Loved it! A Monday date lunch at a new place was fabulous! Drink prices were reasonable, a decent selection of wines, great food at a fantastic price. We both had the chopped salad, and swordfish dinner. The salad was enough for lunch alone (in retrospect, we should have shared it). The swordfish, picked out of the many very interesting entrees (I really wanted the fried whole belly clams, but I'm on a diet) was a decent portion. I had mine grilled, and she had hers baked. Both were great! I was a little disappointed that they don't use fresh produce as their VOTD (Vegetable Of The Day - today's was corn), but honestly, I think we're the only people who would care about something like that (roasted butternut squash would have been perfect! - but they won't lose starts for something as picayune as that.) We sat at the bar, and the bartender, Dana, was an absolute joy to deal with. She was friendly, informative, and fun to talk with. Even with it being our first visit in Crabby Al's, she made us feel like we were long time customers. I'd suggest this place to anyone in the area with a jonesing for seafood, although, on my next visit, I want to try their BBQ ribs. read more

Crabby Al's - The view from the bar - Seafood Near Me - Thomaston, Connecticut

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Great food, great service great drink! Wonderful atmosphere! Gorgonzola calamari is a go to dish!

I also wish I could find something good to say. The New England clam chowder was so thick it was almost like paste, the crab cakes were like stuffing cakes I found 3 slivers of crab meat in it and not sure where the seafood was in the stuffed mushrooms. read more

IF you are looking for a pretty good seafood fix and a good beer, look no further. This place is not fancy, it's very casual. There is a mixed crowd, some younger, middle age and some retiree aged clientele when I stopped in yesterday. I ordered the bluepoint oysters on the half shell for an appetizer. They were plump, fresh and delicious. My bf ordered the lobster bisque. He said it was tasty and had chunks of lobster. We shared a fried whole belly platter and the clams were big, not over cooked or over breaded. It was a good meal. The draft selection is pretty good. I like my IPA"s and they had a Dog Fish as well as a Lagunitas on tap. The waitress was patient (our first time there) and friendly. We will be back! read more

We've been here many times over the past 5 years and had good meals/experiences. Tonight was disappointing. Our soup came out lukewarm. We ordered Shrimp Scampi over Angel Hair pasta. It was terrible. It was so overpowered by lemon you couldn't taste the shrimp, garlic or butter. We also had to ask for bread. The waitress never asked if we wanted another cocktail. I doubt we will be returning. read more

Wow just wow.........a seafood place that serves fish, cod specifically, that is not fresh. The way you can tell fish isnt fresh or is in decomposing stage is it will smell like ammonia. And today it did. Thought nothing of it at first then took a bite and almost threw up. So had them take it back. Will never go there again, thats to bad to because their clam chowder is pretty good. But a seafood restaurant that serves rotting fish is just not worth going back to. I mean cooks know when fish is bad as they are cooking it, so to try to get over on a customer is just wrong. And yes some types of seafood have this smell naturally, shark, skate, and rays because of urea in their blood. There is a special way of preparing these that eliminates the smell.......cod is not 1 of those foods that has the smell naturally. So. read more

Good seafood restaurant. Fried clams are my favorite meal to get here. They also have a bar and a pool table. The pool table is in good condition and costs $1 in quarters to play per game. They make an Angry Guinness which is probably the best drink I ever had. I love Guinness and Angry Orchard and if the drink is made right it's awesome. They make it right here. read more

This seafood restaurant is probably my least favorite One:(....barf city-I got 34 Willy's!!! They call it a nilly!! I would never come back here again.... I got fettuccine Alfredo with shrimp and my shrimp still had its tails on they did keep on checking in on us which was good but if I were you I wouldn't come back. I could definitely taste that my shrimp was not fresh and out of a bag frozen. My pasta tasted like straight up butter. The cole saw looked old and brown and didn't taste good. My lemonade was sour. It's definitely not worth the price you pay at the end. I rate this a 1 out of 5 stars just because the service was good and you can't give a zero:( read more

Crabby Al's - This is my pasta.:( - Seafood Near Me - Thomaston, Connecticut

The seafood in this place is out of this world!! I lived in Florida for 12 years and this is still my favorite seafood place!!

