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The Brasserie
It's not often that the CCR reviews crab cakes outside of the MD/DC area. But this week, Daddy needed a new pair of shoes, so we packed up the car and headed to Lancaster, PA, home of the Pennsylvania Dutch, outlet malls galore, and The Brasserie. If you've been in the area, but haven't happened upon The Brasserie, located between the outlets and downtown Lancaster, has been around since 1925. Originally a traditional home for over 50 years, it is now a casual restaurant that captures the essence of the countryside. Their Tomato Bisque Soup was featured in Bon Appetite Magazine, and they share the recipe with you on their website. They also mention that their crab cakes are equally as delicious, a claim that we needed to see for ourselves. Read on and see how they were!
The Brasserie offers a traditional crab cake entree, available as a single or double platter, served with spanish rice and a creamy remoulade sauce. In addition, the Baltimore Blue is listed on the sandwich menu, which is a superior lump crab cake, topped with mixed greens and tomato, and served on a toasted kaiser roll alongside homemade seasoned chips and a pickle. This review is for the sandwich.
The crab cake is mostly crab, bound together with mayonnaise, bread, and some spices. While considered saucy, it was a nice amount of binder to keep everything moist but not wet. The crab was mostly broken up, with a few medium lumps in the mix. Spice was at a minimum, with parsley being the most discernable spice, which was most likely added for color.
The crab gave off a small amount of sweetness, but nothing over the top. The binder tasted almost buttery, and was muted enough to let you taste what flavor the crab meat had. That was about it for flavor -- buttery with some crab flavor. The kaiser roll didn't help. While the roll's flavor was also low key, it blended in with the crab cake so that you couldn't really tell the difference between the two.
All in all, the crab cake was alright, but nothing overly special. While you can't always control how sweet the crab is, you can control the spice. And this crab cake needed some extra spice to accentuate the crab flavor and increase the overall flavor profile.
The house-made chips, on the other hand, were super delicious! We have been here before, and what we had at that time was also really good. So while the crab cakes failed to knock our socks off, there are other items on the menu that are worth checking out!
Additional Info
- Restaurant Name: The Brasserie
- Address: 1679 Lincoln Hwy East Lancaster, PA 17602
- Neighborhood: Lancaster
- Restaurant Type: Local
- Website: http://www.lancasterbrasserie.com/
- Review Date: 11/09/2013 4:37pm
- Atmosphere: Not Busy
- Item(s) Ordered: Baltimore Blue
- Cooking Style: Broiled
- Other Styles Available: No
- Available by mail order?: No
- Price: 13.00
- Order Type: Sandwich
- Crab Content: Jumbo Lump
- Filler: Minimal
- Spice: Minimal
- Overall Impression: Average
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Rating (out of 5 crabs):
