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#3 in Rehoboth Beach

Above the Dunes

Seafood American$$$

Rehoboth Beach's premier ocean-view dining room — panoramic Atlantic views, a serious raw bar, and the kind of sharpened coastal cuisine that makes a first date feel like the beginning of a very good story.

8.5Food
9.0Ambience
7.5Value

About Above the Dunes

At 101 South Boardwalk, directly above the Atlantic, Above the Dunes has established itself as Rehoboth Beach's most spectacular dining address since opening. The location is not a marketing claim: the restaurant sits above the dunes, and the panoramic ocean view from the upper dining room is among the finest in Delaware. Chef Corey Harris brings bold, coastal-inspired flavors to a menu that centers on what the Delaware and Maryland coasts produce — from a raw bar of oysters and shellfish to an all-lump, no-filler crab cake that represents the regional tradition at its most serious.

The raw bar is the starting point for understanding what Above the Dunes does well. Oysters, clams, lobster rolls, and shellfish towers are prepared with care and sourced from regional waters. The sharpened dining room upstairs provides the full panoramic experience; the boardwalk-side operation downstairs offers a more casual approach that still benefits from the prime location. Happy hour runs daily from 1 to 5pm throughout the year, including summer — a policy that reflects confidence in the value proposition without reliance on peak-season pricing alone.

Delaware Today named Above the Dunes Best Bourbon, a distinction that speaks to a bar program as seriously assembled as the food. The full-service approach — a complete bar, the raw bar, the kitchen, and the event capability for corporate functions, birthdays, and weddings — makes it a flexible venue that manages to maintain quality across all its uses.

Rehoboth Beach attracts a sophisticated summer and shoulder-season clientele from the Mid-Atlantic's major cities. Above the Dunes has positioned itself as the address that meets that clientele at the level they expect, with the ocean view as the irreplaceable element that no amount of interior design elsewhere on Rehoboth Avenue can replicate.

Why It Is Perfect for First Date

A first date at Above the Dunes has a structural advantage that most dining rooms cannot offer: the Atlantic Ocean is present throughout the meal. The panoramic view from the upper dining room creates immediate shared experience — something genuinely beautiful that neither person needs to manufacture enthusiasm about. The raw bar provides a natural conversation around the food. The cocktail program supports a pre-dinner drink. And the overall register of the restaurant — sharpened without being formal, coastal without being casual — communicates something specific about the person who chose it. Above the Dunes is the Rehoboth Beach restaurant that a first date at the Delaware shore should look like.

Practical Information

Address101 S Boardwalk, Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971
CuisineSeafood, Raw Bar, Coastal American
Price$$$
Best ForFirst Date, romantic occasions
ViewPanoramic Atlantic Ocean
Happy HourDaily 1–5pm year-round
Phone(302) 226-2000
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