Jack Mackerel’s Island Grill

My husband and I like eating at Jack Mackerel’s. This time round he had the salmon and I had the flounder. It was great. I had more than I could eat and had to take some home. Sometimes I wish I could order half sizes. We love the atmosphere and now is the best time to go before all the tourists come for summer but you may still have to wait.

This place has a great location right along the Kure Beach pier. The theme and décor is pretty nice here and makes for a great environment along with the friendly staff.
The food here is great! I would definitely recommend starting with the crab dip! It’s delicious! I also had the Mango-​Shrimp Quesadilla, which was good too. The fries here are delicious as well. Some of the seafood items can be expensive, but there is also a lunch menu that has some great cheaper options.
The margaritas and other specialty drinks are great as well.

Stopped in for a beer and clam chowder… Both were great. My only qualm was that they needed a more diverse menu. food was good… and service waa great!

Stopped in here one January day for lunch. Was packed!
Ordered Cobb salad (supposedly their signature salad). I am a salad freak, this salad was just ok. Didn’t scream FRESH and the chicken cubes looked like a grocery store package product unfortunately. We ordered the wings as well (bbq) and they were pretty good. 3 stars instead of 4 stars because of the price of that meal for a salad and 8 wings… h20 to drink and over 30 bucks. Money spent much better elsewhere on island for price and quality.

Love this place the ribs are amazing! The salmon is really fresh! Great views love the outside seating! It is a favorite when we are there!

Stopped here in the off-​season (early November) and it had a nice flow of people in and out. I have to imagine this place is packed during prime time.
Husband ordered the seafood soup and it was served luke warm. Seemed more of a potato soup w some misc seafood added to it. Shared the crab dip which was good, but very cream-​cheesy (we would not order again). It was served w warm pita bread (bread was soft — it was not toasted) so it was a very rich dish. We actually tried it w some of our chips from our dinner and it made a difference to have a different texture w the dip.
Entrée for lunch was fish and chips and mine was the shashimi tuna wrap. Mine was delicious — i absolutely love raw tuna and this had every flavor you’d want in a bite. Would recommend if you like tuna and don’t want the app itself.
Overall a good place, but would be open to trying others before returning.

Good service. Mediocre food. The appetizers were okay but I ordered the shrimp scampi which looked like canned shrimp with a very liquidy sauce. Not good at all. My husband got the Mahi Mahi which was okay. Prices were high for the quality.

I wish I could rate each think differently.
The bartender Ben would be a 5. We were in Friday for drinks and came back for dinner tonight and he remembered our names and exactly how we liked our drinks.
the food was very expensive and not great. this manager doesn’t allow substitutions and charges big upcharges.
nothing pisses me off more than a smart ass manager. Him and his cardiac belly was standing near the bar and I told him it was hot in there. He said «you should be back there where I am and then you will know what hot is». Um no! Im not an employee. Im a customer and you’re a jerk.
So overall I can’t go more than 3 stars.

I don’t want to break my friend’s heart, but this place is sub-​par. We had a good waiter, but the food isn’t that great.
Most menu items are fried… I stayed at Monterey beach in NJ for a week… and the seafood they serve there is completely different. FRESH scallops, mussels, oysters, shrimp… you name it. Maybe that’s unfair to judge based on location, but I was put off that the clam strips and scallops I ordered were almost the same quality (if not the same quality) as frozen seafood. This is the coast, isn’t it? That’s a real letdown. The oysters were debatable… not positive if they were previously frozen, as I’ve never had frozen oysters before.
$ 23 for a bunch of fried food? Maybe I was just looking for a different quality of food. Fried sub-​par food dipped in ketchup does not make for a $ 20 meal.
…I could order a lobster roll in NJ for $ 18… and let me tell you, THAT was a satisfying meal.

I use to like this place. Before my last trip here I probably would have given 3 stars. Last time here, I was with a group of 6 — we sat outside. I ordered crab legs as I usually do. My husband ordered chicken. First our salad came out, the cucumbers were transparent as if they were frozen or rotting and the lettuce was brown. So we pushed them to the side. My crab didn’t appear to be as fresh as usual. I asked for mashed potatoes as my side and got a clump of hard rice instead. My husband had the rice as his side and he usually loves rice and would not eat it. We left still hungry and disappointed. Too bad. I don’t know what happened — I use to enjoy this place. Sure went downhill. :(

My favorite place to eat when I’m in the area! Great chowder, and pretty good entrées. The customer service is typically on point, during some of the busier hours it slacks some but over all a very good place to dine.

