Matt’s Fish Camp

Excellent food here at Matt’s Fish Camp. Our waitress Tiffany offered wonderful suggestions. Great menu, fantastic beer and wine choices, and even my kids enjoyed. Don’t leave without getting the Key Lime Pie.

I’d like to start by saying I was very skeptical about the restaurant at first. The outside was unappealing, but family and friends made me realize that it isn’t on the outside that matters, it’s how the food tastes. Well, it looks like it was lacking on both areas. I had thought that the hostess was rude to begin with, but I kept thinking to wait until the food… I had the fried oysters, they weren’t awful, but they were very bland. Needs seasoning in the breading, tasted like there was none.
I felt sick towards the end of the meal, and it turns out I did get sick afterwards. I called to let the restaurant know to make sure they don’t serve those oysters to more customers to ensure their health, but they insisted that I was wrong. I didn’t get anything else but the fried oysters, so I don’t see how I was wrong.
To management — please ask the front staff to be more kind to their customers. It really turns customers off when they have a bad attitude and insist that you (the customer) is incorrect.

Casual cool beachy environment, overall service was excellent fair priced. Food was good only downside was one of my raw clams was off and my coffee was luke warm at best. My wife’s Cobb salad w/​lobster was excellent, my pasta with crab was good, Brussel sprout side dish along with the lobster bisque was excellent. Lastly the s’mores dessert was decadent.

Hidden in Coastal Highway Northbound is this quaint seafood restaurant. Excellent service, excellent food, no crowds likely secondary to is location.
Pro: You cant beat the happy hour. Both the drink specials and the appetizer specials are worth the trip.
Cons: Shrimp salad only had five shrimp in it. Avoid.
Unique: Get the mussels or the lobster roll. Trust me.

We have been frequent diners at Blue Coast, Northeast Seafood Kitchen and Matt’s Fish Camp for 10 years and have also had food catered by one of the restaurants for a holiday. Food is excellent and staff at Blue Coast and Northeast are friendly and attentive.
The reason for the 3 stars is the lack of customer service at Matt’s Fish Camp. Back in January I placed an order consisting of a lobster roll, parker house rolls and a bowl of soup and was told food would be ready in 20 – 25 mins. I arrived 30 mins after placing my order. My order and another woman’s order took another 30 mins. I was meeting friends out that night and the other woman who patiently waited for her order was expected to bring Matt’s Fish Camp food home to children. Imagine how cranky children are when they are hungry. We inquired about the status of our orders twice, when the manager tells us that whoever took the call should have told us it would take 45 mins. Ok, but it still took another 15 minutes after 45 mins from ordering our food. He didn’t apologize and didn’t offer us any drinks during our 30 minute wait. When our food was finally ready, the manager handed us SoDel gift cards for $ 50. I was still going to be late to meet my friends, but the gift card was a a nice way to make things up to me.
After being away from the beach for 5 months, we headed to Blue Coast over the weekend. At the end of our meal, we handed zour server our credit card and $ 50 gift card. He comes back and tells us there is no money on the gift card– ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! After all the money we spend at Matt’s (not to mention the other SoDel restaurants), I couldn’t believe Matt’s Fish Camp manager screwed me yet again. I wish I knew his name. It’s a poor reflection on Matt’s. Luckily the other restaurants aren’t run the same way.

I would have given this place 5 stars. Our food was delicious and the service was great. –However, nothing like asking for your bill, looking into the open kitchen area and then watching the manager of the restaurant **with her bare hands** eating from the potato chip container AND (those pickled cucumbers you were raving about) – oh yea, those have been contaminated too. Gross. Enough to never come back.

So glad we took our friends advice and had lunch here. My husband and I had crab cake sandwiches which were very good. We shared the brussel sprout special (yummy) and fries. Will definitely be back.

This was a somewhat odd meal. The red crab soup was delicious. The deviled eggs were excellent. My garden salad was put together well in a good sized bowl. My wife’s salmon and asparagus was a great meal for her taste.
I ordered a crab cake with the salad. It was 4 ounces. Yes, I said 4 ounces. The crab cakes in the Unilocal photos dwarf this crab cake. The service was very good and we tipped well
But a 4 ounce crab cake? Come on!

BEST kept secret between Bethany & Rehoboth! (Well, it’s not exactly a secret with a line around the block just to park on busy summer weekends.) One of the best dishes on the menu believe it or not is the fried chicken with bacon corn gravy over summer veggies. Yup. Bacon. Corn. Gravy. Get it. «Clam Stuffies» to start. Kids mac & cheese is delish. And last night I strayed from my usual & tried the lobster Reuben — best thing I’ve ever eaten! This 1950s style roadside seafood shack is worth a visit (time & again)!

Been here about a year ago with a large crowd. We got in pretty close to closing but the staff was awesome and the food was even better!
My wife and i came down for a night and stopped in for dinner. WOW!
Had the clam chowder and wedge salad. Both incredible. Then… they came. crabby tots!!!
OMG!!! The crispiest tots covered in a soft gooey crab BOMB and put under the broiler with a little cheese on top. All that and then the entrees came. Grilled salmon for her and camp stew for me. Camp stew was by far one of the best «ciopino’s» I’ve ever had. GREAT PLACE!!!

I would add if star if our server was better! In order to achieve greatness, everything must be perfect! Food was excellent– We had bacon crab dip to start, followed by Jambalaya and lobster tails. Great place– wish I could give them a 4.5.

