The Big Easy is roaring into PJ’s SS2, courtesy of Crab Factory, opened this month by a merry band of Malaysians who once swung through southern Louisiana on a summertime road trip spiced up by Creole & Cajun cooking & swore to bring home their tastiest recollections of the bayou.

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It’s a small, engagingly furnished eatery, complete with communal tables to let family & friends gather elbow-to-elbow for fun feasts evocative of The Deep South’s seafood boils & enlivened by a soundtrack that’s suitably heavy on Louis Armstrong & Harry Connick Jr.

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Fresh Shellfish

Fresh shellfish forms the foundation for recipes that T.Y. Ooi, this Factory’s creative chef (that’s the title on her business card), proclaims were tried & tested through many months of kitchen R&D (plus plenty of hearty eating by the restaurant’s founders).

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Crabs

We forwent the crabs in favor of the crawfish, the more popular component of true-blue seafood boils. RM78 buys a minimum order of 500 grams that’ll feed two or three people, especially with soft, lovely potatoes (RM6) or corn (RM4) thrown into the bag.

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Other Seafoods Available

Customers can also choose prawns, mussels or baby octopus; the food isn’t cheap but it’s not unprecedentedly priced either, not in this year of escalating costs.

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Preparation of the Seafood

Prepared in lemon pepper, garlic butter or ‘signature whole shebang’ sauce; the final one’s marked by major heat, more spicy than savory. Even the medium setting packs firepower that’s more ferocious than expected.

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Gumbo

Gumbo is served as a snack here, featuring shrimp, sausage meat & okra swimming in soupy, soul-food stock over rice. RM12.90; probably functions more as a light lunch than a substantial dinner.

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Fried Chicken Wings

Southern fried chicken wings, hot & juicy (RM12.90 before taxes).

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Beer

A small selection of craft beers is available too.

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Final Thoughts

Crab Factory’s opening menu sticks to the more easily prepared fundamentals, so the food’s served pretty fast; perhaps po’ boys, jambalaya & bananas foster might come later, but it’s fine for this place to focus on quality over quantity for now.

Service is friendly & obliging; the people seem nice here. At long last, the South rises again, but who knew it’d be in SS2?

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Location and Contact Details

Crab Factory Original Louisiana Boil

21, Jalan SS2/64, Petaling Jaya

Open 11am-11pm, Fri-Sun, 3pm-11pm other days, except Tuesdays.

Tel: 03-7865-5850

View Crab Factory’s directory page here.

What are your thoughts about Crab Factory? Post a thought in the comments below.