Tortugas Cafe and Tiki Bar

Good food, nice views, relaxing atmosphere. It’s so nice to eat lunch while taking in the views of the ocean, ppl watching, etc!

This is a beautiful spot to kick back, enjoy the view and have an excellently prepared drink. The food is ok, no great expectations here for that. Go next door to Lagerheads for a great burger, or visit Tortugas for a great time.

I’ll give this place 2 stars because there was one good thing about it… the pork belly burger my boyfriend ordered. As for the rest, the place was pretty bad. First, there was no hostess and I had to ask the girl at the hotel desk to find us one after waiting for about 5 minutes. Finally someone came up and we were able to get a seat at the bar with no wait. The 2 seats available had large pieces of food and sticky stuff all over the bar. We thought the bartender was going to wipe it down, but did not. She just handed us menus. We even swept the debris to the side with the menus hoping to hint that it desperately needed to be cleaned… she never did. I ordered the shrimp and grits and they were out of the grits, so I chose the grilled shrimp salad instead. The fresh spring mix was nice, but the shrimp had a very odd taste to it. I’m still wondering why I ate it and didn’t send it back. I didn’t get sick, but I eat a lot of shrimp and it is NOT supposed to taste that way. It was horrible! lol. And lastly, the bar wreaked of stale beer. Like it hadn’t been cleaned in ages. Definitely would not recommend this place.

Awesome Raspberry Piña Coladas staff very accommodating to customize the wraps to our liking. Spinach and Artichoke dip was very good and should be tried.

Great location — food is fairly average. Get’s a little on the crowded side being it is so small and on the water during the summer season during the day. Ends up being more of a hotel bar type vs. being a go to place like it has potential for.

Great food and decent drinks… Just normal «vacation» drinks. Compared to the rest of the restaurants in this city this was the best.

Hmm. I was confused at first because I thought Tortugas Café was just part of our resort, but after reading other reviews I am seeing it is its own separate place. And it’s pretty bad. You’re looking at around $ 16+ for nachos, $ 16 for a shrimp Caesar salad, $ 13 – 16 for tacos and everything is straight out of the bag. Everything I saw/​ordered was pre-​prepared and pulled from the refrigerator in a container and thrown on the dish.
Nachos: bagged chips, heated up queso cheese, bagged lettuce, bagged salsa, and bagged guac squirted straight into a plastic cup. The barbacoa pork on the nachos did taste good and that is where I give this place one whole star.
Caesar: bagged lettuce and dressed/​tossed in dressing from a huge container of Caesar, shredded cheese, croutons and for +$ 7, 4 shrimp that were soggy and tasted like lemon soap.
We were uninterested in trying anything else on the menu for the outrageous prices after reading other reviews on here and establishing some of our own after the couple things we did get.
I ordered the banana dream frozen drink and a raspberry piña colada that I am positive did not have any liquor in it. They cost around $ 13 each.
I don’t give 1 star reviews often, but the service couldn’t even save this place. Very rude, people at the counter seemed annoyed. At 11:03 one morning after they had not yet taken down their breakfast menu, I was looking to order fruit and the manager yelled at one of her employees and indirectly let me know that «IT SHOULD BE TAKEN DOWN BECAUSE THEY ARENT SERVING BREAKFAST ANYMORE»…okay then

I love the ambience here and location at the heart of VA beach. Last night, my boyfriend and I biked from a campsite to the boardwalk, and we stopped here along the way. We sat outside (about 8 pm and only 2 outdoor tables were available — FYI). Our waitress came by promptly, brought waters and let us take our time with our drink orders. More importantly, I love the comfy seats, live music, views, people watching.

First time in Here, last time. Food was not so good. Prices is pricey for average bar food. Do not waste your money. Only good thing is the view.

Lets start with the good things — location and view. As for the service, it was very SLOW! 52 minutes for 2 egg tacos. Which by the way you could probably make at home in 10 minutes. Service was of course slow and inattentive. I would suggest going there for drinks only and the view.

The two stars that I’ve given are solely for the location. The restaurant has premium spot on the beach. Tables face the boardwalk and have ocean view. Drinks were decent too. Sadly food was lacking in satisfaction. I guess all tourist places are the same.
We took Fish tacos, Veggie wrap and Green salad. Drinks were beer and margarita. Drinks were fine. Veggie wrap was below average. Salad, well was like a salad.
Next time on the beach I’ll try some other place for food.

Nice little cozy outdoor tiki bar with a few large nice Tvs. Watched the NBA Draft last night out here and had a great time. Back at noon the next day having great convo with the bartender Matt. He is one of the best I have had during my stay at Virginia Beach. All in all… Perfect little spot with great fun atmosphere and a great bartender.

