Caribbean Jerk Crab Legs and Complimentary Lemon Drops!
Atlanta loves a seafood boil. A recently opened seafood restaurant is garnering local and national attention with unique seafood sauces and co-ownership by a Grammy award-winning rapper.
Atlanta rapper Lil Baby and restaurateur Chad Dillon have created a stir on the city’s restaurant scene with the opening of their restaurant, the Seafood Menu Restaurant and Lounge. Located at 880 MLK Jr. Dr., SW, the restaurant sits next door to the Atlanta University Center and in the backyard of Lil Baby’s alma mater Booker T. Washington High School.
The menu boasts steamed and fried seafood selections including lobster, snow crab, catfish, and tilapia. Each steamed seafood combo is served with corn and potatoes, and each fried seafood combo is served with seasoned french fries. The combos have at a fairly affordable price point. The menu’s Combo 1 includes snow crab, shrimp, corn, and potatoes for only $17.99. A 2 piece fish and fries combo is sold for only $13.99.
While these seafood selections can be found at seafood restaurants across the city, the price of these platters are unbeatable, and the menu offers an undeniably unique list of butter sauces from lemon zest (lemon pepper) to sweet chili to honey hot.
Dillon spoke with The Atlanta Voice and shared that his favorite sauce on the menu is the Caribbean jerk butter sauce paired with a steamed seafood platter. He also championed the sauce as one of the restaurant’s most popular.
The restaurant offers customers the option of being served carryout style or enjoy a dine-in lounge experience in the rear of the restaurant. The dining area had a perfectly lit warm ambiance that gave the restaurant a semi-luxurious feel. The restaurant speakers bumped today’s greatest hits of hip hop including tracks from Lil Baby’s discography. During The Atlanta Voice’s visit, we tried the steamed snow crab platters and fried catfish and shrimp platters with lemon zest, honey hot, and sweet chili sauces.
Dine-in customers are offered complimentary lemon drops upon seating. Flavor options include the traditional lemon or an added fruit flavor like strawberry, blueberry, or peach. The restaurant is also preparing the release of frozen flavored lemonades on the menu. After an approximate 30-minute wait, our seafood arrived on our table. The food was deliciously hot and steamy. I enjoyed my steamed seafood combo with lemon pepper sauce accompanied with a side of honey hot butter sauce.
The variety of sauces dramatically changes each bite. The jerk sauce instantly travels you to the Caribbean. The lemon zest sauce is Atlanta as can be. And the honey hot butter sauce is the perfect sweet heat combination and my personal favorite sauce. Needless to say, I enjoyed my meal. However, the seafood could have been fresher and prepared better to avoid crab meat stuck inside the shell.
The dining experience would have been perfect if I didn’t have to spend so much time fishing for crab meat. My team members who tried the fried seafood platters fully championed their meals. Their only recommendations were for the restaurant to add more season salt on the fries which is an easy fix.
The restaurant’s affordable price points and unique delicious, flavor options are highly honorable mentions that give all the more reason for Atlanta visitors and natives to try the Seafood Menu Restaurant and Lounge.