I agree about the mediocre crab cakes.
I was once served one that had the appearance and appeal of a cardboard disc.
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I was served one in Toronto that was still frozen in the middle.
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Crab cakes are easy at home if you have good crab.
Fried whole belly clams on the menu always get us, even thousands of miles from Woodmanâs. So far, pretty good and a couple times worth the commitment . . . after all, youâve got to respect the ingredients and recipe to put it on the menu when youâre serious about this aspect of the hospitality trade . . .
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I was once served one that was like a pancake.
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Happy to see this old thread revived 
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I agree. I make them much better than any restaurant.
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And Iâm betting the menu proudly proclaimed their crab cakes to be âfreshly made in-house!â or some such.
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Freshly made in house before freezing 
Two of the Hungarian restaurants in Toronto, and one Greek restaurant in London ON, donât seem to think customers recognize house-made food that has been frozen and reheated.
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Iâm actually curious whether the frozen crab cakes came in on a Sysco truck.
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One of the few benefits of living in Maryland is youâre pretty likely to be able to get a proper crab cake. Some may be meh, or all filler, but they will be at least an approximation of The Real Thing. I shake my head at people who will be in some far-away venue and order a âMaryland-styleâcrabcake, and the be disappointed when something like a donut sprinkled with Old Bay appears in front of them. 
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Some of us canât visit Maryland, though.
Iâm disappointed when Toronto gets faraway foods wrong, like crab cakes.
They should get them right, if itâs a good restaurant. If a chef can get jerk chicken close to right, or pasta amatriciana, or whatever else, a chef should be able to make a decent crab cake from Phillips crab, or whatever is the best crab the seafood supplier can sell them.
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Blue crab, preferably from Maryland, is to Marylanders the best, though TBH not all Maryland restaurants have signed the pledge to use it exclusively. I doubt if Phillips does. Their meat is also pasteurized - thatâs kind of necessary for them, and TBH I was once told by a local supplier on the Eastern Shore, who pasteurized theirs for out-of-season consumption, that it was indistinguishable from fresh-picked, which is of course the gold standard, and very expensive. Thereâs always the golfball sized jumbo lump from Venezuela - which certainly eye-catching but doesnât have quite the same sweet flavor, IMO. Blue crab meat can also come from Louisiana.
ETA - Phillips is not Maryland crab â Philips, which has been operating for about a century, works with fishermen and has processing plants in Southeast Asia to ensure consumers get fresh crabs throughout the year.â
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What places in the PNW seem to like to do is cutting the crab with shrimp. Or worse, scallop mousse. We have Dungeness crab here which is obviously different than your blue crab but there really is no excuse for them to be skimping on the crab, especially during crab season. Maybe Iâm supposed to find the scallop mousse to be an interesting twist. Itâs not like scallops are cheap but I do not like the mushy/springy texture it adds.
I envy you your soft-shelled crab. Add that to my always order list but only if it is fresh which means I rarely get to order it. Here on the west coast, it is usually frozen.
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Same. Almost zero filler, and none of that nasty Old Bay nonsense
True believers use J.O.s, not Old Bay. - and it should whisper âŚ
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I was taught by my parents to use fresh blue crabs and the least possible amount of binder to hold it together. To be honest, the very best crab cakes tend to fall apart when they hit the plate. The seasoning is minimal.
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I have lived across the lake from Seattle area and on the Chesapeake Bay. There is a joke that you can starve eating blue crabs, so much work for so little meat. That may have a lot to do with the popularity of crab cakes (or my favorite, crab Norfolk, a pile of crab meat topped with butter and broiled, often served atop a slice of country ham). Dungeness is an entirely different experience, being large enough that eating steamed crabs as you crack and pick is the way to go. I see Dungeness meat used on crab Louie and just shake my head.
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Yep to all. Mine self-destruct. 
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Thatâs why you have corn on the cob at a Maryland crab feast. So you donât starve ⌠particularly if youâre an OCD crab picker.
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