Metropolis

Honestly this was our second choice as a place for our daughter’s birthday dinner but I’m so glad our first choice had a 90 minute wait. We were so happy with everything we ordered. Service was friendly, knowledgeable and fast. We tried to name our favorites but honestly liked it all. If you enjoy Tapas restaurants, Metropolis is a must. We will return.

Everything was amazing. Seriously everything. I'll be coming back to OBX just to eat here again. We tried nearly everything on the menu and were never disappointed. The drink specials were tasty and creative. Our server was attentive yet respectful of our space during these COVID times. Overall it felt like the safest (covid-related) restaurant weve visited yet. The three of us enjoyed our outdoor table with our dogs. Server was knowledgeable and informative about vegetarian food options. Highly highly recommend!!

This place is simply amazing. Relaxed atmosphere. Great drink options and variety. Very well thought out tapas. Delicious food all around! UPDATE: Visited again and it's still incredible.

We landed in Metropolis based on a colleagues recommendation and were very impressed with the food and ambience of the restaurant. Everyone we dealt with were super friendly and welcoming. The food was amazing. Highly recommend the asparagus soup with crab, the scallops, and the lobster + rice. Very nice night out with the family. Kids enjoyed their food as well.

So for starters we are traveling and found that they offer severally Vegan options on their menu, which is the only place we found in the outer banks from Nags Head north!!! We did not realize that reservations were recommended and walked in after a wild horse tour (so really not looking our best!). They were able to seat us at the bar right away and the service and the food were spectacular!! They were more than willing to accommodate our diet preference and we were more than satisfied!! If i could give more stars I would. It was great to see every employee doing whatever was needed to make everything run, in fact the chef was right there making drinks and bussing tables. We were able to compliment the chef directly!! Being a business owner this spoke volumes! I only wish we had more time and could have the opportunity to visit again, there would be NO question!! Please take the time to visit them and help support such great local talent! Especially if you are Vegan or Vegetarian, you will mot be disappointed!!

Metropolis is one of our favorite Outer Banks Restaurants, and we were so happy to see that they were offering curbside pickup during our June 2020 visit so we could enjoy from the safety of our beach house. The food was amazing (as always) with lots of great options on the menu. We ordered takeout or delivery every night, and this curbside pickup was the easiest of any takeout. We arrived at the exact time, and as we pulled up, they brought our food out to the side patio for pickup. No waiting at all, and our food was still wonderfully hot when we got it home to eat. Highly recommend!

Delicious small plate tapas and the drinks were delicious as well. The artichoke salad was my favorite, I wish it was 3 times the size. Wonderful wait staff completed the package perfectly. I totally forgot to take photos, just dug in to the delicious food!

The drink menu here is extensive and the cocktails offered are delicious. We ordered Mark’s bread, the calamari, and crab cakes and all were delicious. For our heavier plates we selected the Thai curry, and the scallops. The scallops were cooked perfectly. The restaurant seemed to be a little short-staffed but that seems to be a problem everywhere these days. Overall it was a lovely evening.

Great little tapas place with excellent food and cocktails. Service was top notch. I would highly recommend this for a couples night out while in town.

This is our new favorite restaurant at the Outer Banks. The food is delicious, made to order and served hot. The menu is creative and offers great variety without being overwhelming. Half of our family prefers the seafood dishes and couldn’t say enough about the crabcakes, shrimp risotto, and lobster pasta. The vegetarian half of our family delighted in the veg/vegan menu, which ensures that everyone enjoys an excellent meal. And we can’t say enough about the cocktails, homemade focaccia and the soup of the day. But what sets it apart is the terrific atmosphere and excellent service. This has become our must-visit restaurant every year.