Friendly bar staff and rotating drink of the week. I had the lobster roll (warm) and subbed the slaw for lobster bisque. It did not disappoint. Seafood was fresh and tasty. The menu is large and fun atmosphere, with a back room for larger parties. Good parking lot and close to the railroad station for fun tours by train. read more

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A few of us road here on Labor Day for a bite to eat and a few drinks wow what a waste of time We wanted to try one of th beers on tap for 3 of us they let us have a sample that was in a plastic cup not even a half inch of beer. Anyways after that we waited for 15 mins to place our drink order till my buddy's wife had to go fine the manager to place our drink orders Food well the wings took a really long time to get served to us So while I was waiting for another round of drinks I was looking around and like every table was empty on drinks come on. Anyways it is a super sweet location on th river if y'all sit outside And to end the experience we had to wait about 20 just to get the bill actually my buddy fell asleep waiting totally uncalled for Hope things get better cause it really does have a cool vibe and the bikes were stacked up out front Enjoy O they also do not accept discover card I was so embarrassed I felt like I was on one of those commercials read more

Crabby Al's - Really slow so sad cause it's a sweet little place Change some of the staff up and wow should rock - Seafood Near Me - Thomaston, Connecticut

Upon entering the restaurant you are pleasantly surprised at decor. Modern sports bar meets seafaring. Our waitress was a little on the slow side but nothing to complain about. Placed our order of clams casino and then fried clam strips and calamari. Clams casino come with a side of liquid butter which I thought was odd but the mixture of butter and bacon was fantastic. Dinner can of fried clam strips and fried calamari. Both were crisp and fried clams were bigger than average. Not huge portions but enough to fill me up. I had a little bit left over but nothing to box up. All was good until about 15 minutes after leaving, got bad stomach ache. I'm not gonna blame food because I can't say for sure, it could've been just eating a lot of fried stuff. Now would I go back? To be honest if I was in area I may try something other than fried dishes. read more

Food was very good. The menu was a little small. We had blueberry cheesecake which was really good. We sat in the bar area so can't talk about the dinning room. read more

Ok first time here so the wait staff is very nice they have two rooms so don't let the size scare you away . Husband had fried fish sandwich I had cup of chicken mushroom barley soup was good surprised me with it clear which I like, bread they give you is great husband also ordered cheese nachos which were good. My grilled chicken bourbon sandwich is huge and good will be coming back read more

First the restaurant was bigger than we thought it would be, and that was a nice surprise. The host was great, even checked up on us during our meal. We ordered apps and soup. The lobster bisque was great, the clam chowder was thin and disappointing. The clams casino were great! The bacon on top could have been crispier, but other than that just what I wanted. The stuffed mushrooms are dry, the butter that comes with them helped. We plan to make another visit to try dinner, next time we will make reservations so we can sit in the bar area!! read more

Pro: very open floor plan so it's easy to get out during the inevitable fire. Cons: Horrible horrendous service! Food that gave me food poisoning and was gross. It was wrong to think that a seafood restaurant in the middle of the state! read more

Tried this place again after bad meals years ago. Won't be going back this time. My food was just ok. Salmon was over cooked. Sides were good though. My husband had scallops. They were barely cooked. We asked for them to be cooked a little more. They came back about as nasty as they first were. We are all done with this place. Thank goodness we were able to sit outside as the bar area smells like a basement. read more

I've stopped in several times and had very good food - it's worth the trip and will be back again to try other specials. The waitresses and bartenders are great. ** Was back again Friday evening and had their seared U10 scallops over a Caeser salad - it was great plus the kitchen is opened til 11. read more

We've been there many times over the years. We go primarily for the hot lobster rolls which are usually nice chunks of lobster tails and claw meat. The drinks and fried clams were good but lobster rolls were very disappointing! The rolls were so soggy we couldn't even pick them up. The meat was all shredded bits of meat with few small claw pieces not even sure if it was real or imitation lobster meat. To be honest it's not the 1st time it's happened but last time figured it was an off night. I'm sure we'll go back sometime in the future. Just wanted to let you know it was very disappointing especially when paying $26 per lobster roll with fries. read more

Its fun going here to party! They have bands on the weekends. Check their website. If you're in a booth in the bar its a little loud. But they have seating in the other room. Good variety, higher priced items like steak are good. Apps are Typical bar food, premade, frozen and fried variety. Crab cakes were definitely not my fav. But everyone was chowing them. Between bar bill and food its definitely a special nite out type of adventure. Parking is on the street or way in back. read more

