Feeding kids on vacation is a logistics problem more than a food problem. You need somewhere that is fast, that has something every kid will actually eat, and where nobody cares that your four year old is under the table. Here is what works around Fenwick Island.

Hungry Viking

Hungry Viking is our boardwalk food stand, on site at the park on Route 1. It is not a restaurant and we are not going to call it one. It is the food you want between the waterpark and mini golf.

The menu

• Funnel cakes
• Fried Oreos
• Burgers
• Fries
• Pizza
• Hot dogs
• Chicken tenders

We serve Coca-Cola products. That is the menu. It is short on purpose, and every item on it is something a picky seven year old will eat without negotiation.

Funnel cakes

The thing we are known for. Fried to order, and the smell carries across the parking lot, which is either a feature or a problem depending on whether you were trying to leave.

Fried Oreos

If you have not had one, the description does not sell it and you have to just try it. They are the item people come back for.

The real food

Burgers, pizza, hot dogs, chicken tenders and fries. Nothing surprising, all of it fast, all of it stuff kids eat.

Hours

Hungry Viking runs during park hours. Since Viking Golf and the go-karts are open until 11:30pm, that means late food is available long after most kitchens on this stretch have closed. Call (302) 539-1644 for exact daily hours.

Hershey's Island Creamery, next door

Separate business, about thirty steps from us. Hand-scooped Hershey's ice cream, sundaes, milkshakes and snow cones.

Their Funnel Cake Sundae is the item with the following. It is what it sounds like, and it is the reason a lot of families finish their night over there rather than heading back to the rental.

Honest advice about eating with kids on this coast

• Rent a place with a kitchen. Breakfast and lunch at the house saves more across a week than any other decision. Eat out for dinner and the boardwalk stuff.
• Sit-down restaurants in July have waits. A 45 minute wait with a hungry five year old is a bad trade. Boardwalk food exists for a reason.
• Feed them before the waterpark, not during. Kids who eat a funnel cake and then get on a slide have a specific kind of afternoon.
• The late window is underrated. Because we run to 11:30pm, you can do a proper dinner somewhere and still come back for food and mini golf after.

Fitting it into the day

The pattern that works: Thunder Lagoon Waterpark from 10am, out by noon or 2pm, food at Hungry Viking, then Viking Golf or Viking Go-Karts in the evening once it cools off, then ice cream next door. All of it in one place with free parking, which is the whole reason we are set up this way.

The rest of the menu

The sweet stuff gets the attention but most of what leaves the window is dinner:

Pizza by the slice, which is the food that has ended more family arguments than any other item on the Delaware shore.

Chicken tenders and fries. If you have a child who eats exactly one thing, it is statistically this.

Why the menu is short

We could add twenty items. We have chosen not to, and the reason is speed. A short menu means the line moves, and a line that moves is the entire value of a food stand at a family park.

A family coming off the lazy river at noon with two hungry kids does not want to consider options. They want food in four minutes. That is the job.

Timing your food

• Eat before the waterpark or well after. A funnel cake and then a water slide is a specific mistake and kids make it every summer.
• Noon to 1pm is our busiest window. Eat at 11:30 or 1:30 and you will not wait.
• The evening is wide open. Because golf and go-karts run to 11:30pm, food is available long after most kitchens around here have shut. A 9pm funnel cake is a real option.

Around the area

We are not going to pretend a boardwalk food stand covers every meal of your week. Honest notes on the rest:

• Fenwick and Bethany have proper sit-down family restaurants. In July, expect a wait at dinner.
• Ocean City is six miles south and has everything, including the boardwalk food you would expect.
• Cook at the rental. Genuinely the best advice on this page. Breakfast and lunch at the house saves more across a week than any discount, and it means you can afford to eat out for the meals that matter.

The pattern that works

Breakfast at the rental. Lunch at the rental or a quick thing here between attractions. Dinner out somewhere proper. Then boardwalk food and ice cream at 9pm as the actual event of the evening rather than a meal.

That last one is the bit families remember. Not the restaurant. The funnel cake at 9pm with the go-karts running in the background.

Allergies and picky eaters

Being straight about this: we are a boardwalk food stand with fryers, not a kitchen with a separate allergen station. If your child has a serious allergy, call us on (302) 539-1644 before you plan a meal around us and we will tell you honestly what we can and cannot do.

For ordinary picky eaters, the short menu is an advantage. Between pizza, hot dogs, chicken tenders and fries, we have not yet met the child who eats none of them.

What we do not have

Worth stating plainly so nobody plans around something that is not here:

• No ice cream. Hershey's Island Creamery next door does that, and they do it well. Separate business.
• No sit-down dining. There are tables, but this is a walk-up window, not a restaurant.
• No table service. You order, you wait a few minutes, you carry it.

That is the trade. You get food fast, at a family park, with free parking, and you do not lose an hour of your evening to a table.

Common Questions