The Crab Place

I have to admit that the level of customer service for the Crab Place is nothing less than exceptional. Matt reached out to me and has consistently reassured me that my satisfaction was his top priority.
I can’t wait to order from them again next month.

Ordered a dozen hardshell for mother for mother’s day. She said was really bad batch. Jell-​like consistency. Included 14 instead of the 12 — I guess knew were stinkers — but didn’t help — still had to throw a bunch out. Shipping good, but product not.

We attended the «Crab and Cruise» in late July 2015… and as soon as I finish doing this post we are going to register for the July «Crab and Cruise» this year.!! and… I’m going to say simply that if you are a total «crab-​aholic» as my wife and I are, and if you want to enjoy every possible side dish that is complimentary to the finest crabs selected from the bay and if you want to enjoy a fantastic evening «rock n’ roll» cruise on the bay to watch a wonderful sunset and share this time with some really fun people you will meet throughout the day… then this is the time and place to do it …
Here’s to crabs, oysters, cold beer, orange crush and a FINE group of people putting on these gatherings for us

I’ve ordered from the crab place for that past six years. I have always had a great experience. That is why my most recent experience is so disappointing. Per the live crab policy I understand the risks involved. The crab place offers store credit for more crabs if you experience a higher then 15% mortality rate. In six years of ordering have never had an issue. The last batch I ordered had a 100% percent mortality rate. I contacted the company and per their policy they told me I could get a replacement batch on my next order, but I have to pay $ 80 in shipping again to get the batch. I’m not asking for store credit to make up for a couple of dead crabs. I received a 100% dead box of crabs. I would assume this is out of the ordinary and a company such as this would want to take care of a customer. I was wrong. Not only was I wrong but the owners (Matt and Greg) are arrogant and insulting.
When I asked Greg to actually stand up for their satisfaction per the website
«Our many satisfied customers know we pride ourselves on delivering fresh seafood from our dock to your door, and to your table. We are committed to ensuring that our service is as outstanding as our food. Your complete satisfaction is our goal, and we back that up with our
Guarantee.»
His response via email was this:
From: Greg
Date: October 8, 2015 at 12:34:26 AM CD
Subject: Re: Maryland crab order
Obviously, satisfaction comes within the confines of our policies. What if you weren’t satisfied unless you grew 3 inches from eating our crabs? It’s unreasonable and we can’t do anything about that. It’s also unrealistic that every live crab order you place will arrive as you wish. We tell you that upfront. And we did have success apparently in the previous 5 which demonstrates our competency as a company. We’re willing to lose money on a store credit towards a future order. That’s the extent of our remedy. We’re not changing our policies after we advise you of the potential risk of the product you’re ordering. I’ll let Matt handle from here. Hopefully you switch to steamed and move forward as a happy customer from here.
When I pointed out a reviewer on Unilocal that received what I am asking for, I received this response from Matt.
From: Matt
Date: October 7, 2015 at 7:17:36 PM CDT
Subject: Re: Maryland crab order
Ahh yes. Unilocal.We ship 10−12k boxes a year for the past 20 years and have like 8 each negative Unilocal reviews (pretty good ratio in my opinion). That’s where people like you go. Have at it my friend.
People like me are your Customers. This is the first Unilocal review I’ve ever posted. That is because I have never received such poor customer service. Matt and Greg have blatant disregard for the customer experience and are only concerned with their wallet.

08÷8÷15. Crab and cruise.
Simply a great way to spend in crab country with my wife. The crab meal started on time. all the crab etc .very clean and organized. The boat cruise was extremely nice. Plenty of crab. cold beer and on the cruise plenty of live music. .live oysters shucked as you wait and of course cold tap for beer and ice cold soft drinks and water.

Awesome place. The owners Greg and Matt along with Jack of all trades Eric welcomed my wife and I with open arms. The crabs were abundant and tasty. The staff was on point. Great service from start to finish. We will be back with friends.

Had a friend on face book liked and shared the event for the June 13^th 2015 Crab & Cruise and we took a chance on it for our anniversary dinner and it was a blast. Staff was great, food was plentiful, ice cold beer and Orange crushes and the boat ride to Tanger Island with live country music and good company topped the night off. Off course we went to the after party at the Tiki Bar and enjoyed that as well !

I ordered two dozen colossal crabs for Memorial Day a Weekend. I had Them shipped to my house them shipped to my house. They arrived in excellent condition. I ordered the medium seasoning and they were seasoned just right. The crabs were pretty good considering the fact that I don’t really care for the male crabs, but no one is really selling females.
My only complaint would be that I am convinced that several of them were just jumbos and not colossals. Because of that, I did feel just a little cheated. Would I order from them again? Based on the reviews I read about Linton’s Seafood, yes, I will order from The Crab Place again.

Matt offered to replace my FRESH STEAMED CRABS ordered on Dec 4^th 2014 in APRIL OF 2015. He did not offer a refund or a store credit. Just a replacement of the Crabs on my next order? Do not order anything from this SMART ASS JERK !!

