killer shrimp

the penultimate week of my short but memorable trip to california, was spent in the city of angels- los angeles. on the second day of our stay at la, we headed to hollywood blvd and boarded the hop-on-hop-off bus with the intention of discovering the larger part of this beautiful city.
an hour later, we got down at venice beach- ah! the sun, the sand and in contrast the super chilly water, it was a blissful experience and we (herwin abhilash kandoth) tried walking along the vast stretch of the beach but grew tired and most of all- hungry. we started looking out for a place to eat and read about this restaurant at marina del rey- killer shrimp (sounded really interesting).

we took an uber cab and it was about a 10 min drive to this place and you cannot miss the big red board. killer shrimp looks pretty simple from the outside but once you enter and head towards the outdoor section, the view was incredibly beautiful.

we were seated on atablefor two with a panoramic view of the marina del rey (believe me it doesn't get any romantic than this)- wow! i really don't have to mention about the servers or the service in the us- its highly unlikely that you will have a bad experience..

we had cocktails- i had a long island ice tea and herwin had a cosmopolitan- both were refreshing after the long walk that we had.

as far as i remember we order fried calamari as an appetizer and loved it. for entree, we tried the mac and cheese, with prawns- now this was the first time i had the former with anything else but chicken. it was also good, cheesy and the portion was very filling.
but killer shrimp's specialty is a certain preparation of prawns- said to be cooked for a long duration with subtle spices and at the same time ensuring the flavor of the prawns were intact. they serve it in a big bowl filled with the multiple-spiced broth and fresh prawns, with fresh baked bread on the side. it was good but a little bland for my taste buds, but then again i couldn't expect it to be spicy as my home cuisine.

to me, killer shrimp is a place for decent sea- food, a place to chill out with friends over cocktails/mocktails with a stunning view of the world's largest man-made small craft harbor.

resturant service. we arrived about 1:28 pm, no one greeted us, and we sat ourselves. we sat
about 5 minutes before the waiter gave us we the menu. 1:49 pm other waitress finally took notice of our empty drinks and gave us a refill, order of food came at 2:05 pm. 2: 15 pm waiter finally came back to give us refills,
hen i ordered coffee. 2:30 pm the waitress came and cleared our table, 2:35
i got up to show my mom -n- law the restroom and the waitress said goodbye
to us. she did not realized we had not paid our bill, so we could have walked right of the place. i informed her we needed our bill and i sat at atableuntil
the bill came. 2:40 pm the waiter came to pick up the payment, then the rude
waitress had the nerve to ask him if he took her tip. like she did anything to
deserve it, i felt like she went out of her way not to serve us and becuse of
that no one got a tip. yes, you all were busy, but he was the one that des-erved a tip, not her, but due to her unprofessionalism one was not given.
this used to be my favorite place, it went from a 5 star to a 3 star, the food
was great, but the silverware was dirty, stuff was floating in our coffee cream,
service took forever to get.

there back!!. as most of you know by now, our favorite eatery in marina del rey is back, and better than ever. their menu has been expanded, but the three originals are still there; killer shrimp "original", killer shrimp over rice and killer shrimp over pasta. i know several of you have written that the food is still spot on, but the services is not. to be fair, dear readers, the restaurant is not even one month old, and all restaurants take at lease a month to figure out how to operate, so with a totally open mind i will give my review.
first the food; i and my husband ordered the "original" and it was exactly as i remembered, although i actually think the shrimp are a little larger, but the broth is still as buttery, hot, spicy and as wonderful as i remember. dipping my figures in the sauce, pulling out a big beautiful shrimp, ripping pealing off the shell is all still part of the fun. then taking the wonderful french bread they provide in a big colander, and letting it soak up the broth and then setting it on your tongue and chewing the mouth full of spicy goodness is a pleasure not to be missed. i have always loved the "original" and put up with the mess just to enjoy some of the best shrimp this side of new orleans.
now, normally i could care less about the service, as that should only be a very small part of what one is reviewing at a restaurant. you come to a restaurant for the food, not for the staff, and yes, if the staff is bad, then mention it, but the food is the big attraction, and killer shrimp is no exception, however, because the majority of the reviews i have read on the various web sites have been very harsh regarding the wait service, i want to pass along this - to be honest we did pick a time that was neither lunch or dinner, as it was a little after 4pm on sunday (9/18/2011) afternoon. the bar was hopping, due to the many tv screens that were showing an nfl game, but the actual restaurant was fairly open. we were greeted by a very nice young lady and asked if we wanted to sit outside or inside and did we prefer atableor booth. we stated booth and after a quick look in the dining area, we were taken directly to a booth, right by the window, where we could watch fellow diners on the patio and the boats in the marina. that was two minutes from walking through the front door until we were seated in the booth. a very nice young man came by with drinks for anothertableand smiled and said he would be right with us, and he was. we placed our order for dinner and drinks within 4 minutes of walking through the front door. (again, to be honest we know exactly what we wanted, having had prior knowledge of what killer shrimp is all about.) we were brought our drinks and within 19 minutes of walking through the door our food was placed before us at the table. our waiter, who by then was getting more busy, as more diners were coming in to eat, continued to check on us, and even noticed that we were almost out of the bread, before all of our bowls were empty, so to my delight he appeared at ourtablewith another colander full of bread, without even being asked to do so.
bottom line - food; as amazing as i remember, and i plan to go through the menu, but it will be very hard to get me to eat anything outer than the "original", wait service; i could not ask for better, our waiter (david i believe it stated on our check) was very helpful and anticipated our needs.
we are making a reservation for friday night, and even though it will be crowed, i don't expect there will be any problems, as there appear to be plenty of wait and bus staff for that very large restaurant. thanks for reading, and happy dining!

very poor service and management. great location...food was ok. the chef works his tail off (no pun intended) only to have the waitstaff screw up his reputation. we were a group of 7, locals who would have been regulars - but we were so poorly treated that i don't think we will be back until this place turns into something else.

we waited over an hour for our bill, only to find out our waitress had actually quit. we piled gobs of money on thetableand just left...they actually had a staff person run us down saying we shorted them $20!

we never saw our bill...yet they felt of the hundreds of dollars we left on thetableto have one drink in a three hour period, warranted harassing us in the parking lot for a $20? i don't think this place is gonna last long.