Crab cake, I wish you were my lunch. Credit: steelheaddiner.com

Crab cake, I wish you were my lunch.

  • steelheaddiner.com
  • Crab cake, I wish you were my lunch.

Cornichon.org (also known as our own Dominic Holden‘s dear old dad) declares that Seattle’s best crab cake is at Steelhead Diner in the Pike Place Market. I concur. Have you ever had a crab cake at Steelhead Diner? They are composed nearly entirely of giant lumps of Dungeness crab; the breading exists only as the barest of binding agents to hold together the crab-masses. And they are fried perfectly: crispy on top and bottom, but still all sweet and tender and moist and crabby inside. They cost $16. For one crab cake? Yes. But if you’re going to spend 20 bucks at a restaurant, this is a damn fine way to do it.

As Cornichon notes, as of March 19, the city’s best crab cake will also be available at Blueacre Seafood, the new seafood restaurant from Steelhead chef/owner Kevin Davis. It’s going to be where Oceanaire was, at the corner of 7th and Olive. Davis was the chef at Oceanaire during the time that the fancy seafood chain earned grudgingly excellent reviews from critics and citizens who wished we had a locally owned great downtown fish place—which with Blueacre, we might finally get.

10 replies on “Seattle’s Best Crab Cake, as Anointed by Cornichon.org”

  2. Much appreciate your pickup of the Cornichon crabcake post…written as part of Crosscut.com‘s new “One Dish” series. Previously: Metropolitan Grill’s $100 Ohmigyu tenderloin. Coming up shortly, Le Pichet’s Gateau de Foie de Volaille.

    BTW, the crab cake at Blueacre probably won’t be the same as Steelhead’s. Might use eastcoast blue crab rather than Dungeness.

  3. I’ve lived in Seattle for so very long (longer than anywhere) that I call Seattle my hometown. I can’t even remember anything about where I was originally from (back east somewhere). Even after all this time, there are still many fabulous things about Seattle – some have disappeared, but that, as they say, is progress. One of the things that hasn’t disappeared, the Dungeness, is a marvelous, subtly rich-tasting crab. So it brings me no great joy (and it will probably rile many of my fellow Northwesterners) saying this: I’m not sure Dungeness crab is the right crab with which to make crabcakes. Personally, for crabcakes, blue crab is almost a must.

  5. What are you talking about “wished we had a locally owned great downtown fish place”?

    Have you ever heard of Flying Fish in Belltown? It’s been winning awards for 15 years. Chris Keff does great work with seafood, though I don’t like crab, so can’t comment on her crab cakes. Or does Belltown not count as downtown?

  6. “…reviews from critics and citizens who wished we had a locally owned great downtown fish place—which with Blueacre, we might finally get.”
    How clueless can they be? Flying Fish as noted above, Elliott’s Oyster House, Anthony’s, Waterfront…. Good Lord!

  7. I wasn’t counting Belltown or the waterfront (Elliott’s is regarded as a top spot—though I’ve had mixed experiences there—and Consolidated Restaurants, which runs it, is local as far as I know). But you’re right, Flying Fish is good and close enough (though it’s moving to South Lake Union soon).

  8. I find the crab cakes at Seattle Fish Company to be the best in town, better than Steelhead’s. Of course, you have to cook em yourself.

  9. @6: With all due respect, considering price point and quality and atmosphere, I wouldn’t send anyone to Anthony’s or Waterfront for dinner (though a drink and a snack at the bar at Waterfront is pretty great for the view and the posh-people-watching).

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