Baltimore Inner Harbor-area seafood recommendations please
 

My wife and I are taking a day trip down to Ikea and the Inner Harbor on Saturday from Harrisburg, and want a good seafood place.

She loves crab to the inth-degree. I love any and all seafood, especially Mahi-Mahi and crab. We'll likely go to Ikea first, then drive on down to the Inner Harbor area and park, then explore and eat an early dinner.

Also, for any natives, is there any light rail near the Ikea that we could take to the Inner Harbor instead of having to drive down that way?

Thanks in advance!

If you're talking about the Ikea in Whitemarsh, the Baltimore light rail doesn't go in that direction (it goes out to Timonium).

As for crab and seafood, Philips occupies over half of one of the buildings at the Inner Harbor. I think McCormick & Schmick (on one of the piers in the Inner Harbor) is great and has a great view, but it is a chain, so it may not be what you're searching for.

While Phillip's owns the franchise on seafood in the Inner Harbor, I've always found their food to be mediocre, and the staff anxious to turn a table. Their crabmeat is imported from Asia to boot. I wouldn't bother.

For a more elegant seafood experience, try The Black Olive in Fells Point. A little east of the Harbor on Pratt Street is a Baltimore classic crab house, Obrycki's (you'll want to have your car to get here). If you want a chain experience right in the Inner Harbor, McCormick & Schmick's, M&S Grill, and Legal Seafood are all better than Phillip's, though not especially local. To get a really native experience, you've got to get out of the Inner Harbor.

Callaloo is absolutely right on. enjoy!

Pierpoint had wonderful smoked crab cakes, but I have moved away from the Baltimore area, so you would have to make sure it's still in business.
Skip Philips.

Hola sppunk. I have to smile at your post, as I've made that trip myself a few times (though I used to live in Howard County, MD). I'd recomend heading over to Nick's in the Cross Street Market, which is only a few blocks away from the Science Center on the Southwest side of the harbor. It's a real locals-scene, with a great raw bar (last time I was there, succulent oysters for $1 apiece, which made my New Yorker husband gasp) and wonderful Maryland crab soup that, now that I'm thinking about it, I am totally jonesing for. They've opened a Nicks Fish House a little ways away - more of a formal restaurant then an order-and-sit-on-a-dingy-stool place, but I can't vouch for it. I have heard good things about Obrycki's.
Stay far, far away from the chains in the harbor - there's lots better around!

agree with other posters, phillips is not impressive