could be opened and the waiter went and checked with his manager and opened the doors which caused a lovely cool breeze to waft through. great now to order! we ordered crunchy ribs, calamari and oysters. we asked where they oysters were from but apparently no one knew. but my friends said they were tasty as i don't eat the slippery suckers. the calamari was good too but we never saw theribsas the waiter told us there was only one batch left and they burnt it. so we ordered the crunchy wings instead and they were great! so few hiccups along the way but the one waiter on the floor handled it all so well, and always with a smile. he does that place proud. we then ordered bugs, prawns, yabbies and crawfish to share and were given mallets, bibs and plastic gloves etc. it was a different experience to use the table as your plate and smash your food to eat and peel but a lot of fun. the corn and potato that were included in the seafood bags was tasty too. personally it's not a dining experience i want to do on a regular basis but it was definitely nice to give it a go. .

verdict: slow service,ribswere good, seafood platter a no-no. will i revisit? no, thanks.  ordered the porkribs+ seafood platter (groupon). the rating of 2.5 goes to pork ribs. i am rating '0" for service and seafood platter. there were only 3 occupied tables at that time and we had to wait 15mins before we get a menu and another 1.5hr for the food. that is freaking long!! prawns were not fresh at all, we even had 1 that went bad in the bag. the spicy sauce went well with the other seafood. fortunately, the porkribswere good or this needs to be rated negative.

the xo sauce is tasty, but just serving is too small.ribsare good. but it's a bit messy they put the seafood/dish in the plastic bag but give you a glass bowl for the waste/shells, why didn't they swap around, put the dish in the bowl and give you the plastic bag for shells....you can still eat with the bib & gloves....

in the heart of mt lawley, great location for a get together. the food is mainly seafood at "market prices". so be prepared to spend. we had the seafood basket (mix of mussels, bugs, prawns and clams). also the lobster tails, bag of yabbies, king crab legs and the pork ribs. overall it was a messy, but fun feed where you can dig in with your hands amongst friends. sharing is the way to go and you can choose different sauces for each dish - the spicy one is yum! the king crab legs were meaty but felt old or not fresh. otherwise the bugs, yabbies and lobster tails were tasty and fleshy. surprisingly the porkribswere quite good - i had a bit of doubt, but it was bbq well, had good flavour and wasn't dry or chewy. filling feast!

there are not many seafood restaurants, but this recently opened one is a must try.
their dinoribsare the biggest beefribsi have seen. sometimes its a hit and miss as it can be full of fat or full of meat. soft shell crabs sliders are amazing. absolutely full of flavour!! seafood has 4 different flavours to choose from, my preference would be the grab a yabby sauce! but don't take my word for it. come and experience it for yourself.

great fun place for dinner!
fresh and interesting new way of eating seafood!
had the yabbies and morton bay bugs and also theribswhich were great.
ribs were not the usual bbq style that fall of the bones, cooked differently with lots of flavour but chewy
would recommend for big group dinners