It's really been two years since I've last been here and I literally just moved across the way last year. I can't believe it's taken me this long to come back. Regardless of the matter and situation, I'm happy to see that they're doing well. I came in super late last night being it the second to last Friday for Lent and was craving seafood. I remembered this spot had a dish of steamed clams in a basil and ginger broth that reminded me of my dad's Filipino version. I came back because I craved it and since I wasn't feeling 100%. This brought me back to life. It was so good and fragrant, which definitely brought me back to my childhood. I decided to also get a few more dishes since I'm acclimating to the Vietnamese culture. The food here is super good and the owner or staff here in general are very nice. I'm going to try to come back often since the price point is worth it in my opinion. read more

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Rating is based on the Oc and goi ONLY. Usually, we'd order four dishes and one gỏi, and that would be enough to keep two people full for the entire day... whether it was from places like Ốc Cây Dừa, Ốc & Lẩu, or even Phở This Way. But using that same approach here, we were still very hungry afterward. Not only are the portions extremely small, but the flavors are inconsistent. The xào me was overly salty, while the rang muối ớt was surprisingly bland. On top of that, the presentation was top notched....... the portions are much smaller than what's shown in the photos, vegetables were stale, and there wasn't even any garlic included, despite it being clearly shown on the menu. The gỏi was okay. Will not return. read more

Oc Lau Nuong Restaurant - Seafood Near Me - San Jose, California

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We came here about 4 times already. Overall, the food was just okay, some hits, some misses. This time we ordered: * Ốc len xào dừa: 2/5 - the flavor was off. I wouldn't order this again. * Roasted crab: 5/5 - The highlight of the meal. The crab was big, fresh, and well-cooked. * Crawfish: 3/5 - Flavor was good, but the crawfish were on the smaller side. * Súp măng cua: 1/5 - Disappointing. They used imitation crab and flavor was blank. Soup was not as thick as it's supposed to be. * Beer: 1/5 - Not served cold enough. Would really recommend serving beer ice-cold, and it will be great if they have chilled glasses. Customer service was also quite slow but friendly. Overall, there's room for improvement, especially with drink service and ingredient quality in some dishes. The roasted crab is definitely worth trying, though. read more

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Went to try a new place, overall upon visit the opening wasn't to welcoming. Seatings was fine and the ambiance was okay but the main thing is the food and service. Many things forgotten when ordered, understaffed and stomach aches Food: Bo Ne, Vietnamese Wings, Hu thieu nam vang, Com tam suong nuong Bo Ne- 3/5 Meat was fairly tough , flavor wasn't bad bread definitely needs to be crispy. Vietnamese Wings- 1/5 small wings and dry! Hu Thieu- 3.5/5 Quality of the food was okay, dad had stomach ache after Com tam- 3/5 Decent flavor tough meat, portions small overall, would not come back but good experience to try. Hopefully some improvements to come! read more

This is my top spot for Vietnamese seafood! Everything is very fresh and there's never a single dish that I don't like. All the food is very flavorful and compliments each other well. My favorite dishes are the king scallops, water spinach with conch, sea bass hotpot, salted fish fried rice, and squid in tom yum salad. Definitely want to give their seafood boil a try sometime! read more

