Captain Obadiah’s Seafood Market

An excellent choice for fresh seafood! Also a market for fresh catch and shell fish! Down to Earth prices with rustic seating. Fast and friendly service make it a good spot to fill your seafood needs!

The place was supposed to be open until 8 pm. We arrived at 7:37 and the refused to take our order. Wtf. They turned down a party of 9.

Not a hidden gem but an unexpected gem. We ordered a crab cake, flounder platter and fried clams with old bay fries. The fries were amazing, the flounder perfectly cooked and the crab cake tasty. The crab cake is made with special not lump but it was full of crab with a crispy panko crust. The clams were battered and delicious. Our server was super friendly and helpful. It was nice to be treated as people and not just customer #200. We will definitely go back.

Lobster bisque had imitation crab. Tasted starchy and bland. Overall bad experience.

Fantastic seafood at great prices. 1 & ¼lb lobster with cole slaw & fries for $ 19.99. Also 2 lbs of crab legs w/​slaw & fries for $ 19.99. Very casual dining on deck. Ps. $ 12 for a bucket of 5 12 oz beers. Very good!

Ate here for the first time tonight. They have a 2lbs of snow crab with cole slaw and friends, dine in only, for $ 19.99. What a lot of food! The guys inside were great. They brought our food out and checked on us multiple times during our meal. Oh you must eat outside on their deck but it’s über casual, laid back dining and a great value for the money. I’d highly recommend trying it!

I feel I need to clear any confusion to those who may want to visit this restaurant who haven’t before. We rent a house in OCNJ every year & have seen their menu many times. This year we opted to try Obadiahs based on that menu. It no longer exists.
They own 3 bulidings next to each other. Obadiahs USED to be a huge restaurant featuring seafood, steaks & casual fare. As of July 2015, there is a small shack type building which is a fish market where you can also eat crabs in a bucket while having some beers. There is the main building, which now houses Sketties, an Italian style restaurant (which looks newly renovated) & OB Crabs, which is supposed to be the scaled down version of the old Obadiahs… nothing more than a run down bar with tables for pub food. (They also own Yesterday’s across the street, American fare)
With all of that being said, that is why this is a 2 star review. We asked 3 different employees about the Obadiahs we saw the menu for. Quite confusing & it doesn’t make sense why they would house 2 completely different restaurants in the same building. When you are greeted, you are asked which side would you like to eat on. I just wish they had either left it alone (the old menu looked great) or spent some money fixing up OB Crabs (couldn’t get soda, CO2 lines not working).
The food, however, was surprisingly good! The Caesar salad was tasty but a little confused (no tomatoes or olives should be in that) and the fried shrimp platter was outstanding! The shrimp were fresh & very big (trouble finishing the 6 given, that’s how large they were!)
Waitstaff was nice & by the time we left, the place was packed (only about 10 tables) — so there must be something to this place. It just was not as we had expected. Reviews online were just as confusing, so I felt I should attempt to clear it up.

After a long day at the beach, my friend and I stopped by for a seafood dinner. We chose a corner table on the deck and enjoyed the fresh air.
We had the drunken steamers, shrimp cocktail and crab bites for apps. They were all good. And then we shared the Captain’s Combo which included flounder, shrimp, scallops and a crab cake.
Nothing was out of this world but it was all tasty. I’d say they’re a bit overpriced and our daiquiris were weak. But the staff is friendly and service is fast.

My wife just came home with scallops, clam strips and a pint of chowder, and ½ pint coleslaw…$ 45! Which would be OK, but it wasn’t. The scallops were supposed to be a pound… maybe breading included. Plus for $ 25 I expect sea scallops, not the tiny bay sized scallops we received. Too much breading, but I guess it helps to get to a pound. Haven’t tried the soup yet, its frozen. Coleslaw was good. The clams were fair at best. Very dissappointing after recently going to some great seafood places in the area

Took the wife and 4 kids for a quick bite, before heading home on a Friday night. Only place without a wait — should have just waited elsewhere!
Anyway, burgers and chicken tenders were okay and the steamers were rubbery. My $ 17 jumbo shrimp were medium sized, at most, (should have taken a photo!), and I only got 6 of them + a corn on the cob.
On the way out, the young man at the counter asked me how was everything, to which I replied: ‘well, since you asked, the jumbo shrimp were awfully small’. His reply: ‘yeah, the fried jumbo shrimp are bigger’. Unbelievable.
I won’t be going back…

Got here late in the day, need some scallops, shrimp and clams for jumbalaya our friends were making. Expensive, but good. Was disappointed by the lack of variety of seafood, but maybe it’s because they were out of everything late in the evening. Would go back.

BEST garlic blue crabs I have ever eaten!!! Not cheap for food but the crabs are worth every dime!

We used to like this place, but it has quickly gone downhill. Had the worst waiter experience ever — 18 year old kid who had no idea the sequence of the meal, the menu contents or even that dessert spoons should be brought out with dessert. He got food orders wrong and then argued with us after we mentioned the error. To top it off, our final bill was wrong and then they proceeded to overcharge us $ 275! Stay far far away

There are days when vacationing down the shore that you need a break from the ocean, the sun, and the boardwalk. Perhaps you are looking for something close by but not in the epicenter of everything. Maybe you are looking for something a bit more quiet, less populated, and no frills (someplace to just chill-ax)…Obadiah’s Seafood Market is the place. Located a few minutes outside of OCNJ is the Obadiah’s «compound». Apparently, Obadiah owns several eateries all lined up next to each other right off of Exit 25 on the Garden State Parkway. Don’t get confused… you don’t want to wind up at the high end restaurant (Yesterday’s-located across the street) in your bathing suit, covered in sand, and looking for $ 10.00 buckets of beer.
Anyway…back to Obadiah’s Seafood Market (the building that looks like a shack). It provides copious amounts of fresh seafood that can be purchased for take-​out or you can have it cooked and eat it on their out door patio. The outdoor deck area reminds me of the scenes in those 50s movies where all the teenagers would dance around without a care in the world– very retro.
The specials are good: $ 10.00 buckets of beer, .35 Shrimp, $ 3.00 crabs (could be better). They also have a few non-​seafood items on the menu for us non– seafood lovers!
I love spending an entire afternoon at Obadiah’s sitting on the deck, surrounded by dune grass, drinking buckets of beer and enjoying the breezy ocean air!

Great place to stop for a quick dinner after a day in the sunshine!

Obadiah’s, while not directly on the bay, was your classic seaside, low-​cost, no-​frills, beer-​and-​seafood restaurant. It is, first and foremost, a fish market and happens to have some tables outside on a deck for anyone who wants to eat there. I believe that they are only open until around 7pm. You basically go inside and order and then go out to the deck and your food is brought to you.
We took advantage of the midday special (2pm-​5pm) — $ 7 bucket of beer (5 beers) and $ 7/​lb snow crab legs. They also had $ 2.50 blue claw crabs and .35 clams. All of the food was very good. My wife decided to try the wings and they were great — crispy with the sauce on the side.
We sat at a picnic table on a deck with a bucket for shells inserted into a hole in the table. It almost felt like we were at home or at a friend’s house, just relaxing on a nice day.
The service was super friendly and we had a great time. We will definitely go back.

I don’t think this is one the best crab houses out there in the region, but I would go ahead and name this place the best place of its kind for the whole shore area.
It has two separate sections, a full restaurant on one side and a smaller area designated for those who are trying to get dirty with some blue crabs. In fact, I do not believe you can order the crabs in the other half of the restaurant.
I have sampled a few soups and dishes, enjoyed everything and find the prices fair. Definitely check it out if you are looking for good seafood and fish down while down the shore.