The Boiler Shrimp and Crawfish Skokie, IL - Legit Louisiana Seafood

By Josephine Layug

The Boiler Shrimp and Crawfish Review

How many of you have heard of a seafood boil or the Louisiana Boil? I’ve heard about the seafood boil from friends, family, and of course the Food Network. I always wanted to make my own seafood boil but never had the chance. Last Friday my mom and I decided we wanted to have seafood for dinner. I remembered friends posting pics and raving about a new restaurant in Skokie, IL called The Boiler Shrimp and Crawfish as the place to go.

Market Price Board

We barely missed the dinner time rush. When we decided to go here, we had a plan B just in case the wait for a table was long. Luckily, we were seated as soon as we walked in. The waiters and host were nice and very informative, as it was our first time at The Boiler Shrimp. After we were seated and our waiter took our drink order, another waiter came by and dumped lime and little cups filled will seasoning, which looked like salt, pepper and garlic powder. We were instructed to squeeze lime into the cups with the seasoning and dip our shrimp in or any of the seafood we ordered.

Mussels and Corn in Trifecta Sauce.

They have a great assortment of seafood to pick from, as well as a few fried basket options. When ordering, there is a 3 step process: 1) Pick your seafood: blue crab, oysters, king crab legs, snow crab legs, Dungeness crab, crab claw caps, lobster, crawfish, shrimp clams or mussels. 2) Pick your flavor: Cajun, lemon pepper, garlic sauce, or Trifecta. 3) Spice Level: How HOT do you like it? The options are non-spicy, mild, med, or XXX. Then, you can choose sides like corn, sausage and potatoes, which they can throw into the mix or put on the side. From what I have heard, the corn, sausage and potatoes are a must in the boil!

Shrimp and Potatoes in the Delicious Trifecta Sauce.

We ordered the Mussels, Shrimp, and Dungeness Crab with corn, sausage and potatoes in their Trifecta sauce! Everything comes in pounds except the Dungeness crab and lobster; you get those whole. The wait wasn’t too bad. They did warn us that the Dungeness crab takes a little longer to cook, so they brought the mussels with corn and the shrimp with potatoes out first. Since we couldn’t decide what sauce we wanted, we chose the Trifecta sauce, which is a combination of all the other sauces. Talk about a party in your mouth–it was DELICIOUS!! We are glad we stuck to non-spicy, because the sauce already had a kick to it. Of course the spice level all depends on each individual. My mom and I can’t handle very spicy food, so we just stuck with non-spicy.

Dungeness Crab with Sausage in Trifecta Sauce.

Dungeness Crab Cracked Open.

I highly recommend this place if you are looking to try the seafood boil–or if you want to pretend you are down in Louisiana, experiencing a seafood boil served with Southern hospitality. The Boiler Shrimp & Crawfish is located at 3445 Dempster St., Skokie, IL 60076. I can’t wait to go back and bring friends!

The aftermath of our meal!