Blue Seafood & Spirits — Restaurant in Virginia Beach

I booked a weekend in VA Beach for my wife’s birthday. She specifically wanted seafood. I did a search on seafood restaurants in VA Beach and this place easily had the top rated reviews. I selected this place for our dinner and It did not disappoint! At first you may be skeptical as you first get there as it isn’t a large place and easy to pass by. It truly is a hidden gem! We got there and was immediately put on a waiting list was told it may take 30 minutes but it took about 15 minutes to get seated. They were packed which is generally a very good sign. Our waitress (Jenny) was at our table in a few minutes. She gave us great service always refilling our drinks before we ever even asked. We both put in order for the same seafood combo. Now I have to say we are trying hard to be as keto friendly on our diet as possible but we did splurge some here and if you have to splurge make it worth you while and we did truly feel it was worth it. We put in an order for appetizer Fried Green Tomatoes with Pimento Cheese. I wouldn’t have ever put the two together but it was one our favorites of the evening. Note: nothing here was bad. We had a hard time selecting our favorites of the dishes we ate. We also ordered a bowl of crab soup made with roasted tomatoes. This is another dish we wouldn’t have ever put together but it was also very very good. We both ordered the broiled seafood combo that has Scallops, catch of the day fish Flounder, and a Crab-Cake. All three of them were good and another hard choice as to which was our favorite. We chose the crab-cake 1st because you usually don't get a lot of crab-meat in a crab-cake when you order one and they were both loaded with crab, followed by the scallops, and the flounder. All were amazing! I decided not to order mashed potatoes or a sweet potato but opted for a double helping of vegetables. I could have just eaten those vegetables and could have been happy with just them. The vegetables had the best grilled taste. This meal came with a sweet potato biscuit and I have to say, I was trying to be hard to be good and push away the carbs. Okay so this little biscuit got to me and it's was sinfully good with a dab of butter. We usually don’t order dessert but hey we decided to share a slice of Key-Lime pie. I mean we already had that sinfully amazing little biscuit. The Key-Lime pie was absolutely perfect. To top everything off the chef stopped by our table prior to our appetizers arriving and gave us this amazing amuse bouche which was a peeled slightly spicy shrimp on a cracker with a sweet touch of a homemade jam. What a combo and it was a great kickstart to the meal. We had amazing service and overall there was absolutely nothing we could complain about. We both (my wife and I) would highly recommend this place to anyone. We will...

I was excited to try a new local restaurant. That all changed when the owner asked us to leave before we were even seated. This was by far the craziest experience and goes down in the books as there is a first for everything. We entered the establishment and was greated by very friendly hostess staff. It is a very small waiting area and I mean small. Our party of 3 took up most of the entrance space. The hostess took my friend's name and number and told us it would be about a 20-25 minute wait and that we could wait outside. One of my friends stepped outside and on his way outheld the door for another couple to walk in. A gentleman approached from inside the restaurant from around the wall and asked sternly to close the door to keep the A/C in. Last night, the weather was nice and had an amazing breeze. No reason to lose your cool over A/C. In the meantime, my friend walked out after she ordered her drink as the other proceeded to hold the door open for her like a gentleman. I was still inside the waiting area and the wife of the couple was in there as well. My friend still was holding the door open as the husband from the couple that was also trying to enter to join his wife was peeking in to see if there was room for him to walk in. The gentleman that sternly asked him to close the door raised his voice and said close the door because of the A/C. I looked at the gentle and see that he is wearing a chef jacket. My friend said back to him he was holding the door so the other gentleman could enter and he motioned with his hand for the chef to see the guy. He was not just standing there holding the door open to be a jerk or for no reason. My friend was annoyed that he was being spoken to in a disrespectful manner when all he was doing was holding the door open and being polite. The chef, which I learned is also the owner snapped as my friend closed the door and said "what did you say to me" and charged out the door after my friend. I stood in shock. They exchanged words outside and the owner was angry. The owner re-enters and as I am looking at a drink menu proceeds to tell me we have to leave that he won't be spoken to in that manner. WOW!! My friend was simply holding the door open for another customer to enter the building. He chased after my friend and attacked him verbally in front of the restaurant. All of this over the A/C. I dont know if the owner was just having a bad day but treating any customer this way was unacceptable. Unfortunately, we as locals will never return. Its a shame because I was looking forward to a nice dinner at a restaurant I had heard nothing but good thing...

When we discovered this hole-in-the -wall place a year ago, and were blown away by the fact that EVERYTHING here was amazing.

I asked the owner why they aren't promoting this place more or why they don't move into a bigger building? (For our first visit, we had to wait in line for about an hour to get in. Make sure you get there early, and DON'T LEAVE! The wait is totally worth it - read on...)

His response (paraphrased): "Because a bigger place also brings with it a lot more work. I want time with my family, our employees work hard and need time off, and it's not all about the money." - WOW!

That explains why it seems that all people who work there are like family, and seemingly enjoy working there. That makes the whole visit so much more enjoyable. We had the same waitress this year we had last year. That should tell you something.

But now, to the food. In short: It's incredible!

Whenever we dine at a seafood restaurant, we pretty much order the same things: fried shrimp, some version of grilled salmon, and crab cakes.

This restaurant has tempura fried shrimp, which is NOT on the menu. Do yourself a favor, and ask for it!

The batter is thin yet crip and crunchy, and the accompanying horseradish dip is delicious. And, YES, horseradish does go amazingly well with fried shrimp 😉

My wife is very picky about crab cakes. Many restaurants use "fillers" like bell peppers, leek, and other stuff to use as little actual crab meat as possible (and those ingredients seem to take away the actual crab meat flavor, or are aimply overpowering).

Not here! Their crab cakes are FULL of delicious crab meat, spiced and flavored just right to complement the taste of the crab meat. We ordered extra crab cakes to take home with us to be able to enjoy them for a few more days.

I ordered the grilled salmon with lump crab meat and sauce hollandaise. The salmon was cooked to perfection, not too dry, and not too soft or soggy, which is extremely difficult to get right. Yet the folks hete at Blue Seafood and Spirits get this right every time. How they do this is beyond me.

We only come to Virginia Beach once a year, but you guys make our trip SO much more enjoyable. Thank you all so much for offering a little peace of seafood heaven away from the touristy hot spots in VB.

We are looking forward to returning next year, but...