We absolutely loved our experience at Rundown Cafe! We were looking for a delicious meal in the OBX and this was the perfect place! As per usual for most places, there was a wait which just told us it was going to be amazing (it was)! The great perk about a wait at Rundown is that they have a top deck where you can get a drink and order off the small apps menu! We did just this and went for strawberry daiquiris and the coconut shrimp which were ah-mazing! The shrimp has a delicious taste and hit the spot while waiting for our table! The entire upper deck was buzzing with folks getting drinks, listening to the band that was just starting to play and waiting for their tables! It was a great vibe on a beautiful Outer Banks evening! We were seated within 40 minutes and having already had time to preview the menu, we ordered quickly and the food came out right away! We loved their unique menu which included noodle bowls, lots of different flavors and various dishes that aren't on many menus outside of the beach! I went with the grilled shrimp sesame noodle bowl which is served cold and with the most delicious flavors! No joke, this is the best noodle bowl I've ever had! It was absolutely delicious and huge! I ended up taking half home for "A" to thoroughly enjoy later much to his delight! He went with the coco loco chicken which is coconut covered fried chicken served with salsa, beans and rice! He loved his meal and it was also a huge portion size that we had even more leftovers! We really liked our experience at Rundown and will definitely be back when in town! We highly recommend anyone visiting OBX go by there for a great meal as we know we have found one of our new favorite places! read more

See all

Waitstaff was friendly and most welcoming. The food came out in a timely manner and was excellent. We just did drinks and appetizers. The drinks we ordered were off the specialty menu, were great! The appetizers we ordered were calamari, nachos and coconut shrimp. So delicious!! read more

This joint was pretty cool. Friendly attentive servers, food was excellent! Can sit outside with a view of the ocean. Reasonable prices, good value for the buck. Highly recommend. read more

Rundown Cafe - Bar and dining area - Seafood Near Me - Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

See all

Food was good and the service was fast for being so busy. We will definitely visit again.

Came here last Sunday and was able to do take out for 6 orders even though the parking lot was packed. Came today to do take out again and they said they can't accommodate 6 take out orders even though the parking lot isn't full and there are 4 workers hanging out front chatting with no one waiting in line to get in. They open at 5pm and I got here at 5:15pm to place an order and they can't accommodate take out even though the family after me was 7 and got seated right away. You might wonder why I didn't try calling at first. Well on Sunday they didn't answer their phone at all and today they didn't answer their phone either. Maybe get one of those 4 girls chatting at the front to do some work and answer the phones. Either way terrible service. Food is decent but service makes or breaks a restaurant. Won't be returning ever. Recommend going to another restaurant. read more

Not as good as it once was The steamed shrimp was good but how can you screw that up. Although the cocktail sauce they gave me was clearly frozen and thawed. Watery brown and you can see the lid indentation. The crack dip was pretty good as well. Some people got the coconut shrimp or chicken and said that they liked it. read more

See all

The staff were very nice. The fish bites where good The fish tacos were loaded with shrimp. Good portion. Others in party not so satisfied. Chicken was dry and tough ( rundown ). Burger overcooked and dry. read more

Another good experience at Rundown Cafe. Our ten year old ordered Fish and Chips which he loved. The wife enjoyed the coconut shrimp and I the Hawaiian Poke. Both fresh and outstanding. Out Server, "Eliza" was on spot when needed. Excellent service. read more

