Canton Dockside

Visited Saturday 6÷4÷16. Megan was our server and she was EXCEPTIONAL — very nice, took care of every need very quickly, a true delight!!! We had the cream of crab soup and it had large lumps of crab and very good flavor — just enough of a kick without being too spicy to overwhelm the crab. I also had the crab cake sandwich, which I would call decent but since I have now tried it at CD I won’t need to order it again. My husband got one of the specials — the rockfish fingers — and he absolutely loved them. I am not a fish fan but I took a bite and agreed they were quite good and didn’t have a fishy taste to them. We enjoyed having a nice lunch with my cousin and his wife who were visiting from out of town and a friend and his girlfriend. This was our first visit to CD and I would definitely go back.

I’d give it 3−½. The food was pretty good. Stuff shrimp was good. Crabs were great. It was a bit pricey. Service was not the best.

Let me preface my review by saying this: IF YOU ARE EXPECTING GOOD SERVICE HERE, YOU WON’T GET IT. For those of us who feel that good service is an integral part of a positive dining experience, this place should be skipped altogether.
My husband suggested that we try this place today as we have been eating at the same places over and over, and that gets old quickly. We checked it out on Unilocal!And saw that they had an extensive menu but mediocre reviews. We decided to give it a shot anyway.
When we walked through the door, we weren’t greeted in a normal manner. We were immediately met with, «Are you guys gonna eat crab?» We all sort of looked at each other and said that we didn’t know because we had never been here and had not had the opportunity to look at the menu. The hostess got an annoyed smirk and walked us to our table.
A few minutes later, we were met by our server. Notice, I didn’t say «greeted»; that would have been a huge stretch. She stopped by and took our drink order and left. She came back a few minutes later with our drinks, including a cup with no top for my five year old, who had a propensity for knocking her drinks over onto the table. My daughter mentioned that the cup was «too big» for her, so the waitress brought back a disposable cup, which she proceeded to put her hand inside while she was dumping the drink from one cup to another. This grossed us out and made me think that hands in food or drinks may not be seen as a huge deal here. Mind you, she ordered water. Wouldn’t it have been easier to just bring a new water? Also, she accidentally spilled the water on the table. I didn’t think she did it intentionally and this was not a huge deal to me.
Anyhow, after being grossed out by her putting her hand in the cup while she was pouring the water in, I ordered milk for my daughter instead. She never bothered to bring the milk at all. In fact, after taking our order, she did not come back to our table except for to bring us our check. All of our food was dropped off by food runners, who also brought us our condiments. We did have to flag them down a few times as well. I should point out at this point that the restaurant was not even busy, so there was no reason for the poor service. Even when the server was at our table, she was not friendly at all. She acted like it was an extreme inconvenience to do her job.
Now on to other things.
The ambiance is nice. The place is lit well but isn’t too bright. The music is just right, not too loud, and the right type of music to make for a relaxing meal. The bar area is pretty large, I’m guessing they see a big bar-​type clientele in the evenings. The restaurant looked very clean and was well decorated.
The food was good. Prices were high for what it was, but I wouldn’t say extraordinarily so. The food was served in very large portions, so much so that my child’s portion would have been plenty for an average adult. All of us took home leftovers. The crab soup was delicious and most of us had some. My daughter thought it was amazing and said so over and over. If it had not been for the EXTREMELY poor, rude service, this place would have been a good, solid four. The service alone was enough to keep me from ever going back.
I do have my own personal theory about why service is so extraordinarily terrible here. I worked in several restaurants in different capacities, usually as a server, in Orlando between 2002 – 2008. We had to be personable and efficient to get good tips. This restaurant includes gratuity on every check, no matter what. Why bother giving good service when you are guaranteed a tip, no matter what? I tip on average 18−20%, reserving 15% for when I get poor service, or 10% when the service is absolutely nonexistent. I will even tip 25+% if I feel that the service is exceptional. This server barely earned 10%. I say that being honest and unbiased. I didn’t dislike her, I just thought she was both unfriendly and inattentive. If you don’t like your job, find a different one. It is really that simple.
To the restaurant’s credit, they at least calculated gratuity correctly. It blows my mind that almost no one does this anymore. Most places, when suggesting gratuity, suggest a number based on the total of both food sales and tax. This is INCORRECT. Tips are calculated based ONLY on food sales. It is nice to at least see some honest business practices in a day and age when they are rare.