Meh. Great location, obviously. Service was average. Food is no better than Moe’s but a lot more expensive. Husband had the barbacoa burrito — it was pretty big but dry and underseasoned. I asked the waitress which was better, fish tacos or shrimp tacos, and she said the shrimp were far better, so I went with those.
Pros: it comes with 2 nice-​sized tacos with lots of shrimp on each. The cheese is good and the cabbage was fresh and crisp. The sauce was tasty.
Cons: for those 2 tacos and a handful of chips with a tiny cup of salsa, you pay $ 14.95. Those «island — spiced» shrimp tasted a lot like lemon — flavored dish detergent — there was no spice to them at all. And that tasty sauce? One of my tacos had a decent amount of sauce spread throughout, but the other one had only a tiny smear of it in the middle.
Overall, it was okay. I would feel better about it if the prices were about 50% lower. As it is, I wouldn’t eat here again. But it’s a great place to hang out and have drinks near the ocean, or near the pool if you’re staying at the Ocean Beach Club resort.

Food selection was definitely limited, but the bar is nice. We stayed at the oceanaire and we were able to order drinks from the tikki bar and drink them at the pool. I shared a jumbo frozen strawberry margarita with my friend and it was delicious.

Location is awesome, perfect beach setting. Service was good but the food was really a let down. I ordered the chicken fingers and shrimp tacos. Chicken was under cooked and tasted like something you would microwave from Walmart. Shrimp tacos weren’t that great either. Your much better off going to laugherheds next door where the prices are the same and the food much better.

Had been here for lunch and lunch time was approximately for 3 hours :)
Location of this restaurant is perfect right on the boardwalk with easy access to beach.
We had been on busy memorial weekend and it was crazy busy for lunch. It took 20 mins to get seated and this long time because people sitting were waiting for their food. There was 45 mins wait time for food after order was done. No chips served while you are just waiting which is kinda bad on their part please at least serve chips and salasa to your clients while they are waiting. We had ordered burritos, salad and tenders and finally when the food had come, up it lived to the expectation… it was good. We dint try any sea food so no comments and drinks were on higher side which is expected for any beach front restaurant. Overall we had good time even though it wait was long but we were very tired and enjoyed the view and sun.
«Worth trying out good vegetarian options with cool ambiance» I will come back again.

Food was decent. Nothing too exciting but the tacos were decent. Service was ok. They were busy and seemed a bit short staffed. Drinks were pricey, $ 6.25 for a draft yuengling. The view and atmosphere is why it got a 4 from us!

Great spot for a mimosa on the beach with a fantastic view. $ 3 bloody Mary’s and mimosas 9 – 11

As far as location, I give it a 4 or 5. Great spot on the beach with comfortable seating. But, the service was poor and the food was average at best. There was live music the night we went, which was fun. But, it also made it so loud that we could hardly talk with the other couple that we were there with. If all the other great spots are too busy, I would go here for the great location and a drink.

We made our way down to Virginia Beach recently to celebrate my fiancée’s birthday, and one of her relatives suggested Tortugas. We had a group of about 10 adults and 3 children, so we had a sizeable party, so it’s possible that portions of this review wouldn’t apply to your average 2 — 5 party size.
–Food: The menu they have offers a variety of items, mostly seafood related, in the form of tacos, salads, and sandwiches. After some decision making, I ended up with the Rockin’ Tacos, which consisted of two softshelled wheatflour tacos with a fried rockfish strip, cabbage, salsa, sour cream, cheese, and cabbage. It also came with a side of tortilla chips and salsa.
The tacos themselves were pretty good. The chips tasted like chips from a grocery store along with salsa from a grocery store. The tacos weren’t the most filling, but satiated my lunch craving.
My fiancée had a mandarin salad with shrimp, which looked pretty good.
–Cost: Two tacos without a real side or a drink for $ 11 is a little expensive. The other tacos like Shrimp were even more. Her salad was I believe $ 10 and the shrimp was $ 7 extra for about 4 shrimp. The café is right on the boardwalk with a great view of the beach, so you’re probably paying for that.
–Atmosphere: I’m not sure you could have better atmosphere. You literally sit on a tropical themed patio that overlooks the beach. There are some water structures and a pool attached which belong to the hotel /​ocean club behind it, which is really pretty. Atmosphere alone this would be 5 stars.
–Service: A star off here. I understand that we had a party of 13. The wait for the food wasn’t the problem, it was sort of to be expected after all with a large party. The problem is that they forgot the kid’s meals, which is bad because young kids want any food they can see, so for everyone around them to have food but not they makes them upset. Eventually they made them (which were just chicken nuggets anyway) and gave them on the house, but still. Another oddity is that it took upwards of 20 or 30 minutes to get the checks sorted out into 4 groups. It was a family get together of sorts so it’s not like everyone was awkwardly twiddling thumbs, but it doesn’t seem like it’d be that hard to get it right. They compensated us cookies for that blunder.
–Overall: Wasn’t a bad experience, but one that took over 2 hours. Summarized I suppose it was decent food, slightly high prices, great atmosphere, and a couple serving mistakes. Would probably go again, but I’d probably check out the rest of the things in the area first.