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A great telling sign about the authentic and genuine quality of the food, as well as how good it is, is by the rotating gaggle of Viet uncles who go in, chat, eat, go out to smoke, come back in, and keep repeating this cycle. We saw this at the table next to us and immediately knew that this is one of the spots where the real ones pull up and that the food was going to be fire. It's one of those Vietnamese restaurants serving snails and other shellfish, along with more exotic cuts of meat. Menu is massive with not only the different meats, but also the different dishes that they serve ranging from curries, musubis, seafood boils, fried rice, noodles of all kinds, sizzling plates, hot pots, and much more. Some of their more exotic meats are quail, frog, wild boar, goat and of course, their snails. They also have a wide variety of drinks, alcoholic and non! Definitely order food to share here so everyone can try a little bit of everything and we definitely ended up over ordering and having food to eat later on. For our trip, we got the: 1) Peach Orange Lemongrass Tea: -Never had lemongrass in my tea before, but I'm a fan of lemon grass in food, so this added a nice zest to the already citrus drink. The peach made it a bit sweet too. Not bad and refreshing. 2) Babylon Snails (Ốc Hương Việt Nam): -These are sweet snails from Vietnam. You can choose the sauce they're cooked in. -We got them in the iconic salted egg sauce, that gives it the yellow orange color. -Delicious rich salted egg yolk flavor that went with the butter and the slight chew of the snail. Definitely scoop as much sauces as you can with the snails. It's also very fun to skewer them out of their shells. 3) Conch (Ốc Giác): -This is smooth conch and comes with 2 large conches. -You can choose the sauce that it's seasoned and cooked in, so we got the xao me (tamarind sauce). -A bit chewier, but you get so much more meat. Goes will with the fragrant fresh basil leaves. 4) Wild Boar sauteed with Curry, Turmeric, and Coconut Milk: -Heo Rừng Xào Lăn. -This comes with banh trang or the sesame crispy cracker that ou can eat it with. Super flavorful curry that has a sweet taste from the coconut milk and a savory taste from all of th eother spices. -First time having boar meat. Honestly, think of a fusion between regular pork and beef, with a little more gamey-ness in texture. Not bad though. I'm not a fan of the fatty bits, but my boyfriend ate that. It's a very lively restaurant even in the strange mid hours between lunch and dinner. Would like to come back to try more of their menu and to see it during livelier times. read more

Seafoods were all frozen and very chewy... you should avoid any grill seafood. Very pricey for frozen seafood. Very disappointing. read more

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genuinely one of my favorite places EVER food seafood boil, theyre so underrated and so kind and just amazing. i probabaly go here like every other weekend lol. i do highly recommend you come whenever crawfish is in season though because omg it comes out plump and juicy and fresh. And yes i get the same thing everytime i love my order. they also have thai tea here aswell which isnt too sweet but just enough, cant eat seafood boil without a fun drink read more

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This is extremely expensive. The total came out to $15.99 plus tax, and the portion isn't even enough for one person. When I called, I was told it's priced by weight? They need to improve on the portions of the food especially when you charge so much for one item and its not even worth it. read more

Oc Lau Nuong Restaurant - 15.99$ + Tax? - Seafood Near Me - San Jose, California

I don't know if any other eateries in the SF Bay Area serve sea snails. If you do, let me know! My BFF and I had a late night dinner date here and I was looking forward to trying the seafood here. While service was good, the seafood we had was disappointing. The portions were small and every sea snail, escargot, and clams we got either had a lot of rocks and sand or broken up shells. It made it very unpleasant to eat. I probably won't return, but if I do, I'd definitely order something else other than the seafood. read more

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I stumble along this place on yelp when i was looking for a similar restaurant name in LA, and this place did not disappoint. We went around 2pm that day (late lunch) and there was pretty much no one there. Oc Len Xao Dua (Snail in Coconut Milk) Oc Mong Tay- Xao Bo Toi (Razor Clam- Garlic Butter Saute) So Nhat- Nuong Mo Hanh + Trung Ca (Giant Surf Clams- Grilled Buttered Scallions and roe) Goi Muc Thai Lan ( Cuttlefish Tentacles in Thai Tom Yum Salad) Garlic Noodles and So Huyet ( Blood Clams ) All the seafood was so good, the garlic noodle needed more garlic but still finished everything. Got drinks- Tra Dao Cam Sa (Peach Orange Lemongrass Tea) - it was not that good and tasted a bit like it went bad. Overall it was good. service was good. would come back ! read more

Recalling -- -- back in November, I came to treat myself to some snails, balut, steak, and a few beers. It must be that they don't see me with a man so they feel they can feed me whatever quality food they please. I say this because they have seen me with the mister in 2023 and treated us very well. The steak was $40 and was a sopping mess of teriyaki sauced meat with a side of broccoli and mushrooms. The grill marks looked fake as there was no grilled taste. The broccoli and mushrooms were exactly that. Nothing special. There was a strange dried herb that was haphazardly thrown on top. It was inedible. I took it home and fixed it up. Strange, because the chef is an older man. And don't men pride themselves on grilling? $87.48 for slimy snails, two balut, the steak, and 3 beers. Add the poor experience with the seafood boil and you have the recipe for a one-star review. I redact all initial praise for this restaurant. read more

