Friday, July 9, 2010

Blue Claw Crab Eatery - Burlington, NJ

What can I say other than the fact that we took it to the hood tonight in Burlington for some crab legs!  It's been years since we have been to the Blue Claw Crab Eatery, and tonight we dedicated our dinner to Captain Phil Harris of Deadliest Catch and the Cornelia Marie.  R.I.P. Captain Phil!

We arrived at Blue Claw and were greeted by a line of people, but the line moved fast, and we were seated in the back of the restaurant on the upper level.  The decor has changed a bit from our last visit, and it looks like they got new tables and chairs.  The restaurant is covered in crab decor, from the walls, to hanging from the ceiling.  The place was packed, and the bigguns were out tonight!  Big crabs I mean!  But if you are looking for romantic ambiance, this isn't the place for you.  If you are looking for a classic crab shack, then this is your place!

We sat, I pulled out the Reidel stems, and popped open a 2004 Fiddlehead Sauvignon Blanc, made by our good friend Kathy Joseph.  I'll write a full review on the wine below, and as always, it did not disappoint.  Fiddlehead is one of our favorite producers of great pinot noir and sauvignon blanc!  Kudos to Kathy and her team for crafting such awesome wines for the price!

Our waitress came over to take our order, and we asked for a few more minutes as the menu is just so overwhelming, and I just couldn't decide what I wanted.  Zelda opted for the dungeness crab bowl, and I opted for the all you can eat platter with snow crab, king crab, king crab parts, and dungeness crab!

Not even 10 minutes went by, and out came our crab.  Zelda went with the mac and cheese and garlic mashed potatoes for her sides, and both were tasty.  The mac and cheese was hot and cheesy, and absolutely delicious.  Her bowl of crab was massive, sweet, and delicious!

For my first bowl, I started out with king crab with the Old Bay seasoning, and it came out steaming hot and delicious with a nice side of butter.  The Old Bay was actually a bit overwhelming and salty, but it was still good.  The crab was steamed nicely, and was sweet and succulent.  Thanks to a little fork and a pair of scissors, they were easy to crack open, and easy to put right into my stomach.

For round two, I opted for the snow crab, and this came out as two nice clusters filled with great meat.  I enjoyed these so much, that I ended up ordering one more bowl of snow crab, that I definitely could have done without.  Regardless, I got my money's worth, even though I regretted that last bowl as I was stuffed.  If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't have changed a thing!  ;-)  The side of hush puppies came out hot from the fryer, and these too had some great flavor.  All in all, a great meal!

I was however a bit disappointed that they had run out of key lime pie tonight, but again, it was probably for the better as I don't know if it would have fit into my full belly!

All in all, a great night at the Blue Claw, and I am glad that we finally went back after so many years.  We also had the pleasure of meeting Lou ad Noelle, who were sitting at the table next to us.  The quarters are tight as they try to pack them in, and we had a great conversation throughout dinner with another couple of hardcore foodies!  If you guys are reading, drop us a line or leave a comment, and we'll do sushi together one night as we talked about.  It was great to meat you guys!

Again, a great night with great crab, and if you are looking forward to a good crab feast in Central Jersey, the Blue Claw Crab Eatery is your place!  Cheers!  -F. Scott

Blue Claw Restaurant and Crab Eatery
4494 Route 130
Burlington Twp., NJ 08016
Tel: 609-387-3700
Fax: 609-239-0554

2 comments:

Frosty said...

How much did the all you can eat run? They just list "market price" on their site.

NJFoodies said...

In all honesty, I don't remember, but I do remember our tab being $100 when we left, and we didn't order anything else. I want to say it was around $40 per person.