Jerry’s Seafood

Many years ago surefire tipster Joe Heflin described Jerry’s Seafood to us as the “best overall Maryland seafood restaurant without view.” He warned that the ambience is nondescript and we should expect long lines any evening, especially weekends.

No problem. We’ll gladly wait for this extraordinary DC-area seafood treasure. Nor do we need to be soaking up ambience when we have one of Jerry’s crab bombs on a plate in front of us. This is a fairly gigantic (ten ounce) and expensive (over $30) crab cake that is nothing more than fresh jumbo lump meat, Old Bay seasoning, and just enough mayonnaise to make it cling together, baked until a fragile crust develops all around the edges but the inside is still dripping sweet. Even better for those with a yen for spice thrills is the firecracker crab bomb, to which mustard and pepper are added. Jerry’s also makes a six-ounce Baby Bomb and ordinary-size crab cakes about which the menu boasts, “absolutely no filler!”

Mr. Heflin’s other recommendation was crab soup, which is a virtuoso balance of creaminess, crabbiness, and sharp spice with a surprisingly generous amount of lump crab meat. You can also eat velvety crab imperial perked up with peppers, crab dip, and crab bisque made with sherry.

Those who are anti-crab can revel in fried shrimp, scallops and oysters, all with a light fragile crust, as well as good side dishes that include what the menu promises are from Jerry’s mom’s recipes: stewed tomatoes and cole slaw.