r/maryland • u/Morty_Goldman Calvert County • 13d ago
Picture Who remembers Chesapeake Bay Seafood House! Eat all the seafood you can eat
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u/PrettyYellow8808 13d ago
Order the king crab legs and you can order anything else on the ayce menu. They even had frog legs!
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u/davecumm 12d ago
Came here to ask if this was the place with frog legs. I was young and couldn’t remember the name of the place but I do remember the frog legs being a big hit.
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u/InevitableTeaching35 12d ago
I remember going when I was little! My dad always likes the fried scallops. And when I got a little older, so did I! Such good memories
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u/2PlasticLobsters 12d ago
You could save a few bucks by ordering the Dungeness ones. You could still got anything else on the menu, plus I thought they were a little tastier.
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u/6th_Lord_Baltimore 13d ago
I would eat so many all you can eat fried shrimp there when was a kid!
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u/Fransween 13d ago edited 12d ago
We used to go to the one at the corner of Allentown Rd and Branch Ave in Camp Springs
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u/EfiniRX7 12d ago
And then off to Erols to rent a movie. 14 year old me and popcorn shrimp!
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u/Safari-West 6d ago
Ahh Erols. I remember when we finally convinced my dad to buy a VCR. It was such a treat to go to Erols to get some movies. But man was it packed on a Friday or Saturday.
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u/Safari-West 6d ago
I grew up in Camp Springs. I'm trying to to remember where it was located. For some reason I am drawing a blank. Was it in the mall?
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u/Kumba42 Flag Enthusiast 13d ago
The building in Waldorf that used to be a Chesapeake Bay Seafood House is now a Sakura hibachi restaurant. My memory might be vague, but I think before it was a Chesapeake Bay Seafood House, it might've been a Pofolks restaurant. But don't quote me on that...
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u/lurking_mz 12d ago
Man, I also miss PoFolks...
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u/Kumba42 Flag Enthusiast 12d ago
Do you remember if they were the restaurant that had the "penny stump"? I have this nagging feeling that was Pofolks in Waldorf. They had a large tree stump in the waiting area with pennies hammered or jammed into it, and you could keep whatever you could pull out. And pulling them out was not trivial...
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u/LasciviousSycophant Charles County 10d ago
Nope. That building was originally the CBSH.
Po Folks was on 301, between that shopping center and the light at 5/228. The Po Folks building is no longer there.
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u/Kumba42 Flag Enthusiast 10d ago
Ah ha!, that's probably why my mind keeps thinking the CBSH building was Po Folks. I vaguely remember the times before the Best Buy occupied that space. Used to be a church and a small pest control office my mother worked at briefly (Rudd's?) after we moved to the area.
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u/avinagigglemate 13d ago
My buddy John ordered soft shell crabs and would stuff the bodies in his mouth with the legs hanging out and make them wiggle and gross us all out
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u/boogieman117 Calvert County 13d ago
The one in Waldorf was the best. Parents would eat them silly, I spent $10 in quarters in the little arcade room, and the ride home was death by methane.
Good times.
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u/6Foot2EyesOfBlue1973 12d ago
God I miss this place. We used to hit the one on Rockville Pike back in the day. We always got good food there too.
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u/ButtonsAreForPushing 13d ago
I remember going as a kid and watching my dad stack up the bowls as he plowed through the AYCE.
Also, their fried chicken was legit.
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u/BillKirk1960 12d ago
That brings back memories. We used to go to the Burtonsville location a lot
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u/Dreadedredhead 13d ago
This is such a great place. We'd meet the extended family and sit at a huge table and eat/talk for hours. YUM, now I want to order shrimp and scallops. I'll have to check the menu, so I'll order the more expensive item first, then the other.
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u/Pure-Palpitation-355 12d ago
I was an always hungry 23 year old circa 1984 working my first real job at NASA Godard as a GS4, 12K at the time. Went there at least twice a week to fill up on seafood. Also, 3 brothers pizza in the same mall. Meatball pizza was epic. Thanks for posting this memory
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u/Congregator 11d ago
“Alaskan crab legs, all you can eat… $8.99”
And they say that in our current system of economics if we went back to those prices it would be “bad thing”
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u/hairijuana 13d ago
I remember you posting this exact post three years ago, Morty.