Love this place. Most of the time we sit on the deck and enjoy the ambience. The inside not so much. Best lobster roll around! We've never had a problem with the service. Try it! read more

First of all!! I went in to Crabby Al's for dinner Saturday night and the place was packed (no big deal) so the bartender asks my boyfriend and I if we needed a table and she sends us to the dining room to be served. We went to sit down at all the front tables in the dining room but every single table still had dishes from the last people that were sitting there.. which forced us to sit in the back. So I waited for 15-20 minutes for a server to bring a menu and ask for drinks and no one came over. Finally I had to get up and ask the server to be waited on and she proceeds to tell me that that section was closed.. okay? How was I supposed to know that? if your tables were cleaned I wouldn't have had to sit in the back.. (in case the servers weren't aware that that was their JOB)THEN I get the EASIEST thing to cook "fried shrimp and French fries" I ate a couple and began feeling extremely sick. THEN I get home and legitimately am violently throwing up nonstop. Unless you want to have your head in your toilet all night I would NOT eat here again! Not worth 60$ for frozen food served by snotty waitresses. read more

The service was absolutely horrible. Waited almost an hour for a cup of soup and dried out steamers. Another 1/2 hour for meals that came out ice cold. Reheated and still came back cold!!! Disgusting!!! The manager knew about the problem and didn't care and had conveniently left at 9 on a Saturday nite. No compensation whatsoever taken off check. Had to pay full price. Will never eat there again !! read more

Went for dinner tonight. Ordered our food and it didn't come out for a full hour. This was at 5:15, not even a busy dinner time. None of our party ordered full dinners. All sandwiches, wings, salad and soup. When the food came out, two of the orders were wrong and not anything close to what they should've been. We waited another five minutes for the rest of the right food to come out. I ordered the cold lobster roll with chips and cole slaw. I didn't care for the cole slaw. Chips were good. Lobster roll could've used more seasoning as it was very plain. Teriyaki and buffalo wings were average. Caesar salad was not good according to the guest. Chicken sandwich was over cooked. Special scallops appetizer was wrapped in bacon with maple syrup. All you could really taste was the syrup. Waitress didn't check on us after food came and never offered drink refills. The upside it was decent pricing. We came here out of pure convenience as we were on our way to something in the area. read more

We stumbled upon Crabby Al's while looking for a place to eat a late Sunday lunch. From the outside, it looked like a townie biker bar with neon signs advertising Budweiser and NASCAR, but we were pleasantly surprised by the interior. Apparently, it actually *was* a townie biker bar but the inside was completely remodeled. It has a huge L-shaped bar surrounded by high-backed stools and plasma screens and the room is rimmed with comfy, private booths. Through a short hallway is yet another dining area. The menu was ample enough to satisfy the two of us who aren't really fish eaters. I had the fried clam strip roll, and it was the best I'd ever had. A giant heaping mountain of clam strips the size of my pinky finger (no Friendly's fish tasting bread nuggets here) completely covered the roll. The cole slaw was of the more vinegar/less mayo variety (I am something of a cole slaw connoisseur) and was outstanding. The fries were also nice and crispy. Others in my group had the burger, which was raved about, and the broiled seafood trio. Apparently, the scallops were not fresh but were well cooked as to not make much of a difference. If you happen to be in Thomaston looking for a decent place to eat a hearty seafood meal, I'd give Crabby Al's a try. For what it's worth, our waitress was not crabby at all. :) read more

Nice place, and we'd like to give them more than two stars because we liked our server, and some of the food was quite good. But there were some issues, particularly the inability (or unwillingness) of the kitchen to cook dishes as we requested. For instance, we ordered the mahi-mahi and asked that it not be cooked more than a medium rare; the server said the kitchen cannot do that. And several other dishes, like swordfish, were very overcooked and on the dry side. The calamari, however, were not overcooked and had a pleasant if kind of bland chewiness. On the up side, the fried shrimp were delicious and our plate had a lot of them. They make some good drinks, too, and while we have heard Al's makes good soups, we didn't try any. The restaurant feels comfy and neighborly, although the main dining room seemed to lack AC and was a little on the warm side, while the bar -- in a separate area -- had an ideal temperature. Prices are fair, and as we mentioned, our server was good. But the bottom line is this: it's a restaurant, and if they can't prepare food as we like it, we can't rate them as highly as we might wish. Maybe some conversations with the kitchen might be in order? read more

