On The Rocks — Restaurant in Atlantic Beach

My family & I are vacationing in Atlantic Beach this week & and as always, seeking out fresh seafood within the 1st couple of days is a must, almost a ritual. My husband suggested trying a spot we had not tried in years past, On The Rocks. I’ll admit, I was a little unsure at first. However, I was pleasantly surprised with every detail of our experience. Lisa, our server, actually was the highlight of our dining experience! She was energetic, outgoing, gregarious, sharp and stayed one step ahead with our needs (party of 7 including 2 small kids) She knew the menu and the food & was able to help us with choices. There was no room for improvement with our waitress. A++ We did not have a long wait at all before we were seated. The entire business was very clean & orderly, with attention paid to the smallest of details like clean menus, clean condiments & clean salt n pepper shakers. The table, chairs, silverware & dishes and the restrooms all were clean & in order. Now to the main event, the star of the show was the food!! I can’t say enough about how delicious the steamed shrimp were! Served with melted butter & cocktail sauce, they were a spectacular rendition of an old classic favorite. Their cocktail sauce has to be homemade from scratch, like some “secret sauce”! I also tried my son’s broiled shrimp & they were the very best broiled shrimp I have ever had, honestly. The menu had a great selection with not so many choices that we were bombarded, but just enough. I have to comment on the value. Their prices are truly very fair, not “cheap” but pretty good with entrees $20-30 and their kids meals $10-12, which are very good prices for fresh seafood a coastal tourist town. I hope my review didn’t include too many details but we all left very full & happy! I do hope you’ll try them next time you’re...

On a weekend vacation, I took my family to On the Rocks on May 14, 2022. Something was wrong with the snapper I ordered. It didn’t taste right & I couldn’t eat it. I expressed that to our waitress Iyonia that night. No one at the restaurant would make things right while we were there & we were told that the manager was not on duty so they “couldn’t do anything” until they spoke to him or her. I was told to leave my name & number, which I did. That night, I started getting sick, the next day, my wife also got sick as well. Food poisoning for two out of the three of us in our party. We never received a call back, so I went on their website & hoped to be contacted. I was contacted by Victoria Welker & she said the following in her email response: Good evening T*,

We apologize for your experience. Unfortunately, we have been unable to get our snapper from our usual vendor and we believe this is the reason the entree did not meet your expectations. This dish is typically our top seller so we have discontinued this entree until we are able to obtain the fish from our typical vendor. Please provide us with your receipt so we can make this right.

Thank you,

Victoria I emailed the receipt as requested on May 20 & sent another copy (after I heard no response) on June 2 (still thinking maybe, giving them the benefit of a doubt that they would try to make this right). Still have received no response, especially since my wife made the mistake of paying cash that night, I guess it’s ok to sell subpar food to their guests & then not make it right.

Run like hell from this place! There are many other restaurants...

We've been visitors and residents at Emerald Isle and Atlantic Beach since the 1970s. Thought we'd try this place out instead of our usual haunts, went on Friday night for an early dinner and arrived about 5pm. We got seated immediately but the restaurant was around 75-80% of capacity. The menu is diverse and seems to be able to appeal to a variety of folks, although it's a bit heavier on turf than surf. They've got a good sized bar, and a large open area for live music which was billed for later in the evening. I ordered Lemon Snapper and my wife ordered Mahi Tacos, but once done my wife had the vibe we were going to be getting non-local seafood that wasn't fresh. "No way, we're on the island, that isn't going to happen" I quipped. While the seafood could have been local and fresh, possibly, the dishes we ordered were not very good. The Mahi Tacos were basically shredded lettuce only with a fried fish stick in it, no other items in the taco. My grouper were two pieces of fish in a glaze and honestly looked like processed food which was reheated. I had a side salad and mashed potatoes with the grouper, both were unremarkable. Our server was friendly and prompt though and the poor food wasn't her fault. We paid cash and tipped well. If you're looking for some good local seafood there are much better places around in our opinion. We know On The Rocks is busy and seems popular, so possibly we had an isolated poor experience, but I don't think we'll be repeating...