Against my better judgement, I didn’t get the cup of clam chowder to start this «review meal». Let that be a lesson, if a place around here serves it, order a cup of it for a starter. It really does give a good indication as to how the rest of the dining experience may go. Premade bread rolls for starters with a very sweet «butter» on the side. They were warm, crisp on the outside and «bready» in the middle. Nothing special, which (spoiler alert) is how the rest of the meal was as well. I’ll tell you a secret I’ve found to discovering a great dining experience:
I give a restaurant three tries to impress me, at most. No one is perfect, no kitchen is perfect, no chef is perfect, so not every meal or dish is going to be perfect; everyone has an «off night». The first time I ate at Jack Mackerel’s (JM), I got the seafood lasagna and couldn’t eat more than a few bites it was so awful, but everyone else at the table enjoyed their meals. I was very disappointed.
–the rest is on my blog at:

We had a very frustrating experience here. I don’t grouse about service unless it really lets me down, but this place distinguished itself for poor service. We brought a family of 9 for a late lunch (in other words, not crowded), and needed to make a ferry. Service was amateur, disorganized, forgetful, and slow. We ordered right up the middle with no curveballs, and lunch took forever to come out. They served our two tables at completely different times, wholly forgot one kid’s meal, and how many times should you actually have to ask for a glass of water?
Two stars because the drinks were good and the food was OK, when it came. We barely made the ferry, and only because we got openly pushy and irritated, so they finally paid attention.
There are too many options in Kure Beach to bother with this place.

This was the best place we ate at all week hands down!!!
1: our server
Our serves name was Devin aka the good twin and he was a+ server and the nicest guy that you could ever meet he had everything brought out to is hot and all the meals at the same time I never had to ask for my drink to be refilled (which is a biggie for me) and always had a smile on his face was very polite too
2: the manager Eric (I think)
He was very polite and we had a small problem with the hostess she seemed upset that we can in at 9:00 and they said that they close at 10:00 I spoke to the manager about it and he reassured me that he will talk to her and as we were leavening I spotted him speaking to he about the issues. AGAIN VERY NICE MANAGER AND ALL MANGERS SHOULD TAKE A PAGE OUTTA HIS BOOK
3: the hostess
She seemed irritated that we a party of 9 came in at 9:00 pm an the Resturant closed at 10:00 so when I informed her that it will be a party of 8 she sighed and stated ugh how many kids and adults one of the other people in our party stated it is 2 kids and and 7 adults that’s 9 and she then stated I a arrogant tone that is Not what I was told and the other Person. Asked her if we were a issues then we can go somewhere else she just brushed it off and said we’ll we close in like 45 mins but ok
4:the food
AWSOME JUST GREAT the steaks were tented the seafood was great and the crab dip and the old bay chips were a perfect starter I had the salmon and it was juicy and full of flavor not to much fishy taste I it so you know it’s fresh will def be back her again
THANK YOU ERIC AND DEVIN

Not exactly sure why there was a wait to eat here. There are far better places to eat on the island in the same price range. Our waiter was friendly and helpful, and my husbands shrimp were fresh. We were unable to order anything baked or broiled so he had to get them fried which he was not in the mood for at all. I tried the Island Tuna which came with seasoned rice and steamed summer vegetables. The tuna was not sushi grade as stated, not even close. It was fatty and felt like I could have purchased a better tuna steak from the freezer section at Walmart. There was no flavor/​seasoning on the tuna. Thank goodness my son doesn’t eat sauce with his chicken tenders, so I was able to pick around the fat and dip the pieces I could eat into his honey mustard. I had a side garden salad which was nothing special but by far the best of what I ate.
The only reason why this place has 3 stars and not 1 or 2 is because of the waiter we had. He was very kind and attentive. He was the only good thing about our meal.

Took my kiddos there after a trip to Fort Fisher and loved it! The wait staff was incredibly nice and attentive. The food was great! I ordered a honey salmon and honestly thought it was one of the best salmon preparations I have ever had. Delicious. The décor is campy and a little run down, but it’s at the beach and well loved I’m sure! Will definitely go back.

I was a little concerned at first since the interior seems outdated but the staff is friendly, the beer is cold and my Mahi is fresh and delicious. Oh and the rest of the family enjoyed their food too.

Worst ‘grilled’ chicken teriyaki ever — tasted like boiled chicken that was thrown on the grill for 2 seconds and brushed with marinade. I couldn’t cut it with the butter knife it was served with. Ew! Coleslaw has too much mayo.
Atmosphere is fun but we won’t be back.

Nice seafood place. Son really liked the clams, the boss had the swordfish special she said it was good but the rice was bland. I had the garlic sirloin steak, a little to medium, I like the juices flowing asked for medium rare.
The old bay chips where good. The only thing that shocked me was the price. I was figuring a $ 80 Bill for the food and service not $ 115. The server had no real personality. But my drink was kept full. The other thing that got me was automatically adding the tip, our waitress lost out on that one. We usually leave as a minimum 20%.

Thank you Eric, for the awesome dual seafood platters for Joyce and I on our 50^th Wedding Anniversary this evening.
We certainly chose the best place to celebrate and deeply appreciate your personal attention to make it special for us.
Delicious food/​drinks in a «made for» special occasion.
Larry and Joyce Aultman.