Date Night @ The Boiling Crab

D and I are very strategic when deciding where to go for our date nights.  We try to eat go to restaurants the kids would not necessarily enjoy and/or would be less enjoyable if they were with us.  I would say The Boiling Crab meets both of these criteria.  We went to the one in the South Coast/Santa Ana area which is new and spacious—no wait at 5 p.m. (I’ve heard there are really long waits at the Garden Grove locations).

We ordered 1 lb. of shrimp (whole shebang-style, medium) for $8.99.  I thought that was a really good deal considering that shrimp is so expensive at the supermarket.  The waitress plops a plastic bag on your butcher paper-covered table and you can go to town—no plates or cutlery here.  Peel the shrimp, give it a squeeze of lime juice, dip it back in the bag to soak up more sauce—yum!

The messy aftermath.

We also ordered a basket of fried catfish and fries.  It is a large portion—this picture was taken after we had already eaten two pieces.  We ended up taking some leftovers home.  I liked the light cornmeal batter.  This was $9.99, in case anyone is interested.

We also ordered a cob of corn to add to our shrimp bag—we need our veggies, right?
As you can see in the background, the atmosphere is Bubba-Gumpish.  A nice big sink in the middle of the restaurant would be nice.  The tiny wet naps they gave us at the end just didn’t cut it.  Since we had leftovers, we didn’t want to extend our date night too much longer.  We made a quick stop into Barnes & Noble to look for some sort of Olympics guide/magazine, but they weren’t in stock yet!  Meanwhile, we’ve been preparing for our Olympics-watching festivities, but more on that later.