Tracy’s King Crab Shack is definitely one of the dining hotspots in Juneau, Alaska.
And for good reason.
What trip to Alaska would be complete without a plentiful serving of Alaskan King Crab?
In this article, we will take a look at what it’s like to dine in at Tracy’s King Crab Shack. We’ll cover the menu, prices, and what you can expect with the overall experience.
Table of Contents
What is Tracy’s King Crab Shack?
Tracy’s King Crab Shack is one of the premier dining venues in Juneau, Alaska. It’s famous for its huge red king crab legs straight out of the Bering Sea that you can order by the bucket.
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Where is Tracy’s King Crab Shack?
Tracy’s King Crab Shack has two locations in Juneau.
The main location is directly across from the Juneau Cruise Ship Terminal Area at 432 S Franklin St, Juneau, AK 99801. It’s in a big red building that is basically impossible to miss.
The other location, Tracy’s King Crab Shack 2, is about 10 minutes away and it’s found at 300 Whittier St, Juneau, AK 99801.
Tracy’s King Crab Shack
Whenever you arrive at Tracy’s King Crab Shack, there’s a good chance that you might be turned off by the long line outside of the restaurant.
But don’t worry, from what I witnessed it moves relatively quickly.
(Btw – they don’t take reservations here.)
The way it is supposed to work is that you go through the line, make your order, and then find you an open seat.
If you’re visiting during a peak time like we did when virtually all of the seats are full, you might want to send one member of your party to go lock down some seats while someone else waits in line to place an order.
People are constantly going and coming so it’s not that hard to find a seat to open up.
Some benches are located outside and there’s also an outdoor area that is covered in case of rain.
But we opted to eat inside where I felt like we could experience the true atmosphere of Tracy’s King Crab Shack.
There’s quite a few different seafood options available at Tracy’s King Crab Shack: Dungeness crab, snow crab, crab cakes, crab bisque, etc.
But if you are like me you have your taste buds set on King Crab.
We decided to do it big with one of the three pound crab leg buckets which ran $220! A pretty penny.
It comes with coleslaw, three rolls, and melted butter. I felt like this was plenty for two people.
Take a look at the menu below but keep in mind prices are subject to change.
When you put in your order they will take down your name and whatever state/country you would like to claim so that whenever they read out your name it will be easier to tell your order apart from others.
And if you place an order for one of the crab buckets you’ll trigger a special bell ringing and restaurant-wide shout, because it wouldn’t be a crab shack without some type of obnoxious gesture, am I right?
Most of the seating inside comes in the form of long benches which means you’ll likely be sitting close to other people when you finally find a seat.
This helps to create a pretty lively atmosphere inside the restaurant where passengers from various cruise ships interact. You never know who you might meet.
(If you’re looking for a quiet place to feast on crab legs, dining inside may not be the right move.)
There are tools that you can use to help you get some of the crab meat out and you might want to secure some of these while you wait for your grub to arrive.
Another customer actually offered these to us and while we waited for our food we set them down on the table only for some klepto crab lover to come and steal them! WTF?
We asked the staff if they had any others and they told us no which I thought was the only real negative of the experience.
I mean we are paying $220+ for a crab bucket and it doesn’t come with one of these handy tools? It really put us in a *pinch*.
Anyway, when the crabs came out it was time to get to work.
Well, almost.
If you order one of the buckets you owe it to yourself to snap a few photos with the “best legs in town.”
Once we placed all the crab on the table, I was pretty amazed by the sheer size of the crab legs.
When you have not eaten a lot of crab — especially huge crab like this — you sort of forget how much work is involved but it is 100% worth it.
Everybody may have their own technique for getting the meat out but here’s my recommendation.
You can snap off the smaller portions of the legs at the joints and then carefully crack the leg piece in half. Bend the cracked leg back-and-forth until the shell separates. Then slide 1/2 of the cracked leg off and pull the meat out as seen in this video.
Other times you may need to just crack it down the middle.
Once you get your form down, the well-cooked crab with then slide out effortlessly.
I’d never held such huge, unbroken pieces of crab before so this was a first for me.
As far as the flavor goes, the crab lived up to the hype. Well-cooked, soft, and buttery. Pretty much all you could ask for.
The sides also delivered which included the fresh rolls and heavy, mayo-based coleslaw.
The only thing we didn’t care too much for was the crab bisque. Very creamy but faint flavoring for our liking.
We chatted it up with some people next to us who ordered the crabcakes and they had very positive things to say about them, so maybe give them a shot as well.
Once you start to make a pile of discarded crab, you can simply toss it in your bucket to keep your space nice and clean.
When you get done dealing with all those buttery crab legs chances are you’re gonna need to wash your hands thoroughly and they have a couple of “sink bucket” stations for doing that.
If you’re in the mood for a drink they do have a bar where you can pour up some local beers. Fill up a pitcher for $20.
There’s also a gift shop with some apparel, and a lot of souvenirs including special crab sauce.
One last thing to note is that you can actually order their products and have them shipped to you. This includes crab!
Final word
Because of how busy the place is and the prices, I could see a lot of people taking a pass on Tracy’s King Crab Shack.
Yes, a lot of times it is going to be full of hungry tourists coming off the cruise ships which are basically right in front of the restaurant.
However, it’s a fun place to splurge on some crab legs and the quality of the crab cannot be denied.
I wish they were not under supplied with the crab shell tools but other than that, I’d say it’s worth checking out.
Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned travel expert covering destinations along with TSA, airline, and hotel policies. Since 2014, his content has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and CNBC. Read my bio.