Petey’s Summertime Seafood & Bar

Always get the fried whole belly clams and my partner gets the fried lobster, share onion rings. Always great food, fast, and excellent service. I had the fried seafood platter before– very tasty. Parking always an issue. Plenty of cold beer. Get your beach fix here.

We stopped in on our drive from Boston to Kennebunkport– the bartender was so friendly and welcoming. The atmosphere was perfect for a relaxing lunch. We ordered the shrimp cocktail to start — were amazing! Cooked perfectly and super tasty. Then we got a lobsta roll and coleslaw… was beyond fabulous… exceeded our expectations! Hope to return some day soon!

Amazing coleslaw! Fish and chips were good. The coconut shrimp were good also. Don’t recommend the lobster bisque. Great service and atmosphere.

Good food but outrageously priced. Super busy and close to beach. Prices are out of line.

…long time New Englanda’ hea’…from Salisbury, MA… first time I came here too. Was just back on a visit and took my mother here for lunch. We both ordered the same items, Seafood Chowder and a «Lobster Roll».
The Seafood Chowder was tasty…
Our waitress was good and timely…
…my issue is, being a New Englander… when I order a Lobster Roll, as it is called out on the menu… I expect to receive a Lobster Roll. A toasted hot dog roll on a flattop grill w/​butta and a pile of Lobster crammed in that «roll». What I received was nothing of the sort, my «Lobster Roll» came out on a «Hamburger Bun» GRRRRRRRR!!! …this is wrong on so many levels. I am completely let down and will never return based off of a New England classic having been ruined.

Great food across the board from apps to entrees fantastic steamers great clam chowder. lobster pie is delicious giant chunks of lobster meat and a great seafood stuffing for folks not wanting seafood they have great selection of steaks and chicken the Jamacian jerk style chicken has a nice kick, their filet is steak house worthy.

It’s worth the wait guys! This place is the real deal for fresh seafood. The parking lot is always packed so bring your patience but it’s worth the wait! I have had a variety of fresh seafood here and that’s what they do best. From lobster tail on a stick to coconut shrimp to fully broiled seafood dinners you won’t be disappointed by the freshness! There are three options: eat in the dining room, eat at the bar, or walk up to the takeout window and order with limited outdoor seating (my preference is to take it to the beach!). I definitely go for the seafood and not the rest — the sides are average and I have had anything else from the menu. The service is quick and the crowd is a testament to the food!

Went up here today for some fish, not a fan, but do eat it on occasion.
I took my mom and uncle. I had the haddock nuggets, i would have had the haddock plate
but i like the small chunks better, you get fries and i opted for a side of onion rings to share with everyone. they are not thin or thick but pretty good.
mom and uncle got, clam plates. fresh and good portions.
its a small place and packed inside and the wait was only 10 minutes outside
you can also eat at the picnic tables or in your car. theres less than six.
parking is not well organized.
i would say to change the trash bin or add another on, it seems to fill up quickly.

This place is awesome! I had (2 1.25lb lobsters with fries and coleslaw, for $ 24.99!!) it was awesome. The place has a local vibe and is extremely casual which is good because the water from the lobsters go everywhere. I will definitely be going here again, the next time I’m in the area.

Kush stop by here for lunch the clam bellies with delicious little pricey but was worth it

Was driving up through Hampton this am & decided to stay North on 1A and happened to come across Petey’s and was literally pulling in the parking lot to turn around & saw a sign out front for Live Lobsters (as I eat Lobster almost weekly — Hey its full of protein so its good for me, right?!)
So I went in & «Thought» I was walking in the take out area, but was in the main restaurant and the place is super cute & quaint. Soft Reggae playing in the background & just a real good vibe of a place.
I was instructed to go back outside to the Take Out window (it was ’12 today, brrrr…)
I go over to the window to order a few lobsters & am told to wait as the kid didnt know about lobster. Um weird, but ok.
Woman comes over tells me all about them & prices and different options (small, large, Hard, soft. You know all the stuff)
She then tells me to come back inside as they have to weigh them out. Now at this point Im a little taken back, couldnt I have just stayed inside originally, but whatever.
Now again I have been eating lobster almost weekly for as long as I can remember and never have had to wait this long… It took easily 5 minutes, Now again Im not sure if they literally just caught them and were cleaning them out, taking them out of a net, Not sure. But it took way too long and I felt weird just standing in the middle of the restaurant… But they were cheap, so no biggie.
I ordered 1 ¼’s but when I got home they appeared TINY. again, no biggie. So for Live Lobster might not frequent here, but for food when in the area again, will DEF stop in & try, the menu looked DELISH & the place was super cute!