The food and service was amazing! We had Cream of Asparagus soup, Nolan's Bread, Southern Fried Calamari, Lobster Fried Rice, and the Seared Jumbo Sea Scallops along with a number of signature cocktails. The soup has just the right amount of creaminess and saltiness. The lump crab was a welcome surprise in the soup. Apparently the chef has only been making bread for about 6 months, but wow, he has nailed it! Possibly the best bread I've ever had. The calamari was lightly fried and golden and not rubbery at all. Again, probably the best calamari I've ever had! The lobster fried rice was probably my least favorite and I say that lightly because it was still amazing! The scallops were cooked perfectly. A nice sear on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside. It was an expensive meal, but well worth it! The wait staff was extremely knowledgeable and friendly. I'd highly recommend this restaurant for a nice date night meal. There was not a children's menu, so I would say to possibly leave the kids home unless they are adventurous eaters. Well done, Metropolis! We will dine here again!

Great meal. Seafood items were all well prepared and very tasty. Nice drinks selection too

We had dinner at Metropolis on July 18, 2024. We were so pleasantly surprised. Every item we ordered was way beyond our expectations. Focaccia bread with truffle butter with honey was amazing, tartare of black pepper crusted ahi tuna another delicious one, followed by seared foie gras, then blackened trumpet mushrooms, all amazing flavors just bursting in your mouth. I would highly recommend this restaurant. Despite their chef being ill and leaving by an ambulance, Mark - ( owner ) was wonderful as was our server Javier with his wonderful smile making sure that nothing was interrupted. Thank you for the delicious food and equally wonderful service and we hope your chef is on the mend.

Excellent cocktails to start us off right, the food was amazing. The details matter, and this place nails it on all counts, from the local ingredients, the descriptions on preparation and you can just tell that they are passionate about the whole experience. We will be returning for sure! Highly recommend!

This place is so amazing! We were seated right away and our server was great. The Scallops are to die for! One of the best I ever had and their special Cream of Asparagus soup is spectacular. Desserts were so on point and delicious!

We've been coming to the Outer Banks Annually for the last 30 years but we only started with Metropolis the last few years, but it is a new tradition, with sometimes multiple visits in a week! The owners are usually on site and working and are friendly and happy to talk about the history of the restaurant or the food and give recommendations when asked. I'm not sure we have ever had anything we didn't like here. This year we had the bread which was fresh out of the oven and just delicious, the Panzanella salad which is as good as it has been every year we've been here. The Trumpet Mushroom and Polenta Chimichurri was our favorite this year and the Short Rib Ragu 'Lil Italy' was also terrific. We tried both available desserts (panna cotta and bread pudding, bread pudding was the fav) and were not disappointed. If you like cocktails however, this is a place to be. They have a wonderful martini menu with flavors both for traditional drinkers as well as those that like things on the sweeter side. Liquid Sunshine was my favorite of the night. This is not the standard shore bar food restaurant that has all the same menu items, and I love it all the more for it.

One of my favorite restaurants ever. Vegetarian menu is fantastic and each menu item is delicious. Could not recommend this restaurant more. Staff are lovely.

Wonderful place for dinner and drinks. The exec chef was helping serve last night and he's very attentive. Ordered both light and heavier tapas. Calamari, ahi tuna, beef ragu special, lobster angel hair, and lemon risotto. The rispptp needed more lemon but the rest delivered. BTW, it's a tapas place so servings are small.

One of our OBX traditions. I understand some of the other criticisms in the reviews but the quality is top notch.

Overall phenomenal experience as it pertains to food. All the plates we got were devoured. The kids pasta (no kids menu) they made was nearly inhaled by my kids. We had to get a 3rd order (2 kids). Staff amazing. Was psyched to see they had porters on the menu, and not just IPAs. However, I was given one that was bottled almost 2 years ago - and these should be consumed within 150 days.

First of all, food and cocktails were on point! Every plate we ordered was absolutely delicious. Our original waiter was very nice and knowledgeable. The drink he recommended was awesome. Ok, now the reason for the missing ⭐️. We decided to sit outside, and unfortunately our table happened to be a party spot for a swarm of red ants. Not just a few passers by, but hundreds. I actually noticed them when a few started biting me. Long story short, another waitress only gave rude responses and finally moved us to another outdoor table. They were not even busy at the time.

