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Not to be confused with
The Crab House in North Miami Beach, The Original Crab House, is located in Kendall at the end of an
unassuming strip mall off US 1 and SW 98th Street. The place lacks any view of water. This should have been a
warning sign. But with crab on our minds and a desire to test uncharted
waters, we entered and found a dining room consisting of
seven tables covered in newspapers. Walls were adorned in harpoons, a taxidermy swordfish, and plaques that looked as if they had been yanked
off the walls of a New England inn.
The husband (co-owner, host, waiter, busser)
greeted us with menus while we had a straight-shot view of the wife
cooking in the kitchen. Appetizers ranged from $4.95 (raw oysters) to
$14.95 (jumbo cocktail shrimp) and also included clam chowder ($3.95
for a cup, $4.95 for a bowl).
Crab is all we came for. Almost all of
the seafood prices were listed as “market price.” So when we
inquired about the Alaskan king crab legs ($59.95) and Alaskan snow
crab legs ($29.95), the husband retrieved plastic wrapped crab legs
from the freezer and brought them over. They weren’t the
meatiest-looking crab legs, so the price seemed high.
We settled upon the regular bowl
($29.95) of original garlic blue crabs in herbs, spices, and garlic
sauce; ($39.95 for the jumbo bowl). As we waited, we could hear nothing but the sweet sounds of
Simon & Garfunkel overhead and the snapping of crab shells as our
fellow crab-eaters dug into their bowls.
The owner prepped us by putting on our
plastic bibs. He seemed to relish the role. He also seemed to notice
that we weren’t quite enjoying the nearly meatless blue claws. I asked
where he obtained them and he replied “the Everglades,” adding, “we didn’t know we could get them there, but
when they ran out on the east coast of Florida, we found them
there…” He knew they were runt crabs and explained that because
it’s winter, they’re smaller, When it gets warmer, the crabs they
find will be larger, he said.
Your best bet is to not leave finding a
crab house to the lottery of GPS as we did. Maybe instead you should wait for summer and head for the Glades.
The Original Crab
House
9636 SW 77th
Avenue, Miami
305-279-7050
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