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Conrad's Seafood Restaurant
Conrad's started out back in 2003 as a seafood market on Joppa Rd. Since then, they have opened a seasonal location in Phoenix, a stand at Ripkin Stadium in Aberdeen, and their newest location, which is a full fledged bar and restaurant in Perry Hall (taking over the old Surf City location). Conrad's prides themselves on participating in the True Blue program, which is a voluntary labeling effort that lets you know the source of your crabs. Using local Maryland crabmeat is definitely the first ingredient in a quality crab cake, but you still have to bind and season it. Does Conrad's tread the crab properly? Follow along and find out!
Conrad's serves crab cakes as a double entree, 5 oz each, broiled, accompanied by roasted red potatoes and seasonal vegetables. A 5 oz sandwich is also available, broiled, served with lettuce and tomato on a brioche roll, homemade tartar sauce and your choice of fries, sweet potato fries, or cabbage slaw. They also have their own brand of seafood seasoning available at the tables, but you'll want to ask for cocktail sauce or lemon if that's your thing.
The crab cake is comprised of large lumps of crab with an acceptable amount of broken pieces, bound together with breadcrumbs, seasoning, and what we figured to be egg. Not saucy at all, but still nice and moist, and broiled to perfection. The sandwich is just lettuce and tomato, with the tartar sauce on the side.
As one would expect with local Maryland crabs, the crab meat was super sweet and had great flavor. The binder just tastes like bread, although it's not too overpowering and works nicely with the crab. There were some pockets of binder that would make that particular bite more bready in flavor than others, but it's easy to overlook.
We felt that the crab cake on its own was really good, but not so much as a sandwich. Our biggest problem was with the bun. The bread is very dense, and the top bun was really poofy that it was about as tall as the crab cake itself. The bottom bun fell apart really easy, unable to fulfill its role as the main support for the sandwich. The flavor of the bun was like a potato roll, which we do like, but there is just way too much dense bread that it ruins the enjoyment of the crab cake.
Should you make your way out to Conrad's for crab cakes, we would recommend that you either go for the entree, or ask for the crab cake on crackers. Also, the crab cake is a bit under seasoned in our opinion, but put a hit or two of their seafood seasoning on top, and it'll perk things right up.
Additional Info
- Restaurant Name: Conrad's Seafood Restaurant
- Address: 9654 Belair Rd. Perry Hall, MD 21236
- Neighborhood: Perry Hall
- Restaurant Type: Local Chain
- Website: http://www.conradscrabs.com
- Review Date: 02/22/2013 5:12pm
- Atmosphere: Busy with a wait
- Item(s) Ordered: Crab Cake Sandwich
- Cooking Style: Broiled
- Other Styles Available: Yes
- Available by mail order?: No
- Price: 14.00
- Order Type: Sandwich
- Crab Content: Jumbo Lump
- Filler: Average
- Spice: Minimal
- Overall Impression: Very Good
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Rating (out of 5 crabs):
