Mud City Crab House

The food is good but you have to wait 2 hours in line and it got more expensive and less food

Love this place! The only negative is the wait because of how hugely popular it is. I’ve never been even mildly disappointed with my experience. Amazing fish, BYOB and great atmosphere.

HYPE HYPE
Touristy and overrated. It’s a diner that serves seafood. Living off a reputation that’s old. terrible wait in season, oh. and No reservations accepted. And.after.waiting 2 hours, you sit in a Dinerr and eat overpriced ok seafood.
.from.a.local, go. elsewhere for better seafood with no hype and less.wait.

Best of the best. The crab cakes are out of this world good. Get their early /​grab a beer outback and enjoy the wait — its worth it!

2.5 stars. classic «reputation» place. much better food & experience elsewhere in LBI area. Crab cakes are in fact EXCELLENT, top 5 I’ve ever had, but all other food– overpriced and average. Kudos to employee Maria– GREAT girl!
My piece of flounder was small & had zero personality & expensive. That’s an instant DQ from me & final visit. Tourist/​Seasonal trap.

Yes we drove all the way from new york, and waited for 2 hours for the crab, but it’s soooo worth the wait!
If you do not want something too special, feel free to get food from the food truck outside as well. It’s just as good.

This place is another classic (same owners as The Old Causeway). We headed there on a Tuesday afternoon around 2 for a late lunch but encountered a 20 minute wait. We enjoyed a Muddy Mary and Red Sangria outside at a picnic table until our names were called (definitely less than 20 minutes!). Drinks were yummy, with the sangria being strong with only a pineapple slice on the side as a garnish (a strong drink is always okay in my book!). No domestic beer brands here-​fyi.
It was tough to decide what to order for lunch as the entire menu looked so delicious! We settled on 4 appetizers to keep things light: little neck steamers, calamari, oysters on the half shell, and clams casino. Everything was served quickly and made our mouths water! Clams casino were served with melted cheese and bacon (no complaints but that did not fit my vision of «casino» style clams). Reasonable prices for most items but I will note that at age 30, we were the youngest patrons here by at least 30 – 35 years. Nothing wrong with that but I probably would have dressed more conservatively bs. beachwear for my next visit.

Went to Mud City twice over Labor Day weekend. Sat both inside and outside and had a great time each visit.
The seafood was all fresh and the portions were pretty large for the price.
Definitely splurge on the jumbo lump far cake (broiled) vs the one that’s $ 2 cheaper and fried.
Also really enjoyed the bucket of garlic mussels appetizer!

Do not believe the Unilocal hype about this restaurant. My girlfriend and I arrived around 7:20 PM and were told that there was a 1.5 hour wait to get into the restaurant or it would be a shorter wait if we could eat outside. We did not mind eating outside so we decided to do so. She ordered a soft shell snow crab with clam chowder and cole slaw. I myself ordered a simple crab cake.
After waiting until 8:00 PM all we received was the clam chowder soup and nothing else. After 30 minutes I asked the waitress how long until we would be getting something else and she said soon, that they were almost done preparing our food. We also saw other people who arrived later get food. After 10 more minutes of «soon» we had enough. In the 40 minutes we waited I could have purchased crab from the supermarket and made it myself.
Other negatives are were a horrible parking situation and a serious case of mosquitos bites when eating outside.

Actually found this place through Unilocal.It was a pretty good find for food, not for the wait though.
Came here for a party of five and got here around 6:00pm on a Wednesday, and the wait was an hour and a half. Be prepared to wait even if your party is smaller. Hostess said the wait is normally 3 hours.
The menu has a good selection. Overall, the food was pretty good. The garlic crabs are really tasty! The sea scallops were fantastic.
Prices are not terrible but not that cheap. For the quality of food, they are reasonable.
Atmosphere is very loud and it is hard to hear people talking at your table.
All in all, a great find for seafood in South Jersey!

Waited over 2 hours to get seated. Waited outside for approximately 45″ while myself and my entire party were feasted on by a swarm of Mosquitos. After that we were lucky to secure a couple of the 4 available chairs they had for people to wait. After finally being seated I was shocked at how average at best the food was.
I ordered broiled seafood combo. I was provided exactly two scallops and two shrimp and a half of a piece of flounder. I asked where the rest of the meal was???
This place is completely and entirely over rated. I would never ever recommend or go here again. Wasted my night waiting to be seated to eat an overpriced and below average tasting meal.

We had lunch recently at Mud City and it was overall, a good experience. Thankfully, we didn’t have a wait because we went on a weekday during lunch. By 2 PM, the place was already mostly full. Not having to wait enhanced our experience, because if I waited two hours for this food, I think it may have gotten one less star!
We started out with raw oysters, garlic clams and a single crab cake as appetizers. The sauce for the garlic clams was addictive and we couldn’t stop eating it! We even asked for extra bread to sop up it up. The crab cake was also phenomenal. If I had known how good it would be, I would’ve ordered them for my meal as well!
Our kids had hard to mess up entrees: fried shrimp with fries and a fish sandwich with fries. My husband and I shared the Seafood Cioppino and Salt and Pepper Grilled Scallops in Marsala sauce. They were both delicious. We especially loved the corn and bacon in the sauce with the scallops. Everything was well cooked and tasty.
We went hog wild and ordered desserts as well. The key lime pie, banana/​chocolate chimichanga, bread pudding and brownie sundae were all delicious… especially the vanilla bean ice cream. They were quite large though, so I’d suggest sharing!
Our bill was fairly hefty, but the prices were in line with the area seafood restaurants. One negative, also in line with some LBI restaurants, was that there were no refills on the drinks. I can’t understand this policy. Soda syrup is about the most inexpensive restaurant staple (pennies per glass) and nowadays, with free refills being the norm, it just seems silly to brow beat customers with this and make them ration their one soda all meal. For a few extra cents, they can have much happier customers!
Overall, we had an excellent experience here and we will definitely be back on our next visit.

