Black Owned Seafood Food Truck Wins Best In South Florida

If cameraman Korey (@KoreyDavisPhotography) doesn’t shoot it, I won’t eat it.

The Hungry Black Man team decided to write a series titled “South Florida’s Top 10 Black Owned Food Trucks,” and Sister Sara’s Crab House is the first of this delicious series. As a mobile restaurant (or food truck), the business is primarily stationed at 2373 Northwest 19th Street, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33311, but the Griffins routinely take their tasty cuisine on the road, sharing the love throughout all of South Florida.  Sister Sara’s Crab House is definitely a grown man’s seafood eatery; owned and operated by a beautiful black husband and wife duo, Terry Jr. and Laquonda Griffin, with a little help from Terry’s parents Brenda and Terry Sr. Griffin.

For starters, the truck is gorgeous with Sistine Chapel like cleanliness both inside and out.  It was so clean I felt dirty walking up in my old ragged New Balances.  The truck even has a hand sanitation station thanks to Momma Brenda, who reminded me of my own mother who used so much bleach and comet in our home that I may have permanent brain damage. Black mothers are some of the cleanest people on earth! When they start cleaning, get the f$%# out of their way or you may end of looking like Lil Kim from all that damn bleach. So yeah, you get the point, the truck was spotless.  The truck also has a surround sound system where you can hear great music while placing your order or dining at one of their outside tables.

Terry Jr. came up with the concept of a food truck from having learned to cook African-American cuisine from his grandmother.

“My grandmother honestly taught me everything about cooking seafood. I would go crabbing with her in addition to catching fish.  We would come back home and I would have to scale and clean the fish, as well as help her with getting things together for her crab boil,” he shared.

Terry’s grandmother did a phenomenal job because, this food truck’s Crab Boil ($23) can only be rivaled by an old Cajun woman living in the swamps of New Orleans.  You can get various sizes that are less expensive starting from $13-$23, but I wanted the most crab in mine so I settled for the largest portion.  The dish is served in a large aluminum serving pan with snow crab, corn on the cob, sausage, whole boiled eggs, potatoes, and jumbo shrimp.  Each component was seasoned well and the seafood had great consistency. The crab legs are large enough to snap and eat the meat right out of the shell; not those aggravating small crab legs where you have to eat with the accuracy of a neurosurgeon to get a good piece of meat.

A key in cooking any shellfish is to test the texture.  If the texture is rubbery the meat is not done enough. If it’s falling apart, it’s overcooked. The shellfish in Sister Sarah’s Crab Boil was slightly firm, yet succulent, somewhere between the two extremes of tough and falling apart. This is definitely a MUST HAVE.

Following the Crab Boil, I ordered the Honey Hot Fried Jumbo Shrimp and Fries ($11). Cameraman Korey ate most of my fries, but I was able to salvage a couple. The shrimp were fried to a nice crisp and the sauce gave a decent amount of heat, while still allowing for the taste of the actual shrimp.

Next up – the Jumbo Shrimp Philly and Fries ($13).  The bread was soft and fluffy stuffed with well-seasoned steak strips smothered with cheese, topped with Jumbo grilled shrimp – delicious in every way imaginable. Soft bread, hot well-seasoned steak, melted cheese and jumbo grilled shrimp. What the f$%# else can you ask for after eating this?   Actually, you can ask for any sauce to be added for only ($1) more. I settled to take it as is, but next time, I will definitely add a sauce.

The deliciousness was topped off with desserts that were amazing. I had the Strawberry Shortcake Slice ($5), which is a family member’s recipe that includes homemade cheesecake with real strawberries incorporated with a gram cracker crust. The gargantuan, very shareable slice of pie is extremely sweet and is served with crusted strawberry syrup on top. It’s honestly a MUST HAVE. Rich in texture and extremely decadent, it had my ass happy the rest of the day.

The lightly seasoned 6 0z fried lobster tail ($13) allowed you to really taste the actual meat of the crustacean instead of a boat load of seasoning. A little lobster info: lobster is sourced from either cold water or warm water.  The more expensive and better tasting lobster is usually the cold water lobster from areas like Maine.  Sister Sara uses warm water lobster found right here off the Florida coast, however, with the cooking techniques passed down from Terry’s grandmother you honestly couldn’t tell the difference.

The fried lobster was seasoned extremely well along with the crab; both fried with their shells.  It’s best to eat hard-shell crabs and fried lobster as quickly as possible when they come out of the sizzling hot deep fryer.  The proper method for eating fried “hard-shells” is to eat them in the very same manner in which you pick and eat boiled hard shell crabs. First chew off the batter crust. Then meticulously pick out every bit of the succulent crab meat, eating it as you pick. The same holds true for lobster, but most of us eat the lobster tail, which is easier to manage.  Either way, I sent an email to Beyonce so that instead of taking her husband, Jay Z, to Red Lobster, she can come to Sister Sarah. Yeah, let’s see how the “Formation” lyric goes now, “When he f$#% me good I take his ass to Sister Sarah, cause I slay”, yep, definitely sounds better.

The wings and fries were calling my name so I ordered 10 wings and fries ($10) tossed with Sister Sarah’s House sauce.  The sauce was excellent, invoking sweet and savory notes with a small amount of heat. The fries were nice median of crispy and softness that I love.

I was trying to make a decision on the fried conch or the fried shrimp, so I flipped a coin and ordered the fried shrimp ($10).  Each shrimp was lightly seasoned and fried to a perfect texture that went well with freshly squeezed lime and their house cocktail sauce. Thoroughly enjoyed this selection and would definitely recommend it.

Last, let’s talk about their drinks! These sweet concoctions are not to be missed. I had a taste of each flavor ($3) and honestly, THEY ARE ALL GOOD. I couldn’t settle so I will leave it up to you to decide which flavor fits best for you.  If I had to choose, it would be the blueberry mix.

Sister Sarah Crab House is going down as one of my favorite spots in South Florida, and most definitely in Fort Lauderdale. The couple is extremely nice and they provide exemplary customer service, great food, and above all, they put their love and care into this business. This place gets the Hungry Black Man approval and I will definitely be back! If you plan on visiting, give them a call at (954) 298-8274 or stop by at 2373 Northwest 19th Street, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33311.

Follow The Hungry Black Man on Facebook @thehungryblackman and Instagram at #thehungryblackman! Sign up for great eateries around the country by dropping your email below!