The Boil Waverly
“Gloves and bibs were given to us and it did get messy but we didn't care because everything was delicious!”
“For our mains, we ordered shrimp with the Lemon Garlic sauce at medium heat and Snow Crab legs with the Boil Special and mild.”
“Next up is Their amazing catfish basket that comes with fries and mango salad.”
The Boil Waverly
Take-out: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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Ever since first visiting the Boil at its original Lower East Side location, it has been firmly established in my mind as the premier of the growing crop of Cajun seafood boil style restaurants in New York. Claw Daddy's gave it a run for its money, but Cajun Sea (as well as the ill fated Blue and Gold Crab Shack that once resided on St Marks Place) were poor imitations. Nonetheless, the inconvenient location, and no reservation policy of the original outpost meant that it was a relatively infrequent visit for me.
The Waverly location changes everything. Convenient location: check. Reservations accepted: check. Same delicious food: absolutely. The only mild negative is a slightly pricey meal (we hit $70/ head without much in the way of booze – albeit with some slight over ordering), but that wont be enough to keep me from coming back every time that spicy shellfish craving hits.
Whoa, calling Mr. Spacious McSpacierson! This spot is huge! And most importantly – EMPTY! We've been waiting for The Boil to FINALLY EXPAND because the hours of wait at the Chinatown spot has been a real BOIL on our bodies. (Does that make sense? I really want to make this pun work). I think the word is not exactly out for this new location yet, and hallelujah. Went around 9:30p on a Saturday night, and only a handful of patrons were inside. People who mean business when eating seafood. Just bibs. Buckets. And no conversation aside from suckin' shrimp heads. Love it.
Everything tasted as good as the original location – shrimp in the boil special sauce was yumsome, as were the cajun fries and the overbuttered (yes!) sweet corn on the cob. The only thing missing at this location is the service – the original location is a well-oiled machine, and at Waverly, I think everyone is hoping someone else is doing their part, so it's spotty at best. Despite there being only five patrons, it took at least 10-15 minutes for our order to be taken. Awhile longer after the food arrived to get bibs and gloves. Awhile longer after all that to get drink refills. But if you can just get those plastic bags of seafood in front of you, I guess that's all you really need.
I love The Boil! And I love that this location takes reservations and has more seating. The decor is super cute and the seating is super cozy and comfy while retaining the personality and spunk of the original space on the LES. I ordered the lobster and shrimp (combo B) and it came with corn and potato. My only gripe is that it was $45 (cash only) and the potato is literally one potato cut up into pieces, and a half cob of corn. But the seafood is why you come here, and you leave more than satisfied. I ordered my seafood dry (no sauce) with garlic butter on the side. I really liked this option because I could control the butter intake a bit more than if it were already mixed in the bag. However, I've had it both ways and all are delish, just depends on your preference. Highly recommend The Boil. But be forewarned – if you go on a busy night they impose a 1.5 hour limit on each table that they will enforce. I went with two other people and we finished in plenty of time, but it's just something to keep in mind if you have a larger party or are taking a slow eater 😛
Just as good as the original location. Absolutely love this place–lots of space and amazing food. Definitely get the Boil sauce.
This is a great place to try if you're a fan of Cajun style seafood. Recently opened outpost of The Boil on the lower east side, and a bigger space (and easier to get into for now!)
The food here is great, we had one of the best lobster rolls here. Make sure to try this! We got the crawfish and shrimp combo with The Boil special sauce. The sauce was amazing! A great choice if you like a bit of kick and if you're here for the first time. We also got the cajun fries and the calamari, which were really nice and well seasoned.
While the main course was amazing, it was a bit of effort to eat. The crawfish is a lot of work for a little bit of meat in the tails. The novelty of eating out of a plastic bag with gloves wears a bit thin after you've peeled your thirtieth shrimp or tenth crawfish. The food is amazing though and it was the reason why I did not mind the work too much.
Try the watermelon lemonade here! Its sweet and refreshing and a great complement to the spicy cajun sauce.
Would return here if I'm in the mood for a casual dinner of good cajun seafood.
