Cheshire Crab

I would give three and a half if I could but since the reason I am writing this review is because I think this place deserves more than two and a half, I’m ok with the extra half star.
Seated in the bar. Some confusion over my first beer but understandable and the bartender was quick to make it right. And we had a decent conversation about our favorite beers. He was very personable and that carried over throughout the meal.
Crab dip was decent, not great. A bit watery. The pita chips were good though.
Bartender was very accommodating with my special salad request and even got me more than I expected. Salad was a little skimpy on the avocado and I would have used a different lettuce but the salad was HUYUGE and the crab and shrimp plentiful.
The bf liked his crab cake. It looked pretty good to me too but I only had a tiny bite so I can’t say much..
Overall a great experience. Will be back in the summer.

It hurts to give this place even one star. Service is horrible, food is worse. Its no wonder the establishment has changed names and probably management several times over the last few years. 5 — 6+ years ago it was ok… now I doubt I would ever return

Just been here once and it was yesterday afternoon. It was a group event. Never heard of this place beforehand but a friend organized an outing for several of us to visit… several meaning 20 – 30 people. The layout is cool. There is a seating area on deck outdoors that overlooks the water. Then there is seating inside. We were inside but could still see the view of the water and boats. There’s a pool and they actually hhave a pool party every Sunday during the summer. Bars indoors and out. Nice casual atmosphere. Great for families, and large gatherings… BUT The only thing that really turned me off was the wait for the food. We were the largest group there. But it wasn’t nearly as packed as the wait time would’ve suggested. As soon as we were seated (right away upon entry), the servers took our drink orders and then our food orders maybe 10 minutes later. I had ordered a cup of soup and calamari that I found listed under the appetizer section. It took over an hour for them both to arrive!!! Maybe 30 minutess after I had placed the order with no food in sight, I had politely asked the server what the deal was. She said the food was «coming» and that there were a lot of orders being taken throughout the place. Now, as I said, where we were, it wasn’t very crowded. Maybe 5 – 9 parties besides our big party. I don’t know if there was an extended seating area elsewhere in the building or not, but I found it really ridiculous that not even a cup of soup could have been spooned out of the pot within that amount of time at least to help curb my appetite. I mean what the hell else is an appetizer for? I was beside myself, mainly cause I hadn’t eaten all day leading up to this outing. BIG MISTAKE. We had also put in an order for a dozen crabs that took even longer to come. Adding insult to injury, everyone else’s food within the group had finally started to arrive and I was the very last one. I had to wait a good 20 additional minutes while everyone else was greezing over there share. It got to a point where people started offering me rations from their plates to sustain me as I waited. By the time my food did come, I couldn’t even enjoy it. I was so hungry I just scarfed it all like a neanderthal mad woman, hardly with any consciousness.

The service and food has gone even more downhill if that is even possible. We keep our boat at Pleasure Cove Marina but dine at another crab house closer. The food has recently either been sour, drowning in grease, overcooked or undercooked. The service is still super slow and the margaritas taste like a big bowl of sugar.

We ordered carry out food to take on a friends boat. The food was great! We got the buffalo chicken pita wrap and the chicken Chesapeake sandwich, both came with hand cut fries. I believe they have new ownership, I would definitely recommend. My boyfriend and I both really enjoyed our lunch.

The ambiance is good, music way too loud. Got the fish and chips and it was less than O.k. they were way understaffed large amount of local bar flys at the tiki bar outside. It’s no where near as good as The Point. It’s just a local dive bar trying to be a higher class than it really is. Don’t get me wrong not a bad place for a beer. But don’t get it confused with a mid scale place.

My first time here last night.
Get the fresh squeezed orange crushes. They’re awesome! Crabs were fresh and full. Steamed shrimp were huge and tasty. Crab dip with the fried pita is to die for. And don’t forget the corn bacon fritters — omg soooo yummy!
Love this place!