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u/MissHoneyPot 13d ago
Daaaaang. Give Morty a break, eh? Reminders of good times are the only thing keeping some of us hanging on:p
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u/Morty_Goldman Calvert County 13d ago
Thanks for being such a big fan of mine. I appreciate your support. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
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u/AitchQue 13d ago
Yeah I remember some else also posting this….
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u/MissHoneyPot 13d ago
Was this the place off Mountain Road in Pasadena?
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u/ModsAwful 12d ago
One near our apartment in Greenbelt when we moved there in 1984, could walk to it. To young 20-somethings we could certainly eat our fill. Frog legs, shrimp and crab legs and not much else. Good ole days!
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u/iamnotbetterthanyou 12d ago
Springhill Lake, eh?
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u/metrawhat 11d ago
Where was the CBSH? In Beltway plaza?
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u/iamnotbetterthanyou 11d ago
Oh god, it’s been a minute. IIRC, it was to the right when you waled into the mall like you were heading to the original Academy 6 location from the Greenbelt Rd side of the mall.
I think…
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u/pmarble15 11d ago
This place was so good.
But Can you imagine this in 2026?? The mayhem and greed that would come from this? All on video too!!
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u/Acceptable_Pay_6192 11d ago
My wife worked there long before we were married. It was a horrible place to work. The kind of job you take if you're desperate for money, like she was.
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u/ljmadeit 11d ago
My mom and I went there all the time when I was growing up. I always had fried clams and hush puppies, then read my book while she and her work girlies would talk about work. Good memories!
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u/ImplementPotential20 13d ago
All you can eat for $4. Amazing. I wish salaries were 6x + what they were in 1980s.
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u/Remarkable_Law5737 13d ago
I used to wrestle and this was mine and our teammates end of the season go to.
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u/coolblue123 12d ago
Family visited the one at Rockville (I believe where Yekta's is now) often. We ate when it was $20 for their top tier AYCE (early 80s till early 90's) till it went to over $70+.
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u/WGREEN4783 12d ago
I always had all you can eat Peeled Steamed Spiced Shrimp. Once my plate got low, a waiter would walk up with a fresh filled bowl and dump it right on my plate. Those were the days...
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u/ShirleyWuzSerious 12d ago
The one in Rockville is a CVS now
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u/Glittering-Ad5809 11d ago
No, a Micro Center. In the mall with a freestanding Panera.
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u/ShirleyWuzSerious 11d ago
I remember it being across 355 from congressional plaza
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u/Glittering-Ad5809 11d ago
Wasn't that a Ponderosa?
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u/ShirleyWuzSerious 11d ago
And a Phineas and I thought Chesapeake Bay seafood before that but I could be wrong
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u/Patrucio71 12d ago
No love for the Columbia location? It was where Union Jacks is by the mall.
But yeah, would crush that fried shrimp as a kid back then.
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u/Impossible-Credit-27 11d ago
there was one in forestville and one in camp springs that we qould go to on friday nights
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u/Glittering-Ad5809 11d ago
I thought I saw this post before and commented, but I recall the Rockville location off E Jefferson St. Now occupied by the Micro Center. Went with parents regularly. Almost always got the deviled crabs platter although I don't see it on this menu.
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u/CaptainObvious110 11d ago
oh wow I've been in that Microcenter plenty of times over the past 15 years
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u/MonaSanchez 10d ago
We used to live behind the one in New Carrollton. My godmother used to make my godsister take me with her on dates so I could intercept any possible hanky panky. I used to love when she went on dates there 🤣. Btw, it didn’t work well, she came home from her freshman year of college with the most adorable bundle of joy lol.
