Big Daddy's Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Kure Beach

I don’t live on the outer banks of North Carolina – I live approximately 150 miles inland in Rocky Mount. Every year my wife’s family makes a pilgrimage to the sea to celebrate the summer solstice…and try to get along better than they do 150 miles inland. I didn’t want to go to Big Daddy’s because the experience 2 years ago (we missed last year because of a job change) was terribly bad. (We went with just 4 - and had nearly an identicle experice you're about to read.)

It was explained to me that everyone was going and that I needed to be a part of the family. I countered by saying “that it wasn’t the company but the location, for surely there was another sea food restaurant on the outer banks.” “No, they’re going to Big Daddy’s,” she firmly said. “But even McDonald’s would be a better choice – they still have that fish sandwich thing, right?” I said this knowing it was a poor argument. “Sorry, Charlie…” the Queen of the Sea said, as she made the finishing touches to her hair.

We were the first to arrive (we always are) so were the advance group that would total out to around 20 when everyone arrived.

I found the manager and informed him of our needs – and he looked at me like I had just told him that I was about to triple his beach taxes. At first he was unsure if he could seat than many as a group, but after a couple of minutes he said that he could seat us in two groups of 10. I thanked him, we were seated and the family came, en mass.

Our table was under the air conditioning vent that had the perpetual condensation drip from it’s vents. Our waitress brought us water and sweet tea in 40 oz. pitchers - this was the only time we would see them full or with ice. After waiting 15 minutes, she was finally ready to take our orders.

And then we waited…and waited…and waited…

The kids got up to see the fish. And go to the bathroom (it wasn’t very clean, by the way). And to get crackers from the 55 gallon wooden barrel by the salad bar. And we waited and waited some more.

After 45 minutes, our food arrived – minus the heat and my mixed drink. Just like 2 years earlier, it had cooled, presumably while the entire order was filled. Regardless it was firmly air conditioned.

The waitress returned about 20 minutes after we finished, to check up and see if we needed anything. I told her that we needed some more butter, sour cream and ice, because our beverages were warmer than the food. The fried food was over-fried and needed sending back. But seeing as were finished dining, we only needed the check.

The bill was very high for what we received. They included gratuity into the bill with a group that size - I wouldn’t have included any.

The aesthetics are the only good thing about this poor excuse for a restaurant. Upon entering, it appears as if you’re boarding a ship. And inside everything is very 19th Century sailing ship style, with a nice collection of nautical antiques.

But this is no reason to board the Big Daddy’s – the outer banks are full of nautical antique, including a World War...

I laughed as I saw the 2 reviewers to the left who left rave reviews after they ate at this dump on 4/23/15 under its new management. Let me tell you, a group of us (11) went to dine here last night while in town for the Kure Beach Street Festival and OMG!. We sent 5 different dishes back due to: hair in entree, cold appetizers, stale and hardened jambalaya, chicken alfredo with no sauce...at all (they had to make more in the back) which never came. Hushpuppies were pre-frozen and the seafood dip was all mayonnaise with a few trimmings of seafood added. We were baffled, after all, we had eaten at this place several times but it wasnt until we got to talking with the staff that we learned of the new management. Soooooo, you would think that this being under new OWNERSHIP that they would be receptive and come out after the 1st or 2nd dish was rejected, nope- the incompetent, rude and ill equipped manager came out to speak to us with an attitude and was very offensive. When we told him about the jambalaya, his response was...well, what is it suppose to look like? LOL Truly, if it wasnt for the waitresses, we would have all gotten up and walked out. They were so apologetic and tried very hard to make things right- kudos to those ladies. I will tell you this, the water was excellent! To make matters worse, they had to correct our checks 3 times, they actually had another patrons dishes confused with our orders! Total time wasted, yes wasted in this establishment was 2 hrs and 50 minutes. I was able to get a huge laugh at the conclusion of the evening however. As I was departing the dining area, a family of 4 was coming in and I overheard the "front attendant" tell them that there is going to be a 10 minute wait time for the next available table. There was only 4 tables occupied in the whole establishment!!! I could have screamed it was so unbelievable, I would have loved just to linger and see their faces when they finally were let in to see how empty the place was. Truth be told, I really feel that the manager/owner was the cook as well which explains why he was so irate/rude/short tempered. If this place is still in business next year this time I would be absolutely surprised, my advise is to get off out the food service and turn that building into a worship center or a Hooter's lounge. Oh, and for Steven S and Tracey S. over in the comments section, either you both are family members of the new manager or have very low...

When my friends and I arrived, they informed us it would be a 45 minute wait. While we waited, we looked around the gift shop and I came across bracelets that I had a question about. The cashier for the shop, another employee, and (I would later confirm) the manager, were standing there (4 feet away) complaining about the restaurant employees and this, that, and another. When our name was finally called and we were walking to the table, there was maybe 5 tables out of 20 filled... so why the wait? One of my friends had a question about something on the menu and the waiter was unable to answer the question. We waited for about 30-40 minutes for our food to come out after ordering and items that were ordered were missing. My other friend had put in an order for an alcoholic beverage when we ordered our food and after we almost completed our meals, the bartender came to our table with the drink ordered and ice almost completely melted and stated, "this drink was ordered and the waiter hadn't picked it up yet. Do you still want it?" There was no offer to have it remade and who wants to pay almost $10 for a watered down drink?.. no thanks. After we finished eating, we told the waiter we were ready for the check. We waited an additional 40 minutes for the check and hadn't seen our waiter at all. At this point there was our table and 2 other tables filled. We became very impatient and decided to ask another waiter to retrieve our check.. and they did within 5 minutes. Overall, we spent 3 - 3 1/2 hours at this restaurant. We decided to speak to the manager and this is when I realized the man that was fussing with the other employee and cashier in the gift shop about the crappy employees, was in charge... no wonder our experience was terrible. He apologized to us and used the excuse that there were hundreds of people outside at the bar and this is why the restaurant portion was slow. We all called bs because you must walk through the bar to get to the door of the restaurant and there looked to be about 30 people outside (IF THAT). The food tasted great but for this visit being my first time, I will never go back again. So much time was wasted for our girls trip and at the time we left the restaurant, we were wore out from waiting and ended up going back to our room. After our experience, I don't recommend this...