I'd give this restaurant 5 stars for food. The executive chef is wonderful and creates exquisite dishes. We had the asparagus soup which was divine. The only reason I stopped at 4 stars was the price is a little high. We got a $20 beef bourguinon but there was barely 1 oz of beef. I know it's tapas style, but the price to portion ratio was a little high. That said, I do enjoy this restaurant and will be returning when we come back to OBX. All of the meals, desserts, and cocktails are made with planning and expertise.

Metropolis is a beautiful dine in. My husband and I shared the soup, focaccia bread, shrimp dip, salad, and Ahi Tuna for the light appetizers. The soup and bread were amazing. Shrimp dip was also amazing, but a bit salty. Salad was on point, and the Ahi Tuna could’ve been a little rarer. Short rib ragu was delicious, seared scallops were also awesome but a bit over done. We also got a mixed grilled dish with shrimp and ahi tuna, I was not really a fan. Shrimp was dry so was the ahi tuna. Couscous was delicious. Service was great. Mark was very welcoming and hospitable, which was appreciated. Overall great experience. Would try it again!

We had an okay experience here. The food was good, but the portion to price ratio is a bit off here. I have been to plenty of tapas restaurants before, so I don't think it was a matter of bad expectations. Realistically if you want the amount of food that would equal an entree and a small side elsewhere you would need 3-4 tapas portions here. The prices range in the $12-20 range per dish, with most of the heavy tapas leaning toward the higher end of the spectrum. So you'd be spending $60-70/pp. Drinks, tax and tip would take you well over $100pp. And sorry, but this place is just not worthy of that kind of pricing. There are far better restaurants in the area in the $$$$ range. If the portions were increased or the prices reduced I'd be able to get behind this place more.

Food was very good, beware portions are very small, they will tell you that your getting more than you think but it's just not true. Caution the chocolate flight is just not good. If you regularly enjoy fine chocolate this is not it, medicore at best. Most is very hard and flavors are desperately trying to be trendy, but in fact are rather gross. I love good food and wine, but my honest score here is an 80, mostly because the atmosphere and staff are great.

This was our third time dining here. The second time, the guy running the front from host to server was the owner. We thought he was having a temporary problem with help. Two years later to our third visit and it is the same. Service is abrupt and impersonal. Chef was helping with delivering dishes and cleaning off dirty ones. It is not a inviting restaurant. This takes away from the cozy atmosphere of the place. Food was good, just not memorable. We had wonderful meals elsewhere.

The food here is mostly OK. There was one dish that we really liked (the trumpet mushrooms). Everything else was either not good, or soso. They do not have a good understand of what it means to have a gluten allergy (brought crackers out on the cheese tray) and was SO expensive. One of the most expensive meals I’ve had in a long time for not great food. The ambience is nice but the room is an echo chamber which made it very difficult to talk to the people at my table.

It completely depends on the day. You might have the best food of your life or the tuna tartare could come out grey and looking like cat food. We stopped going because the price wasn’t worth the risk. Hope it recovers

Despite our reservation, they seated us next to their toilets. New waiter unable/unaware in how to help our group of seven people order and share tapas dishes. Dinner was a total fail.

July 7, 2023 ….We’ve been many times and this was not a good experience . The prices have gone up and the portions down. The drinks are ridiculously expensive . Four people Over $200 and that was each having a small and large plate and one cocktail each. We don’t mind paying good money but we all went away hungry. I don’t usually give reviews but the icing on the cake was when the waiter(possibly one of the owners) came out with an old broom with a rag wrapped around the top to wipe away the condensation on the air conditioner right above someone’s head. The broom was disgusting and right above the table.. very over priced and beyond many people’s budget.

