2* solely for being a good location on the bay to watch the sunset. It's an alright spot to get a couple quick beers at the outside bar but that's about it. The service has always been subpar and the food has never been good. We usually stop here to have a drink around sunset whenever we are down in the OBX since we stay nearby. After sunset, we quickly close out and venture off to another bar/restaurant to eat and finish the night such as Roadside, Cravings, Aqua, or The Blue Point. The location is great and they have a nice outdoor patio on the water in the back but other than that we are always unimpressed with the food and service. With better options down the street I would avoid this place unless for a quick beer. read more

Sunset Grille & Raw Bar - Sushi Bars Near Me - Duck, North Carolina

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We had not been here in about 7 years, so while a large group of us (16 in all) were in town, we stopped in for lunch. The hostess was decent, not overly friendly. The server was also just OK, but was very slow and neglectful, as she hardly checked on us. In fact, she could have sold more food and beer had she kept up with our table, but she was hardly seen. The food was awesome! Best grilled, jerk mahi we've had in a very long time. The view (which is one of the main reasons for coming here) was also stunning! Service wasn't very good, but the view and food made up for it. read more

Sunset Grille & Raw Bar - Grilled Jerk Mahi Mahi Sandwich - Sushi Bars Near Me - Duck, North Carolina

DO NOT EAT HERE. The bartender serving us was not wearing a mask, nor was the man preparing the raw oysters. The bartender was not wearing gloves, and the man preparing the raw bar had gloves with holes in them. We saw many other servers and employees wearing masks that did not cover their nose - or no mask at all. We ordered drinks and left immediately after we realized everything - all 10 of our party were extremely uncomfortable. Pictures below for proof. read more

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I love the outside tiki bar. On summer nights, this is the place to be. A great atmosphere to meet people, watch the sunset and enjoy your favorite raw bar menu items with your ice cold cocktail or beer! This is the largest restaurant in Duck. You will quickly notice that this place is geared to volume. Quantity of meals and drinks over quality. That's not to say the quality is poor, you just have to understand this isn't going to be the small secret spot with attention to detail (like the original Fishbone's in Duck used to be). They took a successful small restaurant Fishbone's menu and scaled it big. Same menu, but now with high volume effects added. That said, I come here for drinks and appetizers more than dinner. They also have sushi on most (all?) nights and that is pretty good. The tiki bar is great, the downstairs bar is warm and comfortable in a cheesey casino kind of way, and the upstairs bar is bright and cold...but that's where they have the live music and crowds. They have a pretty good specialty drink menu, most of which come in a collector glass that you may or may not want to keep (order a "refill" to skip the tacky glass and get a slightly cheaper drink). The drink quality also suffers from scale, though, as they will vary by bartender. You get a good one, though, and they'll take care of you all night. Every beach town needs a place like this and Sunset does a nice job. I like that I can get oysters on the halfshell all night, all year, and they're always good quality. I don't think I've ever had to send a dozen back. They do the raw bar right! read more

Service is bad, bartender was irrational and blindsided, also yet arrogant. She messed up our drink order yet charging us more for the drinks that she did incorrectly. First and foremost, this place is only good for the view and how the sun sets. THATS IT. Beware because I've read the reviews and maybe hoping the service/drinks/atmosphere won't be so bad, but it was. Don't waste your time! read more

Always great food and the views are the best in duck. Plan early as it gets crowded quick and they don't take advance reservations

Our group of ten walked in and was told the wait was an hour and a half to get into the restaurant. With that large of a group, we expected to wait awhile. We walked around outside, took a bunch of photos, and we were paged to come back in less than 30 minutes! The food was very good- I recommend the she crab soup and raw oysters for sure, the lobster fries were good and spicy, the fried rockfish came in two enormous pieces. The prices seemed fair for what we got. Good seafood, good service, beautiful view. An enjoyable evening. read more

Service was frenetic. We went for lunch in early April. Bar service was Very Slow; our server was new, unfocused, and did not know which menu items came with which sides which resulted in not getting the right order. She apologized but didn't fix the situation. Never checked on us and brought the bill before asking if we were through (which we weren't). Food was great and its a nice location so I'm chalking this less than stellar visit up to a new server who needs better training. read more

We enjoy the outdoor dining at this restaurant however there were some disappointments on this visit. The servers were not wearing properly fitting masks. Our server never covered his nose and several times came to the table with his mask down around his neck. The fried oysters were over cooked, as well as the hamburger that was ordered MR which came out Medium. The lunch menu is very limited, especially for someone who is allergic to shellfish. The shrimp tacos, she crab soup, clam chowder and Mahi sandwich was good enough. read more

The food and service were both terrific. I imagine it's busy in the summer but we thought it was really great overall.

