Creative cuisine of small plates offering a variety of tempting dishes with layers of flavor. Craft cocktails and extensive martini offerings. Nice ambiance. Excellent service. Shared 8 dishes with our group last night and everything was amazing. Suggest you make a reservation as it is a smaller restuarant! read more

Great tapas. Truffle honey butter and brioche was awesome. Asparagus and crab soup was also great.

Overall, we enjoyed this place, including the food and the drinks. Though the observations that some make are very true (dimly lit, smaller portions, server/owner/host being casually dressed and laidback), I did not expect a formal dining experience - they describe themselves as casual - and it is a tapas place, meaning small plates. The food combinations are creative and have great flavor and taste. Its location (back off the road, almost hidden in a strip mall not easily seen at night from the road) is probably the biggest hindrance for those of us not staying in Corolla, but GPS helps the way. Logistics aside, we enjoyed the food and drinks and found the atmosphere cozy. Very nice for an easy Wednesday night dinner in September. read more

Food had great flavors. But servings were about half of what the price justified ... even for the best of dishes. We will not go back.

Interesting dishes using lots of local ingredients. They were all pretty good, except the foie gras course which was the center of the liver. It was too chewy. The peach bread pudding and creme anglaise was just too sweet. Overall great place to eat and get drunk. The margaritas were awesome. read more

This place is a god send when staying in Corolla/OBX. It could easily win a top restaurant award in DC, the food, atmosphere, service, and drinks are that good. Its a good place for dinner, with the assortment of tapas sure to please everyone. Its also an awesome place to get a drink or two later in the evening....in fact, I think it may be the only place out in Corolla to have a nice evening out. I can't wait to go back next time I'm in OBX. read more

I cannot complain at all about our dining experience...food had some really nice diverse flavors, the specialty drinks were very good...passion fruit margarita for example. I'm not sure if you could go wrong with food choices...all of our groups were tasty. I was not a fan of the pricing though. At $50 per person and not satiated was a disappointment...$5 for a roll with some truffle butter and everything up from there. I still give 4 stars because better than average and some may not care about the price. read more

Two couples off season dinner. Great food, drinks, service; albeit a bit expensive. Spent $200 before tip; would have enjoyed a few more cocktails and plates to share for same cost. Also, selection was limited. Still, ordered a few plates to share and enjoyed everything. Suspect small space could be quite noisy if full/busy during peak. read more

Not worth the money!! Nothing special about this place. Being a tapas restaurant I expected small portions but definitely did not plan on leaving hungry after (5) plates between the (2) of us and a bill for $100 (1) drink. Food is pretty good not great. Very good waitress. Wouldn't recommend it. read more

I need more stars!!! THE most imaginative, delicious food in an upscale, unpretentious and super cool spot. Kudos!

Great attention to detail. The food was amazing. And the drinks were spot on. Def a must go when in northern OBX.

What an incredible restaurant in a quiet beach location ! The tapas allow the chefs to combine a variety of flavors together. Metropolis is not one meat and potatoes place, but the chefs liven any meat, potato, and vegetable combination. It's more than a martini bar, but the selection of wine, beer, and martinis offer a choice for anybody's taste. Definately as good as any restaurant in the Washington, DC area. This is the gem on the beach. read more

I had really high hopes for this place, but it was a disaster. The martinis were good, but not worth $13.50. The food was pretty good, though, especially after an 90 minute wait for soup, cheese and crackers, and risotto. You can tell the owners take great pride in the food. The chef, (who was also our bartender, server, busser, and host) told us of the great lengths he had gone to obtain the foodstuffs. Unfortunately good service is not a priority for them. They needed at least 6 other staff people to handle the full restaurant. Instead, two guys tended bar, ran food, took orders (and promptly forgot them). They were so crazy busy that the same guy tried to seat us and another group at the same table. He totally had his wires crossed and wasn't thinking straight. Whenever we were able to get their attention they asked us what we would like to order, forgetting we had ordered almost an hour before. We were really disappointed. It would have been better if they apologized for their crazy service, but the one guy was a chef and had the attitude that he was doing us a favor by giving us lousy service. My advice: Don't go unless they are empty. And you might want to go on a full stomach and expect tepid martinis. DISAPPOINTING! read more

Excellent food, service and drinks. A truly enjoyable place for dinner at the beach!

Our favorite place in OBX to go out without the kids. The food and drinks are great. Sitting at the bar is the best spot because you can order a couple things at a time and they keep the drinks flowing. read more

Amazing food and service. First time here, very friendly great beer and wine selection. Highly recommend the veal.

