Best place (value) in chicagoland for king crab?

Just wondering if anyone could give me any advice for the best king crab in the chicagoland area, I'm looking for quantity and price so, overall the best value to get absolutely stuffed with king crab. Thanks in advance to any replies.

Well, the best value is probably cooking it yourself. You can find it (frozen - with few exceptions, almost all king crab legs are cooked and frozen before shipping) for $9-10 per pound at Costco and Sam's Club all the time, and occasionally for that price at the big supermarkets. There are cooking tips on this website.

However, I assume from your question that you're asking about where to buy it at restaurants. The best value is probably at the places that have "all you can eat" specials. They aren't cheap, but you can eat a whole lot of it. Pappadeaux in Arlington Heights had such a deal at one point, on Thursday nights. Before that they had "all you can eat lobster" on Thursday nights, and they may have gone back to that (or discontinued both). You'd need to call them to double-check.

Another place that used to have all you can eat king crab, also on Thursday nights, is Davis Street Fishmarket in Evanston. I haven't been there lately so I don't know if they still have that deal. There, you have to eat a WHOLE lot to make it worth your while, but they also have king crab portions of several different sizes that would be a better deal if you don't have a huge appetite.

Beyond that, I don't know, but I'll look forward to reading responses from other folks. Keep in mind that value is a function not only of price, but also of portion size, which can vary substantially.

No frills, (no real charm, IMO) but very fresh and abundant quantities . . .

Bob Chinn's Crabhouse
393 S. Milwaukee Ave
Wheeling, IL 60090
847 520-3633

=R=

nsxtasy wrote:Well, the best value is probably cooking it yourself. You can find it (frozen - with few exceptions, almost all king crab legs are cooked and frozen before shipping) for $9-10 per pound at Costco and Sam's Club all the time, and occasionally for that price at the big supermarkets.

Dominick's / Jewel (although it is Dom most frequently) do dip as low as 7.99/lb - and even less for king legs. I always kick myself for not buying them in abundance, and vacuum sealing them in batches.

Anyway, another all you can eat option for king legs I've seen advertised is at Maywood Race Track for whatever it's worth. I've never been. Don't know anyone who has. They do advertise it on their giant display board on the street quite frequently.

Half Shell on Diversey. Dark garden level bar with crab leg specials, cash only, no hats.

Hmmm ... where to get King Crab .... maybe ...

King Crab
1816 N. Halsted St.
Chicago

It's not great, can get a bit noisy, but prices are reasonable.

seebee wrote:Dominick's / Jewel (although it is Dom most frequently) do dip as low as 7.99/lb - and even less for king legs. I always kick myself for not buying them in abundance, and vacuum sealing them in batches.

Don't beat yourself up too badly. I've tried to seal them a few times and the shell ALWAYS punctured the bag. FYI, not had much success with shrimp in the shell, either.

ronnie_suburban wrote:No frills, (no real charm, IMO) but very fresh and abundant quantities . . .

Bob Chinn's Crabhouse
393 S. Milwaukee Ave
Wheeling, IL 60090
847 520-3633

=R=

Unless you consider 1-2 hour waits charming, let me offer a word to the wise for those people who are new to Bob Chinns. Call in advance and talk your way onto the waiting list. I do this routinely as I leave my house in Highland Park and am usually able to walk right in bypassing hour plus waits on a regular basis. Sometimes you need to be persistent but they will always put you down if you ask. I enjoy the crab here as well.

From the brunch thread, posted by nxstasy

One place that does a very nice huge all-you-can-eat buffet for Sunday brunch is Allgauer's in Northbrook. They have a flyer that shows what they have, here. I'm pretty sure they take reservations. The biggest, best buffet brunch on the North Shore.

They have all you can eat King Crab on their brunch

nsxtasy wrote:with few exceptions, almost all king crab legs are cooked and frozen before shipping

ronnie_suburban wrote:No frills, (no real charm, IMO) but very fresh and abundant quantities . . .

Bob Chinn's Crabhouse

The king crab legs at Chinn's, like at most places, are previously frozen. (I just called them to confirm.)

Allgauer's also offers all-you-can-eat king crab legs on their Friday seafood and prime rib night. However, I've had them there, and they are not as good when they are on a buffet steamtable as they are when they are cooked to order, as at Pappadeaux.

