There may be one at the Hilton on Sundays. But seafood buffets are, for the most part, horrible. The only item I would eat from a buffet would be boiled shrimp, but why pay $30 a head for some shrimp? Seafood is best when ordered from a menu and cooked fresh.
I agree, but the couple coming with us likes the buffet style. For my benefit what would be your favorite seafood place.
Wow! There are so many. Take a look at the Restaurant Thread up top. We love Cafe' 30A, Smiling Fish Cafe', Barago, Blue By Night, The Terrace, The 331 ... Didn't you once ask about a restaurant that served American Food and Seafood. Try Bayou Bills. It's touristy but the food is good (not great) and they have more than just seafood. Hope this helps. Seriously check out the Restaurant thread. Lots of good info there. I think every restaurant is spoken for.
The only buffet in SoWal of which I am aware is Cherry Peppers, and from what I can tell, the focus is on quantity and cheap lunch. I doubt they even have food that looks like seafood. The closest thing to a fried (they usually are fried) seafood buffet would be Bayou Bills seafood platter. Bayou Bills has two locations, but the one in SoWal, is located on hwy 98 west of hwy 393.
It may be stretching the 25 mile limit, but there's a place called Captain Kidd's Seafood Buffet on the harbor in Destin. Never been there myself but someone I met recently said it was good. In the same area there's a Golden Corral that has a good seafood selection once a week I believe. Otherwise, I think there are several places in Panama City Beach. I just don't remember the names.
The Hilton does have a weekend seafood buffet. We tried it about a year or so ago just to see what it was like. There was a lot of variety, but that did not translate into high quality. The "cold bar" - oysters & boiled shrimp were good. The hot buffet was about what you would expect of food sitting over steam tables for some time. I think I ended up eating the "carved roast beef" because the seafood items were so mediocre. I agree with JB (whoa!) on this one - cannot recommend it when there are so many other better options (particularly at $30 a pop.)