The Best Seafood Dives Coast to Coast

Long live the laid-back shacks where the menus hang on the wall, the beers chill on ice, and the food comes piled high, deep-fried, slathered, breaded, buttered, and steamed.

America’s Favorite Seafood Dives

It’s our annual guide to the top eateries where food is fried, broiled, grilled, or otherwise slapped on butcher paper for your finger-licking, crab-cracking, French fry–munching pleasure. This year, our winners (and finalists) were chosen by our readers!|Written by: Steve Millburg

Photo: Chris M. Rogers

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Florida

Dewey Destin Seafood Restaurant & Market, Destin
Proprietor Dewey Destin’s great-great-grandfather founded the town, but what readers can’t stop talking about is the fresh seafood. Try the catch of the day fried, grilled, or blackened, and watch a sunset over the water; 850/ 837-7575 or destinseafood.com.

Tasty Contenders
High Tides at Snack Jack, Flagler Beach
This casual surfer hangout has roots in the 1950s, but some very 21st-century menu items (a fish Reuben and a Bloody Mary made with sake); 386/ 439-3344 or snackjacks.com.

Frenchy’s Rockaway Grill, Clearwater Beach
Frenchy’s is a mini empire of four restaurants situated near each other. The Rockaway Grill (your pick) is known for fish tacos, she-crab soup, and what one reader claims is the best grouper sandwich on the west coast of Florida; 727/446- 4844 or frenchysonline.com.