About Moby Dick Restaurant

One of the most unique places to dine in White Rock is the Moby Dick Restaurant, a local dine-in or take-out favourite since 1975. You feel as though you have just dived into a deep underwater world, surrounded by whale memorabilia and suspended fish nets. A family restaurant serving fish and chips, seafood platters, large burgers, chicken burgers, salads and more, with a licensed patio out front when the weather agrees. Bring your appetite!

A wood-panelled dining room wall hung with framed sayings, including one reading "I'd rather stay here and work instead of going to the beach, said no one ever", above a booth with ketchup and vinegar.
The dining room. The signs are part of the collection.

What we make

We are proud of our food and take care to prepare and serve only the best with the freshest ingredients. We peel and cut all our french fries by hand (just look at our muscles!). We slice and fillet the fresh wild fish ourselves.

Our tasty, light batter and our creamy tartar sauce are made from our own recipes, which we are not telling you. You will love the extra flavour.

See the menu
Our story

Our story

The building at 15479 Marine Drive is older than the restaurant, and this block was selling fish and chips long before the whale arrived. Here is what we know, with photographs from the White Rock Museum & Archives and clippings from the restaurant’s own scrapbook. Three generations of owners have kept the whale afloat: Peter and Claudia Mueller, who opened it on April 1, 1975; Ralph and Monika Oswald, who took the helm in 1999 and from 2009 shared it for five years with James and Christine Morrison, James as chef and co-owner; and today, Yuriy and Sasha.

Before the whale: the 1920s and 30s

In the late 1920s this stretch of Washington Avenue (renamed Marine Drive in 1960) was a row of small wooden shops. Bates’s Grocery, later Tingle’s, stood on one side, and a little fish and chips shop stood on the other until 1941, when it was knocked down to make way for the building that is Moby Dick today.

A street of low wooden shops in the late 1920s, with Bates's Grocery on the left and a small fish and chips shop on the right.
The late 1920s. Bates’s Grocery, later Tingle’s, is on the left; the small fish and chips shop on the right was knocked down in 1941 for the building that is now Moby Dick. Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (1994-1-8).

A long-time customer, Mrs. Mona Hardy, has lived in the area since she was a small child. Her 1930s photographs show the site as a grocery store owned by her father, with a 1930 Pontiac parked out front and Charlie’s Fish and Chips, Charlie Davey proprietor, next door.

The Messere building: 1941 to 1965

Nicola Messere was born in Italy in 1890 and came to Canada in 1909. In 1918 he married Mary Louise Beaulieu, and they raised five daughters while running a shoe repair shop in New Westminster. In 1935, after losing their eldest daughter, the family moved to White Rock for the sake of their daughter Mary’s health and bought a house on Kent Street.

In 1941 the Messeres bought the lot at 662 Washington Avenue, now 15479 Marine Drive, took down the old building and put up a new one: shops on the ground floor and the family’s home upstairs. Mr. Messere ran the Up-To-Date Shoe Repair on the west side, and Mrs. Messere ran a pastry and coffee shop, the Louise Pastry and Coffee Shop, on the east. At times other businesses took the coffee shop’s place, among them a drug store, Bushes, and in 1955 a jewellery store. Their daughter Fran was photographed in front of the family business in the early 1940s, shortly after the building went up.

When Mr. Messere died in 1965, Mrs. Messere sold the business and moved to Coquitlam. Our friend Hugh Ellenwood pieced this history together while working with photographs the Messere family gave to the White Rock Museum & Archives, and many of them are below.

