Avocado on toast, New York-style pizza slices and unthinkable smashed burger combinations – there’s an innumerable amount of food trends we’ve wilfully jumped on board with in recent years.
In part, the increasing prevalence of social media in our everyday routines means we’ve probably watched someone scoff their way through the latest viral concoction – be it the utterly bizarre hash brown McFlurry or downright dull shaved frozen fruit – more times than we care to admit.
Scrolling through hundreds, perhaps even thousands of videos of people eating their dinner is one of those really quite surreal developments of recent years. Morning commutes that would be better spent reading a book, catching up on the news or listening to a podcast are wasted watching a random person rub remnants of a greasy burger from their chin.
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But it was during a recent scroll that a new addition to the Manchester food scene popped up and it’s certainly got people talking. Seafood boils are most commonly associated with America’s southern states, particularly Louisiana. A classic boil includes a variety of fish or shellfish all boiled together in a spicy broth, with potatoes and corn on the cob thrown in for good measure.
They’re communal and interactive, with groups huddling around tables, bibs on and using a variety of utensils to crack open the various crustaceans. For some it’s a ritual, for others it’s certainly on the messier side of things.
It’s been simmering around in the Manchester food scene for some time, but a new addition has catapulted it into the news feeds of hungry Mancunians eager for a new dining experience. Enter Crabbish, a pillar-box red seafood restaurant with a giant crab above the door on Chapel Street in Salford.
Said to be the region’s only Louisiana-style seafood boil restaurant, here the seafood is boiled in a big pot then, gathered in a plastic bag and unloaded in a rather theatrical display onto a paper tablecloth in front of diners – many with their phones ready to capture ‘content’ for the grid.
There’s no way to make that sound sexy. For many, the thought of their food being emptied out of a carrier bag and dumped on the table in front of them is less than appealing. It’s one of those ‘you had to be there’ moments.
But it’s a riff on how it’s traditionally served, which would involve the food laid out on a picnic or trestle table as family and friends gather around, the summer sun setting in the background and a cold one chilling on ice.
On a drizzly February afternoon with the closest bit of water being the River Irwell, it’s certainly a different vibe. One thing is for sure though, the nautical theme is laid on thick.
From the moment I stepped over the threshold I got a very strong feeling that is how SpongeBob SquarePants would design his own diner. There were red and white chequered tablecloths, a helm stuck to the wall and a mural depicting an underwater scene of sea creatures giving me the side eye.
I was told that there’s more to come though. You know how Sexy Fish has those Damien Hirst sea sculptures bolted onto the walls, well a bit like that but perhaps not costing the owners thousands of pounds. There’s going to be some fish nets too apparently.
So, I tried to relax into it. Not one for theatrical displays or themed restaurants all that much – after a bad experience as a child at Rainforest Cafe – I focused on the food. In Louisiana style their classic boil combines Cajun spices like cayenne, hot sauce, salt, lemons and bay leaf combined with the crustaceans, which soak up all of the juices.
Before your steaming bag of prawns, crab, crawfish, mussels and the like are spun and unloaded onto the table, you have some decisions to make – some of those will require a second mortgage.
Now, cheap seafood is best avoided for reasons I won’t go into detail here, but you get the picture. If you’re an amateur like me, and dining alone, the ‘Jack Jones’ from the Mix Bag Specials section of the menu makes the most sense.
Financially speaking, £25 for 14 head on prawns, six mussels, rice, corn, fries and a drink is decent. Now scroll down and feel your eyes pop out of your head because as well as the ‘3 Way Split’ encompassing lobster tails, prawns, sausages, potatoes, eggs, corn and mussels for £120, there’s A Golden Bucket costing a whopping £398.
That’s a serious investment, so you better like seafood if you’re going for that. Granted there’s a whole lobster in there, as well as two crabs, snow crab legs, prawns, mussels, clams, sausages, corn, potatoes and seemingly the entire ocean floor, but I did almost spit out my drink when I saw the price.
If you’re seasoned you can individually curate your seafood boil bag, with prawns, shrimp, various takes on crab, lobster, mussels and clams all on offer. Then you pick your sauce – Cajun, Garlic Butter or traditional boil of salt and pepper – before deciding a spice level for sides.
Bib and gloves on, utensils in hand, I felt more prepared for dinner than ever before. The Jack Jones – with a lobster tail (£14) added for extra adventure – was cooked up and swirled around in the plastic bag before being released and cascaded onto the table, I did briefly recoil, fearing a splash of prawn juice or rogue mussel.
The theatrical element was slightly anti-climatic but I got what they’re doing and nodded along encouragingly. After having to ask how to tackle the lobster and being handed what looked like the scissors you’re provided with in primary school, I eventually found a flow that verged on meditative.
Wading my way through a mountain of seafood, cracking, clawing and cutting my way through lobster, prawns and mussels was a lot more fun than I had expected. The quality, however, is more of a mixed bag.
Credit where it’s due, the lobster – plump, juicy and dripping in sauce was worth splashing out for. I can’t be alone though in thinking that lobster is a bit of a faff and, by the time you’ve hacked at its shell, you find yourself quite weary and questioning if it’s really worth it.
Mussels can be gritty, thankfully these were not. However, a fair few were not open and we know the rule around that, so in the Crabbish bucket bin they went.
The prawns, or shrimp as they’re referred to, were easier to tackle, but lacked the wow factor when it came to flavour. The bright red Cajun sauce was doing the heavy lifting here, masking the slightly underwhelming taste of the prawns.
The sides here are secondary, though make for a great vehicle to soak up the juices now dripping off the side of the table. It was the crab cigars (£7) added on at the last minute and packed full of crab meat, Chinese noodles and vegetables, that shone brighter than the fairly bog-standard chips and rice though.
Seafood boils are not a new thing, and they’re certainly not a fad, they’ve been part of the food culture of southern American states for years. Their popularisation here in the UK is in more recent times though, filtered through 30 second clips on TikTok.
Will it become an integral part of the food scene here? Perhaps it’s too early to tell, but if you like seafood and a bit of table-side theatre this could quite literally be your bag. For others, no amount of disposable wipes will ever be enough.
