Above: A crab cake sandwich from Woody’s in Dewey Beach.
Text & Photos By Pam George
Maybe it’s the sea breeze or the lingering taste of salt on your lips after a day spent splashing in the surf. More likely, it’s the intrinsic expectation that the seafood is stellar at the beach.
Fortunately, Delaware’s coastal restaurants deliver the goods, whether you want an icy plate of glistening oysters on the half shell, a heap of Old Bay-crusted crabs, or grilled local rockfish atop saffron-and-harissa-spiced couscous.
Here’s where to get tried-and-true and bold-and-new seafood dishes at the beach.
A Bevy of Raw Bars
Oysters have been part of coastal Delaware life for generations. In 1852, the Big Thursday celebration began to salute the state’s lifting of the yearly oyster ban between May 1 and Aug. 10. Before refrigeration, consumers who ate raw foods in hot weather played roulette with their health.
Now, oysters are available all year, and raw bars are beach staples. The Lewes Oyster House in downtown Lewes is new to the scene. Owned by Sean Corea, Tom Little and Tom Bartle, the restaurant puts the raw bar against the front windows.
Halibut from Lewes Oyser House
The oyster house is reminiscent of the Rose & Crown’s original location, thanks to the owners’ decision to create a tavern in the multilevel dining room. It’s comfortable yet stylish. Along with shucked oysters, the menu features prepared oyster dishes. For instance, you can order them fried and wrapped in Jamon Iberica (ham), served with a crepe, house pickles and pimento aioli. Lewes Oyster House is among the few Delaware restaurants offering seafood towers, including clams, shrimp, ceviche and cocktail crab claws. LewesOyster.com.
Fins Ale House & Raw Bar is so well known for oysters that its sister company, Big Oyster Brewery, is named for them. The original Fins location in downtown Rehoboth Beach — technically Fins Fish House & Raw Bar — now has a large family; there are Fins Ale House locations between Lewes and Rehoboth, Bethany Beach and Fenwick Island. For a classic taste, order from the steamed and baked options, which include clams, shrimp, mussels and steamed or baked oysters. FinsRawBar.com.
In downtown Rehoboth, Henlopen City Oyster House (no relation to the Lewes Oyster House) is one of President Biden’s go-to restaurants, and he’s in good company. The raw oyster menu includes varieties hard to find elsewhere in the area. Consider Thatch Island oysters from Massachusetts and Mere Point from Maine. HcOysterHouse.com.
Starboard Raw in Dewey, part of the Starboard family, has much more on the menu than oysters, but the bivalves are still the main attraction — raw, baked or in one of five oyster shooters. Steamed items include a seafood boil with shrimp, clams, mussels and crab legs. StarboardRaw.com.
Crazy About Crabs
Longtime New Castle residents long for the days when DiNardo’s served hot crabs with vinegary dipping sauces. Admittedly, the sauce is hard to find at the beach, but crabs are happily abundant.
Surfing Crab, a seasonal business, is a low-key establishment north of Lewes with a porch for picking. Order the size you want ahead of your visit. However, you can’t make reservations. All crabs are cooked to order. TheSurfingCrab.com.
Heirloom soft shell crab
Coastal Highway sports two other crab houses. Bushels Sports Bar & Grille is in the old Lazy Susan’s site. (Technically, it was Lazy Susan’s third location.) Bushels is owned by Chris and Anthony Jacona, who also have The Wheelhouse in Lewes, Zogg’s Raw Bar & Grill and Tiki Jac’s Street Eats & Brews in downtown Rehoboth Beach. Bushels sells Alaskan snow crab legs, king and Dungeness crab legs. BushelsDE.com.
The Crab House is part of the Big Fish Restaurant Group’s collection. Buy crabs by the half-dozen, dozen, half-bushel or bushel. The menu also includes a raw bar with raw clams and oysters and an all-you-can-eat buffet beginning May 24. CrabHouseRehoboth.com.
In Rehoboth, Claws Seafood House is the Fin family’s crab house, and the crustaceans are steamed to order. The extensive menu has plenty for people who dislike hammering and picking. 772Claw.com.
The Starboard group’s newest restaurant, Starboard Claw, is one of the few that lets customers buy just three steamed-to-order crabs if they wish. (On a slow Sunday in the off-season, a customer ordered the last two large.) StarboardClaw.com.
