O’Sullivan’s Wharf

This is for the new Western Branch location. I ordered the filet fish. It came with fries and coleslaw. The Fish was really decent and only thing that would have improved it would be a thicker crispy layer on the outside and some seasoning. Oddly enough the coleslaw was the real winner out of my meal. Very good. The fries were reminiscent of old reheated burger King fries, so I would avoid them. It’s a bit pricey here for the amount of food you get but it wasn’t a terrible experience. I might go again as I hear the trash can lid nachos are amazing and that’s more my speed anyways.

The Saturday night Church group convened here, we ordered hush puppies, crab cake sandwich, broiled scallops, shrimp scampi, and beef nachos. Everyone enjoyed their dish. The service was just a little slow, I think because they were busy earlier and they were playing catch up. The waitress was nice and prompt. A nice place to keep on the list.

I had hair in two seperate dishes I had here: the sampler and salmon. Service was horrible. I will definitely not be returning.

Wow last night was horrifying. I where to listen to a band and just a couple of songs into it the manager started yelling and belittling the band. I will never step foot in there again.

So! Myself and my date went there last night, 4÷10÷15 to see a local band (Feral) that we both enjoy very much, as well as to have dinner and a few drinks. Minutes into the bands opening set, a man, later identified as the manager, started giving the band so much crap, yelling and acting like a frickin fool, that we decided to NOT have dinner! We paid our drink tab, and decided to leave as it was also apparent that the band also was not going to continue playing that evening. We will NEVER return to that establishment and will advise all of our friends to also find another place to go!
To the owners of O’Sullivan’s Wharf… Your evening manager that night is NOT someone that will keep your customers coming back, and I’m sure that the local bands and musicians will also stay away from your establishment as well!

Went in on a Wednesday for their all you can eat crab legs. Great hush puppies, adequate salad which is all very well and good. The crab legs were a different story altogether. More work than it is worth and when you can actually find some meat anywhere, it has that mealy sort of consistency that makes you wish you had not bothered. This place is a friendly hangout and I will return but not for the crab legs. On a different note I have had the Caesar salad with blackened tuna medium rare several times which is always great.

Disregarding many of the reviews pertaining to this restaurant, I and a party of five others made reservations at this restaurant. A colossal mistake!!! This has to be one of the worst eateries I’ve experienced.
The food was horrid. It was I’ll prepared, the fish was far too spicy, the Cole slaw tasted spoiled, the French fries were very greasy, and it took more than 45 minutes to get served.
When making reservations I asked if the radiant had seating near a window and if there was scenery, and was told, yes. Wrong!!! We sat at a table near the bar where there were customers who clearly had been served beyond what they should have been.
One customer, as we stood by a Christmas tree to take pictures took the ‘foolish’ liberty of standing in front of me with my grandson as my wife prepared to take the picture, which she did solely to get him to relent. Which he still didn’t do for another 5 to 10 minutes. HE WENT ON AND ON!
The bathrooms reeked with the smell of rank piss, the urinals were very exposed to persons entering as well as those inside the latrine. They were inept and in dire need of cleaning and remodeling as is the entire place.
Upon parking, which has its on story, we noticed that a window which showed to be at the kitchen was scantily covered with APRONS being used for window curtains. Typically, I give a lot of consideration to reviews, this time I didn’t and failed myself and my family.
Also, I try during reviews to tell the pros and the cons. I just did, if you get my drift. O’Sullivans you’re a low class BAR fancying as a restaurant and failing miserably. I realized this is a harsh review but the best I can give and be candid.
If I was advising this restaurant and it’s owners my advise would be simple. Close the door and allow the 3 employees that were on duty and any others that you employ to go find employment at a real establishment.