Oc Lau Nuong Restaurant - There's so much teriyaki sauce pooled at the bottom and what's with the dry herbs? Didn't taste grilled at all. - Seafood Near Me - San Jose, California

I showed my friend this place and instantly she said LETS GO! Well hard to believe but we stop by twice and the food here doesn't disappoint. True atmosphere of what a late night hangout and to drink and eat Vietnamese delicacies. So grab a friend or a few and come try out their food. The parking area is a bit small and it's not that far from Andrew hill high school. The inside has a comfortable amount of seating areas. With booths on the side and tables in the center. When we arrived, we didn't wait long and was told to sit down anywhere. Not long after, we were given the menus to look at and figure out what to eat. We ordered escargot , Manila's clams in Tom yum broth, Vietnamese salad and com tam. Everything came out really good so no complaints there. They have a lot on their menu from frogs, snails, seafood to beef, chicken and lamb. They also have hotpot if you want to eat that too. Probably will be coming back here again since my friend loves it and when she comes back to San Jose. read more

Oc Lau Nuong Restaurant - Seafood Near Me - San Jose, California

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Great food and best service! If you love cajun style seafood, this is the place. The menu is full of drinking food, especially crawfish, lobster, crab and shrimp, in cajun style with a Vietnamese touch, Viet-cajun. Excellent service from friendly staff. Great for family and friends gathering. read more

Good service, food was decent, raw oysters was very fresh. It might be Kumamoto oysters. I like it! Will return someday. read more

Oc Lau Nuong Restaurant - Raw oysters - Seafood Near Me - San Jose, California

The only Vietnamese seafood I've had was in OC and I've been eager to find a spot here in the bay area. We came on a Sunday night and were surprised to only see one other table so there was no wait. They set down white paper table cover which is convenient since seafood can get rly messy. Also appreciate the napkin dispensers per table. A limey zesty sauce and nuoc cham was given to add of us. We ordered -Goi Oc Giac/Vietnamese Conch Salad: Definitely top 2 for everyone. So refreshing and the conch wasn't chewy in an overcooked way. Was the first dish to be finished. -Sot Trung Muoi/ Salted Egg Sweet Snail: So difficult to open to the point we questioned if some of them were edible. The sauce. Crazy. Would come here again JUST of the sauce. Wish it was available for other dishes. -Xao Bo Toi/Garlic Butter Razor Clam: The menu said it came with 5-6 but only came with 3. Really difficult to chew through/bite through. Garlic butter sauce was addictive and insanely delicious. -Mussels: We ordered it with garlic butter but they gave it to us with fried onion and green onion instead? Unsure what they called it. It was good. -Crispy Seafood Egg Noodle: Good but I don't think I'd reorder it Overall, the main things that stuck out to me were the garlic butter sauce and the salted egg sauce. The quality of their seafood/ the freshness wasn't anything special to me. Would definitely come back to try more of the menu. Service and prices were good as well. read more

Oc Lau Nuong Restaurant - Conch salad, salted egg sweet snail, seafood crispy egg noodle - Seafood Near Me - San Jose, California

SUPER disappointed in this establishment. There were obnoxiously drunk loud uncles cursing and talking loudly inside the restaurant. I'm pretty sure it was the Owner and his friends, they were watching sport on tv and drinking. It made my whole dinner very uncomfortable. Not to mention, the bad service we received from the girl and guy that worked that night. It was practically empty but it took over 30 minutes to get my soda. Food were ready but the girl was on her phone and doing whatever she was doing; letting our seafood lau just sit there while we watched my son finish his food. We asked for our lau and she just stared and then realized she forgot or something, went to get the food but doesn't even turn the fire on for us. Their food is good but I will not be coming back. One bad experience is enough to keep me away. read more