Wow tonight went in there with the family plus sons girlfriend for a nice dinner. Ordered drinks appetizers only thing that came out was the drinks two and the clams on the half shell then the lady come over tells me the kitchen cought on fire and I can't get our meal tonight then after we get ready to leave they are seating a table behind us taking an order for everything even dinner not telling them Wow that greedy you people should have made good for it and you didn't and you handed me a bill guess I'm not paying it good luck until then I will never go back to your place if you look at the rect I put zero nothing if I get billed I will put it in the Hartford Courant Watch. read more

It used to be a good place to eat, but it appears no one knows how to cook a steak or prime rib. Waitress blond nasty attitude. Avoid if possible . Chute Gates up street a lot better . read more

Good descriptions as a local dive bar, but on the inside it is not bad....food is good...would rate the burgers up there with Joey garlics....the salmon is good too,,,,,love when they do th raw bar in Thursday's....it's a good change....tv's abound....good spot.... read more

Large place with classic 80's atmosphere. Service was excellent, friendly and fast with portions large. Definitely return visit.

The service is great. The food is also really good. I love the raw bar in Thursdays. I can't wait to go back.

The real treat is the Thursday night raw bar. Very Popular. Starts at 5 pm. By 6 you may have to wait for a seat, and by 7 there may not be much left at the raw bar. $5 gets you a dozen cherrystones - Raw or steamed. Also there's oysters, huge shrimp all at great prices. Just note that the raw bar is CASH ONLY. We had cocktails, got stuff from the raw bar for appetizers, and then ordered dinner. Menu has a good selection of seafood along with steaks, chicken, veal, etc. Everything was very good. Waitress was very attentive, even though we got our own appetizers. Oh, and there was live entertainment in the bar room. And they have outdoor dining in nice weather where smoking is permitted. read more

My experiences have been all positive. The wait staff, management and bartenders are exceptionally thoughtful and go out of their way to personalize orders and service. I have had oysters, lobster bisque, burgers, chicken and all were fantastic. read more

Service was "Good" food was good as well. The bar is shaped like an "L" so sometimes the bartender dissappears behind the other side of the bar for long periods of time and the only way to get their attention is to get up and walk around to the other side. .... I had an EXCELLENT tasting fish sandwich - which I would go back for again - my wife had a burger which she wasn't thrilled about. If you are in the area I would recommend stopping by. I wouldn't make a special trip just to come here though. .... Also, the bar is "biker friendly" which is good for people who ride. read more

My son and I had dinner here thursday nite. The bar was packed, raw bar looked good prices ,cheap....only to find out the raw bar buisness was separate from the restaurant. The man handling the raw seafood was aslso handling the cash without gloves or washing his hands...yum! We ordered fish and chip dinners, the fish was very greasy and when you lifted the batter from the fish all you could smell was ammonia! Not a sign of fresh fish! so, we sent it back, the waitress was wonderful and appeared embarrassed. She took them off the bill and offered use something else, so we tried some wholebelly clams and coconut shrimp...the clams were tasteless and shrimp very greasy. At that point we were very disgusted and wanted to leave. The waitress apologized again... we paid and left. Dont waste your money, unless you would like to be sick. Very disappointed! read more

The menu was short and to the point. The point being they are a trying to be comparable to most chain like seafood places. Small beer tap selection. The cocktail sauce tasted like ketchup and the shrimp was eh. The woman bartender was a bit eccentric but definately make my time their slightly more enjoyable. Probably would only return if I had no other option and I was in that area. read more

Food was excellent. Had fish sandwich and wife had the whole belly clams. Price was was good and fish and clams were fresh. I would have giving 5 stars except service was a bit slow. read more

Ordered the whole belly clam roll and filled up, just on the clams that overflowed the roll. I was able to bring home a fully packed belly clam roll for tomorrow. Great food, friendly atmosphere ( I love the bartender/waitress!), highly recommended!. read more

I frequent Crabby Al's especially on Thursdays when they have the raw bar, which is excellent. The staff is very friendly and gets to know you as a regular very quickly. They always have specials, which is awesome, so you can get something new. Favorites for me are the lobster bisque, which is amazing. The stuffed sole is also quite good, and the crab cakes always are great. My husband gets the wings regularly and loves them. Great place to meet and hang out with friends! read more

Incredible service and the owners make you feel like family not to mention great food