Always when I visit Matts the food is great and the service is consistent. Got the colossal crab cakes tonight and bluefish dip, the veggies were also fresh and delicious. If your looking for good food at a reasonable price then by all means go to Matts

Simply, classic & traditional. A great family spot for seafood with an elevated twist. Despite the no frills and basic interior, there were some interesting ways they presented food and menu items. Our favorites were the:
1) Yellow & Pink Watermelon with spicy salt & lime: Refreshing and creative. The salt was mixed pink himalayan, pepper, and cayenne.
2) Lobster gumbo: Real lobster shell (kept whole, not chopped up). Great peppery & spicy flavor, not too overpowering. Ask for rice on the side to truly enjoy the gumbo sauce. They even elegantly had microgreens sprinked on top.
3) Salad: Surprisingly fresh & abundant (enough for 2 to share) with traditional lettuce and veggies (romaine, garden vegetables).

Very friendly staff. Good for kids as it is noisy and they offer high chairs. Fra Diablo is delicious.
Side salad is massive and enough to share with four!

I try not to leave poor reviews, but I feel compelled as I was quite upset with our experience here. I think this place receives good traffic because it is one of the only restaurants on this strip of coastal highway; it’s right across the street from the camp and RV site. We went when it was not busy, and our waitress really couldn’t be bothered with us.
My boyfriend got the blackened salmon, and it was undercooked in the middle (and for $ 21 you’d expect more). We split the deviled lobster eggs appetizer which were delicious. However, they brought us 3, which seemed a bit absurd, since we were obviously splitting the appetizer. I got the lobster roll and it was mediocre. The chips where good, but the lobster itself was too chewy.
I would not recommend this restaurant, and we regret choosing this place out of the many options you have in this area.

We really enjoyed our meal at Matt’s Fish Camp.
The décor is a step above a diner, very relaxed and casual. The staff is very friendly and the food is very good. We had:
Parker House rolls — delicious with butter and salt
Crab Balls — very good
Blackened Tuna — delicious but very large
Swordfish Steak — Extremely good
Apple Cobbler with Vanilla Ice Cream — Delicious
I would definitely recommend this restaurant.

We’ve been coming to Bethany Beach every summer for 20 years, so when we discover a great restaurant we want to share the news! This place was a great family restaurant with excellent food and service. It’s busy and bustling so arrive before 5 for dinner to avoid a wait. I’ve posted pics of our food choices, most of which we read on Unilocal before coming and we were not disappointed: Matt’s crab balls, hot bacon crab dip with kettle chips, iceberg wedge salad, 1 ½ pound lobster dinner, kids fried shrimp. All were fantastic. Dessert was worth staying for– especially the chocolate peanut butter pie and warm chocolate cake.
When in Bethany Beach, this place is a must! Plus you can watch the sunset over the bay while you enjoy your dinner!

I went to Matt’s Fish Camp with some girlfriends while visiting Bethany Beach on 7÷25÷15. I had heard about this place having passed through Bethany once before.
The service I thought was good to excellent. I always like it when the wait staff is familiar with their menu. Our waiter seemed to really know and enjoy the food at Matt’s Fish Camp.
The ambiance of this restaurant is very cool. They carry the idea of camping throughout the restaurant from the paper tablecloths to the name of their desserts.
My friend and I had the s’mores dessert and it was by far one of the best desserts I have ever had. However the amazing dessert is not enough for me to push this restaurant to 4 stars.
Both my girlfriends who ordered the friend clams did not enjoy them and I thought my fish and chips had a bit of weird aftertaste. The majority of the food is fried and although this was not issue for me forgoing my diet because well I was after all on vacation it doesn’t leave a lot of people with options.
In a nutshell, Matt’s Fish Camp is a cross between a fast food place and a more traditional seafood restaurant and although not my favorite seafood it is worth the trip for the fun ambiance and forgo your diet options.

Absolutely wonderful! I’ve been their twice now and my family and I love their food! The seafood always tastes fresh and even the fried food was great; definitely not greasy or oily tasting. The quality of the food was wonderful and the service was incredible too. It’s a small place that doesn’t look like much from the outside but the family friendly atmosphere is a great place to stop for lunch! All of the servers were polite and caring. We had a lady named Emily both times we visited-​incredible service.
It’s a must go!

Having visited Matt’s once a couple years ago we ending up back again twice in the same weekend. Well worth the drive to North Bethany we opted to go at off times knowing that there is usually a wait at dinner.
At 3:30 for a late lunch we stopped in in search of a soft shell crab sandwich. We were lucky that they had them because the specials menu changes each day based on availability. It was large and perfectly fried. MFC has completely perfected their deep frying. The fried shrimp are the best I’ve had outside of New England. Not greasy and a great flavor. Pay a little extra for garlic parsley fries because they are tasty too. Our second day’s onion rings were crispy and delicious as well with a nice little mustard cream but I think their tartar sauce is addicting. The rings are large and two of us had trouble finishing the plateful, better for sharing.
I made the mistake that I think I made last time of getting a lobster roll. The meat is great but needed more butter, sadly the whole experience ends up being a little dry. We had the blackened mahi two days in a row, once as an entrée with green beans (toothsome and well seasoned) and once as a sandwich. I preferred the entrée because the soft texture of the potato roll was not not a contrast enough for the tender fish.
Our second day in additon to fish sandwich and onion rings, I wanted to try a bunch of appetizers instead of a meal. You can’t go wrong with any of the ones we chose. The clam stuffies had a refreshing lemony tang, you get three to an order. The smoked bluefish dip came with an abundance of saltines and had great flavor. the bowl of clam chowder was chock full of vegetables and bacon in addition to the clams, a great smoky flavor that I couldn’t get enough of. I also had an order of potato salad that was enough for two to share and then some with all the food we had. All in all I would definitely go back to Matt’s next trip to OC. They know food!