Downtown Ocean City · spotlight
The only crab house on the boardwalk is at 2nd Street
Since 1976, Mug & Mallet has been the one place on the boards where dinner arrives with a mallet. Reviewers rate the food average and go anyway for the location.
Mug & Mallet has held 109 N Atlantic Avenue since 1976. It is the only crab house on the Ocean City boardwalk. As far as the record shows, the claim is true. The storefront sits at 2nd Street, a few steps from the Plim Plaza. The boards around it sell bucket fries, pizza by the slice and soft serve. Inside, the tables are covered in brown paper and set with wooden mallets.
Doors open at 11 in the morning every day in season and run to 10 at night. Steamed blue crabs come by the tray or all-you-can-eat. Steamed shrimp, clams and oysters sit behind them. A beach-food menu of burgers and chicken tenders covers anyone not picking crabs. A vegan seafood line runs crabless cakes and plant-based fish and chips. Reviewers mention it regularly.
What the reviews actually say
Google has Mug & Mallet at 4.0 across roughly 1,200 reviews. That is the lowest Google rating in our patch. It is also the only spot in the patch with the ocean on the other side of the railing. "Crab cakes were full of meat and flavor," one Google reviewer wrote. Service registers as quick and friendly. Families report being handled well and kids get things to do. Reviewers credit the location as much as the food.
Seating is limited and the chairs are metal. Multiple reviewers mention both. The lower outdoor tables draw flies in high summer. The kitchen draws more food complaints than the harbor crab houses across the bridge. Some dishes get reported bland and others oversalted in the same season. No reviewer calls it a destination kitchen.
Go for the location, not the kitchen. Prices are not posted online. Call 410-289-3250 and ask what trays and the all-you-can-eat are running before committing a family of five. Go at opening or in the late-afternoon lull, not the boardwalk dinner crush. Take the upper seating when flies reach the lower deck. Order the steamed blues with a crab dip to start. For a stronger kitchen and a water view, Harrison's Harbor Watch holds the south end of the boardwalk for crab cakes and a raw bar.