Denise has a beach house in Ocean City, MD. I spent countless summer weekends there while I was working at Maryland. I would leave work about noon on Friday to miss traffic, spend the weekend, and then head back to reality on Sunday evening. I don't have enough time to tell you about all the stuff we did, and I probably shouldn't anyways...suffice it to say, we've had a blast.
Since I moved to Oklahoma I've only gotten to visit her at the beach a couple of times, and happily this trip was one of them. Back in the day, the couch in the living room was my bed. Not bad, considering I could wake up to a gorgeous view of the bay from the back patio sliding glass doors. But now that they've renovated the house, I got my own awesome room. Kinda makes me wish I was back in Maryland so I could go more often!
I had driven down Tuesday morning, and my only 2 requests for Denise were the thick cut fries, and crabs. We took care of the crabs Tuesday night with a crab feast on the back deck. We tore through about a dozen each, and it was awesome. Tuesday for lunch I got a burger and fries at Alaska Stand, which is right near where we always hang out on the beach. Wednesday afternoon before I left we shared a tub of Thrasher's fries, the best on the beach. Denise kind of went overboard with the vinegar, but they were still so delish.
But I digress...Wednesday morning, after a great run on the boardwalk, it was time for some lunch. After some back and forth we decided to go The Shark on the Harbor. We went with her dad Vinnie, her middle son Pat, and her nephew Sean.
Located in West Ocean City, The Shark is a very cool restaurant right on the harbor. Denise warned me that the wait can be long. Sam didn't go with us for that very reason. As we pulled up there was a large group that walked in right ahead of us. That turned out to be a bad omen.
It's not a very big restaurant, maybe 25 tables. And there's a big bar in the middle and you can sit at the bar to eat/drink as well. We were seated at a table in the corner. Normally I wouldn't like that, but the restaurant has huge windows on all sides of the restaurant to take in the great view.
I really like that they offer $5.99 daily lunch specials, and they also have Sunday NFL specials during football season. They have a variety of items on the lunch menu, and it all looked really good. After lots of thinking, I went with the fish tostadas with homecooked chips
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Blackened mahi mahi/crunchy corn tortillas/shredded cabbage/cheese/
tomato salsa/salsa blanca
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Denise shared a grilled cheese and the fish tostadas with her son Pat. The grilled cheese was disappointing because it was supposed to be a combination of cheeses, but there was more bacon and lettuce than anything, and hardly any gouda on it. Pat also had a cheesesteak and I had a bite and it was delicious. I can't remember what Vinnie and Sean had.
We did have to wait about 30 minutes for our meal. Our waitress was very nice, but she seemed to get distracted pretty quickly. We had planned to place our order when she brought back the drinks, but then Denise started talking to her, and another table needed something, and it was another 10 minutes before she came back. I really don't get it. I understand that they cook everything fresh and to order, and I know there was a group of 8 just ahead of us but that's no excuse for why it should take that long to be served. But then another group of 4 came in about 30 minutes after we did, and were served their food within 10 minutes. Very crazy.
It took me quite a while to track down the lunch menu, because The Shark changes its specials frequently. So, note to self...take pictures of the menu items so I don't have to spend so much time trying to dig it up.
Will I go back? Next summer it's definitely on the to-do list.