I’ve been going to O’Sullivan’s for 25 years. The food was always good. Giant nacho trays, light, crispy fried fish, tasty appetizers. Recently the food has gone down. Way down. Last night both the hush puppies and the fish were overly done. The batter was fried to a deep, dark brown. The fish was inedible and I sent it out. The second plate came back with a lighter color but the fish had not been drain at all. Oil pooled on my plate and was not appetizing. My wife at the chicken cheese, bean soup. It was too heavily salted. Truthfully I don’t think the chef (cook?) tasted the soup after it was prepared. This is the third time in a row that we have been disappointed with our meal at O’Sullivan’s, and we won’t try it anymore. A real loss.

This used to be my favorite place to get nachos in Norfolk when I was in college. I decided to stop by tonight while in town and was so disappointed. I ordered the nachos and they came out with unmelted cheese… I mean, straight out of the bag, unshredded cheese throughout the entire dish. The only reason this place will get 2 stars instead of 1 is because Liz (the manager) was very professional and gave me a refund.

I took my girlfriend out on Monday (Memorial Day) to get some seafood. It seemed like a cool place and it was close to the house. We showed up around 5 pm and sat outside. There were about 20 other customers there (not eating, just drinking for the holiday). So I figured that the wait wouldn’t be to long for the food to come out. But to my suprise, the salad came out about 20 minutes after we ordered and I was told that it would be just a few minutes and the food would be out. The waitress appoligized and said that the food would be just a few minutes. 45 minutes later me and the girlfriend got up and left to go find another place to celebrate our Memorial Day. I spoke with «the Manager» (some guy at the bar) who could care less about our wait time. I paid him his $ 5.30 for the side salad and the iced tea. He never showed interest or inquired about why we waited, nor did «the Manager» even make eye contact as he stared at his computer screen (slouched over the bar). I then asked for the Owners information and he handed me a card that didn’t say his name, and told me it was a guy named Dave.
Just an overall horbile experience at this place, and I wanted people to know how they treat people. So unless you are a customer that frequents this place then I suggest don’t waste your time. The service is horrible and the manger could care less if you are there for food.
Thank you Dave for representing Norfolk and keeping new customers from enjoying your restaraunt/​bar.

So when you drive up, it looks like a hole in the wall but don’t be fooled! This place is great! We came on unlimited shrimp night and it was heaven! Loved the option for outdoor and indoor seating. If you sit on the dock just make sure you do have some mosquito spray since it is on the water. Was cool being able to watch the boats ride up to the dock.
We we’re seated in less than 2 mins. Service was prompt and accurate. Our hostess and server were very efficient. We were going to order to go at first but after the hostess told us about the specials if we eat in, we decided to stay. Not only that but the area and staff were very inviting.
The broiled crab cake was cooked to perfection. Not dry or over cooked. Very well seasoned and kept the flavor. The hush puppies killed my diet but were sooooo worth it! Yessssss!!! The steamed shrimp were perfect size, great flavor and seasoned just right! All in all a wonderful experience.

It’s actually a 3.5 star place and could be a 4.5 but I’ll get to that.
First, the location and portions are an easy 5 star. It is rustic yet well put together and the service was fantastic.
Both of us had the She Crab soup which was superb and we split a basket of hush puppies which were delicious.
I had the Cuban sandwich and I really enjoyed it. It is served with cup of au jus that has lots of bits in it. The au jus really didn’t add much to the sandwich. My friend had the Sully platter which had a great portion of seafood but the batter was bland and was missing something. Old Bay really didn’t help it much.
Overall we enjoyed Sullivan’s Wharf and we will be back.

Food took over 45 mins and then only half of it arrived. The shrimp were missing from the platter that did arrive and the clam strips were cold. Not only that they had obviously been frozen. Took about 10 mins for the other half of our order to come and that was only after we flagged another waitress to please go and find ours. I normally give places a second chance, but not here.

