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Most people come to the Ocean City Boardwalk with a plan for the day and no plan for dinner.
Then somebody gets hungry around five, the whole group stops walking, and you spend twenty minutes negotiating in front of a row of counters while the line you wanted gets longer.
Here’s the shortcut.
Eight boardwalk spots worth stopping for — donuts, taffy, fries, custard, popcorn, two real sit-down meals, and yes, pizza and wings. We’ve put ourselves first, because we’ve been on these boards since 1956 and we’re not going to pretend otherwise. The other seven run north to south, the way you’d walk them, starting at St Charles Place.
If it’s specifically the pizza argument you’re trying to settle, we wrote that one separately: the six best pizza counters on the Ocean City boardwalk.
The Eight Stops at a Glance
- Manco & Manco (9th & 12th Street) – pizza and wings, one line
- Brown’s Restaurant (St Charles Place) – hot donuts, mornings only
- Shriver’s (9th Street) – taffy and fudge since 1898
- Hula Restaurant and Sauce Co. (Colony Walk) – the sit-down plate lunch
- Curly’s Fries (950 Boardwalk) – fresh-cut and curly, both gluten free
- Kohr Bros (stands throughout) – frozen custard, orange-vanilla twist
- Angelo’s (14th Street) – the quiet south-end table
- Johnson’s Popcorn (1360 Boardwalk) – the tin you mail home
1. Manco & Manco Pizza
Where: 9th Street and the Boardwalk, and 12th Street and the Boardwalk · Since: 1956 — seventy summers in 2026
Most boardwalk counters are built around one thing. Ours is built around two, and that’s the honest reason we lead this list rather than the pizza one alone: you can get the pizza and the wings without splitting the group up.
The Pizza
Thin crust, crispy bottom, cheese laid down first and sauce striped over the top.
That order isn’t a gimmick — it came down from Trenton with the founders, where the sauce goes on last by tradition. The cheese keeps moisture off the dough so the crust stays crisp to the last bite, and the sauce sits on top where you taste it first.
Same recipe since 1956.
What the Critics Say
“A boardwalk staple in Ocean City since the 1950s.”
— Food & Wine, Best Pizza in Every State (New Jersey’s pick)
“The slices are bigger, the crust is crunchier, and the cheese-to-sauce ratio is scientifically perfect.”
— The Infatuation, on the best pizza in Ocean City
The Wings
This is the part people don’t expect from a pizza counter.
Wings come in mild, hot, honey mustard or BBQ, in orders from 6 up to 48, with celery and blue cheese. Not an afterthought and not a frozen tray — they come out of the same kitchen, to the same standard, as the pies.
Tenders and fries round it out. If you’ve got one person who wants a slice, one who wants wings, and a kid who eats chicken fingers and nothing else, that’s a single line instead of three.
Made in Front of You
There’s no back kitchen. Our piemen work the counter in the open — spinning dough overhead, laying cheese, striping sauce, pulling pies, cutting them while you watch.
Two families from Trenton opened the first pizza window here in the summer of 1956. Today it’s run by the third generation, Mary and her husband Chuck Bangle, and plenty of our staff have been behind that counter for decades.
Same hands, same technique, same food you remember. The longer version of that story is here.
What To Order
Start with the classic cheese. It’s the pie that built the place.
Then work through the white broccoli, the Venetian, and the buffalo chicken.
Feeding a group? A whole 18″ pie and a tray of wings, and grab a table.
Good To Know
Both boardwalk stores are seasonal. Our Somers Point store on the mainland is the year-round one.
Lines build between 6 and 8 p.m. every night in season. Before 5 or after 9, you walk right up.
2. Brown’s Restaurant
Where: 110 Boardwalk, at St Charles Place, the north end · Since: 1976
Start the day here, or don’t bother starting it.
Brown’s makes hot donuts to order, in view of the line — cinnamon sugar, honey-glazed, powdered, and the beach-sand one that people either love or don’t understand. Two Pennsylvania schoolteachers started it in 1976, and it has been the longest morning line on the boardwalk more or less ever since.
What People Say
Several hundred reviewers between Yelp and Tripadvisor, and the cinnamon sugar is the flavor they name most. The other thing they mention, every time, is the line.
What To Order
A half dozen cinnamon sugar, eaten hot, on the bench outside.
Sit-down breakfast is the other half of the business if you want eggs.
Good To Know
Cash only — there’s an ATM inside if you get caught out.
Two lines in season, one for the donut window and one for the restaurant, and both run down the boardwalk on a July morning.
They open at 7 a.m. and close well before dinner, so this is a morning stop or nothing.
3. Shriver’s
Where: 852 Boardwalk, at 9th Street · Since: 1898
Shriver’s has been pulling taffy and making fudge on this boardwalk since 1898, which makes it the oldest business on it — older than the boardwalk’s current structure, older than most of the town around it.
They run more than forty taffy flavors, and you can watch the pulling machines work through the window, which is the same appeal as watching our piemen and roughly the same vintage of entertainment. It’s also right at 9th Street, a few doors from us, so this one costs you no walking at all.
What To Order
A mixed box of taffy for the drive home, and fudge for tonight.
Good To Know
This is the souvenir stop, not the hungry stop.
Buy it on the way back to the car, not on the way out — taffy does not improve in a hot beach bag.
