Best Restaurants for Maryland Crab
- Jun 9
- 7 min read
I had a seriously yummy crab cake last week at the Pendry Baltimore, and it left me wanting to return for more! Nine Muses Travel clients receive the following Virtuoso benefits (and more) at the Pendry Baltimore, and you can use the $100 credit for some crab too!
Upgrade on arrival, subject to availability
Daily breakfast credit of $35 per person
$100 USD hotel credit
Early Check-In / Late Check-Out, subject to availability
Excerpt below from 8/20/2024 Virtuoso article by Adam Erace can be found HERE.
Taste your way around the most delicious bay in the States.
The westbound Bay Bridge begins flat and unintimidating, skimming so close to the quicksilver surface of Chesapeake Bay you could throw out a fishing line and hit water. The ascent, it’s sneaky. Conscientious drivers might not notice until they happen to glance over and find themselves soaring nearly 200 feet above the water. If you’re not afraid of heights, the four-mile ride is an engineering marvel and a thrill. If you are afraid of heights, then you’re probably contributing to the bridge’s most commonly googled question: “Why is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge the scariest bridge in America?”
That dubious distinction overshadows the key link the bridge provides between Maryland’s rural Eastern Shore and the cities and suburbs of Annapolis, Baltimore, and beyond. More to the point, you can’t experience the full bounty of Chesapeake Bay, the nation’s largest estuary at 4,479 square miles, without it. Despite threats (changing climate, overfishing, habitat degradation), the bay and its lacework of waterways still produce 500 million pounds of seafood annually, including blue crab.
From the blue-blooded dining rooms of Saint Michaels’ nautical inns to the blue-collar fish houses of Baltimore’s industrial fringes, the Bay Bridge – and our road map to Maryland crab season – will get you there.
Eastern Shore
In 2019, the Inn at Perry Cabin merited mentions for its iconic lawn, gracious guest rooms and gathering spaces, and status as the ne plus ultra of preppy Saint Michaels luxury. For its food, not so much. “At first it was very hard to find local purveyors to work with us,” says chef Gregory James, who arrived at the property in 2019. The kitchen he inherited didn’t have a great reputation among locals – but that quickly changed. Now, Eastern Shore product is the rule rather than the exception at convivial Purser’s Pub (don’t miss the oysters Rockefeller with creamy crab), as well as at Stars, the inn’s fine-dining restaurant with views of the Adirondack-dotted lawn, well-mannered marina, and tangerine sunsets.
The menu at the latter is a choose-your-own-adventure prix fixe whose starters and entrees (perhaps dry-aged rockfish and crispy soft-shell crab with ginger beurre blanc) change nightly, depending on who shows up with what. One exception to the ever-evolving menu: crab cakes, always available and always made with Maryland crabmeat.
Another quality crab cake lives down the road from Perry Cabin and over the tiny bridge that deposits you onto sleepy Tilghman Island. Chef Chris Mitchell, a Shore native, tints his Maryland mix with mustard for the crisp griddled cakes at Tickler’s Crab Shack, but don’t dare sleep on the cream of crab soup studded with Maryland jumbo lump crab harvested straight from the Chesapeake.
Back in Saint Michaels, Mike Correll, a Maryland boy who’s cooked in Philly and D.C., roasts Wild Divers with Calabrian chile butter and garlicky breadcrumbs at Ruse. These spicy mollusks join a raw-bar list that, in season, includes briny-sweet Harris Creeks, farmed about three miles away. And even though they don’t come from the bay, you might consider a detour to the grilled summer squash with toasted sesame mayo and garlic-chili oil or the Maryland beef double cheeseburger dripping with miso-Dijonnaise.
Speaking of detours: Hop over to Easton, where Bluepoint Hospitality has turned the partially vacant historic downtown into a thriving culinary hive. The company runs 13 establishments, including The Stewart, an F. Scott Fitzgerald fever dream where the staff wear suits and pearls, and the single-malt Scotch and Champagne flow.
From a transcendent Speyside by the fire to a Bud Light Lime from the beer fridge, the last stop on the Shore is Stevensville Crab Shack, a squat brick seafood market/restaurant on Kent Island. Utz potato chips and jars of J.O. crab spice line the shelves, and a markerboard behind the fish counter advertises the day’s crabs. A friendly woman in a Champion sweat suit takes your order at the counter and calls your name when it’s ready. You carry your dozen crabs (or if it’s early in Maryland's crab season, the crackling soft-shell sandwich) out to a picnic table on the gravel-and-seashell lot and pick the blues apart while cars zoom onto the Bay Bridge right behind you. You’ll join them in a moment.
