The Tangy Crab: Wrong Time, Wrong Place

A little over a week ago my wife's side of the family got together for our nieces birthday. We typically go out for special occasions like this anyway, but since she just turned 18, it was a little more special this year. Typically, this niece picks between one or two specific places when she gets to choose where we eat, so it threw us for a loop a bit when she decided we should go to The Tangy Crab.

For one, @mrsbozz isn't a fan of seafood, like, at all. I can't think of a single piece of seafood that she will actually eat except maybe crab rangoons, but those are usually mostly cream cheese. There is a shrimp dip that her mom makes, but again, that is mostly cream cheese. I've had both of them and unless you go to a really fancy restaurant, you would struggle to actually taste any seafood in those items.

In fact, the mere smell of seafood makes her feel as though she needs to vomit. Given the fact that I had just finished getting over the norovirus or something similar, my anticipation of visiting a place that specializes in seafood boils wasn't very high.

My hope was that the smell of butter, garlic, and spices would trump the smell of seafood. I was mostly right...

The Tangy Crab seems to be a kind of local regional chain in Michigan. I have never been to a Joe's Crab Shack, but I have a feeling it is kind of like that.

We felt the decor was kind of on the nose with the whole seafood theme. I think they could have added a bit more attention to the detail, but let's be honest, most the time you don't go to a restaurant for the decor now do you? @mrsbozz and I started with an appetizer of hush puppies which I didn't get a picture of. They were actually quite good, but not the best ones we have ever had.

It's pretty safe to say, if you have a shellfish allergy, there isn't anything safe in this place. Just a hunch. My wife and pretty much resigned herself to getting the deep fried chicken fingers when she got a look at the menu. I had it in my head I was going to get the chicken wings, but I ended up switching gears at the last minute.

We had a pretty big group of about a dozen people, so it took a bit of time for everyone to get their order taken and then eventually served.

As I said, the decor was about what you might expect from a place like this, but everything just kind of felt a little dirty too. It doesn't surprise me that much given we were in Saginaw, MI, but still, it didn't help our enthusiasm at all.

It's not that @mrsbozz doesn't eat fried food, but she tries to limit the amount of fried food she does eat. In addition to that, if she has to eat fried food, there are many other things she would rather have than chicken fingers. So you can imagine her pleasure at finding the gumbo on the menu was seafood free. It had veggies, chicken, and some smoked sausage that she was easily able to pick out (which I then ate).

She was actually pretty happy with the gumbo though she would have liked if it had more chicken in it. She said the flavors were really good and it had a nice heat that just kind of stayed with you after you had each bite. I tried a bit of it and it was quite good. It was thick and it almost felt like I was eating a bowl of gravy, but the flavors were good.

As I said, I shifted gears from my initial choice of chicken wings and ended up going with the fried catfish. It was pretty good, but not the best fried fish I have ever had. My brother in law also got the catfish and he was pretty impressed with it, but for me it was just kind of meh.

I actually haven't had catfish since I was visiting some friends of my parents down in Oklahoma about 30 years ago, so I can't really speak to how it compares. Along with the fried catfish I got the cajun fries and they were just kind of meh. If you have ever had Rally's seasoned fries, those are much better than what I got here.

Several other people in our group got one of the signature seafood boils that they offer there. Including our niece who picked this place. They seemed to really enjoy it, though it felt to me like it was a lot of work for the amount of food they got. My brother in law got an appetizer of the crab bites and those were quite good. I was also kind of hoping someone would get crawfish in their boil as I have always wanted to try one of those, but no such luck.

By the end of the night, I was pretty much ready to be out of there. The smells were starting to get to me which is funny because usually it doesn't bother me that much. I guess I was still recovering from the stomach bug.

My wife and I agreed that we would probably never visit this place again unless we were invited there by someone as was the case this time. I think if I do ever go again, I will definitely get the chicken wings next time.

If you like cajun seafood though, and you are ever in Michigan, this might be one to check out.