1945 Steak & Seafood

Don’t read 1945 Steak & Seafood as a narrow seafood stop. In Ocean City, the grounded read is this: consider it when the group wants a smart-casual dinner built around modern steakhouse and seafood cooking, with raw bar options, refined pizzas, a menu that can move across land and sea. The price point is $60 per person, so the value question is less about bargain hunting and more about whether the table wants a dinner with range.

The value case is strongest for diners who want one dinner to cover several appetites. A table can lean into raw bar items, seafood, steakhouse-style cooking, refined pizzas, listed dishes such as crab cakes, tuna steak, sea bass, duck breast, cioppino, chicken arrosto, veal saltimbocca, lobster mac and cheese. That flexibility matters when dinner plans include different preferences and at least one person who does not want a narrow seafood-only meal.

A steakhouse-and-seafood format that works better for groups than purists

The menu’s strength is breadth. It is best read as a restaurant for diners who want options: oysters, shrimp cocktail, crab cocktail, lobster cocktail, seafood towers, steakhouse and seafood cooking, plus dishes such as crab cakes, tuna steak, sea bass, duck breast, cioppino, chicken arrosto, veal saltimbocca, lobster mac and cheese. The strongest order can come from treating the menu as shared territory rather than locking everyone into one narrow category.

1945 Steak & Seafood also has a clearer wine signal than many restaurants in its category. It is a Wine Spectator 2026 Award of Excellence winner, with listed wine strength in California, Wine Spectator categorizes the cuisine as American / Mediterranean. For a dinner where wine matters, that gives the restaurant a more specific angle, while the posted dress code stays smart casual rather than formal.

For broader planning beyond dinner, Pearl’s Ocean City restaurants guide is a better starting point than trying to build the trip around one meal.

The booking calculus is direct

The hours point clearly to dinner: 1945 Steak & Seafood is listed from 4–9:30 PM every day of the week. That makes it an evening option rather than a lunch stop, it is best evaluated against other Ocean City dinner plans in the same general price range.

Use the menu breadth to your advantage. Start with the raw bar if that is the table’s priority, add a seafood or steakhouse-style main, consider a refined pizza or richer dish such as lobster mac and cheese if the group wants something shareable. The restaurant’s strongest confirmed identity is not one single dish or format, but the combination of modern steakhouse cooking, seafood, raw bar selections, pizzas under one smart-casual roof.

Go for dinner, not lunch. The posted schedule is 4–9:30 PM Monday through Sunday, so the most reliable way to think about 1945 Steak & Seafood is as an evening restaurant. If wine matters, the Wine Spectator recognition and California strength are useful signals; if the table only wants a quick low-cost bite, the $60-per-person positioning may not be the right fit.

Who should book, who should skip

Book if you want a smart-casual Ocean City dinner with modern steakhouse and seafood cooking, raw bar choices, refined pizzas, enough range for different tastes. Skip if the priority is a low-cost bite, lunch service, or a restaurant built around one narrow specialty. The restaurant’s confirmed appeal is direct: it gives Ocean City a flexible steak-and-seafood dinner option without requiring a formal dress code.