The two-storey building with Up-To-Date Shoe Repair, the Louise Pastry Shop and Coffee Shop on the ground floor, Stevens Fish next door, and a car parked out front.
About 1959: the Up-To-Date Shoe Repair and the Louise Pastry and Coffee Shop, with Stevens Fish next door. This is the building Moby Dick moved into. Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-6).
Three adults and a small child in front of the Up-To-Date Shoe Repair window.
Outside the Up-To-Date Shoe Repair. Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-9).
A young woman in a cardigan standing in front of the pastry shop and shoe repair windows, under a 7 Up sign.
In front of the pastry shop and shoe repair windows. Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-21).
Two men in suits and a woman in a polka-dot dress under signs for Meat and First Class Shoe Repair.
Under the Meat and First Class Shoe Repair signs. Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-22).
A man and a woman standing on the sidewalk under a Drugs sign and a coffee bar sign.
Under the Drugs sign. A drug store, Bushes, was one of the shops in the building. Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-17).
An older man in a hat and an older woman with a white handbag in front of a shop window lettered Lloyd L.
Beside a shop window lettered Lloyd Lewis. Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-10).
Four young people and a dog in front of the Lloyd Lewis shop window.
In front of the Lloyd Lewis window. Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-16).
A smiling woman holding a baby on her knee beside a Chateau Quebec sign.
Under the Chateau Quebec sign. Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-18).
Two girls with bicycles on the sidewalk in front of the shops, captioned Linda and Edith 1956 in ink.
“Linda + Edith 1956”, as written on the photograph. Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-2).
Four children on a stone ledge, captioned A Birthday Party at Peace Arch and named Jim, Linda, Edith and Lorraine in ink.
“A Birthday Party at Peace Arch”: Jim, Linda, Edith and, it seems, Lorraine. Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-4).
Three people relaxing on a lawn beside hydrangeas, captioned Edith, Linda and Georgina in ink.
“Edith, Linda & Georgina”, as written on the photograph. Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-5).
A man in a hat and suit sitting on large rocks on the beach.
On the beach rocks. Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-15).
An older woman in a polka-dot dress beside bouquets of flowers set on a television.
Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-7).
Four women standing on the grass beside a wooden house.
Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-1).
A man in a cap helping a toddler in a white coat walk beside a parked car.
Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-3).
Two women in a garden, one seated and one standing.
Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-8).
A toddler in a white coat and bonnet standing on the grass, with houses and a car behind.
Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-11).
Two young children in sun hats paddling at the water's edge.
Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-19).
A young woman sitting on the grass in front of a two-storey building.
Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-23).

Marine Drive through the years

The street outside has changed as much as the building. Steam trains ran along the waterfront, the shops filled in, and parades came down the avenue.

A steam train on the waterfront tracks beside the shops at the east end of White Rock.
The east end of White Rock in the late 1940s; 15479 is on the right. Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (1995-13-34).
A postcard view of shops and parked cars along Washington Avenue, White Rock.
The east end of Marine Drive in 1955, when it was still Washington Avenue. It was renamed in 1960. Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (1993-22-7).
A postcard view of East Marine Drive with Tingle's store and cars parked along the street.
East Marine Drive in about 1960. Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-4-29).
Crowds lining the street watching a parade go by.
A parade on Washington Avenue. Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-25).
A convertible in a parade, with crowds along the sidewalk.
A parade on Washington Avenue. Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-26).
Spectators along the street watching marchers in a parade.
A parade on Washington Avenue. Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-27).
People seated along the curb waiting for a parade, with shops behind.
A parade on Washington Avenue. Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-2-28).
A wooden boathouse on pilings beside still water, with a boat moored and tall trees behind.
Courtesy of the White Rock Museum & Archives (2009-1-1).

Peter and Claudia Mueller open Moby Dick: 1975

Peter Mueller was born in Germany and lived in Switzerland, where he cooked at a five-star seafood restaurant, before he came to Vancouver in 1973 with the car he had shipped across the ocean. The city won him over. He cooked at The Cannery, a restaurant the White Rock Sun called “highly-touted”, but he had a goal: a restaurant of his own by the time he turned thirty. His wife, Claudia, held him to it.

They found the building on Marine Drive and tried out names: Peter, Claudia, Walk Right In. Claudia had just read Herman Melville’s novel and suggested Moby Dick, and Peter was sold at once: it was catchy, and everyone knew it. Moby Dick opened on April 1, 1975, with Peter in the kitchen and Claudia at the front of the house, and their young family grew up between the tables.

