Shaka's Beach Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Nags Head

I debated writing this review because we all really like the food, and it has considerable potential to be one of the best restaurants here. Everything was going fine until we started getting harassed by a large table of what I assumed to be tourists. The restaurant is very loud and hard to hear the server and vice versa. It was also warm in temp like the AC wasn't working properly. We had our kids with us who eat at other restaurants in the area regularly. After a while, our toddler was getting loud, as kids do, especially in loud places. Our server was clearly in the weeds, and we were patient with her, knowing that she was being heavily demanded by the large table harassing us that was sat well before us. As soon as we finally addressed the table harassing us, our server promptly hustled us out of the restaurant. She took the check before we left and asked me if we wanted our dessert, we just ordered, to go. We didn't finish the pizzookie because I'm not sure it was fully cooked. Plus, it isn't a dessert you can take to go, and we were clearly rushed out. That was all in bad taste, so I had to be honest with how we got to that point of an uncomfortable dining experience. I waited tables to get through college before I enlisted. 3 times, we had to ask another server to refill our drinks. Sometimes, only one would be filled because remember it is hard to hear. We had to borrow a pen to sign our check from another server because ours didn't leave one. We had to ask multiple times to refill our drinks because she would only fill one partly. We had to stop our server when we were eating our app to finally take our food order. Our food didn't come out together, and my husband had to wait a while. I'm not sure if we will come back, which is a shame because we really enjoyed the food. The experience was rough and uninviting for families, and the server made that very apparent. Even though she apologized, we were rushed out no sooner than our...

We are locals and wanted to try them out before the season started. My daughter got the Beach Burger, choices were cooked pink or no pink, she chose no pink since she normally orders Med and glad she did cause it had some pink in it without being under or over cooked. The burger itself looked awesome but it lacked flavor. She said it didnt have a good char taste rather grilled or sears and was lacking in some seasoning, like maybe salt and pepper . I did taste it and I felt the nice burger char was missing.

The calamari was very fresh and crispy…batter was slightly salty but not unbearable. The sauces were really good. They serve with a squeeze of both all over the top but we had to ask for extra, our advice,, save time and ask for extra on the side.

And I ordered the Hawaiian Chicken Tacos. They were phenomenally delicious. Super fresh, they use thigh meat and was cooked perfect with a nice sweet marinade. BUT…the sauce that came with them didnt match at all. Was expecting a similar flavor as chicken but very hard to explain, was very bitter and overwhelmed the mango salsa. I actually used the leftover sauces from the calamari and it was a much better balance. We both felt some homework or more testing needs to be done on that dish.

And last our water and sweet tea was served in short , thin plastic cups. Looked around and some were drinking our of reg glasses that were tall. Felt like a little kid . And the overall atmosphere was cut short . The base decor idea looks great but missing final touches like wall art or photos and something on tables. There is literally nothing on table , reminds you of fast food tables, even Chick-Fil-A has bud vases on theirs.

But our waitress Brittany was fabulous , very attentive and friendly.

We said we will try once more and we will cause everyone deserves a...

We decided to go to Shaka’s because of the online ratings. We had been to this place when it was Mahi Mahi’s and New York Pizza before that.

Atmosphere is about the same as it was with the prior restaurants but with a new outdoor bar and seating area. We had a small wait of about 35 minutes for a party of 9 on a Sunday night at 6:30.

Hostesses were great and wired with us to get us sat together as quickly as possible.

It took a minute for our waitress to come by but she was friendly and got us started off with drinks and appetizers. We ordered blackened tuna bites and calamari. Both came out timely and were delicious.

We placed our orders and then waited a little longer than I would have expected but it wasn’t terrible. A couple things were missing and one of the meals had a hair in it. Our waitress was no where to be found. She seemed to have disappeared so we flagged down another server and the food runner. They were great and helped us get it sorted out.

Someone we think was the manager came to the table and apologized. He got a new order to replace the food that had a hair in it.

We had the tuna BLT, Sushi Stack, wings, crab legs and stake frites. I wouldn’t do the crab legs. You literally get one cluster for $30. Not worth it. The sushi stack was delicious as was everything else.

When the bill came they removed the food that had a hair in it but charged us for the replacement meal. I would have expected them to comp that meal. But I’m sure they figured we are tourists and won’t be back anyway. They need to work on the service, but that’s hard at a beach location so we gave them a pass this time and still tipped 20%.

Overall a step up in the food scene for the OBX. definitely recommend a visit for the food, not...