I wanted to go to Mae's BBQ across the bridge for lunch, since the place had changed names from Sammie's after last season. So that is where we went and upon arriving, found that it is closed. I'm not sure it ever did re-open as Mae's since there are zero Yelp reviews. So back we came and I chose to try Rundown Café, which was on my un-tried list for a lunch. I suspect, without any real evidence that this is a sister restaurant of Tortuga's Lie. I mean is a Big Wave Dave sandwich a standard menu item? Both have it. We had a beer and sandwich, each for lunch. Ms T went with the Coconut Chicken and I had a Jerk Burger. The chicken looked good, nicely coated and browned. She reported that they did not dry it out, but the coconut added no flavor. It was just a chicken sandwich. Her standard side was chips and salsa. The salsa is served on the chips which made them soggy almost immediately. It should be served on the side. By that I mean, it would better if it were thrown over the side. This is the kind of salsa that gives American attempts at salsa a bad name; overly sweet and no flavor except cumin, cumin and cumin. This is a sure sign of an amateur in the kitchen or buying the jars. My Jerk Burger was OK, but bland. I was expecting some excitement. I could barely taste the jerk seasoning / sauce and there was no heat. And by the way, why would you pair swiss cheese with jerk seasoning? My side of black bean-rice was tasteless plastic pellet rice (read Uncle Ben's) and construction grade black beans, side by side with more of the aforementioned salsa on top. I scraped off the salsa to reduce my chances of cumin toxicity. The beans were not offensive, they just were also bland and had a consistency suitable for use as grout. They clearly had been sitting around for a while. On a positive note, they did serve very nice tomato slices with both sandwiches, the nicest I have had in a restaurant in some time. The tomato kind of saved my burger, but I could not bring myself to drive from Kill Devil Hills past Goombay's and Art's Place for this burger. The service was very good. We found the beer list to be limited. Gregory T's review hits the nail on the head. This is a nice place with friendly people. It is trying to be the popular girl by putting all kinds of trendy sounding stuff on the menu hoping there will be something for everyone. Consequently, none of the items we had were well thought through and developed into really flavorful dishes. They don't necessarily need a new menu, but they do need a new head chef or maybe just a good cook. I was going to award three stars for the burger, but I just can't do it due to the other stuff. read more

Rundown Cafe - Jerk Burger - Seafood Near Me - Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

We ordered take-out from Rundown Cafe last night and the ordering process was quite difficult as the restaurant became overcome with crowds waiting to be seated. My review is solely on the food not the experience. In easier times without kids, we would have dined in person. The rundown soup was extremely flavorful and delicious. The cold sesame noodles with coconut shrimp was spectacular. I have never had anything like it. Another person in my group ordered the Poke and loved it. The grouper tacos were a hit as well as the special and the pasta. The food was declared the favorite of the week. We will be back. read more

Amazing food, fast service, and a beautiful fish pond outside! If you have kids, make sure to bring some quarters so they can feed the fish!

Brrrr! We were seated downstairs for the first time a couple days ago and it was FREEZING COLD! We love it there and we love the food. We are fairly regular customers and come several times a year. Upstairs is a reasonable temperature. We requested upstairs but were seated downstairs and we said that was fine. We and the surrounding tables all froze throughout our meals. We overhead people talking about how cold it was.We ate as fast as we could due to the over air conditioning We'll be back but we won't be sitting downstairs again. Again, food is great and service is great but it was like a meat locker. read more

Super friendly staff! Bartenders are very friendly and helpful as well. The food is wonderful and portions are insane! Have a stop in and enjoy. read more

Rundown Cafe - Sesame Noodles with Coconut Shrimp added! - Seafood Near Me - Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

We came here by accident. We meant to go to another close-by restaurant- what a happy mistake! So few laces to eat in Duck and Corolla so we drove down to Kitty Hawk. Absolutely worth it! Our group of 7 was accommodated with a spot in line for a table. We went upstairs to wait for our turn. The frozen Lava Flow was very tasty. We loved the Moscow Mule too! Sandra, the very awesome bartender brought drinks and an appetizer to us outside, although it was officially closed. You cannot find a friendlier or more helpful person to be your bartender or server anywhere! She offered to take care of our dinner orders and despite her duties in the bar, made us feel like we had her and the restaurant to ourselves. The best experience we've had in OBX ever! Cali and the fellow who did multiple duties including bar back were also very helpful and friendly! We had several different dishes. I had their Jerk Chicken specialty and loved it. Everyone had a dish they loved! Instead of going on and on, I'll say you MUST give this place a try! We are definitely coming back! read more

