Cafe Soleil is a restaurant located in the Club Quarters hotel, just outside of Farragut Square within the Golden Triangle district, and 2 blocks from the White House.  For 12 years, they have been serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week to hungry tourists and locals alike.  With as long as they have been around, and the neighborhood they are located in, you have to bring your A-game when it comes to the discerning food palates in our nation's capital.  Should these crab cakes get the presidential seal of approval, or should their recipe get vetoed?  Stick around and find out!

Cantlers Riverside Inn has been serving fine seafood to the Annapolis area since 1974.  Watermen, boaters, and tourists alike can agree that this establishment is the embodiment of a Maryland seafood house -- no frills, just good food.  A little bit hard to find, this place has a perfect perch on the waters of Edgewater, not far from Annapolis harbor.  They have a solid steamed crab, but what we really want to know about are their crab cakes.  Well let's find out!

While situated near water and not on a dock (as the name may imply), Canton Dockside is one of Baltimore's newest crab houses.  The outside patio is as you would expect with a crab house: wooden picnic tables that get laid down with brown paper before a tray of Maryland's finest are presented before you.  Go inside, and the crab house feel takes on a more upscale feel.  Family owned and operated, Canton Dockside was listed by the Baltimore Sun in 2011 as one of 15 crab houses that you need to visit this summer.  If they know crabs, then one would figure they know crab cakes.  Do they?  Let's find out!

Cedar Crossing is a cozy little wine bar and restaurant tucked away next to the Metro station in the Takoma neighborhood of DC (while next to Takoma Park, MD (right on the border, in fact) it is still in DC).  As little bistros go, this one is your typical DC establishment -- a little bit of all types of cuisines, no real one style or genre defining their menu.  A date spot that is not too pretentious or fancy, and somewhere where the locals like to hang out.  The chefs will even come out to talk to you and see how you like your entrees.  And don't even get me started on the beer selection.

So while they do have a set menu, they also like to put different items on special.  I've passed by this place a few times this past summer where crab cakes were on special, but had usually already had dinner at that point.  So the last time I noticed that crab cakes were on special again, I made a special point to go in, as you never know when they'll be coming back.  Once you walk inside, the entire place was filled with the smell of sweet, delicious crab (mind you, the place isn't very big).  So was the special of the day truly special?  Let's find out!

You can't get any more 'local landmark' than Chick and Ruth's Delly.  Politicians, dignitaries, celebrities, locals, and tourists agree that your local Ma and Pa sandwich shop is certainly still worth visiting.  Where else can you order a sandwich named after a local politician, recite the Pledge of Allegiance each morning, and take on one of the the Colossal Challenges?  And now they have crab cakes available at the shop as well as mail order.  Are they really Crab Cake Central, as the sign outside indicates?  Read along and find out!