Bay Local Eatery — Restaurant in Virginia Beach

This Bay Local Eatery is located along Laskin Rd. in the Linkhorn Shoppes Shopping Center. You can into this shopping center through a traffic light at Oriole Dr. My most recent visit here was on December 12, 2022.

My mom and I got here around 8:30 am. We wanted to get in before the early bird specials ended at 9 am. The inside of the place is typical of most restaurants. There are a few bar areas, as well as tables and booths available. Since this is during the holidays, there are some holiday decorations throughout the place too. It wasn't too busy on this visit. One of the reasons I wanted to come back was because they will be opening a new location soon, which will be much closer to where I live. The newest location will be on General Booth Blvd. where Pizza Hut used to be.

After getting seated, within a moment or two, our server came to the table and asked about what we wanted to drink. I went with a sweet tea this time since I don't do that very often any longer. After a few moments, our server came back over with the drinks and asked if we were ready. We weren't quite ready, but she showed us the early bird specials menu. After another moment or so, we were ready to order, so I let her know while she was over by the bar.

We both went with items on the early bird menu, which is available at a reduced price from 8 am to 9 am Monday through Thursday. I ended up going with the Cheddar Bacon Omelet with parmesan tots and my mom went with the Original Benedict with home fries. About 8 to 10 minutes later, our orders came to the table. Everything looked good and started to dig in. The cheddar omelet was good, along with the fried biscuit, but the omelet wasn't hot; it was still warm though. The fried biscuit was really good. My mom said the Original Benedict wasn't hot either. She had hers with the home fries, but she was not a fan of those, as they were basically like fries. Our server did ask if we needed anything, but she was doing so on her way to another table to get drinks delivered, so we never had a chance to say anything. I also want to note that there is an automatic 18% gratuity added to all checks.

Overall, this was still a good place to go. I think they were just understaffed that morning. They do have a good menu of items available, as they are a breakfast/brunch type of place. I will also note that a few of the ones that were there also seemed to be regulars, as it seemed they were prioritized to a point. It may not have been intentional, but that was the perception. Even though we weren't able to address the issues that day, I would still try them out again in the future at their new location when it opens, as it will be much...

This was one of the best places to eat brunch.

I really enjoyed my time here. Unfortunately we came on a Sunday so they weren’t open long enough for us to linger.

We ordered the French Toast, Pancakes and drinks. I can honestly say this was a true 5 star experience. The entire front of the house was all women. The host greeted us with a smile as we navigated through the maze of unexplained Knick knacks and greener at the entrance. (I will go over that in a few). The hostess seated us.

Our sever touched the table as she handled her other tables. She made some good recommendations and was very patient as we tried to figure out what side of the menu we wanted to order. Everything on the menu was described in such a way that you want to try them all.

The portion sizes are ginormous and Jumbo drinks are ridiculous. Everything we had was well cooked.

The things I didn’t like was the bartender. There was a big girl behind the counter. She was so obnoxious and loud it was very disturbing to the other guest.

The louder the drunk customer got the louder the jokes and laughed. It started to give me a headache. Where is Jon Taffer when you need him?

All in all I have No complaints. The food exceeded my expectations.

Now, let’s talk about finishing the place. It’s really confusing on the first visit. It sits in the middle of a shopping strip and it’s really hard to see because there are so many distractions. The front needs a gardener and exterior designer. I stared at the front of the building for awhile until I understood the opening wasn’t to Walmart Garden department. I’m literally allergic to everything so fighting my way to the door was interesting. I’m not sure if it was real or not but it was just an uncomfortable feeling and it makes them look closed.

The place is cluttered with things you find in a 1600s garage sale. I see where they were trying to go, but it needs a little more strategic layout.

As the staff was closing for the night, you don’t feel rushed but you to feel an urgency to move your leg as they sweep around you.

Our server was the bees knees. She even asked us if we wanted anything else 20 mins before closing. Although we saw the kitchen staff/food runner in the front, packed and ready to bust through the door.

We had a great time and loved everything about this place as strange as it sounds. This was perfect for a he weirdo...

A brunch beast! I’m so sad to say that this was my first time here and I’m from Virginia Beach😂 My boyfriend chose Bay Local because of the jumbo mimosas. He heard great things from some of his friends so it was a no brainer for brunch. We dined here on January 31st. We were right up the street when it started to rain/snow so I appreciated the pagers because we were able to wait in the car. We had the choice of indoor or outdoor (tented seating) and chose indoor. When we first arrived we were told our wait would be about 30-45 minutes but it only ended up being about 10 minutes.

Cons: -Honestly the only thing I can think of was the difficulty with reaching the mimosa to drink it. We sat at an elevated booth and standing up and trying to drink the mimosa from the straws caused a few little spills. It was way easier to manage the drink when I brought it down to my lap

Pros: -Our waitress (Jackie) was great! I’m indecisive when I have so much to choose from and she gave us great food recommendations. She also gave the perfect recommendations for our mimosa…she even took pictures for us -The mimosa! I’m pretty sure we chose lemon & raspberry sorbet for our mimosa and it didn’t disappoint. It was just the 2 of us and it was definitely worth the money -The food, everything was great. The crab balls had so much flavor. The fried chicken breasts on both my sandwich and my boyfriend’s entree were cooked well. Our waitress recommended an aioli for my sandwich and it was the right amount of spice. It’s hard to decide what I enjoyed most but I highly recommend the Parmesan garlic tater tots. There was also some kind of fried biscuit that came with my boyfriend’s entree that I pretty much ate by myself 😂

I can’t wait to go here again! Hopefully I try something new but I’m glad I finally got to experience this establishment as I’ve heard so...