Hot Tuna Bar & Grill

Just left the restaurant after sitting 15 – 20 minutes without service! Really disappointed!

Hot Tuna is probably one of the most underrated restaurants in Virginia Beach, in my opinion. The location is convenient to central Virginia Beach as well as the oceanfront, but the Shore drive location has a more local feel than other restaurants at the beach. Hot Tuna has a gorgeous bar that is very spacious and outdoor patio seating with fire pits that are awesome when the the weather cooperates. Don’t waste your time with a vodka soda, do yourself a favor and try one of their amazing cocktails, the speciality cocktails never disappoint, especially the crushes and mules. While so many people identify Hot Tuna mainly as a bar, they have phenomenal food as well. Their dinner menu is inventive and always made with fresh ingredients. Being a Virginia Beach local I’ve been to Hot Tuna countless times and have never had a less than stellar experience. Be sure to check out their happy hour and tapas night on Wednesdays!

Such a chill restaurant/​bar with a great atmosphere and the option for the sit down area or bar. Variety of ages in guests, but a older «after work» crowd.
Not to mention delicious food, we got the chicken lettuce wraps as an app, and the Gouda burger was on point

We’ve been quite a few times to Hot Tuna and have always enjoyed our meals immensely! Always prepared perfectly to temp and so savory! The Cedar Planked Salmon is absolutely incredible! Makes my mouth water to just think about it! Served along side of creamy Risotto it is not a meal to be missed! Servers are always friendly and efficient and the atmosphere is fun!

Our birthday group of 8 met here on a Sunday evening for dinner. Natalie kept up with the drink orders and did a great job the entire evening. My wife loved the eggplant balls she ordered along with a house salad. I had the oysters Rockefeller to start and they were scrumptious. I also had the tequila shrimp taco and the two tacos were more than enough. I sampled someone’s crispy oysters and I was sorry I didn’t order them instead. Others tried the salmon and crab cakes and were pleased with their meals. This was my first visit here and I will definitely go back for the crispy oysters.

Here we are a year later and this place has only gotten better. It’s been a long rough week at work so I figured I could use some happy hour stress relief, and this place instantly came to mind. This time I had the pleasure of Rosie accompanying me.
Kellen our bartender was excellent. Her service was on point and she was very knowledgeable about the product and mad funny. I really liked her, and I had no problems leaving her a generous tip. Now let’s talk about the food and drinks shall we?
Their $ 3 glasses of Sangria during happy hour are still everything! They’ve even made a new blackberry variety since my last visit. I love them because they have a lot of liquor in them but you can hardly tell, which is perfect because I don’t really like an overpowering taste of alcohol in my drinks; however, I still like to feel a little kick when I get to the bottom of the glass. I also enjoy picking out and eating the frozen fruit when I’m done.
The food here was also very enjoyable as well as affordable. I had a very generous portion of BBQ chicken nachos, which were very yummy (especially with the fresh jalepeños on top). I also had a really good bowl of she crab soup with oyster crackers and sherry. All in all, 3 $ 3 sangrias and a full stomach later, I’m glad I thought about revisiting this place. Next time I have my eyes on the BBQ chicken sliders with asian slaw; I saw another table get them and they looked yummy.

My first time here was a Tuesday night. It was nice and quiet. I ordered the Absolut Chesapeake. My boyfriend got oysters Rockefeller and the shrimp tacos. It was a good meal. Only reason I’ll take one star off is because my waitress would disappear a little too long. We like to be left alone but my drink was empty so long I drunk my boyfriends. Then when I was ready to go we couldn’t find her to get our check. I went to the bathroom and came back and she was still missing. But no big complaint. Just was ready to go. Was full and sleepy

Tea Time Saturday (happy hour) we have a list of places we rotate among and Hot Tuna is now solidly on it! The restaurant is well decorated and clean, the menu extensive and moderately priced service was good. The Hot crab dip with soft pretzels was awesome and will become our go to dish here, the calamari was just okay they promote as best in the beach i found it a tad salty and a little to crisp. The draft beer selection could stand an expansion as well and they don’t open till 4 pm but a solid 4 experience for me.