Rick T. wrote:

seebee wrote:Dominick's / Jewel (although it is Dom most frequently) do dip as low as 7.99/lb - and even less for king legs. I always kick myself for not buying them in abundance, and vacuum sealing them in batches.

Don't beat yourself up too badly. I've tried to seal them a few times and the shell ALWAYS punctured the bag. FYI, not had much success with shrimp in the shell, either.

I don't have any success at all keeping the bags from getting punctured while frozen. The only way you might have some success is by first putting them in thick freezer bags or wrapping in heavy tough material so no sharp points exist while under vacuum and they'll still get holes when the plastic gets brittle and cracks at the stress points.

nsxtasy wrote:

nsxtasy wrote:with few exceptions, almost all king crab legs are cooked and frozen before shipping

ronnie_suburban wrote:No frills, (no real charm, IMO) but very fresh and abundant quantities . . .

Bob Chinn's Crabhouse

The king crab legs at Chinn's, like at most places, are previously frozen. (I just called them to confirm.)

I should have been more specific. What I meant is that because of the fierce turn-over here, fresh or frozen, I doubt the product sits around very long at all. Again, I'm no huge fan of the place but if what you say is true about most places having frozen, I'm fairly comfortable guessing that Chinn's goes through more of it than just about anyplace else in the area.

=R=

iblock9 wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:No frills, (no real charm, IMO) but very fresh and abundant quantities . . .

Bob Chinn's Crabhouse
393 S. Milwaukee Ave
Wheeling, IL 60090
847 520-3633

=R=

Unless you consider 1-2 hour waits charming, let me offer a word to the wise for those people who are new to Bob Chinns. Call in advance and talk your way onto the waiting list. I do this routinely as I leave my house in Highland Park and am usually able to walk right in bypassing hour plus waits on a regular basis. Sometimes you need to be persistent but they will always put you down if you ask. I enjoy the crab here as well.

They do take reservations for groups.

My wife and I have always made reservations at Bob Chinn's and have always been seated within five minutes of our arrival at the restaurant.

The stuff at Jewel and Costco is pumped full of sodium tripolyphosphate and other manner of preservatives and "salting" chemicals...if you compare it to what you might buy at the Fish Guy or Dirk's...there is no comparison...the Jewel stuff has a slightly metallic or off flavor you might not notice on it's own, but definitely head to head....

Regarding frozen crab, because of fishing regulations, unfrozen Alaskan red king crab is only really available for a short window, like between early October and early December during the legal fishing season....once the limits have been reached, that' s it, and pretty much everything served everywhere including the highest of highest end places (unless they're encouraging poaching) is frozen Alaskan red king crab. The high quality frozen stuff is still amazing. The really good stuff is flash frozen on the boat or at high tech shore fisheries with no preservatives, so it's virtually fresh....kind of like good shrimp in the midwest...or frankly I know Morimoto freezes high end Toro once it's out of season in expensive blast chillers to keep it throughout the year for his restaurants...same kind of idea.

The frozen stuff at Dirks and The Fish Guy is probably the best available in town....and Dirk's live stuff in the fall is THE best around. It has an inherent butteriness even before you dip it in butter.

jlawrence01 wrote:My wife and I have always made reservations at Bob Chinn's and have always been seated within five minutes of our arrival at the restaurant.

agree, the past several times i've been there (party range from 2 to 10), we've been seated within 5 minutes. granted we always ate after 7pm.

seebee wrote:

nsxtasy wrote: Anyway, another all you can eat option for king legs I've seen advertised is at Maywood Race Track for whatever it's worth. I've never been. Don't know anyone who has. They do advertise it on their giant display board on the street quite frequently.

Long time lurker, first time poster. I had to chime in about Maywood Park and their buffet. Was there several months ago for a fund raiser. The crab legs are snow crab. Not bad, just a whole lot of work for little payput. The buffet as a whole was decent, not great. I think the cost was $30 and included a parking, admission, program, the buffet, and unlimited beer, pop, and wine.

Would not go out of my way for the crab or the buffet. However, would go back just to support the track. My friend who hosted the fundraiser said the track was very generous and because of the tracks generosity, the fundraiser was profitable. This generosity alone has drawn me back, not so much to eat, as to wager on the trotters and have a few ice cold beers!!

nsxtasy wrote:The king crab legs at Chinn's, like at most places, are previously frozen. (I just called them to confirm.)

Nsxtasy,

Bob Chinn's King Crab legs are both my wife and my favorite, fresh tasting, even when previously frozen, and in season Bob Chinn's offers, as MJN mentioned about Dirk's, fresh never frozen King Crab, which is a real treat.

