| rev:text
| - First and foremost, I would like to address that if you have been to similar restaurants such as The Boiling Crab, Hot N Juicy, The Kickin' Crab etc which all originated from the West Coast (or other major cities) then you wouldn't be surprised coming here. That is because these restaurants offered Cajun flavored seafoods boiled-in-bag type of fashion being served to their customers. It's a messy concept but it's such a BIG hit over there. The chain restaurant, The Boiling Crab, gained major popularity in the West Coast (SoCal) for the last 15+ yrs resulting in many later restaurants to imitate the same concept across the US. So yes, that is what Flamin' Crawfish aimed to do by bringing this concept here in Charlotte. Except this restaurant leans more towards Vietnamese foods including sweets, Che desserts & light finger foods fused together with Cajun flavored seafoods -- all under one roof. (Obviously Flamin' Crawfish is more catered to the Vietnamese community since this is a Vietnamese owned restaurant, if you don't already pick that up from their menu.)
The reason why I wrote this is because, I've come here quite a bit too much (I love this place!) and have seen patrons who seems unfamiliar with the concepts of the restaurant walked away. I felt terrible... But people, don't knock it if you haven't tried it! These customers don't quite understand the idea so as I sat there and ate, I would see them sit down, look at the menu and then got up and leave. That is because they were expecting your typical "Louisiana/Creole" type of items such as Po-Boys, Jambalaya, Gumbo, FRIED everrrrrrryyythinggg seafoods, etc - which wasn't on the menu. So don't come here if you're expecting those items. This is not your typical Louisiana selections type of restaurant. Come here if you're looking into venturing out for some good Cajun flavored seafoods boil, roll up your sleeves, get your hands messy type of dining! Don't worry, they will give you gloves & bibs!
I'm not going to lie, I used to knock on this restaurant when they first opened b/c of high expectations eating at The Boiling Crab so much. However, I have to say I'm quite impressed with their foods now. They have improved majorly and I loved that they are always creating new items each time I come there. With that being said, since Crawfish are now in season (from March to June/July), the crawfish are so good live! I've tried almost a little bit of everything on the menu and so far, everything's been great. (When crawfish aren't in season, they normally serve them frozen but they're not as good and super small). That is when I opted for other seafoods they have on the menu like blue crabs, mussels, clams, crab legs and lobsters.
So if you don't feel like eating seafoods, they do have a varieties of Vietnamese plates such as:
Lau (Hot Pot)
Banh Mi (Vietnamese Baguette)
different types of noodles - Bun Bo Hue, Canh Bun (my fav!), Banh Canh (Udon) etc, just to name a few of my fav there.
...Andddd I can't walk away without ordering their fabulous MyTea drinks! It's flavored, fruits-infused tea served in Mason jars. It's so refreshing and quite addicting, a must try though a little pricey on the price.
I feel like Charlotte is a little new to the "fusion" concept so I'm glad Flamin' came into existent, because crawfish itself is not too fulfilling. It took them a while but we def. needed a place like this! I think the owner/servers should explains more to "new" customers as they walked into this door or when they are seated. An introduction explaining what they should expect ie: how it's serve in a plastic bag, flavor & spices combo, explaining what those Vietnamese dishes are...etc would probably eased them into staying. Who knows, once they understood the concept that this is not a fried creole seafoods place, they might give the restaurant a try. =)
As for service, they are always nice, very friendly and accommodating but sometimes, lacking in availability/attentive when they're slow. I always have to wave them down.
The only time I've been disappointed in them was back in December/January. We ordered crab legs because fresh live crawfish and blue crabs weren't available and what was served to us was old, almost rotten crab legs. It wasn't fresh and the meats were crumbling away. We were really upset about it but I let them slide that time. Just hope they don't do it again and serve old seafood or cut corners because ...that is when you loose (loyal) customers. Otherwise, I enjoyed eating here and the seafoods have been fresh.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)