Cox Family Restaurant — Restaurant in Morehead City

I hate leaving bad reviews because everyone is quick to leave a negative review and rarely leaves good ones but...... Good luck getting someone to wait on you. The sign said seat yourself, but all tables in the front two rooms were either too small for our group of 7 or had diners or dirty dishes. It had diners but it wasn't as busy as a typical breakfast rush, it was almost 10. We had to sit in the party room. We watched another group of diners get up and leave after waiting for someone to come get their drink order-that never happened. So I went to the front and waited and the lady at the register watched me stand there while she continued to act unbothered by me. So I finally had to approach her about asking if anyone was even working in the back. She said "well we only have three waitresses", like she wasn't concerned at all. So again I asked if we needed to move to a different area because we had 7 people. Another waitress walked by and said "well it's almost ten we should just close the party room anyway".... meanwhile there were locals dining in that room who had clearly been served. I said "then where should we go?" The whole time not a single person acted like they would at least come back and help get us started with drinks, not once did anyone act like they were the least but concerned. It seemed to be more of an inconvenience to them that we were there. We were the second table to get up and leave. It's quite disappointing when it was a breakfast favorite. It's also quite disappointing when four of the seven of us have been or are currently a part of the waiter/waitress lifestyle so we understand the struggle and we understand how to tip graciously. Last year when we ate here I remember a specific waitress saying the same "they only have three waitresses". We truly try to give grace and patience when we dine but it did me in when nobody acted the least but concerned and that it was more of an inconvenience that we were there bothering them. Especially the brunette that was running the register. I've always loved and recommended this favorite but the "what do you expect me to do about it" attitude by grown (not teenage, young adult)...

My wife and I were recently vacationing in the Morehead City, North Carolina area, so we asked a local cashier for their recommendation on a place to have dinner. She wholeheartedly recommended the Cox Family Restaurant. She told us that they featured family-style cooking. We arrived for dinner to find the place incredibly busy. I told my wife that's a great sign. The restaurant is an old school family-style restaurant. We went in and read the sign that instructed us to seat ourselves. We looked around a couple of minutes and quickly found an empty table. We sat down and our drink orders were quickly taken. The waitress pointed out the daily specials on a large whiteboard mounted on the wall. She then gave us a piece of paper that detailed all of the vegetables that were available for side orders. There were at least twenty different items on the paper. If you ordered a daily special, they would throw in a free dessert. I ordered a daily special of hamburger steak with fried okra and squash. My wife ordered the country style steak with mashed potatoes and mac and cheese. Our dinner orders arrived promptly in spite of how busy the restaurant was at the dinner hour. The food was absolutely delicious. My hamburger steak came with gravy and onions. My wife loved the creamy mac and cheese that she ordered as a side with her meal. I topped off my dinner with a delicious cup of chocolate ice cream. Our waitress brought our bill promptly. We took it to the cashier and quickly paid the bill and were on our way to enjoy the rest of our evening. We have vacationed in the area several times over the years, but we had never tried this restaurant. What a pleasant surprise. We will be eating here many times in the future. If you're in the area give them a try. You will be as pleasantly...

My husband & I are visiting Morehead to see my grandparents, and my Pop recommended this restaurant. I guess I might’ve just expected more because my Mimi’s southern cooking is delicious… but this didn’t meet my expectations in the slightest. The atmosphere was overwhelming since people were shoulder to shoulder.

The hushpuppies were good, the black coffee was okay. I was really, really excited about ordering some good collards… but they sugar theirs at Cox family restaurant and I really disliked them. Sugar in collards is a huge no from me. The Mac & cheese was decent, the pepper steak was okay, except I think it was topped with chicken gravy and I wish it was beef (the server didn’t specify, she just said it was brown).

Another issue is my server didn’t talk about the daily specials at all, but I saw something on the menu that said “free dessert with daily specials.” I just assumed there weren’t any because nothing on the menu mentioned them, and I only ordered pepper steak because I wasn’t interested in anything else on the menu. About 5 minutes after I placed my order, I saw the daily specials written on a whiteboard in the back corner of the restaurant, which I never would’ve seen if I didn’t go to the restroom. On the daily specials board was pot roast & shepherd’s pie… which I would’ve loved to have over pepper steak.

But I couldn’t finish my food. I think I was so let down by the overly sweet collared greens & that I didn’t order off the daily specials instead, that I was no longer interested in any of my food. My husband didn’t mind his food, though. And he liked the...