Best Seafood Restaurants in Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia — updated August 21, 2026
Four Richmond spots for oysters, crab and whole-fish cooking, ranked by how convincingly the reviews back them up, with hours, closed nights and what each one is actually built around.
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Richmond sits an hour from the Chesapeake but eats like a port city, and its seafood splits into two camps: white-tablecloth rooms downtown and in the West End, and newer boil houses on Broad Street where the food arrives in a bag. The list below keeps only independent Richmond operations, which knocked out several Short Pump chain restaurants that show up in seafood searches. Ratings are paired with review counts, because a high score from a few dozen diners is a different thing from a high score from thousands.
1. The Boathouse at Short Pump Town Center
The most thoroughly tested seafood room on this list: 4.7 stars across more than 6,000 reviews, a sample size large enough that the rating is settled rather than promising. It is part of a Richmond-area group rather than a national chain. Hours run Monday through Thursday 11am to 9:30pm with last seating at 9pm, Friday and Saturday 11am to 10:30pm with last seating at 10pm, and Sunday 10am to 9:30pm, with brunch from 10am to 3pm. Happy hour is Monday through Friday, 2pm to 6pm. The restaurant's own material points diners toward oysters on the half shell at the bar. Note the last-seating rule if you are arriving late from the mall.
2. The Hard Shell
The downtown seafood house at 1411 E. Cary Street, and the most seafood-specific address here, with 4.5 stars from more than 1,100 reviews. That combination of a mid-high score and a large count reads as consistent rather than lucky. Lunch runs Monday through Saturday, 11:30 to 4, which makes it one of the few sit-down seafood options downtown in the middle of a workday. Dinner is 4 to 9:30 Monday through Thursday, 4 to 10 Friday and Saturday, and 4 to 9 on Sunday. There is a second Hard Shell at Bellgrade; this entry covers the Cary Street original only.
3. Buckhead's
A West End dining room at 8510 Patterson Avenue that splits its attention between Braveheart Beef and seafood, so come for the surf-and-turf case rather than a pure fish menu. It holds 4.7 stars from 774 reviews, a strong showing with enough volume behind it to trust. The constraint is the schedule: dinner only, Tuesday through Saturday, 5pm to 10pm, which means no lunch and no Sunday or Monday service. Reservations are worth making for weekend nights given the short operating window and the single seating period.
4. The Boiling Crab
The boil-in-a-bag option, at 2053 W. Broad Street, for crab and shellfish eaten with a bib and no cutlery. Evidence here is thin compared with the rest of the list: 4.6 stars, but from only 110 reviews, so the rating is encouraging rather than proven. Treat it as a promising newer entry rather than an established benchmark. The Broad Street address puts it close to the Fan and VCU, which makes it the most walkable choice on this list for anyone already downtown. Call ahead if you are planning around specific hours.
What we left off
Three Short Pump restaurants that appear in Richmond seafood searches were removed because they are chains rather than local businesses: Perry's Steakhouse & Grille, Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurant and Firebirds Wood Fired Grill. Kingfish Boat Rental Co. was also cut. Despite the name and a perfect rating, it rents boats, kayaks and paddleboards on Osborne Turnpike and does not serve seafood, so it does not fit the premise of this guide.