We look forward every year to eating here on our vacation. Who knew we would find the best food in OBX at a tapas bar? The drinks are phenomenal and every tapas dish we tried was excellent. The owner remembered us from the previous year and was happy to tell us about the dishes and make recommendations. You won't be sorry to give this place a try! read more

Came here for dinner last night. Had to come before the Memorial Day rush, because trust me, there is a reason their packed during the summer season. Just walking in felt like I was sitting in a restaurant in Spain. And the food only made it better. Menu does change, so be sure to check. I had a delicious duck breast, quail, beef tenderloin, and even ventured out to try some shrimp. All on point! Even the Mac & Cheese, made with goat cheese, that came with the quail was devine. It was our servers first night, but she did a great job! Definitely will be back! read more

Stopped in on a whim while in the area for a martini, it was well prepared and reasonably priced. What really brought myself and my party back was the menu, though. We planned on just getting one or two tapas items and leaving but after seeing fried quail, local asparagus soup and pork tenderloin on a polenta cake we decided to make a night of it. We had several casual conversations with staff and the chef, tried a few things off of our normal menu selections and loved every aspect of the experience. If you don't mind spending a few extra dollars and venturing off the beaten path, Metropolis is the place to try, we will be back every time we hit OBX. read more

Love the vibe, enjoy the cocktails and always find a delicious dish or two. We have been coming here for years. We tend to stick with the chalkboard specials which are usually shows off great in-season produce and locally caught or farmed items. read more

Great atmosphere, food and service. The kebabs, scallops and ahi tuna were delicious. We were a large party of 3 families and had kids with allergies and the staff was very accommodating. Thanks for a great meal! read more

Absolutely horrible service!!! Bar and Restaurant were fairly empty yet the owner/host completely ignored us after taking our order. He had plenty of time to chat it up with the couple next to us. Peach Martini had way too much vermouth, I had placed it out close to the bar and he never came back to even check on us. Even when getting the check we had to GET his attention. Ruined Date Night which as parents of a 4 year old we don't get very often! read more

Tapas portions are quit small. It takes several to make a meal, and this is fairly expensive. For me, the cost versus benefit isn't good enough to make me return. read more

We visit Metropolis whenever we are at our house in the obx - and that's often - and it's always great. Excellent variety in tapas form, with stellar local fare, and as noted by others, great specialty drinks. Plus - everyone is super nice. read more

I'm confused about all of the positive reviews. We went to Metropolis for a wedding tasting to select a caterer. We were told to "just come for dinner" and weren't afforded the attention or decent food selection to make Metropolis our choice. We were greeted by the server/host/bartender/busboy who delivered overpriced tasteless peach bellinis. Supposedly, the fresh peach purée was saved from the prior season specifically for this drink this week. Not even the essence of peach could be detected. We were seated next to the kitchen with full view of Chef Mark who we saw rinsing precooked pasta with the hot water sprayer from the dishwasher. The first course he chose for us was a charcuterie tray with sliced meats and cheeses. No skill there. Next was the salt and pepper crab balls that were void of lump crabmeat and were mushy inside ($3 a piece). Next course was duck confit croquettes which were served barely warm and drizzled with an ice cold truffle sauce. These too were void of seasoning and hardly worth $7 a piece for a 2" patty. At that point we had enough but he insisted on bringing out the "best meatballs" in a spicy sauce. Again, poorly seasoned, not spicy, and only one of the 5 of us finished the meatball or the duck confit. We are all from the DC metro area and frequent tapas restaurants regularly. This tasting selection, the extremely dark atmosphere (possible attempt to hide food and dirty glasses) did not come close to our lowest expectations! read more

We have been vacationing on the Outer Banks on and off for 10 plus years. We usually stay in Corolla and this year we wanted to try some different restaurants out. Seeing the good reviews we decided to stop in here for one of our last meals before our vacation was over. Initially when we first sat down it was great, it wasn't too crowded yet, Chef Mark was stopping by all the tables going over drink and food specials. As the place started to fill up though, the service gradually went down. I understand that we were there on the "off season" but him and the hostess were not able to accommodate the flow of people coming in and soon our failed attempts at even trying to flag anyone down made the wonderful meal a bit disappointing. The kitchen and food were phenomenal though, they were on point with firing dishes and having them reach our table fast and still hot. But for drinks and anything else, people were wondering around looking for their own salt and pepper since table service was few and far between. You could tell from a lot of peoples faces as they left, they were thinking the same thing we were. I would of graciously forgiven them had they been apologetic with being short staffed but by the time we got our check (which with how long it took, affected our after dinner plans) they seemed to be even annoyed. I hope they make some adjustments to staffing because I would easily say this is one of the best meals we've had on the Outer Banks. read more

I have been to this restaurant several times in the last 2 years because it is in Corolla and close to my vacation home. The food here is typically very good but expensive. The service on the other hand is terrible. My friend and I went here on a Friday night - place was empty - we were told about the specials and ordered our drinks and a two tapas each. Our food took over a half hour to come out (soup, cheese tasting and tuna tartar) Our drinks remained empty even after the food was delivered, we had to flag down the waiter and order more drinks. We felt like he was ignoring us since the table behind us was receiving plenty of attention. Finally we were able to get the waiters attention and ordered a second round of drinks and two more tapas each. Around this time the place got a bit busy. We never saw or heard from our waiter again. We had to get up and go to the bar to get our check. Sadly I will not be going back to this restaurant since the food is good but the service brings this place way down. Also the service that I received was from the two owners - no other wait staff was in the place. I guess they think that the food will carry them through but eventually the bad service is going to catch up to them. read more