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The All-American Steakhouse & Sports Theatre
The All-American Steakhouse & Sports Theatre is a regional chain with 3 locations in VA and 2 in MD. Featuring wet and dry aged corn-fed midwestern beef, along with all of your other bar favorites, you won't have any excuse not to be hungry when you walk in. The kitchen is located right near the door, so you get smacked with a waft of sizzling beef the second you step in. Which isn't a bad thing, honestly. And try as we might, we didn't let that deter us from what we're really after -- crab cakes! Were they as delicious as the steaks smelled? Let's find out!
The All-American Steakhouse offers a crab cake dinner as a single or double 5oz. platter, made with jumbo lump crab and served with a salad and one side. There is also a Surf & Turf on the steak menu, which is comprised of a 10oz. sirloin and a 5oz. jumbo lump crab cake, which also comes with salad and one side. While you can add a crab cake as a side to any of the steak items, the one option not on the menu is a crab cake sandwich. Getting the Surf & Turf only saves you about $2 in the long run, so if you're fancying a T-bone instead of a sirloin (and why wouldn't you?), you might as well go for it!
The crab cake is a made with lots of crab lumps in a bready, yet saucy, binder. That saucy mixture is then spiced, breaded, and deep fried to a golden brown. The amount of lumps to broken pieces was about half and half. There was visible breadcrumbs in the binder, heavier in some spots than others. There were also crunchy onions in the mix to add some crunch to your bite.
The first thing that hits you when you take a bite is the spice. It's super salty with a slight hint of seafood seasoning. The next thing you notice is the crab. The texture of the larger lumps is dry and mostly flavorless, save for a slight fishy smell. We suspect they used frozen Blue Swimmer crab to pad the crab mixture. The rest of the crab really didn't have much flavor, or if it did, the salt in the spice made sure you didn't taste it. The onions are also out of place, as the small crunchy bits are a bit off-putting in a predominately soft dish, and has an overpowering flavor that doesn't sit too well.
Overall, you get a nice creamy and bready mouthfeel from the crab cake, but that's about where the enjoyment ends. With the frozen crab, slightly fishy flavor to some of the crab, and the overpowering saltiness of the spice, there wasn't much to enjoy. And once you get a big bite of onion in the binder, the flavor lingers and ruins your palate for the rest of the dish (or until you drink enough beer to make it go away). The spice levels were ok in some parts, and essentially a salt bomb in others. Try it if you're feeling adventurous, otherwise save the money you'd spend on the crab cake side for a couple of beers to go with your steak.
As a side note, all of the steaks we ordered came out perfectly. While you would think this is no small feat for a steakhouse, there have been countless times that medium-rare came out as medium or over.
Additional Info
- Restaurant Name: The All-American Steakhouse & Sports Theatre
- Address: 3615 E. Joppa Rd. Parkville, MD 21234
- Neighborhood: Parkville
- Restaurant Type: Regional Chain
- Website: http://www.theallamericansteakhouse.com/
- Review Date: 09/13/2013 7:28pm
- Atmosphere: Busy with a wait
- Item(s) Ordered: Surf and Turf
- Cooking Style: Fried
- Other Styles Available: No
- Available by mail order?: No
- Price: 26.00
- Order Type: Combo Platter
- Crab Content: Jumbo Lump
- Filler: Average
- Spice: Above Average
- Overall Impression: Mediocre
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Rating (out of 5 crabs):
