Posted by Michael Stern on November 02, 2009
The Narrows is fancier than most Roadfood restaurants – rack of lamb or chicken Oscar, anyone? – and it is pricier – dinner easily can set you back $30 or more – but we would be remiss not to include it here as a service to all in search of great crab cakes and the less-appreciated local love, fried oysters. Both are serious destination eats.
These are the crabbiest possible crab cakes, meaning they taste like all crab and nothing but the crab, just minimally spiced and containing only enough filler to help the big, heavy white lumps of meat remain spherical. At the first touch of a fork, the sphere will fall apart, offering up bite-size forkfuls of glistening-moist inside meat as well as pieces from the outside that have facets that are light brown with a crisp edge. The oysters, known to Chesapeake Bay connoisseurs as white gold, are fried in a cornmeal veil, just enough to shore in all the juices that erupt as soon as teeth pierce the meat within.
Although the place is quite deluxe, it is in no way snooty or off-putting. Located on the water of the Kent Narrows, it offers diners an opportunity to look out at pleasure boats as well as working fishermen coming in with clams, crabs and oysters. For those far away who desperately crave a real crab cake, the Narrows offers "Crab Cake Express" service: crab cakes ready to cook and crab soup packed in dry ice and shipped overnight.
Overall: Worth planning a day around
9 out of 9 people found the review helpful. Was it helpful to you?
Reviewers "Must Eats" List
Crab Cake
($14.00)
Oyster Caesar Salad
($20.00)
Bread
(N/A)
"Hail Caesar! The salad is fine; the optional oysters are sensational: juice-heavy, marine-sweet, each one a huge, savory mouth melt-down. And those onion rings on top? They should be looked at by the FDA as irresistibly addictive."
Michael Stern
"There are bigger crab cakes, but none with bigger crab flavor. I thought I tasted dashes of lemon and pepper among the lumps, but the luxurious crab meat eclipsed all."
Michael Stern
"Meals start with a basket of nice ciabatta rolls, served oven-warm."
Michael Stern
"Years ago, the Narrows offered open-air seating, but apparently marauding seagulls put an end to that. This glass-walled dining room provides a great waterside view."
Michael Stern
"In search of topnotch Maryland seafood, you won't do better than taking exit 42 off US 50/301 just east of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and dining at The Narrows."
Michael Stern
