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Basta Pasta
Basta Pasta is an Italian and seafood restaurant that started in 2004, and has grown to two locations (Fallston and Timonium). Their goal is simple - become the ultimate expression of what an Italian casual dining experience should be. They also strive to serve fresh and flavorful food using the finest available ingredients in the area. Did they meet those claims with their crab cakes? Let's find out!
There are a few crab cakes on the menu: Petite Crab Cakes are on the appetizer list; on the Seafood entree list is the Colossal Crab Cake, which is available in a single or a double platter, broiled or fried, and served with your choice of side. You can also add a crab cake to any other seafood/steak entree for a nominal fee. On the Signature Entree list is the Chicken Chesapeake, which is a crab cake served on a chicken breast, topped with a creamy lemon butter sauce. This review is for the single Colossal Crab Cake.
Basta Pasta's crab cake features large lumps of crab amongst some broken pieces, bound together with a creamy/bready binder mixed with spices, chopped red peppers, and parsley. The ratio of large lumps to broken pieces of crab is pretty good, around a 65/35 ratio. The binder is more of a roux, sometimes creamy, sometimes mushy bread, sometimes eggy like a soufflé.
The most disappointing thing about this crab cake is, sadly, the crab meat. Those colossal lumps of crab are a little too perfectly rounded and uniform to be hand picked from a MD Blue crab, and is most likely Blue Swimmer crab. The only plus side is that it wasn't fishy tasting. The texture was more meaty than anything else, but as far as flavor goes, it was very much lacking. We were hoping that the broken pieces would actually be flavorful crab, but alas, it had the same flavor as the lumps.
Next to the near-absent crab flavor was the inconsistent binder. In some parts of the cake, it was eggy and gelatinous; other parts were creamy; and still other parts were like mushy bread that was mixed with a lot of pepper (luckily we don't mind pepper!). It was never known until you put your fork in your mouth which portion you were going to get, or how it would taste.
Overall, this was a very lackluster crab cake. Hardly tasting like crab, we basically ate a large pile of binder flavored crab. The mushy bread parts were about the best tasting thing in the whole crab cake, but even then it bordered on having too much seafood seasoning. When people pay this kind of money for a crab cake, it should at least resemble some sort of crab flavor, especially in the home of the Blue Crab.
On a side note, all entrees come with bread sticks and a salad. Unless you REALLY like Italian dressing, ask for it on the side. The salad we were served was drowning in dressing, to the point that you couldn't taste anything else but the dressing.
Additional Info
- Restaurant Name: Basta Pasta
- Address: 2745 Fallston Rd Fallston, MD 21047
- Neighborhood: Fallston
- Restaurant Type: Local Chain
- Website: http://www.bastapastamd.com/
- Review Date: 06/03/2014 7:39pm
- Atmosphere: Moderate to Busy
- Item(s) Ordered: Colossal Crab Cake
- Cooking Style: Broiled
- Other Styles Available: No
- Available by mail order?: No
- Price: 17.95
- Order Type: Single Platter
- Crab Content: Jumbo Lump
- Filler: Average
- Spice: Average
- Overall Impression: Mediocre
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Rating (out of 5 crabs):
