Artist Crawfish Express
9041 Trask Ave
Ste A
Garden Grove
714-537-7260
What do you get when you combine good prices with good food? Of course the answer is, a good review from The New Diner.
Artist Crawfish serves crawfish and peel and eat shrimp. But I heard good things about their other seafood items, so I decide to try it. Located behind an car repair shop, parking can be tough to find before 6:30pm, since people are just picking up their cars after getting an oil change or service. But the food is worth the hassle.
I got the side order of butterfly shrimp, $4.50 and the Cajun Fish Fry, $6.95. I felt like I was stealing from them when the shrimp arrived. The menu says you get eight pieces and I got eight huge pieces of butterfly shrimp. OK they are frozen and then deep fried but that doesn't mean they can't taste good. Very crunchy and flavorful. How do they charge such low prices for this? I could order two of these and get make it a meal. The cocktail sauce is mainly ketchup but I liked the crunch so much, that I wasn't going to worry about a dipping sauce when the shrimp was this good and cheap.
Five minutes after the shrimp arrive, I get this huge piece of sole fish on top of Artist rice, which is fried rice with some mixed veggies. The fish was deep fried in a very nice crunchy, cornmeal batter. The inside was nice and flakey. One of the best fish I've had. The rice was ok, nothing really special about it.
Service was very good. The young girl was the only person working and she was nice and did a good job. We didn't lack for anything. And I'm not saying any of this because she was very easy on the eyes. If she was ugly I would still have said the samething.
I would go back to Artist Crawfish Express anytime. This isn't the fault of Artist Crawfish Express but there was a table of about eight people including a 4-5 year old kid who were so loud, they were almost shouting at each other across the table. Then this stupid kid is yelling and running around all over the restaurant, opening the door. Which isn't that bad but when it is windy and cold outside, it would be nice if the door was closed. It would have been better if the parents would watch their damn kid. Parents, a restaurant is NOT a babysitting service. If you want to go out for a nice dinner, hire a babysitter or make sure you are watching your damn kid while in the restaurant. People want to go to restaurants for a nice meal. They don't need a kid running around yelling his stupid head off. Take responsibility for your damn kid.
Update April 3, 2009.
I got a great question by a reader of The New Diner: Who do you think has better fried seafood -- Artist Crawfish or England Fish and Chips in Long Beach?
I think both are great and in most ways it is comparing apples to oranges. Artist Express has more items on their menu. English Fish and Chips is all about fried seafood. If I had to compare just the fried seafood, I think Englang Fish and Seafood is the best. The prices, $1.49 for a huge piece of cod, are better. I also like cod better than sole. The fried shrimp at Englad is better and they also have fried scallops.
