Hilda Crockett's Chesapeake House

We had a wonderful homemade meal there! The crab cakes were were large and all crabmeat! The creamy corn pudding was also delicious along with perfect homemade coleslaw, yeast rolls, etc. Desert was a delicious homemade pound cake. I liked everything they served! We bought the small book of these recipes, but I doubt I can make these dishes as well as they did! I hope to visit again next year and absolutely look forward to eating their home cooking again!

We planned a last minute trip to the Island. They were so pleasant and helpful with ferry information when I called. There was someone to pick us up at the dock. We stayed in the big house and had the place to ourselves in the evening. That was nice since guests share one bathroom.You get two meals for each guests. It is family style so you get to visit with other guests. Breakfast is 7-9 a.m. Lunch/Dinner is 11-5. Eat hardy because everything closed around 5 p.m. Bring some snacks with you and a cooler with what ever you want. They have plenty of ice. They also provide a nice bathroom outside to use while you enjoy the island between check out and the boat arriving. There is a nice screened in porch to sit and relax and you can sit in the air conditioned sitting room if it gets too hot outside. Bring sunscreen and bug spray. The only problem I had is that the room did not get cool enough until the middle of the night. Please bring cash to tip the amazing staff.

My boyfriend and I spent a weekend on Tangier Island. Our airbnb host recommended that we get the takeout breakfast from Hilda Crockett's Chesapeake House. We only needed one order because the portions were huge! We very much enjoyed our breakfast. We came back that evening for dinner. We were joined by 2 other couples and enjoyed a family style meal with our new friends. The food was good.

We had a wonderful l dinner. Brought 14 people with me, on their first visit to Tangier. Dinner was two large crab cakes (excellently prepared) all you can eat clam fritters, Virginia ham, green beans, coleslaw fresh bread, beets. corn pudding And pound cake for desert. Not only is this one of the iconic restaurants on the Chesapeake, the food is terrific! I highly recommend an povernight stay at Hilda Crockett's.

The food was not all it was cracked up to be, the sweet tea wasn't too good. My two biggest suggestions for the owner would be offering something else to drink in place of the tea and also include maybe a fried chicken or something for kids. The people were ok, the cashier was the best part of the place, very pleasant.

Visited Hilda’s for the first time while on a flying tour with friends in three airplanes. Easily the best crab cakes and clam fritters I’ve had. Everything was great, pace yourself so you don’t fill up before the seafood arrives at the table!

I really wanted to like this place but I just couldn't. For dinner, you must be seated by 5pm. We got there at 4pm on Saturday. There wasn't another person in the place. We were seated, we had a group of 4 adults and 2 kids. I get the family-style dining and my issue with this restaurant has nothing to do with that. We were asked if we wanted unsweetened tea or water. We ordered tea and upon drinking it, my husband asked me to taste it. The tea was spoiled. We all asked for water instead and no one ever asked why we changed our minds.We searched for where the tea was kept when we left and it's in a plastic, unrefrigerated tub with a lid (marked "tea") next to the seating area. *gag* Once the food was brought out, it was not appetizing at all. Most of it looked as though it was from a can. When they finally brought out the crab cakes, we were each given one, they skipped my 9-year old, and for being advertised as an all-you-can-eat joint, we were never offered another one. They brought the clam fritters out shortly after and they were very soggy in the middle. My husband ate one and chomped down on a rock. I thought perhaps this was an occasional thing that is bound to happen with seafood until my father-in-law also bit into a rock. My son's clam fritter had "sand" in it and he decided not to eat it. Do yourself a favor, save your $22/person for terrible food and go to Fisherman's Corner or Lorraine's instead.

Overpriced, fake butter... From the outside, it looks inviting, with hydrangeas and sculpted white porch, but lunch was just average, and way overpriced at $25.00 each. You are escorted to a big table where you meet new friends and pass the plates around. There is a glass of unsweet iced tea and sliced pound cake pre-set at every place. The three proteins were crabcakes, clam fritters and sliced ham. It was not salty. We did not eat the fritters; not appealing to me, but the ham was good and my husband said the crabcakes were very good, with very little filler. But we would not have known there were crabcakes had not other diners told us to ask for some. No waitress came to the table to refill drinks or check on us unless we flagged a random person down. There was homemade bread but some kind of flavorless stick of apparent margarine that had no taste. Really? For $25? There were dishes of green beans and applesauce that seemed canned, and good potato salad. My husband loved the corn pudding, and the slice of pound cake was good. You pay when you walk out, and there is a tip jar for the service which was absent. Bathrooms outside. Would not do it again. Pic below: the outside is more inviting than the inside...

