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The Salty Pelican
Every now and again, the CCR gets to travel to places outside of the MD/DC area. Sometimes its for vacation, other times its for a work-sponsored vacati....er.....conference. So we had the chance to travel to Amelia Island, FL, just outside of Jacksonville along the Florida/Georgia border. One night of the conference included an excursion to Fernandia Beach, which is home to the Salty Pelican. The Salty Pelican only opened up in 2012, and was awarded Best Restaurant/Neighborhood Bar on Amelia Island by Folio Weekly's Best of Jax in 2014. Coastal Florida is known for seafood, so we couldn't resist trying some crab cakes. Were they worth the trip? Read on and find out!
Crab cakes at the Salty Pelican are only available on the entree menu, serving up two crab cakes made with the signature Salty Pelican recipe, and your choice of side. You can upgrade the side to mac and cheese (like we did) or onion rings for an additional charge.
Our first impression was that crab was way too broken up/minced to be considered a serious crab cake (at least by a Marylander). And the crab cakes were a bit thin. Once we broke open the first crab cake, the disappointment continued when we found that the destroyed crab meat was padded with a lot of binder (or as some would say, filler). The binder was predominately breading and egg, with some spices mixed in.
As far as flavor goes, it was the spicing that stole the show. And the spice was so salty that it was like a punch in the face. We really couldn't taste the crab, even with the one or two tiny lumps that we could find. The ratio of binder to crab meat was off as well, being mostly binder with little crab. The flavor may have been ok if the spice could be toned down, but it still didn't make up for the disappointing amount of crab in the cake itself. We're sure that there are better things to try on the menu, but the crab cakes aren't one of them.
Additional Info
- Restaurant Name: The Salty Pelican
- Address: 12 North Front Street Fernandina Beach, FL 32034
- Neighborhood: Fernandina Beach
- Restaurant Type: Local
- Website: http://www.thesaltypelicanamelia.com/
- Review Date: 05/28/2015 7:02pm
- Atmosphere: Busy
- Item(s) Ordered: Crab Cakes
- Cooking Style: Sauteed
- Other Styles Available: No
- Available by mail order?: No
- Price: 15.00
- Order Type: Double Platter
- Crab Content: Shredded
- Filler: Too Much
- Spice: Too Much
- Overall Impression: Mediocre
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Rating (out of 5 crabs):