4. Hula Restaurant and Sauce Co.
Where: 940–942 Boardwalk, on Colony Walk between 9th and 10th Street · Roughly: a quarter century on the boards
The change of pace on this list, and the answer to the night somebody in your group refuses to eat one more fried thing.
Hula does Hawaiian plate lunches, poke, grilled fish, pulled pork and burgers, built around a house sauce line they bottle and sell — the Huli sauce is the one people come back for. It’s family-owned, and there’s a food truck working the same territory.
What People Say
Close to 400 Yelp reviews and a strong Facebook recommendation rate, with portion size and consistency the two things reviewers name most. Gluten-free diners rate it well too, which is not something you can say about most of this boardwalk.
What To Order
A plate lunch, or the poke bowl if it’s too hot to eat anything warm.
Good To Know
It’s seasonal, and it’s a sit-down pace rather than a walk-up one. Budget more than ten minutes.
It sits at the end of Colony Walk, set back off the main boards, so it’s easy to walk straight past.
5. Curly’s Fries
Where: 950 Boardwalk, with a second stand at 822 Boardwalk near Moorlyn Terrace
Fries on a boardwalk are usually a default. These are a destination.
Curly’s does fresh-cut fries and curly spiral fries, both gluten free, plus funnel cakes, fried Oreos and fresh-squeezed lemonade. Reviewers go looking for the darker, crunchier pieces at the bottom of the barrel.
What To Order
A barrel, salt and vinegar, shared between two people who will both claim they weren’t that hungry.
Add the lemonade.
Good To Know
It’s a few doors from Hula, so the fried-and-not-fried argument gets settled on one block.
Both stands are gluten free on the fries, which makes this the easiest stop on the list for a mixed group.
6. Kohr Bros
Where: stands up and down the boardwalk, including 986 and 1140 · Since: 1919
Frozen custard is what the Jersey Shore has instead of ice cream, and Kohr Bros is the reason. The recipe traces to 1919 and the business is on its third generation of owners.
The orange-and-vanilla twist is the one that tastes like being nine years old on this boardwalk, and it’s the one to get if you only get one.
What To Order
Orange-vanilla twist, in a cone, walking.
Good To Know
There are stands every few blocks, so don’t walk back for one. There’s another ahead of you.
7. Angelo’s
Where: 1328 Boardwalk, at 14th Street · Since: 1980
Down at the far end, past most of the foot traffic, Angelo’s is the other place on this list where you sit down and order a meal rather than carry one.
It’s pizza, pasta, sandwiches and salads, in portions reviewers describe as generous, and it’s the stop that works when your group has stopped agreeing about anything. More than one reviewer rates its pizza against ours, which we’ll take as a compliment to the block.
What People Say
Forty-plus years of family-restaurant Italian, and the review that comes up most is a version of the same thing: it’s the one place down here you can take a whole family and have everybody fed.
Gluten-free diners single it out too — gluten-free pizza crust, plus rolls for subs and burgers.
What To Order
The white garlic pizza, or a plate of pasta if you’ve been on the boards since ten in the morning.
Good To Know
Cash only, with an ATM on site.
It’s a walk from the busy stretch, which is exactly why there’s usually a table.
8. Johnson’s Popcorn
Where: 1360 Boardwalk, plus stands along the boards · Since: 1940
Caramel corn, hand-tossed in copper kettles on site since 1940, and the smell of it is doing more marketing work than any sign on this boardwalk.
It’s the standard Ocean City souvenir — the tin that goes back to Philadelphia or Harrisburg and gets finished before the car does.
What To Order
A tub for now, a tin for later. The tin is the one that gets mailed to people.
Good To Know
They ship, which matters in February.
How to Walk It
Boardwalk numbers rise as you head south, so 110 is the north end and 1360 is the far south. Walk it in this order and you never double back.
- 110 Boardwalk, St Charles Place — Brown’s Restaurant
- 822 Boardwalk — Curly’s Fries (Moorlyn Terrace stand)
- 852 Boardwalk, 9th Street — Shriver’s
- 9th Street — Manco & Manco
- 940–942 Boardwalk — Hula Restaurant and Sauce Co.
- 950 Boardwalk — Curly’s Fries
- 986 and 1140 Boardwalk — Kohr Bros
- 12th Street — Manco & Manco
- 1328 Boardwalk, 14th Street — Angelo’s
- 1360 Boardwalk — Johnson’s Popcorn
Beat the Rush
Lines build between 6 and 8 p.m. every night in season. Eat before 5 or after 9 and you walk right up.
Brown’s is the exception and runs the other way — the donut line is worst in the morning, because that’s the only time it exists.
Order for the Group, Not the Individual
A whole pie plus a tray of wings feeds more people, for less, than everybody ordering separately.
Grab a table and let the food come to you.
Know What’s Open
Most boardwalk food is seasonal — ours included, and most of this list with it. Our 9th Street and 12th Street stores close for the winter.
In season, hours shift with the weather too. A cold, quiet Tuesday in September doesn’t run like a Saturday in July, so each location’s manager sets the day. Call before you head over and we’ll tell you exactly when we’re on.
Our Somers Point store on the mainland stays open year-round, so an off-season walk on the boards can still end with something hot.
One Counter, Two Answers
Eight good stops, and you should work through all of them over a few trips. That’s what the boardwalk is for.
But when your group wants pizza, and your brother-in-law wants wings, and nobody wants to split up and meet back at the bench in twenty minutes — there’s one line to stand in.
