Dining Review: 6 Crabs (Williamsburg, VA)

Whether you hate golf or think spas are overly decadent, in a destination town like Williamsburg, one thing everyone can agree on is going out to eat. As a town so reliant on visitors, having unique and delicious restaurants is a necessity, especially when surrounded by the bevy of standard chain restaurants like a gantry of British soldiers.

Our motel offered suggestions and deals for over thirty local haunts, which we found not only overwhelming but off-putting. (Sorry, but offering $15 off the cost of a meal doesn’t sound like a bargain - it tells us that you’re gouging the tourists!) Local flavor should be able to be summed up in a handful of restaurants, not enough to overflow the food court at the Mall of America.

6 Crabs stands out because it is not a fancy place. It is a humble and modest family-run restaurant, so nondescript that if you blink, you might miss it. There’s no neon sign out on Interstate 64 for it, flashing and screaming “FOOD. FIVE MILES.” It is a brick square on a quiet road, and it just happens to serve some incredible food.

It does not need elegance, pomp, or marketing tactics to get you in the door. It oozes charm at first sight, with its wood-paneled dining room boasting only four tiny cafe-style tables. Yet it remains one the the simplest, most authentic seafood experiences we have ever had.

This should be written into the Virginia Declaration of Rights.

 The pitfall of many seafood joints is they take the food too seriously. Seafood, provided that it is fresh, needs only a little lemon, maybe a touch of salt and pepper. That’s all it needs, in the same way a good steak is complimented by just a dash of pepper. Any more is just ridiculous and, frankly, it lets us know that your mahi-mahi has been sitting in the fridge for a few too many days.

6 Crabs is simple and unrefined, but that is because it knows that it sells great, fresh seafood and doesn’t need to compete with high-end seafood restaurants that boast they serve pan-seared salmon accompanied by pickled radishes, yellow teardrop tomatoes, and a yuca puree in a pinot noir reduction. If the title of the dish is longer than four words, they’re doing it wrong.

We picked the crab cake dinner and a combination platter that included oysters, scallops, flounder, and shrimp. Each dish was served with hush puppies, a Southern staple of fried corn meal nuggets. In our time reviewing restaurants, not to mention our lives as seafood lovers, we have both sampled our share of crab cakes. While our past experiences included everything from over-fried patties with too much breading to over-the-top concoctions where the crab disappeared under a zillion spices and they probably could have been serving you chicken, 6 Crabs’ version of this classic dish was outstanding!

They were perfectly seasoned, with the right amount of kick and filled with fresh crab meat. The combination platter, a simple meeting of seafood and golden batter, was scrumptious. The light, crispy crust accentuated the flavor of each different item. As people who rarely eat anything fried, this was a complete departure for us. We ate every single bite.

The beauty is that their dishes don’t need any extra condiments. Maybe a dash of ketchup for the fries, maybe cocktail sauce or Sriracha if you’re feeling spicy, but the fish-meat itself was perfect. Aside from insanely good grub, which you can take to go if you’re the kind of diner who likes to stretch out with his or her food, 6 Crabs offers the option to purchase raw seafood and take it home to cook as you like, including croaker, a delicious, mild-tasting fish that is common to the region. And, in line with the namesake, 6 Crabs offers a variety of crabs, including soft-shell and snow, for patrons to steam at home.

6 Crabs
118 Second Street, Williamsburg, VA

757-258-7757