April 19th
So finally a food post to the site! I was joined by my wonderful wife at Captian Mas, in Sterling VA, for all you can eat alaskan crab legs. I was really bored this weekend and stuck due to life's responsibilities close to home. So looking for something to do I searched seafood restaurants in Loudoun County Va and came across Captain Mas. The yelp info looked pretty good and for an independent restaurant have done a very nice job with their website. So with the Celtics in the playoffs ( which will be short lived) I asked Alys to join me to have all you can eat crab legs and watch the Celtics.
The restaurant is in a previous Ruby Tuesdays and while not much has been done to change the layout or design it was immaculate. We went at a really slow time for any restaurant Sunday at 3:00 in the afternoon. Despite this there were about 3 tables and someone at the bar watching the Capitals ( lose). I say this with the utmost respect but our Bartender I and server Jason worried me when I walked in. He was quiet and seemed like he could be quite indifferent. However this could not have been further from the truth. Jason was fantastic he was attentive and completely on the ball. They were out of Coors light bottles which bummed me out but I settled for Miller lite draft and Alys had unsweetened tea. We both ordered the All you can eat Alaskan Crab Legs.
The crab legs came with hush puppies, french fries and Corn on the cob. None of that really matters as the star of the show and the only reason to do this was the crab legs. With that said the Hush Puppies were very good as was the FF. The most important this was the oil they fried both in was new and clean and most if it was not a premium fry oil it was less than a day or two old. This led to really good hush puppies and french fries. The star of the SHOW was however the crab legs.. now I must let you know after 10 years + of selling seafood to Southern Maryland crab houses I thought for sure these would be #2 four ounce and up snow crab legs but no! They were serving #1 10 ounce and up Snow crab clusters and ever round was steamed fresh. Jason actually apologized for the time between rounds due to the fresh steaming. These were some of the nicest snow crab legs I have ever eaten and they were cooked perfectly . There was a small wait in between rounds but that was not because Jason was not on top of things because he was diligent in keeping up with us but they needed to be cooked and they were cooked again and again perfectly.
If I seem like I am raving I am.. this was all you can eat crab legs done very very well. I have to say it was also encouraging to see both owners in the business during a slow time. One owner managed to speak to every diner and spent about 5 minutes talking with us as well. He timed his conversation with us perfectly and cut it off perfectly as well so as not to be to "in our business" This is an inherent skill and cannot be trained and he pulled it off perfectly.
So will I leave a yelp review... yes I think I will and it will be my first maybe of many maybe not but it is up here for all to see.. I am certain we will go back and frankly Pikes and Fords will never see my dollars again not because they are bad but because they are not what a good seafood joint should be. It is a good thing for them that Captain Mas is tucked away and not well known.