The Fabled Sea Ketch Restaurant
The Sea Ketch begins its 53rd Season!
The Hampton Beach landmark Sea Ketch Restaurant, located on Ocean Boulevard, just south of the Seashell Stage, directly across the street from the ocean and steps from the beach, is the Crown Jewel of Hampton Beach’s Big Four restaurants. It is a four-story food factory, serving breakfasts and consistently good seafood lunches and dinners on its second-floor deck, and very good pub food on its third and fourth-floor, open-air, ocean-view decks.
The Sea Ketch can be crowded, a testament to the quality of its cuisine and the panoramic, beach and ocean views from most tables on all three of its decks. Plan on a 30-plus-minute wait to be seated for dinner on the second-floor most summer evenings and shoulder season weekends, though there is almost always outdoor seating available at tables at the open-air street-level bar for guests waiting with a buzzer to be seated upstairs while people-watching on the Boulevard with a glass of wine.
The hostesses at the street-level reception kiosk are friendly and helpful, and the well-trained, outgoing servers are mostly college students who seem happy to be there summer after summer.
Editors’ Note: The Sea Ketch’s signature entrée, Baked Haddock with Lobster Claws (served on the second-floor deck) is a favorite of the editors. We also recommend the 10-ounce Lobster Roll, and the Chowder, the Fish & Chips, and the Fries, etc., etc., etc. Indeed, we can’t remember a single less-than-satisfying menu item. (Click HERE to view the Sea Ketch’s breakfast, lunch and dinner menus.)
Overall, the Sea Ketch restaurant has our editors’ highest recommendation. If you’re staying for the day, or for a week or a weekend, don’t leave the Beach without dining at least once at the Sea Ketch!
Our Rating
Twenty One on a scale of One to Twenty
6 of 5 for the view,
5 of 5 for the food and service,
5 of 5 for the ambianc3,
5 of 5 for cachet