Buckroe Beach Summer Eats: Seafood Ice Cream and Grill Stops

If you want one stop that doubles as a beach day, make it Paradise Ocean Club. It’s the only seafood bar and grill on this list built around a seasonal swimming pool and a strip of private beach, so you can swim, eat, and stay put instead of packing up to find food elsewhere. With a 4.3 rating across more than 2,100 reviews and moderate prices, it’s proven itself at volume, which matters for a spot that’s doing double duty as both restaurant and beach club.

Related reading: Best Burgers Around Newport News: Pubs, Smash Patties, and Tavern Stacks.

If you’d rather sit down to a proper seafood dinner

The Deadrise is the stronger pick when the point of the trip is the meal itself, not the swim. It’s a laid-back seafood house with water views and outdoor seating, and its review count — over 3,300, at a 4.4 average — suggests it handles a crowd without the experience slipping. Surf Rider Restaurant covers similar ground with a Southern-inspired menu, a nautical-themed bar, and nearly identical numbers (4.4 from about 2,450 reviews). Treat Surf Rider as the backup when Deadrise has a line, or the pick if you specifically want a bar scene with your seafood rather than a water-view dining room.

For oyster people

Fuller’s Raw Bar is doing something the others aren’t: raw oysters and fish fries in an industrial-style space that leans casual rather than scenic. It carries the highest rating of the mid-tier options here, 4.6 from nearly 1,400 reviews, which is a hard combination to hit at that review volume. If a seafood trip to you means a dozen on the half shell and a beer rather than a sit-down platter, this is the one to drive to directly instead of treating it as a stop along the way.

When you want to spend a little more

Riverwalk Restaurant carries the best rating of anything on this list — 4.7 across 1,050 reviews — but it’s also the one marked expensive rather than moderate. That combination makes it the obvious choice for a night you’re deliberately treating as nicer than a casual beach dinner: an anniversary, a visit from out-of-town family, a reason to dress up slightly. It’s not the move if you’re trying to keep a beach weekend cheap: that’s what the moderate-priced options above are for.

For the cooler, not the table

Not every beach day ends with a restaurant seat. Graham & Rollins Hampton Seafood Market is a seafood market rather than a sit-down kitchen, and at 4.5 from over 2,000 reviews, it’s clearly trusted by people who’d rather cook their own catch or pack it into a cooler for later. If your plan is a rental house kitchen or a grill at the campsite instead of a restaurant tab, this is where you stop first, not last.

One more option if seafood isn’t the point

Not everyone on a beach trip wants seafood every meal. The Grey Goose | Kitchen and Catering is a cafe built around salads, sandwiches, and homemade bread, with brunch service as its other strength. At 4.5 from over 1,000 reviews, it’s a solid break from fish fries and raw bars if someone in your group wants something lighter, or if you’re meeting up for a late breakfast before the beach rather than dinner after it.

The honest tradeoffs

A few names on the broader Hampton seafood scene — The Deep, Fisher’s Landing, Pour Girls — carry strong ratings but not enough distinguishing detail to say what sets each apart from the pack above, so they’re left out here rather than padded in with guesswork. The five covered above split cleanly by occasion: Paradise Ocean Club for a day that’s part beach, part meal; The Deadrise or Surf Rider for a classic sit-down seafood dinner; Fuller’s Raw Bar for oysters specifically; Riverwalk when the budget allows for the top-rated option; and Graham & Rollins when you’re cooking instead of ordering. Pick based on what kind of day you’re actually planning, not just which name sounds most familiar.

Related reading: Ice Cream and Frozen Treats Around Newport News.

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From Newport News This Week.