Crabby

We love crabs. Sage has been known to sit at a table waiting for steamed crabs chanting "crabby, crabby, crabby, meaty, meaty, meaty." She is an animal lover, but is at ease with the food chain.

So we thought that last week we would try Bobby's Crabcakes in Rockville Town Center for lunch and meat up with Daddy/Basil. I like RTC, but I was a little concerned to see it fairly well overrun with high school kids - lines of loud kids spilling out the doors of most of the quick, less expensive lunch places. I despaired that we would end up off the Washingtonian's best budget meals list desperately searching for food, and fast, before Olive woke up.

There were no crowds at Bobby's, though, and I think it might be because a lunch there will run you over $10 just for your basic crabcake sandwich. With fries and some cole slaw you'll pay $13.95 just for the regular (not jumbo size) crabcake sandwich. Lemonade was $3 but didn't taste particularly fresh or squeezed sadly.

It's a small, cozy place with plenty of counter-style seating, which is a little awkward with kids, but it made it easier to find a seat when all the tables were full. It doesn't look like a table service place, but it turns out that it is. Not realizing this, we ordered at the counter and found a spot for the 4 of us at the counter-style seats by the door. The waiter was gracious and accomodating and cleared a better table as soon as it was available. When Olive began to cry he came over and ooo'ed and ahhhed, which was refreshing. We weren't hurried out with a "can I get you the check?" but since we were ready to go, the waiter offered a nice cup of ice water to go since it was over 95 that day.

We ordered a crabcake platter (jumbo - 5 oz rather than 4) for Basil and I share. At around $25 we were a bit disappointed in the size of the plate in general, but you have to admit that they don't cheat you on the crabmeat. There is plenty of it and it is well cooked, tastes fresh, and is pretty well seasoned (some might like a bit more spice). The fries are indeed like boardwalk fries - without the sweat and sunscreen taste you inevitably get on the boardwalk. The coleslaw was nothing inspired but not bad. It suffered the fate of most slaw sides - a few bites then abandoned for the main show.

Our overall impression of the crabcakes was underwhelming. I know the thing to talk about with regard to crabcakes these days is whether they are over-breaded. Some places pass something more like a falafel off as a crabcake to be sure. But I think chefs and restaurants may sometimes err on the side of serving a pile of lump crabmeat. It's hard to find the cake in Bobby's crabcake and, yeah, I'm not afraid to say I'd like a little something to hold it together. A great crabcake is a balance of moistness with crispiness, spiciness that doesn't overpower the delicate crabmeat, and just enough cake without going overboard.

Bobby's is a friendly place and a nice place to get a bite of crab when you have the taste for that, or when you are tired of all the old lunch possibilities. It's a fine place to bring kids and it's easy to carry out if they go nuts, but they won't teach you anything new about crabcakes and you may end up feeling that for the money, at lunchtime anyway, you really could have had a more exciting meal.