Wow. I read all the glowing reviews and I’m really offended. My daughter, my husband and I did not have that kind of experience. The person, who we believed to be the executive chef was extremely rude throughout the evening. We honestly did not understand why. He never went over any of the dishes , although we were told he would. We also witnessed him doing so with all of the other customers. He never came back to check on us. He basically threw the plates of food onto the table. When we asked for our check , we waited a very long time. If they had dessert, we never heard. He appeared angry with us. For what reason? We were not sure. We dine out a lot, so this was a unique experience. This restaurant was recommended to us last night as we dined at a truly excellent restaurant. We took our daughter because she was only here one day. I’m really sad this was her dining experience. I do want to note the food was good and came out quickly. There were small portions however with tapas we weren’t overly surprised.

The food is good quality and unique, but that’s where the pros end. The portions are miserably small for the money, and the menu is a bit deceiving (“big tapas” is extremely small, like 4 bites of food). This place has potential but there is barely enough of each tapas for 3 people to taste it. You would have to order $300 of tapas to equal a single entree at any other high end restaurant here. We left hungry and barely got to try anything for $100.

Food was excellent. Service was inattentive, slow and served water in glasses with lipstick on it. Tables were too close together and it was too loud to enjoy the setting.

This is a great eating establishment if you like tiny portions of mediocre food a premium prices. Our party of 4 arrived at 6:10 PM on a Monday. The restaurant was empty except for one party seated at a table. When the waitress learned we did not have a reservation, she made a face and expressed concern that they might not be able to seat us. This surprised us, given the lack of patrons. We were seated and proceeded pick our meals. I knew we had made a mistake when the drink menu indicated that they charge $8 for beer from a bottle. The noise from the open kitchen is loud. You feel like you are part of the food preparation, what with the clanging and banging of pots and pans. The "Mixed Seafood Grill" is two small cubes of yellowfin tuna and two shrimp for $20. The tuna was so overcooked that I had to take sips of water while chewing in order to swallow it. Mark made a single appearance at our table to drop off the overcooked Seafood Grill. Otherwise, he ignored us. Our waitress appeared sometime later to ask if we wanted additional food, or were we "satisfied". We lied and told her we were satisfied and were ready for the check. Unlike other restaurants, the check is not itemized, so I guess the patron is expected to search their memories to recall the prices of the plates and tabulate the bill. Overall, this eating establishment would be more suitably located in a large East Coast city, where pretense is valued over good food. The atmosphere doesn't fit with the OBX vibe

Our first time here. Shrimp dip was delicious, Tartar of black pepper tuna was also good. Duck confit was a joke $20 for a small bowl of shredded duck with beans, it looked like an appetizer. Jumbo shrimp & yellow fin was ok as was the Angel hair. We spent $135 and walked away hungry. Very disappointed.

Crazy expensive. Two drinks and two appetizers $78. Bartender was nice. Atmosphere ok. Owner running around was a bit obnoxious. I was hoping for better since it was less than a mile from our house. The place next door was much more comfortable.

Menu looked amazing and we were all really excited about ordering from here. We are 4 adults.. we ordered 5 small tapas and 4 heavy tapas. The amount of food we got was laughable it was so little (look at picture) I could have eaten the whole lot. Our total was $135. I’ve had tapas many times but this was a joke and wasn’t even amazing. Was good but not great. Save your money!

Don’t waste your time or money at this restaurant. We had a horrible experience from start to finish. So many other options available. Never again.

If I could give this place 0 stars I would. Took my parents here for dinner, looked promising from the website and photos. I have been to many tapas places and left full/ satisfied with the meal. The crab martini was 98% tomatoes and 2% crab. The penne with short rib had a teaspoon of shredded beef. My risotto was served on a watery, diluted, tasteless excuse for sauce. We asked to sit at a table that would have been more accommodating for our group, we were told it was reserved and no one showed up. DO NOT fall for this tourist trap, you will leave with a tab of $300+ and you will be hungry.

Place looks nice. Group of 10 walked in to buy some martinis after we had a meal next door. Met with attitude. They let us order 10 espresso martinis for $207. They were not good. The bartender and waitress were rude the entire time. As a customer if you couldn’t accommodate us then just refuse. Once we ordered we are now your customer. This place thinks it’s something it is not. Rude all around. I guess when you’re on a busy shore point it doesn’t matter when there isnt any option to buy.