There are three food items I always think of when I’m in Maryland for business: Crabs, pit beef sandwiches, and crabcakes. I’ve reviewed a few crabcake places before (like G&M in Linthicum), but on a recent trip to NASA Goddard, several of us wanted crabcakes for lunch, and Lambert’s had be recommended to us by a few NASA folk.
Lambert’s Seafood is one of those places you really have to know about by recommendation or reputation, since, aside from one tiny ~4″ tall sign on the front of the strip mall, the place is completely unsigned, and you’d never know this place was there. Even looking at the front door, there’s no clear “Lambert’s” sign or anything.
And to be honest, the inside of the place isn’t much to look at either: the seating area is pretty sparse, with just enough of a nautical theme to make it clear this is a seafood joint. And it’s not a table service joint, either: you walk up to the ordering counter and order your food.
Menu-wise, it’s your basic seafood joint, with a wide variety of platters of shrimp (fried or boiled), haddock, crabs, and, of course, crab cakes. I settled on the crabcake platter with salad bar and onion rings, and a few minutes later my order arrived.
While not necessarily the most photogenic crab cake I’ve ever had, this was quite a good crabcake, quality-wise. I’ve had entirely too many crabcakes that were either more filling than crab, or the crab primarily little shreds of waste meat. Here, the interior was almost entirely large lumps of flaky crab meat, nicely tender and not overcooked. The outside was crisp and fresh, with a breading that didn’t overwhelm the crab.
While not a fancy joint, it was a good seafood dive, and I’d be more than happy to come back in the future.
