Photo courtesy of Chart House
Chart House
Let us clear up a distinction first, because it determines whether you leave happy.
A crab house is a specific thing: steamed blue crabs by the dozen or the bushel, Old Bay in a drift across brown paper, a wooden mallet and no expectation that anyone will look presentable afterward. A seafood restaurant is a restaurant that serves seafood. Alexandria has an embarrassment of the second and comparatively little of the first, and the lists that blur the two are how people end up disappointed at a white tablecloth with a crab cake.
Here is the honest map.
On the water in Old Town
Chart House — 1 Cameron St.
The best river view of any table in the city, full stop, and it charges accordingly. Sit outside if the weather allows. The crab cake is a single large one over tomato rather than a plate of them, which surprises people.
Vola's Dockside Grill and Hi-Tide Lounge — 101 N. Union St.
Closest thing Old Town has to a proper dockside room. Raw bar, oysters, patio directly on the marina. Worth knowing that the waterfront here genuinely floods on a high tide and the staff will move you — some regulars (might) find this charming.
Ada's on the River — 3 Pioneer Mill Way.
Wood-fired, upscale and the newest of the waterfront rooms. Less a seafood house than a restaurant with a strong seafood side, but the setting earns its place.
Blackwall Hitch — 5 Cameron St.
Big, loud, live music, two floors and a patio. This is the one for a group that cannot agree, and the one to skip if you want to hear the person across from you although the patio can be relaxing.
Just off the water
Fish Market Restaurant — 105 King St.
An Old Town institution running for decades in a warren of rooms across two floors. Old-school in the best sense. Come for the oysters and the lobster bisque.
The Wharf — 119 King St.
On the same block and older still, doing crab cakes, she-crab soup and stuffed flounder the way it has done them for a long time. The sidewalk tables on the pedestrian block of King are the best seats.
Finn & Fire — 111 N. Pitt St.
The newcomer, opened within the past year. Early reports are strong. Worth a mention precisely because it is not on anyone else's list yet.
Where the actual crabs are
Here is where you have to leave Old Town.
Crafty Crab — 5770 Dow Ave.
West End, off Van Dorn. Seafood boils by the bag, snow crab and crawfish, seasoning by heat level, bibs provided. This is the closest thing inside city limits to the messy-table experience, even though it is a boil house rather than a Chesapeake steamed-crab house.
Crab Cab Seafood — 6328 Richmond Hwy.
Down the Route 1 corridor. Po'boys, gumbo, fried oysters, and a well-liked bar.
And the honest answer nobody wants to print: for steamed blue crabs by the bushel, on paper, with mallets, Alexandrians cross the river. That is a Maryland tradition and Maryland still does it best.