I was on my way to another seafood restaurant when I missed my turn and didn’t feel like making a crazy U-​Turn on Shore drive. So here we ended up!
I’ve been here a looong time ago in my crazy party days. The kids these days think they be turnt up. Yeah rite anyone who used to party in the 90’s early 2000’s WE was turnt up! That is what I remembered about Hot Tuna! Great party atmosphere live DJ/​band and we enjoyed ourselves with no worries. But tonight was a little different, it was date night. So the only turnt up I had was a coconut mojito. It was delish but a little too sweet for me. It came in a tall glass with a sugar cane stick (dang! I forgot to take it with me). There was plenty of mint and lime just like how I like it.
I ordered the potato crust salmon with fried spinach, soooooo I think the spinach was for garnishment because that wasn’t really tasty. It did come with a side so I did the veggies melody which was squash-​tomato-​onions. Now that was tasty! The salmon was perfectly cooked, moist and flavorful.
Overall, a good meal. Still great atmosphere and friendly staff. They have a lot of events that goes on during the week keeping the restaurant interesting. So guess what I’m gonna do the next time I come back? Yep you guess it TURN UP! I’ll be back when the DJ comes in 9:30pm!

This place is awesome!
We had family in from out town and ended up here after watermans had a 2 hour wait to get seated. We walked in and were seated immediately. The server came over right away to take our drink order. We had two little ones who were being fussy and she brought them. out crackers to munch on. She was nice enough to take the kids food order at the same time as the appetizers!
We order calamari and hot crab dip. The calamari was delicious and the best I’ve had in years. The crab dip was also delicious! They were perfect size for our party of 6 to split to take the edge off the hunger.
I ordered their Potato Encrusted Salmon with their vegetables. Ok, let me tell y’all about this salmon… first off the serving was HUGE and much larger than I was expecting. It had a GREAT presentation, smelled amazing and tasted even better. Hands down the BEST salmon I’ve ever had.
My husband’s aunt had the Absolut Chesapeake, it was also amazing. It was creamy and flavor packed with every bite! The shrimp were huge and she said they were fantastic!
Everyone else at the table ordered a sampler type dish which had shrimp and two different kinds of fish included. It looked amazing and my husband refused to share it, but he said it was great!
We will definitely be back!

Me and my girlfriend have been here multiple times for happy hour, (which they have 7 days per week 4 – 6). Our first visit was spectacular. We sat at the bar and watching the bar tenders perform there is a show amongst itself. We love watching them mix the drinks, which we’ve had some amazing drinks. Each bartender has their own creations and we will try them all. The Happy Hour «Bar Food» is not your normal wings and fries that you can get anywhere, but specially planned tasty treats and all are no less than phenomenal, at every level $ 3, $ 4, $ 5, $ 6, $ 7 & $ 8 (there’s 3 or more dishes at every price point I’ve listed here) and top shelf drinks for $ 4. Their sangria is AMAZING. Every tapas type happy hour special dish is better than the next. I’ll try to list some specials, but by far, this is the BEST HAPPY HOUR I’ve been to anywhere. Eggplant Meatballs, Oysters Rock, Pretzel Encrusted Salmon Skewer, She Crab Soup, BBQ Chix Sliders, Calamari and Jalepenos, Mahi Fish Taco, Tuna Tartar, Edamame, Chicken Nachos, Grilled Avocado, Fries, and Steamed Vegetables. I know there are more that I can’t think of right now, and several I haven’t tried yet, but everything is so flavorful and makes you want more and more. and & DAYS A WEEK? get out of town…
My favorites; Eggplant Meatballs, BBQ Chix Sliders, She Crab Soup, Mahi Fish Taco. (I seriously could keep naming them) I’m telling you, whatever you order, you will want more of it. I’ve heard others exclaim over the burgers and other dishes as well.
We also had the crab dip with pretzels $ 12, and it is Very Good.

This is our favorite restaurant
The food is consistent, drinks are awesome, service is always spot on and love the atmosphere. They do the little things like reserve a table for you if you call ahead; they even bought us a drink because we bought a new car!
I love how the restaurant has great specials to change it up a bit and the experience is always high quality. The restaurant management knows what they are doing.
Keep up the great work because we love to come here.

She crab soup was amazing! If everything had been that good it would’ve been 5 starts hands down.
Unfortunately the rest of the food was overly spicy (good flavor but unbearably spicy), super small portions, and overly priced. Its not often you pay 40 $ for dinner and leave hungry. Their entrees are tapas sized portions.
Also, flies everywhere. Yuck.
This place is in a questionable looking strip mall. It looks like a dive on the outside, but the décor is nice inside. Expect for the flies.