I ordered from the crab place for my 25^th birthday which fell on a Sunday this year. I live less than five minutes from a place who sells crabs and a bushel was $ 260. I decided to do my homework and see if I could get the crabs from somewhere on the shore and was willing to drive.
As a hospitality/​culinary major as well as a Maryland girl, I know a fair amount about delicious blue crabs. I began researching and reading Unilocal reviews about ordering crabs and after reading what I felt were VERY mixed reviews I ordered from The Crab Place.
I am so happy I took the chance and was beyond plesed with the quality, delivery, and overall experience with The Crab Place. My crabs were delivered Saturday afternoon by 5 pm and we just kept them in a refrigerator until Sunday afternoon. They were a great size, tasted awesome and were beyond reasonably priced.$ 180 for a bushel.
After researching the negative reviews for this company a common trend arises, most unsatisfied customers are ordering from very far away and when MARYLAND CRABS are NOT in season! Know your product people and this company will not disappoint! Thanks for making my birthday awesome :)

I decided I wanted to treat myself to a nice crab feast for Mother’s Day. Although crabs are quite available here in North Carolina and I definitely know how to cook them, I think I must have been homesick and just wanted a taste of home. NOTHING like a MARYLAND BLUE CRAB! No thing!
So I began to search the internet and decided I wanted to try different places and make my own judgement. Now, I know my way around a blue crab. After all, I had an uncle back in the day that owned a fish wagon. Every Saturday morning uncle came by. We had fish, shrimp, and crabs when we may not have had anything else. As a little girl I sat on many a curb and cracked crabs in my brown paper bag!
So I decided to go with The Crab Place and another place… that starts with an «L». The orders were placed on the same day and they arrived together by Fed ex on Saturday afternoon. i opened both boxes at the same time. The crabs from this place was packed nicely, seasoned as I requested. I ordered the colossal males and a dz. large females. All the crabs were nice weight. Nothing strange on them. I loved the simple fact that the box had a packing slip affixed. It also contained a measuring ruler, paper table cloth and the styrofoam box was taped nicely. The ice packs were STILL ice and the box was nicely cooled. I tasted one of the female crabs which was cooked nicely, not mushy and overcooked. I also joined the VIP Club here to save on future shipping.
Every positive thing I experienced here, I did not experience at the other place. I will definitely purchase from The Crab Place again! As long as the continue to get it right…

My family loves crab and we make the trek to MD almost every year for their crabs. To celebrate my MIL’s birthday, we decided to try something different and have blue crabs from MD shipped to us. After searching online we decided to go with
. We read some mixed reviews that made us nervous, but at the end we were so glad we gave them a chance.
It was recommended that we order STEAMED crabs instead of live as there is no guarantee all of them will be alive upon delivery. The website states a 15% mortality rate but could be higher based on the shipping environment, weather, and shipping delays. Who would want dead crabs? So we ordered a dozen steamed colossal male hard crabs and a dozen jumbo female hard crabs.
The crabs were shipped overnight and arrived the next afternoon in a styrofoam cooler. Within the cooler were some great looking and large crabs covered in old bay seasoning. A brown paper table cloth was included which was very helpful. We reheated them in batches and from there began our shell cracking feast.
The male crabs were larger and much meatier then the females (almost twice as much), and the seasoning was more than enough. The crabs tasted fresh and delicious. We even found an extra 5 crabs in our order which was a nice surprise. I had to tap out after 4 crabs. Next time we will order just males.
All in all, we had a good experience with crab place and it’s wonderful to know we can enjoy MD crabs anytime in our own home.

As a born and bred Marylander who’s now transplanted in the desert southwest, The Crab Place provides my hometown favorite food… right to my door. I’ve been hosting a crab feast at my house every year and every order has been perfect. You can pick the exact size, quantity and spice level. They’re cooked to perfection and FedExed to your door. I did see some negative reviews here and I’m not sure they’re valid complaints… looks more like someone aligned with a competitor trying to besmirch The Crab Place’s reputation.
I just did my most recent order last week (½ bushel of Jumbo’s) and they included several Colossal sized crabs as well. Again, I’ve had nothing but perfect product and service from The Crab Place and I highly recommend them.

The moral of the story with The Crab Place is you can either go with them and get into a BBB dispute over their service or, go with a better alternative such as Maryland Blue Crab Express, Chesapeake Bay, Blue Crab Trading Co — where you also get excellent customer service. If you want to see more issues customers have had with Crab Place visit Trip Advisor. Rating there is also low (2.5 stars as of 29 May 2013). Luckily for us Discover Card has permanently reversed the duplicate charge caused by Crab Place — after digging into it in much more depth than BBB ever would and getting all the facts.

