The Crab Shack

Located on the tiny (but touristy) island of Brigantine, NJ is the Crab Shack. The crab shack has a store front where it sells its fresh seafood proudly on display and a back room converted into a small dining area with about 8 tables. Ask if they’re serving and someone will take you behind the normally closed door what looks to be like your seriously beach-obsessed grandmother’s dining room.

We’ve actually been here once before about a year ago, and the waitress who took care of us then took care of us this time. The menu is noticeably extensive for the restaurant seeming to be a side-business the store front. Clean and quiet, it’s a great place to get away if you’ve been surrounded by shoobies and their crazy children all day on a crowded beach. The biggest downside? Flies.

We started off with the hush puppies ($5.99). They came out blazing hot (Chris burned himself) but with no plates for us to eat on. We precariously picked from the basket. The little balls of deliciousness were well-seasoned with onion, salt, etc. with a crunchy outside (cornmeal?) and a soft, almost gooey inside. These are not your Red Lobster hush puppies. I loved that they were flavorful but not overly salty. 

For my entre I ordered the fresh caught tuna-steak (medium rare) with wasabi ($16.99) with a side of baked potato and corn on the cob (from an option of about5/6 sides). Chris ordered their 1lb lobster roll which they’re famous for.

I got a big ol’ hunk of tuna steak with what looked to be some sort of house seasoning sprinkled on it. The seasoning tasted like it was based off an Old Bay-esque seasoning with notes of oregano/thyme. The steak itself was delicious even though it was much closer to well-done than medium rare, but I wish it wasn’t so timidly seasoned just on the top. I will say that the wasabi dipping sauce was a nice addition, very strong, but helped cleansed the palate for pure tuna tastes. My potato came still wrapped in foil which I didn’t like, but I DID like how moist it was. Sometimes you get potatoes that have been neglected in the oven or on a heating plate that are dried up and not flaky. I gave my corn to Chris.

I actually had the lobster roll a year ago when this blog first got under way. I'm glad we finally came back. I've known about the Crab Shack for a few years since one of my best friends used to man the front of the store every summer, but it was only my third time eating their food. The lobster roll at the Crab Shack is pretty impressive. It is served on a large doughy kaiser roll with crisp iceberg lettuce. The bread itself is nice and stretchy and the bread hinge that is created by cutting the roll does not rip. I believe this makes their lobster roll that much better. Because the roll stays together, the fresh giant lumps of lobster don't fall out the back when you bite into the sandwich. The lobster is tossed in a light mayonnaise sauce and then it is hit with some Old Bay seasoning. The simplicity lets the fresh seafood shine through.

The lobster roll was served with fries and coleslaw.  The fries were pretty good, freshly made, crispy and already salted (once again, not over salted).  The slaw was more interesting. I think the Crab Shack throws some sweet pickle into their slaw. Their slaw had a certain bite that only comes with a fresh pickle and their slaw ended up having a relish element to it. Delicious. The corn was corn, unfortunately their was nothing special to it. It did taste fresh though. 

It’s worth the trip off the glitzy restaurant bubble that is Atlantic City, and is not much more expensive than a casino buffet. It’s quiet and quirky with charming pieces of hardware and knickknacks that you’d expect from a place just two blocks from the beach. Perhaps not the most romantic place for a date, but if you’re already settled and just want a (tasty) change of paste, head on over to the Crab Shack. 

The Little Tuna

What makes a restaurant successful? Is it a well executed vision of food profiles and flavor? Is it friendly, passionate and knowledgeable staff? Or, is it in a name?

I had heard good things about The Little Tuna, located on "Restaurant Row" in Haddonfield, NJ, which is why I leaped at the chance to buy $50 worth of food for $25 on LivingSocial a few months back. However, when I got home that same day, in the weekly coupon saver, was a Little Tuna PAGE of coupons. It made me wonder if the restaurant was struggling, which in turn made me wonder about its quality.


Luckily, they (do) do tuna very well.


Let me preface this by saying that I have, thus far in my short relationship with fish, had a very volatile relationship with fish in any raw form. My first meal after becoming a pescatarian, about a year ago, I had sushi- nothing crazy, but some tuna rolls and some salmon ones. Taste-wise it was pretty uninteresting to me (I guess I'm all about the tempura-based sushi), but the real horror was that on the walk home and for the rest of the night, I started swelling up...everywhere. I had a severe allergic reaction- and to what exactly I'll never know- but that's enough to make anyone avoid raw fish.

Seared Tuna wins MVP

But, this tuna was seared, so I decided that I would try some peices off of their appetizer menu, instead of getting a tuna meal, and that it was safe enough.