The service was so slow that we left. It took us over 15 minutes to close out the tab at the bar. The indoor seating felt like an institutional setting. While the view from the deck is beautiful, given the very slow service and the disappointing coconut shrimp we ate we will not be returning. read more

We came here while on vacation to take a break from the bottle-necked traffic heading into Corolla on a Saturday. The wait was long even though there were plenty of tables available inside. There is a nice patio overlooking the water outside, but the wait was even longer. I ordered the shrimp tacos, and they were tasty, but under-filled. The tortillas were nothing fancy, but the actual shrimp were cooked well with a subtle zing to them with lettuce and pico on top. read more

Sunset Grille & Raw Bar - Sushi Bars Near Me - Duck, North Carolina

A four mainly because waitress barely wore her mask, service and food good, that was a bit upsetting ! read more

Sunset Grille & Raw Bar - Coconut - Sushi Bars Near Me - Duck, North Carolina

The accounts payable staff was helpful in remediating this issue in a prompt manner. The money was given back, but we won't be returning.

Service was good. Wait time was terrible. Don't order the cauliflower steak. It's just cauliflower... not steak.

13 of us had a great meal. We actually got seated quickly outside. But yes, this place is popular - be prepared to wait. You can walk around and check out the shops while you wait. The views were amazing. And the Cajun redfish with shrimp was awesome. Brussels sprout chips were exceptional. I was nervous having read the reviews so I was pleasantly surprised. Will come back. read more

Sunset Grille & Raw Bar - View from the deck - Sushi Bars Near Me - Duck, North Carolina

Deck with view. Bar with 3 servers chatting amongst themselves. Sat at the bar and after 20 min and no service, walked out. Sad!!

Order an appetizer- scallops with Baby Ray's Barbeque sauce which I assumed was on the served on the side. The scallops came drowned in Barbeque sauce. It was disgusting and the bar tender agreed with me but made no effort to rectify the problem. Not the first poor experience I have had with a poor quality of food at Sunset. The outside bar on the other hand is a great place to enjoy a drink and watch a beautiful sunset. Just don't order any food! read more

Our dinner was better than recent reviews would suggest. My husband had the Cajun redfish. It was a large piece of fish with shrimp on top, and black beans in a spicy sauce and was tasty. I had the aloha tuna bowl salad. The slices of seared tuna were good but I would have liked less rice and a lot more greens. They did give me a lot of mango which I liked.. We had raw oysters as an appetizer. They were a good size but were not served on ice which made them not as good as they should have been. Our waitress was very nice and gave us good service. Our table by the window was lovely with a great ocean view. read more

The worst restaurant I have been to in 10+ years. Here for the week on vacation and wanted a nice fresh seafood bar and grill for dinner. After arriving and requesting a table we went to the bar upstairs. where we were literally not acknowledged for 20+ minutes. Drinks were dogshit and the bartender had an attitude the entire time. Might I add whoever they hired as the graphic designer for their drink menu and main menu may be the worst designer in the history of design. (I'm a graphic designer) it's unreadable and confusing. Pictures attached. The atmosphere is like a cafeteria. Bright white LEDS all over the place. I dont know what the hell they were thinking. Got to our downstairs table after a 30-minute wait (while there were plenty of seats available and they were not taking reservations). Ordered oysters (tiny excuses for oysters) and they were mediocre. Got the fried rockfish and fried shrimp. Both were awful. Old oil, clearly frozen and not fresh seafood, overcooked, and an overly fishy flavor. (fresh fish is not supposed to taste fishy FYI). I Will not be coming back and I pity anyone who chooses to eat here. Staff is a sweaty shit show with no masks or a care in the world about their food. Clearly a reflection of poor management. 0/10 Dog sh*t don't go here for the love of god. If you like this place you don't know what quality food is. read more

Sunset Grille & Raw Bar - shit drink menu - Sushi Bars Near Me - Duck, North Carolina

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Communication is extremely poor. If you have a group over five you would be better off going elsewhere. I had a large group and was told a one hour wait. No big deal. After an hour the hostess changed the wait time to 1 hour 45 minutes. They were letting groups of four walk up and get seated right away, essentially giving away tables that could be put together to accommodate a large group. The manager basically told me to shut up. Waitstaff was rude and slow. . The $18 bar drinks seemingly were missing the alcohol. Food was nothing special but not bad. Apparently the managers do not care about repeat business being in a tourist zone; they presume a once and gone customer. Essentially you are paying for the view and to eat average seafoI'd. I will be telling family and friends to avoid this establishment. read more

