Phillip’s Crab House (Original Location)

Though I’ve been back for 2 weeks now, I’ve put off writing about this place.

I was so soundly disappointed by this place, I don’t even want to write about it… but I might as well, since I won’t be going back.

The background is, the first time I went to Ocean City, MD- about 6 years ago now- I had dinner at this place.  The memories were great: they provided me with a bucket for all the seafood detritus, kept changing it out during the course of the meal (3 times, they emptied my bucket), and I had a ton of food, I just kept stuffing my face.  I don’t really remember much else – this was pre-digicam days, pre-foodie blog days, pre-really caring that much about food, as long as it tasted good.  Well.  It shows.

Plate #1: a teeny bit of salad with blue cheese dressing; 3 briny oysters; tartar sauce for my fried foods (I only put lemon on my raw oysters, sometimes cider vinegar as well)

Plate #2: crab cake; crab imperial; fried shrimp; fried oysters; fried clams; fried scallops; hush puppies; chicken cordon bleu; mac and cheese

Plate #3: corn that was soaking in butter; green beans; steamed clams; crawfish

B’s plate #2: The self-proclaimed non-seafood eater – yes, my darling loves me that much – ate a couple of seafood items for his first plate, then moved on to the carving station where he got this beautifully medium rare prime rib.  I tried a piece and was pleasantly surprised at how well a seafood place had managed to make their non-seafood offering.  (There’s also a create-your-own-pasta bar that I didn’t hit.)  Not bad.  B was happy enough though his final assessment was still, “You know, I wasn’t that impressed with the place.”

Plate #4: Snow crab legs.  You had to go up to a window and request these, I suppose so people don’t just take them all.  They were only alright.  The taste wasn’t quite sweet enough for me… it had that artificial taste to it.  Boo.

New England clam chowder… this was pretty good actually.

Plate #5: (I know, I’m a pig) more oysters, some BBQ pork (that little bit of black burnt looking stuff in the back), fried shrimp, and “seafood au gratin” which I only took because for most of my meal, that tray remained empty, so I thought it must taste good. 

It didn’t.

One of those last oysters was rancid, too, so I discreetly spit it into my bucket.  I wasn’t going to risk getting sick to not ofefnd people. 

Unfortunately I was too full to take advantage of the ice cream bar… hahaha. 

Overall, extremely disappointing as the food was only so-so, nothing outstanding and nothing that was like, I have to eat here again.  The worst part was that there were no blue crabs!  They’re suppose to have blue crabs!  It’s called THE CRAB HOUSE!  I know they had them last time, so I asked.  Crab season starts in late April/early May and runs to about October depending on how warm the weather stays.  The woman actually said to me “The season hasn’t started, so we have them only on our a la carte menu downstairs…”  Umm.  Okay there buddy! so you can make more money no doubt.  Pffft.  Not cool for my tummy!  She said to check back in July/August.  Ugh.

Yvo says: I won’t be making another trip out here, that’s for sure.  Highly mediocre and not worth the $83 total I paid for the two of us (with a nice tip and 4 root beers).  Blegh.
middle of the road – go once if you have to, otherwise, pass