Savannah Morning News
Diversions July 20-26 2006

Crab Cakes and Chocolate Stuff
by Renee Layne

WHETHER YOU'RE IN THE MOOD FOR SEAFOOD OR MOM'S HOME-COOKING, A TRIP TO BARBARA JEAN'S WILL SATISFY YOUR HUNGER.

Barbara Jean's is a Southeastern chain of restaurants serving home-style cooking and seafood, and it recently opened an eatery on Wilmington Island. After hearing a friend rave about its dessert, The Chocolate Stuff, and finding out that the restaurant is famous for its crab cakes, Mr. Layne and I couldn't wait to visit.

We finally got our chance on a recent Sunday night, and arrived to find a short wait. Much to our delight, we were seated outside on the restaurant's back deck, overlooking the marsh. Even though it's the middle of July in Savannah, the back deck was comfortable with cool breezes and overhead fans kept the bugs at bay.

We started our meal with the Try Them All Chicken Fingers ($8.99), which featured two each from the menu's selections of chicken fingers: fried, pecan-coated and buffalo-style. The appetizer came with honey mustard, ranch and barbecue dipping sauces. The chicken fingers were large enough to be an entrée. We tried a little bit of each one, and ended up taking most of them home. Beverages ($1.99) are served in 32-ounce glasses, making refills almost unnecessary.

Mr. Layne debated between the Meat Loaf ($8.99) and the Pot Roast ($8.99). He eventually ordered the Pot Roast with carrots and mashed potatoes, simply because he couldn't decide if he wanted tomato sauce or brown gravy with the Meat Loaf. I took the advice on the menu: "If you don't try anything else, have the Crab Cakes!" I ordered one jumbo 7 oz. Crab Cake ($12.99) with mashed potatoes and broccoli & rice casserole.

Our dinners were preceded by a basket of bread that was heavenly. The basket included a huge wheat roll, reminiscent of the yeast rolls served in school cafeterias, a square of pumpkin bread and a square of jalapeño cornbread, along with a small container of cinnamon butter. the bread was warm and moist, tasting like it was just pulled out of a hot oven. We both loved the wheat roll and pumpkin bread, but had mixed feelings about the jalapeño cornbread. Neither of us is a true fan of jalapeños, so we would have preferred plain cornbread. But it was tasty, nonetheless.

When our entrées arrived, the food, particularly the Pot Roast, smelled wonderful. The meat was tender and juicy, easily falling apart as Mr. Layne cut through it. He was quiet through the first few minutes after the entrées arrived, quietly savoring each bite. He claimed that the Pot Roast was so good that it rivaled the pot roast he or his family members make.

The jumbo crab cake was most certainly jumbo, taking up a big portion of the plate. It was also tender and fresh, and cooked just perfectly giving it a crisp, but not burnt, top and bottom. The crab cake was served with tartar sauce instead of the more traditional remoulade sauce, which left me wishing for the latter.

The mashed potatoes tasted homemade. However, they were more like smashed potatoes, in that they were chunky and contained bits of potato skin. No matter what you call them, they were tasty and fresh, and served as the perfect companions for both the pot roast and the crab cake. Neither Mr. Layne nor I ate much of our other side dishes, but the couple of bites we had proved them to be delicious as well.

Even though we were quite full at this point and already had leftovers to take home, my friend who raved about The Chocolate Stuff had insisted that we try it. Desserts are available in either a cup ($3.99) or a bowl ($5.99) We both opted for a bowl of The Chocolate Stuff, which proved to be too much. When the bowls arrived, they were overflowing with the dessert. The Chocolate Stuff is difficult to describe. It's sort of like a brownie, but much better, with a gooey chocolate center and topped with chocolate sauce and homemade whipped cream. It's simply one of those desserts that you just have to taste. And taste it we did, but we ended up taking most of it home as well.

The service was impeccable, the ambience was lovely and the food was to die for. It's rare that a restaurant can pull off doing both seafood and home-style cooking and do both very well, but Barbara Jean's does just that.

The reviewer uses a pseudonym to protect her anonymity. The newspaper pays for all the meals.