Harris Crab House, Traditional Chesapeake Bay Crabhouse with Patio - Open 7 Days 11 AM - 10 PM

[deangold]

I need suggestions for crab shacks/houses/dives/restaurants on the water within an hour and a half of DC.

Cantler's is obvious but given that it is commission weekend I am going to assume it will be crazier than normal.

Capt. Billy's in Pope Creek, Md., my usual go to, only has smalls and mediums this week.

What's left?

Harris Crab House Kent Narrows. I much prefer this to Cantlers myself.

[hillvalley]

Mr. Gold's suggestion met the criteria so we ended up at Harris Crab House. The crabs were excellent. Ex-larges full of sweet meat washed down with cold beer. Far superior to the crabs I got from Maine Ave. a few weeks ago.

The rest of the food was either fine or scary. French fries and coleslaw did their respective jobs but were your standard fare. We came up with a variety of uses for the cream of crab soup including spackling, finger painting and hole filler. I'm going to stick with the sage advice of if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all and leave it at that.

Ambiance wise it missed the mark for me compared to Cantlers. Part of the magic that is Cantlers is that it enough of a drive on random roads that you feel like you are no where near daily life. I didn't realize how much I needed that until we sat over looking the bay with the Kent Narrows Bridge a little bit away. That being said, I would head back just for the crabs. They were good enough to look beyond the bridge.

All in all it was worth the trip for the crabs and the much needed break. We got away from suits and responsibility for a little while, which in the end was what we were looking for.

[baczkowski]

I've never been to Harris's but I was just thinking we should go somewhere for crabs on Sunday. I haven't looked anywhere for crabs other than Cantler's for several years but last summer's 2 hour wait starting at 2:30 (which we thought would be off-time enough) was too much with two kids age 3 and under. I'm willing to branch out and Harris's would be 1 hour and 1 minute according to Google from my in-laws' in Colesville and that's about the perfect drive limit to squeeze a nap in the car and still be able to get back at a good bedtime, too.

Pax,
Brian

[curls]

Crabs at Harris Crab House last night. Not sure where the crabs were from but they were medium heavy to heavy and the meat was sweet. Hopefully we are headed for a great blue crab season.