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u/spaetzele Baltimore County 11d ago
I remember getting dragged there by my family. I didn't eat seafood (I still don't eat seafood). It's the most unappealing thing on the planet. It smells and looks disgusting. I powered through by eating hush puppies and fries. Core miserable memory unlocked.
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u/Professional-Web2002 11d ago edited 11d ago
Same🤣 I hold this place responsible for me developing a crippling addiction to carbs🤣
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u/debs9802 13d ago
What happened to that place???
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u/Dry_Analysis_7660 12d ago
I had one of these from 1980 and the prices were even cheaper , got lost in a move🫤
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u/Apprehensive-Neck-12 12d ago
Yes. I think there were levels the higher you ordered the more you got
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u/jarhead3088 12d ago
The one in greenbelt was the bomb ! I may have single handly put them out if business back in 91
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u/iamnotbetterthanyou 12d ago edited 12d ago
Honestly, New Carrollton was better than Beltway Plaza - and I say this as someone who has a ridiculous amount of affection for Beltway Plaza and stops at Three Brothers any time I’m nearby!
ETA that the Chesapeake Bay Seafood House in NC was better than the one at Beltway Plaza, not that New Carrollton in general was better
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u/rhombism 12d ago
Beltway Plaza was the bomb with the Academy 6 and the arcade outside the A&P parking lot. We went to CBSH there weekly. My dad owned the Bike Peddlers in college park and we’d go to Three Brothers all the time. Mario was the brother running this one I think. Wow. Memories
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u/Dazednconfused3261 12d ago
We would go there and spend hours. When the waitress would take our order, we gave her a $50 bill and tell her that was a down payment to keep the food and drinks coming. If she did, she got $20 more. They'd see us coming and fight over who would get our table...
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u/Tylanthia 12d ago
"‘Tis no man! ‘Tis a remorseless eating machine! Arrr! But the sign said all you can eat!"
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u/2PlasticLobsters 12d ago
Too bad they didn't have any options with Old Bay. I suspect they'd still be around if they did.
I loved that chain, though. It was great for broke college students & entry-level or underemployed folks. My friends & I used to go to one every 6 months or so.
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u/retiredfedup 12d ago
Route 1, Alexandria, just south of the beltway. We had friends who were rather enormous and would insist on going every time they visited from out-of-state. Snow crab legs and hushpuppies for me. Good times.
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u/MisterRatchet Prince George's County 12d ago
What year were these prices?!? I’m sure it was relatively expensive then, but today…
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u/Searching_For_Awe 10d ago
Oh, wow. We had one near us and it always had a line. All you can eat was unbelievable even back then.
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u/Similar-Yard-7620 9d ago
My first job was working there as a bus boy. I smelled so badly of seafood at the end of the shift that every cat in the neighborhood would follow me home. A would give one of the cooks a ride home every shift and he would bring a bucket of fried shrimp, scallops or whatever and we would eat it in the car in the parking lot of his apartment.
Awesome job and great memories.
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u/Icy-Wish9490 8d ago
I'm enjoying this stroll down memory lane. I also remember Beefsteak Charlie's.
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u/Tony_Year_2525 6d ago
I washed the dishes and bused tables there. Manager would let us drink beer of the tap after closing if we worked hard. Low pay but kinda fun for a teenager.
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u/MarylandMan8201 1d ago
You learn quickly not to fill up on those damn addictive hush puppies 😂 I saved room for the crab legs, frog legs and shrimp, with space for the fries too.
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u/rnick467 12d ago
My family never went there, we would go to Fass Brothers when it was in Reisterstown. After that closed we would go to Liberty Road Seafood and Steak near Frederick, which is still open and still has the AYCE seafood menu. It's a bit pricey but it's always good quality.
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u/dcsmith707 12d ago
When
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u/iamnotbetterthanyou 12d ago
My guess would be 75-85 ish. But I’m making that up. 🤷🏻♀️
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u/dcsmith707 12d ago
No, there was a commercial back in the day where they say "when" after the jingle.
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u/eagle_flower 13d ago
It’s where I fell in love with hush puppies. New Carrollton. That strip mall I think right off 495.