Charlie Horse Restaurant — Restaurant in Ormond Beach

I have been coming here since I was a kid on family vacations so I am a bit bias but if you are a crab leg fiend like me, there is no better place than Charlie Horse! When I moved to Daytona Beach 40 years later, this was my first stop. Some people may think minimalism changes to a place over 40 years is a bad thing. I absolutely love it!! The decor has a beachy, local bar vibe with sports silenced on TV and a juke box in the back. Lots of Charlie Horse TV merchandise which shows their familiarity to the community. Big backed wooden booths and wooden chairs at tables. Plenty of room for groups of 6-8. The menu is moderately sized in terms of selection but covers beef, chicken, fish and shellfish but the main attraction at the Charlie Horse is the crab legs. Served in 1 or 2 lbs (Tuesday is the day to go for 2 lbs) and ALL YOU CAN EAT!! My all time record is 4 lbs. For the longest time I thought it was 8 lbs until I realized after 2 lbs they bring out a 1/2 lb at a time. The atmosphere is amazing. Can get a bit loud at times but that’s just because everyone is having so much fun. Service is great and the servers work as a team. Sometimes servers at other places don’t help each other out but at Charlie Horse the teamwork is apparent.

There are many amazing dishes here but if crab legs is what you are after, this is definitely the...

I’ve been coming to Charlie horse for 5 yrs., always bring work team for lunch/dinner. Always bring family to restaurants as a highlight of Daytona beach. Always had outstanding food, service and I have commented in the past as a 5*. However today arrived 1150 not busy yet. Ordered drinks, appetite peel shrimp (the best in town) was served at 1216., food arrived 1246., drinks not offered to refill, waitress seemed rushed, placed a to-go-order and deserts to save wait time since we were on our lunch hour. My ordered of fish platter clearly was rushed, not completely cooked, mushy I did not say anythg and did not eat the fish since our time was limited and did not want to wait. 106 Togo order arrived bill was placed on table and waitress fled from the table as I literally had CC in hand to pay for the bill. I waited couple minutes then proceeded to area where servers place/pay for orders. Another server asked if she could assist as I shared I needed to pay the bill. As she processed the bill our waitress came by and remark ‘sorry it took so long’ interesting as I had said nothing. My one college shared that she had no reason to return to patronize the restaurant. Not a good experience on so many levels. Not sure if the difference is lunch verse dinner time but definitely will not return...

Fantastic food, fantastic mixed drinks and fantastic service, our server was Sam and she was so sweet and friendly and had some good suggestions on what to get, I absolutely loved the cheese sauce on the loaded tator tots, so much that I got full before my food even came out. My mom and sister got the crab clusters and loved them, they were super easy to break open unlike some restaurants where you really gotta work for the crab. Also have to mention I tried the chocolate martini and the strawberry margarita and both were sooo good, the chocolate martini is basically like a mudslide that's not frozen. We also got the orange cake to go because we were so full but I already know by how it looks that it's gonna taste amazing. Definitely a great place to go and we'll definitely be back.

Update 2 weeks later: my family and I have been back two other times since and we were waited on by Melody one time and Hailey this most recent time and all 3 severs were so nice and so attentive that's such a big thing for my family is good service and these ladies all were so nice and the food is just awesome, my mom and sister love the crab clusters and I'm hooked on the strawberry margaritas 😂 definitely one of our favorite places to eat now. Also each time we've eaten there the food comes...