Mike's (MD - Edgewater)

We stopped into Mike's on Labor Day because we were just too knackered from our weekend pig roast to actually steam our own crabs. Mike's is one of our favorite crab haunts - fast, friendly, no fuss, beautiful waterfront setting and always great steamed crabs.

Much to our surprise, they were completely sold out of crabs - at 6:00 on Labor Day.

It took a minute for it to sink in, but then I resigned myself to actually reading their menu. After dozens of trips to Mike's, I had never bothered to glance at the thing. Typically it is, "a few dozen of the largest you have, onion rings, fries and a pitcher of whatever's coldest."

We ordered a pound of steamed shrimp to pick over while we mulled over the choices. The shrimp were good - not great - but I have certainly had far worse. They were smallish - about the size of your pinkie finger - but well seasoned and tender. Too often steamed shrimp come out the consistency of those pink rubber erasers, but thankfully, this was not the case at Mike's.

Consensus at the table seemed to be to stay in the crab theme, so it was crab cake and soft shell crab sandwiches all around.

The crab cakes were massive - the size of softballs - and packed with some of the biggest chunks of jumbo lump I have ever seen. They were also very light on filler - mostly just crab meat and some binder - nary a bread crumb to be seen - and broiled to a golden brown perfection.

Unfortunately, they were also amongst the worst tasting crabcakes I have ever had.

Behind this Potemkin village of size, color and texture was a bland mound of mush that was almost completely devoid of any flavor at all. Quite honestly, I don't know how they pulled this off. I couldn’t even taste the crab meat itself. When crab cakes go wrong, it is usually lesser quality meat, too much filler/binder, too much seasoning, or God forbid, the inclusion of green peppers.

Never before have I have a crab cake LOOK so perfect and taste so wrong. My only guess is that they used some combination of frozen lump crab meat and forgot to season the binder at all. This was a colossal disappointment.

The soft shell crab sandwiches that half of our party had ordered were outstanding. Two soft shell crabs, very lightly dredged and sautéed, each measuring between five and six inches across arrived between perfectly fresh wonder bread.

These were tender, juicy crabs exploding with flavor and freshness and served on bread so soft that it stuck to your teeth as you bit into it. Fortunately, the portions were large enough that they shared with those of us who had unwisely chosen the crab cakes.

The silver lining in this otherwise uneven trip to Mike's is that everyone had plenty of room left for dessert. At Mike's, they serve ice cream, pies, etc. but the real draw is their "nutty buddy cone."

These mammoth ice cream cones feature a sugar cone, filled with vanilla soft serve ice cream, dipped in chocolate and then rolled in peanuts. They measure over ten inches from bottom to top and are so large that they now arrive on their side, in bowls, with spoons. Whatever you do, don't pass these up.

I would still like to get another round of steamed crabs under my belt before they stop running this season. Hopefully Mike's won't be sold out next time, because I would hate to have to brave the line of luxury cars with Baltimore area private school window decals over at Cantler's.