Half Shell is fun, crowded bar atmosphere, quality King Crab legs, but, for some odd reason, they only offer garlic butter which to me masks the flavor of the crab. My wife grew up and then worked in that neighborhood for many years and is quite fond of the Half Shell.

Costco has the occasional Seafood Road Show, a free standing kiosk selling quality seafood at Costco prices. I've purchased King Crab, mussels and other items and been pleased with quality.

Enjoy,
Gary

Bob Chinn's Crabhouse
393 S. Milwaukee Ave
Wheeling, IL 60090
847 520-3633

Half Shell Restaurant
676 W Diversey Pkwy
Chicago, IL 60614
773-549-1773

Costco

Bob Chinns has always been good for King Crab as well as Kona Crab.

Shaws is decent as well for the King Crab.

I have been to King Crab and was not happy with my visit.

As for Costco, the one I frequent in Naperville always has the set up for selling King Crab legs, as well as oterh items(whole Dungeness Crabs, scallops, shrimp, lobster tails) at different times.

I also go to Supreme Lobster in Villa Park for Crab Legs when I want the best around

www.supremelobster.com

All the above infor coming from someone who eats a few pounds of King Crab legs probably every other week, as well as a couple pounds of snow crab legs, or dungeness crab every week.

jimswside wrote:I have been to King Crab and was not happy with my visit.

Jim,

I had a mildly unnerving experience at King Crab a number of years ago and have never felt compelled to return.

Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:

jimswside wrote:I have been to King Crab and was not happy with my visit.

Jim,

I had a mildly unnerving experience at King Crab a number of years ago and have never felt compelled to return.

Enjoy,
Gary

gary,

I just had some bad service, so I have not returned.

I typically prefer to steam my crablegs at home, but sometimes it is fun to get out of the house to crack some crabs.

Also I saw Davis Street Fish market recommended above. I used to be a big fan of Davis Street & their chowder before they remodeled the place and changed the menu. I went back once since they did this, and will not return. It was better in my huimble opinion as a "hole in the wall seafood shack" type place (with the sink to wash your hands in the dining area etc.), over the more upscale image it is trying to present now.

G Wiv wrote:Bob Chinn's King Crab legs are both my wife and my favorite, fresh tasting, even when previously frozen, and in season Bob Chinn's offers, as MJN mentioned about Dirk's, fresh never frozen King Crab, which is a real treat.

Please note that I was not trying to disparage Bob Chinn's king crab legs for being frozen, only noting that, at least most of the year, they are not fresh (as was previously described).

Anyone who loves king crab legs, as I do, is probably accustomed to, and very satisfied with, previously frozen crab legs; these are indeed fresh tasting at the better seafood places, as well as when prepared at home. In fact, king crab legs seem to suffer less than other types of fish and seafood as a result of freezing, probably due to the quick freezing process commonly used in the industry.

If you want them really fresh get them here and cook at home.

http://www.farm-2-market.com/products/crab.html#KING

Although I have not ordered them as yet, I keep planning on it!

MJN wrote:Regarding frozen crab, because of fishing regulations, unfrozen Alaskan red king crab is only really available for a short window, like between early October and early December during the legal fishing season....once the limits have been reached,

More than once, I've been to Shaw's Crab House and they've had live King Crabs in their tanks. One night a manager pulled one out of tank to give my 9-yr son a closer look. That was fun. The market price for monsters was somewhere around $200. I've never ordered them fresh like that. But I love the regular King Crab Legs at Shaws (frozen, but always outstanding.) I don't know how the portion would compare to other places but it seems about right.

Also, for cooking at home. Whole Paycheck has great ones and they only cost about your whole paycheck But they do seem like a higher quality than those at Jewel. We got some for New Years Eve. One leg was nearly a pound.

I'm sorry, but isn't like 99% of king crab that you get at restaurants (especially here) frozen on the boat when it's caught?

We had King Crabs at Joe's Steak and Seafood in October, the best crab I've ever eaten, hands down. Can't say there's value, it's damn expensive, but it was mighty worth it that time.

jesteinf wrote:I'm sorry, but isn't like 99% of king crab that you get at restaurants (especially here) frozen on the boat when it's caught?

Yes, as noted above.

Exhibit A

My 9-yr old doesn't have quite the facial hair, but yes, that's the idea.