At Bobby's Crabcakes, the crab may not always be local, but it's always all lump, and the restaurant prides itself on minimal binder. Photograph by Stacy Zarin-Goldberg.

What’s in a name? In the case of Bobby’s Crabcakes, located in a corner of the new Rockville Town Square, quite a lot. Restaurant-industry vet Bobby Bloch not only believes in his star product enough to put his name on it; he believes in it enough to trust it to carry an entire dining operation.

It’s a bold move. This is a region that loves its crab cakes, and excellent offerings abound, from the pristine beauties at Foggy Bottom’s seafood palace, Kinkead’s, to the crisp fried patties of Maryland jumbo lump at the roadside diner Ocean Odyssey on Route 50 in Cambridge, Maryland.

So how does Bloch’s rendition rank? Pretty high. The crab cakes—available in a four-ounce regular portion or a worth-the-extra-few-bucks five-ounce jumbo size—are made from large hunks of lump crabmeat (from Maryland when available) lightly broiled with the barest slick of eggy binder. They’re tasty on a Martin’s potato roll but just as good alone with a pile of the fabulous skin-on fries doused in Heinz malt vinegar from the bottle on every table.

Although the blue-tiled space has the feel of a slicked-up seafood house with its blackboard menu, Carrera-marble tables, and photos of Solomons Island yachts, the rest of the menu strays from the fish-house formula. There’s a terrific BLT with layers of crisp bacon, red tomatoes (even in winter), and green-leaf lettuce piled on toasted brioche. If you happen to be there when the “grown-up grilled cheese”—which changes often—is offered with Brie, Granny Smith apples, and fig spread, snap it up. To drink, there’s a small but well-chosen lineup of beer (Bass Ale, Stella Artois) and wine (Caymus Conundrum, St. Francis Zinfandel).

Less compelling are a fluffy, flavor-free egg salad, bound with mayo and spring onion, and a listless chicken salad barely brought to life by a few grinds of pepper. The biggest downer is the lobster roll. The top-split hot-dog bun is overstuffed with chunks of mayo-bound lobster (good), but the claw meat tastes as if it’s been steeped in saline—not good, especially when you consider the sandwich’s $15.45 price. Clam chowder is another disappointment. It looks the part—with pepper-flecked cream, squares of bacon and celery, and loads of clams—but the flavors are muddled.

Bobby’s biggest issue seems to be quantity control—understandable, perhaps, given that the restaurant has swarmed with customers since its October launch. On two visits, the shrimp cocktail, one of a handful of appetizers, was gone. That’s a shame because the shrimp, steamed peel-and-eat style but served with their shells off, are big and beautiful and delicious with the horseradish-heavy cocktail sauce. The restaurant also tends to run out of the bleu-cheese-spiked mac and cheese, which is a much better bet than, say, the shyly spiced beef chili.

The good news? We’ve yet to see the place run out of Key-lime pie—the best dessert, no contest. Or the very good crab cakes, thank goodness.