Best Long Island restaurants on the water: Critics' picks for dining with a view

A self-described "chowder house and oyster-ia," A Lure boasts an immense deck overlooking Port of Egypt Marina and Peconic Bay. Executive chef Tom Schaudel tours the world of seafood with crab cakes with tomato rémoulade, Baja-style fish tacos, macadamia-coconut-crusted flounder, pan-roasted salmon and plenty of classic steamed and raw dishes, too, plus an extensive wine list with many North Fork selections. 

This fine-dining mainstay gazes out over Sag Harbor Bay and offers diners an incredible sunset to pair with a glass of wine and the New American fare that comes from its kitchen. Starters range from tuna tartare to mussels to pork belly pretzel buns with hoisin and a kohlrabi slaw, while entrées like roasted chicken with smoked bacon risotto and a pork Milanese offset seafood options including lobster rigatoni, a sesame crusted tuna with soba noodles, halibut baked in parchment with sun-dried tomatoes and a loaded bouillabaisse in tomato-saffron broth.

An outdoor food hall on Tobay’s tranquil bay, The Boat Yard comprises five order-at-the-counter kiosks that cover a few continents' worth of menu items. Hit up the Dockside Grill kiosk for burgers and sandwiches; a few feet to the right, Bonanno’s Gourmet Pizza & Calzones serves personal pies. There’s Mexican street food at La Playa Taco Bar, seafood at Rudy’s Raw Bar & Chowder, and salads and bowls at Bayside Salad & Bowls. The Boat Yard's neighbor, Surf Shack, is a slightly more formal restaurant, although flip-flops are always welcome.

A fixture on Reynold’s Channel since 1999, these casual spots owned by five siblings are usually buzzing with regulars who come for the large menu and laid-back (read: shorts and T-shirt) atmosphere. At Buoy, main plates include a more refined ceviche, lobster BLT sliders, tacos, crab cakes and simple dishes such as grilled mahi mahi with coconut rice. The adjacent, sandy-bottomed Scotty’s on the Bay is a counter-service spot with a small beach full of plastic Adirondack chairs, serving fried clams, chicken fingers, pizza, tacos, burgers and hot dogs.

Named after a lighthouse in New Bedford, Massachusetts, this New England-style clam shack in Brewer Capri Marina West has a sweeping view of Manhasset Bay. Highlights include clam chowder, stuffed quahogs, lobster rolls, crab rolls, shrimp rolls and snack bar favorites like hot dogs and grilled cheese, plus seafood platters.

Tucked away in the marina of Hampton Watercraft and Marine, it has outdoor dining on two levels and a casual, family-friendly vibe. Not surprisingly, seafood makes a strong showing here: steamed PEI mussels or littleneck clams, clam fritters with horseradish mayo, pan-fried crab cakes, a grilled mahi mahi sandwich with avocado aioli, fish and chips and a lobster roll made fresh with celery and lemon mayo. For culinary landlubbers: sweet Thai chili-glazed duck wings, a half-pound burger with your choice of cheese, fried chicken sandwich with baby arugula and a burger made with quinoa and roasted garlic.

Just across the bridge from Oyster Bay to Bayville, and tucked into a marina on West Harbor, is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it area of covered tables, plus an outdoor bar and busy kitchen turning out clam chowder, burgers and more. Many visitors boat in and tie up to the Clam Bar’s 160-foot-long floating dock for some of the freshest clams around, dug right from the nearby harbor and ordered at the counter. The menu offers a range of seafood-topped salads and platters, burgers and sandwiches.

After 155 years, Claudio's is rebranding this summer, bringing new upscale dining concepts to the complex perched on the edge of Greenport Harbor. Its main restaurant, Claudio's Tavern & Grill, becomes Charlie Boy, an all-day Italian American cafe with a modern twist. The al fresco dining spot perched right on the harbor dock, Crabby Jerry's, shifts to Common Country East, an offshoot of the trendy Common Ground East in East Hampton serving elevated bar fare alongside frozen drinks and a curated selection of beer and whiskey. What likely won't change is the people — the heady mix of locals, tourists and a seemingly endless string of bachelorette parties — who keep this place fun, interesting and full of life.

The hilltop hangout has a massive outdoor bar and killer views over Shinnecock Bay. Seafood preparations include everything from New Orleans-style shrimp with jasmine rice to buttery New England clam chowder, to the house specialty baby back ribs. Hop on the free RumBarge for the seven-minute canal ride to Cowfish’s sister restaurant, Rumba.

