2025 Southern Guide

Miller's Waterfront Restaurant

MILLER’S OFFERS ONE OF THE FEW TRULY WATERFRONT DINING EXPERIENCES ON THE OUTER BANKS. Enjoy casual dining in our downstairs family-friendly seafood restaurant, or our signature drinks and grill menu in our upstairs deck bar while watching kite boarders, windsurfers and mother nature’s best sunsets.

Jimmy's Seafood Buffet

Home of the Crab Leg & Lobster Buffet for 26! years! Jimmy’s Seafood Buffet is a great stop for an all you can eat affordable dinner extravaganza. The buffet offers over 100 different items. It even serves Jumbo Alaskan crab legs and Jumbo steamed shrimp, something you will not find on any other buffet in the OBX. The buffet offers a variety of seafood and non seafood options. Try some of Jimmy’s seafood options and load your plate with blackened tuna, Louisiana crawfish, steamed scallops and mussels, fried oysters and deviled crabs. Not in the mood for seafood? Fill your plate with steak, pineapple glazed ham, fried chicken, BBQ ribs, and fettuccini Alfredo to name a few. The buffet also offers a kid section. Let your kids load their plates with chicken tenders, mac and cheese, and corn dog nuggets. Don’t forget dessert! The buffet also offers soft serve ice cream and a plethora of baked goods.    It’s been 25 years since Jimmy’s Seafood Buffet opened its doors for the first time. Since that inaugural summer, the goal has remained the same: provide customers with a tasty, fresh array of seafood full of Caribbean flavor.   Elizabeth Dowless and her husband Jerry had always worked in restaurants in the Outer Banks, so when the opportunity to open Jimmy’s Seafood Buffet with a couple of friends arose, it was an easy yes. The Dowlesses bought out the business in 2003, excited to turn Jimmy’s into an Outer Banks staple. When Jerry passed away later that year, Dowless knew she wanted to continue pursuing their dream on her own.   Dowless went all in on the concept of a fresh, flavorful seafood buffet and her hard work paid off. Jimmy’s Seafood Buffet is a beloved fixture of Outer Banks dining, with customers returning year after year for the fresh fare.   “Customers keep in contact with me throughout the winter. I get people every day asking me when we’re opening for the season, and customers book their vacations around our opening,” Dowless says. “I absolutely love getting to see familiar faces come back to see us each year. I love seeing them lose their minds over the buffet! Their excitement is what I love most about my job.”

Low Tide Bar & Grill

Low Country Seafood from the islands. North, South, East or West, our menu will satisfy any cravings you have while on your beach vacation! Let us do the cooking tonight! Reseservations and Outdoor Seating available. We’ve got something for everyone in the family—from cocktails and mocktails to daily fresh catch specials, kids meals, desserts and more—the whole gang can relax and enjoy.

Pigman's Bar-B-Que

You haven’t experienced North Carolina until you’ve experienced North Carolina BBQ, and Pigman’s Bar-B-Que offers excellent North Carolina BBQ meals served with southern hospitality. Pigman’s offers traditional eastern North Carolina style BBQ, a vinegar-based variety smoked on site. All bar-b-que is cooked slowly with hand-crafted sauces to perfection. Pigman’s offers a tomato or “ketchup-based” BBQ option as well. Choose from Pork BBQ, Beef BBQ, Turkey-Que and Tuna-Que all perfected with incredible sauces.  It’s hard to choose among the many sauces and options. Aside from the regular sauce, there’s Hot Sauce, Grilln’ Sauce, Rib Roarin’ Sauce, Rub-a-Dub Rib Rub options. And if you really love a sauce, Pigmans will share their sauce recipes with you! 

Black Pelican

Black Pelican oceanfront restaurant is one of the Outer Banks’ premier restaurants serving lunch and dinner daily. Black Pelican is where you can enjoy fresh seafood, steaks, vegetarian dishes, sandwiches and some of the barrier island’s best wood-fired pizzas complete with a beautiful ocean view from the dining rooms and outdoor deck. The restaurant is big enough to handle large parties, but the setting is intimate enough for a cozy date.

