Dining In (and around) the Dash: King's Crab Shack

Time for a W-S restaurant review!  A few months ago, Meghan and I decided that we would spice things up and start a little project called "Dining in the Dash," which would basically give us license to go to any restaurant we wanted on the pretense of writing restaurant reviews for our blogs.  Yes, we're geniuses.  If you want to see our list of places, see here (plus Meg's last review of Mooney's).

I'm going to cheat a little and do two reviews in one, because I want to remember this donut place I went to.  For Locke's day of residency (see previous post), I wanted to spoil him with a breakfast treat.  In the land of Krispy Kreme, it is just about impossible to find "normal" donuts around town.  Thus, I drove all the way out to Greensboro to check out Donut World.  It didn't take me more than 25 minutes, and man was it worth it.  Nothing like going on a donut adventure during summer break!  I got half a dozen of various flavors and spent the entire ride home hoping that Locke wouldn't want the maple glazed one.  (He didn't.)  Verdict: if you miss non-Krispy-Kreme donuts, go.

Now for the real review.  The next day, Locke and I met Matt and Meghan for lunch at King's Crab Shack, which opened within the past 6 months on 4th Street downtown.  I'd driven by it often, and there seemed to be a good crowd at the appropriate times (i.e. lunch and dinner), plus it is owned/operated by the same guys who run Willow's Bistro, which is yummy.  It has a beachy vibe that isn't overdone but reminiscent of those beach-town local eateries on the east coast, so the appropriate place to go on a sweltering 100+ degree day.  We went purposefully on a Saturday at lunch because we'd heard that they had an all-you-can-eat crab leg special, but sadly that special turned out to be $28 per person (a little too much for us at lunch).

Still, the menu had lots of good options at good prices.  Locke got she-crab soup and a shrimp po-boy, and I had a crab cake sandwich.  We both got fries for our side, and I would have eaten just the fries as my meal if that were an acceptable option - think curly fries without the curl.

King's Crab Shack is definitely a welcome addition to the downtown foodie scene.  With a long bar, lots of specials, and a great location, I don't think they'll have trouble getting plenty of business.  They have a nice sidewalk section, too, for those who want to people watch (and it's a few doors down from Tate's).  Verdict: if you get a seafood craving, this is the spot to go!  Now if only they would make their crab legs a little less expensive...

Addendum:  Here is Meghan's review of King's Crab Shack with a list at the bottom of the restaurants we plan on hitting up!  Anyone can always join us on our culinary adventures, just say which one!