We attended a party here and were pretty upset about how bad the food safety was, to the point where we didn’t really want to eat any of the food and were glad we’d seen things before starting to eat!
The staff took the sterno covers off and put them on the floor when they opened the buffet, and then once the initial crowd cleared, they picked them back up off of the floor (where they’d been face down, in full contact with the floor) and put them back on the food! It wasn’t a side table, it wasn’t a clean place, it was right in the middle of the highly trafficked dining room floor.
The staff was also just standing around most of the time, not refilling food that had run out, even though people kept asking for things to be added. We heard a lot of people in our party complaining about how greasy the crab dip was and how the bowl of toast points for it was almost constantly empty.
The wings were still pink by the bone, and stringy like they’d been cooked and reheated. A lot were still room temperature and not reheated, but still a weird texture.
We were really surprised by how rude the bartenders were, too, even when just getting a water. Not somewhere we’ll be trying again.

Bottom Line: The only thing that will have your grinning like the Cheshire Cat (or crab) at this riverfront restaurant is the quaint view.
As a veteran Unilocaler I know to avoid places that only have 2.5 stars but, some out of town special guests/​customers wanted to try this place so we honored their request. Here is what I did like about the Cheshire Crab:
— I like that Cheshire Crab embodies the Chesapeake Bay culture. Its located within Pleasure Cove Marina on Bodkin Creek/​Main Creek and features a large deck for eating Callinectes Sapidus (MD blue crabs).
— The views from here are really quaint. Its fun to watch the various water craft on the river and the migratory birds. There is just something exciting about watching large ospreys landing in their huge nests.
— The restauarnt is large so it can support big groups. There is an «indoor» restaurant and bar that spills out onto a huge indoor/​outdoor deck (large room surrounded with sliding glass doors that open to the outdoor deck — sliding glass doors are closed in the cooler months and open in the busier months, I think). Then you have the outdoor deck with tables and umbrellas.
— The menu includes some tasty crushes, local beers and wine. I recommend the grapefruit crush for a refreshing vodka beverage.
— Some of the sauces here are realy good like the chilli sauce. And I like that they serve Old Bay on the side.
— I had the shrimp salad sandwich and it had large chunks of shrimp and great flavor.
Here is where it fell apart:
— Overcooked food. We started with calamari and wings. Both of which were very overdone. When the waitress was bringing the calamari, from ten feet away I could tell it was overdone. It was brown. The wings were also overdone which left the meat super dry. These items were so overdone that even if the chef didn’t notice, the person working the pass and the waitress should have noticed. Uggh, it was awful. It was painfully obvious how poorly prepared these items were and not a good way to start our dining experience. I really wanted to say something but didn’t want to insult our hosts. We ordered a second order of calamari and our host said, «This one looks really different.» That is because the second one was cooked properly, not left in the fryer for way too long.
— Mediocre service. Service was slow. Additionaly, there would be eight empty glasses on the table and only half of us would be offered another beverage. This happened multiple times so eventually I just went to go ask the waitress for another beer. She was very nice, just not totally attentive.

Been here many times this year including, I can say personally that the food and service has taken a major turn for the better! With awesome chef inspired, fresh meals and an awesome supported staff. Cheshire is always a go to favorite!

Been coming here for about 10 years and it’s gone through many changes. The most recent is good for the most part but I ordered the buffalo chicken pita and it came with one chicken strip, and not a big one at that. Very disappointing and I’ll never order it again. My husband got a $ 17 chicken dish with the smallest size portion of chicken I’ve ever seen outside of a kids meal. He said it was very tasty but he needed twice as much. The fresh cut fries were great though.

New chef food is better. Had the apps crab balls and mussels. Both very tasty. Now bread with mussels? Go figure. The chef goes to all that trouble to make a really good sauce and it ends up in the trash. I mean how much do toast points cost — really

Wow what a difference a few years make! Cheshire used to be a great place to go any day of the week. What ever happened to Peter??? But this week, early afternoon lunch for my 2 out of town relatives so we were just looking for light fare. We ordered two appetizers and the sandwich special. The appetizers came out together but the sandwich took nearly ten more minutes. This might not have been so bad except for the fact that the Buffalo Shrimp were not nearly cooked through. No sign of the waitress until the sandwich made its appearance. The shrimp went back and then the new batch of shrimp took again about 10 minutes to appear. No offer of any compensation. At one point we even asked to speak to the manager («Travis»?) but he never came out. We guess that the only other customers (6 at the bar) must have been higher priority. Pretty sure we will never be back there again.