I was really excited to try Ốc Lẩu Nướng, but honestly, the food was pretty disappointing -- especially the crawfish. It didn't taste fresh or seem like it was alive before cooking, even though the staff said it was. The meat was dry and had that frozen seafood smell and texture instead of the sweet, juicy flavor you get from live crawfish. I wasn't eating much either -- mostly just separating the tails from the heads to check for freshness, and as you can see, I left most of it as is. Kind of a letdown, especially after trying Crawfish LA just down the street -- their crawfish were big, plump, and clearly fresh. Hopefully, Ốc Lẩu Nướng can step up their freshness because the experience just didn't live up to expectations. read more

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Variety of seafood foods dishes and exotic clams and snails dishes. Reasonable priced menu. Dining area with sports on tv. read more

Oc Lau Nuong Restaurant - Clams, mussels over garlic noodles, fish n chips - fried potatoes. - Seafood Near Me - San Jose, California

Save your time and money DO NOT COME HERE! If I could give this place 0 stars I would. Ordered crawfish Togo and it was frozen. At least have the decency to tell me on the phone you got frozen crawfish. Ordered potatoes in the menu says 2 potatoes but it was 1 potato cut in half. The sausage was thinly sliced 5mm thin. Fucking rip off piece of shit place. Will never come back. Dirty asf! read more

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The service here is starting to slow down.. almost non existent. How did I know this was going to happen. We literally waited 20+ minutes before asking where our Lau was and the waitress said "oh, you wanted it now?". What do you mean? We're sitting here literally watching our nephew eat his Bo Ne waiting for our food. She didn't even bring me out my Coke that I ordered until I asked for it. She never once checked on us, she didn't even turn our pot on. Too busy talking on her AirPods. Otherwise the food is good but service this poor can make you loose customers. read more

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Decent place. Decent price on food. They're know for their seafood and escargot. They also have hot pot, fried rice, bo ne, saute noodles, chicken, quails, and so on. It depends on what you want to eat. This place is more like a place you came to hang out with your friends since you can tell by the young crowd. You do see family with their kids as well. The waiter are mostly young but they seems nice. Food came out at reason time. Portion aren't super high which is why peope can order a lot. The place itself is small so it can get crowded fast. Parking lot is small. Glad i was able to try this place though. read more

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I really hate to give a low rating, especially since we're fans of Vietnamese food. We chose this place because of its seafood offerings, and my wife had been craving balut. Unfortunately, our plans for our weekly family dinner were changed when the two spots we originally wanted to visit were closed on a Monday. We tried the razor clams in garlic butter, which arrived first and were delicious. This gave us hope that we had found a great restaurant. However, when our seafood boil came out, we were disappointed. While the sauce was flavorful, the crawfish and clams definitely did not taste fresh. Our balut was decent and the blood razor clam was our least favorite--something about it just tasted off. On a positive note, our other son enjoyed his popcorn chicken and fries, and the crab fried rice was good, especially with its crispy texture. Overall, the flavors were promising, but with a menu focused on seafood, freshness is important. Especially when serving an Asian clientele who can easily identify when seafood isn't up to par. I hope this place improves, as it has potential! read more

Avoid this place. It's a total rip-off. $27 for this portion. Hella overpriced for what you actually get. The audacity to charge this much for such a pathetic portion is unbelievable! read more

Oc Lau Nuong Restaurant - Seafood Near Me - San Jose, California

Disappointed 1.5 stars because: Service was pretty quick BUT don't trust the employee's recommendation, it sucks. We got: - Com Ca Mang (salted fish fried rice): recommended by the employee because it's "so good." It was so bland we had to scavenge for salt, pepper, and other sauces to mix it into it... it was as if we had to make it ourselves 0/5 Stars - Coconut Snails: very sweet, it was good! But for the portion vs price and quality, it was 4/5 stars - Both clams and snails: did not have any flavor.. 0/5 stars The interior of the place is small. Selection of soda is non-existent (2 kinds, no diet). No music so you can hear people gossip while you eat. This place was recommended to us but I definitely would not come back. read more