In its first week, Moby Dick didn’t serve fish and chips. Customers came in expecting them and walked out again, and Peter’s four-year-old son, Greg, took it upon himself to warn people at the door. After a week of that, fish and chips went on the menu. For the next ten years Peter drove across the border to Blaine every other day for fresh, boneless cod, until his supplier started delivering. After closing, once the children were asleep, Peter and Claudia peeled and cut the next day’s potatoes by hand, until they bought a big peeler and cutter.

An older man in a plaid jacket stands at the restaurant's front door, under the Since 1975 Dine In awning and the ship's wheel sign.
Peter Mueller, back at the front door of the restaurant he opened.
An older man in a plaid jacket smiles in front of wood panelling hung with old signs for a barrel of fish and chips, a 1975 plaque, and a driftwood sign reading Barrel-ing through the years.
Peter beside the old signs for the barrel of fish and chips: twelve pieces of fish and lots of chips, to feed the whole family.

The Muellers ran Moby Dick for nearly twenty-five years, and renovated the little building in 1982 and again in 1993.

The early menu was part seafood house, part German kitchen: Manhattan clam chowder for 60 cents, a shrimp omelette “Berlin”, cod braised in white wine, Viennese schnitzel and Hungarian goulash. At Christmas there was sauerbraten or roast goose with red cabbage, a banana split for dessert, and, for anyone who wanted the usual, a barrel of fish and chips for $4.95.

An early typed Moby Dick menu with a hand-drawn fish: Manhattan clam chowder for 60 cents, shrimp omelette Berlin, cod filet, deep fried prawns, sole, shrimp curry, Viennese schnitzel and Hungarian goulash.
An early menu.
A newspaper ad for Moby Dick's Christmas specials on December 25 and 26: home-made fish soup, sauerbraten or roast goose, a banana split, and a barrel of fish and chips for $4.95.
Christmas specials.
An illustration of a Caesar in a jar beside a cartoon whale, captioned All Whale Caesar!
An old ad for the Caesar.
The Moby Dick logo inside a ship's wheel, reading Famous Fish & Chips Since 1975, White Rock, British Columbia.
The Moby Dick Seafood Restaurant logo: the whale and ship's wheel above the words Famous Fish & Chips, Since 1975.
The Moby Dick storefront with its blue sign, lighthouse and whale, and customers on the patio below.
The storefront.

What the papers said

By 1980 the little restaurant on the beach had a reputation that reached well past White Rock.

He has a highly successful establishment in White Rock, hidden in what looks like a fish ’n chip joint. It’s called Moby Dick and it really is a fish ’n chip joint. There is more to Peter’s place than meets the eye.

Don Cannon, Restaurant Guide, The Columbian, February 14, 1980

This is the best seafood south of the Fraser River.

Don Cannon, Restaurant Guide, The Columbian

This is the place to remember! It won’t win your heart at first sight. It is a family restaurant run by people who love children, including their own. But Peter Mueller cooks some of the best fish and shellfish to be had anywhere in the province.

Anne Hardy, Air Canada’s enRoute magazine, as read by Earle Bradford on CKNW, September 1, 1980

Fresh fish and local potatoes, cooked to a golden brown, Peter’s special batter that remains a secret recipe… Clam chowder, long a beach lover’s favorite, is prepared nowhere any better than at Moby Dick.

“Shoreside seafood a treat”, The White Rock Sun, October 20, 1981

The batter is still a secret, and the chowder is still on the menu.

A newspaper column with a photograph of Peter Mueller holding a plate, headed Restaurant Guide by Don Cannon.
Don Cannon’s Restaurant Guide, The Columbian, February 14, 1980.
A newspaper column by Don Cannon calling Moby Dick the best seafood south of the Fraser River.
Don Cannon’s Restaurant Guide, The Columbian.
A typed radio script on Earle's Court letterhead, dated September 1, 1980, praising Moby Dick's fish and chips.
Earle Bradford’s Earle’s Court on CKNW, September 1, 1980.
A newspaper review headed Moby Dicks Restaurant: Shoreside seafood a treat.
“Shoreside seafood a treat”, The White Rock Sun, October 20, 1981.

