One thing that our friends keep asking us is if we've been to Pappas yet. It's always been on the list, we just hadn't gotten around to it. When you talk about crab cakes, Pappas' name is sure to always come up. Since 1972, they've been a Baltimore institution, offering quality food at a fair price, with a focus on customer service. Their crab cakes are huge, and have been featured Baltimore Magazine, the Baltimore Sun, and in 2009, the Baltimore City Paper crowned them Best Crab Cake.  Located up in the Parkville area, they're well outside of downtown, but still in the heart of suburban Baltimore. So with the rave reviews coming in from all ends, we set out to see what the talk was about. Follow along as we take a journey to crab cake town!

The Red Brick Station is a restaurant and brewpub located in The Avenue at White Marsh. Independently owned and operated, they strive to provide their guests with creative, English style dishes and English style beers. While the inside is large and accommodating, the outside covered deck is where you want to be in the warmer months. But we're not here just for the beer. We're also looking to see how an English style pub fares with their crab cakes! Read on to see how they did!

Ryleigh's Oyster started out in Federal Hill as a relaxed oyster bar with upscale cuisine. They pride themselves on making everything from scratch each day, using quality seasonal and local ingredients that support sustainability and local farmers. Recently they expanded to a second location in Hunt Valley, so we decided to check it out and see what they can do with local ingredients. Read on to see how it went!

It's not often that you come across a crab ranch. But when you do, it's nothing like you expect. Sadly, there aren't men in cowboy hats, riding narwhals corralling crabs into traps. But what it is is a local establishment in Towson that opened in 2011, featuring steamed crabs and southern barbecue. Usually, you'd expect to smell either smoked meats or Old Bay, but usually not both. But sometimes you have to ask yourself, "Why not both?" Fighting the urge to snatch one of the many trays of steamed crabs walking by our table, we decided to corral us up a crab cake and see how things are out on the Ranch. Read on to see how it went!

Last week, the CCR reviewed Schultz's Jumbo Lump crab cake. This week, we continue our review of Schultz's and try their other popular offering, the Backfin crab cake. In case you missed it, Schultz's has a history dating back to 1950. Originally a barroom, in 1969 the place has expanded to the establishment that it is today while still carrying on the Schultz name. We felt their Jumbo Lump crab cake was quite nice, but the backfin is certainly cheaper and was on special the night we stopped by. Is it as good as the Jumbo Lump? Let's find out!