There are plenty of places on the Oregon Coast where dinner is an event. You make a reservation, put on something slightly nicer than your beach hoodie, and settle in for a long meal.
Bell Buoy of Seaside isn't really that kind of place.
And that's exactly why we love it.
This old-timey seafood market and casual restaurant sits right along Highway 101 on the south end of Seaside, and it's the kind of place that makes perfect sense after you've spent half the day on the beach. You can walk in sandy and hungry, order a steaming bowl of razor clam chowder or a basket of seafood, and then wander next door to see what just came into the market.
Before you know it, lunch has turned into smoked salmon for the road and a whole Dungeness crab riding home in the cooler.
That's Bell Buoy.
An Old-School Oregon Coast Seafood Stop That's Been Here Since 1946
Bell Buoy has been part of Seaside since 1946, and it still feels wonderfully connected to the fishing culture that shaped towns all along this part of the Oregon Coast.
This isn't a trendy seafood restaurant dressed up to look rustic. Bell Buoy is a working seafood market, cannery, and restaurant where fresh fish, crab, razor clams, oysters, smoked seafood, and canned products are all part of the experience.
The location is also ridiculously convenient.
You'll find Bell Buoy conveniently located on the south side of town. If you're coming into Seaside from Highway 26, you'll practically pass it on the way in.
That makes it an easy first meal when you're starting a weekend in town, or one last seafood stop before pointing the car back toward Portland.
If you're planning more than lunch, start with our complete Seaside, Oregon guide. We've built it to connect the beaches, attractions, food, history, and other places actually worth spending time on while you're here.
Whatever You Do, Check For The Razor Clam Chowder
We've eaten a lot of clam chowder on the Oregon Coast.
Razor clam chowder immediately gets our attention because it's something different.
Bell Buoy's menu currently features White Razor Clam Chowder, and it's exactly the sort of thing we want when the wind is blowing sideways outside and we've spent the last few hours wandering around the beach.
Razor clams are a North Coast favorite, and Seaside happens to sit beside some of Oregon's most productive razor clam beaches. They're mild and slightly sweet, with a texture that's different from the smaller clams most people are used to finding in chowder.
Put them into a rich white chowder and you've got something that feels very, very Oregon Coast.
This isn't one of those giant bread-bowl productions buried under cheese and garnishes. It's the kind of simple, hot coastal comfort food that just makes sense here.
And if you've ever come off a cold Seaside beach with numb fingers and sand somehow inside your shoes, you already understand.
One important note: seafood availability changes.
If razor clam chowder is the entire reason you're driving to Seaside, check Bell Buoy's current restaurant menu or give them a call before making the trip.
Don't Stop At The Chowder
The mistake would be walking into Bell Buoy, ordering chowder, and leaving.
Take a look at the rest of the seafood menu.
Depending on what's available, you'll find fish and chips made with seafood like halibut, salmon, lingcod, razor clams, oysters, and prawns.
That's where Bell Buoy gets fun if you're visiting with a group.
One person can go straight for fish and chips. Somebody else can grab razor clams. Another person can order chowder. Then everyone starts reaching across the table saying, "Okay, let me try that."
You know how this goes.
There are also seafood melts, fish tacos, seafood cocktails, and other rotating choices.
Our advice is pretty simple: don't walk in completely married to one order.
Look at what's available that day.
Fresh seafood doesn't operate like a fast-food menu, and that's a good thing.
Then Walk Into The Seafood Market
This is the part that makes Bell Buoy more interesting than another fish-and-chips stop.
After eating, go into the market.
Seriously.
The cases can be loaded with Dungeness crab, oysters, razor clams, salmon, tuna, prawns, smoked fish, canned albacore, and whatever else is coming through during the season.
Bell Buoy sources seafood directly from local fishermen, and Oregon State University Extension lists it among Clatsop County's local seafood sellers. The business also still cans seafood in-house, which is becoming increasingly unusual on the Oregon Coast.
There's something satisfying about eating seafood for lunch and then being able to walk a few steps and actually shop for dinner.
We've always thought this is one of the most overlooked parts of an Oregon Coast trip.
People will spend the afternoon shopping for souvenirs, then grab groceries at some random supermarket before heading back to their rental.
You're on the Oregon Coast.
Buy the crab.
The Smoked Seafood Is Dangerous
Dangerous in the sense that it's very easy to convince yourself you're only buying one package.
Smoked salmon is one of those Oregon Coast foods that rarely survives long once we get it home.
Bell Buoy smokes seafood in Seaside, and you'll often find things like smoked salmon and smoked tuna alongside canned seafood and other products that are much easier to travel with than a fresh fillet.
If you're staying in a hotel without much of a kitchen, this is where we'd lean.
Grab smoked seafood for later, maybe some canned albacore to take home, and save the whole-crab feast for a trip when you've actually got somewhere to crack one open.
If you're staying in a vacation rental?
That's a completely different story.
A whole cooked Dungeness crab, butter, something cold to drink, and a rainy Oregon Coast evening is about as complicated as dinner needs to get.
This Seafood Really Does Come From Local Boats
This is where Bell Buoy gets even cooler.
When they say local seafood, they don't just mean "somewhere in the Pacific Northwest."
Bell Buoy says roughly 80 percent of what it sells comes from within 50 miles, and more than 70 local fishermen help keep the market supplied.
That means the halibut, Dungeness crab, Chinook salmon, tuna, rockfish, and other seafood coming through here has an actual connection to the fishing boats working the waters off Oregon and Washington.
And you can see that connection.
Bell Buoy regularly shares photos of big halibut coming off the docks, totes overflowing with Dungeness crab, fishermen unloading boats, and fresh catch making its way into the market.
That's another part we love.
