Sue Island Grill & Crab House

Two tries under the new name… the «new Sue island grill». All I have to say is, bring back the old! Both times, service was beyond awful, and the second time, not the server’s fault! They are always short staffed. Waited one hour and a half for crabs/​shrimp, with no excuses, until we asked for our check. No, thanks! Get help, you need it!

New ownership, same old service. My party of 3 was seated right away and that was the end of the service. No waiter or waitress for about 10 minutes. Parking lot was full of cars and a large number of motorcycles. I guess they came for the extremely loud band. Seemed more like a biker bar than a waterfront family restaurant. I gave 2 stars since I could not rate the food, but what I’ve had in the past was always good.

The location is 6 stars. Primarily outside with a beach party atmosphere, great live music. Best sunset in Baltimore over the water. Service is usually stretched, given that we go at prime times on weekends. Crabs are pretty good (usually well priced), and the food is normally fine, but not the primary feature of the place.

We came down about an hour away to get crabs for my parents 50^th anniversary. We called before hand and were told yes that crabs would be available. When we got there we waited about 15 mins for someone to come over and approach us. There were only 2 other tables that were being served. We went to order drinks and to put in our order for crabs but when our waitress came back with the drinks she explained that there were no crabs available. We were so disappointed. We traveled far for our parents wishes for crabs on their anniversary and it was a big let down. We did decide to stay for lunch and order off the menu. We placed our order for 5 burgers and 1 pit beef sandwich. It took almost an hour for us to receive our food. When the food came out all of our burgers were wrong and the waitress said just simply take off what you don’t want. We also were missing my fathers pit beef sandwich. The waitress said they were looking for the pit man. After another 15mins I finally went inside to speak with a manager. She didn’t help at all with the situation with getting the sandwich instead she had the waitress deal with it. He finally got the sandwich which came on a small pie paper plate to which we had to wait another 10 mins for another plate so he could add the condiments to his sandwich. The manager did come and offer to buy us a drink however our parents are not drinkers. A piece of cake or dessert for the 50^th anniversary would have been nice. Needless to say we probably wont be back. From the look on the waitresses face you could tell she was embarrassed by what had happened.

Had a great experience at Sue Island Bar and Grill. Staff was friendly and attentive, and the crabs were excellent! Love the outdoor deck located right on the water. Fun place to relax, have a beer, and enjoy some great food.

Spoke to the chef manager Randy and we will be heading back… thanks to an honest sincere man…

Went to Sue’s last night, sat outside and enjoyed a great evening of crabs, corn, cold beer and music. We ordered the smaller crabs which turned out to be perfectly cooked sweet and delicious. All 5 of us enjoyed cracking the evening away

My favorite place for crabs. I’ve gotten the $ 35 on 2 separate occasions and they were good size and full of meat. I’ve tried a few food items off of the menu and the food was good as well. The service… That’s another story, very inattentive. I served for 7 years so I get it… When you’re busy, you’re busy. However; my friends and i ordered crabs and our waitress had 30 plus minutes and never brought us paper, mallets or silver ware. Also had to ask for refills of water multiple times. Good thing the crabs are delicious!

Love this place! Cute, by the water bar and grill with a beautiful view! Food is outstanding! Especially their seafood and onion rings!

Underwhelmed for sure.
$ 35 crabs were tiny, maybe not even legal.
My steak was cooked perfectly in some areas (med-​rare), & a little under in others. Half of it was seasoned properly & the other half was too salty. My broccoli had no seasoning at all and was just soggy. Very water– logged.
Corn on the cob was slightly warm. We got a replacement, which was only slightly warmer.
Outside was warm & crowded, & we were originally going to sit out there to listen to the band, but we were getting bug-​itchy & moved inside.
While I was people-​watching, I witnessed all of the drinks were served in plastic cups, which is okay to keep it casual. But then I saw the bartender holding the wine cups by the inside of the glasses. You’re not supposed to stick your fingers in somebody’s drink.
Our server wasn’t even a server. Instead, she was a hostess who stepped up to the plate because the other servers were busy. I actually really liked her & thought she was the best part of the dinner.

Ordered drinks and starters 1 hr & 15 min ago … Still not here «we are backed up «.
Really … Can’t get a drink or food. So can’t comment on what it would have tasted like.
About to walk. Out. Can’t get a bill for the drinks
Update: as we were walking to the hostess to try and pay, the waitress was being free drinks to smooth things over. Said the Starters (never ordered dinner or steamed crabs yet) would be right out. 15 more minutes. And the food was cold.
Paid… Left and stopped for a cheesesteak.
One star was too much, as I didn’t write about the Hostess experience we had when we first arrived.

Nice relaxing setting… Food is good!

