Fish Bones Restaurant and Seafood Buffet — Restaurant in Virginia Beach

Look at those beautiful Margaritas! Kind of a secret but Fish Bones, a great family restaurant, also has the best bartender and the best servers! We always ask for Hannah’s section because she is so cute and always happy even though we ask for a lot of service- like more water, more condiments, etc. We have met many families that come here year after year, and Fish Bones has become a summer favorite for us too. They close sometime after Labor Day, so we come as often as we can during the summer. I am surprised by the recent bad reviews and comments about bugs. It sounds like those people were sitting in the outside area where there are plastic windows or awnings when it rains and they might have forgotten to mention that they were outside. I think the restaurant and food buffets always look very clean. The buffet is very good and a better value than the huge overpriced place on Laskin Road. The seafood is great but the chicken wings on the buffet are AWESOME! Much better than ones served at “Wing” restaurants and their homemade ranch dressing is da bomb plus no msg in anything. Another secret most tourists don’t know is that the owner is Greek and Fish Bones has the best Gyros and French fries in Hampton Roads. If you like fried cheese sticks, you actually get your money’s worth here. I forgot to take pictures of our delicious dinners Saturday night but we started with fried shrimp from the appetizers menu and then had dinner for two @35.00! This is a really good deal because it includes the yummy fresh salad bar; not just a side salad! One of us got steak and one got the two lobster tails and shared it. The steak is big enough to cut in half for sharing and was cooked to perfection. Then we each got our own lobster tail. I do wish they served baked potatoes because I’m not a fan of the twice baked potato and nothing goes better with steak and lobster than a real baked potato, in my opinion. That and the bathroom situation is why I gave 4 stars instead of five. There is one bathroom for ladies and one for men. There was a small line so I went into the hotel lobby and the hotel employees were rude and said their lobby rest room was only for hotel guests. I have not experienced this at any other hotel with restaurant on the beach or anywhere else ever. Hopefully, the restaurant owner will talk to the hotel staff and work something out because it’s not like he has space to renovate and add larger restrooms. There is free parking on 12th Street across from the Belmont. Mention you are eating at Fishbones, Pay $5 cash instead of regular rate of $10 and have your parking ticket validated when you pay your server. The parking lot attendant will...

I'm not sure where those that gave this place good reviews are eating at, but its clearly not at this establishment. For $37 each, the selection is lackluster. When I inquired about Military Discount, our waitress not only said no, but stated they don't do it because "the area is heavily saturated with Military". A simple no would suffice, her excuse as to why the company doesn't support our Military was unnecessary. The food is lacking in flavor, however the crab legs tasted as though they boiled them in salt with a side of water. Not only were they salty, but they were over cooked and rubbery. I expected the raw bar to be cold, but the food on the hot buffet was cold as well. The fried food was over battered and over fried. The oyster rockefeller was drowning in spinach. The mac & cheese tasted like 3 day old microwaved casserole gone bad. The crab imperial is actually made with imitation crab & lacked any flavor other than the taste of plastic. The loaded potatoes tasted old and were anything but "loaded". Our waitress mentioned a carving board, but the only thing I saw was a "do it yourself" mini cutting board with a charred hockey puck on it. The only thing that was slightly acceptable was the peel and eat cooked shrimp, but even those had no flavor. I felt as though I could have received a better dinner from a toddler cooking with an easy bake oven. That isn't all however. The dessert section was even more disappointing. If you're wanting soft serve, go down the street because you certainly wont find it here. The oreo cheesecake shotglass doesn't deserve even a second glance, because it surely wasn't cheesecake, baked or not. The chocolate chip cookies were worse than gas station cookies. The boston creme was more like a sliver of chocolate cake with mystery pudding. The strawberry shortcake wasn't the worst out of the selection, but its definitely not something to write home to grandma about. Our waitress filled our drinks once the entire time we were there, which I'm glad because the cups weren't the cleanest anyways. Neither were the tables, as we felt sticky once we left. Not even a wet wipe (which I had to ask for) could get rid of the gross feeling this place left us with. Overall, the price is nowhere near worth the horrendous experience. Please, save your time and money and do NOT support this terrible...

My family was in Virginia Beach for our first vacation together and we thought that we would treat ourselves to some seafood and, for me, a steak. The decor of Fish Bones Restaurant was rather well worn and disappointing upon our arrival, but we were greeted by friendly staff so we rolled the dice. Our son chose the dinner seafood buffet, our daughter chose the pasta primavera, my wife chose surf & turf and I chose the ribeye steak. Salad bar was included in our meals so my wife, daughter and I went to make salads while our son went for the seafood.

Our son won the dinner olympics. He was perfectly satisfied with the dinner buffet and ate until he was sated.

The salad bar was disappointing as there were very few options. We would learn that the salad bar would be billed at $12.00. I would have certainly avoided the salad bar at that price. Other than underwhelming choice, my wife and daughter found the crab salad to have a rank flavor.

Under seasoning seemed to plague all of the entrees. The pasta primavera sauce also had a sour, unpleasant flavor. My steak had very little seasoning or flavor (beyond the aggressive char) and was mildly rescued with ample salt. My wife found her steak to be similarly flavor-deprived and the lobster tail to be rubbery or overcooked.

Our server, Colin, was kind and attentive. My wife informed him of our dissatisfaction with the meal. The manager came to our table and was, mostly, disinterested. He took the cost of the steak and lobster tail from the $42 meal cost (leaving us to pay $12.00 for the salad bar and $2.50 for the baked potato).

I would recommend looking elsewhere for a special meal when visiting Virginia Beach. You may have good luck with the full dinner buffet, but the remainder of your options can leave you lighter in the wallet and...