I really don't understand these 4 and 5 star ratings. This place is abysmal. My husband and I stopped here because we wanted to go to a restaurant down the road that closed because they ran out of fish (ugh), which left us scrambling at closing time. We ran in here, and were immediately taken aback by the look and smell of the restaurant. It smelled like bleach, and it looked like a bad Chinese restaurant (with some random beach and lighthouse decor). I honestly could not find anything on the menu. The only thing I hoped to get was some clam chowder, but they put bacon in their recipe (unfortunately for me). I threw a minor hissyfit because I did not want fried seafood, which is about all they offer. I stuck to some crab dip (bland) and miso soup (awful). My husband had the salad bar, which they starting clearing out while we were eating. The service was ok, and that's the only reason I'm giving them 2-stars and not 1. read more

Sorry to say that we have been vacationing at Buxton since 1991 and this is the first time we have eaten here. We had dinner here 9/16 and 9/18. Both meals were exceptional and reasonably priced. We did not have sushi, but got some to go for bait! ;-) Bad attempt at humor for some folks, but hang on for some real info. Service is attentive and precise. The salad bar is fresh, extensive and has yummy dressings. The salad bar can be an addition to your meal for 3.99 which is a real deal. Between the four of us over two meals we had the fried Captains Platter, Swordfish (grilled), Fried Oysters, Popcorn Shrimp, and the fried Shrimp Diner. Every meal exceeded our expectations. The sides; fried sweet potatoes, French fries, sautéed green beans, cole slaw and baked potato were perfect additions to a wonderful meal. As I mentioned, the price was reasonable in an area that we believe overcharges for average seafood. This was not average and you should do yourself a favor. We ate at 5:30PM each evening and had no problem being seated. Deserts were awesome. read more

In the Outer Banks early in the season with some restaurants not yet open, we tried Diamond Shoals on a whim, and boy were we pleasantly surprised. Our server, Brooke, could not have been more attentive, pleasant and professional. The specials of the night left us spoiled for choice but we decided on the tuna stack sushi, the large seafood platter, broiled, clam chowder, seafood pasta and potato skins. The sushi was incredibly fresh with perfectly ripened avocado and sweet crabmeat. A couple of other folks at the bar ordered the same thing, which is a very good sign. The cup of chowder was creamy and rich, and fragrant with herbs. The seafood pasta had a cream pesto sauce and was chock full of scallops and shrimp, and enough to take home for the next day. The pasta was cooked beyond al dente, which worked for us because we like it a little softer. The pasta came with garlic points and a trip to the salad bar, which daughter took even though it came with son's meal, to no raised eyebrows. Potato skins were two hefty potatoes with the usual bacon and cheddar -- no processed stuff -- and two generous cups of sour cream. Again, half came home with us. But the best part of the meal was the amazing seafood platter, featuring tender bay scallops, a row of broiled shrimp, a tender filet of flounder, a moist crab cake, all in a delicate butter and wine broth, that did not overpower the great fish, and heaped atop was tender fried clam strips and oysters. A perfect topping. It was a friendly, good time and we would definitely return. Thanks for a great meal! read more

very slow, waited over 5 minutes to even be greeted by our waitress, slow, man at the hostess stand cashier was extremely rude. went for breakfast and do not recommend this place, staff was just as rude and did not acknowledge you.... read more

Great place to eat. Service is great, food is good and their breakfast is wonderful. Love their corn beef hash.

Just had dinner there tonight on the recommendation of the host at the KOA. We ordered the crab dip as an appetizer and it was a good start. I was pleasantly surprised that they brought an 6 hush puppies to the table as our "bread basket". They were excellent, you could see pieces of corn in them. My husband ordered the Fried Oysters and said they were excellent, great flavor and not too much breading. I ordered the shrimp and crab cake and both were very good. Our server, Katie, was very attentive and refilled my beverage without asking. We have eaten at 4 different places since arriving at the Outer Banks and this was the best food so far. read more

Excellent service, friendly, helpful and very attentive. I had the scallop basket with Sweet potato fries and my boy friend had the popcorn shrimp with regular fries and we both had Cole slaw. Meal was fresh and delicious and served quickly and the prices and serving size were reasonable for lunch. read more

We ate here for our wedding anniversary. We love sushi and got married in Buxton - so we figured we would give Diamond Shoals a try! We are glad we did! We have eaten here before for breakfast...but never for sushi--- It was delicious. Being from PA - there are so many fantastic sushi restaurants around - and we've eaten sushi from master chefs and 5 star restaurants - and we have to admit - some of their rolls are on our top favorites list! Hands-down favorite... the Diamond Shoals Roll! A must try. Also must say they had the BEST tuna poke we've ever had. All-in-all - it was a wonderful night with tons of delicious and fresh sushi, drinks, and even took home a peanut butter dessert that was probably one of the best peanut butter pies we've ever tasted. Thank you for bringing wonderful fresh sushi to the island! read more

