Dirty Dicks Crab House in Panama City Review

When you go to the coast, you should always try the local seafood restaurants. Some of them may have other locations, but if they're coastal, you know the food is going to be good.... At least you hope that it will be.

While in Florida, I tried to stick with eating at restaurants that I don't have locally at home, and since I don't have a crab house, I had to check out Dirty Dicks Crabs. What is going to sound crazy, is that no one at the table actually ordered just a plate of crabs.

The plates at the table consisted of things like the Shrimp, Scallops, and Lobster Kabobs platter and the Shrimp Tortelloni pasta.

But, if you're looking at going to Panama City Beach, Florida, you want to check out this restaurant. They have an award winning taste, indoor and outdoor seating, room for small parties and large groups, and enough seating for 325 people.

Although, the restaurant is all about fun, with their cute shirts with silly innuendos, their main focus is the food. They make all soups, dressings, sauces, and just about everything else fresh in-house daily.

Looking at the menu, I wasn't sure where to start, I knew I wanted an appetizer, but as for which one or what meal I wanted, I had no clue. Checking the day's specialities, my boyfriend decided that he wanted one of the large boat plates, which was basically a Lo Country Bull, so that was our meal.

While waiting for our meal, the waiter continuously brought us hush puppies. They were magnificent. I'm not usually a big hush puppy eater, but these were great. They didn't have huge onions chopped up and blended in with them, and they were served hot. Granted we did get an order that was slightly overcooked and a little tough, but when there were cooked just right, these hush puppies were by far the best I've ever eaten. The hush puppies alone were enough for me to want to go back.

The Food:

As an appetizer, I debated between the stuffed mushrooms or the fried pickles. Both were about the same price and both are easy to mess up -no flavor in the stuffing that's in the mushrooms or overly greasy pickles. I ended up choosing the stuffed mushrooms. When they arrived, I expected several small mushrooms, but instead, I received two jumbo sized stuffed mushrooms.

The mushrooms are stuffed with blue crab and they're baked and topped with "Alfredeaux" sauce. They were pretty good. Large, but good. After the several rounds of hush puppies and the two large stuffed mushrooms, I was getting full; luckily, I had about 4 other people helping out with the mushrooms.

When we received the main entree, the large trinity platter, I didn't know where to start. First off, I'm not a big fan of having to work to get to my food, so having to de-vein the shrimp cracking open crab legs, wasn't my cup of tea.

The trinity platter consisted of a few new potatoes, a small corn on the cob, 2 extra large craw fish, one pound of shrimp, one pound of snow crab, and one pound of blue crab.

The platter itself was something that more than two people could have shared, but I'll admit it didn't take long to get hungry again. The more that you have to work for your food, the more food it takes to get full, and the less time it takes to get hungry again.

As for the food itself, it was pretty good. There was a good bit of seasoning on the food. It was a little spicy, but I like spice, so that wasn't a problem for me.

Dirty Dicks Crab House has a total of three locations. Two in the Outer Banks (Kill Devil Hills and Avon), as well as the one location in Panama City Beach, Florida. You definitely want to check them out, but make sure that you are prepared to bring your wallet because it's not cheap.

We were hoping to get out cheap by splitting a meal, but that doesn't happen when the trinity platter is about $60 alone. Then you have to add in two sweat teas, the appetizer, and then the gratuity. Our bill for two people was around $90. What is pathetic is that as a group of 5, we set out looking for a restaurant that we could all get out with the group bill being under or right around $100 for everyone. A local told us about a seafood place that was pretty cheap, but after hunting it down, we found it was closed and set toward Dirty Dicks, which is probably one of the most expensive places we could have found.

Overall:

I found that the food was full of flavor, but it definitely got cold quick. I would be willing to go back to the restaurant when in Panama City Beach again, as the hush puppies provided at the beginning of the meal and even the stuffed mushrooms were great. I would probably scour the menu a little better in attempts to find something cheaper to eat as my main entree, though.

So, if you're willing to spend the money, I'd recommend trying out Dirty Dicks Crab House, and if you find that you have some extra cash after the meal, check out the logo apparel, as they do have shirts, shorts, hats, and boxers for sale at the restaurant (if you just want a shirt, you don't have to go to Panama City, you can order it online).

I didn't buy a shirt or any souvenir item from the crab shack, but the shirts are definitely popular all around.

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