Crisfield, Silver Spring, Montgomery County, Maryland

You remember Crisfield, don’t you? The fried seafood place in Silver Spring? Nancy and I used to go to Crisfield way back in the day, but we hadn’t been in decades. As I recall, it was a fixture on DC “best restaurant lists,” but that was in the days when the area had only two Mexican restaurants, no Thai, Indian, or Vietnamese restaurants, and certainly no Ethiopian, or Afghan food. This was all before you were born, of course. Meanwhile, fried food lost favor in many quarters, tastes changed, and Crisfield fell farther and farther out of the spotlight.

Recently, however, Crisfield was back in the news big time. A New York Times article included Crisfield amping the 25 Best Restaurants in Washington Right Now. The article called Crisfield “a master class in no-frills Mid Atlantic dishes like seafood bisque, broiled fish platters and crab cakes with no filler” and “a perfect destination for a platter of fried seafood with juicy, lightly battered shrimp, scallops and perch.”

I was surprised and intrigued by the Times’ selection, so Nancy and I went there for a birthday lunch. Crisfield has been around forever, since 1945, in fact, and while Silver Spring has been through a series of changes, inside Crisfield it could be 1945.

The only modern touches are photos of recent celebrities that line the wall. Just look at the tile.

We sat at a two-top and looked over the menu. We’d already had a big breakfast and were looking forward to a special dinner, so we both ordered on the light side. That meant no fried platter and nothing Norfolk style. Nancy got the Lite Fare Broiled Flounder ($20) with slaw and a baked potato as her sides.

The flounder was nicely cooked, flaky and moist. Flounder is a mild fish without a lot of flavor, and Nancy liked it better with the tartar and cocktail sauces that accompanied the fish. 

The baked potato arrived in foil and was unremarkably good. Here’s the slaw.

This was a good solid slaw, with fresh ingredients and lightly dressed. This is the sort of slaw that fish houses should serve.

I ordered the Broiled Crab Cake Sandwich ($20), and chose slaw as my side.

That’s a good crab cake, broiled just so and served on a properly grilled bun. Let’s take a look at the interior.

That’s some pretty crab meat, and while I’m agnostic as to the crab meat’s provenance, and I’m pretty sure that there’s filler in there. This was a good crab cake and a good deal at the price.

We enjoyed Crisfield, and I look forward to testing their fried food when circumstances allow, and to trying the Crab Norfolk. And I encourage you to try Crisfield. That said, one of the 25 best right now? I haven’t eaten crab cakes in town since we started going to Southern Maryland, and I have to say that Crisfield’s crab cake is no match for those at Jerry’s Place, and Hidden Harbour, to name just two among many in Calvert County, much less those at the St. Mary’s County crab houses. Newspapers of record just aren’t what they used to be, bless their hearts. But I’m glad that they gave some attention to Crisfield. It got me to go back, and I hope you’ll do likewise.

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