2025 Duck Barbeque Guide

Aqua Restaurant and Spa in Duck, like the ocean its name represents, aims to provide a place of healing and rejuvenation. Aqua offers not only nourishment for the body, but the for soul and the environment as well.Along with providing the best quality foods and products for its patrons, the restaurant’s goal is to help strengthen local relationships by supporting regional sustainable farms and local fishermen. For their savory menu, Aqua’s chefs focus on the freshest ingredients and always local, fresh-caught fish. Likewise Aqua Spa offers “earth friendly products, organic serums and rejuvenating treatments.” In addition to gourmet dinners that include vegetarian options, Aqua’s lunch menu offers the same excellent quality at very affordable prices. Along with soups and sandwiches are gourmet salads and fries with their own “secret” sauce. Even Aqua’s BLT is made with heirloom tomatoes, just like “mama used to make.” The restaurant also adds a creative selection of sushis and sakis.During the season, patrons are treated to live music nightly and yoga, Tuesday and Thursday mornings on the lawn. Throughout the year, Aqua serves as a perfect wedding destination and rehearsal dinner venue.Aqua means water, island and of course the light green blue you’ll see splashed throughout the restaurant’s décor. It’s a place where you can count on culinary masterpieces made with the best ingredients available - where you can relax and enjoy local music in the evenings or just sit back and soak in the peaceful serenity of an Outer Banks sunset.

Serving Hickory-Smoked Barbecue & Deli Sandwiches for over 25 Years, Duck Deli is as popular and as quaint as its location. The Deli was opened in 1988 by a retired PA dentist, Ronald Forlano, and his son Ken. Today it remains a family venture with Ken, now known as the Deli Llama, still running the business, along with two other brothers and the oldest opening another Duck Deli in PA.Duck Deli boasts “outrageous barbecue” and the “best breakfasts in Duck, which are served every morning of the year from 8-11 am. Available from 11 am to closing are BBQ meals and platters, made with the deli’s own hickory-smoked, pulled chicken, pork or beef. You can also get spicy wings, ribs, crab cakes and ½ or ¼ smoked chicken, as well as meat and veggie subs and sandwiches. All platters come with hushpuppies and a choice of two from a great selection of sides.The owners “take pride” in the smoked meats they cook daily on site. And they “love that you love” their sauces, which are derived from local recipes and enhanced with “Duck Deli flair.” You’ll find that same flair in the deli’s selection of child to adult T-shirts (up to 2X), available in-store..Parking and seating space is limited at this often packed deli, but extra parking across the street and take out are always available. Open ’til 9 pm in-season, the deli closes late afternoon in the fall and spring.Heading north, just past the Duck water tower, on the right, is where you‘ll find this great little deli in the heart of Duck.

For more than 15 years, Red Sky Cafe restaurant in Duck, NC, has been delighting locals and visitors with fresh, creative meals that highlight local Outer Banks seafood, poultry, beef, duck and more. The owner and chef, Wes Stepp, has more than 30 years of culinary experience and is well-known locally and throughout the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. Chef Wes and his team serve up beautiful, generous portions in the casual atmosphere of this Outer Banks restaurant. And, while no one leaves hungry, Chef Wes is also renowned for his attention to a healthy lifestyle that encourages, as its centerpiece, a focus on whole, fresh and locally sourced food. Locals know that if they want to eat well without the guilt, Red Sky is the place to head. Conveniently located beside Carolina Designs in downtown Duck, the year-round restaurant offers a dynamic menu, as well as nightly chef specials fit to delight even the pickiest of palates!

You'll have to peer behind the huge Russian olive hedges to find this popular OBX eatery, tucked away in a renovated and cedar-shaked historic home in the heart of Duck. Open since 1995, Roadside Bar and Grill says the locals will tell you it's "one of the finest establishments on the beach," and it boasts "great southern food and great times." In addition to seven tables in the downstairs dining room and three booths in the upstairs bar and grill, a patio provides plenty of space for outdoor dining and offers live original jazz and acoustic on many evenings during the season. As a delightful addition to Roadside’s cozy décor, there are colorful, artistically recycled windows brightening the walls and deck.Roadside’s dinner specialties include several dishes made with a variety of local, fresh seafood, as well as Maple Leaf Farm’s duck breast, a vegetarian Vegetable Napoleon and Roadside’s own special salad with pistachios and homemade raspberry vinaigrette. On the lunch menu are rare finds like pan-seared salmon filet salad, shrimp & grits and meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy. Another specialty, Roadside’s pulled pork barbecue is made on site with its own homemade sauce. Other popular standbys you'll see advertised on the marquee are "Juicy Burgers, Great Salads and Veggie Subs.”

Sunset Grille & Raw Bar brings the Carribbean and New Orleans to the Outer Banks with its wide variety of spicy seafood dishes, its tropical setting with Tiki Bars and its Cajun style chicken, fish and burgers.The Sushi Bar opens every day at 4 pm, offering 17 varieties of seafood and veggie rolls, and the Tiki Bars are open late night, with live entertainment during the season and karaoke on fall weekends. Breakfast is served until 11 am, and for lunch there are seafood baskets and a variety of specialty sandwiches, enhanced by flavorings of Jamaican and Carribbean jerk, mango mayos and Calypso Barbeque sauce. Along with Sunset’s island-style burgers is a vegetarian version, made with spicy black beans.The dinner menu offers an ample choice of grilled or fried seafood and steak entrees, along with the very popular Lump Crab Macaroni and Cheese and vegetarian choices. Available for both lunch and dinner, Sunset’s Raw and Steam Bar serves shellfish and lobster separately or in combos, and also on both menus is the restaurant’s award-winning, creamy-style Clam Chowder, voted the best on the OBX.For a perfect completion to your meal you might like to linger over a slice of Sunset’s luscious homemade key lime pie or dive into its Chocolate Bomb mousse while sipping on one of its specialty liqueur coffees.Sunset also provides catering for special events and business occasions. The restaurant closes from October to March, and has an altered fall schedule. It also opens back up for a week during both Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

For casual dining, The Lifesaving Station at Sanderling Inn has been a traditional favorite since 1977. The restaurant is housed in what once served as Caffey’s Life Saving Station. Decommisioned in the 1950s, it was the fifth U.S. station built south of the Virginia line and one of a string whose crews saved shipwrecked victims, their cargos and sometimes the ships from the often treacherous waters along the NC coast. Caffey’s nautical artifacts and historic memorabilia now decorate this authentic Outer Banks treasure, listed in the National Register of historic places.The restaurant serves three meals daily, with a rare breakfast menu full of old-fashioned treats, including steel-cut oatmeal, buttermilk biscuits, French toast with real Vermont maple syrup and a smorgasboard of an omelet. For lunch and dinner the Station offers a cuisine that focuses on fresh local seafood and other dishes prepared American-style, some with a Southern slant. Favorites include their signature shrimp, crab and corn chowder, daily specials and their white chocolate raspberry crème brulee for dessert. Also available are vegetarian dishes and a children‘s menu.On the second floor, the Swan Bar and Lounge offers a more relaxed setting where you can enjoy drinks, midday appetizers or a casual meal until 10 p.m. during the season. Hours for the restaurant and the bar vary in the fall and winter months. Dinner reservations are recommended.The Lifesaving Station wants its patrons to know that it prepares it dishes “in ways that celebrate the sustainable, organic, artisanal and local approach of our Southern & American producers who are dedicated to sustaining the cultures and environments that embody the places they call home.”