Ok. For those of us attending the Maryland game, please list the best places for seafood near the Inner Harbor. Thanks in advance.
1. The Inner Harbor is not the very best place to find good seafood. Its mostly pretty good places/chains like McCormick & Schmick, Phillips, Rusty Scupper. You can get decent crab cakes at any of them and it is an interesting place to see if you don't know Baltimore.
2. Most critics and customer polls say that the upscale Thames Oyster House is the best overall seafood restaurant in Baltimore. It's a couple miles from the stadium. I have not eaten there, so I can't vouch for it.
3. It is hard to get a really bad crab cake in Maryland. IMO. The best are at the Eastern Shore. Some of the best in Baltimore are at Thames (2 miles from stadium), Gertrudes (4 miles), Koco's (12 miles), Pappas (18 miles). G&M, which is mentioned here, is on the outskirts of Baltimore. It is controversial, as they don't always use Maryland crab, has been accused of mixing fish with their crab and it is kind of a dump. I find it OK when in the area but not worth a special trip.
4. One of the best crab cakes I have ever had is at Faidley's Seafood, part of the large inner historic city market called Lexington Market not far from the stadium. Faidley's is clean, sells all kinds of fresh seafood and has a raw bar as well as a crab cake stand. Unfortunately, that market is in a very dicey ghetto neighborhood, a real "experience" for the adventurous that is as different from the tourist-friendly Inner Harbor as you can get - I probably wouldn't take little kids there, unless you want to teach them how drug deals go down - but it has some great fresh crab cakes (the expensive lump ones are the best). Cross Keys Market mentioned by others is similar but much smaller in a better area but I have never had their crab cakes - though probably a good bet.
PS: I agree that New Orleans and Boston/New England have the best all-around seafood, Maryland is about crabs and crab cakes. But BUYER BEWARE - a lot of crab cakes are made from crab not from the Bay.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bal-crab-mislabeling-20150331-story.html#page=1