Write it off to new management, opening month blues, or whatever, but it looks like the Cheshire Crab managed to get it’s act together and turn things around over the summer.
Service has improved dramatically and they’ve started bringing in live music Fri, Sat, and Sunday afternoons. Both of which were M.I.A. during my original review.
They’ve even started promoting themselves a little more by making their band schedule available on their website now as well as frequently posting info about food and drink specials on Facebook if you friend them there.

We came on a Monday to have a good view with good food. We were greeted by a server who had a hard time remembering our food and drink orders. He had to come back a few times to clarify our orders, and I’m still waiting on some water. We started with margaritas which after two were surprisingly strong. They use sticky/​sweet stuff to keep the salt on the rim. This is a great idea, except it just slides down the glass and makes a sticky mess of your hands. We started with mussels, which were pretty good. They brought hunks of bread which I enjoyed dipping in the broth. I had the crabcake, and my husband had the tacos. They were edible, not memorable.
They could do so much more with the real estate they have. We sat on the deck, and watched as people came from the pool to the bar for a drink and a smoke. I’m sure this place gets rowdy during game time, but I won’t be around to see it.

We had a dozen large crabs and they were huge and succulent! The waitress was great as well. The view is lovely. It was a great way to spend Sunday afternoon.

Service is very, very, very, very, very slow. Took 45 min to get two burgers to us which were raw when we got them. She brought us a crab cake and it literally was frozen in the middle.

The best part about this spot is the view. Also, if you have a boat — its a great place to cruise and eat.
Aside from that. the food is just OK, the atmosphere is aging, and the wait staff is utterly disinterested. Drinks are average.
I have eaten here several times and have yet to have a dish that I would describe as memorable.

The Cheshire Crab at Pleasure Cove Marina is a fair place to visit, and has been open for a number of years severing a mix of American /​Seafood styles with many dishes inspired by Maryland seafood.
To find the restaurant, you must travel down Fort Smallwood road until Bayside beach where you will be making a right onto it. Less than a quarter of a mile down, you’ll see the sign for Cheshire and a arrow pointing left at Belhaven Ave, you will turn right again, and follow the road down until you see Poplar Ridge Road where you’ll make a left. Follow this down for a few minutes and on your right you will see the white gravel road leading back to the Pleasure Cove Marina /​Cheshire Crab.
Parking outside is on gravel near the boat yard, this is connected to a maria so there may be boater traffic down there too.
Sit inside or out, outside is the best with a excellent view of the creek.
The crabs here are a little over seasoned at times, and the Maryland Crab and Cream of Crab soups are below average. I have also attempted to pick through one of the most generic salads ever, it looked as if it was prepackaged then plated and served, it was horrible.
In the several years I’ve been here, in the past 5 it’s gone down hill, badly.
2 stars.

This place rubbed me the wrong way before I even entered. You park your car under boats and walk in next to this giant construction of a boat hotel. I seriously thought we were in the wrong place until I saw this tiny little restaurant way down at the end of the line of boats.
We walk in and the music was way too loud to sit outside, which is unfortunate because it was such a beautiful day out. At about 8 p.m. on a Wednesday night, there were no people there and we were seated quickly inside (where the music was tolerable).
Our waitress was great. Quick food service. I wasn’t too hungry so we split the $ 21 seafood platter and my fiancé ordered the crab soup. The soup looked and smelled delicious so I was excited for our order. Unfortunately, I expected too much from this platter as my half consisted of 2 mini scallops, 4 mini shrimp and some veggies… ALL DROWNING IN OIL. By the time I got home, I was sick to my stomach because of all the oil or butter or whatever they put on it. For $ 21 a plate, I expected better.
I’m sure the food would have been better without the oil, but walking out of the restaurant feeling sick and surrounded by massive construction and boats hanging over my car confirmed for me that I will not be returning to this restaurant.