Weekly reviews of crab cakes around the MD and DC area

SeaPack Mini Crab Cakes

SeaPack Mini Crab Cakes SeaPack Mini Crab Cakes Crab Cake Review

SeaPack is a familiar frozen seafood company that you've most likely come across in the grocery store, and probably grew up on. They are most notably known for their shrimp products, ranging from popcorn shrimp to jumbo butterfly shrimp. So many shrimp products that they'll keep 'ole Bubba Gump happy for at least a month. We've always known that they have a Maryland crab cake, but haven't been able to find them in the stores yet. So imagine our surprise when we find the mini crab cakes in one of our local Giant stores! We took one for the team to get this week's review, so read on and see how our experience was!


SeaPack's mini crab cakes are different than their Maryland crab cakes, so we won't try to compare them. The min cakes are made with crabmeat, mozzarella cheese, rice noodles, flour, garlic, onion, pepper, parsley, ground yellow mustard, paprika. lemon juice, salt, and other spices. The box even comes with a packet of creole mustard.

Cooking instructions are only provided for baking the mini crab cakes at 425 degrees F for 11 to 13 minutes. The mustard packet just needs to thaw in hot water. Sounds easy enough!

Our first impression is that they smelled like hush puppies. Not really a crab cake smell, but at least we knew that the breading would taste ok. And then we split one open, which is where the disappointment started.

Looking inside one of the cakes, we could not tell that they were made with any crab meat at all. We could see bits of the rice noodles, but other than that, it was just kinda grayish yellow with flecks of spices inside. So being the brave souls that we are, we took that pivotal first bite.

Our thoughts? They taste like fish cakes. Nothing in any way that resembles a crab cake. So judging them on that merit alone, they were horrible. But if you were at a party and your host served you some of these, and you thought they were fish cakes, then you can say they weren't that bad. The flavor is bready and reminds you of breaded blended seafood. But that's it. No crab flavor.

The fact that they come with a sauce packet should tell you enough that you should just put them back on the freezer shelf and walk away. Because, even though it comes with it, the mustard isn't all that good. The mustard itself is spicy and thick, but doesn't come off as a mustard. It's just too thick to be considered brown mustard, but not vinegary enough to resemble mustard.

Additional Info

  • Restaurant Name: SeaPack
  • Address: Retail locations vary
  • Restaurant Type: Retail
  • Review Date: 06/20/2013 7:40pm
  • Atmosphere: Not Busy
  • Item(s) Ordered: Mini Crab Cakes
  • Cooking Style: Oven Baked
  • Other Styles Available: Yes
  • Available by mail order?: No
  • Price: 12.99
  • Order Type: Appetizer
  • Crab Content: Mix
  • Filler: Too Much
  • Spice: Average
  • Overall Impression: Mediocre
  • Rating (out of 5 crabs):

    1h-crab

More in this category: « Tidewater Grille Bruce Bitner's »