The Hampton Beach landmark Sea Ketch Restaurant, located on Ocean Boulevard, just south of the Seashell Stage, directly across the street from ocean and steps from the beach, is the highest profile restaurant, literally and figuratively, of the Big Four.   It is a four-story food factory, serving consistently good seafood lunches and dinners on its second-floor deck, and very good pub food on its third and fourth-floor, open-air decks. 

The Sea Ketch is always crowded, a testament to the quality of its cuisine and the panoramic, beach and ocean views from all three of its decks.   Expect 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 with a glass of wine. 

The hostesses at the street-level reception kiosk are friendly and helpful, though the bouncers who direct traffic there are sometimes impatient.

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.