The local Mexican chainlet's restaurant at Manhasset Bay Marina opened in 2023 and is easily its most impressive, with an outdoor cabana bar featuring stunning views. The Asian fusion tacos, cheeky branding and lively party scene are on the menu here, too. The flavors are so sweet they're almost like candy, but the variety is quite astounding: Vietnamese shrimp, Teriyaki salmon, kung pao chicken. Anything flies on a flour tortilla. What also works: The spicy chipotle margarita garnished with a pineapple and the watermelon basil margarita.

Coaxing half dollars of peach-pink splendor from umpteen littlenecks to the accompaniment of color-matching Spicy Summer Fling cocktails (tequila, jalapeño, watermelon juice) or blood orange margaritas is a rite of passage at this large and beautiful seafood haunt. Expect everything bagel-crusted salmon, mussels in a crazy prosecco butter sauce, and matchless views of Shinnecock Canal. 

Tuck your yacht into one of the slips at the marina, adjust your sun hat, grab your straw beach bag, and roll onto the sandy beach club speckled with loungers and couches. Overlooking Gardiners Bay, at Duryea’s in Orient you can dine on and off the sand. Start with some spreads, hummus, tahini, and roasted red pepper dip, served with Greek olives and grilled flatbread or a watermelon, tomato and feta gazpacho. Mediterranean-inspired, with plenty of shellfish flourishes, there are various Peconic Bay oysters, teetering seafood towers, fresh grilled or steamed lobsters, and beautifully cooked whole fish. Portions are large and meant to be shared. The beach menu focuses on finger food like skewers (chicken, Spanish octopus, steak), a full raw bar, lobster sliders, crudités and spreads. The sensational lobster Cobb salad of Montauk’s outpost is also on the menu here. 

The spectacular setting on Moriches Bay threatens to outshine the food. The restaurant makes the most of its location, with umbrellaed tables planted in the wide gravel lawn that extends to the water and a lounge area where customers can await takeout orders or enjoy a drink. Among the dishes added to the regular ITA lineup are Blue Point oysters on the half shell, tuna tartare and a cold lobster roll. More ITA-ish are the tower of shrimp and colossal crabmeat with smashed avocado and cherry-pepper aioli and pan-seared scallops with capers, onions, red peppers, zucchini and risotto.

At this waterside clam shack, which shares a terminus with the West Sayville Boat Basin, a deck runs the length of the dining room and umbrella-topped tables look out over bobbing boats. You can start with a half-dozen clams on the half shell, then move onto lobster rolls, a seafood platter or the fried-flounder Reuben.

A well-appointed deck at the water's edge offers a view of the Fire Island ferries chugging across the Great South Bay. Order from the regular menu of innovative New American dishes like pepper-crusted venison and pressed lemon-rosemary chicken, with crowd-pleasing shareables such as grilled oysters and calamari. Sunday brunch is an upscale affair with dishes including duck confit hash with poached eggs and baked challah French toast.

La Plage (" the beach" in French), which sits steps away from the town beach, is a weathered low-slung structure with canopied tables spilling out from the dining room. Chef Wayne Wadington has owned it since it opened in 1996, and has a cooking style that blends high and low. One of his most popular items is the rigatoni, which on the one hand is essentially pasta and tomato sauce but on the other, involves sun-dried tomatoes, manchego cheese, shrimp and a final flambé. Other can’t-take-off-the-menu items include a green-apple salad with blue cheese, walnuts and mâche composed with care and dressed with a sherry vinaigrette, as well as house-smoked beef "carpaccio" and duck confit on fresh chive risotto.

It’s a rollicking scene at this self-described "lobster beer garden" along the East Rockaway waterfront. Wash down the excellent lobster rolls (and tacos, nachos and sandwiches) with a Lazy Lobster frosé or Grandpa Marco’s secret family recipe for sangria.

For 120 summers, Long Islanders have flocked to Louie’s in Port Washington. From its beginnings in 1905 as a cocktail-serving barge owned by the Zwerlein family through its move shoreside during Prohibition to subsequent owners and variations on the name, it has attracted diners looking for a good meal on a great deck with peerless views of Manhasset Bay and one of the Island’s best sunsets. Now Jerry Sbarro, who also owns Rothmann’s Steakhouse in East Norwich and Matteo’s in Huntington and Roslyn, has given the old girl a stem-to-stern renovation. The new interior is all sleek leather and brass and glass-fronted fireplaces, and every table has a view of the water. The whole place is surrounded by dining decks and total seating capacity is more than 330. In the kitchen, Sbarro installed Gregg Lauletta, a veteran fine-dining chef on LI, whose menu preserves some old favorites (lobster roll, fish and chips, burger) while upgrading the selection of prime steaks and refined seafood preparations.

