Nell

I miss the garlicky mussels at Walts-- I had mussels at Monks the other day and they were just okay. Oddly, the best mussels I've had in Philadelphia/NJ since Walts are at Chickie & Petes on Roosevelt Boulevard. It's huge and doesn't have the kind of atmosphere I miss at Walt's, but they do a great job.

Thanks so much to everyone for their responses-- and thanks especially to everyone who explained what I was trying to say better than I did. I will check out the suggestions, & hope that someday, someone opens another Walt's.

I am going in a circle here-- thanks for the suggestion about Holly Eats-- only that's where I started. I wrote to Holly Moore, and he wrote back to tell me he misses Walt's King of Crabs-- and then suggested I post on this forum, specifically, New Jersey. Walt's was a seafood dive: they served boiled crabs, shrimp, lobster, fried fish (I think, it was a long time ago) & mussels, all on the same cafeteria trays, along with coleslaw, fries, corn, and beer. I can't remember whether they had anything else on the menu that wasn't fish/seafood-- maybe hotdogs? It was incredibly cheap. I am in search of that kind of experience-- Little Fish, which was wonderful the last time I was there, is more of a restaurant-restaurant, as is Dmitri's (which is terrific, but again, not what I'm looking for).

Little Fish is actually a very expensive restaurant -- not at all what I'm looking for. And I hope they don't move this thread to Philadelphia-- I am willing to drive to New Jersey to find the seafood hole-in-the-wall of my dreams. (Obviously if someone knows of one in Philadelphia, that's great).

I live in Philadelphia and used to eat at Walt's King of Crabs, which was a wonderful seafood dive where you could get a 1 1/2 pound lobster for about 8 bucks. (They'd throw it at you on a plastic cafeteria tray). Is there anything in New Jersey like that? Any seafood restaurant that isn't a bazillion dollars where it's possible to get a low-cost lobster? Please let me know.