Fish House Restaurants

Now part of Pops ( which is across the street) but more family friendly in the evening .Good but limited fish menu,

I came to Pop's Fish House for lunch with my mom and aunt as soon as we arrived in Cape Hatteras. It was recommended to us by one of the locals. We were seated by the window that overlooked a fishing pond. It was a great view. It kind of reminded me of the movie "Jaws" for some reason- probably the fishing boats.

Because the local catch was shrimp, we decided to start with the grilled "Peel-N-Eat Shrimp." It was AMAZING! We tried the peel-n-eat shrimp at so many other local restaurants and none of them compared to the shrimp at Fish House. Fish House's shrimp was grilled in some special Old Bay-ish type of seasoning. They also brought out melted butter for us to dip the shrimp in. It all went together perfectly.

I ordered the fish tacos as my entree. I wasn't as impressed with them. They were kind of heavy on the lettuce and light on the grilled fish.

For dessert, we asked if they had any Key Lime Pie left. Our server sadly told us that they were out. We decided to call for the check. With the check, our server brought the last slice of Key Lime Pie. She did not charge us for it because she said it was not big enough to count as a slice. I thought this was very nice of her!

This place doesn't look like much from the outside, but I thought the casual "local fisherman" atmosphere was very charming. My recommendation would be to split a bunch of appetizers instead of ordering individual entrees. All three of us were much more impressed with the starters than the main courses.

The first time we ate here was in 1988, and we've eaten here at least several times a year since then. The seafood has always been top notch - fresh and well prepared. They have a nice assortment of sandwiches, a few good salads, as well as seafood to consider for a nice lunch.

The fried seafood has always been my favorite, especially the shrimp, and whatever local fish is the freshest that day. The fries, hush puppies, and even the slaw are excellent, as well.

The prices here are a little on the high side, but are still in line with most beach prices. The service is generally good, but will slow down when crowded, and the kitchen can be slow at times. But this is a good place for a meal of fresh seafood.

We had come here when it was Billy's 14 years ago and loved the place. It was the epitome of a hole in the wall seafood shack in a beach town with tasty soft shells, fried oysters, scallops and crab cakes.

Fast forward to 2012. We approached the Fish House with fear that between the change in management (at least five years ago) and some of the reviews below, we'd find a sub par establishment serving sub par food. Totally unfounded.

The new "Billy's" is clean and renovated with a menu that is more upscale looking than what we saw at our last visit. The crab cake is now encrusted with a potato chip batter, they serve a fried goat cheese appetizer, etc -- the restaurant has some minor league foodie aspirations going on. We quizzed the waitress who told us the new owner is also the chef (good sign) and she (the owner) is passionate about the cooking.

I sampled the fried scallops, broiled flounder, and soft shell from other's dinners - all quite excellent. I had the fried oysters, which were better than several others' restaurants from this trip. The collards and slaw were also better than anywhere else, and the hushpuppies were good. The salads were well done and not overdressed.

The prices were right on par with a couple of the other highly rated restaurants in the Avon/Buxton area and should have been given the quality of the food and service.

If you aren't so uptight that you can't eat off of plastic, it's definitely worth the extra few minutes down the road toward Frisco! The six 4&5 star reviews are more representative of the current management -- Carrie C.'s and Fred B.'s reviews should be the baseline.

Pops owns the fish house now. Raw bar and liquor is at Pops Bar. We ate at the Fish House. Not much to look at and you eat on paper plates but the food is amazing and the prices are fair.

This is just the local dive I was looking for!!!

Saddle up and get elbow deep in a plate of scallops, oysters, and shrimp!

Terrible place! Stay away. Made us wait for more than an hour. Waitress kept saying she was super busy. If you can't handle, don't keep your doors open. Unhygienic food. Shrimps served without being deveined. Have a photo for that. And lastly, there was a big disparity in the check. This is the last place you want to go if you want to stay healthy!

Have been back three times in the last few weeks. The food is excellent, and Pop's has the best wait staff on the outer banks. Service is outstanding - very quick even when the place was packed. The food was served hot and was delicious. I have had the fish tacos and the fried flounder, both were moist, tender and flaky. My in-laws who like their food well cooked loved the food as well - just asked for extra crispy. Haven't tried them yet, but their cheesesteak sandwiches looked delicious.

Pop's Fish House is the little local joint you've been looking for. Ask for Mary, Gia, or Natalie - they are the friendliest, hardest working servers on the island.

Yay for buffalo shrimp!

Decent steamed shrimp, crab balls, and hush puppies.

Clean with no frills (i.e., plastic baskets) and an okay view.

Reasonable price and friendly service.

Good for a casual, low key dinner.

This restaurant is CLOSED, although Pop's Raw Bar and Grill across the street is open.

Go go go. We showed up after not being able to get in to The Sandbar with a party of 9 and were dismayed to find we had the place to ourselves. At 6:30 on a night in July, NOT a promising sign.

But as other reviewers have said, the food was VERY good. Shrimp well cooked, oysters juicy and the crabcakes very nice with minimal filler. Later other people showed up and it was about 1/2 full. Our server said the beach closings were hurting them badly and we felt terrible when they put out the closed sign at about 8 as we were leaving. So go and support a good business and the local economy, you'll not be disappointed.

Under new management the quality is even better than before and that is saying something. We were greeted by the owners Dad and given a grand tour of the patio.

The servers are genuine and quick with a refill on your sweet tea or Dr Pepper. The food comes out quickly. The way to go here is the fried basket including hush puppies that are fantastic, sweet and not at all greasy. My wife had the fresh catch of spanish mackerel it was wonderful. I had the flounder, the portion was almost too big to finish and the quality was excellent.

The restaurant sits on a small inlet across from a marine salvage yard. It may not be the best view but just ask about the story behind any of the boats marooned there and you'll have a great story about you shouldn't buy a boat.

I love this place because it is a genuine Hatteras seafood house and serves great food.