Million's Crab- Ashwaubenon, WI

My husband and I entered 4th of July Weekend looking for some new experiences in town, and where better to start than with the brand new Million’s Crab in Ashwaubenon that opened just a few weeks ago. We’ve always loved a giant pot full of boiled shellfish, and we awaited the opening of Million’s Crab for a long time after the facebook page was created. It was a conscious choice to give them a few weeks to get their feet under them before we stopped in for a visit.

A cursory google search confirms that this is a small Midwestern chain specializing in various seafoods, including what my husband and I showed up searching for: crab legs. Ashwaubenon is one of its first locations in the Upper Midwest. Their charted expansion on their website shows many more opening in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area ‘soon’. The Ashwaubenon location was in the works for some time as far as I can tell. I’ve had the facebook page for this location on watch since mid-2020, and it finally opened in June 2021.

Their logo work is top notch. I’m in love with the little crab and his giant sunglasses. He’s on everything: the bibs, the wet wipes, the table paper, the to-go bags. Someone worked hard on that little guy. It’s a delightful marketing decision, and I’m an adult. The little cartoon guy will get me every time.

Going into our visit Saturday afternoon, I expected that some of the kinks might not be quite worked out of the machine just yet. It turned out that was the case. The location doesn’t yet have its liquor license, which seems like a misstep on first appearance. My husband and I are both the kind of people that LOVE an ice cold beer to get us through a long crab boil. This just wasn’t here during this trip. Our waitress insisted they are working on it-- so if this is a dealbreaker for you, give it some time.

We settled down with our glasses of water and ordered a calamari appetizer that comes with a sweet and sour sauce that’s akin to thai sweet chili sauce. The calamari is gorgeous when it comes to the table, although on closer inspection, the batter isn’t on the interior of the ring. I found the seasoning to be a little lackluster, but the sauce absolutely helps elevate the appetizer. On this particular visit, the calamari was a little chewy, indicating it may have been overcooked.

When our one and a half pounds of snow carb legs arrived at the table, it was hard to find anything to put down about our meal. We’re midwesterners through and through, so any meal of crab legs is a treat. We opted for a garlic butter sauce that was delightful on the crab itself. There are many options, if you’re looking for something spicier for your own visit. There is even a sliding spice scale after choosing your sauce. We opted for mild, though in future visits, we may go a little higher. The crab legs and the accompanying potatoes and corn were all steamed well.

I personally found the salt level to be lacking to some degree. Asking for a salt and pepper shaker to assist the potatoes certainly helped. The actual crab, which appears to be the star of the show, was still very tasty.  Our time on the east coast gave us more blue crab and lobster than crab legs, so we’ve never developed a snobbery to our seafood consumption that would stop us from enjoying ourselves on this sort of meal in the midwest. 

It takes a chain akin to Red Lobster and Joe’s Crab Shack to achieve this kind of experience, especially in this part of the country. Million’s Crab is much smaller, and yet the standard is much the same. The menu is diverse in terms of seafood offering for midwestern locations. Lobster rolls, crab boils, clams and mussels and oysters and seasonal crawfish. All hard things to find at any other restaurant.

 I left with a generally positive feeling about it’s future. The liquor license is supposedly in the works, which will help with sales and the general feeling of a crab boil. The staff is attentive, though while we were there, there was a waitress to each table. There weren’t many visitors yet. This is a small chain still trying to get its legs underneath it in a saturated restaurant market like Green Bay. We’ll be back in the future to see how they’re doing in a few months.

You can check out their facebook page to watch their growth yourself. They’re doing a great social media push with their visitors at the moment. If you want crab, make a stop. If you want a drink with your crab, give them a little bit.