Mother Shuckers Crab Shack — Restaurant in Martinsburg

My family and I have been here a few times and loved everything about it. We loved it so much, my sisters-in-law had gotten gift certificates. Which she ended up giving one to the cop who got called out for an incident that could have easily been taken care of without the cops. The service was great. Tonight we decided to go and hang out with our family and had the worst experience of our lives. Our service was horrible!!! We waited 20 min to get seated. Which was fine, they were slammed. Even the wait for our food, we were fine with. The customer service and the way we were treated was unacceptable. First thing we had to get our own beers, had to ask 3 times for my brother in laws drink. The 3rd time we asked the waitress she said she would get it soon because she was extremely busy. She finally brought it back to him and said, “ here, pass this down to him”, and tossed the straw in his direction. Strike one!!! We waited over an hour for our food. Our food did not come out together, it came out sporadically and wrong. The crab legs were ice cold. Portion sizes were smaller than previous visits. My husband asked the waitress if he could speak with the owner. The waitress said she was in the kitchen and my husband asked if he could peek and see if she could talk to him. The waitress said we are busy, but sure. The owner rudely told him they were short handed, it’s February, and get out of my kitchen. He said we weren’t paying for our food, because we hadn’t touched our food, but we would pay for our drinks. The owner said we were paying for everything or she was calling the cops. My husband told her to call the cops. She called the cops via 911. All over just wanting to speak to her about the crab legs being cold. Cops spoke to both parties and said someone (waitress or owner) would be over to see what we ate and charge us accordingly. No one came to see what we ate. The only one who had touched their food was my 4 year old neice. They only took $70 off our bill. SERIOUSLY!!! So we paid the bill, took the food we paid for, and left. NEVER EVER have we been treated like that from a business owner. And the owner made the comment of, “they even got to go boxes for the food they didn’t pay for”. EXCUSE ME!! We paid for what we took. So much for a nice fun family night out to celebrate!! If only the owner knew what business ethics are she would have known how treat her customers, and make it right. This would not have happened if she only handled it differently. And she wouldn’t have lost happy paying...

FINALLY FOUND MARYLAND BLUE CRABS STEAMED LIKE MARYLANDERS DO! Almost heaven WV indeed! As a transplant to VA I've spent several summers frustrated trying to find MD blue crabs steamed the way I grew up & spent most of my adult life eating them in MD. No other place comes close to Mother Shuckers. Seriously.

We ordered 1/2 bushel mediums at the right time of the month. They were packed solid & on the larger side of mediums (see pic). We also ordered 2 other times & were very satisfied. We asked they be steamed w/extra seasoning. Mother Shuckers didn't just toss a little plastic condiment container w/some generic seafood seasoning in the bag but they actually STEAMED our 1/2 bushel WITH EXTRA AUTHENTIC MD CRABHOUSE SEASONING! Not 1 of our crabs were burnt on the bottom & every single one had BOTH claws in tact. Do you know how much care it takes to untangle crabs into & out of the pot so you don't lose claws?

Other places in VA claim to steam crabs MD style but Mother Shuckers is the only place I found that consistently does it right.

Each time I called I spoke w/Skylar. He's knowledgeable, super friendly & tells the truth about how they're running. There's nothing you can do about the crab growing & shedding process. But even the few light crabs we got out of the many dozens we've had were delicious. And, importantly, we NEVER got a bad/muddy/overcooked/burnt on the bottom crab.

Tip: It's a 45min drive for us & since gas is high hubby squeezes into my little old 4-cylinder car, throws a box in the backseat & puts the double bagged crabs in there w/the box left open. The crabs are still really warm when he gets home & there's no leaking through or residual smell in the car.

If you grew up eating crabs in MD (or want authentic MD crabs) make the drive. You won't be...

Wife and I made our first visit on my Birthday, we came from Winchester. Having passed this place several times in our journeys and after reading some reviews we decided to try it, man was that a mistake. When we first walked in we immediately noticed there was no air conditioning and this is a small establishment inside. It was a Saturday and they were busy but we got a seat and we ordered our drinks and a couple of appetizers, crab dip with house made chips and pork rhines. Pork rhines were good as were the dipping chips for dip but the crab dip itself was almost completely absent of crab or maybe whole absent, it was just this pastey cheese dip that had no crab flavor at all I even asked the waiter what kind of dip it was just to make sure and he said it was crab dip and I said oh ok. We then ordered our main courses hers was broiled scallops that had so much Cajun blackening spice on them that she couldn't eat them and she had to share my meal and the menu mentioned nothing about any spice on the scallops. My snow crab legs were fine but my steamed shrimp seemed a little under done and the sides of slaw, corn fritters and cucumbers salad were ordinary. For what we had with two iced tea's was $108 plus tip so as you can probably tell by what I described this place is overpriced and really not that good and definitely not worth a special trip, never again. If you want great seafood at a more affordable price try Crabby Maggie's in Strasburg Va. you'll be glad you did. In summary if you want to eat only steamed spiced blue crabs maybe this is a good place to go but for anything else you don't get quality or quantity and pay way to much for it on top of poor service. In all honesty if you read the reviews the bad ones are more accurate than are the good...