Prime Only

Prime Only is closed
New owners Né menu
Stop by Fireflys!

For our anniversary we went to the Outer Banks and Prime Only was the choice for the «big anniversary dinner». The outside of the building is pretty unassuming and almost is a turn off but once inside it feels like you are in someones dimly lit nice house, an odd atmosphere for a restaurant.
We were there on an off peak night and there was on;y one waitress on duty and we were sat at the same time as another couple so she was running pretty good there until we got a bit spaced out. But she still did a good job.
Lets talk about the high points first:
1. Price, the price (coming from DC prices) is very reasonable and each steak came with two sides which is not usually the case for a «fancy» steakhouse.
2. The wedge salad, yummy crisp lettuce, blue cheese, don’t ask any more just get it!
3. Fillet, the steak was good, tender juicy and flavorful everything I was looking for.
4. Mashed potatoes, creamy with buttery goodness but done with red skin potatoes and the skins were bended right in, a good side.
5. Ribeye, the hubby got the ribeye and it was perfectly cooked, tender and flavorful, albeit a bit too fatty for me.
The Bad (Or simply not the best)
1. The bread, it tasted like it came straight out of a Wonder Bread bag, definitely not homemade, hot but not fresh.
2. Wine list, I really wasn’t impressed with the wine by the glass list, can’t speak to the bottle list but the glass that I got was simply meh, I’ve definitely had better.
3. The crab on top of my steak. I ordered my fillet «Oscar style «so it came with jumbo lump crab, asparagus and holandaise sauce. Now I like to taste my steak so I asked for the sauce on the side and I don’t know if this is why but the crab came out dry and really didn’t look like jumbo lump, only one lump in the whole stack
Overall the best meal we had in the OBX, not the best in our lives.

After a heated debate over the potential pitfalls of choosing to dine on Tex-​Mex and Caribbean food in a land of beach restaurants, my fellow vacationer and I opted to try Prime Only, a small steakhouse with a fabulous glossy photo in our vacation guide that also came highly recommended by our hotel’s desk staff. To be honest, the promise of blue cheese olives in my martini is what really compelled me to shrug into a breezy summer dress at lightning speed and race to the restaurant.
The Prime Only exterior looks a bit like a small Southern brick mansion, with white columns and high windows. Once inside, a lovingly worn center staircase leads you up to a traditional wood bar with a gregarious, skilled bartender at the helm. While enjoying an impeccably mixed Grey Goose martini with four hand-​stuffed blue cheese olives, he showed me the implement he uses to stuff the olives, and let me stuff one of my own. Yum! Prime Only is also billed as a martini bar, and has a wonderful selection of themed martinis. The chocolate martini is rich, boozy, and excellent.
The meal was also outstanding. The menu is not adventurous, but features delightful standards that are beautifully executed. Our shrimp cocktail displayed six jumbo shrimp with sweet, delicate flesh that perfectly popped as we bit into them. My filet mignon, topped with blue cheese, was tender and flavorful, and my companion’s blackened shrimp were wonderfully spicy and smoky. And then there was the creamed spinach, which was so good that I had to calm myself to savor its blend of fresh spinach, crème fraîche, and garlic. Dessert, unfortunately, was not a consideration.
The dining room’s ambiance is somewhat strange, as it is awkwardly divided by the staircase, and there are some tables that seem too closed in by the walls and pillars. I am also not a fan of smooth jazz, which played lightly in the background throughout the night. And, though our waitress was very friendly, she was a bit too fond of complaining about some of the other patrons. Still, I would return in a second for Prime Only’s steaks and martinis. Recommended.