When you are in Florida, one of the best things to get is seafood! So, we were looking around on the internet, for a good place to go, that our hotel shuttle would take us. We read a little bit about the Rustic Inn, a local, family owned crabhouse. After reading some reviews on the internet, we decided to go somewhere else. While riding the hotel shuttle, we stopped to pick up some passengers from the Rustic Inn. We just had to ask them what they thought of the place. They told us the portions were a good size, the crab was great and they loved it! It was obvious, these were people who liked food, so we were convinced. Prepared to wait an hour for a table by the kitchen we jumped out of our hotel shuttle and made our way into the packed restaurant. Before we had a chance to say anything, a waitress was prepared to seat us. As we were led to our table, we saw people hammering away at their crab with wooden mauls. Our table was set on “the old tug boat” which is literally, right on the river, providing a great view and great breeze through the open windows.
As we waited for our order, which was taken very promptly, we watched as people who had finished visiting and filling themselves with crab left and a table was quickly cleaned and filled with a new group. Since there are many options on the menu, you’ll want time to look over it. Despite how busy it was, our waiter was very quick about checking up on us to see if we were ready. That was fine, since we needed the time to decide. Our waiter was very brief with us since he was obviously in a hurry. However, he was not rude. There were three of us eating and I ordered the “All-Hands On Plate”. It included BBQ ribs, Alaskan Queen crab legs, jumbo shrimp, corn bread and seasoned fries. This plate was enough for me to split with one other person and all of it was amazing. The cornbread looked dry but to my surprised to find it was very sweet and moist. The ribs barely stayed on the bone, the crab was delicious in the side of butter and each shrimp took two bites to finish. We had read that the portions were small, but two of us split the plate and were full at the end, barely able to finish.
Overall, this was a good experience and we look forward to the next time we visit Fort Lauderdale, so we can eat here again! If you’re in town check them out too and let us know what you thought!
Visit Rustic Inn on the web: www.rusticinn.com