My group was there there Easter weekend this year, and we will be back again. The location is right next to our hotel, so we could easily walk. The food was fresh and flavorful, the staff was wonderful, and the menu had plenty of options for all taste. The salad bar was fresh, and the sushi bar was quite entertaining. You know you will have a good experience when the staff are so close and happy to be there. I highly recommend. read more

There are some great places to eat in the OBX. This one just doesn't work for me. For wasn't anywhere near good and service failed too. I've eating at some great places down here and some just OK. Once here was enough for me. read more

Good food. We ate there twice in a week. Once for breakfast and once for lunch. Their breakfast was really good. I got the chipped beef and gravy for breakfast. No complaints at all. Lunch was the grouper basket. Although it was good (not great), it was definitely not grouper. I had a feeling it wouldn't be grouper because I know 80% of the time it's not grouper when a restaurant has it on the menu unless it is a fresh catch special. Even then it is still questionable. I'm pretty sure it was haddock but it was good enough for a fried lunch basket. Their clam chowder is nothing special. It's New England style, I prefer Hatteras style (clear broth) but that's just me. I would definitely go back. read more

This was our first trip to Diamond Shoals although we have driven past it for many years. This restaurant is always busy and with good reason. We stopped during the lunch rush which is always a good time to judge an eatery's performance. There was a good number of locals with a sprinkling of seniors. The staff was friendly and the restaurant clean looking and clean smelling with nice décor. This is the off-season (March 22) and, although resort area food can oft times be iffy, we did not find this to be the case here. I ordered the lunch "special" chicken livers and gizzards with collards, mashed potatoes, gravy and a biscuit. Not something I would normally eat but, when in Rome. ALL the food was seasoned very nicely, and, best of all, the coating on the livers/gizzards was not at all greasy but very tasty and crunchy. I enjoyed the collards (again, not something I usually eat) a lot. My wife had a crab cake sandwich with sweet potato fries. VERY GOOD. For us, the BEST part was that the food, although fried, was NOT greasy but crispy and very well seasoned. Hot food, generous portions, reasonably prices for resort area food. We will definitely add this stop to our restaurant list when we are on the OBX at our condo. I understand their clam chowder is top notch as well. read more

Could be better. Steamed shrimp mushy. Spicy tuna roll was solo hot; it killed my pallet! Basic; homestyle diner serving local fish.

The salad bar was great! The fish was wonderful - as was our waitress, Katie. Had a great experience - thank goodness we found this place early in our visit so we can go back!!! Headed back for Red Snapper! read more

I would recommend against this eatery. The food did not have much flavor, not to mean that it wasn't salty enough. The broiled scallop was also over cooked. The food took a long time to come out. No one in my party ordered deep fried seafood so no comment on that. It was an unfortunate waste of a chance to enjoy good local seafood and money. read more

Diamond Shoals is the first stop we make any time we're on the island. The service is always wonderful, no matter how busy they get. And they get busy. It's worth the wait. Well worth it. The food is amazing. The fried shrimp is the best I've had anywhere. Lightly coated and fried to perfection. It's plump and never overcooked. Everything they serve is fresh. The mahi is to die for. The sushi is incredible. The seafood pasta is perfect. You just can't go wrong with this restaurant. They are so accomodating. There's a bar for drinks while you wait, a cute little gift shop area to browse through, and a fresh seafood market on site. Breakfast is great there, as well. I highly recommend Diamond shoals. They never disappoint. read more

Had dinner here for the first time over the 4th of July. Our server was great! Everything we had was delicious. The seafood was fresh and tasty. The hush puppies they bring you before your dinner are hot and homemade. My daughter fell in love with the mashed potatoes. So good we went back for our OBX "last supper". Can't wait to come back again! A new tradition was born this summer. Thanks! read more

First time to eat here and will certainly be returning. The food was great, and the service was excellent. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!!!!