Fresh Seafood in Annapolis, Baltimore, and Beyond
Having survived the drive across the Chesapeake and landed safely in Anne Arundel County, the Maryland seafood tour continues with old treasures in Annapolis. The weathered bungalow housing Davis’ Pub, serving locals since the 1940s, is the cozy tavern every neighborhood wishes it had: affable bartenders; rafters decked in Orioles, Terrapins, and Naval Academy gear; and the Chesapeake Bay Retriever: a hot dog smothered in cheesy, molten crab dip. Fifteen minutes away, 48-year-old Cantler’s Riverside Inn is tucked like a family heirloom into the folds of a tony residential enclave (and gets Stephanie Petros’ local approval). Pass through the wood-clad dining room, where long tables flanked by stackable black chairs with burgundy vinyl cushions give strong church-bingo-night vibes, onto the deck overlooking a placid ripple of Mill Creek. You could spend hours here among the multigenerational families, admiring the idyllic views while extricating nuggets of sweet, snowy meat from the J.O.-crusted shells.
Just off the Magothy River in the community of Arnold, marina-side Point Crab House & Grill is like Cantler’s younger brother who went to the city and got his MBA in the early 2000s. Don’t go looking for crabs out of season here: When it’s not Maryland crab season, The Point simply doesn’t serve crabs. The excellent softball-size crab cake, however, you can get year-round as an entree or sandwich alongside a thicket of super-thin waffle-cut potato chips.
Onward to Baltimore. Plan your trip to pass through the city on a Sunday, when you’ll catch Jasmine Norton chatting up customers and chargrilling luscious Madhouse and Bayshore oysters with garlic chili butter and cheddar, bacon, and barbecue sauce at the Baltimore Farmers’ Market. Norton, the first Black woman to own her own oyster bar in Maryland, is back as a pop-up after closing The Urban Oyster during the pandemic. Thankfully, a new U.O. location opened in 2022 a block from Dylan’s Oyster Cellar, making this stretch of West 36th Street an essential seafood stop. Dylan’s not only serves oysters, but also that Bawlmer delicacy, coddies – fried salt-cod-and-potato cakes sandwiched between mustard-dabbed saltines.
Baltimore has bushels of seafood houses downtown and around the harbor, but locals know to head east into Essex, Middle River, and the inner suburbs to icons such as Schultz’s Crab House, run by the McKinney family since 1969. What Schultz’s lacks in water views it makes up for in personality: The waitresses wear glitter nail polish, the old-timers buy scratch-offs from the bar’s glowing blue lotto machine, and the lighting and pine paneling make it feel like nighttime even in the middle of the day. You might expect the server to eye you curiously when you order the crab fluff – a Baltimore specialty that’s like a golden crab-laced doughnut – and the glorious jumbo lump cake, but she won’t miss a beat. “Coming right up, hon.s the whole length of the historic Recreation Pier and ingeniously reimagines the structures from 1914 that have been a cargo warehouse, dance hall, and major immigration center. Now, it's a boutique hotel with a lush inner courtyard oasis, infinity pool over the harbor, and delicious dining. Original Revolutionary War cannons from the area silently defend the pool area, and one is on display under its speakeasy bar. The Pendry strikes this perfect balance between industrial structures and abundant nature, historical features and modern design, grandiosity and intimacy. I love the sophisticated, subtle nautical references in the hotel's art and design and how it's filled with local historical photographs and artworks by locals, including the painting above that references Francis Scott Key, the sewing of the American flag, and other area symbols.
Since I'm also a Four Seasons Preferred Partner, I received a tour of their Baltimore hotel that's located closer to downtown in the Harbor East district. This winter they begin their first renovation, so my photos are basically "before" photos since they're updating the rooms and lobby too. Their spa really impressed me with its pretty indoor and outdoor heated pools and a cozy area with tables for a wellness food menu that you could also enjoy outside on one of its sunny decks overlooking the harbor. All my clients receive top VIP attention and extra amenities at every Four Seasons in the world too.
And forget D.C. for the 4th of July because where you want to be is Baltimore, where Fort McHenry defended the harbor against the British Royal Navy's 25-hour bombardment in September 1814. Eyewitness Francis Scott Key famously wrote the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner" during the battle. From what I was hearing, the 4th of July celebrations are going to be fantastic in Baltimore for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence this summer.
Is Baltimore on your radar for a summer getaway? There's so much to see and do there, and it's an easy train ride away from D.C, Philadelphia, and New York City, to make a whole east coast excursion!
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