Lighthouse Seafood Restaurant & Bar

All the previous bad reviews were correct. The smoke from the bar is over whelming. Service was good. Atmosphere was depressing. Food was okay, but cigarette smoke dulls the taste buds. The homemade coleslaw is very good albeit served in a small plastic cup. Unless you are in the hotels across the street or nearby, take a drive past this restaurant.

I was a little apprehensive at first, this place is definitely a dive. I was pleasently surprised however once we were seated and saw the menu. I’m not really a fan of seafood, so my typical standby is fried clams, so this is what I ordered. They were delicious! Plump and flavorful with not too much breading and large portions. I definitely didn’t leave hungry. The never ending hush puppies were also delicious, some of the best I’ve had, even if a bit oddly shaped. They also had a nice selection of beer, even some local stuff which was pretty good. The only thing that really sucked about the place was having to walk through the bar and a sinus searing cloud of cigarette smoke to get to the bathrooms. If it weren’t for this I might have upped it to a four star rating.

Food was good, service was good. The downfall was the overwhelming stale cigarette smoke smell. There is a smoking bar area but apparently the ventilation isn’t completely separate from the dinning area. The smell ruined it for me.

Traveling up Highway 95. Had a late lunch seafood was good, service was good-​nothing extra but passable large size servings

First, I will tell you that this restaurant is 100% nom-​smoking.
We hesitated after reading the reviews posted here, BUT… being the adventurous couple we are, we took the plunge. We were greeted at the Dorr with a friendly ‘hello’ and promptly seated at our booth. Our server was at our table in no time to take our drink order and gave us a plate of the best hush puppies we’ve had in a long time! I ordered the New York Strip and my Husband ordered a combination of broiled scallops and crab cake. Both of us we’re very pleased with our food and the service we received. We’ll definitely come back on our next trip to VA!

visited tonight 6÷21÷15 for dinner. it was 85 degrees in there. I know this because I sat next to the thermostat. we sat there 15 minutes before anyone came to the table. I stopped another waitress that was walking to by to bring me some hush puppies. i ordered the NY strip husband ordered seafood platter, and so did my son. the waitress never came back to refill drinks. will not be going back.

I’m not very picky when I’m on the road. Having said that, the Lighthouse is just off 95 (exit 45 in Virginia) and either next to or across the street from almost all of the hotels. So 5 for convenience. The dining room is pleasant (no smoke and well lit and comfortable). Also 5. The staff is agreeable if not particularly well trained. My plates were never cleared and though the point of sale is new, they were unskilled in its use which led to delays and mixups. So 3 rating. The food was above average for my expectations. Great hush puppies and I live in the South. I ordered a steak that was cooked exactly as requested and was very tasty (though I had ordered a NY Strip and got a t Bone). 4 rating. In all I had a very pleasant dining experience and would recommend it to other fellow travelers. Certainly it is the cream of the local area.

YIKES. As soon as you walk in, the smoke hits you in the face. I am seriously allergic to cigarette smoke, but consider me just not a local and a «traveler» which is what brought me into this place (Across from the hotel i stayed at, which did not have a restaurant). In and of itself, i would normally leave but we had no other choice in regards to food. The staff was friendly, and the restaurant was very outdated. They had a lot of dust everywhere, which could use a good cleaning. Overall this place needs an upgrade. The reason I am giving this place 3 stars, is because the service was great and the food was REALLY good! I was surprised how good it was. I was not expecting that. I would not go back only because of the smoke and my allergies, however if you smoke or don’t mind it maybe you can look past that and still go in for a nice meal.

I’ve ordered out from here many times and it’s always been a good experience. The fried flounder and shrimp are great– really lucky to have this restaurant out in a rural area.

Horrible. Oysters that had no taste. I waited all night for bad things to happen. Potato that tasted like it had sat around for quite awhile. Corn on the cob that you could eat without teeth. You had to walk through the smoke filled bar to get to the restroom. The bar looked like a scene from HBO’s True Detective. PLUS expensive for such an unappealing place!

great food. fun place… directly across the street from Hampton Inn

Awesome food. Crab legs and shrimp were super fresh…

I stayed for a business trip and this close by so I decided to give it a try. The place itself looks a little run down, but I don’t really care as long as the food was good. I read the Unilocal reviews before trying it and it was very 50/​50, either a hit or miss it seemed. The waitress was very nice. The prices seemed like what it usually is for the upper Nova /​Georgetown DC area! I understand that it’s seafood, but around the same prices as a place in Georgetown? I thought, whatever, it must be really good then. I didn’t even touch what came as a welcome /​starter. I would have preferred bread. For my appetizer, I started with the She… something crab soup and it was really good.
Then my entrée arrived and the Salmon was over-​seasoned on some parts, under-​seasoned on other parts. The salmon also tasted funky, it still had a huge raw taste to it, but it was fully cooked, don’t know how the magician managed that. The fries that came with it tasted stale. I arrived around 7PM, so they should have been cooked to order. The corn cob that came with it was the best thing on the plate (how could anyone mess that up right?), but it was only a fourth of the cob that came with the Salmon. I didn’t even think about trying dessert after my entrée.
Pros:
— soup
— service
Cons:
— décor
— cleanliness
— salmon
— bread
— fries
— no bread
— overpriced
Overall:
I didn’t try their other seafood, but I don’t think I want to. This restaurant’s most expensive thing should be worth $ 22, not ~$ 30.

This review is for the bar only — the restaurant was closed by the time we showed up.
This place rocks. A group of us were in town for a wedding on a Saturday and headed over to the Lighthouse afterward to sing some karaōke. The bar /​karaōke area is pretty tiny but that didn’t stop us from singing our hearts out and dancing up a storm. The DJ was great as were the other employees. The DJ even invited me to sing a duet with him.
We ended the night with a lot of dancing, including the macarena which I swore I’d never do again… but somehow it was fun.
If you’re in town, definitely stop by here and sing a few songs.

Not so great seafood resides here, but thankfully their faithful crowd of patrons have kept them in business as long as they have because I honestly could not support them on a regular basis. The food is way too overpriced for the average food you receive… the frozen seafood at Red Lobster is a definite upgrade over this place.

I walked into the Lighthouse and was immediately turned off. It might have been the dirty walls or a waitress using an actual vacuum on the table next to me while the rest of my party are trying to eat appetizers.
For an appetizer my party ordered the lobster bites. As a person who can only eat seafood I was extremely excited however that quickly changed. The lobster bites turned out to be very squishy and lukewarm. There was also a lack of any seasoning. This combination left an awkward taste in our collective mouths.
There was no saving grace with the entrees. I ordered fried calamari. The calamari felt as if it was placed in the microwave.
The entire night my party and I spent the night giving each other disgusting faces while trying to stomach the food.
It will take a lot for me to ever come back to this place.

This is some of the best seafood I’ve ever had for the price. Huge Snow Crab legs by the pound for half what you’d pay at Red Lobster. Sweet shrimp, excellent crab crakes, fat scallops… You gotta try it.