I was expecting so much more just by how popular I’ve heard it is! But maybe it was their crab cakes that threw me off. Or all of the disposable eating utensils. you don’t have to dress up to eat here — very casual. I don’t even know if they require shoes?
Cute beach shack themed restaurant off of 1-​A in Rye. We came on a gorgeous evening, but still too cold to sit outside.
They have a pretty large seafood menu. A ton of fried options, and some fresh fish too.
I ordered a lobster bisque to warm up. It was rich, but a little lukewarm. It came in a cardboard bowl and I was worried it had just been nuked in he microwave.
I got the spinach salad and wanted to add a crab cake on it but the server said she could only charge me for the full appetizer. Well alright i guess… so she brought out the appetizer to share and til came with two perfectly circular patties. I am from Va and grew up in Maryland crab cakes and these were nowhere near a crab cake. I mean maybe I’m jaded, but I don’t think I tasted even a lump of crab meat. It was filled with filler… but perfectly fried :) the salad was very tasty with the added crab circle.
I’d give this place another try given how big the menu is.

Awesome fast good seafood with great service. We really enjoyed the clam chowder in a bread bowl — clam chowder ranks at the top of clam chowders with a good amount of clam. The bread bowl was perfect — soft and fluffy bread with a perfect crisp all on the outside.
Then we got the 3 fried basket of clams, oysters and sea scallops over a bed of fries with a side of delicious cole slaw. Perfectly done and so tasty!

On a windy, windy road on 1A outside Portsmouth, NH near a beach area called Rye sits Petey’s. You’ll know you’re there when you begin seeing cars parking along the roadside and filling the parking lot and a crowd gathered outside. Your cell phone will also have zero service!
Locals had highly recommended Petey’s to us as the best, freshest, lowest priced lobsters around & they were correct. At $ 22.99 for 2 lobsters & 2 sides per person, we didn’t hesitate to order up.
We surprisingly got seated immediately in the bar area at a high top that was just vacated & Cathy, our server, made sure we didn’t feel forgotten at all while we waited for our food. We sensed it wouldn’t be quick because all those cars & people were clearly there for the same reason as us. We also heard a bartender saying they had to shut the kitchen down on Saturday for 1.5 hrs just to get caught up on orders. Thankfully that didn’t happen again.
In about 30 minutes our lobsters appeared and then the happiness began. They were absolute perfection! It doesn’t get fresher and more delightful in Lobster-​Land than Petey’s! This is absolutely why you visit New England!!!

I saw some good reviews of Petey’s and really was excited to bring my family there on our trip to the beach. On our first trip there it was very busy about a 40 min wait which we were fine with. We were seated at 2 separate tables as we had 6 in our party. The server was courteous and took our order we had soup and appetizers and I had the platter with whole clams scallops and shrimp. When I got my meal the there were no shrimp on my plate and I got clams strips instead of whole clams. When I mentioned it to the server the second she handed me my meal she said no there are shrimp on there. I showed her by moving the contents of my platter to prove there were no shrimp and that I got clam strips instead of whole clams. She took the plate back and I did get it back correct. The following weekend I brought my family back to give it another go.
This time I ordered whole clams fried oysters and jumbo shrimp a $ 7 up charge, again no shrimp again the server insisted they must be there again I had to prove they weren’t, I asked ger to skip it as I thought it would be too much food. In addition my daughter ask for a fork and the server said it’s right there, there was no fork given to begin with again we had to show her there is no fork before getting one. Lastly the bill came and (even though I had ask that the shrimp to be removed, since they were never on my plate) the shrimp were still on the bill. I did some simple math and removed it before adding the tip.

