Charming atmosphere, delicious food. Service prompt and friendly.

The food is amazing! We were initially seated in a room with a very large, very loud group, but the staff accommodated our request to be moved to a quieter location. Overall great dining experience!

An overall wonderful experience … beginning with cocktails and an appetizer which were both excellent. Our entrees were delicious and the restaurant helped us celebrate our birthdays with free desserts.

My friend needs gluten-free (GF) food and these items are marked on the menu and when possible adjustments are made to dishes to convert them to GF.

I highly recommend Hard Shell.

Great service and food.

Seafood was excellent as always, service was a little slow, but given current issues, we are patient, and forgive any fault of the server, he was busy taking care of everyone!

Great meal and service

The Hardshell Downtown is hands down our favorite restaurant and we have been going there for years. The food is exceptional as is the service. We are so happy things are getting back to normal and it’s great to go somewhere for dinner and everyone seems happy to be there. We look forward to our next visit and have already made reservations for Christmas Eve!

Everything was Amazing. Food was delicious and staff was polite

Great seafood and drinks! Service was great, everyone was super nice!

The crab cake sandwich was delicious! Second time we’ve eaten here - in from out of town. On our list to visit again.

Love the food. We had calamari and the tuna appetizer. Both were good. Lobster and a steak entree very good too. The chocolate cake was very dry and raspberry sauce way to sweet. The key lime pie was to sweet. Missing the tart taste of the pie!!
But I highly recommend The Hard Shell. Love the atmosphere too. Would definitely go again when I’m back in Richmond!

We arrived early and were warmly greeted. We enjoyed happy hour at the bar with our bartender Candi T. who was absolutely attentive and outstanding. We were so happy with her service that we stayed at the bar for dinner instead of taking a table in the restaurant. My wife said it was the best night she's had in a long time...the food was perfectly prepared. We'll definitely be going back soon!!

Absolutely loved this place first time going there and would most definitely go back!

Great lunch! Food was excellent as was the service. Highly recommend to anyone visiting Richmond!

Taylor our server was awesome! We will return again.

Brandon the bartender was a rockstar! Our waiter Vincent was very attentive. And our food was delicious! We are in town visiting our son and we will definitely return!

Positives: the Chesapeake oysters were sublime! The server was very friendly and made sure that each dishe came out at the appropriate time.

Negatives: our mahi-mahi and scallop entrees were overcooked and flavorless, the she crab soup consisted of a bowl of luke warm cream with small bits of crabs, and the crab cakes were mediocre.

We’ve had excellent meals at the downtown hard shell many times throughout the pandemic and previously, but the poor food preparation on this occasion was disappointing.

The food was incredible…generous and just outstanding. It was cooked to perfection. The brussel sprouts appetizer cannot be described in words…applause perhaps but silence with the look of utter sensation on my face. Both seafood meals were superb. The veggies on my scallops and shrimp were outstanding. Our waitress with the VERY best…friendly, enthusiastic but not overly, knowledgeable, and lovely. The Hard Shell is a soon to return to in Richmond next time. Bravo and thank you!

Really nice and laid back plus classy vibe! Food was amazing and brought out in a timely manner!

We loved Taylor, our server. Food is always good and servings are adequate. BUT we were seated in the banquet room and the temperature was so hot I was uncomfortable throughout the evening. As a mother of fact it was so hot that seat caused a bandaid on my forehead to move from the sweat.

Service was great. Place was loud.

We got exceptional service from Jennifer. Food was decent and wait time was short for food.

Reservation was for 6:00 on a Friday night. At that hour, it was very conversation-friendly. Server was attentive and well-informed. Food was a little underwhelming/bland, IMHO. But overall a great experience.

Food was great. Staff was excellent and they even gave us a free dessert for our wedding anniversary.

The service was great. The seafood was wonderful. The vegetables on both our plates were sent out cold. They offered to fix this but I wasn't feeling like waiting. They did comp our desert and discounted my meal. That was fair in my opinion. The only reason they didn't get more stars is that I expected alot more.

Great lunch - can't wait to go back!

We started with the Chesapeake oysters which were outstanding.
My husband had the special swordfish with tomato and basil. He loved the crispy fish.
I had the poached lobster tail with lemon butter. It satisfied my craving for lobster
The chocolate truffle torte could have been more moist and more raspberry sauce.
The service was very good and attentive.
As all restaurants these days it was very loud.

Celebrating Marlene’s 70th birthday. The food was absolutely delicious. Staff was wonderful and not one person complained.

Our experience at the hard shell was a solid 10/10 from beginning to end. Our waitress was super attentive and sweet. My husband and I went to celebrate our anniversary & a great night! Definitely recommend

Delicious food and very friendly staff

My husband really enjoyed his birthday dinner. The wait staff was very attentive and even volunteered to take a photo for us. I can't wait to go back!

Great lunch. Too loud. Service was good.

Lots of items out of stock. Waiter pretty clueless, gave our drinks to another table by mistake but didn’t let us know, waited for us to ask where our drinks were before he explained what had happened. Food was pretty good.

Absolutely outstanding! Fantastic service and food! Beautiful place.
We loved it and will be back!

Seated us later and were very gracious!

All the food was average at best . The rockfish had this ridiculously hard outer crust I couldn’t bite in to. Calamari was soggy . Creme brulee was super undercooked , consistency was like scrambled eggs and tasted similar . Not creamy at all. Gave me the bill with cream and sugar, forgot the decaf coffee. Will not be returning any time soon

Hard Shell is our go to seafood restaurant in RVA. Last night we had to send the Spiced Shrimp back because it was undercooked. Disappointed. They used to serve the best, now I’ve lost confidence in the food and food prep. Brian, our server, made it right with discount and over and above service. Still, not sure it’s enough.

EXTREMELY noisy. No rugs or tapestries on the wall to absorb sound. We were literally yelling at each other to converse. We had a dozen oysters as appetizers, then placed our dinner order. We hadn't eaten two oysters yet and the waitress brought our dinner to which I expressed dismay. She said because they had two large parties the kitchen staff was hurrying to get food orders out. The calamari was good. My fish tacos were lukewarm, horrible presentation, as evidenced by ingredients being thrown in to the soggy tortilla and spilling out all over the plate. There was hardly any grouper in each taco, and more pickled red onions than anything else. Huge disappointment.

food was delicious. service was great. would definitely return!!!

I will definitely be back!!