It has been a while since I have been, but each trip we had a lovely time. We stayed overnight in the house across the street from the restaurant and had our evening meal (early dinner) at the Chesapeake House. The B&B accommodations were clean and quiet. The feeling is like staying in your grandmother's home (for me anyway). For our evening's entertainment, we sat on the front porch and watched the island's residents walk by or zip by in the golf carts. The restaurant serves plenty of food, family style. Everything is pretty much all you care to eat with the exception of the crab cakes, where you are limited to 2 (which is reasonable). I really liked the clam fritters.

This review is for the restaurant at lunch, which anyone can come in off the street for. This is a living, breathing, eating piece of history. The amount of food served family style is breathtaking, even at lunch. Very homey and traditional, our favorites were the corn spoonbread and dessert. At $25 a person, we certainly didn't eat our money's worth. We wanted to like it - and support it - but it takes special people who can do a lunch like this justice. It's just not us.

The bed and breakfast was everything we expected. Quit, clean and relaxing. We enjoyed our stay overnight here. I recommend bringing bug spray if you plan to do much walking around the island as flies are bad. The restaurant was ok. The crab cakes are really good. The other good, which there was a lot of was not much to write home about. (Yet here I am yelping) Ham, corn pudding, string beans, potato salad, cold slaw, beets, apple sauce. The rolls were good. They finish the meal off with a slice of cake that was yummy. This was good for a one time trip. The night we stayed it was the only place open on the whole island. Everything was closed for graduation at the local school. If you want a quite get away and to be separated from the outside world for a day or two. This is the place to come.

Overpriced, fake butter... From the outside, it looks inviting, with hydrangeas and sculpted white porch, but lunch was just average, and way overpriced at $25.00 each. You are escorted to a big table where you meet new friends and pass the plates around. There is a glass of unsweet iced tea and sliced pound cake pre-set at every place. The three proteins were crabcakes, clam fritters and sliced ham. It was not salty. We did not eat the fritters; not appealing to me, but the ham was good and my husband said the crabcakes were very good, with very little filler. But we would not have known there were crabcakes had not other diners told us to ask for some. No waitress came to the table to refill drinks or check on us unless we flagged a random person down. There was homemade bread but some kind of flavorless stick of apparent margarine that had no taste. Really? For $25? There were dishes of green beans and applesauce that seemed canned, and good potato salad. My husband loved the corn pudding, and the slice of pound cake was good. You pay when you walk out, and there is a tip jar for the service which was absent. Bathrooms outside. Would not do it again.

Hilda's is an institution! The crab cakes are some of the best you could possibly eat! The clam fritters are amazing! The side dishes are totally adequate. You go to Hilda's because it is as unique a place as is tangier itself. They both have some flaws but let's be serious about those and just enjoy the how extra ordinary it all is.

I really wanted to like this place but I just couldn't. For dinner, you must be seated by 5pm. We got there at 4pm on Saturday. There wasn't another person in the place. We were seated, we had a group of 4 adults and 2 kids. I get the family-style dining and my issue with this restaurant has nothing to do with that. We were asked if we wanted unsweetened tea or water. We ordered tea and upon drinking it, my husband asked me to taste it. The tea was spoiled. We all asked for water instead and no one ever asked why we changed our minds.We searched for where the tea was kept when we left and it's in a plastic, unrefrigerated tub with a lid (marked "tea") next to the seating area. *gag* Once the food was brought out, it was not appetizing at all. Most of it looked as though it was from a can. When they finally brought out the crab cakes, we were each given one, they skipped my 9-year old, and for being advertised as an all-you-can-eat joint, we were never offered another one. They brought the clam fritters out shortly after and they were very soggy in the middle. My husband ate one and chomped down on a rock. I thought perhaps this was an occasional thing that is bound to happen with seafood until my father-in-law also bit into a rock. My son's clam fritter had "sand" in it and he decided not to eat it. Do yourself a favor, save your $22/person for terrible food and go to Fisherman's Corner or Lorraine's instead.

