Downtown Winston-Salem’s The Big Eat was a good great excuse to be a foodie at half the price. In the final week, sister foodie and I gave King’s Crab Shack & Oyster Bar a whirl as each week they’ve offered the incredible half off deal on a pound of snow crab legs. Alas, the special was crawdads, but my sister decided to go ahead and order the snow crab and are we so pleased that she did!

King’s is a very casual, very oyster bar meets pub. We saw guys in ties meeting for after work brews and groups of friends and just dudes hanging catching that disappointing Indiana game (sorry, Hoosier fans). In addition to The Big Eat, King’s was having $2 taco night and $2 specials on select Mexican brews. Specials, specials, specials. I love to eat cheap, ha!

I decided to order a half dozen steamed oysters and a fish taco. I felt that would get me started, especially knowing I’d get a taste of the legs once they arrived. The fish for the taco was lightly breaded and fried and had just little spice. It made for a great appetizer.

Sister foodie got a real appetizer of crab stuffed mushrooms. They are touted as being fabulous and they lived up to the hype. A cheesy mixture with peppers, crab and BACON and the BIG mushrooms themselves remained nice and firm. It is a substantial appetizer and can be shared between 2-4 people. Don’t fill up on them because you need to save room for other stuff, foodies!

Then came those oysters….man, I’ve been craving them! And they don’t have a lot of calories (something that I’m watching and it is NO fun when your idea of an adventure involves food). They were so fresh and a little briney. I dabbed a little horseradish on top with some cocktail sauce and the customary squeeze of lemon. They were gone in a blink.

So ugly they are cute, right?

Sister foodie’s snow crab legs soon followed. They were so amazing and fresh and did not even need the drawn butter. That’s pretty awesome because drawn butter is, well, pretty awesome. They brought us a few extra legs and I had a hard time staying away. If you like crab legs, you know they make you work for that delicious, sweet crab inside. I always end up with some sort of battle wound. But they are so worth it. And these were no different.

This was not the full pound my sister ordered. These were the “extra” ones. A little appetizer to whet our whistle. Where’s the picture of the pound? I have no idea. Here’s what everything looked like when we’d had our way with all that shellfish.

    We are just a little gross, I think.

Fortunately there was no judgment from Austin, who took such good care of us.

For a place that calls themselves a crab shack and oyster bar, there sure are a lot of options for the land lubber.  There are salads, burgers, sandwiches with chicken, wraps and quesadillas and entrees. But more importantly there are tons of fresh seafood options…I mean tons. Crab, soft shell crab, KING crab legs, PEI Mussels, scallops, clams by the dozen, fresh or steamed oysters, shrimp. There’s this Dreamy Steamy Bucket that I’d love to get with Mr. foodie that has snow crab legs, shrimp, mussels, clams, oysters, scallops and maybe a pearl (lol—they said it, not me). They also have a good soups du jour selection with Oyster Stew on Mondays and She Crab Soup on Saturday. Check the menu or website for the specials.

On this particular night, it was busy, but we didn’t have to wait as we sat at the bar. But keep in mind your schedule since King’s doesn’t take reservations. All in all, it was kind of like getting all the great culinary benefits of the beach even if you didn’t get to enjoy sand and surf. And the good news is flip flops are welcome at King’s Crab Shack & Oyster Bar and you’ll feel like you escaped in this casual and fun place, even if it’s for an hour or so. They are open 11am until Late, 7 days a week. Oh and one day I hope to visit the sister restaurant, also owned by Will Kingery, Willow’s Bistro located on South Liberty Street. That’s a blog for another day 🙂

King’s Crab Shack & Oyster Bar

239 West Fourth Street, Winston-Salem, NC

336.306.9567