You know when you ask people in a strange town where the locals go and they give you a place? Sometimes I swear they are delusional or they are getting some sick kick out of telling you some ridiculous place. And what do they have to lose? You’ll never see them again to tell them they have crappy taste. So you take your chances. Well, Petey’s is one such place we were told about. Although this time it was a WINNER! You could tell right away as you walked in — locals. Don’t ask me how I knew but oh, I knew. Now THIS is what I’m looking for!
Away from town and out of the traditional trolling area for tourists, this is a gem of a divey, diverse, all purpose hot spot. So hot the gravel parking lot was packed to the max and people (including me) had to park along the roadside despite the no parking signs. Yeah, it’s that good. I mean, who serves fresh caught steamed lobsters AND has a soft serve ice cream window? And has an old school crowded bar with Christmas lights hanging above it? Yeah, pretty much has all the bases covered right there. Lot of Coors Light, Miller lite and well martinis going down all around me. Almost ruined my appetite. Almost.
We sat in the bar cause we could get a table right away. Crowded but ok. Both ordered the twin lobster dinner complete with 2 sides for $ 22.99. Wow. These were things of beauty and so fresh and delicious! I had a smile on my face for a long time. So good. Service was absolutely superb which was shocking considering the crowd they had. Loved this place. Maybe if I had gotten an ice cream cone on the way out I would have upped the rating to 5 stars…

This place is god awful
Lobster bisque was terrible, excessive salt and bland
The haddock plate was greasy and spongy
Actually believe it was cod not haddock
The French fries were retried, hard and stale
Horrible place
Never again
There far superior sea food around

Our first visit ever to Petey’s had been in July 2013, heading north on Route 1A after spending the morning on Hampton Beach. During that visit, Sis and I shared a most excellent and more than ample fried seafood platter. We were so looking forward to our second visit, and arrived on this Wednesday afternoon for a very late lunch, this time after frying on the beach at Wallis Sands State Beach, just north of Petey’s on Route 1A in Rye, for a few hours.
After circling around several times and finally securing a space in their parking lot (and this wasn’t easy. Parking at Petey’s is tight and in no way sufficient for the amount of business they do), we more or less seated ourselves on their upper deck, the area being about half full with diners. Our view of the shoreline across the street was good and there was a bit of a breeze on this particularly steamy day, augmented by a large fan near our table for two.
We started off with frozen strawberry daiquiris ($ 9 each). While the drinks tasted good and were refreshing, although on the small side, they were nicely dolloped with aerosol whipped cream but the taste of rum was negligible.
My small casserole dish of crumb-​topped broiled sea scallops ($ 20.99) were cooked well, served along with a medium baked potato (two pats of frozen butter and a small container of sour cream on the side) and Petey’s excellent slaw. Sis’s deep fried seafood platter ($ 27.50 + $ 1.00 surcharge for whole belly clams), although gargantuan in size, was a bit disappointing. The platter consisted of mostly fries and tiny fried Maine shrimp. She had to rout out the meager amounts of smallish fried clams and sea scallops. The few small pieces of pristinely white haddock thrown in were very good. The platter was also served with a goodly portion of that excellent slaw.
Our bill was just over $ 94 including tax but not tip (service was decent). A pretty hefty price for lunch for two, I thought, although we did each have another daiquiri (our bar bill alone was $ 36).
Prices seem to be really climbing at Petey’s. The blackboard market price for steamed twin hard shell chicken lobsters that day was $ 30.99. That’s quite a mark-​up since they advertised a price of $ 6.99/pound for live lobster (Petey’s catches their own and has a fish shack/​fish market just down the road).
Although Petey’s prices have gotten higher and the seafood platter is full of «cheap fillers,» we’ll most likely return when we’re in the Rye area because we do enjoy the atmosphere and view from the upper deck. We’ll just be more careful about what we order.

Every time we come to visit, Petey’s is a stop! Their baked haddock never disappoints and they pack on the meat on their lobster rolls.
The service is great. Melinda is wonderful, specifically.
Check them out and enjoy fresh seafood while looking out to the Atlantic Ocean.

A little mid-​week escape north landed us at Petey’s. I was here when I was much younger, but didn’t quite remember my experience so we stopped in on our drive along the coast. It is a no-​frills building and very casual, but just the type of place I love after a day at the beach. Petey’s offers a bar and a couple different rooms for dining. There is an upper deck with more seating options and an ocean view. Seafood lovers can choose to dine in or use the take out window. There are a few picnic tables available outside as well. Petey’s is a great summer venue and is also open year round.
According to their website, Petey’s has won several awards for their seafood and they even catch their own lobsters. I tried the fish chowder today and thought it was truly amazing. It was filled with large pieces of fish and had a light, buttery consistency. It was hard to stick to my diet today, but I went with the broiled haddock as a healthier option. It was very good, but next time I am definitely going to have to try those fried clams they seem to be famous for.
Since it is off-​season we were seated quickly, but during the summer I have noticed Petey’s is often extremely busy so do plan on a wait for a table. It is, however, totally worth the wait.