The River Room

We really enjoyed this little hide away. The food was very good. The portions are big! A new menu item was the seared wahoo with a strawberry bbq glaze. I wasn’t sure about that combination but it was amazing.
We also tried the stuffed shrimp. Hard to imagine how light and fluffy they were. supreme!
The river views are awesome!

I should preface this review by mentioning tonight was the first time we have eaten here when it wasn’t breakfast. The Duke of York is by far the best place in Hampton Roads for breakfast in my opinion. We have never been disappointed.
Tonight we decided to check it out for dinner. They were pretty crowded and were missing some wait staff, but our server did her best and was very friendly. We went with the fried oyster appetizer which was very good, my only complaint was I found a couple of pieces of shell. The kitchen should check to make sure the oysters are properly cleaned. Our server forgot to bring out our salads, but quickly corrected when we mentioned it. For our mains we had spaghetti with home made meatballs and scallop Grecian style with pasta. Both dishes were delicious with enormous servings, I think we will likely get 3 – 4 meals out of this.
Since their breakfast I would consistently rate a 5+, the slight issues they had with this evenings service, I will give thus 4 stars. I will continue to be a regular breakfast guest and will very likely be back there for another evening meal.
Great local restaurant.

Having recently moved to Newport News I am constantly searching for good seafood restaurants. A long time resident referred me to The River Room at the Duke of York Hotel in Yorktown. My two friends and I ventured there last week and came away with mixed feelings. I ordered my beloved fried oysters and they were absolutely excellent. Some of the best I have ever had. The portion was so large I ended up taking some home and that has never happened before. I also tried the She Crab soup and it was excellent as well. One friend ordered Tilapia and that piece of fish covered the whole dinner plate. He said it was excellently prepared. The other friend ordered a medium steak. He liked his entrée very much too. They each had a salad that they agreed was uninspired. We all ate dessert. One had cheesecake and the other friend and I had bananas foster ice cream pie. We all liked our dessert. So why did I only give The River Room a three? In a word, décor. The hotel has 2 restaurants and at first we thought we had accidentally wandered into the casual breakfast/​lunch café. However, the hostess confirmed we were in the River Room. There are no table clothes on the old tables and the floor is old vinyl tiles. But we did have cloth napkins. It’s extremely casual but not in that hip, chic casual way. It just looks old and tired and a throw back to the 50s, but not in a «retro» sense. The biggest thing was the ceiling. Apparently there have been a leaks at some point in the distant past and the ceiling was repaired — poorly. More than one place had cracks and missing plaster. A real haphazard job at best. It looked like the ceiling might crumble around us. It just seemed like no one cared how the place looked. It wasn’t dirty but it was so unkempt that we all checked our silverware. At the high end prices they charge we all expected a much, much nicer dining experience. The general consensus was that we would go back for the food but it’s not a place for we would take visitors or consider for an «evening out». Too bad! The service was great. It could be a first class dining experience if they would just fix it up a little.

Any place on such a gorgeous body of water that serves breakfast until 4Pm is alright with me!

OMG! The absolute best crab cakes EVER. Not over or undercooked — just right (fried of course) The Island Eggrolls started the feeding frenzy! Fresh salad with HOMEMADE blue cheese dressing. On to desert… coconut cream and chocolate pie! Haaaa… now for a nice stroll along the beach! PERFECT.

Lobster Mac and cheese bisque for appetizer was so good we held off finishing it so we could have it for lunch the next day. The shrimp and crap scampi was wonderfully seasoned without being too much and was sufficient for the two of us to split. Finally, we had the «Fire & Ice» dessert (chocolate soufflé with Mint chocolate ice cream in a chocolate lattice round) and could have eagerly eaten a second – it was that wonderful! We got the bottle of Foxglove Chardonnay for $ 16 since individual glasses were already $ 7 each.
For our anniversary weekend this was a wonderful dinner out!

Great place! Lobster dien bien is wonderful if Jimmy is cooking. Large house salads are delicious. She crab soup is a must have! Expensive, but worth it for special occassions.