Rundown Cafe - Cold Sesame Noodles with Grilled Shrimp - Seafood Near Me - Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

See all

Good food & great service Hawaiian Poke Bowl. Unfortunately, the flies ruined our meal

Food was really good and prices were good. Our waiter was very nice and did a good job. I highly recommend the stir fry. I'm sort of a picky eater and i really enjoyed it. Nothing negative to say about them. read more

Rundown Cafe - Stir fry and steak tacos - Seafood Near Me - Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

See all

Food was delicious. We ordered a bunch of appetizers to share among the table and it was nice to try a little of multiple dishes. Staff was friendly and service was great! read more

Really disappointing. The location was nice but that was about it. The hostess seemed annoyed at having to seat us and the food was downright terrible. Shrimp tacos consisted of bland, mushy shrimp, hard avocado, and white uncooked tortillas. read more

Lots of teen servers they aren't bad but some people aren't fond of that shrimp tacos were very good but opt for the fries and not the rice

3.5, noodle bowls?! What happened to them?! They were the best thing on the menu and now apparently they have them on special (but not advertised), but they are much different. Different sauce, not as many veggies, not as spicy, a little heavier, smaller portion. Please bring the OG noodle bowl back! Everyone around us was asking about them too. Very disappointed. The view though is always 10/10, and our server, Mikey, was phenomenal. read more

Use to be a great place to eat. They must have new management, because the menu has changed and it is just fair at best. Will not be returning. read more

We ordered take out. The food was weird and not very good. We got charged for things we didn't order. My burger bottom bun was soaking wet in grease. We also got the burrito and it had a weird jerk spice that overpowered the whole thing and made it unappetizing. Overall not a great experience. read more

We ate here for lunch and dinner on day 4 of our vacation. It looked fun with people eating on the upper deck since the day we arrived. It was a 2 min walk (with a family of 5) from the beach house so very convenient location. We were all hungry after a nice kayak tour and decided to finally try it out. Unfortunately on the drive back from kayaking it became cloudy, chilly, and felt like rain despite what the weather forecast predicted. So we ate inside. The staff members were friendly and wearing masks. The tables were definitely 6ft or more apart. The burgers were juicy and the fish burrito were good. The fish po' boy was ok if you could find the fish. At least the remoulade on the side was tasty. The waitress did however get one of the burgers wrong because it was suppose to be a chicken sandwich. She also put in the fish burrito order late so my son had to wait while the rest of us were served. We ordered take out for dinner on their famous Monday "legendary" fried chicken night. Although the chicken was good, I wouldn't call it legendary. There was hardly any breading. No juicy "crunch" when we took a bite. That's pretty bold to describe it as legendary in my opinion. They all came with cornbread and choice of two sides; we ordered garlic mashed potatoes and green beans which were good. The desserts were decent... upside pineapple cake, root beer float, and fudge brownie sundae. However their seasonal dessert the coconut cream pie tasted like fish. I would recommend this restaurant to others, but tell them the chicken is ok yet far from legendary and have the waitress actually write down the order. read more

Corey the server was amazing. He did not rush us but was very attentive. Lucas checked on us which was nice. The tacos were amazing as was the rundown chowder. They had my favorite red oak lager. Altogether perfect meal on the top deck. read more

We have been going to the Rundown Cafe for quite a few years and they never disappoint. They are our top "go to" restaurant in the Outer Banks. They recently renovated and overhauled their menu. So far we like the changes. They still have Fried Chicken Mondays. The chicken is excellent and could possibly be the best meal value in the OBX. Andy was our waiter and he is both personable and efficient. Keep up the great work! read more