Basnight's Lone Cedar Cafe

Enjoy Waterfront Dining at Basnight's Lone Cedar Café where we specialize in fresh and local Outer Banks seafood. If you’re craving the freshest fish, clams, crab, shrimp and oysters from local North Carolina waters, you’ll find them at the Lone Cedar Café. Since it first opened in 1996, Basnight’s has been the restaurant where all the movers and shakers in the state would eat when they visted the barrier islands. Owned by Outer Banks native and former state Sen. Marc Basnight and his family, the restaurant, located on the Nags Head-Manteo causeway, is busy nearly all year long. But its lineage is not the reason it’s become so popular. Lone Cedar can boast that it serves only fresh local seafood caught by local fishermen, as well as the freshest North Carolina produce available.

Henry's Restaurant

Henry's Restaurant offers down home, simple food done Outer Banks style. Henry's Restaurant has been serving the Outer Banks of North Carolina since the summer of 1989. They are pleased to be considered one of the most popular restaurants in Dare County. Owners Henry and Linda Ezzell, along with daughter Kim Ezzell Parker offer honest American Style food that appeal to people of all ages. With so many fine dining establishments in the area they felt there was a need for a down-to-earth, no-frills experience for those that wanted good food, a pleasant and accommodating staff, and an affordable menu. As their customers will attest, they feel confident they have achieved this goal. This is the kind of delicious food grandmothers of North Carolina have been cooking for generations. You’ll feel like you're visiting family with the comfort food and the restaurant's nautical-style decor.   The kid-friendly and casual restaurant has been serving hearty portions to locals and visitors since 1989. Breakfast is what Henry's does best, although it's a wonderful restaurant for lunch and dinner as well. Start your day with incredible hotcakes, omelets, biscuits, french toast, eggs benedict, breakfast sandwiches, and even fried trout, served 7:00am to 1:00pm daily.

Miller's Seafood and Steakhouse

Miller's Seafood & Steakhouse has been a favorite among locals and visitors for more forty years. Offering delicious southern cuisine for both breakfast and dinner in a casual family atmosphere infused with coastal flair, it's no wonder this Kill Devil Hills restaurant is a family tradition for so many. You'll love waking up to favorites like biscuits and gravy, farm fresh eggs and buttermilk pancakes.

High Cotton NC BBQ

High Cotton BBQ is now open for the 2025 season! Our dining room is open with full table service. Any trip to North Carolina isn’t complete without North Carolina barbecue. The unique flavor of eastern Carolina style barbecue can be experienced at its very best at High Cotton. Once you walk in High Cotton BBQ, you’ll work up an appetite. The restaurant is filled with the aroma of slow cooked barbecue. High Cotton BBQ uses Hickory coals to slowly smoke the barbecue, producing a sweet, tender meat that’s pink on the inside and brown on the outside.      Nobody Does North Carolina BBQ Like This NC Native No stranger to the Outer Banks restaurant business, Will Thorp moved to the Outer Banks in 1984. After years spent learning the ropes in culinary school, he began his restaurant career working at Kelly’s and other famous restaurants up and down the beach. In 1989 he opened Tortuga’s Lie and in 1993 he started the Rundown Cafe. A native of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Thorp has always had a love and appreciation of real southern food. So in 2002, he found his calling, and decided it was time to open an authentic, Eastern North Carolina Barbeque restaurant right here on the Outer Banks. Nearly 20 years later and the rest is history. High Cotton Barbeque is loved by locals and has become one of the “must visit” establishments for any Outer Banks vacation.

Spanky's Grille

Spanky’s Grille is the perfect spot to grab some good food at cheap prices. In fact, its slogan is “Cheap eats.” Don’t let the low prices fool you, Spanky’s Grille has won Top 10 Burger Joints in NC the past four years in a row and Top 5 Hot dog stands five years in a row. Spanky’s is the local favorite you must check out.

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Poke Box

PokeBox offers fresh, quick, simple, healthy poke bowls in Nags Head. Choose your items and build your bowl. Tuna, salmon, chicken, steak, shrimp and tofu options available. Mix in your favorite veggies, sauces and toppings for the perfect poke experience. Poke (Hawaiian for "to slice" or "cut into pieces") is a traditional main dish of Hawaiian cuisine made with marinated tuna. As Poke became increasingly popular, the modern version, known as Poke Bowl, has variety ingredients and flavors arranged to customize personal preferences.