Fishy Business at Bluewater – Restaurant Review

One of the benefits of life in the Virginia Beach area is the abundance and quality of local seafood. But not everyone wants to pay high prices at a fine dining establishment or seafood buffet. For the diner seeking a casual atmosphere, Bluewater Seafood offers down-home cooking at an affordable price.

Owned and operated by the same family for 31 years, the restaurant specializes in Southern-style food. Steve and Sharon Lopes share the cash register and the kitchen. Whole fish, raw fillets, oysters, scallops and curled shrimp gleam wetly on ice in the display cases at the back of the restaurant. Fresh, low-priced raw seafood may be brought home to be cooked, and food may be ordered to-go. A catering menu is also available.

When ordering seafood, the owners will ask you to select your choice from the display, or choose crab from the freezer. If desired, they will cook it for you on the spot—fried or steamed. Interested? Take a look at Bluewater’s diverse menu.

For lunch, I usually order a fried whiting or pollock fillet platter with sweet cornbread, green beans swimming in butter, candied yams and sweet tea. The cost of one of these platters with cornbread or hushpuppies, two vegetable sides, and excellent sweetened or unsweetened iced tea is $10. The amount of fish served with the platter is generous considering the price. Both of these fish are mild in flavor, flaky and moist. The batter at Bluewater Seafood is light and crispy. Watch out for small bones in the whiting and other smaller fish fillets.

When eating in, food is served in Styrofoam boxes with plastic eating utensils. Care is advised. The meal arrives hot enough to burn the roof of your mouth. In the past, I have also ordered steamed blue crab and snow crab legs. The juicy crabmeat will have you licking your fingers and wiping melted butter off your chin. Cracking crab claws can be messy and challenging. Plastic utensils aren’t up to the task, so bringing your own claw crackers and mallet is advised.

Items on the menu also include frog legs for the more adventurous diner, flounder for the more traditional, and chopped pork barbecue for those who prefer to leave the fish in the sea.  Dessert offerings include slices of Cheesecake Factory cheesecake and homemade banana pudding. This pudding is so popular, that it frequently sells out. Some locals call ahead and time their arrival at the restaurant so that they may eat the yummy dessert while it’s still warm.

So whether you are searching for comfort food or simply looking for a tasty treat, be sure to stop in for a bite to eat.

Bluewater Seafood at Woods Corner Shopping Center, 1920 Centerville Tpke, Virginia Beach, (757) 479-2823, Wed - Thu11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m., Fri & Sat11:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.