Crab mania hit town-side last summer and this year has made it to the Leeward side with the opening of Cajun King in Waimalu Shopping Center. It’s a sibling to King Street’s Lobster King and Shabu Shabu King restaurants. Though there’s no lack of King Street addresses to accommodate more cuisine kings, crab saturation in town renders this expansion to new territory a wise move.

Just as at the town-side crab eateries, the restaurant specializes in messy but satisfying shellfish boils delivered in heavy-duty plastic bags. The restaurant, on the site of the former Christie’s, is more elegant than your average crab shack, so it didn’t feel right to drop empty shells on the table. For the first time, after reviewing four other crab restaurants, I asked for plates.

I’m also beginning to master the art of staying clean while chowing down on garlic butter-saturated crab. My technique: plastic glove on left hand (I’m right-handed) for grabbing; glove-free right hand to manipulate a tool arsenal of scissors, claw cutters and nutcracker.

The entire experience is comparable to its town counterparts. Those who have been to any of other restaurant with "crab" in its name already know the drill:

No. 1: Pick your seafood. Lobster is $17, Dungeness crab is $32, with per-pound prices for king crab legs ($25), snow crab legs ($15), head-on shrimp ($10), clams ($12), crawfish ($10) and mussels ($11).

No. 2: Pick your seasoning from Cajun spice, garlic butter, Cajun-garlic butter or nothing at all.

No. 3: Pick your spice level, from none, mild, medium or volcanic.

For about $48 to $55, you can get a combo bag filled with crawfish, mussels, shrimp, clams, two pieces of corn and a couple of pieces of sausage, plus your choice of lobster, Dungeness crab, king crab legs or snow crab legs.

Wash it all down with beer or soft drinks.

What separates Cajun King from the pack is the availability of Chinese side dishes such as snappy stir-fried garlic string beans ($12) that compliment any of the seafood boils, spicy eggplant ($12) and other seafood such as black bean clams ($16), ginger and onion oysters ($16), salt-pepper shrimp ($15) and stir-fried lobster ($17) or Dungeness crab ($33).

There are also vaguely Chinese-style plate lunch combos served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. A one-half salt-pepper or Cajun-style lobster paired with New York steak, shrimp or pork chop and your choice of plain or fried rice runs about $12.99. Never mind that neither the rice nor the salt-and-pepper pork chop is not the best you’ll ever have. The stir-fried lobster hits the spot, and the combos are still a deal considering the portion size.

Deep-fried selections round out the menu. These include crisp, golden hot wings with a choice of salt or Cajun spice ($9), popcorn chicken ($9), fried oysters ($13) and colossal beer-battered onion rings ($7). The size of the rings is impressive, but they are more watery than most.

The restaurant certainly adds diversity to the Leeward dining scene. For dessert, just walk over to Aloha Crepes/Aloha Snow Flakes a few doors away for a taste of Taiwanese-style shave ice.

Nadine Kam‘s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.