Weekly reviews of crab cakes around the MD and DC area

Alewife

Alewife Maryland Crab Cakes Alewife Maryland Crab Cakes Crab Cake Review

So where do you go when you want to pre-game for a show, but want a wide selection of beers to choose from? That's right, you go to Alewife! Located in the Theatre District, Alewife is a gastropub that focuses on highlighting Maryland cuisine. And getting to choose from 40 draft and 100 bottled beers isn't such a bad thing, either. You can't get much more Maryland than a crab cake (or the Blackened Snakehead, AKA "the Frankenfish"), so we decided to stop in and give them a try. Read on to find out how they were!

Crab cakes are available or Lunch, Dinner, or Late Night. The Lunch/Late Night menu offers Crab Cake Sandwiches topped with Bibb lettuce, tomato, and house tartar sauce on a brioche bun, served with french fries. Dinner features a double entree served with buttered corn cream, fried green tomato, and a micro salad with IPA mustard vinaigrette. All prices are market price.

The crab cakes are Maryland style, which binds large lumps of crab meat with a bread-based binder. Lots of large lumps in the cakes with very few broken pieces, and a sweet (but not too sweet) flavor. The binder is moist, and lightly spiced, with a hint of Dijon in the background.

Very nicely done! Great care was taken when mixing the crab and the binder to keep those precious crab lumps whole. The crab itself had a decent flavor, but wasn't too sweet. We've certainly had sweeter crabs this year already, but it was still good nonetheless . The binder was a bit of a disappointment. It had great moisture, and the flavor accentuated the crab while remaining neutral, but the only spice we picked up was a hint of Dijon. It really could have used a bit more spice in the mix to keep things interesting.

Alewife Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Additional Info

  • Restaurant Name: Alewife
  • Address: 21 N. Eutaw St Baltimore, MD 21201
  • Neighborhood: Theatre District
  • Restaurant Type: Local
  • Review Date: 06/07/2014 7:16pm
  • Atmosphere: Busy
  • Item(s) Ordered: Maryland Crab Cake
  • Cooking Style: Broiled
  • Other Styles Available: No
  • Available by mail order?: No
  • Price: 34.00
  • Order Type: Double Platter
  • Crab Content: Jumbo Lump
  • Filler: Average
  • Spice: Minimal
  • Overall Impression: Very Good
  • Rating (out of 5 crabs):

    4-crab