The Bay Provides.

Remember gathering extended families… several generations, some friends, in the backyard on a summer evening… the old bug zapper, cut off shorts, and a picnic table piled with fresh steamed blue claw crabs?

We are that gathering.

Duck hunting, raising oysters, raking clams and especially catching crabs were a way of life. As the bayfront was developed into an extensive lagoon community, generations have fished and crabbed these backwaters for work, fun, and food.

Mud City is one of the little marshy islands, often prone to flooding, to the north of Bay Avenue in Manahawkin. The other is Mallard Island. Across Rt. 72 is Beach Haven West. Mud City Crab House opened in 1999 in the tradition of these unique areas where life is about good times and blue claw crabs. We pride ourselves in serving the freshest seafood, locally sourced whenever possible, and keeping traditions alive.  

From the Mud

If there’s one fella who we have an innate relationship with, it’s Richie the Crabber. Richie lives in Beach Haven West and has been commercially crabbing the Barnegat Bay for decades. Richie pulls hearty live blue claws from the bay floor and delivers them every single day from June to October. Thy go from the steamer straight to your table. While seasonal demand sometimes calls for crabs from outside of Ocean County, we stand proudly behind our local product.