The waitress was really nice but it doesn’t really make up for the service. We had to ask several times for certain things and it took 15 minutes for a cup of coffee. The butter was mislabeled and we got oil instead. The waitress was very friendly and remedied our issues as fast as she could I think, which is somewhat redemptive.
The crabs we ordered were not freshly steamed. We could see where the Old Bay had been from the first time it was steamed and more was piled on top after being steamed again. Not impressed. The corn was subpar. One had a dead grub in it and the other had a rotten top. They replaced the one with a grub and the one with a rotten top we didn’t want to deal with so we cut the bad part off and ate it anyways.
I wouldn’t recommend Sue Island to an out of towner, but it wasn’t the worst experience either.

I was there on a Saturday night. You walk in and there is no clear indication where to check in with the hostess. We had a new waitress who was a nice person but not a good waitress. They had a band but they were way too loud. Fortunately, we were far away so we could barely hear each other talk. Tried to get a crabby pretzel and they were out. Crab cake was ok. I thought the BBQ shrimp was ok but my friends liked them. Margarita was marginal at best.
I’d suggest you just order the steamed crabs and beer.
Overall consensus was we won’t be going back.

My wife jeanette and I went here Saturday for crabs.
I really liked this place until today.
It seems they are extremely understaffed. And we wound up getting a new girl, who we have to give credit to. She tried to get our orders out on time, but the kitchen was having major problems with everyone’s order.
We ordered a shrimp salad, just to try it. That was about a half hour wait.
We ordered crabs in advance and they usually put them in when you arrive. We had 3 different ppl come up to us and ask what we reserved. Uh hello. Ask the girl the had taken my order earlier that day.
So we amused them, and told them the sizes we ordered. Well a hour later we got our crabs.
The problem was the large crabs we ordered were not full. In fact 4 were just like paper shells and 2 were so over cooked it was like they reheated them, it was mushy inside. Who the hell wants to eat that.
Anyway the med size we ordered were fine. Nice and full.
We would have sent the bad ones back. But we did not want to wait a couple hours to get 6 crabs.
I think it’s going to be a long while before we come back here and spend our money for mediocre crabs.
Sorry but there are other crab houses out there.

There seafood club is best I have ever had. Of course relax waterfront spot with good crabs… even have horseshoes on lawn. Looking for true Baltimore experience is a good spot. They have some boats slips now it’s all good

Was working nearby so found this place online, thought a lunch outside at a crab place would be great. The outside picnic table area was ok but the volumn level on the audio system was unbearable. Erzatz country music at ear splitting levels is not conducive to lunch conversation.
So we moved inside. Quieter environment but not particurlarly homey, the food was ok.
Standard issue crab cake with fries, cole slaw about the same as 7 – 11.
Won’t be going back.

$ 50 for two dozen heavy, medium-​sized crabs, and an order of beer battered onions rings, for three adults, left us full and happy. It’s a bargain price.
We went on a weekend and surprisingly, it wasn’t crowded — though families, couples, friends. stayed, cracked & drank. That’s what a crab house is all about. Later on in the day, a band played and that was a real nice touch. We ate outside. The weather was comfortable and sunny. Let me emphasize that there were no flies! The absence of flies, sitting under a wooden awning with strewn colored lights, over looking the water and listening to a band, while scooping out warm mustard — ah. there’s nothing like it.
Also, those onion rings — I could actually taste the beer in the batter. Crunchy battered coated onions were so good.

Not a good view. Do I really want to look at a bunch if old boats up on blocks instead of the water? Service incredibly mediocre. Crabs amazing. Worth the drive? No.

Sue Island Grill & Crab House is a Crab House and can arguably be considered a dock bar as well since they have an open air bar and tables on the water. There are slips in the marina beside Sue Island Grill that can be used for people arriving by boat, they just don’t have any slips directly attached to the restaurant property.
Sue Island Grill is an out of the way, friendly locals spot that’s in a residential neighborhood and is mostly advertised by word of mouth rather than by an online presence. They’ve been around a long time, but prior to this review, they didn’t even exist on Unilocal and they only showed up on facebook a few years ago.
On any given sunny weekend afternoon, you’ll find that Sue Island Grill has the traditional Maryland open air picnic tables out back covered with craft paper, piled high with steaming heavy crabs, stacked with pitchers of cold beer, and surrounded by smiling Old Bay covered faces & fingers.
The crabs at Sue Island Grill are consistently good and the open air bar under the roof on the rear deck is consistently filled with friendly locals swapping stories along with a fun bartender with all snappy comebacks you can handle.
Lest you think that Sue Island Grill is just a sleepy little crab house on a sleepy little waterway, in a sleepy little neighborhood, they do manage to get their party on too. They operate as a Ravens bar during football season, they have themed costume parties for most major holidays, (most notably St Patrick’s Day), they host live bands, and «yes» they even have occasional bikini contests. So in addition to being a crab house, they also deserve the designation as a dock bar.
Sue Island Grill & Crab House, tucked away in it’s off the beaten path Sue Creek location, isn’t easy to find but it’s definitely worth the trip.