New Restaurants Coming to North Myrtle Beach in 2026

The rooftop patio is new. So is the cocktail menu — something with smoked pineapple and mezcal that you didn’t expect to find north of Charleston, let alone on Highway 17. Below you, the Intracoastal Waterway catches the last of the evening light. The oysters arrive charred and briny, still smoking from the grill. You look across the table and say what everyone’s been thinking: “Since when does North Myrtle Beach have a place like this?”

Since now. Five years ago, the answer to “where should we eat a truly memorable dinner in NMB” was short — Greg Norman’s, maybe Brentwood, and that was about it. Good burgers on Main Street, decent pizza, cold beer. Nobody was calling NMB a dining destination.

That’s changing. Quietly, steadily, and faster than most visitors realize, the new restaurants opening in North Myrtle Beach in 2026 are filling gaps that have existed for years. An upscale seafood concept is taking over a Highway 17 landmark. A bowling-meets-fine-dining entertainment complex is breaking ground. An Italian favorite from down the Strand is expanding north. The dining scene you remember from your last visit? It won’t be the same one waiting for you this time.

White Heron — Upscale Coastal Seafood

Expected: May 2026 | 1104 Highway 17 S, North Myrtle Beach

If you’ve driven Highway 17 through North Myrtle Beach anytime in the last thirty years, you passed Sea Merchants Restaurant. It was one of those places that just belonged — part of the landscape, a landmark locals gave as a reference point when giving directions. “Turn left past Sea Merchants.” That building is being gutted and reimagined as White Heron, an upscale coastal seafood restaurant, and this is the opening I’m watching most closely.

The positioning tells me a lot. “Upscale coastal seafood” on the Grand Strand means charred oysters with compound butter, locally sourced catch prepared simply but with real technique, craft cocktails built around seasonal citrus and herbs, and a wine list that doesn’t begin and end with pinot grigio. Picture pan-seared grouper with a local herb crust, a smoked old fashioned, and a dining room where the windows remind you that the Intracoastal Waterway is a hundred yards away.

White Heron fills a gap that’s been wide open for years — the space between the casual walkable Main Street spots and the special-occasion price tag at Greg Norman’s. NMB has needed a restaurant where you dress up a little but don’t need a reason. Where the food is genuinely ambitious but the vibe isn’t stiff. If the execution matches the ambition, this becomes the place where you make a reservation before you make the drive down.

The Hwy 17 location puts it about five minutes from our condo at 601 Hillside Dr N. We’ll update this post when they announce the firm opening date, full menu, and reservation info.

Alley Oops — Dine. Bowl. Play.

Expected: Spring 2026 | North Myrtle Beach

Here’s a question every family who’s visited NMB has asked at least once: what do we do when it rains? The honest answer has always been a little thin. You can hit Broadway at the Beach. You can catch a movie. You can browse the outlets. But NMB itself hasn’t had a true indoor entertainment-dining complex — the kind of place where a rainy afternoon turns into the story everyone tells when they get home.

Alley Oops is a “Dine. Bowl. Play.” concept combining a full-service restaurant with bowling lanes, arcade games, and VR experiences. The crack of bowling pins in the background, the glow of arcade screens, the smell of something better than bowling-alley nachos actually coming out of a real kitchen. For families and groups, this is potentially the biggest quality-of-life addition to NMB in years.

What makes it matter isn’t just the bowling or the games — it’s the fact that this is the kind of venue that lets you build a four-hour evening out of one stop. Dinner, competition, laughs, dessert. The rainy day problem that NMB has always struggled with suddenly has a real answer. And on the nights when the weather is perfect and you just don’t feel like another sit-down dinner? Same answer.

We’ll post the exact location and opening date as soon as they’re announced.

Crave Italian Oven & Bar — Expanding to NMB

Now Open / Opening Soon | North Myrtle Beach

Crave Italian Oven & Bar already has a loyal following further south on the Grand Strand, and they’re bringing the concept to North Myrtle Beach. What’s made their existing locations work is the combination of legit brick oven pizzas — blistered, charred, the kind with a crust that cracks when you fold it — fresh-made pasta, and a full bar with Italian-leaning cocktails.

The atmosphere leans family-casual with a date-night edge. Big enough for a group of eight to pile in after a day at the beach, polished enough that you don’t feel underdressed if you cleaned up a little. The open kitchen gives the whole place the smell of roasted garlic and fresh basil, and the bar is built for lingering over an Aperol spritz while the kids demolish a pepperoni pie.

It’s a welcome addition to the NMB Italian scene alongside Carrabba’s and the Barefoot Landing options — and another signal that operators who know what they’re doing are looking at North Myrtle Beach and seeing demand for quality sit-down dining that wasn’t being met.

What Else Is Coming to the Grand Strand

The NMB openings above aren’t happening in isolation. The broader Myrtle Beach area is having one of its biggest years for new food-and-drink venues, and three in particular are worth knowing about.

357 Brewers (Grande Dunes area) is the one locals are talking about most. Indoor and outdoor bars overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway, a coastal-inspired kitchen, a waterfront stage for live music, a sunset deck, and a marina. Opening spring 2026. If you’ve driven past the Grande Dunes stretch and thought, “someone should put a restaurant right there on the water” — someone finally did.

South Coast Beer Project (Carolina Forest) is going big — 10,000 square feet of brewery with full-service dining, 400-plus seats, an outdoor lawn for live music, and a playground for kids. A legit family-friendly brewery where one parent can try a flight while the other watches the kids burn off energy. That’s a combination that barely exists on the Grand Strand right now.

Ole Smoky Distillery & Yee-Haw Brewing Co. (Broadway at the Beach) brings a big Tennessee brand to the Strand with beers, cocktails, food, and live entertainment. Broadway at the Beach keeps adding draw after draw, and this one fills the craft spirits gap.

MarshWalk Restaurant Week in Murrells Inlet runs March 2-6, 2026 — special prix fixe menus at the waterfront restaurants along the half-mile boardwalk. If you’re in town during that window, it’s worth the 45-minute drive south.

Why This Matters for Your Trip

Step back and look at what’s happening. Five years ago, the NMB dining conversation was essentially burgers, pizza, and cold beer on Main Street — with Greg Norman’s and The Brentwood as the only real upscale options. The gap between “casual walk-up counter” and “$150 special-occasion dinner” was enormous.

That gap is being filled. White Heron gives you an ambitious seafood restaurant five minutes down the highway. Crave gives you real Italian that isn’t a chain. Alley Oops gives you entertainment dining that didn’t exist before. 357 Brewers gives you craft beer with an Intracoastal sunset. The new restaurants North Myrtle Beach 2026 is bringing aren’t just additions to the scene — they’re transforming it into something that looks a lot more like a real culinary destination.

This is no longer a beach town where your dinner options run out by Wednesday of a week-long stay. The perennial guest question — “Where should we eat tonight?” — is getting harder to answer, but only because there are too many good options.

We’ll post honest reviews once these places are open. No recommendations until we try the food — that’s always the rule.

A New Restaurant Every Night — and You Still Won’t Run Out

White Heron is five minutes down Highway 17. Crave’s brick oven is warming up. Alley Oops is breaking ground. Add those to the Main Street spots you can already walk to from the condo, the Barefoot Landing dining complex eight minutes away, and the established gems like The Brentwood and Greg Norman’s — and your biggest problem at 601 Hillside Dr N in Ocean Keyes is deciding where to eat, not whether there’s anywhere worth going.

The NMB dining scene in 2026 is not the one you remember from your last visit. Come taste the difference.

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See our complete dining guide for current restaurant recommendations, or browse the full things to do guide to plan your trip.