O’Brien’s Crabhouse

I’m obsessed with seafood and especially shellfish. So glad my fiancé and I found this hidden gem. The inside looks awesome. It’s warm and cozy and sort of feels like you’re actually down south. Service was great. The reason for four stars is because the oysters had absolutely no taste, but I guess that’s hard to find in the northern States in the winter right. Soft shell crab for appetizer was pretty tasty, but I wouldn’t suggest that for your main entrée. I ordered the clam linguine and it was delicious.
Will definitely be back!

This place has been described as a hidden gem — so true! Small, cozy with outstanding food and even better service. It doesn’t look that great from the outside, but never ‘judge a book by it’s cover’.
This place is just great.

I love this place! I go every time I’m in town. I live NYC and think we have the best restaurants. But this is a hidden gem. It should be on triple D for sure. If it’s your first time here, order the seafood sauté you’ll be happy. I’ve never ordered something I didn’t like, but my favorite is the fish tacos for lunch and the grouper piccata for dinner. When walleye is in season it’s a must have!

Unbelievable rude waitress. Food served cold. Never came to table to ask. Another waitress stopped at our table to help us. Dropped check off Never saw her again. Terrible attitude ! Pricey and zero in customer service, cold food.
Good luck

The fried green tomatoes appetizer was delicious. The tomatoes were lightly fried, and the greens on which they were served were a lovely way to enjoy the remaining lemon butter on the plate.
Pick the Mixed Soup, labeled a «Crabhouse Classic,» when offered soup options. The two soups in the have a great yin yang balance.

pricey for the portion, strong taste of frozen sea food. for a $ 45 meal I should want to come back. would have been more satisfied if I hit a captain Ds for $ 10.

Heart be still! I am moving to Florida in a little over two weeks and oh how I wish I had spent more time at this establishment.
It is cozy and clean and dimly lit with that reddish orange glow you find at some bars. It has always been full of happy drinkers and diners when I’ve been here (lunch and dinner).
The fish is top notch quality. I am a very picky fish eater and don’t like it if it has even the smallest taste of fish. That’s right, I like my fish to not taste fishy. I love the Scallops here and also the Grouper Picata is AMAZING. The Shrimp Scampi is delicious. The Clam Chowder is wonderful (get the half and half mix of tomato and cream). The Calamari is delicious as well. Oh and the Cottage fries are thin and crispy, very yummy.
The drinks… they don’t stiff you. :)

The soft shelled crabs are as good or better than Maryland or Florida. The oysters are perfect and succulent. The perch picatta is outstanding. The staff is professional, friendly, and accomodating. You can not go wrong. It has been our favorite for 23 years.

I’ve been here a few times. No, it’s not a fancy place, but when compared to other small/​dark/​pub-​ish restaurants,. this place is great when it comes to the food. Try the grouper picatta. Hands down BEST grouper I’ve ever had! The breading is very light but very crispy, which is my favorite. It also has perfect flavor.
The ambiance, however, is lacking. In my opinion, it is too dark in there. Maybe the lights should be brighter during the day and darker at night. The service is OK. Girls are friendly but it can also be busy at lunch for just 2 people to manage so you might not see your server for a while here or there, but didn’t bother us as we didn’t need anything in the meantime.
Give it a try. Also, they serve DragonMeade Final Absolution which is a 10 in my book!

We are new to the area and we’re excited to try a local restaurant. The food was… ok. Bland. The shrimp in the shrimp scampi were tough and overcooked. The clam chowder was bland. The wait staff was very nice but we were seated near the kitchen and the constant complaining of the man putting up the orders was offsetting. The meal wrapped up with what I presume was the owner standing behind me talking to a customer about the «blue collar» «assholes» who work across the street at a GM plant. He complained about these workers being patrons when he first opened. He then discussed how the ribs he had made at home were great bit the ones he sells in the restaurant «don’t have much meat.» There is no way we will go back.

I love sea food, and this place have a great variety of dishes at great price. I like it.

This is a nice basic seafood house.
The prices of most dishes run in the $ 20/​plate range… and can go up.
I started with the Spicy Seafood Soup and wasn’t very impressed. It was like a vegetable soup in a red broth. It was okay, but nothing spectacular about it.
Then I tried the crab cake appetizer. There were two crab cakes, nicely sized, and well proportioned. They were tasty, but I wouldn’t say homemade or original.
I finally had the Frog Legs for my entrée. Pretty greasy. Pool of grease on the rice they came on (doesn’t rice absorb?)… and fingers, and plates. They were fall-​off-​the-​bone, and not over salted which I liked. They just should’ve let ‘em drain a minute before throwing them on the plate… that’s attention to detail right there!
The place was busy not full or overcrowded. The waitress did a good job. However, I would’ve preferred her recommend to blend the soups (which I didn’t know you could do until after reading Unilocal reviews during the meal).
Altogether, there’s nothing wrong with this place other than being just a little bit on the pricy side. Yet, there’s nothing outstanding about it either.
Therefore… 3 STARS right down the middle.

Horrible!!! This place has gone so far down hill, went 6 months ago and the food was ok. Not great, because it took me 6 months to come back. Horrible food, the mixed soup, was nothing, like it used to be, all potatoes, no crab, or clams. My Crab Imperial, has so may crab bones, it was like dodging a land mine, for my teeth. My Mother Fish had so may bones, she looked like she was picking her teeth, the whole night… the best part is, she ordered the red skin potatoes, and they came out raw, like still in the ground raw… Never again. I want my money back

Haha maybe it’s because I’m over 50 but I love the place! Been going for many years usually for lunch, I usually get the grouper picatta which I love with the rice, capers and artichokes. A favorite for friends I’ve taken there for lunch is the fish tacos. Had a 2.5 lb lobster one time that was outstanding. Staff is very friendly, yes it’s a little outdated but I love the character. Price seems reasonable for quality seafood.

