In Kitty Hawk, specifically, there’s:
Rundown Cafe
Kitty Hawk, NC
So good that we went to this place twice (both for lunch and dinner) last summer as this 14-year-old Outer Banks restaurant serves not only "Caribbean / Pacific Rim-influenced cuisine" but also straight-up fish (had the Mahi Mahi), great salads (featuring game fish) and an equally-inspired children’s menu (including my seven-year-old enjoying the Rundown Cafe’s "tuna bites" — hand-breaded fresh tuna then deep fried to a crusty decadence). Good stuff.
In neighboring Kill Devil Hills, there’s:
Kill Devils Frozen Custard
Kill Devil Hills, NC
Last summer, we hit this place numerous times for the best darned true frozen custard on the Outer Banks. Opened just five years ago (or, as they like to put it, "100 years after the Wright Brothers took off on their historic flight from Kill Devil Hills on December 17, 1903"), Kill Devil’s Frozen Custard & Beach Fries is a dessert oasis serving handmade cones, sundaes, shakes and the like. They serve lunch and dinner, too, which we did not get a chance to try but which looked great including scrumptious looking "beach fries" (hand-cut and fried in peanut oil), 1/4 pound burgers and dogs which you can get as a corn dog, Coney Island-style (which they bill as using the "original Coney Island recipe dating back to the early 1900s" creating an "old fashioned, snap-in-your-mouth dog") and, I believe for an additional 50-cents, they’ll even deep fry your hot dog.
Also in neighboring Kill Devil Hills is:
Dare Devil Pizzeria
Kill Devil Hills, NC
Classic pizzeria located at Mile Marker 9 on the Beach Road, this place serves delicious, hand-tossed pizza. Period. Very, Very good.
Finally and as has been touted on this site previously, in Nags Head (south of Kitty Hawk), there’s:
Sam & Omies
Nags Head, NC
Really, is there a better place for breakfast or what in the Outer Banks? Casual. 70-years-young this year. And a great mix of locals and tourists (seemingly in equal parts).
On a disappointing note [:(] , however (and in addition to us never making it off the central Outer Banks to go to our favorite and some previously hailed dining spots including Jolly Roger in Ocracoke and the Orange Blossom Bakery on Hatteras Island) was Miller’s Restaurant in Kill Devil Hills.
I remember going to the sound front version of this restaurant in Nags Head about five or six years ago and fondly recalled both the great food and classic, "old Nags Head" feel of the place (weathered shingles, overly varnished tables, not particularly overly-decored dining rooms a la OBX’s newer eateries) but the Beach Road version of this place was just bland. The allegedly handmade hushpuppies were bland. My broiled grouper was so bland I can only recall such as a translucent slab of drab sea meat. Ugh. The kids’ shared entrees or orders off of the children’s menu were eq,20,298924.002,1,14245,70.169.166.136
298925,298924,298924,2007-05-08 15:33:46,RE: Kitty Hawk Area”