Crabcakes – Seaside Restaurant

Recently, I’ve become obsessed with this Facebook page called “Maryland is a cult. Not a State.” Of course, there’s been many threads discussing where to get the best crab cake. Because I love making spreadsheets and I’m having a difficult time in life right now, I created one with all the answers people made in one of the best crab cake threads.

Crab Cake Spreadsheet

Today, Dan and I had to take a really fun trip to the MVA (Motor Vehicle Administration – our version of the DMV because DMV means DelMarVa if you live here). After enjoying less bureaucracy than we thought we would have to endure, we decided we had time on our hands and were hungry, so I whipped out my handy-dandy crab cake spreadsheet, found a recommended joint that was less than 2 miles away, and we were off! I give you…

Seaside Restaurant

As you can see, the Seaside Restaurant is an unremarkable place from the road. We would have driven right by it except that Bitchin Betty had told us that we had arrived. Bitchin Betty is what we have lovingly named Google’s voice navigation. This picture shows an empty lot, but when we arrived the lot was packed. We were grateful to snag a spot and I began to worry that we wouldn’t be able to get a seat. It was 2:30 pm on a Monday. You know you are in for good food if a place has a full parking lot at 2:30 on a Monday.

You know you are in for good food if a place has a full parking lot at 2:30 on a Monday.

The Restaurant

So in we went and there was a couple ahead of us waiting to be seated, but no host. They were looking around for someone to help them, and I inquired if they had been waiting for long. They said it had been a few minutes. After another couple minutes a hostess came by and seated the other couple and us after a brief discussion with another staff member about the rotation.

We had a friendly waitress who tried to upsell every chance she got, but not in a pushy way. She stopped by to check on us often enough without being intrusive, and communicated when our food hadn’t come out in a reasonable amount of time. The restaurant was busy for a Monday afternoon so we weren’t pressed by this.

The menus were sticky and so was the floor. I was sad that I had touched the cocktail menu at all. We both visited the restroom and the lady’s room was clean enough. The toilets were like residential toilets instead of ones you’d expect to find in a public restroom. The men’s room was clean enough too. Both smelled strongly of air freshener and cleaning products, so I guess that’s a good thing? I’m not a big fan of perfumey smells due to living with migraine. Now that I’ve spent time talking about bathrooms, I KNOW you are in the mood for the next section. Great transition here…

The Food

We each ordered a single crab cake platter ($25.99). We each got two sides (included with price). Dan chose hush puppies and cole slaw, and I chose cole slaw and sweet potato fries. They had lots of choices though and I wish I had chosen two things that Dan didn’t choose because then we could have tried more.

The cole slaw was on point. It was crisp and tangy and not at all overdressed. The hush puppies had visible corn kernels, and were sweet, but not excessive. The sweet potato fries were crisp, but otherwise unremarkable. The hush puppies came with butter, and I wished the fries came with some kind of dipping sauce.

Fortunately, both of our crab cakes came with a ramekin of cocktail sauce. I’m not usually a huge fan of cocktail sauce but this stuff was phenomenal. It was full of horseradish and it was a great consistency. I even had it with a few bites of crab cake, something I don’t normally do as I want the cake to stand on its own.

The Main Event

At first, when I saw the crab cake it seemed insignificant compared to the sides. As you can see, it looks lost compared to the rest of the plate. However, we didn’t finish our sides and left feeling stuffed. We didn’t even eat a proper dinner this evening due to how full we felt.

We dug in and found that it was crisp on the outside and moist in the middle. I should take a moment to mention that we prefer broiled over fried crab cakes. I don’t want to yuck anyone’s yum, but if we are gonna have a tastes great/less filling moment, I’m team BROILED. Dan is too and it’s one of the ways we keep the peace in this relationship.

I noticed right away that the crab cake was creamy. While it didn’t have evidence of a ton of breadcrumbs or any evidence of vegetables, at first I thought it had a ton of mayo in it. After a few bites, we began to think that the creaminess was partly because they included the crab mustard in the mix. It certainly had that flavor.

…we began to think that the creaminess was partly because they included the crab mustard in the mix.

There were good chunks of crab meat and not too many shells. I think total between the two of us we found four. A lot of people are upset by this but I honestly don’t believe there is any way to make a crab cake without missing a few shells. These were small and insignificant.

Overall, I’m glad that we visited the Seaside Restaurant. Was it the best crab cake in Maryland? I doubt it, but then I haven’t yet eaten every crab cake in Maryland. I believe I may be embarking on a delicious journey.