Best CrabsOcean City

Who has heavy crabs and what a dozen costs today

West Ocean City

The Shrimp Boat

The Shrimp Boat
Photo: The Shrimp Boat

The Shrimp Boat is the only crab house in West Ocean City that posts a price you can hold it to. Male crabs run $1.99 each on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in season. There is no limit and no size on the board. The place has worked the Route 611 split on Stephen Decatur Highway since 1989, half restaurant and half seafood market. Weekends bring a $34.99 mini feast: six male crabs with a half pound of shrimp, corn and hush puppies. The menu carries a $54 blue crab boil built around three medium crabs. The market side claims boat-to-table sourcing. It sells head-on shrimp it calls the only ones in the area. Google has it at 4.4 stars across roughly 1,800 reviews.

Latest known prices

From phoned-in checks and posted boards; the date rides with every number.

Our reporting

The West Ocean City crab crawl, drawbridge to harbor

Four heavyweights share three miles of mainland: a market that posts its crab price in public, a crab house on the working harbor and two feast rooms on Route 50. How to run them in one afternoon.

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