Joe's Crab Shack

Doesn't Recommend

CMcCarty

Joined 2 years ago

Family Friendly?? Not unless you smoke.... My daughter and I visited this location about 7pm tonight. We were seated outside as requested, so my daughter could play on the playground. We had been seated about a half hour, and before our food came, a table of six was seated two tables away. Not long after our food arrived, two of the men walked into the playground area, stood by the railing right next to my table and began smoking and chatting. One of the men continued to smoke after he returned to his table. He held the cigarette in his hand at the table, even as his waitress had come out to give them more beer.

Being pregnant and having a three-year old child with me, I couldn't stand the stench of the smoking (which is illegal in Columbus due to the city-wide smoking ban in bars and restaurants) and eat. I walked inside to ask for my waitress (was a different woman than the offending table's waitress) and for some to-go boxes, as we had eaten about a third of our food. She told me she would tell the manager.

The manager, Gabriel Saibert, merely came outside and said he was sorry and to have a good night. He did not speak to the men who were smoking (at least while I was there) and upon seeing who the manager was, I recognized that he had been standing outside speaking with a different table while the men had been standing in the playground smoking the first time.

No attempt was made to either offer to relocate us inside, address the smokers, or to discount any part of our order for the inconvenience of having to hurry off well before we finished eating. We were given a few small to-go boxes, and left to pack up our dinners and pay the check, and scurry off.

I realize that my daughter and I, who had ordered about $25 worth of food, were fiscally "less important" than the table of six men who ordered steak and were drinking plenty of beer.

It appeared clear to me that the inconvenience we experienced was far less important than the table spending more money, made glaringly obvious by both the lack of attempt to make the situation right with us, and by the lack of even approaching the violators of the smoking ban.

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Contributor

Joined 10 years ago

A colorful seafood restaurant for kids of all ages--especially the younger ones.. In Short
Admittedly kitschy, unavoidably noisy, this Red Lobster for rug rats is like an oversized seaside shanty awash in oceanic memorabilia--fishing nets, souvenir trinkets, plastic flotsam and jetsam. Staffed with a lively crew of G-rated table-dancing servers, the family-friendly chain anchors its menu in all things crab: Crab balls, crab cakes, crab dip, crab gumbo. Finicky children opt for corndogs or hamburgers; shellfish-phobic adults dine on rib eye steak or mesquite-grilled chicken.