Boiling Crab- Garden Grove

Boiling Crab- Garden Grove
13892 Brookhurst St.
Garden Grove
714-636-4885

I've been to the Boiling Crab in Alhambra and wanted to see if there is any difference with their location in Garden Grove. I got there at 5pm Sunday. The wait for my large group, was almost two hours!!!! You can see the huge line in the first picture. But some people didn't want to wait, so we got seated in a little over an hour.

I wanted some appetizers and got the fried shrimp basket, $8.99. The shrimp was nicely fried in corn meal and good sized shrimp. As good as the Alhambra location.

The day I went, they were out of blue and dungeness crabs!!! But I have never had the King Crab legs at The Boiling Crab, so I got an order of King Crab legs. The King Crab legs were priced at $14.99 per pound. My order was 1.3lbs. I got the mild lemon butter seasoning. The king crab legs were good but not as fresh as I thought they would be. They were a bit tough and chewy. The seasoning wasn't that good either. It seems as though the seasonings were just sitting around for too long in a pot. Something was missing with the seafood at this location.

Service was very good. They were nice and friendly and we got served quickly.

I'm not sure what the problem is with the Garden Grove location. They get a ton of turnover, so there is no reason for the seafood not to be fresh.

The prices for the seafood were a bit cheaper at the Garden Grove location, but that could be a matter of supply. I went to the Alhambra location back in June and the prices of seafood could have been higher back in June.

I would think twice about coming back to the Garden Grove location. It didn't live up to the high standards that I've come to expect from The Boiling Crab.

Cafe Sierra

Café Sierra
555 Universal Dr.
Universal City
818-509-2030

WOW talk about a seafood buffet. For $39.99, Cafe Sierra offers a great seafood buffet. Lobster thermador, king crab legs, shrimp, prime rib, all kinds of good stuff. Cafe Sierra is in the Universal Hilton Hotel. For the seafood buffet that is offered Friday and Saturday, they basically put buffet tables outside Cafe Sierra and have people sit all over. Our table gave us a great view of the parking lot.

The first food pictured is the king crab legs. They are served cold but are sweet and tender. Oh soooo good. They are already cut in half, ready for you to dig in. This was so great, I went back 2-3 times. The crab legs alone is worth the price.

The next picture is the prime rib and the lobster thermador. Since this was all you can eat, I just ate the tail. They were sweet and tender. The prime rib was rare. But with any buffets, it depends when you get the food. The prime rib was pretty tender and juicy. Maybe one of the better examples of buffet prime rib.

The next picture is the albacore and the beef rib. The beef rib was pretty bad. Not much meat and it was very tough. I loved the albacore. They put the albacore in a brown gravy, with tons of mushrooms. This was sooo good. I put it over rice. The albacore was tender and there were huge, I mean huge pieces of albacore.

Their famous shark fin soup is pictured next. It was thicken with lots of tapicoa. I've hadn't had shark fin soup enough to know, if they shredded pieces of meat were the real shark fin or not. But this was very good.

The next picture is the assortment of crab. They had duness crab, which had a ton of meat and was tasty and some of the king crab legs. The crab was served cold. The best thing about the crab is that they were not salty at all. Many places use a very salty brine to boil the crab. Cafe Sierra does it right.

The next picture is medium to large size, peel and eat shrimp. These were firm, tender and tasty. The cocktail sauce had a nice kick to it and added to the flavor.

I love Cafe Sierra. There are many other items served during the buffet. But it gets to be too much. I just worked on eating the king crab, lobster and prime rib. Service was good though our server answered her own questions. "Do you need any more drinks?" No, thank you." But she was attentive after she asked us twice what we wanted to drink.

I would go back to Cafe Sierra anytime.

Amber Waves-Updated Review

Amber Waves
7675 Cresent Ave
Buena Park
714-995-1111

Amber Waves no longer serves this prime rib and crab legs buffet!
Ambers Waves is in the Knotts Berry Farm Hotel. Every Friday and Saturday they have an All You Can Eat Prime Rib and Crab Legs special for $18.95.

I have heard about Khoury's in Long Beach that has an all you can eat Prime Rib and Maine Lobster for $40 and the all you can eat prime rib and seafood buffet with crab legs as the highlight for $40. But this buffet at Amber Waves is half the price and I can't imagine either one of those places being any better.

The buffet has two tables. The first table is filled with cold items like salads, fresh fruits and peel and eat shrimp. The second table has the steam trays with mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetables, fried shrimp, King Crab legs, and Prime Rib. You help yourself to everything but somebody will crave the prime rib for you.

I like my prime rib on the rare side and this was perfect. Not the most tender but very good with good flavor. The au jus and horseradish added the right touch to the prime rib.

Then I started on the crab legs. They were warm at the steam tray but when I got my second helping, they were cold. The lady who was carving the prime rib, checked and noticed there was no water in the steam tray. She quickly filled it up and my third helping of crab legs was warm. The crab legs are huge and have a large amount of meat. Some places boil crab legs in very salty water. But at Amber Waves the crab legs are tender and not salty at all.

The buffet is served Friday and Saturday from 5pm-9pm. The cost is a steal!! I would most certainly go back and I enjoy every bite of prime rib and crab leg!!!!

There is a guard gate and it says $9 for parking but if you tell the guard you're going to Amber Waves for dinner, they do not charge for parking.

Update Feb. 9, 2010.




I went back to Amber Waves for the first time since 2006. I was both happy and relieved. I was happy because Amber Waves still has their prime rib and crab legs buffet. Though the price is $24.95, it is still a steal!!!




I was relieved because I heard that Amber Waves switched to snow crab legs. But as the pictures show, they are still King Crab Legs!!! They are still great!!! Some batches were a bit salty but huge pieces of tender, flavorful king crab legs!!!

A tip about breaking open king crab legs, kitchen shears or scissors are much better than those nut crackers; just make sure the shears are sharp. They will cut right through the crab shell.




The prime rib was also very good. If you want to get technical, this isn't really prime rib, it is a ribeye steak. The difference between a ribeye steak and prime rib, is that the prime rib is on the bone.

The prime rib was pretty tender and flavorful. But as the picture shows, there was a lot of fat in the portion I had. I didn't like the au jus, which was a thicker, gravy style, it was OK but I want a thinner au jus on my prime rib, not a gravy.

Service was a bit slow; it took a long time to get our drinks and for our table to be cleared. But the server was nice.

As long as Amber Waves is serving king crab legs, I'm going!!