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Backfins Crab House
- Hours:
Wed-Thu 4 pm - 10 pm
Fri 11:30 am - 10 pm
Sat 12 pm - 10 pm
Sun 12 pm - 9 pm
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good For:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
- Noise Level:
- Loud
- Has TV:
- Yes
- Caters:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
14 reviews for Backfins Crab House
14 reviews in English
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Review from Matt M.
3/16/2012 1 photo
Backfin's reminds me of various crab houses around the Chesapeake, especially a few I really enjoy in the VA Beach area. My most recent trip was to celebrate leaving a horrible job in favor of an awesome one and we celebrated with a table full of steamed Blue crab.
I've made numerous trips to Backfin's and the service is always impeccable. Most of the food is somewhere between pretty good and awesome - fried flounder, oysters, shimp, etc. are always amazing, as are the steamed crabs and the crab dip. I've been disappointed with some of the soups, but this is never the primary reason for a visit.
It's not the full authentic experience - you're not sitting on a covered deck with pull-up boat parking and the Friday night local crowd doesn't get as rowdy as they do a little further North, but on the whole, this is a great seafood experience and a great location for those of us on the north side of Raleigh.
To be fair, there are times when crabs are not available. However, in my experience, this has been clearly posted on the door when walking in, so its never been a huge surprise upon ordering for me. And I've never tried the calamari, but I'm fairly picky about calamari, and as a habit wouldn't order it from a Chesapeake-style crab house.
As a few others have said, Backfin's isn't perfect, but it's a really good experience for where we are. -
Review from Shannon A.
Wake Forest, NC
9/8/2011
So, I am not a seafood fan, therefore am rating this on my experience for the other food with some help from my dining companions on the crabs.
We have been to Backfin's a few times with out of town guests. It seems as though when people hear there is a crab house in Wake Forest, everyone wants to go, so I accomodate.
There are a few things that bother me about Backfin's:
1. They often run out of crabs which lead to pissed off guests so call to reserve your crabs early, not your seat, just your crabs.
2. If you do not eat crabs, the menu consists of fried chicken fingers, fried shrimp, and some salads. The menu is very limited.
3. Their bar is tiny and limited. They only serve bottled beers so don't go thinking that the bar will hold you over.
What I like:
1. You can dine inside or outside on the sidewalk which gives you a great experience of downtown Wake Forest.
2. It is a no frills place, you dine on craft paper on the tables and have paper plates, plastic forks, and cups. (which should prob be under what I don't like also since this is a huge waste and harms the environment, but nevertheless...)
3. The staff is SUPER chill and you really feel like they like serving you. Like you feel as though they wouldn't mind sitting down and hanging out with you, but it would be weird if they did so whatever...
4. Your dog is welcome to hang outside and that is always A-ok with me! -
Review from Gregory H.
Creedmoor, NC
My bride is not a seafood fan, so when she went to visit family out of town, and my dad visited for a day, I decided it was prime time to check out a place I'd been wanting to visit for months. Backfin's did not disappoint on a Friday evening.
I'm not really a bluecrab fan - too much work for too little payoff. I was excited to see snow crab on the menu, but I wanted to sample a little of everything so the steamed platter was on my agenda. Our server gave us some small samples of the soups as well, and wow - great stuff. The steamed platter could have easily fed both my bride and myself, but cest la vie, she wouldn't have been interested even if she was there. It came with peel & eat shrimp, steamed clams, steamed oysters, blue crab, snow crab, corn and potatoes. A pile of gluttony for one person (see the picture I uploaded). My dad had fried scallops and of course, I had to sample those as well... not my favorite way to have scallops. My platter was tasty, and when it got to the bluecrabs, it really was a lot of work.
Great food, great service, okay atmosphere. They could probably stand to turn the stereo down so we could hear ourselves and our server talk.
Next time my bride's out of town, I know where I'm going for dinner. -
Review from Michael E.
Raleigh, NC
2/21/2011
Brit posed the question to me, "Where do you want to eat?" Now for those that know me, I've been CRAVING crab for months now. So she smirked when asking the question. The reviews of this place are mixed, but dammit I want a trough full of steamed blue crab. So off to Backfin's Crab House we went.
It was a Sunday evening and the joint was jumping. A couple bottles of Samuel Adams Seasonal Noble Pilsner to start off. We lucked out and they had the cream of crab soup available. So I started off with a bowl. Nice chunks of crab, and a good base of herbs and spices to bring out the sweet succulent flavor of the crab.
Onward to our order. Here's the dialog.
Waitress: "What else can I get you two".
M.E. "What's the difference in weight between the medium and large blue crabs?"
Waitress: "Oh I'm sorry we don't have any crabs."
M.E."Oh?!"
Waitress: "They're a bit out of season, so we're just waiting on our delivery, whenever that may come."
M.E. (In my head) Well what the hell good is a crab house without crab?
So much for sating my ravenous desire to plow through a couple dozen blue crab. We were relegated to purchasing two dozen steamed clam and a pound of peel and eat shrimp. We also ordered a couple fried items. I asked them to blend a basket of onion rings and fries.