The Little Tuna offers a series of tuna plates (they make it a point to tell you that it's "sushi-grade") that can be served with (a) wasabi and ginger, (b) jamacian jerk style, or (c), what we got, sesame encrusted. Truly delicious, and not overdone with sesame, the pieces came out a touch before warm with one sesame and one wasabi-based sauce for dipping. The tuna was a great pink, with no sliminess. In the past, I find that tuna in extended slices can get strange in the middle with the flesh tearing in strange, unappealing ways (especially at the moment where cooked meat meets with uncooked), but the transition on these pieces was perfect. I felt that I was actually just enjoying tuna in a very pure form with my own choice to enhance the flavor as much as I wanted. By far, my favorite part of the meal and something I would come back for.

Coconut Crusted Tilapia with Lime (?) Chutney

My main entree wasn't quite as delicious. I ordered the coconut crusted tilapia with a (supposed) lime chutney. I say supposed because the chutney was comprised of apples, and what I can only assume are a bevvy of spices, with (maybe) a squirt of lime over it. Very little lime was there to help cut through the coconut- which was thick and of the sweetened variety. This threw me off because between the reduced apples, the coconut, and the white fish (which was soft, and relatively tasty on their own) left the meal very sweet overall. Relatively delicious, but very strange. I had to salt it quite a bit to help the flavors balance out. The sides were decent- vegetables weren't too over-boiled, and my potato was yummy, as potatoes always are.

The Little Tuna served good food, however the restaurant was inconsistent to the point where it did not live up to my expectations. The Little Tuna did a nice job of creating a feeling of private dining even though most of the seating is an open table style. The tables were draped with immaculate white table clothes and came with its own bottle of imported, bottled water, which I'm sure was not complementary. We were seated immediately and our waiter hurried over. He was very eager, but that didn't make up for his lack of focus/forgetfulness since we ended up waiting for him most of the night. To put this in perspective we started out just getting water, he then said he would bring us bread, he came back and took our appetizer order without bread, reassured us he would bring us bread, came back minutes later with our appetizer with no bread, took our entree order, asked if there was anything else he could do for us, and I replied, "just the bread, please." Five minutes later we had bread. I know this sounds petty, but the point is I must hold The Little Tuna to a higher standard than Ponzio's Diner down the road.

Flounder Stuffed with Lump (?) Crabmeat

For my entree I ordered the Flounder Stuffed with Lump Crabmeat. As a rule, if I have the opportunity to eat more than one animal in an entree, I usually take the opportunity. The flounder was delicious. It was very flaky and tender. It was seasoned with an expected Old Bay-type crab seasoning making it feel very Maryland. Although it made sense it was boring. I expected that the lump crabmeat on the inside would tie everything together and bring the dish to the next level that it should be at. I was met with something I did not order. The lump crabmeat was much closer to a paste crabmeat. It was a bland texture that could have been fulfilled by the delicious garlic mashed potatoes (skin included) next to the fish. The end result tasted like delicious flounder stuffed with mushy crab-flounder. The second side on the plate was a pile of steamed, unseasoned vegetables. It was sadly uninspired and lacked an overall freshness that I look for in seafood. The natural texture and taste of crabmeat is what makes it special when paired with a flaky white fish. Don't pulverize the crab, please. Maybe I'll get a double order of seared tuna next time.

OM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM!

Joe Pesce

Seven Layer Chocolate Birthday Cake

Happy Birthday to us! Our birthdays fell on the weekend of the biggest winter storm the north east has ever had in the month of October. Now for South Jersey, it wasn't too bad. We had slick roads here and there, a couple of patches of black ice, and a wee bit of accumulation. However we made the decision to not go to a dance competition in North Jersey due to, what we gathered, some pretty nasty weather. That being said it was technically my birthday so we opted for a Silver Spoon instead of our usual Jersey diner. I chose to go to Joe Pesce which is a little intimate seafood restaurant in Collingswood, NJ right on Haddon Ave. I had heard personal stories from outside parties that they can mess up orders or completely forget an order as well. But, I wanted seafood, darn it! So we went.

The snow was thick, heavy, and wet when we ran from our parking spot a block away into the Joe Pesce and we were instantly greeted by the man I assume is the owner. He took very good care of us making sure that the rest of his staff was attentive and helpful. He might have done a little too much over managing in the beginning when he told us all of the specials for the day (which he had memorized like a Shakespeare soliloquy). At the same time, it appeared we were the first guests of the night so while the rest of the staff opened bottles of wine, brought over an ice bucket, and tidied up the rest of the restaurant, the owner made sure we were taken care of.

