Outer Banks Dining Guide

I have a lot to say about the South Beach Grille. So either get out or strap in, because you’re about to take a wild ride down the lane of reviews.

Let’s start out with right when we walk into the restaurant. There is one glaringly obvious flaw, the attendant wasn’t there. When she finally shows up she is flustered, apologizes, and immediately runs off again. Leaving us still with out a seat. It was a good ten minutes before we did get seated in the half empty restaurant. But even then the five of us were smashed into this small booth that was quite uncomfortable. We took it upon ourselves to move across the room to another larger more spacious table.

Enter the waitress; she was a nice lady. Maybe a tad on the shy side. She chatted with us which is normally a pleasant engaging experience. But with this particular server, she chatted but was too soft spoken to actually hear what she was saying. And at a later point in our dinner she asked if my dad and I wanted refills on our ice tea, we answered yes. Then she promptly went over to the table next to us and took their order. It took about ten minutes with a gentle reminder before we got our refills.

Now let’s move onto the food part because I know that’s what people actually care about. I was torn between two things and I certainly made the wrong decision. The Mahi and Grits was sub par. It was described as blackened mahi but the mahi was not black, it wasn’t even brown. It was just regular unseasoned fish. The grits also lacked in flavor and came out of the kitchen already hard on the edges. All around it was pretty much a mess.

My mother was the only one who really enjoyed her meal. She got the blackened tuna steak and thought it was remarkable. I think she said it was her favorite meal of the trip. This time when they described something as blackened it actually was blackened.

The other two meals were average enough that I don’t want to waste my time talking about them. I probably wouldn’t go to the South Beach Grille again but it wasn’t bad enough that I would actually warn people away. So go at your own risk I guess.

-Zoe

On the morning after the hurricane we made our way over to Duck Donuts, and by morning I mean about 11:30. Our exhausted little group of five slowly wandered the quiet post storm streets of Kill Devil Hills. The lively group of workers and the excitement of little kids watching their donuts be made in front of them broke the sereneness of outside.

To eliminate the fuss only three out of the five went into the shop while the others peeked into the other storefronts. Inside though, the line moves fast leaving little time for decisions. Resulting in a last minute switch from strawberry to peanut butter. Together we got 13 donuts; two strawberry, one peanut butter, one lemon, three maple, three chocolate, and three vanilla.

The freshly made cooked donuts are dipped right in front of you behind a short glass wall. Then you are handing the steaming hot drippy donuts over a counter. And most likely you will not realize you needed a plate and fork and will have to take a trip back in. And after that you get to dig into your decadent donut.

Let me tell you the peanut butter was rich. And not it a bad way, it was so good. Like I could eat ten of them good. Maybe not ten it was pretty filling. Throughout the day I ate two strawberry, and a vanilla. The vanilla frosting was by far the best frosting I have ever had on a donut.

These may have become my favorite donuts. I just can’t stop thinking about the wonderful cake donut with a crunchy outside and warm soft middle.

-Zoe

This place is about a three and a half minute walk from our condo so naturally it is the go to pizza stop. We timed our visit right before the hurricane Arthur so we could eat our leftovers the next day. My mom and I went over and ordered a small Garden Pesto pizza.

The pizza is tasty by my standards. The crust is great and chewy, it just all together is a good pizza. The Garden Pesto pizza is crust covered in pesto in place of a traditional red sauce with mozzarella, mushrooms, onions, and green peppers. I really enjoyed it, the two of us finished the small pizza.

We brought home a large cheese and a large sausage for the other three that stayed at home. I couldn’t help but eat another slice of the sausage when we got back to the condo. And let me tell you, I don’t regret that one bit; the sausage was super flavorful and delicious.

I’m a fan of Daredevils Pizzeria and not only for the fact that it’s within walking distance. They just know how to make good pizza!

Let me just be up front with you; I already knew John’s had the best boats and shakes on the beach. This is one of the few must go places at the beach. Every year we come to enjoy dolphin boats and thick milkshakes.

One thing that made this trip extra awesome was the fact that we got a parking space out front, literally right in front of the store. If you have ever been to John’s you know how rare this is, it’s almost impossible to get one of the five elusive parking spots. But we made it, I knew this was going to be a great stop right then.

This time we decided to vary from our normal order of just dolphin boats and we decided on two rock fish boats along with two dolphin boats. Keep in mind we are five people, that may help you understand the size of these boats they enormous. At least five chunks of beautifully fried golden fish. I enjoyed both the rock fish and the dolphin but my heart does lie with dolphin. A warning though, when you receive your fried delicacies it is approximately 10000 degrees. So a word to the wise, unless you want burnt hands and mouth try to let the fish cool a little bit.

Along with the boats it is a must to get a milkshake. There would be no reason to go to John’s if you weren’t getting a shake. I decided on a coffee caramel blend and let me tell you it was fabulous. I want more. My willpower disappeared  after the first sip. I quiver thinking about the thick coffee caramel goodness.

So pretty much John’s is the best and everyone should come.

-Zoe

Mulligans is always a good time, I seem to make it here every single year during the annual obx visit. The food is good, the atomosphere is fun, it’s just all in all a pleasant experience every time I visit.

There was about a 15 minute wait to get in, it would have been longer but the family in line infront of us had left. That was very considerate of whoever left.

We got seated in the dining room to the left of the entrance which is fairly small, right by the kitchen, and very dimly lit. For some it might have been too loud, but I never found the noise overbearing.

Ordering is always a fairly diffucult task at Mulligans, there are so many choices from so many types of food. There’s pretty much something for everyone ranging from seafood to lasangna. I opted for one of their dinner specials; the Spider Burger. This was an enourmous burger topped with a fried softshell crab on a pretzel bun.

Turns out this was a good decision. The burger itself was great, very juicy and thick. The crab was nicely fried and flavorful. I just wish there was more of the crab, because the bites with the crab and the burger and the onion and the lettuce just made my heart go pitter patter. Oh and I don’t actually know if the bun was a pretzel bun like the menu said. It looked like a peely baked potato and didn’t taste particullarly pretzel like. But that was okay, if it had been as dense as a normal pretzel bun it would have been way too much. So pretty much I’m totally okay with it not being a pretzel bun.

The french fries that came with all the meals were very delicious. They were the super awesome crispy kind with lots of seasoning. I loved seasoned fries and Mulligans hit the spot.

My mother got the Best Beach Burger or something of that nature. It was a large burger topped with cheddar cheese and crab meat. Her comment was that the crab meat did not stand out flavor wise but all together it was a good combination. The burger is really quite large though. It was so big she cut it up and ate it with a fork. Which in my book is not okay at all, my burger was the same size and I ate it just fine.

Both boys got the coconut shrimp dinner. The shrimp were on the smaller side and the coconut was very fine and not in big flakes like you normally see. They both liked them, I had one and thought it was okay I prefer mine with more coconut.

The last meal was fish tacos which was consumed by my father. He thought the flavor was good in the fish. And he finished three takeaway containers of the tartar sauce that came with it so it must have been good.

All in all, Mulligans is a good choice. The food is good, it has a great low key atmosphere where the conversation flows just as fast as the sweet tea.

-Zoe