Diving Horse

The best of Avalon… Gourmet dishes, a nicer restaurant interior where you should be wearing nicer «resort wear» and not board shorts and flip-​flops like most places in town. Be sure to keep in mind this is a BYO and make sure to have reservations for most nights and especially on weekends!

This is by far the best restaurant in Avalon. I had the NJ fluke with a side of Brussels sprouts. Both were excellent.

Phenomenal! You should absolutely try this for date night at the shore.
Great place with a very unassuming (read: maybe a touch difficult to see while driving by on the street) BYO in Avalon.
I was in the mood for fish, but all of the meat entrees seemed terrific. After reading other reviews, my lovely wife decided to have the short ribs while I had a vast iron seared swordfish. The were both terrific! We swapped entrees half way through. Cape May Oysters appetizer was also very good. This will be on the short list next time we visit the shore.

There’s so much YES in this review, and for this restaurant!
Our group of 8 experienced a fabulous Saturday summer evening outside in the their beautiful courtyard. It was a nice table set away from the other bigger tables, and it was great to have it to ourselves!
The menu was fresh, exciting, and filled with many favorites but with a interesting and delightful twist. Our table ordered the following starters: yellowfin tuna tartare and calamari fritti. Our mains were the seared rare tuna special with roasted fennel, Mid Atlantic fish stew, Barnegat light scallops, and the New Jersey fluke with all of the sides on the menu: braised collard greens, smashed bliss potatoes, Chesapeake fries, and the fried brussel sprouts. (Didn’t I just make your mouth water?)
Not a crumb left on either plate or dish because they were all fantastic! Portions were large enough to share, cooked to the desired temperature (soup not too hot, tuna was definitely rare!), and plated with so much color and texture. Many of us raved about the brussel sprouts, the scallops, the fluke, and the fish stew which was very similar to a bouillabaisse in a tomato-​based broth. Of course we had to have dessert! We all shared the «Kit Kat» bar, blueberry doughnuts, and the shortbread cookies. Always, always order the doughnuts! Very, very good, and a great portion to share.
Our table had a conversation about long hots earlier in the day, and our server overheard us talking about it again at dinner. He came back with a long hot relish, and other peppery relishes to try! Long hots, shishito peppers, and another pepper mix with poblano peppers. Delicious by itself, they were much welcomed and placed on our side dishes, and on our seafood.
Service was absolutely wonderful. I feel terrible that I forgot his name, but our server was friendly, and offered great advice on what to order for our group. I also love that the restaurant is BYO, and is on Open Table to easily make reservations!
Good to know: Same team that does Fitler Dining Room and Pub and Kitchen in Philadelphia. So yeah, these people know what they are doing!

The Diving Horse is one of the few restaurants at the jersey shore that are Philadelphia caliber. The ambiance and service are top notch. The food is fresh and delicious and the serving sizes appropriate. We had appetizers, entrees and dessert and nothing disappointed. I highly recommend the Diving Horse if you are looking for a higher end/​higher quality food at the shore.

I really, really wanted to love this place… but was sadly, let down. As an avid Philadelphia eater and foodie, I was excited to plan a dinner date with my husband knowing this place was owned by the same guys that owned the Fitler Dining Room (and also read recently about it in my Philadelphia magazine). The ambience, very cute — you come in and are greeted by a few shelves of fresh flowers and a counter with diving horse beach tags (which I also thought was a really cute idea). The waiter was nice — he got us a bigger bucket for our wine when we asked him (we just drove here from Margate and the white wine got too warm for my liking). To start, we ordered a dozen of the oysters = yum (but how can you really mess up oysters?) and an order of the calamari, which were decent, but really small serving. For our main entrees, I ordered the scallops and my husband ordered the steak special. Scallops were OK and the steak were OK. I was really let down on these courses. My scallops only had a sear on one side (I’ve watched enough Hell’s Kitchen episodes, isn’t there supposed to be sear on both sides?) and my husbands’ steak special was really, really fatty… too fatty to also be worth $ 54 dollars. EH. Alright, I know I’m at the shore and things are so overpriced here, but seriously? It wasn’t dry aged, nothing! For sides, we got an order of the Brussel sprouts and the fries, both were delic. The Brussel sprouts were very similar to the ones we had at the Fitler Dining room earlier this year (really crispy, sweet, and tangy). Fries — well done, crispy, peppery and a nice little dipping sauce. As for dessert… here’s the real bummer: I ordered the blueberry donuts and my husband got their kit kat. 2 out of the 3 donuts were still raw in the middle (they were huge by the way, they should have cooked them longer or made smaller ones), and the kit kat had wayyy to much fudge on the top layer, and it just overpowered the rest of the crunch. The proportions were wrong. Overall, even if the scallops weren’t supposed to have a sear on both sides, I can let that slide. But still, I needed cooked donuts and a better cut of meat.
Diving horse, I truly was counting on you to have a «Philadelphia» restaurant experience but you still need to work on a few things.