Grilled Octopus

We started off the meal with a grilled romaine salad (I'll let Chi expound on this one) and some grilled baby octopus which came in a pleasant white sauce. We have admittedly eaten an unusual amount of octopus in the past few months for a couple that resides in Cherry Hill, so we are undoubtedly starting to learn who has the best octo. Unfortunately for Joe Pesce, in comparison to the other two restaurants that have served us this gastropod, theirs comes in third place. The poor little guys were over grilled and the only one that was marginally tender was the largest one on the plate. The problem was that since every octopus was a different size, they ended up cooking everything for the same amount of time, but different thicknesses of meat will cook at different rates (it's a surface area to volume thing). The largest octopus was very good, though. It had a great char on it with a superb grill flavor, but the other little ones brought down the entire dish.

Whole Dorado in Scampi Sauce

For my main course I ordered the whole fish of dorado in a scampi sauce. My fish was not deboned at the table but whoever finished the deed behind the curtain did a decent job. I found maybe three bones in the entire dish, but having caught and filleted fish myself, I know that sometimes bones are missed, and I also know to eat deboned fish carefully. The sauce was delicious and light and really complimented the buttery, oily taste of the dorado. The meat was very tender and the quantity surprised, since the last time I ordered whole fish I was left hungry. There's not much else to say when you're served quality seafood. You can tell the fish is fresh when it's not fishy.

First of all, I apologize for the poor quality of photos. Joe Pesce's is very dark with soft lighting which is a great settling for intimate dinners, but not so much for amateur food photography, especially when you just have your smart phone. I wasn't brave enough to use my flash.


It's a small restaurant, with plenty of staff- it seems as if there is one main cook with a myriad of waiters who also finish meals, filet whole-fish, slice up salads, etc. The low bar/exposed kitchen wall allows you (if you wanted) to walk up and watch your meal being cooked.


Their specialty is fish, cooked to order either as the whole fish or a filet, with a choice from several saucy finishes. I want to say that the menu pairings of fish and flavors was thoughtful, but I can't fully recall because we all ordered specials. In fact, I'm not even completely sure that we opened our menus. Just to give you an overall sense of our fishy adventure, Chris's father ordered the Mediterranean Branzino, his mother ordered the (wild [really?]) salmon, Chris ordered the dorado as referenced above, and finally I ordered the strange monk fish  It's apparently a pretty ugly fish- but I believe in inner beauty tastiness.

Beautiful Monkfish 

The appetizers we ordered were specials as well and the one I found particularly tasty was their grilled romaine salad (with crab meat/shrimp) in a homemade Caesar dressing. "I know it's Romaine," the waiter said, "but trust me."


We did and noms ensued. Firstly, presentation-wise, this salad is very daunting as it's a full (large) head of romaine that comes out hot, hot, hot, but not still crunchy with very little collateral wilt. Our waiter put in the extra effort to divide it for the four of us, and even though it serves two, I would say that all four of us received a very good amount. The dressing was creamy, but tangy which helped cut the grilled flavor and kept the salad from tasting too rich. Honestly, I found the crab and shrimp to afterthoughts to the actual salad, which is good in the sense that they accomplished in making the romaine the focus.

Monkfish's Side of Zucchini and Potato

Though the lighting is humble, this is a picture of my monk fish as it came out to me on a bed of arugula with a mango topping (like a chutney). Simple, but all that was needed since it turns out this type of fish is very hearty. The filet tasted like it was dark meat, with a distinctive strip of fat (almost of tendon-consistency) throughout the middle. It was very strange textually, but definitely kept me interested. Since then, I've learned that monk fish is often referred to as "the poor man's veal/lobster", depending on your personal experience. I would definitely agree to this in saying that it felt like i was eating some strange hybrid of fish and meat, which was probably the thing that turned me off (since I don't eat meat). Overall, the flavors were delicious, and I ate all of it happily.

Sides were yummy- but expected and boring. Mash potatoes were creamy and not too bland, and not too salty. Zucchini was grilled well, but at the end of the day, it's a cheap vegetable side. I would have preferred some dark greens to go with the dark fish, but maybe I'm thinking too inside of the box.

We then ordered two desserts on top of our meal; the cheesecake and the chocolate cake. The cheesecake was a healthy serving (one giant piece served as two). It tasted like three quarters creamy cheesecake and one quarter creme brulee, like they had torched the top of it a bit. As for the crust, it was a classic, thick graham cracker crust. A very decadent and filling dish. The chocolate cake was impressive itself. It was seven layer chocolate cake that managed the impressive feat of having a very rich dark chocolate flavor balanced with sweet, milk chocolate tones which kept each bite from becoming dull and redundant.

Additional Notes: Classic BYOB in Collingswood, so drink up but get home safe. It's a small space so make sure you make reservations ahead of time. The price is what you would expect for a menu that is comprised of mostly specials that are completely original and homemade.