Went for an early dinner in order to beat the crowd. I was happy to see soft shell crabs on the menu but I really wanted to try the crab cake that they were noted for. So instead of ordering a dinner with two sides I decided to order the crab cake and soft shell crab a la carte. I also ordered a side of broccoli. I’ll start with the crab cake. It was delicious. All crab with just enough other things to keep it bound together. I haven’t had soft-​shell crabs all summer and couldn’t wait for this. I wasn’t disappointed. I got the crab sautéed and it came out perfect. Probably the best sautéed soft-​shell crab I’ve ever had. The brocolli was well cooked and had some garlic in it to make it more interesting.
The service was excellent. Mo Mo was extremely bubbly and friendly. She apologized for making us wait, but I didn’t feel like we were really waiting that long.
There was only one thing that kept this from a 5 star rating. When we were outside and wanted someone to clean the table the outside waitress said they didn’t have any rags to wipe it down. We moved inside.

Have been coming to this restaurant for YEARS… A family tradition every year after a week at the rack with 12 members of my family we finish off with a fresh seafood dinner…
Mud city has and will never disappoint service is amazing and food is even better…
Will be coming forever.

FINALLY came back for another visit and I brought some patience with me since there is always a wait. We found seats outside (seat yourself) immediately and actually preferred it! My friend and I had cocktails at $ 8 a pop and were worth the price after a long day at work. We both went for the crab legs and requested garlic sauce. It was delicious! Parking could have been a headache but no issues for us. Lucky?! Maybe but either way I loved my visit, especially since I didn’t have to wait an hour and half to eat inside. Btw they do offer to text you when a table is available; no reservations.

I found this restaurant while researching fresh, low-​key seafood places near LBI. Decided to stop in on our way off the island heading home. It was during lunch so there was no wait, however it was crowded. I was surprised that most people were dressed quite nicely. We came in in beach coverups and flip flops and felt out of place. Everything we ordered was on point. Absolutely fresh and perfectly prepared. The portion sizes were great, too. It is a little loud in here but it is a fun experience. Very laid back and BYOB. Took seafood bisque home and was disappointed by the consistency and lack of seafood. We also asked for the bread balls that are on the tables, and were given bags of oyster crackers.

Without a doubt one of the best seafood restaurants in Jersey and what’s not to love about a joint that severs Narragansett beer in tall boy cans. Delicious seafood, speedy service and a rather nice down the shore ambiance are their hallmarks and make no mistake about it they deliver on all counts.
If you are meat eater go next door to their sister restaurant where you can enjoy steaks and burgers as well as the Mud City seafood specialties. A drive for sure from our neck of the woods but well worth the effort. Tip: go here before the summer crowds engulf this place.

In the middle of nowhere (at least for a Southern Californian) I wanted to have some great seafood on a short stop to the east coast. I looked around for a while when visiting grandma and found this place and decided to stop for lunch. Long Beach island is a quaint little community with little to no traces of the obnoxiousness of the seaside heights up north. If you are looking for a place to rent a nice vacation home, this restaurant will ensure you have a great place to eat.
We were served very quickly and the staff was very welcoming (not bad considering we are in New Jersey). The menu was introduced by our server and were forewarned that we they had okay beers but the muddy Mary was the way to go so I followed instructions and soon was really impressed with their Bloody (muddy Mary). The beers I sampled well. Let’s just say I forgot the names and that’s a good thing because they were not very good at all. They are local but let’s be honest when have you had a good beer from NJ? They might have been from somewhere in New England too not sure but they said local.
The food. Ah yes let’s start with appetizers they offer a good variety of your favorite seafood, the shrimp is fresh the oysters are fresh and of course a nice New England Clam Chowder is a must. They have a kids menu for the kids and we got the hotdog for the little one and she was happy. For us we enjoyed some stuffed clams and shrimp and all of this was yummy and we are ready to return for the next time. All in all they have to be the bests restaurant in the area and I mean why not they cook up great seafood.

My wife loves crab cakes and when our niece gave this small eatery a positive review, we drove off the island and stopped in. We visited mid-​week for lunch. Despite the other reviews that warned of long lines, we were seated quickly (we were there around 2PM).
The dining room is right off the fish market counter but there isn’t a stinky fishy smell. Décor is sea shore chic — simple, airy, purely functional. There is a bucket of cracker-​like temptations on the table and I had to limit my intake to leave room for lunch.
Of course we had the crab cakes and fries and they were fresh, moist, perfectly cooked (meaning, prepared simply without fillers). This isn’t Mrs. Paul’s fish sticks! They make their specialty with large chunks of juicy crab and the portion size is generous.
We have learned to visit at off peak hours so we never have a long wait for a table. Parking can be tight if the place is crowded. Service can be rushed, again, if there is a line outside. Overall, it’s a nice little shore restaurant and a good place for excellent crab cakes.
Recommended if you can time your meals to miss the crowds.

I have been coming to LBI for years now, and this was my first time at Mud City.
The restaurant itself is small, but it is wonderful! Being that it is small, be prepared to wait! My family and I waited about and hour. We started with a few appetizers, clams on a half shell, seafood bisque, clam chowder, and a crispy calamari and arugula salad. The clams were very fresh! The calamari in the salad was perfectly cooked and not chewy! The soups were both flavorful and super creamy!
For entrees we ordered a slew of things! The cioppino for two (various shell fish over linguine in a red sauce) — huge! Seafood combo is the way to go! You can either get it fried or broiled, it comes with a little bit of everything (crab cake, flounder, shrimp, scallops, etc).
No room for dessert as usual!
Worth the wait! Try it!!!