My love affair with Crabby Jack's

[café au lait]

I think I've fallen out of love with Crabby Jack's. For three or four years, I've been addicted to their fried green tomato/shrimp remoulade poboy. That plus a side of onion rings is all I ever get there, and I am never disappointed. Until lately...

My first let down was a few months ago when they changed their onion rings. They previously hand made their rings with a flour based batter, just like old time onion rings of my youth. No more, now they are no different than the onion rings at Sonic - that God awful dark brown breading.

Well, not one to give up easily, I returned a couple of weeks ago to find the fried shrimp on my poboy were like those frozen salad shrimp you'd buy in a package from the frozen aisle of the grocery store. The batter wouldn't even stay on them. They were so slippery that after the batter slid off, the entire poboy just fell apart. And the onion rings were still of the Sonic variety.

I am crushed. I don't know anywhere else in the area that serves a poboy with two of my favorite dishes - fried green tomatoes and shrimp remoulade. Does anybody here go to Crabby Jack's and if so, have your standard menu items undergone changes?

[BTG]

I have noticed a drop in quality as well.

A co-worker introduced me to the place early last year and I could not sing enough praise for the shrimp po-boy they put out. The shrimp were big, seasoned well, and not greasy. Best of all it seemed like there was always so many shrimp that almost as much ended up falling off the sandwhich as stayed on.

One Friday this past lent we went and my po-boy was pretty ragged. I attributed it to them being so busy, but I have tried two more times and the results have not been much better.

All in all, still not a bad po-boy, just not enough to make me happy after seeing how good they could be.

[café au lait]

The shrimp were big, seasoned well, and not greasy. Best of all it seemed like there was always so many shrimp that almost as much ended up falling off the sandwhich as stayed on.

One of my regular dining companions always gets this, and it was always just as you described - loaded and never greasy. My other MFDC gets the fried shrimp plate and can only eat half of it because it's so loaded with shrimp. I haven't eaten with them in a while, so I don't know if the quality of the shrimp for other dishes has slipped as well.

[PNG]

My Sweetie felt the same way about loving Crabby Jack's until.......... The last time that we dined there, our ketchup bottle blew up when we went to open it. It looked as though they were refilling bottles, which is illegal, and caused bacteria to flourish in that bottle from being used for so long. There was ketchup all over us, the walls, the ceiling, the other customers sitting near us, and just everywhere. Sweetie said no more Crabbys! Enjoyed several of their menu items before that though. The manager came over and acted as though we were idiots. They did not apologize or offer to clean our clothes. They handled the aftermath badly.

[foodieCon]

I hated when Louisiana Seafood closed and crabby jacks opened up. Talk about a let down. I remember going there the first time when it was crabby jacks and ordering a shrimp po-boy and having 12 shrimp on my large po-boy. sigh. Since then, I never went back. Too many old memories of the old Louisiana Seafood exchange that I never wanted to end. i know it's probably not fair to judge one place by another, but well, I did. So sue me.

[PNG]

Every shrimp poboy that I had there had shrimp pouring out all over the place.

[hungryone]

My Sweetie felt the same way about loving Crabby Jack's until.......... The last time that we dined there, our ketchup bottle blew up when we went to open it. It looked as though they were refilling bottles, which is illegal, and caused bacteria to flourish in that bottle from being used for so long. There was ketchup all over us, the walls, the ceiling, the other customers sitting near us, and just everywhere. Sweetie said no more Crabbys! Enjoyed several of their menu items before that though. The manager came over and acted as though we were idiots. They did not apologize or offer to clean our clothes. They handled the aftermath badly.

Never heard that refilling ketchup bottles is "illegal"....tell me more. I see this practice all over the place. As ketchup is loaded with sugar & vinegar, which are both darn good preservatives, I'm surpised that the stuff would ever go bad.

[Schuarta]

I think I've fallen out of love with Crabby Jack's. For three or four years, I've been addicted to their fried green tomato/shrimp remoulade poboy. That plus a side of onion rings is all I ever get there, and I am never disappointed. Until lately...

As your "apprentice" in fried green tomato/shrimp remoulade poboys, I totally enjoyed that sandwich at Crabby Jack's during my last visit to NOLA. Sorry the hear of their demise.

I'll be watching your posts to see where you go for poboys next.

[ibjamn]

Mahoney's on Magazine has a grilled Shrimp, fried green tomatoes and remoulade that is verrrry good.

[PNG]

Never heard that refilling ketchup bottles is "illegal"....tell me more. I see this practice all over the place. As ketchup is loaded with sugar & vinegar, which are both darn good preservatives, I'm surpised that the stuff would ever go bad.

Unless the laws have changed since I was in the business you were not allowed to keep refilling bottles as they were never being washed and may have been used for long periods of time with bacteria building up in the bottles. That bottle at CJ's was under great pressure when we popped the top probably due to the right bacteria being present in the bottle. Many bacteria love sugar!