The Oceanfront Grille — Restaurant in Corolla

Restaurants with ocean views and expensive prices aren't all the same. In fact, the expensive prices and lack of creativity on the menu are dead ringers that you are about to get bad food. My party knew this once we sat down and flipped through the menu, but we were hungry and told that this place had good crab cakes, so we took a chance. Let me recommend that if you have any regard for your palette and you know what a $50 dollar meal should taste like, do not eat here. Let me start with the drinks ($10 a piece). My whiskey sour had only the slightest hint of whiskey in it, it tasted like diluted sour mix, lemons and water. My friend's bourdon beach tasted like orange juice mixed with sugar water. No alcohol taste either. Our order was overlooked in the kitchen (which didn't bother us...the food was the problem here), so as a conciliatory gesture, the waitress brought us bread and olive oil. First of all, how many restaurants do you go to that don't drink you bread anyway? Especially when the entrees are priced 22 - 35 dollars. Second of all, the bread was doughy and undercooked and the "olive" oil was canola oil......(wtf!) I am a foodie and I cook with oiilve oil all the time. I taste it when I open a new bottle, I eat it with eggs on toast and I put it on bread w/ sea salt for a snack. I know what the fu@! olive oil tastes like. That mess they put in front of us was not olive oil. And if it was...it was the lowest quality blend I have ever encountered. Onto the entrees. My friend got sesame encrusted, tempura mahi mahi. That mess I saw was fried fish steaks. Terrible. THe batter was thick and distracting. My salmon was cooked medium well, when I requested medium rare, and the quality of the cut was embarrassing. The chefs should of gone to the Harris Teeter down the road to get their tuna...We both had crab cakes which were "maryland" style. I certainly hope the people in maryland know how to cook better than this b/c my crab cake didn't have an ounce of seasoning on it. I had to cover it in salt and pepper to give it taste. The mashed potatoes were fine. But the green beans needed about 3 more minutes of blanching before they took them out of the pot. I think this place is a classic case of the cooks not eating their food. B/c if they did they certainly wouldn't serve hard, tasteless green beans. The only redeeming quality of this place was that our waitress had a smile on her face despite the fact that we were obviously underwhelmed. :( Alas, this place will be in business for another ten years. Most people think that if they are spending a lot of money on something, it is a quality product. But this place is a great example of capitalism gone wrong. Where is Chef Ramsay when...

Our group came here for dinner one evening while visiting OBX. Reservations are certainly recommended as seating is somewhat limited. We did have a reservation for 6 PM on a Saturday at the end of June and we were seated promptly upon our arrival. When we first arrived there weren't too many other tables occupied but as the evening went on, the remaining tables did fill up. I don't think any of the parties that came in were just walk-ins. It looked as though the staff had the tables arranged to accommodate some larger parties.

The atmosphere here is pretty nice. It is all outdoor seating on a covered deck which does have a view of the ocean which is a little ways out. As other reviews point out, It is also situated next to a clubhouse pool which is not the most ideal view when you're coming to a place with "Oceanfront" in it's name. Aside from that and as long as the weather is cooperative, the ambiance is very nice. While our visit was on the warmer side, there was a very nice breeze blowing constantly to offset the heat...the fans all around also help.

But...the bad. We didn't think the food was as good as it could've been given the prices. The she-crab soup tasted "off" and was strangely lumpy, the crabcakes were rather dry (being from Maryland, we do love our crabcakes), the fried oysters were overly greasy, and the mahi mahi was just okay. About the only food items we really enjoyed were the hush puppies - particularly the honey garlic butter that comes with them - the green beans, and the mashed potatoes.

Given the prices here, we expected more out of the food but Oceanfront Grille fell short for us...

We came to the Oceanfront Grille as vacationers looking for a nice dinner to celebrate Mother's day. The restaurant is located in a gated community, it does have a beautiful view of the ocean, however, the deck we were eating on seemed a little out dated and worn out. There were few signs directing you on where to go, and many gates to walk through. I felt like I was trespassing and unsure if I was headed in the right direction or not. The waitress was very kind and did her job well. We were a group of 14 that included 4 children. As an experienced diner, I would understand some delay in receiving our food and drinks. However, we waited approximately 40 minutes for our food and it came out cold. The "famous crab cakes" were disgusting, unless you like crab meat smushed together in a patty form without any seasoning. They were served without any sauce and we had to ask for something, otherwise it was inedible. My sister ordered the crab cake sandwich and it was literally the hunks of crab on a basic, cheap bun- no seasoning, no sauces, no garnish. My boyfriend ordered the tuna steak medium rare and it was cooked medium well and served cold. The majority of us left half our plates with food still on it and didn't bother to have it boxed, that's how bad it was. We paid $100+ per couple for food we couldn't eat, spent 2 hours total at the restaurant and most of that time was waiting for service. Overall, I feel this place was extremely overpriced for how disappointing the food and experience...