Look like they are under new management and definitely in need of staff training. My husband and I went there on Friday for dinner at 5 pm and we were the first table that day (right before the line got crowded ) The waitress was greeting us nicely and I ordered skinny margarita, rundown soup, and 1/2 lb. peel-off shrimps, while my husband ordered fish tacos. I got my soup not too long after we ordered and then my shrimps had been served but we still waiting for his food so we can eat at the same time. It's about 5:30 and we noticed other tables that came after us already got their dinner and been eating but we still waiting for fish tacos so I decided to ask one of the servers if his food is ready yet cause we been waiting for awhile. Not too long our waitress came apologize and told us that his order didn't print out from the kitchen printer. They are under new management blah blah (Maybe they forgot to turn on the printer or even if she forgot to put in order in the computer and we were the first table so that's understandable) but the point is it's been 30 minutes since we ordered and nobody ever came and check on us, they can ask simple questions like how's your food? Is everything okay? Do you get everything alright? They have a lot of staff standing around near the kitchen/ bar area (At least 6 people including one guy look like he's a manager/ owner) and there are about 6 tables in the restaurants that time. My husband got his food in about 10-15 mins. He's been here before and he likes their fish tacos a lot he said it's one of his most favorites (another one that he likes is in Maui, Hawaii) My soup was good but not the best (in the menu says it's a Jamaican fish soup with squash but I wasn't sure if there's any fish in there cause I couldn't feel the texture of it) and steam peeled off shrimps were fine nothing fancy. Oh and my skinny margarita is a bit too salty(must be the salt from the glass rim that fell in to the drink) you can ask to get it without salt if you want. The drink wasn't sweet cause it's skinny margarita if you like some sweet cocktail/ drink I would not recommend. The whole experience here I only impressed is that the short-haired girl (not our waitress) keep refilling my water (cause the margarita was salty so I need a lot of water) and maybe the lady(might be a chef/cook) that brought out the fish tacos to us looked like she really feels bad about food coming out so late. Will we ever come back? Not me but my husband might (just to get carry out order tho) read more

NO PICKUP/ DINE IN ONLY DURING A PANDEMIC ‍- We called today asking for pick up times and hours of operations. Once our family was ready to order, we called in within the times they shared doing pick up and they told us they don't do pick up when they are busy. We are in the middle of a pandemic with Covid19 but this place only does dine in and not pick up. They told us to call back in at least an hour to see if things slow down then. We've been getting food from this place for years and likely will not be returning, since exposing our family in a middle of a pandemic is their only option. It would have been nice for them to make mention of this when we called in earlier in the day. read more

This was a fantastic find! Had been here with girlfriends pre-COVID and it was really tasty and fun! Lauren was our server tonight and I got the poke bowl and my husband got the scallops special. My bowl was fabulous - ahi was perfect!!! Husband said his was tasty - and he doesn't give many compliments!!! The view of the Atlantic was gorgeous and calm and just a nice vibe - great music, too. Wish our beach house was a little closer and this could be our new spot! read more

First let me say, lava cake. Yes! We loved visiting this restaurant. The food was good and the service was excellent. I added pineapple to my ahi tuna poke bowl and it was amazing. My husband had steak tacos and said they were good. The art work on the walls is beautiful. The owners mother is filling in for them and we were greeted with a smile and asked how everything was. She also thanked us for coming in. They went the extra mile for their customers last night and it was awesome. We really liked feeding the coy fish too! read more

First time here. And everything I got was cold. The Calamari is frozen pre breaded garbage. Which had 8 pieces and i could swear calamarinhave tenticales. My dish was cold on top and luke warm in the middle. We had almost finished our meals before my wife's drink came. Daughters burger was served with cold fries and the cheese was literally laid on top with out melting. Just in disbelief that an establishment would serve such awful food. Best part of it all was the koi pond. Which also seem to be starving to death. read more

The Rundown Cafe has been a family-favorite restaurant for as many years as we have been coming to the OBX. We have grown to love their classic entrees and would love to see them return to the menu! The coco loco chicken was always our go-to! I recently went into the updated restaurant and was IMPRESSED. The decor is beautiful and modern. The bar on the first level is a great addition. And bartender Lucas is a delight. As is the Rundown Cafe's tradition, the staff appears to be a family. It is so amazing to see the revived Rundown Cafe. Can't wait to stock up on apparel! read more

