AQUA Restaurant — Restaurant in Duck

What a wonderfully memorable restaurant experience! My husband and I took our friends and their two children out for a special dinner at Aqua and we're absolutely delighted with the atmosphere, service, drinks and food.

First, let me say that our waiter, Bryan was amazing. He was engaging - even with the children - extremely knowledgeable of the wine list and menu, and very attentive to our party's needs. We really enjoyed the fun, casual repartee with him.

The restaurant caters nicely to families by having a simple children's menu. Both kids were delighted when their chicken fingers appeared with lots of french fries served on colorful Frisbees that they could take home. It really is the little things that make all the difference on a family vacation!

The grown ups ordered wine and drinks which did not disappoint. I personally paid homage to our time in Duck by ordering a "Hooked On Quack" which was essentially a tall, cool piña colada. Yummy!

At Bryan's recommendation, we all had Aqua's signature Sweet Corn & Crab Soup topped with white truffle oil. It was truly as good as it sounds with lots of thick chunks of crab sitting in a sweet corn bisque. It was so good, in fact that our friend had a second bowl later as his dessert - a fine testimony to tastiness if ever there was one.

For my entrée, I ordered the chef's fish special which was a pan-seared tile fish served on a creamy bed of butter beans and pink-eyed peas with arugula and squash purée. The fish was simply magnificent. It was perfectly cooked; a firm white meat with a buttery flavor reminiscent of lobster. The presentation was impeccable also...texture and color made for a perfect plate.

If there was one weakness I'm our meal, I would have to say it was in the dessert selections. I had the deconstructed peanut butter pie which I found to be neither creamy or sweet enough. My husband odered the lemon poppy seed bread pudding served with a raspberry sorbet. The bread pudding was nothing more than a dry muffin ball so it really needed a sweet creamy sauce to accompany it. However, the sorbet was extremely tart and didn't seem to marry well with the "pudding". Oh well, perhaps we should have all followed our friend's example by having more sweet corn and crab soup for dessert!

Overall, though, Aqua was by far our best food experience this year and we plan on being back for lunch next...

I'm combing two reviews into one:

Last year just the wife and I came here on a weekend getaway and enjoyed a romantic dinner with a view of the water. I think Paige was our waitress; and she was awesome. She guided us through a wine selection and able to speak to specifics with the menu. It was a fantastic experience, soup to nuts, as they say. The flavors of everything were defining and memorable. We spook to friends about this place glowingly. I had a filet, and the wife enjoyed a salmon dish. I'll put the pictures in the review. Seriously, the flavors were like you would encounter with eating great sushi with layers of tastes. Five stars, literally 5+ Hefty bill but to be expected and for us it was special and worth it. A memory was definitely made.

Our second visit was this past weekend with our friends who joined us on our trip to OBX. I made reservations for four, and we were all really excited to try this spot. I picked three possible places, and we all opted for this one, given our past experience. The waiter was fantastic, (apologies for not remembering his name), and we couldn't have had better service. The food was just under whelming this time.

The crab dip was ok, not one we could say was really good. It says lump crab meat, but it was really more of a whipped consistency. Knowing the menu changed a bit was not concerning, but in the end it did matter. We ordered filet, sirloin, crab cakes and salmon entrees. Sadly, there was no wow moment. The bed of potatoes, squash, zucchini, pearl onions, and asparagus was bland. The lemon and thyme fava beans for the salmon just didn't work. I like fava beans, but this did nothing for the palette. The crab cakes were really good and the pickled ginger slaw was delightful.

Sorry guys, I wanted this to be a home run, but presentation is only half of the experience. You are always left with how it tastes at the end, not how it looked. No one in the group was raving about their meal which is really telling. We can enjoy a great pizza at a hole in the wall or dine in some really nice places.

For both trips, the outdoor music and watching a sunset is the best.

So, it's a five-star and three-star...

Four apps, two entrees, one drink, 1.5 hours ...and $175 later…my wife is picking at a remade chicken dish by herself.

Flashback 30 minutes earlier to our meals arriving and not one but TWO different dishes have hairs in them (one a long hair and one short curly hair I can only hope is a beard hair…). Being in the business, we tried to remove the hairs and move on with the meal…”beard” hair successfully removed but long hair is wrapped around chicken and can’t be removed, so the waitress comes over and takes the dish to be “remade”. Meanwhile they did bring a cheese platter to smooth the situation; however, we are eventually charged for the cheese platter that we didn’t ask for…WTH.

Miserable experience with me eating alone and sharing my very small and expensive duck dish with my wife…who in return isn’t hungry for her remade dish when it eventually arrives hair-free. Needless to say there isn’t much that can be done to salvage this experience but I was shocked at the nonchalant handling of the situation. Damage control could have been better to ensure my giving them benefit of the doubt and returning ….but wait…that does not happen because they don’t value their customers under the ASSUMPTION I’m a vacationer and not a repeat customer.

So I talk to the manager on the way out and all we got was a short “I’m sorry and good evening”; this was about the equivalent of “don’t let the door hit you on your way out”. As owners in the area and long time supporters of Aqua, I have to say that I cant recommend this place anymore during the tourist season. In summary, it’s a summer tourist trap that steps up its service in the off season to insure they stay in business long enough to take advantage of travelers next summer…and then repeat. I’m appalled at the lack of empathy for our situation and the lack of action taken by the...