We were looking for a restaurant where to eat local seafood and our guide recommended this particular one. We ordered $ 24.00 fish of the day and were very disappointed with the dish. It tasted like defrosted fish and the side dishes were low quality. However, the sushi that we ordered was very, very good. I wished we had just skipped the main room and head strait to the sushi section. read more

DO NOT EAT HERE!!! The food and waiting staff were great, the owner however was a jerk and very unprofessional! I had to go back to the salad bar twice because I had to wait twice on him to finish chewing out his staff for something that should have not been disscused in an open environment for customers to be able to see or hear. However my main issue was that he charged us twice for a salad because my wife had three bites even though we only orderd one ,and I made only one trip to the salad bar for food. I asked him if he was going to charge me twice for sushi because I had a bite off my sons plate, to which he had no valid response except to say "I have only three months to make my money" I guess this justifies stealing from customers over food. read more

Excellent place for any meal. Awesome service and staff. Prices are a little up there be based on all they've been through with storms and hurricanes, it's justified. Coffee is the best read more

We have been burned so many times eating out on Hatteras Island during our annual vacation. Bad BBQ, many bad pizzas, restaurants trying to be fancy but missing the mark by much. For years we have been buying our fresh seafood from Diamond Shoals Seafood Market (always fresh, always good) but have never eaten in the restaurant. I'm not sure why. The parking lot is usually full and I've only heard good things. Well this year on our 'dinner out' night, we decided to go to the restaurant part. I love fried seafood and I'm from Pennsylvania and can't get decent fresh fried seafood. And I'm too much of a wuss to make it at home. So my husband and I both got the Captains Platter.....fried oysters, clams, scallops, shrimp, fish......not healthy, but once a year isn't going to kill you. It was perfect. Super fresh seafood, not greasy at all, fried to perfection. The sushi looked pretty awesome as well. And try the Carolina Roadtrip! A sampling of four carolina craft brews. This will be our go-to dinner out destination on Hatteras Island forever and ever. read more

We visited the Diamond Shoals restaurant in Sept. 2012 and unfortunately we had a very negative dining experience. The "famous" clam chowder had hardly any potatoes or clams in it, and the worst meal was the entree-we ordered the linguine with shrimp. The linguine was terribly overcooked-almost like it was left over from the previous day-totally mushed out. The cheese sauce was tasteless and even though the shrimp were not that bad, they were just ruined by the rest of the dish. Three people aside from myself in our group had the same entree and everyone said the pasta was horrible. The others in our group that ordered the fried seafood all agreed that it all tasted identical-the soft shell crabs tasted like the popcorn shrimp-obviously because they were all cooked in the same used oil. The waitresses were rude and in a hurry. So...definitely will not be going back to that place on our next Outer Banks vacation. The other meals may have been OK but whatever you do, don't order anything with pasta in it-I guess that is how they cook it in the south. As a matter of fact I can't remember ever having a really good meal in the Outer Banks. Except one morning in Ocracoke at the Back Porch restaurant-the breakfast was very good. I don't think the Back Porch is there anymore though. I would give zero stars to the Diamond Shoals restaurant if I could. read more

If you are looking for overcooked appetizers, incomplete entrees and incorrect entrees -- this is your place! Hubby and I had dinner on 4.26.2015. We had one good meal -- if you combined our two meals. I had the steamed clams (good) and had over broiled snapper (in hindsight...I should have sent it back -- hardly able to eat). Hubby had the clam strips (over fried) and the fried combo dinner (he ordered broiled). The waitress took away his friend combo and it took awhile for him to get his broiled dinner. Unfortunately, she didn't deliver his one side dish (cole slaw) and left his first set of fries on a side place...only to get cold while he was waiting for his second dinner to be delivered. The waitress kindly offered to buy us a round of drinks "on her". Well, it was just for hubby. I had to pay for my own glass of wine while I was watching hubby eat his dinner. On the way out - the owner and check out staff asked us about our experience. Hubby said "it was okay". He was asked to elaborate and he did. The owner looked at hims and said "Oh, so sorry to hear that. Hope to see you again." Really. Are you serious? We're here for a month and will make no attempt to come back. read more

NIce try to recover, Mr. Owner - but 25% of the food was good (one good appetizer, one bad appetizer, one bad entree, one sent back entree - returned incomplete). Not taking you up on your offer to come back because I can't afford to spend another $100 on bad food. Forgot to say the waitress said "Oh, I have to write down your order completely because the cook doesn't speak English." We saw the bill - the English speaking waitress failed to write down "broiled" instead of "fried". Forgot to mention the appetizers arrived at the same time as the main course. Not good. Will go to Ketch 55 instead. Actually, we went there 3 x since our experience at your place. And, no, I'm not a plant for their restaurant. Their food is just better and they were closed on the day we stopped by your place. Don't mean to diss you - but your response was less than I was hoping for. We've bought fish many times at your store and cooked it ourselves. Don't expect us back. read more