Being in the restaurant business, my perspective on a dining establishment is two fold. Two questions are explored- Is the food good? And how does the overall business work? If the food is good, people will basically come back. Even if people get bad service, as long as its not outrageous, people will come back if the food is good. For example, how many times have you gone back to that Chinese Restaurant that just had ludicrous service, but the food was delicious? I know I’m guilty. But if the food is just slightly bad, then why ever go back? And then there’s the business…how profitable a restaurant is, is due to many factors, but mainly product, service, and overall efficiency of the preparation of the food equals X. Boiling Crab in Alhambra seems to have built on these two factors very well in my opinion. There is usually an hour wait during the week to eat at this place and even longer on the weekends. It is a Southern styled Vietnamese steamed seafood joint that has taken a simple concept to complete success. You basically order a bag of various weights (depending on your party) of shrimp, crab, lobster, corn, sausages, and or crayfish in its respective southern seasoning and you eat it. Yes, they literally give you a plastic bag of boiled food in the sauce you choose and you eat. So simple, so delicious, so efficient.
