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The Charred Rib at The Barn
The Charred Rib at The Barn (otherwise known as The Barn), has been many things over the years. A rest stop for farmers heading to Broadway Market, a grocery store, a dance hall and saloon, and nowadays, a tap house, rib shack, and crab house. Recently remodeled in 2013, this location has been known as The Barn since 1980. Having a crab house on site would make us think that the crab cakes are as good as the crabs themselves smell. Read on to find out if they were!
The Barn offers crab cakes a few different ways. As an appetizer, you can get Crab Balls (not quite a cake, but close enough!). Any sandwich list wouldn't be complete without a Jumbo Lump Crab Cake Sandwich, served broiled with fries and cole slaw. And then there are the entree choices. There's the Jumbo Lump Crab Cake served broiled or fried, with a house salad and your choice of vegetable. Or, because ribs are the house speciality, you can opt for the Surf & Turf, pairing half a rack of ribs with a crab cake, served with a potato and your choice of vegetable. We opted for the combo, because we do love us some barbecue.
The crab cake is 6oz, and made with large lumps of crab, mixed with spices, and bound together by what seems to be an egg and bread mixture. There was minimal broken pieces, and a crab to binder ratio of about 60/40. As for the overall flavor, well, that's another story.
While the crab meat was moist and sweet, the binder really threw us. It had a bready flavor to it, but was a bit gelatinous in texture. You also couldn't really tell there was spice in the mix until well after your bite, where there was a peppery finish on the back end.
Due to the texture of the binder, and the lack of discernible spice, we found this crab cake to be fairly average. While there was some moisture to the binder, the way it gelled together just wasn't right. Which is a shame, as the crab really did have some good flavor to it.
Additional Info
- Restaurant Name: The Charred Rib at The Barn
- Address: 9527 Harford Rd Carney, MD 21234
- Neighborhood: Carney / Parkville
- Restaurant Type: Local
- Website: http://www.thebarnbaltimore.com/
- Review Date: 06/16/2014 7:33pm
- Atmosphere: Moderate to Busy
- Item(s) Ordered: Surf & Turf
- Cooking Style: Broiled
- Other Styles Available: Yes
- Available by mail order?: No
- Price: 19.59
- Order Type: Combo Platter
- Crab Content: Jumbo Lump
- Filler: Average
- Spice: Average
- Overall Impression: Average
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Rating (out of 5 crabs):