The Starboard Claw’s new two-story building, located on Hammerhead’s old property, is near Woody’s Dewey Beach, and while the bar does not serve whole crabs, it has arguably the best crabcake in Delaware, plus a damn good pit beef sandwich. DeweyBeachBar.com.
Below the inlet, The Blue Crab is known for its “feasts,” featuring blue crab, shrimp or snow crabs. Each comes with corn on the cob, hush puppies and fried chicken. BethanyBlueCrab.com.
Meanwhile, Fenwick Crab House has been a landmark for 50 years for all things crab — Maryland crab soup, cream of crab, crab cakes (broiled or fried) and crab cocktails. FenwickCrabHouse.com.
Old School Seafood
For many visitors and locals, a seafood dinner is a platter piled high with fish or shellfish fried to a golden brown. Fenwick Crab House has a menu section for fried entrees, including haddock, shrimp, scallops, oysters and clam strips. Corn on the cob, hush puppies, fries and cole slaw are sides.
Bluecoast
Likewise, Matt’s Fish Camp in Lewes has a “Beach Favorite” menu section with flash-fried fish, oysters, shrimp or clam strips with fries and slaw. You’ll find slight variations at the other Matt’s locations. For instance, Matt’s in Bethany offers crab cakes and jumbo shrimp, while the Fenwick Matt’s has fried cod and baked crab cakes. SoDelConcepts.com.
Old Salts can order the Harborside Fish Fry with buttermilk fried grouper or fried shrimp at The Wheelhouse Bar & Grill at Fisherman’s Wharf, which overlooks the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal. WheelhouseDE.com.
For a time, crab-stuffed anything was the rage, and crab imperial in a boat-shaped dish was a luxury. There are hints of the past in the crab-stuffed jumbo shrimp entrée at Bluecoast Seafood Grill & Raw Bar near the entrance to Rehoboth. (The restaurant also has a raw bar.) BlueCoastRehoboth.com. (There is a Bluecoast in Bethany with a separate menu.)
Seafood with Global Flair
Visitors and locals have expanded their palates since the 1960s when fried, baked or blandly broiled fish was all you could get. Today, beach chefs are happy to cater to adventurous diners.
Matt’s Fish Camp
Raas, an Indian restaurant in Lewes, dresses whole fish with ginger, orange, lemon, garlic and coriander. The fish of the day varies but is often red snapper, striped bass or branzino. RaasLewes.com.
Whole-roasted branzino, kissed with lemon and fresh herbs, is available at Sirocco Food & Drink, the new restaurant in downtown Rehoboth that specializes in Mediterranean food. SiroccoRehobothBeach.com.
Branzino is also served whole or filleted at Rehoboth’s Aroma Mediterranean Cuisine. AromaRB.com.
Fish & Fine Dining
Chefs on the Culinary Coast like to flex their creative muscles, and fish is a foundation for sauces, toppings and pretty plating. However, menus in upscale restaurants change with the seasons. So don’t get too attached to a dish.
Oysters from Drift Seafood.
In April, Heirloom in Lewes featured pan-seared New Jersey fluke with spiced couscous, Napa cabbage-and-carrot kimchi and fermented black garlic. HeirloomDelaware.com.
At Harbour in Lewes, executive chef Clay Nelson has perched perfectly seared sea trout on a bed of sugar snap peas, creamed leeks and herb-roasted Yukon gold potatoes. HarbourLewes.com.
James Beard Award finalist Matt Kern is all about sustainability, which is why you’ll often find Chesapeake blue catfish, an invasive species, on the menu of One Coastal in Fenwick Island. The cornmeal-crusted fried fish might come with a drizzle of hot honey and Anson Mill Carolina gold rice. OneCoastal.com.
Some of the area’s most creative takes come from Drift Seafood & Raw Bar in Rehoboth, which resides in an intimate late 18th-century camp meeting cottage. Chef Tom Wiswell serves raw oysters with Champagne and pink peppercorn mignonette, while pan-roasted Chesapeake rockfish comes with Thai red curry, littleneck clams and heirloom carrots. DriftRB.com.
At the beach, big seafood flavors are everywhere, even in small packages.