It's one thing to sit down somewhere on the Oregon Coast and order "fresh seafood." It's another thing entirely to visit a place where the relationship between the fishing boat and your lunch is still visible.
Bell Buoy even describes its approach as "dock to dinner table," and in this case that doesn't feel like marketing fluff.
The business says all of its fish and crab are wild-caught rather than farmed, and species like Dungeness crab, Chinook salmon, halibut, tuna, and rockfish arrive seasonally from local boats.
So if the selection changes from one visit to another, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
That's what seafood tied to an actual fishing season is supposed to do.
They Smoke And Can Their Own Seafood, Too
Here's another thing we didn't fully appreciate until we started paying closer attention to what Bell Buoy is doing behind the scenes.
They aren't just buying seafood and putting it into a display case.
A huge amount of the work happens right here in Seaside.
Bell Buoy smokes its own fish in-house, including salmon and tuna, and its production crew handles everything from cleaning clams and picking crab to cutting fish, cooking shellfish, preparing smoked seafood, and packing cans.
And yes, they still actually can seafood here.
Bell Buoy calls itself one of the last remaining canneries on the Oregon Coast, and the operation is wonderfully old-school.
According to Bell Buoy, longtime chief canner Dan Smith has been doing the job for decades, and some of the equipment still used in the process is nearly a century old.
Their cans are sealed with a Canco seamer designed in 1927, a machine that can still seal around 40 cans per minute.
That's ridiculously cool.
The cans then go into a retort for the cooking process, turning locally caught seafood into shelf-stable tuna, crab, clams, smoked fish, and other products that can head home with travelers or ship across the country.
Their albacore is an especially good example of how local the process can be.
Bell Buoy says its albacore is caught off the Oregon and Washington coasts by local fishermen, delivered directly by boat captains, cleaned and filleted in Seaside, and then hand-packed and canned right there at Bell Buoy.
No water.
No oil.
No mystery filler.
Just tuna.
Once you understand that side of the operation, the seafood market feels completely different.
You're not just browsing a gift shop with smoked salmon in the refrigerator.
You're standing inside one of the remaining places on the Oregon Coast where seafood can still travel from a local fishing boat to the cleaning table, smoker, cannery, market case, and eventually your own kitchen without disappearing into some giant anonymous supply chain along the way.
And honestly, that may be the coolest thing about Bell Buoy.
Yes, Bring A Cooler
Here's one of those boring little Oregon Coast tips that'll save you from doing something stupid.
Bring a cooler.
We can't count how many times we've gone somewhere on the Coast saying, "We're only buying like two things," and then somehow ended up driving home with fish, cheese, smoked salmon, crab, or something else that absolutely shouldn't spend three hours sitting in a warm car.
Bell Buoy is exactly that kind of place.
If you're even remotely considering buying fresh seafood, throw a cooler and a couple of ice packs in the car before you leave home.
You'll thank yourself later.
And if you're buying something you're unfamiliar with, ask the people behind the counter how they'd prepare it.
That's one of the advantages of buying seafood from an actual seafood market instead of grabbing a plastic-wrapped mystery package at the grocery store.
Bell Buoy Fits Perfectly Into A Seaside Day
One reason we like Bell Buoy so much is that you don't have to build the entire day around eating there.
It fits into the trip.
Start the morning walking the Promenade. Spend some time on the beach. Let the kids burn through a ridiculous amount of quarters downtown. Hit the aquarium. Then swing south for seafood.
Or flip the whole thing around and make Bell Buoy your first stop before heading into the busiest part of Seaside.
It's especially convenient if you're arriving from Portland on Highway 26.
And if you're planning a larger North Coast trip with Cannon Beach, Astoria, Manzanita, or other stops, use our Oregon Coast Travel Guide to build the route instead of trying to cram half the coastline into one afternoon.
The Coast looks deceptively small on a map.
Then you stop at a beach.
Then another viewpoint.
Then somebody sees an antique store.
Then you realize you've traveled 18 miles in four hours.
That's how Oregon Coast road trips are supposed to work.
Why Bell Buoy Feels Different
Seaside has no shortage of restaurants.
What makes Bell Buoy memorable isn't fancy plating, a huge dining room, or some dramatic oceanfront location.
It's that the place actually feels connected to what you're eating.
Fish comes through the market. Seafood is smoked and canned here. Local fishermen supply the business. Razor clams aren't an abstract Oregon Coast novelty. They're something people dig for on the beaches just down the road.
Bell Buoy says it's one of the last remaining canneries on the Oregon Coast, and some of its seafood is still canned in-house using equipment that's been part of the operation for decades.
That gives the place a little soul.
And we'd take that over another polished tourist restaurant any day.
Plan more of your trip: Explore our Seaside, Oregon Travel Guide for beaches, attractions, food, local history, and places to stay, or use our Oregon Coast Travel Guide to build a Highway 101 road trip from Astoria to Brookings.
Bell Buoy of Seaside at a Glance
What it is: An old-school Oregon Coast seafood market, cannery, and casual restaurant that’s been around since 1946.
Best known for: White Razor Clam Chowder, fish and chips, Dungeness crab, smoked seafood, fresh fish, and canned albacore.
Where: 1800 S. Roosevelt Drive, Seaside, Oregon, right along Highway 101.
Best for: Casual lunch, families, seafood lovers, grabbing fresh or smoked seafood to take home, and an easy stop before or after exploring Seaside.
Don’t miss: The razor clam chowder when it’s available, plus a walk through the seafood market after you eat.
Good to know: Seafood availability changes with the season and current catch, so if you’re visiting for one specific item, it’s smart to call ahead.
Our tip: Bring a cooler. There’s a very good chance you’ll leave with more seafood than you planned.
Hours: Varies seasonally, for the restaurant and the seafood market. Check their website for details and current hours.
Phone: 800-529-2722