Don’t you hate when you leave a restaurant unsatisfied from the food, experience and overall? That was the experience at this place. We walked in and it was so loud and noisy that we should have left but stayed. The menu was limited and the food uneventful. I wanted it to be great but it wasn’t. The chicken arrived pink, the Brussel sprouts ordered were forgotten, and it was just unremarkable. Not sure what the excitement is about this place other than the upper crusts of the area come here. Of the food that was on the plate, nothing to write home about.

One of my favorite restaurants on the planet. The food is fantastic and the wait staff is attentive, friendly, and very knowledgable. It’s one of those places where you look around to see what everyone else is getting to compare with what you ordered and then you realize, everyone’s meal is fantastic.
I gave it 5 stars but I’d like to give people the heads up. This is not an inexpensive meal. Sure you bring your own alcohol which helps, but this is going to hurt your wallet. However, in the area of worth what you pay for, it’s a bargain. Some of the app portions can be a little on the small side but very frequently in life, good things come in small packages.
I ordered the tuna tartare with cucumber gazpacho and it was awesome. A lot of people ordered their version of calamari and it is definitely not your standard deep fried squid. These two apps were a little small but packed a big taste punch.
I ordered the ribeye special cooked rare topped off with chimichurri — I ate every piece of food on my plate. Needless to say after I finished my meal I deeply missed my ribeye. It was a nice size piece. A number of people ordered their beef short ribs which were also tasty and a nice sized portion.
Their desserts were also too but I think my review is getting a little wordy. Save room for dessert.
Bring your bottle, your date, and your wallet to ride the Diving Horse in Avalon.

Came here for a romantic night out. Luckily it is byob. We started out with the oysters, they had a great selection and they were super fresh. For dinner we had the scallops and they were the best scallops I had perfectly seared. Also the short rib with the flour gnocchi were also very good.
Considering this place is byob the higher price of the food is totally worth and I will be back!

We eat at the Diving Horse once a year because we love outdoor dining and the patio here is enclosed with privacy shrubs and bountiful flower pots. We like communal tables and we have sat with some interesting people here. The food is always fresh and delicious but the prices and portions are way out of line.
We requested rolls to accompany the $ 12 cherry tomato and strawberry salad served with house ricotta and basil oil. The ricotta was fresh and scant; I would say maybe a teaspoonful. The basil oil from the salad saved the bland bread which was not as good as a prepackaged roll from Acme. The salad was tiny and tasty.
I asked the server what kind of fish was in the $ 33 fish stew. She said it came with LOTS of DIFFERENT seafood, including fish, scallops, shrimp and the like. To be fair, the menu only mentions «catch of the day». I guess they only caught one fish that day and they threw in the bait (squid) with it. Again, the sauce was rich and delicious but there were more potato morsels than fish. Ahh, that’s what made it a stew, not the mélange of seafood.
My husband enjoyed his $ 31 chicken dish, the most expensive roast chicken I’ve ever seen on a menu.
Service was good. We were the only people outside until a party of eight showed up and decided to forgo their table inside for the patio. Charge me $ 30+ for an entrée but it should be a real portion size.
Go to Fuze next door. They have outdoor dining and better value.

Let’s start out by being fair. The quality of the food is excellent. The presentation in many instances is interesting. However, to claim The food is the best in the section of New Jersey is a big stretch. I found it to be almost as expensive as going to a top restaurant in Manhattan. My daughter had a ribeye steak which was a special and the charge for it was $ 55. My wife had with looked to be about a 5 ounce portion of flounder and that was in the mid to high 30s. I understand that money must be made during the season but I would much prefer to go to Cape May and eat at some of the top restaurants there before returning. The staff was very attentive and provided excellent service.

Awesome food and service! Great byo at the shore and high end farm to table atmosphere like the finer byo’s in Philadelphia.

We’ve had a terrible week of luck in Avalon… the weather has been awful all week and everything is dead (combination of the weather and the off-​season, I reckon). But the highlight of our trip has been The Diving Horse. The short rib was out of control, the sides are huge, and they even made a custom vegan entrée. on top of everything, Whitney was attentive and exceptionally kind. In short, Diving Horse was the only bit of sunshine we’ve seen all week. We will definitely be back, and hopefully they can open the windows next time.

I had dinner at the Diving horse for the first time the other night and I was not disappointed! I had the crab salad and short rib. For dessert… the kit kat!!! The staff was so kind and accommodating. The restaurant is a byob, the décor is beautiful and the food was delicious. I have no complaints and will be back!