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This is my second time visiting Oc Lau Nuong and it was even better than my last visit. The seafood assortment is a seafood lovers dream! The menu is easy to read and sorted by the type of seafood then the different seasoning that you can choose to have your fish cooked in. We always get an assortment of dishes to share for the table. This time, we got the Bo Ne and it was probably the best I've had thus far. The Bo ne doesn't look like much but is soo good. The steak seasoning is soo good and wasn't too salty and had a sweet and savory flavor. Price for all dishes was decent and worth every penny. read more

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I learned about this place from friends and I so happy to try this restaurant! The parking lot is alright, but it's right off the main street which was convenient. As a seafood lover, I was more than excited! There were numerous empty tables so the server described we could choose our table. He quickly provided menus and they gave us one of each menu to review. We ended up deciding on one seafood item, one steak plate, and a chicken salad. As we waited after ordering, we watched the sports games streaming on the TVs on the walls or reviewed some of their specials that were displayed on various chalk boards. It is definitely more of a casual dining ambiance over a "date night" style restaurant. The food game out quickly and nearly all at once. The first was the chicken salad and it had a good balance between the herbs, onions, and chicken. The onions did not have a large bite to them, so they worked well within the salad! Next came the hot plate with bread on the side. I like how the bread was hot and toasty! The steak was cooked as expected (medium-rare), but I should've gotten a rare steak...the cast iron plate was H-O-T so it continued to cook the steak while eating. Even the tomatoes were a little charred from the hot plate. Lastly, the escargot came out. They were cooked well and maintained a chewy consistency. So great! The garlic butter sauce complimented them well. The menu has so many other interesting items to try. Next time for sure! Overall, I enjoyed the food and would come back! Maybe, I would try it with some family friends who speak Vietnamese to fully understand the menu items. read more

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Oc was okay, it all kind of tasted the same after a while because they were loaded with toppings. We also got some undercooked escargot which was really unpleasant. Portion sizes were okay, but for the small dishes, they were pretty expensive for the amount that we got. I really liked the scallops and hot pot, though! Service was pretty good and we were quickly seated during lunch time on a week day, they put tables together fast for our party of 9. read more

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Pictures looked good and pot looked big. To our surprise, a hand size pot came out not even full of oc, escargot. Most oc were not fresh. Finger clams smelled stinky, over cooked baked oysters were also NOT fresh. Thin slices of Coch were over cooked and chewy tough as rubber tires. The only thing that they got it right was the garlic noodles. Very disappointed for the low quality of food and the over priced meal. No I would not come here. 2 stars for the friendly service.Beware fake 4.0 ratings and look at the cloudy mirky water in the fish tanks! read more

We ordered a few seafood items and a steak. Very reasonably priced and fresh seafood. Service was quick. read more

Oc Lau Nuong Restaurant - Crawfish - Seafood Near Me - San Jose, California

I have been here many times and this place has a lot of great food. Service is good! Come to check it out!

Wow, I have not been here since they changed the name of the restaurant. It's still the same owner but the food selection has expanded. I use to go here for the hu tieu nam vang because the sauce was really good. However, this time we wanted to try their new menu items. The salted egg snails were sooo good. We kept on dipping back into the sauce. It's a very unique dish that other places do not have. The hotpot was a very big portion. We were a group of 3 but we definitely could have fed a 4th person. The staff here are super nice and sweet. They have TVs for those who want to come here on a game day. read more

Oc Lau Nuong Restaurant - Salted egg snails and snail salad - Seafood Near Me - San Jose, California

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The "must try" óc hương Việt Nam/sweet snail was rich and tasty but would've been better if they served it with a baguette to dip in the creamy sauce. The óc móng tay/razor clams was pretty good but very heavy on the green onion and peanuts, light on the clams themselves, unlike in the picture on the menu. The "óc hương biển"/escargot was salty. Forgot which Manila clams we got (maybe the Thai tom yum) but they were good. Rau muống xào óc giác/stir fried water spinach with conch meat was ok but good portion size. The nước đưa tác/coconut juice and kumquat drink was good, we got a medium carafe and it was enough for two people plus one cup to take to-go. Service was excellent. Would come back. read more