Amazing! Started with the hot crab dip and reverse oyster Rockefeller and finished with the filet stuffed with seafood, the ahi tuna with mushroom sauce and the Chesapeake pasta, EVERYTHING WAS MOUTH WATERING!!! Definitely a must go when in VA Beach!

I love this place. This is the second time i’ve been here, and honestly– it does not dissappoint. The first time I came here was last month during happy hour. I think we ordered like everything on the happy hour food menu! Everything was delicious.
We came again yesterday after the beach. We sat at the round table that had the fire pit in the middle. There was a guy playing something that looked like drums. It was beautiful. We had calamari and tuna bites and they were great! I would suggest everyone giving this place a try :)

Nice place, good ambiance, make reservations ahead so you don’t have to wait for a table. I order the mussels for dinner and they where good, sangria also very good. They have a small bar area with a small dancing floor, fun spot but not a place to go out dancing gets really tight. I would come back here.

My friend’s birthday after party.
Cool ppl, live music, tasty mojito,…so many good things here.
I really like their happy hour but fri and sat nights are fun too!

I’m giving Hot Tuna 2 stars as a restaurant but 5 stars as a bar.
The She Crab soup which was $ 7 a bowl or $ 5 for a small cup was good, but not the best I ever had and not worth the price in my opinion. Fish dishes were VERY bland and did not taste fresh. Calamari had a lack of seasoning… Something I rarely say. It just tasted like bland batter on squid. My daughter ordered the Mac and cheese which reminded me of the Knorr packages you get from the grocery for $.99 but with added Parmesan cheese. The kid’s meals were around 6.99 and were served on a frisbee. They did not include a drink.
In regards to service, our waitress was friendly but we had to remind her to get our appetizers since they did not arrive at the same time even though it was the exact same dish. We also had to ask for complimentary bread since she did not bring any to our table, something I feel like customers shouldn’t have to do and a pet peeve of mine as a restaurant guest. The host and hostesses however, were very accommodating.
The restaurant atmosphere was nice and cozy but I could care less because the food wasn’t worth it. There are many other restaurants in VB that have that and good food to go with it.
I probably won’t be back to Hot Tuna, unless my husband and I want to go out on a Wednesday night.

Cool things about this place:
The Drink specials:
–they have happy hour 4−9pm on wednesdays (longer than most places who stop by 6). Their wed happy hour also includes all day tapas, free taxi ride home and one other thing i forget now.
— They also have this deal where u buy a pint glass for 4 $ and every drink you get in there (selection of — well drinks, beer, sangria, basically one type of alcohol) is 4 $ thereafter. You may bring the glass back and keep filling her up for 4 $ on your next trip. Its a great idea! This glass is also valid at shorebreakers about 2 blocks down.
Ambiance:
— It has a uppity yet casual vibe– you could get away with wearing anything here i think, but most girls were in casual dresses and men in khakis. There is a dining area, a separated bar area and a patio out doors. The patio is decorated with blue hanging lights — it was pretty.
Prices & food & service
— Fair. Oysters were 9 $ for 5 pieces of fried oysters. They were over marinated in some spinach sauce, it was flavorful but my friend couldn’t taste any of the oysters. I got the baja fish tacos fried– i really enjoyed my tacos which came with side of rice and beans, however next time ill get it grilled. The topping o the tacos were a salad avocado mix that was refreshing. Service was good, Jesse gave us plenty of time to think over the menu and also suggested to us that we could get white wine sangria (even though it was not on the menu). She knew the menu inside out and made some great suggestions.
We will definitely return here, or hit up their sister joint, shorebreakers. Remember to buy a glass!

This is one of our go to date nights. You need to go early to avoid the big bar scene at night. If you get here before 6:00 you get happy hour rates on drinks and food. The kids meal are great and they get a free frisbee with every meal. The manager is great. We’ve had a few mishaps and she quickly fixes and goes above and beyond. Service is always great. Their fish tacos are my favorite. Their seafood is fresh and their desserts are homemade. It is a farm to table restaurant and it shows in their meals. Check out the new outdoor patio it is very nice.