From what Ive heard this place use to be outstanding. Wish it still were. Ambience is small but quaint and throwback look. I got the clams and mussels. Both are good. Otherwise the few fish items Ive ordered are inferior. Cottage fries are cool but was disappointung. If you go, just a decent spot. If expecting anything more, you will be disappointed in quality, taste, and menu choices whn there are better seafood choices. Because you dont save money coming here. A bit pricey for the quality.
Generic as someone so eloquent noted.
One cool thing is whn soft shelled crab season happens. Good spot for that.

The first time I went to O’Brien’s was at least 18 years ago. I was drawn in by a buy 1 get one coupon at that time, and vowed to never return. Fool me once — shame on you. Fool me twice — shame on me! Fast forward to today. Again, I was drawn in by a buy 1 get one ½ off coupon. I had high hopes. I thought that in the many, many years since I had last visited, they would have made some improvements. I can only compare it to the worst movie I’ve ever seen — Mr. Wrong — Ellen was in it before she was cool and before she admitted being more interested in Ms. Wrong, er Right. Long story, longer — precious minutes of my life I’ll never get back. The food was forgettable. Very generic. Generic taste and presentation. They should cut the prices in half and stop paying to print coupons. I wish I had spent .60 on a Costco frozen yogurt for dinner than $ 60 at O’Brien’s.

I wish there were more seafood places near my office. This is the one that is closest. The food seems to lean toward deep fried stuff, at least at lunchtime. The smelts aren’t bad and the fish and chips are OK too. I have had a couple of combo plates and some broiled fresh fish dishes too. Unfortunately, nothing has jumped out as being fantastic. The food was passable, but not fantastic. This one fits into the fuel category.

Our experience at this place was a combination of elements from many of the other reviews. I can’t imagine how this could be rated five stars, but I don’t disagree with some of the comments from the 5-​star reviews.
Yes, the staff was friendly. Yes, the place was air-​conditioned. Yes, it was not as bad as its strip mall surroundings would have suggested.
But were we the only table exclusively under 50? Yes, until another couple walked in as we were finishing. Was one side of the restaurant filled with fairly unattractive diner-​style booths, while most of the other side was a bar? Yes. Were two burly bikers perched at the bar, trying their best to make the most ridiculous juxtaposition between biker bar and Bill Knapp’s? Yes.
The clam chowder was tasty, but mainly because it was a good thick potato soup, with a mild hint of claim, not because it was a good clam chowder. The spicy crab soup was okay, but I think it would have been much better combined with the clam chowder.
My wife got the Crab Imperial ($ 20), which were good but inspired crab cakes. And only two of them. Thankfully a few stalks of asparagus were keeping them company on the lonely plate.
I got a white fish (flounder, perhaps?) special, also $ 20, which sounded promising with a lemon, caper, butter, and artichoke sauce. The fish was actually very nicely fried, and quite enjoyable on its own. But the sauce was a horrible salty mess of decomposed artichoke and ReaLemon™. Thankfully, I was able to soak it up with the mediocre rice pilaf and move it away from the edible food.
Given the prices, I’m tempted to give them two stars. Either way, we don’t plan on returning.

Since moving to this area, I have been here a few times. At first a little weary because it’s in a strip mall, but pleasantly surprised. Good atmosphere, great bar, good food. If you don’t want to go to a red lobster, this is a good place to go.
To start we had the Shrimp Mozambique appetizer, it was on special and oh so good. It had a cheesy-​beer sauce, and came w/​grilled bread, could’ve used more bread to soak up that delicious sauce! If you get the soup, either the clam chowder or spicy seafood soup (tomato/​broth base) get them mixed together, you will be pleasantly surprised. On this night I chose to get the blue crab, I had a childhood memory of the east coast and thought that was a good idea. But it wasn’t forgot that there is not much meat in blue crab, so I was dissappointed that I should’ve gone w/​my gut and had the snow crab. Oh well next time! They also have great seafood pasta dishes at a good price.
Prepare to spend a little cash, especially if your in the mood for crab, but it’s a great little seafood place for the area, and we will be back!
Update 6÷14÷12
After the above review, my boyfriend ended up getting very sick for about a week after eating the snow crab. He says he’ll never eat here again.

This establishment is actually pretty small. They are well organized though, and the food was good. I thought it was a bit geriatric at first, since my party appeared to be the only group whose mean age was 30, but some other young groups trickled in as well.
The menu is (obviously) heavy on the seafood. I had their 2 types of chowder mixed for soup, and had steamed mussels & clams. For the main course, I ordered the combo platter of 1 Maryland Crab cake, 1 Crab Imperial and 1 Soft Shell Crab. Of those items, only the crab imperial was not fried. The crab cake was decent, but I’ve lived in Maryland before and so it was not impressive. The soft shell crab, however, I relished. Once the waitress told me the whole thing is edible, I began chowing down on legs, claws, the whole thing. I almost forgot I was supposed to save a bit for my hubby.
The food was well prepared, tasty, and expediently served.
The drink menu was decent, with some good beers on it too. I think that the price may have been a bit high, but I’m not sure the going price for lobster or dungeness crabs these days. I suppose that with the price you pay for the food, you expect the facilities to be a little more extravagant as well.