The clams were juicy and quite tasty, and the peel and eat shrimp were relatively fresh and plump. The fries were crisp and the onion rings were the bought in kind.
One word of caution, we ordered the calamari, and either the breading was older (still edible, but you can taste the age), or the oil that they fry this stuff in was near end of useful life. There was a definite flavor of some other seafood item which completely wiped the flavor from these crispy rings.
For future knowledge, you must call and see if the Crab House HAS crab.
They do offer snow crab legs and other flown in from the great white north items, but there's only one part of your palate that can be satisfactorily quenched by an abundance of crustaceans. -
Review from Jennifer C.
Los Angeles, CA
9/28/2010 8 photos
Blue crabs are to Maryland what lobsters are to Maine. Growing up in Maryland, there are lots of memories that include sitting alongside a bushel of steamed crabs from the Chesapeake Bay. As far as food goes, there is nothing I miss more now that I'm on the West Coast where crabs only come in the Alaskan, Snow and Dungeness varieties. Bleh.
In North Carolina, all the crab buzz was on BACKFINS CRABHOUSE in Wakeforest. No surprise the owners are Marylanders! Full disclosure: the crabs we had were not from the Chesapeake but from the Carolina Coast. And, they were delicious. After the two of us started with the fried shrimp, we ordered a dozen medium-sized crabs. Feeling greedy, we also each had a bowl of soup-- Maryland Crab for H. (red broth) and the Cream of Crab for me. The fried shrimp were perfect-- super fresh with just a light coating of batter. The soup was divine; I nearly burned my tongue slurping it down, too impatient to wait for it to cool. And the crab...oh, the crab. Delicious. Big props to our server who couldn't have been nicer.
Backfins is now permanently on my list of North Carolina stops. Can't wait to go back. -
Review from Russell A.
Raleigh, NC
1/17/2012
Growing up near the coast, I am always nervous about eating seafood to far inland. It seems it can be hit or miss. I grew up on the Calabash type of seafood, but the older I got the more I realized you don't have to deep fry a breaded shrimp or oyster to make it good. When I heard about Back Fins, I let me worries about inland seafood take a back seat and decided to try it out. I went with a group of friends, one who was from Maryland, to try the blue crabs they offered. My Maryland friend was very excited about getting back to his roots and eating some crab. The restaurant was nice. It is located in the heart of downtown Wake Forest near the seminary. When we arrived, we were seated quickly. There was a good crowd there, but overall it seemed to be not as busy as you thought. We each order the all you could eat blue crabs. The crabs came out on lunchroom trays with a seasoning of old bay over them. Using the tools of destruction provided, we dug in till our hearts delights. Overall, it was what you expected. Good crabs, good service (the wait staff was on top of us making sure we need more crabs), and a great beer selection to wash down the chucks of crabs. I enjoyed Backfins, and would recommend anyone to check it out. Not a bad experience. And my Maryland friend may have had a tear in his eye or a piece of crab remembering how close he got back to the motherland.
Listed in: 366 Reviews
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Review from Sean W.
Brookline, MA
4/20/2010
My better half is from Maryland and I have been indoctrinated into the crab eating tradition of Maryland's Eastern Shore in the Summer.
I give Back Fin's a lot of credit for trying a steamed crab joint in North Carolina. I went with about 10 native Maryland'ers, so I was probably the least skeptical of all. I have to say this is as good as it gets around here. We all ordered the all you can eat steamed crabs and they were very good with the normal make your fingers hurt by having too much old bay.
Why it earned only a 2? We ordered all you can eat, when we finished the first bucket, we expected a second full bucket, but the irritated waitress brought back a 1/4 full bucket. After that was finished (5 minutes max). She brought back another 1/4 full bucket. If you are going to charge for all you can eat, make sure you happily provide all you can eat, and with a smile.
One pet peeve is service with an attitude, as that does not add the right flavor to my meal.
Advice: call ahead of time to make sure 1) the ac is working and 2) they haven't run out of crabs -
Review from Nadeen S.
Wake Forest, NC
5/23/2009
I have now eaten here twice and both times left the same impression.
If you are in the mood for honest to goodness Baltimore crabs, this is the place. Right down to the paper on the table and the mallets for the crabs.
If you are not a crab fan there are other things that will leave you smiling: steamed shrimp, juicy oysters (raw or fried) and mouth watering crab cakes.
Now for the not so good --stay clear of the calamari if you love calamari. What you will get here is batter. Somewhere hidden below the batter are tasteless rings of calamari. Not tough or chewy but just tasteless fried food.
All in all, nice casual dining, a tad over priced for some entrees but there is a variety of cold beer and a friendly waitstaff .
By the way, be prepared for a long wait on the weekends. On our recent Saturday night visit we arrived at 7:30 and waited a good 40 minutes. Keep in mind this is Wake Forest with it's one street down town so a wait of any duration at one of its 5 downtown restaurants is fairly rare. Will I go back? Definitely. But it is not a favorite by any means -
Review from Chris A.