Mavericks takes over a 100-year-old building, originally a hotel with a restaurant. The 200-seat dining room has a timeless, casual elegance with lots of warm wood and the good sense to know that no decor can compete with the 180-degree view west across Fort Pond. Executive chef Jeremy Blutstein uses local produce almost exclusively, and virtually all of the seafood — from the chilled Jonah crab claws served with fermented lemon aioli and smoked bluefish rillettes to the oysters (raw or grilled) and the whole fluke served a la meunière — were landed on the East End. 

One of the prettiest water views on Long Island just got better: Mill Pond House, which was built in 1909, has reopened after a top-to-bottom renovation. Get ready to be wowed — light, bright and airy, this Mill Pond is stunning, with blond wood on tastefully paneled walls, white oak floors and a massive center bar overlooking the patio dining room with spectacular sunsets guaranteed. The private dining room upstairs has an enlarged veranda for al fresco dining. The menu moves away from Italian red sauce classics in favor of lighter pastas and more emphasis on steak and seafood like the filet mignon and shrimp "surf and turf," accompanied by mashed potatoes and asparagus and the halibut over a delicate sunchoke puree. For dessert, the Blondie bottom banana cream pie is a must.

Andrea Tese is taking culinary sustainability to new heights. Not only are most of the ingredients local and seasonal, not only does the kitchen eschew shrimp, salmon and any other sea creature that does not swim in these waters, but it tries not to buy anything that is packaged in plastic. Among menu highlights are black bass crudo, blackfish amandine, Long Island duck with frites and pastries from NoFo Baker. With a generous porch offering panoramic views of Cutchogue Harbor, Tese hopes that people who are looking at the water will be compelled to want to protect it. 

Splashed across a 200-foot stretch of private beach overlooking Fort Pond Bay, the perennial East End favorite offers an eclectic menu that ranges from salmon tartare to charred octopus. Don’t miss the fried chicken, served with cheddar-jalapeno cornbread, coleslaw and a spicy honey drizzle. Enjoy all of this — plus a wide selection of rosé wines — while seated at a picnic table with your toes in the sand.

Safe Harbor Capri East, the marina overlooking Manhasset Bay, has hosted a series of outdoor restaurants over the past half century. For the latest incarnation, Nino’s Beach, owners (and brothers) Franco and Michael Vendome gutted the facility and installed a sparkling venue with two dining rooms, a bar, an oyster bar and, of course, a deck overlooking the water. The Mediterranean menu is serious, too, featuring homemade pastas; artisanal pizzas; starters such as hamachi crudo with yuzu and fried shallots or grilled Portuguese octopus with n'duja-tomato broth. Mains include a 16-ounce New York strip, pork chops and seared big eye tuna.

A newcomer on the Nautical Mile, Off the Hook encompasses fish dishes from New England clam chowder and lobster rolls to tequila-chorizo "drunken" mussels, shrimp mofongo and fried red snapper with tostones. Landlubbing diners can choose among Buffalo cauliflower, watermelon or Caesar salads, cheesesteaks, tamarind chicken, grilled sirloin steaks and a country-fried pork chop.

Talk about waterfront: When Anthony Martignetti bought The Old Mill Inn in 2018, the 200-year-old building had the waters of Mattituck Creek coming through the floorboards, its plumbing and electrical systems shot. But, over the next seven years, the NYC hospitality impresario restored it to a glory it probably never had either in its original incarnation as a tidal grist mill or as one of the series of restaurants that followed (the last one closed in 2017). Now raised safely above the creek, its interior buffed to a soft glow, it’s poised to become a new North Fork landmark. Chef Kyle Bloomer (formerly of The Halyard and Bruce & Son in Greenport) highlights local produce and seafood with a menu that treads the line between classic and contemporary, from a salad of greens from KK’s The Farm in Southold and squid a la plancha to fish and chips and roast chicken with maitake mushrooms.

Almost every table has a view and a breeze at Peter’s, from the roadside high-tops to the seats on the expansive patio along Barnum Inlet. Peter’s has been serving seafood, raw and cooked, since 1939 — as its look suggests — and the requisite fresh littlenecks, cherrystones and oysters all populate the raw bar. For a more substantial summertime snack, choose from king crab pot ($39), lobster rolls or a haul of fried seafood, from flounder (served as fish and chips) to fried shrimp and scallops ($21-$31).

