Unlimited plates have officially taken over the weekend agenda.
This Maryland seafood buffet has been giving diners plenty of reasons to go back for another round since 1973.
Seafood shares the spread with carved prime rib, ribs, chicken, soups, salads, vegetables, and desserts, so committing to one direction is almost impossible.
That is where the fun starts. The first plate can lean seafood, the second can head straight for the carving station, and dessert can demand its own round before anyone is ready to call it.
Snow crab legs are offered separately, but the standard buffet still leaves plenty of room to keep changing your mind.
Forget choosing one entrée and sticking with it.
Here, dinner is basically a plate-by-plate plot twist.
This Restaurant Has Been Serving Ocean City Since 1973
More than half a century is a long time to keep one restaurant concept moving, especially in a beach town where dining trends change almost as quickly as summer crowds.
The Bonfire Restaurant has been family owned and operated since 1973. Through all those years, the central idea has stayed recognizable.
It is a dinner built around a large seafood and prime rib buffet, with an à la carte menu available for diners who would rather choose one entree and stay put.
That longevity gives the restaurant a different kind of Ocean City identity. It is not a new seasonal concept testing the waters for one summer. It has been part of the Coastal Highway dining landscape for generations of beach trips.
The dining room also leans into a playful vacation atmosphere with tropical aquariums, stained glass, and large flower displays. The decor is unmistakably part of the experience, but the buffet remains the reason the restaurant has lasted.
Open the door at dinner time and the basic promise is the same one the restaurant has made for decades: grab a plate, look over the spread, and decide what deserves the first round.
The difficult part is pretending you already know.
A 150-Foot Buffet Makes One Plate Almost Impossible
The number that defines The Bonfire is 150 feet. That is the restaurant’s stated length for its buffet, which means the first trip can become more of a scouting mission than dinner.
Seafood and fish share the line with fresh prime rib, soups, barbecue ribs, chicken, salads, fruit, vegetables, and desserts. The exact mix can shift, so treating every item as a permanent promise would miss the point of a buffet built around variety.
Prime rib gives the spread a carved centerpiece, while shrimp and other seafood choices keep the coastal angle in focus. Soups and salads can start the meal lighter, although that strategy becomes harder to defend once the carving station enters the conversation.
The smartest approach is not to build a mountain on plate one. Take a slow look, choose several things you actually want to taste, then return for the items that earned another round.
For anyone mapping the drive, The Bonfire Restaurant sits at 7009 Coastal Hwy, Ocean City, MD 21842, along the main north-south strip through town.
A buffet this long rewards patience. Your first plate does not need to solve dinner. It only needs to begin negotiations.
Seafood Keeps The Coastal Side Of The Buffet In Focus
The Bonfire presents itself first as a seafood and prime rib buffet, and the seafood side remains a major part of that identity.
Seafood, fish, and shrimp hold plenty of space along the buffet, with the selection giving diners more than one direction to take a coastal plate. One person can lean toward something crisp while another keeps the meal closer to fish or shellfish.
One important detail deserves its own sentence: snow crab legs are not included in the standard buffet. They are currently available as a separate add-on priced by weight.
That keeps the unlimited format from becoming confusing. You can make repeat trips through the regular buffet, but snow crab follows a different ordering setup.
There is also an a la carte menu for anyone who does not want the buffet at all. Current seafood options include fried jumbo shrimp and a crab-focused feast, alongside other entrees.
For buffet diners, the best strategy is still variety before repetition. Try the seafood that catches your eye, give the prime rib some room, and decide what deserves a return trip after you have actually tasted it.
Unlimited does not mean rushed. It means you have permission to change your mind.
Prime Rib Gives Non-Seafood Diners A Strong Second Route
A seafood buffet becomes much easier to plan for a mixed group when the carving station has its own headliner.
Fresh prime rib is one of The Bonfire’s signature buffet features, giving diners a substantial alternative to fish and shrimp. Barbecue ribs, chicken, salads, soups, vegetables, and other sides widen the field even further.
That matters for families and groups whose dinner preferences rarely line up neatly. One person can make the evening almost entirely about seafood while somebody else builds a plate around carved beef and sides.
The restaurant also serves prime rib on its a la carte menu, where it appears as a standalone entree. That reinforces how central the cut is to the operation rather than making it look like an occasional buffet extra.
A carving station changes the rhythm of an unlimited meal too. Instead of piling everything together, you can let one plate belong to seafood and the next belong to beef.
There is no award for fitting the entire buffet onto one dish.
Your plate has edges for a reason.
Snow Crab Legs Follow A Different Rule
Unlimited seafood can sound like every shellfish item automatically comes with the buffet, but The Bonfire makes one exception especially clear.
Snow crab legs are available as an add-on to the buffet and are charged by the pound. They are not part of the standard unlimited price.
That is useful to know before you sit down because it prevents the most expensive misunderstanding on the menu. If crab legs are the main reason for your visit, you can still order them, but they follow their own format rather than the repeat-trip rules of the buffet.
The a la carte menu gives crab another route. A crab feast is available separately, and a surf-and-turf option combines snow crab with prime rib.
For everyone else, the standard buffet still offers the seafood-and-prime-rib combination that defines the restaurant.
The distinction is simple once you know it: unlimited buffet plates over here, snow crab by weight over there.
Buffets encourage experimentation. Crab legs encourage checking the rules before enthusiasm gets ahead of the menu.
That tiny bit of planning leaves more room for the enjoyable problem of deciding what goes on the next plate.
Opening At Three Makes Early Dinner Part Of The Strategy
The Bonfire currently opens at 3 p.m. every day, making it an unusually early dinner option for anyone who would rather eat before Ocean City’s evening schedule fills up.
The restaurant also promotes an early-dining window from 3 to 4 p.m. for adult buffet diners. That makes the first hour especially relevant if your weekend plans are flexible.
Current posted hours run until 8 p.m. Sunday through Friday and 8:30 p.m. Saturday.
Reservations are accepted, which gives families and larger groups another planning option beyond simply appearing at the door.
Going early also changes what the rest of the evening can look like. Dinner at 3:30 can leave plenty of time for the beach, boardwalk, shops, or a long walk after a meal that probably involved more than one plate.
The restaurant serves dinner rather than trying to stretch the buffet into breakfast and lunch too. That focused schedule lets the whole operation revolve around the same evening service.
If your normal weekend dinner begins much later, this may require adjusting the clock.
Your appetite is usually very cooperative about that.
Dessert Deserves A Separate Trip
A 150-foot buffet does not stop being ambitious when the savory plates are finished.
Desserts take up a real share of The Bonfire’s buffet, which means leaving room at the end is less a suggestion than a practical strategy. The sweets are part of the full spread rather than a token tray added after the main food.
That is another reason smaller first portions make sense. Seafood, prime rib, ribs, chicken, soups, and sides can fill a plate quickly, and an unlimited format gives you no reason to treat the first pass like the last meal available in Maryland.
A dessert round also gives the table a natural pause. Finish the savory plates, decide what actually deserves another bite, then start over with a clean dish and a different mission.
That slow build is what turns a buffet into more than a quick dinner. You are not waiting for courses to arrive. You are choosing the order yourself.
For a weekend in Ocean City, that can be part of the fun. The meal stretches because you let it, not because the kitchen forgot your entree.
The Bonfire has spent since 1973 giving diners a lot of choices.
The least you can do is save room for one more carefully chosen plate before heading back outside.