Columbus, GA
3/4/2012
This is, without a doubt, the worst seafood restaurant I've ever been to. To be fair, the clam soup (white) was delicious. However, my husband & I took his father, a native Marylander, expecting to remind him of his roots, but we were sorely disappointed. The first thing we were told upon our arrival was that they were out of blue crab. Well, that wasn't completely true; our waitress told us they just got a delivery, but that they had to make it last. Why not give us what they had? We decided to give the place a shot, though. We shouldn't have. The calamari was entirely too salty, we waited over an hour for our food, my father-in-law's food was cold, & we barely saw our waitress even though the restaurant was mostly empty. And the food was unbelievably overpriced, especially for the quality. If you'd like good seafood, go to the coast. If you'd like good food in downtown Wake Forest, go to Las Margaritas
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Review from Wendy D.
Raleigh, NC
7/31/2008
Joe don't know jack about crabs...but the folks at Backfin's do.
I was in the mood for seafood the other night, and just couldn't bare going to Red Lobster...again. So I suggested to DH that we try out this new place in downtown Wake Forest (and hoped that it was kid friendly since we had the child in tow who is a fan of Red Lobster-or as she calls it "The Crab Place") The child has yet to learn that it's actually a lobster she is seeing on the outside of the restaurant, not a crab!
Anyway, we arrived and Backfin's and was seated immediately. Probably because it wasn't a weekend, so although it was a full house, there happened to be a few tables open.
The atmosphere is pretty basic. Tables white brown paper laid atop (easy to clean up the mess I suppose) and basic chairs. Not really a sustainable business as a stack of paper napkins were on the table, and drinks are served in plastic cups; dinners are served on paper plates. I'm not sure I'd call it kid friend, but kids were running around and no one seemed to mind.
The menu isn't extensive. Hopefully they will improve this in the future, but I guess if you are going to eat at a crab house...well, be expecting to eat just that---CRAB! There is a Crab Feast for $24.95...all you can eat crab. The crabs come out on "school lunch" trays along with a "knocker" to make the crab pickin' easier. We opted for the sno crab legs. Very yummy IMO. Other than crab, they have a your standard fried stuff like hush puppies and french fries. But the peel and eat shrimp is A MUST. I licked my fingers clean after eating this shrimp. Better than Benjamin Buford Blue's shrimp!!
I will add that it's a good place to drink a beer that doesn't cost you an arm and a leg....but....the list isn't that extensive. And don't even think about eating your crab at the bar. NO CRABS ALLOWED!
We probably will not head back to Backfin's right away...I'm waiting to see how the menu progresses. So 3 stars for now (again Joe DON'T know crab compared to Backfin's, but Joe DOES know how to create and extensive menu with dessert). I will give 5 stars to the owner for going out of his way to make sure we were happy with our meal. -
Review from Ryan M.
Wake Forest, NC
2/23/2010
Definitely a big fan... a true Maryland style crab house. My sister is a huge crab fan so when she was down from New Hampshire last summer we had to check it out. When the weather gets hot, there is just something about some cold beer and cracking up some crabs .. the blue crabs here are done RIGHT! Her and I both are big fans .... I just get to be the lucky one who lives close by.... when it gets hot again I can't wait to go back even if the baseball hat I was wearing that night smelled like crab for a month after going!!!
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Review from Mark M.
Youngsville, NC
7/6/2009
My wife and I had a fantastic experience @ this place. These are not Maryland crabs they're NC crabs and were out of control wicked tight. The staff were helpful in showing us how to open and eat a crab. The Peal and eat shrimp is a must have. Good old paper on the table slap it down crab shack!
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Review from Barbara J.
Jacksonville, FL
5/8/2010
We've been here 4 - 5 times. Fantastic food. I always get the snow crab clusters and my husband gets the steamed shrimp. The owners are welcoming and the bartender remembered us right down to where my husband worked and what football team he liked. Never a wait, go today!
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Review from Darren U.
Apex, NC
1/29/2009
I rarely write reviews and I'm no food critic, however, I have gone out of my way for this review because of my recent experience at Backfin's.
I have heard many promotions for backfin's so convinced my wife to take me for my b-day. It was a 50 min ride from apex but I was super excited to get the "all you can eat crab" feast. We found the restaurant easily and I liked the atmosphere. There were 5 of us in my family. Everyone ordered drinks. After drinks were served, we ordered app3tizers and our meal. The appetizers were served and the waitress told me that they could not offer me the all u can eat crabs b/c they were running short!!! I really did not know what to do b/c we had driven so far and everyone had already ordered. The option was to get something else or spend 35 bucks for 12 medium sized crabs. I had my heart set on blue crabs so ordered 12 medium sized crabs. This seemed like a lot but I ordered it. when the tray come out, it was SO much food. I wished the waitress had told me how much food it was. I mentioned to her that they should offer half a dozen and she said they did! I was so angry about the entire situation (esp spedning 35 bucks for my meal, which is most i've ever spent on an entree) that I did not enjoy myself. I think they should tell you that they cannot offer the all u can eat crab before you sit down and order...just my 2 cents. I will not never go back to backfin's.
