Our story
First seafood boil restaurant in San Diego.
Family-owned since 2007.
Our History
1994
Phan family--Papa, Mama, Kim and Ky, moved from Vietnam to Houston as refugees. Here, they were first introduced to southern seafood boils and fell in love with Cajun flavors.
1997
Kim & Ky meet Quan, an aspiring artist and designer and their families become close friends.
2002
Papa, with previous experience cooking in the Vietnamese military, opens a small Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant in El Cajon to support the family where Kim, Ky, and Quan all worked throughout their childhood and teen years.
2000's
Kim, Quan & Ky start chatting about opening a seafood boil restaurant in hopes of helping their parents retire.
2007
The family opens up the first Crab Hut restaurant in Kearny Mesa, with Ky in charge of food, Kim handling finances and administrative work, and Quan on design and construction. (Meanwhile, Quan was still working full time as a graphic designer during the day!). 1 year in, Kim & Quan get engaged inside that very restaurant.
Today
Since then, our family has grown in every way. We are proud to continue to serve our delicious seafood boils across San Diego, and plan to continue to do so for the foreseeable future!
Our Commitment
We commit to providing our guests with food made with mindfully-sourced, superior quality, and exceptionally fresh ingredients.
Mindful Sourcing
We actively seek out vendors that provide high quality and fresh products, while maintaining sustainable practices that reduce the environmental impact of their business. Here are just a few of the vendors we are proud to support:
Ikana Live Mussels
Owned and operated by the Glass family, Ikana partners with famers in New Zealand who "lead by example in healthy ocean management and sustainability". Their New Zealand Green Mussels are packed within 1 day of harvest and stay live in their custom packaging for 12 days. They are delivered to us fresh and are never frozen before being served in our restaurants.
Mainely Lobster & Seafood
Mainely is a third-generation, family-owned business that provides all our restaurants with consistently high-quality lobsters, responsibly harvested off the coast of Maine. Through partnerships with local fisheries, they help preserve the marine ecosystem and ensure the sustainability of future lobster populations.
Superior Quality & Exceptionally Fresh
We are a family that eats a LOT of seafood. This is why we are proud to serve our guests food that we would be proud to serve to our own families.
Dungeness crabs and Maine lobsters are live in seafood tanks prior to being cooked to order.
Crawfish is live when in season (typically peaking late February to June). Frozen crawfish are only used during off-season periods.
Clams & Mussels are live prior to being cooked to order.
Corn is sourced fresh from a small family-owned business, and is never frozen before being added to our boils.