Hott Leggz just opened on East Commercial Blvd (just east of US1) and is your neighborhood bar, restaurant and live band type of joint.  They tout their crab legs, seafood and 'Po Boys so we headed over to try them out on Friday.


(Hott Leggz - Ft. Lauderdale)

The place appears as your typical live music/bar venue, with a center bar and some tables along the perimeter.  There are some LCD TV's at the bar as well as smaller ones at each 'high-top' table.  The decor is simple, but neat.  It looks like they encourage writing on the walls with calk.  The band area is tucked away in the corner and the place itself isn't that large, so you'd get a good seat anywhere.


(Hott Leggz inside bar/dining area)


(LCD TV at the high-top tables)

You seat yourself and we chose a high-top table.  After 10 minutes, the bar tender came over to get our drink order.  What I found strange is that there are NO beers on tap.  Not even a small selection.  All beers are bottled and the selection was very 'typical'.  No craft beers, no unique imports...just your run-of-the-mill beers.  They were pushing happy hour well drinks (2-4-1).  We opted for Amstel Light.

The menu has burgers, salads and seafood.  They also have Frog Legs and Gator Bites along with 'Po Boys.  When the bar tender dropped off our beers, she said "I'll give you guys a few minutes to look over the menu".  Boy...she wasn't kidding.  It was after 6 PM and we got there during 'shift change'.  Those few minutes to look over the menu turned into 20 minutes...with nobody even checking on us.  The only contact we got during the wait was a "we are in the middle of shift change and we'll be right over".  Not a good sign.

We finally got to place our order with the new bar tender.  She was friendly and helpful and explained any questions we had on the menu.  We ordered the Frog Legs for our appetizer with Jerk/Caribbean seasoning.  I chose the Shrimp 'Po Boy and Jeff went for the 1 lb. King Crab Legs with Spicy boil seasoning.  For the seafood boils, the bar tender explained that they have 4 pots boiling in the back kitchen...each with a different flavor.  Whichever you order...determines which pot is used and it gives the meat a hint of flavor.

The Frog Legs came out first.  It looks like all food is served in these large wooden bowls.  The order came with 6 (pairs) and you can also order 12.  They are lightly coated and fried...then tossed with the sauce of your choosing.  They were hot when they arrived and looked quite good.  They were meaty and the jerk seasoning was pretty good.  The coating was falling off of the legs though...which was a bit strange.  While the legs were moist...I felt like they could have been cooked for just a few minutes longer.  Overall...not a bad dish.


(Hott Leggz - 6 Frog Legs with Caribbean seasoning)


(Jeff playing with his food again.)

My Shimp 'Po Boy came out and looked huge in the bowl.  The sandwich consists of fried shrimp, romaine lettuce, tomato, remoulade and another dressing of some sort.  I took a bite of the sandwich. Let me break it down.  The roll was ok.  It didn't seem like it was a fresh bakery roll, but maybe a step up from something you would find at the bread aisle in Publix.  The romaine, tomato and dressings were actually pretty good.  The shrimp was hot and crisp...however, I would bet that they buy this pre-breaded and frozen.  It tasted like generic breaded fried shrimp that you would find at a Chinese Buffet or Denny's.  I was really hoping for some fresh, hand breaded shrimp.  The fries were your normal frozen variety..but crisp and I liked them.


(Hott Leggz - Shrimp 'Po Boy)

Jeff's King Crab arrived and it was hacked up to fit into the bowl.  I know that King Crab isn't your least expensive variety...but the presentation was kind of flat.  We are not crab experts...but Jeff didn't think this was the freshest crab.  I believe that King Crab has 'seasons'...so you probably get frozen crab everywhere...but something was missing.  The shell was spongy too...so it was hard to crack open.  While there was some good chunks of meat...it wasn't worth the $24.99 price tag.  The boil spice was 'ok'...nothing to rave about.


(Hott Leggz - 1 lb King Crab Legs in Spicy boil)


(Close-up of King Crab meat)

Overall...we felt that Hott Leggz missed the mark.  While they are quite new...you really need to nail your 'name sake' dishes.  If you tout your crab legs...you better make them worth talking about.  You serve seafood in Florida?  You better treat it with care and make sure it's worth the price.  Improve your beer selection if you want to push the 'live music, rock n roll' vibe.  Beer is so popular and people want choices.  Just look at your grocery stores beer selection lately. 



We won't be headed back to Hott Leggz.  It's too bad...we were hoping to find a cool, new, unique seafood spot to enjoy and toss back a few beers.  If you like live bands...maybe give this place a try.  The total bill was $53 (not including tip...and we only had 2 beers with our meal) which is a bit steep for the quality of the meal. 



Hott Leggz  location:
2471 E. Commercial Blvd.
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

FTLToday Score: C