“Leaping Lizard Cafe” located on Shore Drive in Virginia Beach, is a small, family-friendly, local restaurant with a calming atmosphere that is felt as soon as one enters.

While many restaurants have specialties, such as seafood, steak, etc. , this restaurant’s specialty, in my opinion, is it’s “brunch”, which is only available on the weekends.  And, Leaping Lizard’s brunch is exactly that, a mix of breakfast and lunch items. 

For brunch you can order an omelet, a breakfast sandwich, French toast and many more meals. The French toast is delicious; a perfect mix of different kinds of bread and cake. It is the best French toast I’ve ever eaten because it is sweet and basically tastes like a dessert. Too bad they only make it on the weekends. The French Toast costs $11.95, which is a little too much, I think, but compared to the quality it’s a fair price. The cost for the other  breakfast items are similar but, again, it is worth it compared to the quality.

Leaping Lizard serves lunch and dinner as well, but throughout the week, not only on weekends.

They serve lunch specials that are a bit different from just a usual sandwich that most people eat for lunch. The lunch special range from salads, to tacos, or a burger. I recommend their salads because they are fresh and they use ingredients such as quinoa and beans that actually make you full, which is awesome since it can sometimes be difficult to be completely full after having eaten a salad.

For dinner the restaurant serves seafood which is not only good for those who are health conscious, but also delicious. They also serve burgers which are always tasty and something almost everyone enjoys, as well as meat, chicken or fish tacos, which are delicious too. 

Customers that frequent Leaping Lizard are mostly local, the dress is casual, and eating there almost feels like being at home. When looking around the restaurant, everyone seems to have a more laid back, chill, no stress attitude. It’s normal to see chickens run around in the garden outside, and the wall décor features work from local artists. The waiters and waitresses don’t run around, so busy they can’t properly wait on tables, and there is no loud music playing, which is why I think it is perfect for a Sunday morning.

The service is quick and everyone that works in the restaurant is friendly and accommodating.  They are often busy in the mornings and it might take about 15 minutes for the food to be served, but the time spent waiting is certainly worth it due to the quality of the food. 

There is nothing I don’t like at Leaping Lizard. The majority of their food is phenomenal and even though my favorite meal is the French toast, I would eat there any day of the week.  Like I said before, the other food is worth the visit too, and I can tell most of it, if not all of it, is homemade from scratch, which, to me, makes it even more  delicious.

I would love to go back and eat there because of the experience as a whole. “Leaping Lizard” definitely has my highest recommendation and anyone who likes small, local restaurants would probably love the atmosphere. I feel like this is one of the best restaurants at the Beach, and one I wish I could go back and eat at for the first time again.