The Diving Horse is the perfect place to have dinner with a small group of friends. The atmosphere is charming, service is friendly, and the food is great. I love the décor and the open, beachy feel.
In addition to the fresh rolls with honey butter, our table shared a few starters —
Wedge salad with crab, tomato and ricotta salad, and the calamari. We really enjoyed everything although the portions were pretty tiny.
Scallops (perfectly seared) with farro and the shortribs were the favorite entrees. We ended with the «kit kat» dessert. Yum!
It’s a good idea to make a reservation in advance, especially in the summer. Like most places down here, it’s a BYOB, which is nice considering the food is a bit pricey.

3 years later, 6 visits, all exceptional.
By far the best restaurant on the jersey shore. The quality of the food is superb. Every app, entrée and dessert is done well. And bring your favorite wine, as its BYOB.
If you are down the shore and want «Philly Quality» food, check this place out.

I’d give it 3.5 stars if I could. Overall it’s a very decent place but unfortunately I found that on our last visit this past Friday night, it wasn’t as stellar as it was in the past. The food was great but there were one or two things off about each item.
First, the wedge salad is always fantastic but it had way too much dressing, to the point that I couldn’t eat the last few bites.
I then had the scallops with farro, which were very tasty, except that the scallops were a little under and the sear wasn’t great. The others with me had the scallops, a steak special (which was the best dish at the table but was about $ 54) and the fluke. I found the fluke to be relatively flavorless.
Dessert was the best part of the meal — we split the kit kat ganache and the lemon panna cotta. Both were phenomenal.
I also found our waiter (a beach «dude») to be awkward and not very warm.
It seems based on more recent reviews that the Diving Horse is slipping in quality and execution. I sincerely hope that is not the case but my experience tells me otherwise. Overall it was a good meal, and if I didn’t have previous experiences to compare it to there, I’m sure I’d rate it higher. Something was missing though.

My husband & I went there for dinner tonight for my birthday. We split the Crab wedge Salad. Chris had the special which was NY Strip Steak & I had the Barnegat Light Scallops. We had brought with us a bottle of Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio (best Pinot Grigio from Italy). We split the Kit Kat for desert. The meal was not as good as last year, but the Pinot Grigio did not disappoint us. Service was excellent!

Fantastic service is the name of the game at this place.
I walked in with GF while on vacation in Avalon for our «fancy date» night. It was a bit odd in that we got a ho-​hum reception at the door when we didn’t have a reservation, though the place was empty (6pm). They seemingly «found some space for us» and seated us in the outdoor patio; we were the only ones out there for about 45 minutes, so I’m not sure what the concern was. The patio seating was nice and secluded, romantically lit with string lights. The tables out there seat ~20, and as they fill, you just kinda buddy up with strangers I guess (wasn’t an issue for us, no one was seated within two seats adjacent).
At any rate, we brought a few beers and a bottle of wine, and our server was absolutely delightful. He was super attentive, we never went 5 minutes without a full beer/​wine glass (esp good because I eyed the indoors, and he had tables in there; easily could have forgotten us). Humorous and friendly service, and insightful descriptions of the menu items.
The food itself, while pretty pricey (BYO helps, but the food prices are still pretty up there), was very delicious. I got the prime rib, GF got the Mahi, and both were as tender and juicy as could be; portions were moderate. Lobster roll was tasty enough, but not really worth the $ 20, IMO.
As for desert, GET THE KIT KAT. Get it with ice cream. Get two of them, in fact, so you don’t have to share (it’s the cheapest thing on the menu, after all). Put them in your bellies. Extremely tasty.
Would not bring kids. Group is possible (as mentioned, patio tables are 15~20), but best for a date night.

I had only heard of the legend surrounding the Diving Horse restaurant in Avalon and after experiencing the food and service, I can put it at one of the finer meals that I’ve had down the shore and it ranks up there with some of the best I’ve had in Philadelphia as well.
I enjoyed the open dining room and being able to see right into the line of the kitchen. Our server, who apparently also logged some time at one of Philadelphia’s fine pubs with kitchen talked us through the menu and made recommendations based on our dining preferences. We settled on fluke crudo, heirloom tomato salad and scallops for me.
I love the fluke crudo. The whole flavor profile was bright, citrusy and very summery and light. The heirloom tomato salad with the fresh basil and nice balsamic was also a wonderful starter. Since my girlfriend doesn’t get down with dairy the entire hunk of burrata which was supposed to be on the salad was given to me on the side. I think I must have looked like a kid in a candy store, or like an adult in a cheese shop.
The scallops dish kicked ass, there’s just no other way to say it. The asparagus was perfect and the faro risotto let me sop up all the goodness left over. The scallops had an excellent char on them and were perfectly tender throughout. This was one fantastic dish.
I was thrilled that I finally got to eat here and being that I spend some time down the shore in the summer, I am looking forward to returning and sampling more of their offerings. The short rib that my nose caught wind of before my eyes is probably my next target. Suffice to say, I’m a fan of this place.