AMAZING. Fresh seafood for a good price? Yes please! I've been eyeing the Boil Waverly for a long time now, and I am so glad I finally got to eat here. If you are 1) a shellfish lover and 2) a spice lover and 3) don't mind getting messy, then you have to come here!
First, I recommend making a reservation via opentable as the restaurant was flooded on a Saturday night with people eagerly waiting for a table. Second, please make note that the restaurant is CASH ONLY!
For appetizers, my friends and I shared the raw oysters and fried calamari. A few of my friends ordered the basket of garlic bread. Everything was so, so good. Save some of your bread to dip into your seafood sauce.
For our entrees, we all chose variations of the famous seafood boils. I decide to do combo A – 1 lb of crawfish and 1 lb of shrimp in the bag of spicy house made boil sauce ($30), which is made up of Cajun spices, garlic, and butter. You can also adjust for the level of spiciness and pick the sauce of your choice or opt for no sauce at all. Along with the combo, you will also get complimentary corn and potatoes soaked in the sauce. If you're not feeling up for 2+ lbs of seafood, you can also order the seafood (crabs, shrimp, clams, etc.) a la carte by the pound.
I think I underestimated how much food 2 lbs of seafood is because I was seriously stuffed halfway through. Come with a big appetite and a big group of friends, so you can try as much food as possible! For $30 of seafood, this is seriously one of the most filling and addicting seafood meals I've ever had.
Although I really wanted to like this place, I found the food very mediocre. We ordered the shrimp and King crab legs spicy with their house Cajun sauce. I was expecting much more flavor and spice in the sauce which was bland for my taste. The flavor was nothing compared to other Cajun seafood places I've tried. We also ordered Mac and cheese, garlic French fries and oysters which were okay. I think compared to their other location, this one is not as busy so less wait time. It's cash only and make sure to wear the bib no matter how stupid you think you look!
This was my fiancée and I's first go at a cajun shrimp place here in the city! We'd been craving this food for a while–shoot, when we lived in SoCal, we'd have it every other week. We'd tried out a majority of the spots back west and each one had its own nuances.
What took us so long? The Boil opens up at 5PM and the reviews for the LES location made it seem like the wait times were crazy. But wait no longer, as the Boil's Waverly location is yuuuuge (sign of the times, guys) and, when we went at around 5:30PM on a Thursday, there was a ton of seating!
On to the food: it was delicious, and I'm not just saying that because we've been starved of cajun shrimp for roughly 5 months. The Boil is LEGIT.
(!) What we ordered: 2 lbs of shrimp (separate bags) and cajun fries
(!) Spice level: Medium — but it tasted like a mild. If you're visiting or are a transplant, Boiling Crab and Kickin' Crab's medium spice hits. If what we had was medium, mild is probably like, not even spicy..
(!) Sauce: Boil Sauce — your standard tri-blend of lemon pepper, garlic butter, and cajun sauce. What sets the boil sauce apart from the other ones we've had is that it's not salty. Seems to me like the garlic butter is more prominent in the blend, and I can dig that. They give you a LOT of sauce too. More on that next…
(!) Portion size: You order a pound but you get a good amount of sauce. Not a bad thing cause whenever we ate at other spots like this you couldn't really dip your shrimp in. Here I'm pretty sure you get less shrimp but more sauce. Again, not a bad thing cause I left with the right amount of food. I wasn't a salty, blobby mess after throwing in my plastic bib.
Extra Tidbits:
(!) Cajun fries were fine. Came with this garlicky, herby, (can't place it honestly) tartar sauce that was a nice change.
(!) Will probably order regular fries next time so I can dip them in my sauce. Ask for salt & pepper and with limes to dip your seafood in.
(!) They give you these gloves to eat with. I'm not big on that–there's a huge sink in the back to wash your delicious sauce-stained hands with.
(!) Also, for all you credit card point churners, both Boil locations are CASH ONLY!
(!) Haven't tried it here, but you can probably take the extra sauce home (you will have extra sauce unless you decide to somehow drink it) and cook some seafood with it. I did that at other places and cooked the sauce with salmon–it's delicious!