Coconut Crab featured in Ventura Star
As the owners of Coconut Crab in Simi Valley, James and Apinya Nguy had a specific goal for the debut of the restaurant’s second location, in downtown Ventura: Have the doors open in time for the 4th of July Street Fair.
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“You don’t want to miss that kind of exposure,” Apinya said of the event’s anticipated 30,000 attendees.
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They made the deadline with several days to spare, unveiling Coconut Crab on June 30 at what closed in May as Arirang Korean Restaurant & Bar. Well wishers included former “Food Network Star contestant Penny Davidi, who posted a photo of the restaurant’s made-to-be-shared Tekillya Shell cocktail on Instagram.
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The Ventura restaurant features an expanded version of the menu available at the Simi Valley Town Center location, which the couple previously ran for a decade as Exotic Thai. (The latter still has sites in Ojai, Thousand Oaks, Agoura Hills and Woodland Hills, and is slated to branch out with the opening this summer of Prawn & Basil at the former Geppino’s Sicilian Kitchen in Thousand Oaks.)
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The theme is “Kasian seafood,” a creatively spelled mash-up of Cajun and Asian, said Apinya. The menu includes seafood boils served in bags that patrons can upend onto paper-covered tables ($11 to market price per pound for clams, shrimp and King Crab legs), crab, shrimp, lobster or all-of-the-above pan roasts that resemble chowders ($16-$20), Thai-restaurant mainstays such as tom kha soup ($8-$13) and pad Thai ($11), and specials like salt-and-paper shrimp ($9), for which the titular shellfish are lightly battered and fried to be eaten whole, heads and all.
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Unique to the Ventura location are Kasian street tacos and bowls, which James recipe-tested during Cinco de Mayo festivities in Simi Valley. “They’re a little more gourmet than your average taco,” he said of the combinations ranging from teriyaki tofu to kalbi beef mounded with cabbage, Monterey Jack cheese and various sauces.
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Some dishes appear in photographs on the Yelp for the Simi Valley location but haven’t yet made it onto the printed menu. “I call those the ‘Secret Menu,’ ” Apinya said, laughing. “If you see James here, he’ll make them for you.”
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Coconut Crab in Ventura is open from noon to 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and noon to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays (394 E. Main St., Suite B, 805-667-8911, https://www.cococrab.com).