Fish Heads Bar and Grill

Great beer choices and ambiance. Nightly live music makes for a fun place to hang out with friends.

Great, fun pace! Our server was amazing and down to earth! I cannot wait to come back!

The waitresses here aren’t skilled to handle to high volume amounts of customers. DO NOT COME at happy hour! Although they advertise their delicious shrimp and many other happy hour specials, the waitresses aren’t trained for as many people as the pier can sit. In fact, you can not have multiple checks at one table. I’m dumbfounded at this as I have waited tables at 4 star dining restaurants for 9 years! The service here absolutely sucks!!! You might as well bring in a picnic. At least you will get what you ordered, not be charged 3 times and not have a waitress who cries to manager, who is her boyfriend, and then comes and embarrasses the whole table because his girlfriend waitress can’t take the order and literally has our whole table write it down! I’ve lived in 4 states, and 2 countries and I have never had such BAD service! The only thing good about this place or the karaōke (which is not associated with the restaurant). The amount of disrespect and accusation we received from the manager from writing down our own order (as the waitress instructed us to do so as she threw her tablet onto the table), we will never be back. 3 generations of business to NEVER return!

Used to be the place to go. Now owners and managers don’t care about customers or relationships with them. Typical bar food, have raised the price of happy hour shrimp to 15 cents each. Used to go once or twice a week, but after being treated like second hand citizens, won’t go back for quite a while nor would I recommend it.

Cheap beers. Chill bartenders. Awesome vibes. What more can you ask for??? Def a chill spot in south OBX!
I guess they get some pretty cool cover bands every few days during the summer, and it makes for a popular spot for locals. And if locals are there– it’s gotta be good!

Conch fritters and clam basket were great! Waiter was friendly and kids enjoyed watching the surfer

We went on a cooler day like many previous reviews. The entire area was packed and with only 2 servers food and drinks were a bit slow. The live music and view made up for the wait though. The conch fritters are a must try the rest of the food is what you’d expect from bar food, deep fried and delicious. I had originally ordered the crab cake only to find out they were out so that was a bit disappointing as well. Overall enjoyable experience and great place to go for an afternoon dinner.

Very nice staff. Good beer selection… the $ 0.15 shrimp are cooked very well but they are tiny!

Are you a hoity-​toity aristocrat? This is not the place for you. On the other hand, if you like a casual atmosphere, with spectacular ocean views, and a surprisingly wide variety of craft beers, you might want to check this place out. We came here during a bit of a gully warsher, and were concerned that the seaside location would make for an uncomfortable afternoon. To the contrary the bar is well sheltered and very homey. The service staff is attentive and friendly. The food ranges from simple grilled cheese to BBQ to unique seaside fare like conch fritters. Selfishly, I hope this location doesn’t become a tourist trap, but if you like good company while drinking in the afternoon, it’d be a great place to check out. And I imagine the outside deck would be wonderful to sit at, but given the gusting 45 mph winds when we were there, we might have been blown into the sea.

Came across Fish Heads while on vacation. Read the Unilocal reviews and decided to give it a try on a cold, windy day. They have a great beer selection and friendly atmosphere. Tried the happy hour shrimp and enjoyed it enough to come back the next day. Great prices, good food, lots of fun!

The fish tacos are delicious! The service was friendly and courteous. We really enjoyed the vibe, the view and the beers were good too!

The last day of the season! Super excited I was able to get their last Mirco stick! The waitress was gorgeous, super friendly! Drinks were cold and cheap! Can’t wait to try this place again

As we were leaving NC we stopped here for a snack and one last glimpse of the view. Even though it was the slow season this place was BUSY and had standing room only. The shrimp was good and cheap, but it would have been much more enjoyable if we weren’t surrounded by people waiting for our table.

I went there last night to eat with my family. It had high ratings on Unilocal and one $. That’s what I’m looking for.
This place seemed to be more for regulars who want to drink at a bar. One side of the restaurant was cold the other side was warm. We were advised by another customer to eat on the warm side. All of the chairs on the warm side were way too high. We had to jump up to sit on them.
The waitress was nice but she seemed a bit overwhelmed. It kind of showed in her customer service. The food came out really quick. That was nice. I got a fried clams. My mom got the fried shrimp. Everything that was fried seem to be overly fried. The shrimp and clams were crispy and quite hard. Good flavor though.