This was our first meal in the area on an offseason trip, and it was a complete delight. We walked in during a dinner rush for the Monday special, but the hostess could not have been nicer and we were seated 20 minutes later or so. Our server Lucas, who is also the bar manager, was excellent - my teenage son had a bunch of special requests and he was so gracious and attentive. We had the fried chicken special, shrimp tacos, and crab cake sandwich - all excellent - and they had a terrific beer selection on tap as well. I can't wait to come back on our next visit! read more

Cool spot! Can feed koi fish at front while you wait for a quarter. Pretty good drink options. Prosseco slushy!! Very fresh and delicious food! Tuna appetizer was very good! read more

See all

This place was open for lunch right near the beach! The food was delicious & the service was excellent. Definitely recommend grabbing a quick light lunch here. read more

See all

Stopped for a late lunch/early dinner, and enjoyed the view. They have a nice deck area, where you can see a partial view of the ocean, and definitely hear the waves crashing. My wife had the shrimp dinner salad, and I had the Fried Flounder fish sandwich. We both thought the food was good, as was the service. As far as Covid, the tables upstairs seemed spaced appropriately, and as far as we could tell, all the employees were wearing masks. read more

went to Rundown last night with one of my friends from out of town. we were lucky enough to have Lucus as our bartender. He was wonderful. very attentive and easy going. it was a great experienc, thank you Lucus and Rundown for a great dinning experience. read more

Man oh man, I am mad that I did not come to this place last year when visiting OBX. I am so glad we stopped here. We were just stopping through because we were meeting friends at another bar. So we just had appetizers and drinks. What we tried was amazing, I had the freshest poke here, Raw sesame soy marinated sushi grade Ahi tuna on a wonton crisp over ginger slaw w/ wakame seaweed salad. Absolutely delicious, the fish bites, which were chunks of marinated game fish lightly fried & served w/ a honey jerk spice dipping sauce were really good. My favorite was the CP's dip, which is simply Black beans, toasted coconut rice, salsa, jalapenos, guacamole & sour cream in a bowl served with tortilla chips. OMG, that was really good, I couldn't put that down, and you cannot go wrong with the coconut shrimp here, so darn tasty. The portion size for the entrees are huge here, I said when I return I would love to try their noodle bowls or fish tacos. The Rundown Cafe truly goes above and beyond when it comes to exceptional customer service, delicious, high quality food, and a fun, unique atmosphere If you are vacationing in OBX, run do not walk to Rundown Café, you will not be disappointed, and make sure you check out their FB page, they are always posting their specials for the week read more

Rundown Cafe - Great outside seating - Seafood Near Me - Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

My friend and I decided we were going to come here for lunch. They were not busy at all, just a handful of tables. We got sat and waited over 25 minutes until we decided to leave. I would credit them and say it's understaffed but we had multiple servers walk by and ramble on to other tables as we were just sitting there. I've been here multiple times, I just feel like every time I have went it's gotten worse unfortunately read more

Don't let the name full you! This is a great local spot to get some not-local-style cuisine! Their menu varied and had options for everyone! I had the pork belly tacos and loved them! It's always nice when places on the coast offer more than just seafood (especially since I don't eat it!). But, according to my friends who I was with, their fish tasted fresh and seasoned really well. This place looks small, but has a good bit of seating. It easily accommodated our group of 6. Def. a great place to try if you are visiting Duck or a local. read more

Unfortunately this is not your RUNDOWN OF OLD.... GONE ARE THE SIGNATURE FRIES... replaced with an undercooked limp crinkled cut?... fish bites were the size of popcorn.. CHICKEN BIG WAVE was cooked well...the hamburger underperformed..... basically we were so BUMMED OUT on the fries nothing else stood out! Pains me to write a bad local review... Rundown has bee one of our go-to' spots since inception!! And we want to keep supporting..SO WE'LL TRY AGAIN IN TIME. AND UPDATE IF NECESSARY. ; read more