I'm Only Here for the Food!

Phillips Seafood
301 Light Street, Baltimore, Maryland

While in Baltimore, a lot of people (both local and from other places) mentioned I must have crab cakes. When I asked the locals, there were back and forth arguments as to where to have some. In the end, I left it to fate: I walked again by Harborplace (since there were so many restaurants there) and noticed there was a seafood restaurant. That’s how I ended up in Phillips Seafood.

No, there is no need to ask: I did not go to Hooter’s…

Please do not let the picture above fool you. It was around 8:00 p.m. and the restaurant was at least 3/4 full. As per personal policy, I tried to take a picture of the restaurant without taking a picture of other customers.

On the table, in addition to the regular salt and pepper, there was a quite particular additional condiment. In this case, their own seafood seasoning.

Based on the ingredients list, the first one listed (hence, the one with the greatest percentage) is celery salt followed by celery seeds. I tried it with the food and was, well, nothing spectacular.

For drinks, I asked for their “fresh squeezed lemonade” ($4). I am not sure how well the picture above captured it but, unless “fresh squeezed” means squeezing a mix from a bottle, it barely had any lemony flavour. Instead, I could feel some powdery, crunchy and extremely sweet granules.

I will admit that night I was a bit hungry but, even if I wasn’t, I would have gone for broke. After all, it was my last night in Baltimore and was under meal allowance. I might as well “eat well!”. So, to start, I order their New England clam chowder ($6/bowl), which came with some oyster crackers. Not sure about you but would you say the visual of the soup looks like vomit? No, that really did not help… It was barely warm, a bit too thick and the taste was on the lines of being non-descriptive. I could tell there was some fish but not sure about other seafood. I found this disappointing.

Now, here is something I hate about restaurants in the US. In restaurants, quite often you are given some bread, probably a piece or two per diner. Would you believe the whole bun above was just for me? C’mon, since I was a single diner, at least you could have asked! Anyway, I had a single piece and left the rest. It was meh… Such a waste…

Here is my entrée, their broiled seafood platter ($30) which is made up of a crab cake, some garlic shrimps and a piece of fresh catch of the day. The shrimps were well cooked (i.e., not extremely cooked); however, I had barely any shrimp-y taste. Nothing spectacular. The fish was salmon and, although flaky, it suffered the same fate as the shrimp, barely any salmon-y taste. For some odd reason, I had the impression it was farmed salmon rather than wild. This might not be a surprise… The asparagus and fried onions were quite decent. And, finally, the main item…

I left the crab cake for last… And it was worth it! It had a crab-by flavour but not overpowering. While chewing a morsel, I was already anticipating the next. I finished this crab cake in almost no time and wishing I ordered an additional pieces!

Overall, despite the crab cake was quite good, I don’t think I would come back here. I mean, it was a $30 dish and I had high expectations. The main part, the crab cake, delivered; however, when you brag you have the best seafood (see sign in the first picture), all other parts should deliver as well. In this case, they did not.

As a side note, I must add I went to the main restaurant. After I left and walked around, I found they also had an express outlet and a buffet. In the case of the later, the admission price was about the same price as my entrée; even if I found out at first, I don’t think I would have gone there anyway.