We showed up and there was a half hour wait for outside. Decided to wait, put our names in and walked over to grab a beer. Getting a beer took over a half hour at an almost empty bar. Was about a 45 minute wait for the table. Went and sat down, put our order, including appetizers in right away since we had a hungry toddler. We waited two hours for our food. Our server kept telling us it would be right out, so we kept waiting. In retrospect we should have left. Worst service I've ever experienced. The "crabby" fries came out cold. The cheese curds were good and our meals were good but watching tables around us, who sat after us get their food before us was so frustrating. Our server seemed to be having troubles because the tables who had a different server were all getting their food and drinks. Not sure if she forgot to put our order in or what. Needless to say we would not recommend. Now all the other bad reviews make sense. read more

Great view, horrible food, rude staff. I would save your money or go to a fast food joint before you eat here. There are too many great options in the area that you should not have to suffer through dinner here. read more

I was super disappointed in the food. We got the "award winning clam chowder" and it was so bland and tasteless I couldn't eat it. For $12 a bowl I was expecting something much much better. I would have said something but our waitress never came back to ask how the food was. The hamburger my husband got had obviously been sitting under a lamp as it was dry and the plate was untouchable because it was so hot. We came late in the afternoon and there was hardly anyone there. We were sitting outside and it started to rain and they were clear they would give us to go boxes but we wouldn't be reseated inside. It was the tone they took as it was just such an annoyance to even have to deal with us. It's to bad as it is a beautiful location but they need to figure out their menu and do a little bit better with their customer service. There are so many places in this area that I would look at going somewhere else. read more

We visited July 3rd, 6:15pm, and were seated upstairs next to a window. Not much of a wait as we seemed to have beaten the crowd. Started off with shrimp roll appetizers with an Asian chile sauce. They were served hot and were cooked right. We asked the waitress about what was popular, and she said seafood. However, because we had eaten seafood the two nights before, I was aiming for a steak. We asked what she liked, and she said she was vegetarian - without really volunteering to state something like " I'm vegetarian, but most of my customers really like x, y, and z best". You could tell management has not done much in the way of training. I ended up ordering the crab Mac n Cheese, and my wife got the broiled seafood platter special. Our other guests had the fried oysters and the Bourbon Beef Tips. I posted photos of all. The crab Mac n Cheese had noticeable amounts of crab in it, and a few small pieces of bacon, but the cheese sauce was very thin and not representative of the "4 different kinds of cheeses" advertised. I would give it 2 our of 5 stars given the price and the results (22.95). It was served with green beans. My wife's broiled seafood platter came with mashed potatoes and green beans, and she had no complaints other than it came with no tarter sauce nor cocktail sauce and we had to flag the waitress down to request it once we realized it was missing. Our guest rated the fried oysters very good, gave them a 4 out of 5. As for the bourbon beef tips, our other guest said while the flavor was good, they were overcooked. Our waitress never noticed we needed refills, and we had to again ask for that. When she brought them to us, none had any ice! She said she didn't notice. We had to ask for a cup of ice. Again, a sign of poor training / management. We also asked if we could get some bread for dinner, as none came with hush puppies, or anything. The waitress said they didn't serve bread. What??? Bottom line - go for the views, but don't expect great food or great service. read more

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While service team was great, food just ok. Some dishes are WAY OVER PRICED. Definitely more a bar ambiance than restaurant. Poke "bowls" were a plate of fruit, and everything but fish. Drinks, sides, served in plastic barware. read more

I would rate this zero stars if I could. The bar had ants all over it. It was disgusting. Much better options in duck.

I'm guessing the water taste issue here is a regular thing? Maybe a good question to ask when people are coming from different areas. Iced tea was weak and the plain water actually tasted better. The mask wearing mandate is not being enforced for patrons. A party of 10 walked passed us without masks. Good news-all employees wearing theirs!! Our server was friendly and efficient-Lucasz did a great job. Working outside in the 90 heat is hard. Brussels sprout chips were good! We won't be back until mask issue is addressed! read more

Sunset Grille & Raw Bar - Brussels sprout chips - Sushi Bars Near Me - Duck, North Carolina

Got seated outside. Place empty. Waited 15 minutes for somebody to get our drink order. Nobody came. Thought I would give it a second chance. Never again. read more

This wasn't bad, if i rate the food it was impressingly good. Our hostess Heather was friendly just slow, it took 8min for her to return and tell us that they only have apple juice for our kids. We ended up getting our meal after another table that had another hostess and sat down after us. We had a great ocean view with a fresh atmosphere. read more

Sunset Grille & Raw Bar - Family breakfast - Sushi Bars Near Me - Duck, North Carolina