Buyer beware. I wanted to like this business, which is family run and sincere — — but here goes — this is concerning their internet shipping business.
Crab Place insists that their refund policies are carefully posted — and their website is professional and organized — but you won’t find these disclaimers very easily. And you may end up in our shoes if your crabs don’t have the strength for a normal fedex next-​day shipping route.
We ordered crabs for a saturday delivery, and we were ready to eat with a nice group of people when they arrived in a Styrofoam box. We opened the box within ½ hour of the noon delivery, and it was nice and cool inside. But the crabs weren’t moving. After about 25 minutes of inspection, we learned that of the 33 crabs in the box, 22 of them — 65% — were just plain dead. And the ones that were alive were zombies. Suffice it to say that the meal was ruined. And we also felt awful for shipping these crabs that obviously couldn’t survive the trip, and were now in-​edible. When I ordered the live crabs on crab place, I used a $ 150 birthday gift certificate. I had to supplement it with around the same amount of $$ to assure I’d receive around 40 live crabs (½ bushel plus a dozen). Now that I think of it, we had actually only received 34, and while the large size was a true large, it was still 6 short of our anticipated order (no small amount of $$). Oh, and did I mention that the Saturday fedex delivery was 85 $??
Ok, so we ate the 11 that survived.
Matt Cain was friendly to me when I explained the mortality. Unfortunately, Crab Place’s website puts their refund policies in an odd «FAQ» section, rather than posting them as significant disclaimers. It took me a while to find them this morning after Matt and I got off the phone. By the time our call was done, Matt was insisting calmly over and over that we should have read their policy, and my wife was livid in a way I’ve never seen. So if you are as unfortunate as we are, and your party doesn’t happen because 65% of your dinner died en route, Matt may simply offer to refund a portion of your order with store credit, and will not assist with the re-​shipping of another order in any way, or really make you feel that you really matter beyond his bank account.
So, what ARE the odds that 2/3’s of lunch will die during normal shipping?
We feel that Crab Place is wrong to wait until their customers complain to let them know that they should have read and/​or heeded an «obvious» disclaimer which is almost impossible to find. We ended up going out for Pizza, and we feel that Matt’s offer to provide store credit for the ½ bushel does not help us to recoup the money that they took from our credit card at what must be a pretty large margin of profit. What to do???

We came in around 3 on a saturday afternoon and there was only one other table there. I was a little scared about the emptiness for a saturday afternoon in summer, but i guess crisfield doesn’t ever really get crowded.
At first we were a little dismayed to find they were only offering things from the menu that were «in the boxes» which was a pretty small subset of the already pretty small menu. Luckily, everything we were interested in (hard crabs, steamed shrimp, crab dip, corn on the cob and cold beer) was available and we placed our order.
The food came out quickly and the beer was nice and cold. Not much more to say about this experience than: HOLY FRESH CHESAPEAKE CRABS!!! At $ 32 a dozen, the «selects» (5.5in) were an amazing deal. Not a single speck of suspicious black coloring (*cough*BP*oil*spill*cough) anywhere on any of our crabs. Really moist and flavorful meat. Perfectly cooked. Not a single crab came out dry or filled with water. These really really rank high up there among the best blue crabs i’ve ever eaten.
Almost everything we could want to have with our crabs and shrimp was already at the table (vinegar, butter, cocktail sauce) but we did have to ask for a side of crab seasoning. There was a somewhat unfortunate swarm of flies that pestered us throughout the meal despite being inside but i’m willing to explain it by the fact that we were the only ones eating crabs and the lone target for the wandering swarm.
The dip and shrimp and corn were all really good but unfortunately for them played Scottie Pippen to the delicious Michael Jordan that were the incredible steamed crabs.
The things that hold The Crab Place back from getting 5 stars are as follows:
–Small menu (not everyone loves blue crabs and it can be hard to drag people to crabhouses without many other options)
–Hot and sticky despite sitting indoors
–Rampant fly population
We drove by later at night (around 11:30) and the place was JUMPING with some… loud sounding live music pouring out.
If I find myself in Crisfield again, i’ll be back for more crabs.

Stopped in to see if this was where the action was in Crisfield! Well, it was, I guess.
Live music was a nice touch, beers were relatively cheap too.
We were a party of 6 and decided to sit and eat. Dining area (and bar) are very spacious and open, lots of air circulation in the screened in patio setting. Fun atmoshphere to eat a casual seafood meal.
Steamed shrimp (VERY GOOD)
Crab Dip (GOOD, creamy and cheesy topped),
Chicken wings (meh, flabby and not crispy, bordering on undercooked, Hot Sauce not that hot),
Soft Crab Sandwich (Very tasty, nice size and fresh)
Sides were up and down.
The fries were undercooked though looked fresh cut.
Onion rings were ok, though appeared to be of the frozen variety. Not really worthy of an Extra side, but if you want to get them as choice of side with meal, would be ok.
Hush puppies were good though a bit dense. I enjoyed the sweet flavor but some found them too sweet and not worth choking down.
Final note, crabs not a bad deal, $ 1 per crab for standard size, which were meaty and heavy enough. Upgrade to larger sizes ups price to about $ 3 or $ 4 per crab depending on size.
In any case, would definitely go back.