The brief sanctuary this place provided during the torrential downpour of Joaquin made sitting in a hurricane and being soaking wet during a beach trip we planned 4 months ago and could not get a cancellation/​refund on totally worth it. What an awesome spot connected to a fishing pier with friendly staff and a lot of locals.
The happy hour is LEGENDARY. 15¢ steamed shrimp, and Bell’s Oktoberfest and Land Shark for about $ 3… The spice on the shrimp was a perfect mouthwatering/​beer craving blend of old bay, salt, and heat… Honestly the perfect snack to pair with a nice cold beer on a beautiful or tumultuous weathered day. If I lived in or even nearish to nags head, this is where I’d be every day from 4−6PM and let’s be real, probably a lot longer. Rain or shine, if you’re in the area, be sure to make it in… I have definitely deemed it a mandatory stop whenever in OBX.

Fun place although I’m not sure this is the sort of place for families & kiddies; especially after 4pm.
This is a grill/​bar on fishing pier & is salty like the pier. This is not a family restaurant. Expect drunks, expect noise, expect crowds. We came here for Happy Hour, the beer special was $ 3.50 for a plaatic cup that will bring back days of keg parties. We ate the conch fritters with were nice & spicey if a little bready.
The real draw is $ 0.15 shrimp daily 4 – 6. Don’t expect awesome shrimp, we are on a fishing pier remember? But they are decent tasting & not terribly overcooked. They are 15 cent shrimp to wash down with beer. Realize this, relax, & enjoy yourself. Most of all, don’t sweat the petty things & don’t pet the sweaty things.

This place has a great beach vibe and a nice party atmosphere in the evenings. There was a live band and people dancing and a cool breeze coming off the ocean. We sat under the covered patio/​bar area with a great view. The food and beverage menu though was a major disappointment. Basically its all fried except for the burgers and shrimp, the shrimp made up for all the fried items however. They were seasoned so perfectly and I seriously could have eaten the whole half pound myself. I couldnt stop myself from licking my fingers, definitely a must have menu item. And then on to the drinks, they only serve beer and wine and I really wanted a piña colada! So hopefully they add some liquor soon otherwise its just a shrimp and beer place… Which is still a great thing!

It doesn’t get much better than this.
Took a day trip with the fam to Outer Banks, and thanks to the Unilocal reviews found this place, and they are not mistaken. The view alone is worth it! You eat outside on the pier both under and out of shelter.
I had the fish sandwich, it’s grilled with a special seasoning– and is amazing. Others at my table got the shrimp basket, and were far from disappointed.
Our server, Abram, was the best! Has a perfect personality for the job, and helped us arrive and leave smiling. Made some great memories, I have a feeling we’ll always look back and remember FishHeads pier as a perfect family memory.

Nice little oceanfront bar on the shores of Nags Head. Open air seating and excellent views from the pier. Decent prices and standard bar food. The sweet potato fries are delish. They have live music too, but I wasn’t there to witness that, heard it was always a good local band though.
I ordered a land shark with my shrimp basket and fries. I was given a nice portion of shrimp (tails still on) but I was not disappointed.
The only «downfall» is that the bathrooms are not in the restaurant, they are in a separate structure by the parking area.

«Local dive bar on a pier, but great food, price, & service»
Great lesson in not judging a book by its cover. We came here for dinner based on Unilocal reviews and were not disappointed.
Positives:
+ Service. Excellent– despite crowds, we were greeted promptly, food came fast, etc. Only trivial negative was that we had to ask a few times before getting drink refills, but our waitress was running all over trying to keep up with the huge crowd & still did well overall.
+ Food quality. We had the happy hour shrimp (15 cents each in multiples of 20), conch fritters, fish tacos, shrimp basket, and a hamburger. Every dish was EXCELLENT. Quantity was reasonable.
+ Value/​price. Pretty darn cheap for good seafood in Nags Head. Entrees were all under 10 dollars each.
Negatives:
— Setting. It was a bit loud with all the people and REALLY windy (sometimes blowing loose items), but both are to be expected for a popular place on a pier. Not super-​clean either, but again– dive bar.
Synopsis:
Would happily go here again. Definitely seems like a place locals frequent. I’m a fan now.