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We were in the mood for some snails in coconut milk and we knew of this place and decided to give it a try. The waitress was friendly and helpful for us. We were quickly seated for a table of 5. We did order our snails in coconut milk, razor clams we tried to order but they ran out so bummed, he had some blood clams that were delicious that I dipped in their house sauce which was even better, we had some salad with konch in it and it was good!!! Putting that salad on some shrimp chips were amazing- had a nice kick to it. Food came out fast and hot. One thing to note their strawberry lemonade is really good. I literally drank a medium serving all by myself!!!! read more

Oc Lau Nuong Restaurant - Seafood Near Me - San Jose, California

kinda insane restaurant concept, hotpot or lau, snails/all types of sea food and like crab boil types of food. Lots of options but just came to get some snails. The razor clams were good and alls the snails had good flavoring./seasoning. I could taste the freshness in the seafood the razor clams weren't chewy and snails were tender. Oassionfruit sode drink was yummy too. overall gave 3 stars because the dishes did not come out as pictured. they were smaller or presented differently with less care than advertised on the menu. For the price I believe that the portions are too small, but there is a lot of variation the menu so maybe you'll find something you like. Restaurant seem clean and not too busy and the servers were like a typical Asian staff. read more

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Food was pretty good and the service started out very well and quickly went downhill. The server was friendly, but after putting in our order, she never checked on us ever again. This then resulted in our table waiting for our food for over 30 minutes, while every table that arrived after us received their food and even left lol. When we flagged down one of the other servers to ask about our food, she came back and apologized and mentioned the receipt got lost in the back somehow...... our initial server then came over and apologized and said "she didn't know what happened in the back". If she was attentive to our table, I think she would've realized nothing was coming out, but that's my two cents. Also, there was no comp for any inconveniences. Gratuity was automatically included too, since we had a party of 6. Otherwise, I'd likely tip less.. The restaurant is super small, hence it used to be a boba shop. The area is also super sketch, lots of beggars and trash everywhere- same plaza as taqueria and 7-11. Overall, I'll take this first experience as a one-off and I'd probably come back when craving Vietnamese drinking dishes, such as razor clams, snails, etc. The crawfish was huge and the house sauce was a bit different than any Cajun boil I've had, but not bad. read more

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Not a fan of this place, I came here looking for crawfish and was very disappointed overall especially in the portion sizes. Coconut snails - 0/5 I've never had coconut snails this bad before, the snails were so slimy and the coconut sauce was not flavorful whatsoever. Worst coconut snails I've ever tasted. Razor clams with garlic butter - 3/5 The razor clams itself was pretty chewy but the sauce was good, I dipped my fries in it and even put it on the surf clams. Surf clams with scallion and fish roe 4/5 These were good, they were even better with the garlic butter sauce. French fries 2/5 Good fries but such a small portion for the price point. Crawfish in sj sauce - 3/5 I rate it higher due to the sauce, the sauce was so tasty but the portion size was so small it didn't seem like a full pound. The crawfish also tasted frozen. I think they can improve service, my one tip is to offer waters and ask the customers if they wanted to order before the kitchen closed instead of stopping by the table to mention the kitchen was closed. Overall the sauces were good, but u would not come back here again. read more

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My friend Mike recommended me to try this spot out & I'm so glad I did. It was kinda hard to find the parking lot but I posted a photo of what the outside & inside look like for ya'll. The menu is big and there are English translations next to photos of most of the dishes (SUPER SMART). The service was quick and efficient. The food was BOMB.COM!! We ordered the Razor Clams, Sweet Snail, Calamri Tentacles & Blood Clam. Everything was AMAZING!!!!! I also got one fresh coconut juice & I was reminded why I love it so dam much. It's so refreshing. I can't wait to go back again. I can't stop thinking about how yummy the food was. *DROOLS* read more

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My favorite was Calamari. Scallops were kinda dry and steak was ok. Good customer service, good place to hang out and get crawfish. read more

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Food was good except for the sandy escargot. The garlic noodle was okay. Scallop and the drink were pretty good. Razor clam can use a bit more seasoning. read more

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