Looking for a place where you can just be yourself and have unlimited seafood fun, where you can smash, pick, prod and play with your food? We’ve found the perfect place for you.
Believe it or not but, at the Holy Crab, you are encouraged to leave your table manners at the door; there is no spoon, forks, or even plates provided. It’s you vs the food, with a plastic bib in between. Guests are expected to enjoy piles of seafood straight from the table with your bare hands, with only an occasional wipe down for you to grab that icy cold beer.
Brought to life by Ersons Food group that also initiated the Holy Smokes, Holy Crab was established in 2014 to bring in a completely different way of eating seafood for Jakartans, by bringing in a much-loved southern American tradition of eating Seafood, the Louisiana Boil style.
In a seafood ‘boil’–the generic term for any number of types of social events in which shellfish is the central element– in-season seafood such as shrimp, crab, and crawfish are traditionally cooked in seasoned water, and than dumped on a long table and served with hot sauce, lemon, salt. Additionally, other than the seafood itself, corn and sausage links are sometime thrown in the pile. This kind of seafood party can be found across Lousiana, USA, and now, for the first time, in Jakarta!
the cozy rustic semi alfresco dining area that showers the diners with natural light, but in the comfort of AC!
There is no rule or best ratio on what and how much you should order; but one thing for sure, you will get messy. True to its Louisiana inspiration, after placing your order, a waiter will unroll a large sheet of wax paper the perfect size of your table. After that, the much needed dining ‘kit’ which includes mallet, crab crackers, and seafood picks are provided for you. When your food is ready, the servers will bring your seafood in large plastic bags and get dumped all over your table.
No plates or even table manners needed; just your bare hands, some seafood-eating equipments, and finger lickin’ seafood!
Some of Holy Crab’s signatures include the infamous ‘Dungeness Crab’ caught from the Pacific Northwest of USA on the coast of Washington. This crustacean is famed for its sweet and succulent taste. There’s also the humongous King Crab Legs hailed all the way from Alaska (mine was almost 2 feet long!) full with tender and flavourful meat that complements the rich and spicy cajun sauce–Holy Crab’s specialty sauce that combines typical cajun spices including cayenne pepper, paprika, lemon and garlic.
For the lightweight, the mild cajun sauce would be perfect, but if you’re looking for a little more heat to complement your seafood, there’s 3 other levels of heat, including the hottest, the holy moly that will definitely get your head steaming. With any amount of seafood that you order, you can have it all with cajun sauce, or have half of them topped and mixed with their more subtle garlic pepper sauce.
And if your short lunch break makes it a little bit hard to get down and dirty with the shells, try some of their easy and tasty lunch menus such as the Jambalaya rice, Creole Rice, or what we tried, the classic crab roll; sweet and succulent chunks of mud crab meat stuffed between soft white buns, best enjoyed with french fries.
The Crab Roll
The price display for seasonal items and the many imported beers they serve
Don’t forget to mix the big boys with freshly caught seafood from Indonesia’s waters; the freshwater crawfish, the mudcrab, and the shrimps and clams. Seafood prices change seasonally so be sure to check out the blackboard in the restaurant that details the prices for each imported seafood item, although I am told that prices only differ slightly from time to time.
To make it a real party, make sure you take advantage of the all you can eat package of Rp. 550,000/person for local seafood (mud crab, shrimp, clams, and crawfish) or Rp. 1,200,000/person for every seafood in the menu, which includes the Dungeness Crab, Alaskan King Crab, Alaskan Snow Crab, and Canadian Lobster. And to keep that cold beer flowing, the all you can drink beer package is only Rp. 70,000/person. Great. deal.
Located in Gunawarman No. 55, Holy Crab is officially part of the famous Senopati-Gunawarman-Wolter Monginsidi culinary tract, which has been giving birth to South Jakarta’s finest restaurants in the past few years. But if you happen to stroll around or live in Alam Sutera, don’t forget to stop by to the holy Crab Shack; Holy Crab’s sister restaurant with the same concept, with the only difference being its seafood that are all locally sourced, hence, more affordable price.
For delivery order, find Holy Crab in Go Food in Gojek App, or Klik-Eat.com
Jl. Gunawarman No.55, Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta
Phone:(021) 29236155
Hours:
Mon-Thur: 17:00 – 22:00
Fri-Sun: 12:00 – 15:00, 17:30 – 22:00
www.theholycrab.co.id
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @theholycrabjkt