Food was good but Management and service need improvement. Came in at 5pm with a a group of 18. We were relieved the restaurant was empty as we know how daunting large groups can be. After waiting 10min for them to put tables together, we finally got to the table, we realized we were short by 3 chairs. The hostess was long gone, so we told the bartender we didn't have enough seats, and grabbed another small table and 3 chairs so we could all sit down. The manager came over and started yelling at us for moving tables. We told him there were not enough chairs for all of us, so then he told us to wait as they would have to move us to yet another table. We were seated again, and after waiting 25min, I went to the bar to ask one of the 4 people standing around who would be taking our drink orders. 45min after we arrived at the restaurant , we were finally offered drinks. I guess there was a miscommunication and we finally were assigned our server, JulieAnn, who was amazing. I was quite surprised the manager was making JulieAnn take care of 18 people by herself (especially with how empty the restaurant was), but she had a great attitude and a did a great job. The food was good, and JulieAnn was amazing, but I think there's definitely room for improvement on a management level. I mean, what kind of manager yells at customers when they don't provide enough seats for the party size?! And what bar/restaurant almost runs out of vodka! read more

Decent spot for a seafood dinner. Everything was tasty but the tuna wasn't exactly cooked rare as requested. Cocktails looked fun although our party just ordered wine. read more

The bad: the clam strips were extremely chewy, super rubbery. multiple people in our party got it and none of them even made a dent on their plates. It was like throwing $100 in the trash. Avoid at all costs. The cauliflower steak was also basically raw cauliflower. If youre a vegetarian this is not the place for you. Over half the meals in our group were a miss. Oh and I agree the interior kind of reminds me of a hospital - very sterile, although the view is nice. The good: the apps were good: coconut shrimp, wisconsin cheese curds, chimichurri fries. And our waitress was nice. Short rib ravioli and the cajun redfish were the only good entrees read more

Today we ate at the Sunset Grill in Duck, NC. The wait was about 45 minutes to sit outside. Well worth it. We sat down around 6pm and enjoyed a beautiful sunset while we ate. Our waiter Makalob was personable and efficient. He was quite busy, yet prompt. I had the coconut shrimp. They were perfect. Wife had the Cajun red fish. That was so delicious! The staff was very friendly and efficient even though the lace was packed. We will definitely be back on another vacation. read more

This place is the perfect spot for lunch while out exploring! Amazing back deck, delicious food, and incredibly fun cocktails (you keep the container!) Service was great. We went inside to use the restroom and the inside is very nice, possibly recently renovated. We will be back! read more

Maybe it's because I was expecting something totally different. Had heard it would be a place that me and my wife could enjoy outdoor dining and watch the sunset over the water. Not so. I would liken it to a cruise ship cafeteria. Pretty ok food, with chuck-e-cheese environment. Not for us. Won't go back. read more

We've been coming here for family vacations for fifteen years now. This is not the place is used to be. The view is pretty for the sunsets! It has that going for it for sure. We showed up at 5 on a Tuesday for dinner (party of 3), and it was an hour and a half wait. It was the full hour and a half. The seating area by the hostess stand could use a good cleaning or pressure washing, it was covered in dead bugs, living bugs, and many spider webs. When we were finally seated, there was one server (one!!!) for the entire outdoor area. She was way overworked and I felt so bad for her! It took us 30 minutes to get our drinks (which I would say were overpriced- $14 for a standard cocktail). We ordered two appetizers. The cheese curds were amazing! Fried and cheesy and tasty. The brussel sprouts however, were not. They honestly tasted like paper. No seasoning, no salt..it was like someone forgot how to cook them. They came with a dipping sauce that I really think was apple cider vinegar. I do not recommend. The seafood pasta, though, was good! Creamy, lots of lobster, and filling enough to take some home for another portion. I ordered a refill on my drink which never came, so we ended up just getting our checks and heading out. Pretty disappointing, this place used to be so good! The views are the best part. read more

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They just finished their renovations and the place looked much nicer and updated. Chicken bruschetta was awesome, the rice all by itself was full of so much flavor. The blackened grouper was delicious, not too spicy and cooked perfect. Mahi was delicious too. read more

I've eaten here before--great views and alright food. I'm only writing this because of a few things: (1) the service was super slow today because we only had a party of two. I understand that you make more money off of bigger tables but still--it took ten minutes for us to order two waters. (2) the restaurant was filthy--don't fall for the "98.5 Cleanliness" award they have at the entrance of the restaurant--flies were all over our table and there was paper towel overflowing out of the garbage onto the floor. Edit after "eating": There was a dead bug in my girlfriend's salad... I'm sorry but this was one of the worst experiences I've had with a restaurant. read more

The server told us about the special tonight which was Scallops, shrimp and some kind of crab in butter. I would not recommend the items. Especially for the price. My husband and I both got it. The crab in the middle not sure what it was but it was mushy. My daughter ended up getting coconut shrimp and some of the batter didn't stay on. Plus the shrimp in the middle of some were mushy as well. Not good for how much the bill came to. read more