Looking for some fresh soft shell crab.

[phatchris]

I am craving some soft shell crab and wondering of any non-asian restaurants serving them on there menus right now.

[Spike]

Great Bay has a soft shell crab dish. Lovely presentation, but the shell was oddly chewy (like they grabbed it a bit too late after molting)-:
At $28 for a soft shell crab, I'd take the asian style any day though ;-)

[phatchris]

I actually had a half decent one at Kingfish for 13 bucks.

[phatchris]

Went to Prezza last night had there version which was very good, fried perfectly on top of a bed of watercress salad with shaved fennel and yellow and red cherry tomatoes.

[MC Slim JB]

T.W. Food has a Maryland soft-shell crab appetizer that's done as an escabeche: lightly fried, marinated in some interesting flavors (lemon, mint, ginger), and served cold. Quite delicious.

[limster]

I had a slight variant of this same dish and wasn't particularly impressed -- the escabeche blunted the crispness of the crab, making it some what soggy. Sounds like they have improved recently.

[MC Slim JB]

I wouldn't call it a perfect dish -- the crab sat on a kind of crouton that was unpleasantly soaked with what tasted like butter -- but it was definitely cooked lightly enough to preserve some good crisp texture.

[wittlejosh]

First-rate review of the spot, by the way. Not just the lovely food descriptions, but in the pitch-perfect analysis of its place in the local dine-o-sphere. It's refreshing to see a food writer rooting for a place without devolving into fawning praise. Good balancing act.

[BostonZest]

I had a wonderful version at Rendezvous in Central Square recently.

Fried softshell crab with a warm salad of dandelion, vidalia onion and meyer lemon 14

[wittlejosh]

Jeez, that sounds good!!

[phatchris]

I'd personally rather go to Peach farm or New jumbo, but the girlfriend won't eat in Chinatown and is not an adventurous eater at all.

[dorian]

The fried soft shell crab at peach farm is great. I don't recall ever seeing it on the menu but they have it if you ask, I believe it was $13 for a nice portion.

[Rubee]

I agree, they are great at Peach Farm. I think it was about 17$ when we went earlier this month:

Pic:
http://www.chow.com/photos/44963

[triple creme]

Second thumbs up for Rendezvous. My DC loved his softshell crab app last night, and raved in particular about the light, thin breading. (Everything else we had was superb too -- lobster gnocchi starter, and braised rabbit to die for.)

[davis_sq_pro]

Apologies for hijacking your thread just a bit, but I'm personally always a tad disappointed by non-Asian preparations so I'd like to ask where the best Asian places to get SS crab are?

[wittlejosh]

Non-Asian: Had a good one at Rialto (Charles Hotel) recently; lightly fried, with capers and pistachios.

Asian: New Jumbo Seafood (Chinatown) has a great version of the standard salt-and-pepper fried, with green chilies

[davis_sq_pro]

By the way, I had a pretty good non-Asian prep at McCormick and Schmick's a couple of weeks ago. Great caper and lemon sauce, but as with other non-Asian preps I was not pleased by the lack of a really crispy outer shell. I guess I just prefer my SS crab deep fried ;)

[limster]

Folks say that Dok Bua uses frozen SSCs, but they've got great deep frying technique.

[9lives]

I spoke with DB yesterday; and they are using frozen.

Last year they had "fresh" in season

I love their preparation..fried with a curry sauce.

[hotoynoodle]

they're in prime season right now. neptune has them only wednesday nights this summer.

[phatchris]

Thanks, I usually only hit Neptune for lunch seeing as its always crowded for dinner.