El Cortez Stone Crab Claws - How Filling?

I'm a pretty big eater. I especially love King crab legs. I've never had stone crabs. Every year I have intentions of going to El Cortez to try them, but never make it.

Anyway how filling is 1lb of stone crabs?

Was wondering if I should go by myself and use the LVA BOGO at the El Cortez Cafe and get 2 orders of Stone Crab.

Will this even be allowed? The fine print on the back says receive 1 free menu item when another menu of equal or greater value is purchased.

If this is allowed but this is a huge "value" play. According the El Cortez website, they have stone crabs on Fridays and Saturdays for $42.

I am not affiliated with LVA or Anthony Curtis, but this coupon (if allowed on Stone crabs) alone pays for the annual membership.

 

Mmmm... looking forward to the responses on this one. I didn't know El Cortez had stone crabs and my wife loves them. Sounds like we need to head that way and try them out.

Bill

 

I've never tried them, but what I understand is this:

The order is a 1 lb. serving weighed with shell ON, and Stone crab shells are "heavier" than snow or dungeness.

 

I wish I had a comparative. We've had them in FL but can't for the life of me tell you the gross weight. Man, stone rocks. (So does Dungeness, so does king, so do Maine lobsters and Pacific slippers and yabbies and and and ...) Stone claws are meaty, however, not the long spindly exo of snow with comparatively less meat.

When we make king at home -- again, different critter and structure -- 1-1.5 lbs. does me just fine. And I believe back in the day of Roberta's all those king meals we ate there courtesy of the POV were pounders each.

 

You said your coupon stated menu item. You should check and see if the special is covered.... In advance.

 

M0rtyC has a good point. They are not actually "on the menu" so that may be a loophole the EC uses to deny the coupon. But if they let you use it, that would be a great coupon score! Here is my review of the stone crabs.

The large poster and picture at the front of the cafe says that Stone Crab is flown in special and is only available in limited quantities. We arrived for dinner around 10 pm and assumed we'd be too late to get any.

Once we were seated, we had a lengthy conversation with the waitress regarding the crab. We've never had stone crab before but she told us how everyone raves about it and that even she was surprised there was still some left.

She recommended we each get an order rather than split one. We LOVE crab so we both placed an order. The crab comes with coleslaw and potato (fries, baked,etc.). We both ordered salad as well since we know from past experience that restaurant coleslaw is rarely made fresh.

We were really looking forward to the meal until the waitress placed it in front of us. We just assumed it was served hot. No where on the sign does it state how it's cooked and the waitress apologized for not mentioning that little (but huge to us) fact. What you get is really cold crab served on a bowl of ice. Which might be okay except that by 10 pm what you get is a bowl of ice and ice cold water that the crab must have been sitting in for the past hour at least. Truthfully, it was soggy. We cracked some of the shells off, shook and squeezed the water out of the meat and gave it a try. We only got through one order and never touched the second one.

I have to be truthful here. Once we realized it was ice cold crab, we were disappointed. That part was our fault, we should not have assumed it came steamed. It was late at night and we should have sent it back and ordered a clubhouse or something. But because we just wanted to eat and go back to our room, we kept it and gave it a try. I'd like to think that IF you like cold crab and IF you ate earlier in the night, the crab would have been tasty. It just wasn't what we expected. The coleslaw was just as we expected though, made hours earlier in the day and now the whole plate of coleslaw had a purple tint to it. How it ever made it out of the kitchen like that, I'll never understand. We were glad we ordered salad.

Although I'm sure it's a good value if you like cold crab, for us personally, it's not a meal we'd repeat. The portion size was good and stone crab does have nice big chunks. There is a lot of meat in those claws.

 

Stone crabs are overrated IMO.

 

+1 to that! Give me some Dungeness crab!

 

Good info - especially concerning cold-served crab. Looks like my wife and I won't be having that dish at El Cortez after all.

Bill

 

Agree. I prefer hot crab. I too will pass.

Is it supposed to be served cold?

I also agree with M0rtyC. EC's out for the BOGO could be that it is not a menu item. So I guess if you are still interested, you should make sure they will accept it before you order.

Thanks for all the replies

 

Back in the day when Roberta's was Roberta's and the POV was the POV, they did accept the coupon for the specials. Doesn't mean they do that now but they did in the past. Obviously if it matters phone calls are free.

 

Always.

 

Dungies are good. Season here in the Seattle area opens up in 4 months Where we go crabbing it might open in 3 months. It's a Monday so a vacation day may be in order

We go crabbing in south Puget Sound and primarily get Red Rock crab. I've had them both side by side within an hour of them coming out of the water. We very much prefer the Red Rock crab. A lot more flavor and they have huge amounts of meat in their claws. Most people throw them back due to them not having any meat in their bodies like the Dungeness.
Which is puzzling to me since they're a separate limit.

 

I don't know about that shifter. I can find many references to steamed stone crab on google.

Either way, they really should mention it on the special. Like us, I'm sure many people order it without ever having tasted it before. I just assumed a dinner order of crab would be hot. I can't be the only one who thinks that way. Well maybe I am, who knows!

 

Stone crabs at El Cortez are good. But they are expensive ($42 per lb) and not going to be enough for big eaters.

 

If you want a big stone crab meal, you'll have to go to Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab at Caesars. They are in season until May 15th, and they are absolutely delicious. The Jumbo/Colossal crabs will fill you up quite nicely. I've done 3 jumbo orders by myself once.

 

Here in Florida Stone Crab season is October 15--May 15 and they are cooked shortly after they are caught. Most restaurants offer them served hot or cold and are typically served with a homemade mustard sauce. If you are a big eater you could easily eat 2 lbs.

 

Where in FL have you seen them served hot? Been down here 28 years and never have.

Love me some cold claws. Put away 2 lbs? No problemo!