PGN Crab House — Restaurant in Ocean City

This restaurant has been our family’s go-to place for many years when visiting Ocean City. We always enjoyed the hot and fresh blue crabs that were perfectly seasoned. The owners have changed since; and so has the quality and service. Today’s visit was beyond deplorable. We had our little puppy with us, so we opted to dine outside. We ordered a dozen of large crabs for $88.00 and a few other items on the menu. Asked for a couple cups of ice water. The owner charged us $0.75 per water. When we told them that we will be dining outside, she mentioned about 3 different times that we needed to bring in the wooden “hammers” after dining since they didn’t have any servers outside. When the crabs were ready, the waiter opened the door and notified our order was ready. The crabs were served in a brown paper bag. We opened our bag and the crabs looked nice and yummy. We dug into a few and found that they were not fully cooked. Instead of the plump, meaty, blue crab texture, they were more on the watery (almost slimy) side. As we got closer to the bottom, the crabs were hollow. One of them even had a completely grey shell. My little girl later wanted a Sprite, so I walked into the restaurant to order her the drink and also to show them the grey crab. When I tried to pay for the sprite with my check card, the cashier stated that the card minimum was $5.00. I explained that we just ordered over a hundred dollars worth of food; yet she just monotonously reiterated that the minimum was $5.00. When I showed her the grey crab, she called for the manager who seemed to be her dad. He looked at it and nonchalantly stated that some crabs turn grey when they’re steamed.

Note to the owners: In regards to your $5.00 minimum card practice, aren’t you aware that according to the merchant card agreement, you have to accept all amounts even if it’s for $0.25? You’re violating the agreement. And it’s unethical to get people to buy more than what’s needed to meet your arbitrary minimum charges. (Note to self: report restaurant to BBB). Regarding the grey crab, may I respectfully remind your “chef” dad that shells don’t turn grey when steamed? Your little crabs are either of an astonishing albino species or they’re just reeeeeally old. Based on our experience, I choose the latter. Fellow diners: I do not recommend this place even if they were the restaurant who (gasp!) had the last crab available on God’s green earth. Poor service: hollow, undercooked, slimy, albino crabs that defy science and turn grey when steamed; $0.75 waters, (whew… thank God I didn’t ask for lemons!); and arbitrary minimum requirements on card purchases; poor customer service. Spend your hard earned...

I just want to give an experience from last night.

So, I called a bunch of places looking for prices and ultimately decided to come here because the person who answered the phone was very friendly. (Met her there but I do not remember her name) we go, are seated and order. We get our crabs and such fairly quickly. We're eating and about a dozen crabs in a woman, who I am assuming was some sort of "manager" or "lead" starts talking. I wasn't paying attention so she knocks on my table and says "I'm talking to everyone" And goes on about it being 915 and the place closes at 930. Ok, not a problem we're seated and actively eating what we ordered. Right? Wrong. Our waitress comes over to ask if she can pick our crabs for us because it closes at 930. I said, no thanks, we can do it ourselves and that's not right, no one told us we have to be out by 930. We're not leaving. We paid ok money to eat here, we're going to finish. So she walks away. A tiny bit later I over hear her saying "no, they're NOT leaving", to another waitress. Still, actively eating, the manager, Bill, comes over and says that we need to be out and that they're closed. Which turned into an argument because he is an AWFUL business owner. Another part if my party asks (politely, at that) what we're supposed to do because we had 6 crabs left (1.5 dozen ordered), and he takes the last 6 crabs and THROWS THEM AWAY! Stating to the waitress to take a half dozen off our check. I was NOT done eating! It turned into an argument between us and him. He stated they stop serving at 9 or 915 but the waitress brought simeone at our table a drink AFTER 930! (Mind you, drinks are NOT free refills, they're $3 a pop!) and he threatened to call the police because we weren't going to pay. Which, we said we weren't going to pay for the full check because he was rude, obnoxious and just down right terrible with customer service aside from no one telling us that we had to be out BY 930 because "people have places to be after work". A gentleman sitting beside us stated they needed to fix their website because it says they're open until 10 and I heard the waitress apologize for that (which I do not know is certain, I didnt look, but will now)

Do NOT eat here if youre in OCMD. And I just learned they violated laws by refusing service to a patron with a service dog.....Absolutely disgusting. Bill, you should be VERY ashamed of yourself. You're NOT a respectable...

I returned to Ocean City 30 years after my last visit looking for authentic Maryland style crabs. I searched and searched and my wife found PGN and thank God she did. PGN is more reasonable crab prices on All you can eat on the beach. It was very very good. All you can eat before 5pm was 39.95 which is a great price for OC. Each tray has about 12-15 crabs. Crabs were perfectly seasoned and cooked to perfection.

Now let’s speak to the quality of the crabs. I used to be a commercial fisherman so I’m pretty particular about the crabs, if they’re hard enough, if they’re rusty etc. FYI white bellies are immature crabs you can put your finger through their belly. (Not much meat) Now going to an all you can eat, I was very worried that I was gonna be eating strictly white bellies or poor crabs. Not the case at PGN!!! First tray had maybe two white bellies. Second tray had maybe 4 3rd tray none 4th tray none I was shocked at the high-quality crabs that came out on each tray. The last two trays the crabs were so hard and full of meat….I could damn near Couldn’t get the meat out. The crabs were so hard which is a good thing! I am very happy with the quality of the crabs.

The hush puppies were excellent. The beer was cold and reasonably priced.

Atmosphere was that the old timing seafood joint. I loved it as it reminded me of the old days. The staff was kind and friendly and was very attentive. They keep you with plenty of paper towels. Bathrooms are very clean.

Things to be careful with Soda is per glass glass prices. So if you take your kids, you can quickly spend a bunch of money. There is an option to buy a pitcher of soda which may work out better, depending on how many kids you got If you go early like I did at 2 PM you get three hours to eat your crabs before dinner prices start. The All you can eat price increases at 5 PM so if you were trying to save a dollar you need to go early. Come on an empty stomach because they’re gonna give you a bunch of food

I am a very particular person about my crabs, and I would not think twice of sending anybody to PGN crab House. I promise you you will get quality crabs at a reasonable price and you will be very happy. My family of 5 ate for left than $200. 3 of us got all you can eat, the kids...