Faidley's Crab Cakes

Wow, neither of us looks happy to be there, do we?

While in Baltimore during my sister's visit, we decided to hit up Faidley’s, a restaurant known for having stellar crab cakes. They were a contender (against Gertrudes) on Michael Symon's Food Feuds; I can't remember who won the battle, and Google is no friend of mine today in my search. Who knew it'd be that hard to find out!? Moving on . . . I thought it'd be fun to pick crabs with my sister, but every time she visits, we always get side tracked doing other things or going to other restaurants. The friend that accompanied her on this visit showed no interest whatsoever in picking crabs (I used to feel the same way, until I realized it's a social experience, not just a meal), so why not try crab cakes instead. We were down on the Inner Harbor, and Lexington Market wasn't too far to walk. Turns out, it was worth it.

The jumbo lump crab cake, which was $12.95.

We tried 2 to compare; the jumbo lump is on the left, the backfin is on the right (we had already started to eat that one, which is why it looks like it does).

The backfin crab cake (partially eaten), which was $8.95.

There was absolutely no contest as to which one was better. While the backfin one was definitely delicious, we could still taste some mayonnaise and filler. As for the jumbo lump . . . just luscious lumps of crab meat, barely held together. Very delicate in both flavor and stick-togetherness.

The 2 crab cakes and a medium soda (plus tax) totalled $24.80, and I'm glad we paid them a visit.

On a side note: Lexington Market is weird. It's like 50 small restaurants all jammed into one closed building, with few places to sit down. It had a funky smell and pretty much every food/ingredient you can imagine. We had a hard time actually finding this particular restaurant, and there were tables to stand at to eat, that's it. We crossed the street after we'd eaten and headed into another building, an extension of Lexington Market if you will. The further in we walked, the more desolate it became and the worse it smelled. Buppy was almost jogging to get out by the time we reached the back door. I'm really not sure what to make of the place, but the crab cakes were good.