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Ze Mean Bean Café
Ze Mean Bean Café started out as just a coffee house back in 1995, serving light fare and traditional Eastern European cuisine, alongside desserts, coffee, and tea. Since then, they have expanded into a full-service wine and dining destination. In the land of pierogies, galumpkies, and kielbasa, you wouldn't expect to find a crab cake. But this is Bawlmer, hon! Crab cakes are everywhere, and it's always fun finding them in unexpected places. Read on to find out how the Eastern European take on our beloved crab cake was!
Ze Mean Bean offers crab cakes as an appetizer, and as an entree. All crab cakes are 4 oz. in size, are Maryland style, and come with a side of spicy Polish honey vodka sauce (served warm). The appetizer is a single cake, whereas the entree is a double entree served with asparagus and red lentils. The menu says the appetizer comes with asparagus, but ours did not come with.
4oz doesn't sound like much, but this was a larger crab cake than originally expected. The crab meat is mostly broken up, bound together with bread, egg, Dijon, and spices. The bread didn't taste like normal bread, but had a sourdough or pumpernickel type of flavor. As for the spicing, the Dijon comes out in front, but the seasoning hints on the salty side.
What does all of that equal? Delicious! The crab meat is nice and sweet, and the flavor from the bread put a nice spin on things. While the spicing is a bit salty, it works well with the sweetness of the crab and the bread. Very unique flavor profile that kept us interested with every bite. And that sauce, whoa mamma! The Polish honey vodka sauce was like the nectar of the Gods. We didn't feel it was very spicy, but it was VERY tasty, almost like a liquid doughnut. Did it work well with the crab cake? We didn't think so. But we were happy enough to just eat it plain, and think of all of the other things we'd like to spread it on.
Additional Info
- Restaurant Name: Ze Mean Bean Café
- Address: 1739 Fleet St Baltimore, MD 21231
- Neighborhood: Fells Point
- Restaurant Type: Local
- Website: http://www.zemeanbean.com/
- Review Date: 04/11/2014 7:25pm
- Atmosphere: Not Busy to Moderate
- Item(s) Ordered: Krupnik Crab Cake
- Cooking Style: Broiled
- Other Styles Available: No
- Available by mail order?: No
- Price: 14.00
- Order Type: Appetizer
- Crab Content: Jumbo Lump
- Filler: Average
- Spice: Average
- Overall Impression: Outstanding
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Rating (out of 5 crabs):