I just have to talk about Hilda Crockett's even though I last ate there several years ago and before I became a Yelper. I HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN THE EXPERIENCE. First off, it takes some effort to eat here for you must take about an hour boat ride to get to the island in the Chesapeake Bay. That in itself is a delightful experience. When you disembark, you walk. No cars here. We found Hilda's and walked right in and sat at the picnic tables and the food started pouring in. We ate family style and there was more than enough for everyone at every table. It's a fun way to share a meal with new found friends. And then: The crab cakes arrived. Perfectly prepared, about 2 inches thick, and golden brown. They served us many plates of these crab cakes. They were without a doubt the best I have ever eaten anywhere. I hold all crab cakes up to Hilda Crockett's high standard. My friends always know they will hear: "They're pretty good crab cakes here but they're not as good as Hilda's" when I order crab cakes at other restaurants. I hope I can return there this coming summer when the boats start running again. Meanwhile, if you have a chance to visit Tangier Island off the Virginia coast, do it. It's a remarkable place.

We have been several times to Hilda Crockett's Chesapeake House and yesterday was a huge disappointment. The server was very rude by huffing and rolling her eyes at us. She wouldn't bring the crab cakes to us as she told us to hand over our plates in a not friendly tone. She never came back to see if we wanted the more of the casseroles that had been finished. For $22 I expect more! It seemed more important to her to count heads on the amount of money they would make. I gave it a 2 for the horrible service but the food was great. So if you don't mind how you are treated then you will love it!

We ate there on what was maybe an off night. We live and travel on our trawler so maybe we get jaded. I had high hopes for the meal but found it just OK, more of a boarding house feed than a feast. We were spending the night at the marina and made the only seating at early hour. We were told that it was all you can eat but only two crab cakes. The whole seating was about 8 people. Every spot in Tidewater has the best crab cakes. These were good but no superlatives attached. Side dishes were poor. Some limp canned veggies and an ordinary salad. Maybe they put out a bigger spread if their was a larger crowd. Compared to meals at places like Mrs Wilkes in Savannah, this is a disappointment.

Dont go to Tangier Island without checking out this wonderful place! All food is home cooked and served family style. They even sell a cookbook with all their recipies. Great place!

Loved this place! Real down home cooking. The meal is family style so as long as you are comfortable sharing your table and passing the plates of food around you'll enjoy it. Everything was delicious!!!!!

What a treasure. Very nice family style dining. The food was very good and the ambiance very simple. It's a little pricy but when you are seasonal and on island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay what do you expect. Overall, a good dining experience.

I have been to Tangier 20 Times and each time that I stay at a bed-and-breakfast it is always Hilda Crocketts. The food is delicious the staff is friendly and you always go away feeling like you had the best meal ever. You get to sit at tables with people maybe from Florida or England or anywhere on the bay. I love being able to talk to other people seeing where they're from, and finding out what they think of the island. The sleeping rooms are decorated very nice, and I always feel like I stayed at my grandmas house... Always clean and always comfortable. This is not like staying in an upscale hotel in a big city. If I wanted that I would've went to a big city. I want to vacation ......a pure and simple vacation and that's what you get when you go to Tangier. I've never met anybody that's not friendly, always eager to answer your questions, and always make you feel like you want to come back. I will be back Tangier !!! The first time I went there I fell in love with the people, and the island. I always feel like I'm going home.

Let me start by saying, this place is a tourist trap. We got a meal add on, with our cruise over to the island. The food is mediocre and served family style. Decor and ambiance is homeless shelter or church basement meal. It is not cute, quaint, kitchy, charming or any of the things you think it will be. The best part was the company, which you are forced to talk to as they pack you 12 to a table, elbow to elbow. Coleslaw is home made. Maybe homemade potato salad. Corn pudding was nice. The rolls were good. The crab cakes are huge and great, a little shell in some. But...it is supposed to be all you can eat but you are lucky if you get 2 crab cakes. We waited a while on ONE each, as did others at our table. "We're cooking more" is what we heard a lot. We got one to split between two of us. Then, there is canned beets, canned green beans, canned apple sauce. Fritters were very greasy. Ham was cold. Eat with a bunch of strangers on fold out tables and chairs in a hot, crowded room. Bathroom toilets don't flush as there is no water pressure. Service was acceptable but not friendly. Very expensive for what you get. Considering you are at a major crabbing capital, and how they are so skimpy dolling out the crab cakes, this should not be so expensive. This place has been here for a long long time so you would think they might have been able to buy some real chairs by now and not plastic fold up chairs from costco. I have been here before 15 years ago and service was friendlier and crab cakes were put on the table, not metered out.I think after the long trip getting there, the long day walking around, the few choices to eat on the island, people really want to like it. But it is not what you will hope it to be.

