Hightide Island Grill

Hightide Island Grill, doing business for decades as Hightide Restaurant and Oyster Bar, sits on Miracle Strip Parkway just short of Brooks Bridge, the span that carries traffic from downtown Fort Walton Beach onto Okaloosa Island. The restaurant has stayed in the hands of one family for more than 40 years, and that continuity shows in a menu built around a raw bar rather than passing trends. Locals mix with vacationers at the tables, and the staff still shucks oysters to order behind a bar where diners can watch the whole process.

The raw bar is the reason regulars keep coming back. Oysters arrive hand-shucked on the half shell by the dozen, or baked into Oyster Casino, Crabby Oyster, and Oyster Royale preparations topped with combinations of cheese, bacon, and jalapenos. A steamed version rounds out the ways the kitchen serves the day’s oysters. Watching the shucking happen at the bar has become part of the draw, almost as much a reason to stop in as the oysters themselves.

Beyond the raw bar, the kitchen turns out a full seafood menu: fresh fish of the day served fried or grilled, grouper and mahi mahi prepared as sandwiches or entrees, soft shell crab, scallops, crab legs, and combination platters that let a table sample several items at once. Popcorn shrimp tossed in a spicy boom boom sauce gives visitors something with more kick than a plain fried basket. A kids menu covers diners 12 and under, and the full bar pours handcrafted cocktails and wine alongside the seafood. Diners with room for dessert can close the meal with fried cheesecake or key lime pie, both regional staples made in-house.

The dining room keeps a laid-back, family-friendly feel, with indoor seating plus an outdoor option for anyone who wants to eat within sight of the water. The full bar stocks top-shelf liquor, cocktails, wine, and craft beer, and the restaurant occasionally books live music to go with dinner. Hightide runs a happy hour Monday through Saturday from 4:30 to 6 p.m. with four-dollar well drinks, a good window to grab a seat at the bar before the dinner rush fills the tables. The restaurant opens at 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and stays closed on Sundays, so plan an early dinner rather than a late lunch if visiting midweek. Curbside ordering is available for anyone who would rather eat oysters back at a condo on Okaloosa Island, and regulars who show up wearing one of the restaurant’s own t-shirts have been known to get a free slice of cheesecake with dinner.

Because Hightide sits right at the base of Brooks Bridge, it works well as a stop before or after crossing onto Okaloosa Island, where the public beaches and fishing pier sit a short drive away. Anyone exploring downtown Fort Walton Beach’s Historic District can reach it in a few minutes by car, making it easy to pair a seafood dinner with an evening walk along Santa Rosa Sound. Parking is on-site, and the restaurant takes walk-ins, though arriving right at opening helps avoid a wait during busy summer weekends when both locals and beach traffic fill the small dining room. Because the space is compact, a couple or a solo diner willing to sit right at the oyster bar usually gets seated faster than a group waiting on a full table, and sitting there also means a front-row view of the shucking that gives the place its character.