What makes a restaurant special? Is it the fact that you can’t help but eat there two or three times a week? Is it the low prices, friendly staff, or maybe even the neat building and presentation? The following seven restaurants have earned kudos in my book for best family dining places on the Outer Banks. I chose these seven eateries based on the atmosphere, price, food quality, and appeal to families.
(1) High Cotton NC BBQ
High Cotton is an eat in or take out restaurant located in Kitty Hawk on North Virginia Dare Trail across from Hilton Garden Inn. This Southern-food place features an open, airy feeling in its dining area. The tables are decorated to, in my opinion, remind you of a Southern dinner or picnic.
High Cotton’s menu includes salads, stew, chicken, BBQ, and brisket combo platters with cornsticks and two sides, ribs, BBQ sandwiches, and pies. Their side choices are baked beans, slaw, brunswick stew, green beans, and fries. Their beef brisket platter for $10.95 is my favorite – it is delicious! There is also a kids menu which has BBQ or chicken platters in smaller portions, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and chicken nuggets.
If you plan on ordering take out, High Cotton has package deals for get-togethers or big events to feed anywhere from 6 to 16 people. For a quiet, smaller family dinner at home, they also have menu with family sized portions.
High Cotton is open for lunch and dinner.
(2) John’s Drive In
John’s Drive In, located on the Beach Road at MilePost 4.5 in Kitty Hawk is most recognized for their
amazingly good milkshakes! John’s Drive In has a long selection of flavors like strawberry, chocolate, banana, and even combination milkshakes. Try a normal fruity combination drink or be spontaneous and different and create your own combo!
Other than milkshakes, John’s Drive In has burgers and sandwiches. I suggest trying their Mahi sandwich and fries with a plain vanilla milkshake. Call me boring, but those three make one tasty meal!
John’s Drive In prepares your food to go, but there are picnic tables there where you and your family can eat if you want. John’s is open May through September and they are also closed on Wednesdays.
Cold Stone Creamery sits in The Dare Centre in Kill Devil Hills. They serve ice cream, milkshakes, and smoothies. When you walk into the small parlor, you will be faced with a tough decision: which of all those ice cream flavors sitting in front of you do you want. Then you still have to choose what size cone or cup you want. If you can’t make up your mind, try one of Cold Stone Creamery’s signature creations. They are all heavenly so you can’t go wrong there. I absolutely love the Cookie Doughn”t You Want Some which is french vanilla ice cream, chocolate chips, cookie dough, fudge, and caramel all in an ice cream cone bowl.
Remember they do also serve smoothies and milkshakes. Their more popular smoothies are mango, berry, banana, and strawberry flavors. The most asked for milkshakes are vanilla, fudge, strawberry, cotton candy, mint, and cheesecake. I’m getting thirsty thinking about their rich, creamy milk and cookies shake!
The prices at Cold Stone are more pricey than Dairy Queen, but the combinations and delightful flavors of Cold Stone Creamery’s creations are worth every penny.
The Flying Melon Cafe serves brunch and dinner and can be found on Highway 12 on Ocracoke Island. The cafe is closed on Mondays, but open for brunch from 9 until 2 and dinner from 5 until 9.
For brunch, customers can have fresh fruit, biscuits, eggs, ham, omelets, burgers, and sandwiches. I prefer their $5.95 sausage, egg, and cheese casserole which comes with biscuit and grits. During dinner, the Flying Melon Cafe menu includes appetizers, seafood platters, crab cakes, oyster po boys, creole, and curry to name a few. Kids 12 and under can order from a separate menu which includes grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken fingers, and macaroni.
The Flying Melon has a fun decor which is appealing to families with kids along. Their tables are covered in paper that children can draw on while you’re waiting for your meal too. The Flying Melon has a great staff and you’ll probably even notice some of the same customers there every day.
(5) Stack Em High Pancakes
Stack Em High Pancake house opens from 7am until 1pm every day for eat in and take out. There are two locations on the Outer Banks: N. Croatan Highway at MP 4.5 in Kitty Hawk and at N Croatan Highway at MP 9 in Kill Devil Hills.
Stack Em High obviously serves delicious pancakes, but they also have eggs, bacon, sausage, and ham along with waffles, omelettes and french toast. Kids have their own menus too including smaller portions of pancakes, eggs, sausage, ham, grits, etc. Stack Em High is a great place to eat breakfast for under $10 a person. I like to order a short stack of 3 pancakes or either a ham and cheese omelette which comes with toast and hash browns. Neither of those yummy meals costs me over $6.
Fat Boyz Grill is still one of my fondest memories as a kid on vacation at the OBX. Fat Boyz Grill is on the Beach Road at MP 16.5 in Nags Head. You can come off the beach and walk right up to their window to order from burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, fries, onion rings, ice cream, shakes, floats, and sundaes. Their burgers and hot dogs are the best, and you can have them made any way you want. I have to recommend their $2.99 chili cheese dog, $4.99 large Fat Boyz burger with mayo, lettuce, ketchup, onions, tomatoes, and pickles, with onion rings or $1.99 fries, and a $4.49 strawberry milkshake.
(7) Awful Arthur’s
Awful Arthur’s Oyster Bar has been around the OBX for over 20 years, and this eatery is not just about the oyster bar. This casual, nautical-themed restaurant serves up shrimp, scallops, lobster, crab cakes, chicken, pasta, sandwiches, burgers, soups, and salads – and that is just a few of the choices from their extensive menu. A favorite besides a dozen oysters is the 2 item seafood platter for $15.95. The oysters at Awful Arthur’s are seasonal and the prices vary daily.
For your kids, they can order burgers, hot dogs, grilled cheese sandwiches, or shrimp. Items on the children’s menu are all under $5.
