Rehoboth Beach · spotlight
The name the Sugrues kept in their back pocket for 18 years
Rehoboth's Route 1 crab room is a 2014 project with a 1996 origin story and a $69 all-you-can-eat feast. Reviewers praise the floor staff and report lukewarm crabs on the busiest nights.
The Crab House sits on Route 1 in Rehoboth, across Coastal Highway from the Tanger Seaside outlets. Its all-you-can-eat crab feast is posted at $69 per person on the restaurant's own menu as of this week. The feast runs 4 to 8 p.m. nightly with summer corn chowder, corn on the cob and hush puppies. The menu bills the crabs as No. 1 premium males steamed live to order. Crabs also sell by the half dozen and dozen, medium through jumbo, when the boats cooperate.
The name is older than the room. In 1996 Eric and Norman Sugrue took over a Route 1 restaurant called the Crab House. They turned it into the first Big Fish Grill. Eighteen years later, in 2014, they put the name on this room in the former Beachcomber space.
Brown paper covers the tables and hammers sit at every seat. Fries come dusted with Old Bay and sports run on the screens. The bar pours 36 drafts, heavy on Delaware breweries. A raw bar serves the oyster crowd. Happy hour runs 4 to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and all day Sunday. Big Fish Restaurant Group has since merged with Baltimore's Atlas Restaurant Group, which lists the Crab House among its properties. The room is seasonal. Doors open in spring and close from roughly October to March.
What the reviews actually say
The Crab House sits at 4.1 across roughly 1,100 Google reviews. "Crabs are always full and cooked perfectly. The service is always top notch," one reviewer wrote last season. Service draws the most consistent praise. The floor staff gets named even in middling reviews.
The recurring complaint is lukewarm crabs on busy nights. The Rehoboth Foodie has collected those reports across several seasons. The fried chicken and ribs that pad the feast draw accusations of being cooked ahead and held. The hush puppies dry out some seasons and earn praise in others.
The all-you-can-eat crabs run medium-sized on most nights, per years of reviewer reports. No reviewer credibly reports jumbos at a flat $69.
If you go
The Crab House is a volume crab feast with a very good beer list. Go on a weeknight, early in the 4 to 8 p.m. window. That is when the steamers turn over fastest and the first tray comes out hottest. Start with the feast if you are there to work. Order a dozen larges off the board if you want bigger crabs than the feast trays carry. Ask the price when you order, because it moves with the market. Do not skip the corn chowder that comes with the feast.
Parking is a free strip-mall lot, which is rare in Rehoboth in August. Call 302-227-2019 for bushels to go. They sell them, and the phone quote is the only price to trust week to week.