I was here for one of the days for St. Paddy’s Day celebration and it was off the hook in the bar with a great band. The tent wasn’t all the filled up, but indoors was very festive. I didn’t have any food, but only beer. Small selection but I managed to get the Devils Backbone red ale so I wouldn’t have to get any Bud products.
I was glad to have met some mature regulars and friendly bartenders.

What’s wrong with all you can eat Crab legs for $ 19, is that they should have told you that the 1^st plate was the only one they intended to serve you. We waited 45 minutes for the salad (really??) when the crab legs finally came an hour after placing the order Hush Puppies were nowhere to be seen. I figured that the manager would at least be smart enough to the get the Hush Puppies out early so you can get fill up not have too much crab; their secret they just don’t serve you the crab legs (I know I said it already) the strategy here is that you will have waited so long you just leave.
The sad part is that the food wasn’t any good either. Out off a party of 13 (maybe that’s why 13) only two said their meal was good, 15.4% is a great return on the stock market really bad rating for a restaurant but I digress.
Two in the party who did not order the crab legs or steak and also hated the food, the baked fish was more like Sushi, the only problem sushi was not what was ordered, than they have the nerve to come out with the dessert platter; I cut my loses so I went to a convenience store and got a bag of M&M’s.
Again to be fair two liked their meal and one of them had steak yeah I know at a seafood restaurant.
Finally the service was awful, food took too long, was not offered water and continually had to request crab legs (that they would not bring out) so save your money and time find another restaurant!

I was on vacation and looking for a good, local seafood place to enjoy. Unilocal has never lead me wrong before, so seeing 3+ start reviews made me think I was in good hands.
I. Think. Not.
The waitress was fine and I had no real complaints about her. The reviews on here said the Nachos were to die for… I wish I took a picture of the pile of crud they gave us; the nachos weren’t even warm… more on the lukewarm to cold side. There were tons of tomatoes and lettuce, but it was lacking in the beef department severely. The cheese wasn’t even melted in most places. The Motz sticks that came out were just fine on their own. The ranch that came with them tasted like I was licking a salt lick and the marinara tasted like someone just spooned a portion of crushed tomatoes out of a can, microwaved them, and put them in a plastic cup.
My friend ordered hush puppies and they were nothing more than tasteless balls of fried bread dough, There was absolutely no taste to them. Some were rock hard golf balls, the others were soggy and just blech.
My friend ordered the Lafayette while I ordered the Shrimp and Legs combo. The plate my dish came out on was cold… like it was supposed to be chilled as a salad plate. My crab legs were way overcooked (like chewing on a rubber band) and were stone cold. There was also very little meat in them and smelled funky. The shrimp smelled «off», weren’t deveined, and I probably could have used them as bouncy balls. I ordered a side salad and garlic red skinned potatoes. The potatoes were deep fried and tasted like french fry hunks with the skin on them, devoid of all flavor.
The Lafayette was even worse. The waitress admitted that the cooks used pre-​packaged crab meat filler which was full of shells; my friend took all of two bites and both were full of shells and cartilage. The shrimp were overcooked to the point of being tough and rubbery and the scallops were quite under cooked. There was supposed to be cheddar jack cheese on top, but if there was any cheese, we both missed it. Neither one of us got through more than a bite or two before we decided that we couldn’t eat another bite… both from the fact that the food was inedible and the sheer fear of being sick for the rest of the night.
We alerted the waitress to the fact the food was just inedible and we wished to have the check and explained the problems with the food. Even she was shocked by the appearance/​temperature of the food. She walked off for about ten or fifteen minutes and came back saying that the kitchen used prepackaged crap for the Lafayette crab filler and had nothing to say about the state of my food. It was obvious that very little of the food had been eaten, but they only took off 15% off the bill and the manager never materialized. We settled our tab and left immediately.
I couldn’t believe how bad the food was. It was beyond terrible. It was a little hole in the wall that we both had second thoughts about dining at, but as the reviews here painted it to be a decent place, we trudged forward. Needless to say, we will never eat here again.