We were back in Baltimore and decided we HAD to come back for their steamed crabs. Unfortunately despite getting there right after 5pm, they were already sold out of extra large and large crabs. We ordered two dozen medium crabs for four adults and DUG IN! Absolutely still as tasty as ever!

So me and my wife tried this place for a Friday lunch. So glad we did the crab dip was out of this world. The ribs wear good not the greatest but you can’t expect steak house ribs from a seafood restaurant. I would order again the wife had the crab fluff and apples the fluff and dip you could clearly see big lumps of crab in them. I would and will recommend this place in the future.

I’ve been coming here for a few yrs now. This is usually my stop after a comedy show. The kitchen is open late and the food is pretty good. I usually order either the buffalo clams with the buffalo on the side or the steamed shrimp with potatoes and onions. Clams are large and delicious. The shrimp are always seasoned well and piping hot.
I will say this trip though I was disappointed. They have a drink on the menu that is pretty good, well I order it only to have my waiter come back and say they no longer carry the liquor to make the drink. Ummm what? Well then take it off the dang on menu.

I’ll start with a positive… my waitress was attentive. I called ahead to see if they had jumbos. I got there and apparently the jumbos were for certain customers who reserved them over the phone. I was looking to do the same when I called. We ended up with XL at $ 110 a dozen. They were not heavy and far from the price. I’m a regular crab eater, I know crabs. This is not the first time I’ve been to Canton’s Dockside and was told they were out of Jumbos only to see them flying around the place… being eaten by their «special customers» (if you know what I mean). This is my last visit. Their food could be kicked up a several notches as well. It’s just ok. I didn’t complain to a manager because that’s not my style… A review carries a lot more «weight.» Unethical crab hustle to say the least. Whatever Man!

I really like this place because the food is always good and the place has a great vibe. Very accommodating/​fun for large groups and kids. The crab seasoning is a little more spicy than other places I have been to, but that is how I like it. Pairs nicely with a cold beer. We also had the oysters on the half shell which were huge and delicious. If I could get a seat outside in the summer, I would spend all day there.

just recieved my food. First i ordered a half pound of shrimp for 11.00, they sent me 11.5 pieces of medium strimp. When i opened the box my first thought was «what is this???».
The mussels themselves were ok, but the butter sauce was flavorless. It tasted like melted butter with chunks menced garlic in it. I had to dip the mussels in the cocktail sauces just to enjoy my food.
Overall i will not order from them again. I was not satified at all

This dockside seafood restaurant will offer any type of dish you desire. The view of the harbor is really cool as well. The snow crab legs will run about $ 20 /​pound. It was a great time, great service too.

We only had the blue crabs since that’s what we traveled to Baltimore for. DELICIOUS! The seasoning was a little spicy and the crabs were meaty and succulent. It was kind of late for lunch (2:30PMish) so the service could’ve been more attentive, but over all for a tourist from NY, we enjoyed our crabs and cold draft beers.

I reconnected with old friends from CT. They were in town so they invited me here. It’s atypical restaurant to eat Baltimore crabs. You will love this place with seafood and lots of crabs. I most likely would have pulled the crabmeat for you. Fresh and delicious. Although the bayspice coated the crabs well and made them salty, the meat was delicious and had only hint of old bay spice. Crabcake were also good. It would have been our favorite place to binge eat.

I didn’t like the seasoning on the crab.
The crabs were … just regular crabs.
We spent around $ 300 here… and I must say– I rather order crabs and eat them at home for half the cost. This place was slightly more pricey than other crab houses… Prob because it is along the water.
I don’t think these are Bmore’s best crabs… but hey what do I know. I’m just a Nebraskan living in Maryland.

Meh. It’s used to be better. Not sure what happened. New chefs? Not sure. This sis maybe my 5^th time here and it will probably be my last.

