Weekly reviews of crab cakes around the MD and DC area

Jumbo Jimmy's Crab Shack

Jumbo Jimmy's Crab Shack's Jumbo Crab Cake Sandwich Jumbo Jimmy's Crab Shack's Jumbo Crab Cake Sandwich Crab Cake Review

Jumbo Jimmy's Crab Shack doesn't lie when it comes to the name. Around the corner from the Hollywood Casino, tucked away on a local road, is The Shack. Complete with Tiki Bar, package store, and restaurant.  As the name implies, the big draw here, aside from live entertainment, is the crabs, which you can smell as soon as you walk in. As much as we love crackin' a few with friends over a pitcher of beer, we decided to take a gamble on their crab cakes. Did we win the jackpot, or should we have folded? Read on to find out!

Crab cakes are available as a sandwich, served with lettuce and tomato on either a kaiser roll or crackers, with fries and cole slaw on the side; as an entree, or as part of a seafood combo. All selections serve a 5 oz. crab cake made from a mixture of backfin and jumbo lump crab, broiled or fried.

The jumbo lumps of crab meat are meaty, but a bit dry, with a consistency that is normally found in frozen crab meat. While most of the crab meat tasted like crab, there was a slight fishy aftertaste, which you only find in either crab meat turning bad, or blue swimmer crab. The binder is predominately bread crumbs, otherwise known as Maryland style, mixed in with a good amount of Old Bay.

We found that the crab cakes at Jumbo Jimmy's really weren't all that spectacular. The fishy aftertaste was probably the biggest offense. Because some restaurants like to maintain a price point over consistent quality, padding crab cakes with the blue swimmer crab is probably what is going on here. Otherwise, that would mean the crab meat is going bad. And serving bad crab meat is no bueno.

The binder, while still moist, leaned towards the dry side.  The seasoning was the only good thing about the crab cake, but was a tad heavy. Most likely to cover up the blue swimmer flavor, but too much seasoning makes things too salty. Given this was a crab shack, we were disappointed at all of the corners that were cut just to provide a crab cake on the menu.

One other thing that comes up a lot is the service quality at Jumbo Jimmy's. From our experience, the negative comments were true. When we walked in, there was only one other table sat at that time, with another table coming in a minute or two after us. The waitress had an attitude like she didn't want us there, and went straight to asking us what we wanted to order, completely bypassing beverages. When we wanted another beer, we had to ask for it despite the waitress walking past us 5 times in 15 minutes. The only time that the service was good was when it was time for the check to come. Hopefully no one else has to experience this, but prepare yourself if you decide to stop by.

Jumbo Jimmy's Crab Shack Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Additional Info

  • Restaurant Name: Jumbo Jimmy's Crab Shack
  • Address: 1065 Bainbridge Rd Port Deposit, MD 21904
  • Neighborhood: Port Deposit
  • Restaurant Type: Local
  • Review Date: 08/23/2014 4:15pm
  • Atmosphere: Not Busy
  • Item(s) Ordered: Jumbo Crab Cake Sandwich
  • Cooking Style: Broiled
  • Other Styles Available: No
  • Available by mail order?: No
  • Price: 15.99
  • Order Type: Sandwich
  • Crab Content: Jumbo Lump
  • Filler: Average
  • Spice: Average
  • Overall Impression: Mediocre
  • Rating (out of 5 crabs):

    2h-crab