Have you ever wondered where you can find the Local Norfolkian in its native local habitat?
That would be O’Sullivan’s Wharf… or Sully’s for short.
This is the ultimate locals bar, when you walk in, it feels like everybody lives within 3 blocks of the place and all grew up with each other. And the cool part is, they make you feel right at home too. Unless, of course, you come in dressed as an obvious tourist, in which case they will lovingly pat you on the head, turn you around, and point you towards the dozens of Fruit and Umbrella in the Overpriced Drinks places down on the Oceanfront…
Sully’s has great food, pretty much pick em on the menu and you are set. They have a good selection of chicken wings and some nachos that will stop your heart cold in its tracks. Good bar food.
These guys have supported local bands now forever, so stop in and get a sense of the local vibe. My favorite is when there is a blues band in town.
Stop in and give it a try. If it isn’t to your liking, there are plenty of other options right down Colley Ave. but if you do stop in, I think you’ll end up staying for more than one.

My friend and I ordered takeout here for lunch last week. We attempted to eat seafood from a classier version of Captain D’s down the street. My friend ordered the fish and chips. I ordered the crabcake sandwich with a $ 1.25 upcharge for onion rings as my side. Total with tax came out to be $ 22.56. The hostess/​waitress did an excellent job preparing our takeout for us, and she included all of the condiments that we asked and then some. She really took care of us.
The food was actually a lot more greasy than I wanted it to be. The hush puppies were good, but I could taste the oil with every bite. The texture was soft, and I couldn’t help but think that they had become soggy from the oil that they were cooked in. The fish and chips were standard fish and chips fare. I could have gotten a similar dish at Captain D’s, unfortunately… and for probably a few dollars cheaper too. My crabcake sandwich was excellent, however. It was very well proportioned. The onion rings were also a bit more soggy than I prefered, likely from the oil again… but they were all right.
The coleslaw they had was actually good, and I was able to eat a few bites before giving up. (Mind you, I normally take a sliver of slaw just to say I tried it, and 90% of the time I normally just give up at that point.)
I might be a little bit biased, because from the time they told us that the food would be ready to the time I arrived home, it had been about 20 minutes. So maybe the oil did just make things a tad more soggier than usual. I think my crabcake sandwich is a good standalone item, but I think that we could have just gone to Captain D’s to get the fish and chips.

It’s been a while since I stopped in and had lunch here. I had a co-​worker with me that doesn’t like spicy food so I figured this would be a good neutral ground with plenty of choices.
We walked in after the lunch rush. There were a few locals sitting at the bar, half in the bag at 2pm. You gotta love that. Because I’m a type O Negative carnivore and completely satisfied with the simple things I ordered my usual, the bacon cheeseburger with a side of onion rings. My co-​worker settled on the seafood trio which was shrimp tempura, a batter fried fish filet & clam strips. There was also a side of fries and apple sauce.
They did forget my bacon however immediately rectified that by bringing a saucer out with 4 – 5 pieces of bacon on it. I just have 3 words for you. «Deep Fried Bacon». Holy **** it was good. :) So was the burger and the onion rings BTW. My co-​worker seemed to really enjoy his meal. When I asked how it was he just grunted several times.
All in all, decent meal, fair price, great service. I’m satisfied. Time to get a transfusion. :)

First time eating here. Got a Caesar salad with my meal and the Romaine lettuce was old and limp. They also used way too much dressing on the salad. Every leaf on both sides was coated with dressing.
I got the Neptune platter. It was OK with a one exception. The oysters were way over fried. There was no juicy goodness left in the oysters. It was shriveled up so much it was like eating fried batter.
I also got the Olé Bay chips as a side. They were mostly good, but the Olé Bay seasoning was not distributed evenly over the chips. A few of the chips had most of the Olé Bay seasoning, while the rest had hardly any.
For the $ 20, I would have rather have ate somewhere else.
I won’t eat here again.