We stayed at the bed and breakfast, and so had the opportunity to eat a few meals here. Breakfast: scrambled eggs, tons of bacon (very crisp), lightly fried potatoes, toast, orange juice, coffee. There was plenty of food, though I wish the bacon hadn't been quite so crisp. Dinner: ham (cold), green beans, apple sauce, cole slaw, clam fritters, crabcakes, corn pudding, bread, and pound cake. The ham wasn't bad, but wasn't over the top either. The beans looked like they came from a can but had more of a home cooked flavor (probably from the ham bone...). The cole slaw was above average. The clam fritters didn't taste like clam, more like an oniony hash brown - tasty, but not what I expected. The crabcakes were delicious. The corn pudding was outstanding, as were the pound cake and dinner bread. Overall, you won't go hungry and there are some definite highlights. I wish the ham had been warm, and that they served soft drinks in addition to unsweetened iced tea. A solid meal with some outstanding items.

We spent the night at Hilda Crockett's and it was simply delightful. We flew into the local airport and since we couldn't get cell service, we were told to just knock on the nearest house. We did and ask them to call the B&B to let them know we had arrived. Sure enough Susan came in a golf cart and picked us up. She gave us a mini tour/orientation on the way from the airport. We were late arriving and missed the last dinner seating but they simply told us to put our bags in our room and have dinner when we were ready. We went to the restaurant and Glenna and her staff were waiting for us and served their wonderful family style meal. They have specialties that were out of this world, the crab cakes, corn pudding and clam fritters were delicious. The home baked rolls were warm and fresh from the oven, what a treat. There was also Coleslaw, green beans, potato salad, apple sauce and beets. We were so full we had to take the lemon pound cake back to the room. The room was nicely decorated and really made you feel like you were staying as a guest in someone's home. The bathroom was nicer than some we have had in upscale NY hotels! There was a sitting room but even though it was over 90 degrees you couldn't resist sitting on the front porch. The guest house and rooms were air conditioned and very comfortable. There was literature that told the history of the island and fun facts about Tangier Island. We met some of the other guests while sitting on the porch and everyone was eager to share what they had learned about the island. The next morning it was fun to renew acquaintances with our new found friends over breakfast. French toast with homemade jam, scrambled eggs, bacon, potatoes, juice and coffee were all served family style. By now it was as if we were all family and you quickly forgot that you were all strangers the day before. The island is small and there is a lot to see and it was nice to learn from the breakfast conversation some of the things to see. We chose to walk but you can rent golf carts (?) and bikes ($2/hr, $7/day) or opt for a local golf cart guided tour (about $5). The town is well marked with signs describing the structures and their historical significance to the town over the years. The B&B provides a basic map of the island it is easy to find your way around. There are free canoes and kayaks to use and the historical museum is a must see. It opens around 11 and is air conditioned and full of interesting items and information. The town beach is a hike but well worth the trip, white sandy beach which provides a nice place to swim in the salt water. You can walk or get pretty close by cart or bike. There are no facilities at the beach and like most of the island shade is limited so bring an umbrella. As I said we flew in so were didn't experience the tour boat scene. The dock has a place to eat and get something to drink. There are several restaurants and 2 ice cream shops in town. If you stay at Hilda Crockett's you won't need any additional food as you get plenty to eat and it is included with the room.

My wife and I stayed at the B&B for our anniversary 20 years ago. When we returned recently for another anniversary, we stayed at a different place but had our anniversary dinner at Hilda's. It hadn't changed an iota...which was fine with me! The food is simple, but well-prepared, delicious and served family-style in gargantuan quantities. The crab cakes are the size of soft balls and must weigh half a pound each. I especially liked the corn pudding and freshly made bread. Sure, the dining room may lack ambiance of a four-star Michelin restaurant but that's not what you go to Tangier Island for.

The rooms are small but very nicely decorated. The owners are very friendly, helpful, and make you feel welcome. The crab cakes are wonderful but the rest of the food is cheap stuff out of a can.