Weekly reviews of crab cakes around the MD and DC area

Garry's Grill

Garry's Grill Crab Cake Sandwich Garry's Grill Crab Cake Sandwich Crab Cake Review

Taking fresh, available ingredients and making them into an unexpected, unique dish. Sounds fancy, huh? What if we told you that it's from what has been described as an 'upscale diner' that also has a full bar and offers baked goods and desserts? Enter Garry's Grill. Since 1991, Garry's Grill has been delighting locals with their seasonal menu, as well as taking their cuisine on the road with their catering business. Garry may have retired and headed south, but the restaurant lives on. Were their crab cakes as worthy as their other menu offerings? Read on to find out!

Crab cake offerings at Garry's Grill will vary depending on the menu that you're offered. For lunch, you'll only see the Crab Cake Sandwich, which is Garry's own Maryland style crab cake, broiled or fried, served on a brioche with lettuce, tomato, Old Bay tartar sauce, and one side. The dinner menu offers both the sandwich, as well as the USNA Crab Cakes, a double platter of crab cakes served with Old Bay tartar sauce and two sides.

Garry's crab cakes are Maryland style, so they bind jumbo lumps of crab with predominantly bread and egg. Mix some spices and Dijon mustard in there, and you've got yourself a crab cake. Lots of lumps of crab in the mix, with just enough binder to hold them into a cake form.

The crab meat was suspiciously uniform in size, and had a dried out texture with not much flavor. The dryness usually indicates frozen crab meat is being used, and the uniform size is typically found with Blue Swimmer crab. Luckily the crab meat didn't taste fishy, but being light in flavor isn't much better.

When you put a fork to the cake, it instantly falls apart due to lack of moisture. Main flavors are of the binder, with the crab flavor afterwards. We're not big fans of tartar sauce, so we ordered ours without, but we'd bet that it would be the predominant flavor if served with. 

As an entree, the crab cakes are considered average, given the previous points. But as a sandwich, the crab cake gets lost in the brioche. The roll itself, along with the lettuce and tomato, is really fresh and super tasty, but their flavors unfortunately overpower the crab cake. You're probably better off going with one of Garry's other menu offerings, and possibly one of those excellent looking desserts.

Garry's Grill of Severna Park Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Additional Info

  • Restaurant Name: Garry's Grill
  • Address: 553 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd Severna Park, MD 21146
  • Neighborhood: Severna Park
  • Restaurant Type: Local
  • Review Date: 10/10/15 4:03pm
  • Atmosphere: Not Busy to Moderate
  • Item(s) Ordered: Crab Cake Sandwich
  • Cooking Style: Broiled
  • Other Styles Available: No
  • Available by mail order?: No
  • Price: 14.99
  • Order Type: Sandwich
  • Crab Content: Jumbo Lump
  • Filler: Average
  • Spice: Average
  • Overall Impression: Mediocre
  • Rating (out of 5 crabs):

    2-crab