True to the "from our ships to your lips" motto, you can sometimes watch boats tie up to the dock to unload a fresh haul. Clams on the half shell, crisp clam strips, shrimp cocktail, chowders, a lobster roll — they’re all here, served at umbrella-covered tables with relaxing water views. Sandwiches and fried seafood items $8-$35.

Huntington’s waterfront is largely inaccessible; Prime is the luxurious exception. Come by car or by boat (slips available) for some of Long Island’s most acclaimed cooking, with steaks, sushi, raw bar and New American dishes. Request a seat on the multilevel deck for virtually unobstructed water views. And consider a weekday lunchtime visit for a more leisurely experience.

Salt takes reservations for outdoor dining only, and an hour or two wait builds up on weekends. But it's worth sticking it out if you head past the host stand to the lounge area on the deck. The couch seating is remarkably low key and pretty quiet. For dinner, a table is an oasis, with plenty of elbow room and terrific bay views. Dine on casual eats like Thai calamari, short rib sliders, lobster rolls or burgers. Entrées include an 8-ounce filet mignon, fried chicken on a Belgian waffle and grilled swordfish.

The party never ends and the music never stops at this beachy South Shore perch for copious amounts of fried fish, frozen margs, and lime-topped Coronas. Ocean Parkway’s Cedar Beach in Babylon draws crowds all summer long at this mega-complex on the sand that offers plenty of diversions. Whether it’s the miles of beach volleyball nets that call to your sporty side, the live music stage that hosts a variety of local and visiting bands and DJs, the massive bars that excel in draft beer, bottles and a bevy of high-intensity cocktail specials or the summer eats (fried fish to shellfish to tacos), there’s something for everyone, even the little ones.

The Sandbar, which replaces the former Baja Boathouse, is a tribute to summer: The 3-acre lot has long been a meeting spot for dinner, drinks or just watching the ships go by. Anchored by a 37-slip marina, the multilevel space has indoor-outdoor dining, a sandy lounge that fronts a stage for live music and high cocktail tables around the grounds. There’s oversize Connect Four games, live music on weekends, twinkling Edison bulbs after sunset and plenty of cocktails including the spicy Sandbar margarita, a piquant blood orange and muddled jalapeño combo. Bites skew seafood heavy, but there are burgers and chicken sandwiches for landlubbers.

The Sunset Club is perched on the expansive Tappan beachfront that overlooks Hempstead Harbor and, just beyond, Long Island Sound, and it offers diners a slice of sunny happiness — and one of the few places LIers can literally eat on the sand. Restaurateur Rustan Lundstrum, who also owns Coopers Bluff and Coach Meeting House, both in Oyster Bay, mixes the Hamptons with retro Miami: Guests use a QR code to order tableside via an online system that goes directly to the kitchen.

Right on the sand, this lively covered bar and waterside grill attracts a rainbow of humanity, from young families and day-trippers to couples on first dates and bikers. You can belly up to the four-sided bar in a tankini to holler your order across live music or take a table on the relatively placid patio for the usual beach fare of baked clams, cheeseburgers, sandwiches, entrée salads and a poke bowl.

A skipping-stone’s throw from the boardwalk of Peconic Riverfront Park, this Turkish restaurant offers great food, views and even bird-watching. Dig into a vibrant shepherd's salad, an assortment of small plates, housemade gyro and juicy kebabs.

Bergen Bay isn’t one of Long Island’s best-known bodies of water, but this narrow inlet in West Babylon is worth exploring — a task that can easily be accomplished while dining on the deck at Vern. Chef Lamar Todd's menu focuses on crowd-pleasers — clams and oysters on the half shell, sautéed mussels and baked clams, lobster roll, lobster mac & cheese, grilled chicken-avocado club, Caesar and Santa Fe salads — but there are twists and turns too: tortilla chips with a mango-crab salsa, fried calamari is tossed in a Caribbean-inspired sauce, a Vern burger slathered with a secret green "Vern sauce"

In fine weather, the capacious dining room spills out onto an equally ample waterfront patio at the mouth of the Connetquot River, with a panoramic view of the Great South Bay beyond. The restaurant could not be more aptly named, and Bill Muzio’s kitchen looks out to the sea as well with a globe-trotting menu featuring a raw bar, crispy Thai calamari, crab cakes and more. Sunday buffet brunch seatings run two hours with bottomless mimosas.

Eat on the deck within view of both the yacht club pool and boatyard at tables shaded by umbrellas and awnings. Raw-bar items, wings, tacos, burgers, salads and the like comprise the menu. A Hampton Bays outpost is coming in the summer of 2025.