Harpoon Larry's Oyster Bar

When a local says they go here after their shift, it's worth a try. It is not fancy or high end. It may not even be clean. I always question an establishment with a fish tank in the wall, that isn't very clean. The nightly specials might be the hook. Friday night was a 9 oz prime rib with 2 sides and 2 hush puppies. The portion is large and was a good cut of meat. The "best selling" Mac and Cheese was more of a heart attack than flavorful.We ordered 3 and were all satisfied with the beef and the hush puppies. One fish special and it was gone before I could snap a pic.Service staff was friendly and had a good sense of humor, which we appreciated. We were a party of 4 with lots of questions.

First and last time there. Ordered the crab stuffed baked shrimp. Shrimp wasn't stuffed. The dish is 4 small crab patties with shrimp on top. Had the Mac and cheese and red potatoes as my sides. Neither were good. Potatoes were over seasoned and there was nothing good about the Mac and Cheese.Avoid this restaurant if you're expecting good food. Not really a family friendly place based on the music played.

I'll start with the good:The star of the show was their hush puppies. If I'm in the area again, I'd definitely try ordering some to go.It was Monday, so we got (steamed) oysters for 99 cents. The waffle fries are pretty good.The server was very nice with each interaction. There was a problem with the surf and turf sliders, causing them to come out really late so they gave us a salad and added a crab cake slider all on the house. The not so good:All of the food took a pretty long time to come out. Don't come here if you're short on time.Don't order the clam chowder if you expect it to be creamy. Theirs is basically in a clear broth and did not taste like anything we expected. The mac n cheese was 'ok'. They use penne pasta (which is fine), but it was more oily/greasy than creamy and could have used a bit of salt.

We are locals, stopped in during Neptune festival, every place else was packed.... So since there were seats at the bar we stayed and got drinks. We then ordered seafood nachos to share, as recommended by bartender... don't was basically waffle fries with some sauce and a few shrimp and 2 clams. We didn't come close to finishing it. It was messy, so we needed silverware which I had to ask for, we were handed a fork and a napkin. 2 of us, 1 fork, 1 napkin 15 minutes or more into our visit... bartender was polite, but this place is filthy. Behind bar are wires, old signs, styrofoam cups that have writing on that have been sitting for years, not kidding. Probably a memory from a former customer, but seriously?? The dust was unbelievable and updating is way overdue. I don't know how this place is still in business. Sad.

We come to Virginia Beach once a year to work the Shamrock Marathon and Harpoon Larry's is always the first place we eat at. After discovering this local spot in 2015 it has become a tradition to eat here. They have great deals on drinks daily and have some of the best seafood around. We LOVE the Ultimate Nachos and order them every time we go. The nachos are made on waffle fries and are stacked high with queso and seafood and are always SO delicious. The staff is always friendly and helpful no matter if you sit in the bar area or the dining room. You can tell that it is very much a locals bar and hangout and a lot of people seemed to know each other. On this most recent trip we ended up eating here twice and both times it reminded me of why we love coming to Harpoon Larry's so much. See you next year!!

These folks have a pretty lousy review history. In all honesty, would have gone elsewhere if we had checked Yelp in advance. That said, none of what others are complaining about happened to us. It was a beautiful December day in the 60s when we stopped in. Waitress and bartender were both very friendly and conversational. We sat at the bar and ordered a couple of Bloody Mary's and a beer. Those were followed by a dozen oysters on the half-shell and a dozen steamed clams. Oysters were shucked right in front of us. Clams were steamed at the end of the bar where we were sitting. Everything was locally-sourced, fresh and delicious!Admittedly, we visited when the tourists are elsewhere and that could make all the difference in the world. Still though, a great experience the one time I visited.

Raw oysters are great. ! $2.00 can't beat that. Ambiance and service is pretty decent. I always visit this place when I'm in the 757

Fun atmosphere, good food. I came here for a big client dinner. I ordered the blackened rock fish dish with a side salad and hush puppies. They cooked the rock fish perfectly, the side salad was adequate, only two hush puppies came with the meal. I would've liked to see at least 4 hush puppies for how much we paid for the meal. They do have a good selection of NA beers which was nice to see for a change. My food came in last to the table about 30 minutes after everyone else's food. The only reason I didn't give it 3 stars was because the fish was well prepared and the server did a great job.

Food wasn't worth the hour wait on the fried pickle chip basket. The atmosphere was stanky.The only positive thing I have to say about this establishment is that the drinks are strong. Get the rum runner, sit at the bar because you may get the server with the worst halitosis you've ever smelt.

Please do not mistake this location with the restaurant in Newport News. The service & food quality is not at all comparable. I came during the holiday weekend. And I thought that may be the reason for the slow service. However I completely understand why this establishment received such low star reviews. Aside from waiting 40 minutes for food to be brought to the table, we had to ask multiple times for one fountain drink refill. One of our party of 5 sat at the table for no food for an additional 15 minutes. The server was not very attentive and threw things (straws, plastic utensils, napkins) on the table which we felt was very rude. But because we struggled so hard to find parking we toughed it out because we were hungry. I personally was unable to eat IN the restaurant because after waiting 40 minutes for the food to show up I had to leave to make another event.The food quality is also pretty low. I ordered the baked stuffed shrimp. When it arrived there were 4 small shrimp placed on top of charred crab cakes. They were far from stuffed. The vegetables were cold & the fries were undercooked. I would recommend any other seafood restaurant than this place. The bathrooms were also very unkempt. Some of things could have been communicated to management had someone, anyone come to our table to even just check on us. It was an extremely underwhelming dining experience which is disappointing seeing as we were here with out of town family members.