Good! Probably the best seafood in Frederick, MD but definitely not the best seafood in Maryland.
The Place: The restaurant is actually an old two story house of which only the lower level is used for dining. Theres a lot of restaurants in old houses throughout Frederick, especially downtown; this is done in order to preserve the historical integrity of the city, but it doesnt appeal to me. The outside appearance of this house needs some serious upgrades! If you didnt know that the food was good, most people would never stop judging by the run down otter appearance of the place. If you are taking a guest for the first time, go at night, that way it doesnt look like such a creepy place. I drove past this place many times with no intentions of stopping until some friends told me that the food was good but I had to hear it from several different friends before I decided to actually go inside the place because it looks like such a dump on the outside. Aside from the outside appearance, two other down sides hit me about this place before I even sat down. 1. It is over crowed during prime dining hours and people pack into this place like sardines, the overcrowding creates an uncomfortable feeling. The noise level is always very loud, a quite place this is not. Next, be prepared to wait especially in the evening on weekends, make a reservation in advance. 2. Parking is very limited. They have about eight parking spots in front just off of the main street so you have to back out into traffic. There is a larger parking lot in the back but if the back lot is full you have to park behind Lowes and hike which is not good in inclement weather. The back lot was so full when I went people were double parked and blocking other parked vehicles in, it was so tight, once I realized it was full I couldnt even turn around, I had to back all the way out and of course someone was trying to come in while I was backing out, so we both had to back out, it was such a pain; I was so mad that I almost left.
The inside atmosphere does not appeal to me any more than the outside. I like places that have been built at least within my lifetime, but preferably within the last century. If you really wanted to give the inside atmosphere the benefit of the doubt, you could say: having the restaurant inside of an old house is reminiscent of the old original Maryland crab houses or crab shacks that you find throughout the shore areas but even thats stretching it. The old crab house feel applies more to the outside porch area than the inside dining room. The inside dining area is just the first floor of a gutted old house and doesnt have very good atmosphere at all.
The Food: This place has a variety of all-you-can eat offerings of seafood but the selections are all way overpriced. For that reason, I always order something from the menu because you can find more reasonably priced platters, not all you can eat, but the portion sizes are large enough. The most popular items this place serves are the various types of crab. They told me that all of their crabs are fresh and have not been previously frozen, that makes a big difference in the flavor of the crabmeat. I had their blue crabs and the crab legs, both are very good. If you get the all-you-can eat blue crabs you get a variety of blue crabs ranging from small to large, more small and medium than large. The shrimp are very good as well. I ordered steamed clams on three separate occasions and each time they have been loaded with sand particles, so the only food I cant recommend are the steamed clams.
The Service: The service is good, even when its busy I didnt have any problems with the service.
The Bottom Line: Bad appearance and atmosphere, better than average seafood.