The Crab Shack Edgewater — Restaurant in Maryland

My wife eat out a lot and I have been to the crab shack about five or six times now. And pretty much every time we’ve gone the food has been pretty good. Sometimes it’s a hit and miss with certain things and sometimes some things are spot on all the time. This review is based on our last two visits. Crabs, of course are their number one thing… But this is based on other things we’ve gotten on our past two visits. On our first visit We ordered fish and oysters, and shrimp tacos. They were all very good except for the fish. A little overdone and you couldn’t even flake it with a fork and It was pretty tough. My wife got steamed oysters while I had gotten raw. The steamed were OK, not much flavor, and they were shrunk down a bit compared to my raw oysters. So we ordered another batch of raw oysters since she liked mine better than hers lol! Tacos spot on with banging flavor, I could eat them all day! On her second visit, we were a little disappointed. The oysters were great they were raw and as they should be fresh with no smell and pretty much melt in your mouth. However, besides that came with it were supposed to be corn and french fries. All you can eat. They didn’t have corn, and they shouldn’t have it on the menu because that’s what I was expecting to get until they told us it wasn’t in season. The other problem was that night only one person was running around doing everything. We didn’t get an all you can eat anything. The worst of it was the french fries. I’m a burger and fries guy and I love a good french fries. They need to be crispy, light, airy, crunchy on the outside, tender on the inside. These were heavy, oily, very greasy as if they were just soap and oil. I think that the fryer was not hot enough. I’ve made french fries at home and even when my french fries didn’t turn out as expected, they were still better than these. We did order a second batch just in case it’s better than the first. It wasn’t maybe a little less oily, but still felt like it was soaked in oil. Sad because I really was hoping these spies were gonna be good. Maybe next time! One thing I’ve learned about restaurants and eating out is that sometimes depending on who’s cooking or depending on how your food turns out. One night might be a bad night. Another night might be a good night, but you definitely don’t want reviews that are spotty you want them to consistent the fries should be cooked perfectly all the time then there would be no complaints. Haven’t said that, the next time I have some fries, I will definitely change my review as long as they are spot on and cooked perfectly. So my final words are, a great joint most of the time. They’ll go out in beyond for making you something that might not be on the menu. And they do turn out better than decent free most of the time. But, as the saying goes, if you don’t let someone know, something is wrong, how will they know to fix it?...

You may have skipped this place due to location or look from the outside, but that’s a mistake. You must try this place if you like seafood or crushes.

Inside is a full bar and they have live music of Sundays. You order at the counter and they bring the food to the table. You can sit inside or outside at tables with a tiki umbrella. If you order crab they come and set up your whole table with paper, etc. they even have an outside hand washing station for those eating Maryland crab. Service was super friendly!

The crushes are one of the best we’ve had. They are all fresh squeezed juice.

We had the Maryland crab soup (tomato based) to start. There was lots of crab with great crab flavor. Our only ding is that we prefer it spicy and it is not. But spice is definitely a preference and the flavor was fantastic. It also had pieces of bacon which were a great twist.

We got one of the seafood combos to share which had crab cake, shrimp, and scallops with 2 sides. We went hush puppies and fries. All of the food together (with the soup) was enough for the 2 of us. The scallops were large, super tender and buttery. The crab cake was also sizable. It was all crab (no breading) with some sort of a sauce mixed it. The outside had a great crisp that you don’t see most places. The shrimp were large and cooked well; not rubbery. Both the cocktail and tarter sauces are homemade. The cocktail had a kick with the horseradish. The tarter had obvious pieces of yummy pickle. The fries were hand cut rustic styles. The hush puppies were top notch! Amazing crisp on the outside with visible pieces of corn inside.

We will definitely be...

I can’t tell you how absolutely disappointed my wife and I were with the food at Crab Shack Edgewater. We went for Buck A Wing Night and hated every single dish we ordered, accept the onion rings, which were actually very good. The wing meat was dry. The Cream of Crab Soup and New England Clam Chowder were both awful (so bad, we didn’t eat more than a few spoonfuls out of guilt for wasting our money on them.)

The Crab Dip on the Boardwalk Fries was a mostly solid mass of melted cheese than covered a thin layer of something that identified as crab dip in name only. (The fries by themselves might be good, but the “dip” had to be cut with a knife and fork.) Their Fried Clam Strips were made with over salted batter and were over cooked and gritty with sand. Their Steamed Clam Soft Shell Clams were filled with sand and mushy in a bad way. Throughout our meal, we never found an actual lump of crab meat — only a smattering of what might be crab meat or might be some other fish-based protein. We both agreed we’d never go back (unless we really wanted some good onion rings.)

The people that work there are nice and they get you your food as it becomes available. The atmosphere is probably great for tourists looking for that “crab house” feel with bright colored lights framing the view of the parking lot (not the waterfront, which is probably 3/4 of a mile away.)

They claim to have the “Best Crabcake,” if it’s anything like the rest of their “highly rated” food, I find that claim as...