Oddly, there are two separate seafood restaurants called Stoney’s in Solomon’s, less than a city block away from one another. The menus are similar, with more choices at the Stoney’s on the pier – lots of fried and steamed seafood, a few sandwiches, salads and burgers, and some typical entrées and pastas on the dinner menu. And, of course, very few vegetable options.
Nonetheless, we were delighted by our meals at both locations.
We had a late dinner at Stoney’s Kingfisher the first night we limped into Solomon’s after our crab pot escapade, starving and rather dispirited. We needed beer and burgers. And, apparently, hot waitresses. We got all three. Oh, we drank the beer, ate the burgers, and ogled the waitresses. I know your dirty minds. That’s all.
The burgers were big, cooked correctly (medium rare, in our case), and tasty. The fries were steak-cut, with that perfect crispy skin cooked to golden brown and fluffy, light potato inside. The waitresses were tan, pert and accommodating.
On our way out, we saw the glowing Washington Post review of the Stoney’s franchise, touting “the best crab cakes on the Bay,” and decided to return a couple days later to sample these legendary, giant concoctions. This time, we ordered the crab cake sandwich, fried “bait” (calamari) and an order of hush puppies, which Pip, being British and all, had never heard of.
[Actually, I'm pretty sure they are shoes - Pip.]
The crab cake was sublime, made with a half pound of backfin meat bound lightly with breadcrumbs and light spices. It was enormous – roughly the size of a softball, more than enough for the two of us by itself. Best. Crabcake. Evah. The bait was good, nothing amazing, but tender and crispy without any of the gumminess or rubbery texture that too often dooms calamari. While the hush-puppies were themselves not exceptional, merely good, the addition of a pot of melted butter, lemon wedges and honey made them a damn tasty addition to the meal, almost a dessert. Oh, and the waitress was HAWT. Again. We also discovered the perfect summer beer, a Silver Spring brew by the name of Hook and Ladder that we’ll be sure to seek out here in D.C.
Having patronized Kingfisher twice with splendid results, we felt we needed to try Stoney’s on the pier before we left, so our last day in Solomon’s we stopped in for lunch. Slightly more upscale than Kingfisher, and perched on the end of a pier in the middle of the Patuxent River, the restaurant was fairly busy even at 2:00 PM on a weekday. Heather had the traditional Maryland crab soup, a tomato broth with lots of veggies (sadly, obviously from a packet of frozen mixed vegetables), a distinct crab taste, and Old Bay seasoning. Not the best crab soup we’d ever had, but decent. Pip ordered the Cajun crab chowder, a creamy blend of crab, corn and Cajun spices. Taaaasty. We followed our soup by splitting an enormous salad of baby greens, feta and dried cranberries, but passed on the overly-sweet Vidalia onion salad dressing; with all that feta, who needed sickly-sweet dressing?
Stoney’s Kingfishers Seafood House
14442 Solomons Island Rd S
Solomons, MD 20688
(410) 394-0236
Solomon’s Pier Restaurant
14575 Solomons Island Rd
Solomons, MD 20688
(410) 326-2424