We went here because they host the Pats game day. The service was great and appetizers were good. Although they don’t want to be known as a «Pats» bar they are a Great sports bar!

My husband and I came here to watch the Patriots game, as we were in town from California and I saw online that it was a Pats bar. There is a large back room which has a big projector screen to show the game on, but this room was already totally filled by the time we got there at 4pm for a 4:35 kickoff. We didn’t mind not being in the room, though, as it was a big, windowless room. We sat at a high top table in the bar area instead. We got the crab dip to share, but neither of us thought it was very good… maybe that was just a poor choice on our part, but I definitely would not recommend that. The service was also intermittent… the guy who initially came over to take our order was okay, but then he disappeared and we had some girl waiting on us instead and we could never seem to find her. When we wanted to leave around half time, we had to ask 2 other people for the check. The place had some strange vibes, like it wasn’t really a bar… more like a family restaurant feel… but if you’re a Pats fan at least you know you can go here and be in a safe zone, in that everyone else was wearing Pats jerseys here (though the staff themselves seemed to hate on New England). I heard Canton was a cool area with some stuff going on, but unfortunately it was a little further from where we were (downtown near the convention center) so it ended up being an expensive über ride.

The crab soup was a pleasant tomato-​based vegetable concoction without a whole lot of crustacean action, and the peach cobbler underwhelmed, but the main event was a success. If you’re from out of town, Canton is a fine place for crabs, not too far from the Inner Harbor.
You’ll want the large crabs for a better meat ratio. The prices sound daunting when they tell you the (varying) rate per dozen. You can get as many as you need. The crabs are fresh and the seasoning doesn’t get in the way.
The waitress was excellent, accurately advising on the appropriate quantity of crabs, and providing instruction on how to break them up.

Meh. Had crappy service and food was very subpar. How do you mess up cream of crab soup? Waitresses and waiters don’t have to give great service because gratuity is include at 18%!!!
Service: Our waitress did not even return to our table. She placed our order and disappeared (well not disappeared because we saw her visiting all her other tables“one or two tables to be exact”) She had a visible attitude after I sent my soup back after flagging her down.

Sure its frustrating. You put your name on the wait list. And wait. And wait. And wait…
I’m seeing customers getting frustrated with the empty tables in the dining room.
And all these folks walk up to the hostess stand and without fail, everyone asks the same question: How many people are in front of me?
Yeah… it a long wait. Want crabs? Deal with it baby!
I ask, how much for a dozen large crabs? oh. $ 110 dollars.
What?! Its crab season, why is the price so high sparky?
I order the shrimp platter for two as well as a ½ dozen crabs.
Blue claw crabs from the Chesapeake Bay is our natures bounty. Its something every American living on the east coast should experience. And I’m not talking about Red Lobster. I’m talking about a fisherman who worked in the Chesapeake Bay and pulled up the crab traps and then delivered them to Canton Dockside. Yes, its that fresh. There isn’t a middleman.
The shrimp was good. Plenty of Old Bay seasoning.
But the Blue Claw Crabs?
So sweet, so succulent, so oooh la la! Its pure joy to eat a Blue Claw Crab at Canton Dockside overlooking the Baltimore Harbor.
If you come to the Baltimore harbor looking for Blue Claw Crabs, Canton Dockside should be at the top of your list

This place beats my expectations! Way better that joe crab shack in philly but the ambience is very similar! The staff is great. Our sever was Ms. Patty (she’s a doll) down to earth friends and very happy quick and Vibrant! NOW THE CRABS… Are ALL OF THAT! 2 hands up! I had the large male size. I will say they came out HOT an seasoned to perfection… It took a lil while but I can compliant as the order is made when placed also the crabs are fresh and picked daily. Cost is good. For a doze large male crabs $ 83. Also had a ½ doze of steamed shrimp! Delicious (excellent flavor an size)… The crabs went well with a cold drafted blue moon beer! Lol my choice!
We ate outside. The weather Was just right!
Big shoutout to PATTY the server! SHE IS THE BEST! Oh they have lottery inside! It’s nice and comfy. I will return! EXCELLENT Customer service