Captain Ralph and Mate Monika: from 1999

In 1999 Ralph and Monika Oswald took the helm, with their children Tanja and Derek in the crew. They started traditions that are still going. In their early years they began giving 50 cents from every order in March to the Peace Arch Hospital, a tradition that has since raised thousands of dollars. And they turned a local family favourite into a place visitors from around the world look for, bringing summer tourists to White Rock’s beach.

They renovated again in 2003, and in 2000, a year after they arrived, a regular presented them with a poem for the restaurant’s 25th anniversary.

In 2009 the Oswalds took on partners, James and Christine Morrison, who served five years aboard. James was chef and co-owner, and no stranger to cooking fish in White Rock: his Mud Bay Fish Chowder had been a favourite at another restaurant in town before he ever tied on a Moby Dick apron.

A smiling couple behind the counter, with bottles on the shelves and framed photographs on the wall behind them.
Ralph and Monika Oswald behind the counter.
A portrait of a man, a woman, a boy and a girl in matching blue Moby Dick T-shirts.
Ralph and Monika with Tanja and Derek, the crew in the poem.
The old storefront with a whale and "Sea Food, Take Out, Fish & Chips" painted on the sign, "The Moby Dick" along the awning, and a red car parked in front.
The storefront, from the Oswalds' album.

A Rhapsody to Fish

Thanks, Moby Dick, your fish is divine,
I'm sure it was eager to be caught on your line.
The spuds are delicious, and I know Heppell grown,
I'm sure they are happy to be famously known,
To say nothing about the genial staff
At the place on the beach where you get smiles and a laugh.
But there's more to the story than you see from your seat,
Of the good ship "Moby Dick" as you savour your treat,
There's Captain Ralph and Mate Monika too,
And Tanja and Derek who make up the crew.
So enjoy your fish and your light golden fries,
And know that you're sharing in free enterprise.
They'll wish you "Good-bye" and "Do come again,"
And welcome you back with food to sustain.

This poem was presented to the Moby Dick Restaurant to commemorate its 25th anniversary, 1975 to 2000. It was written by Art Bates, a long-time resident of White Rock, who, along with his wife Frankie and family, had been dining at Moby Dick for all of those 25 years.

Ralph, Monika, Tanja and Derek, and James and Christine, will always hold a special place in Moby Dick’s story.

Fifty years

On April 1, 2025, Moby Dick turned fifty, and the sign out front says it plainly: 50 Years of Legend. The day began with a ribbon-cutting to honour the restaurant’s past, present and future, with the Mayor, the South Surrey & White Rock Chamber of Commerce, our Member of Parliament, White Rock’s councillors, neighbours from local businesses, friends and family, and Greg Mueller, Peter’s son.

Then came lunch, trivia about the restaurant’s history with prizes for customers, and a visit from Moby Dick himself. There was cake, and it had a whale on it.

A tiered blue cake with ocean waves, a lighthouse and a Moby Dick sign, topped with a white whale and the number 50, on the restaurant counter.
Fifty years, 1975 to 2025.
Under the Dine In and Take Out awning, a woman raises a pair of red scissors over the cut ribbon while guests cheer around her, among them a girl in a sailor hat and striped top, and blue and white balloons.
The ribbon is cut for Moby Dick's fiftieth anniversary, April 1, 2025.
Under the Since 1975 and Dine In awning, a smiling man in a blue striped shirt holds a framed certificate and shakes hands with a woman in a white jacket, as guests applaud around them among blue and white Moby Dick balloons, one held by a girl in a sailor hat.
Yuriy and Sasha at the ribbon-cutting for the fiftieth anniversary, April 1, 2025.

Today the whale is in the hands of Yuriy and Sasha, the third generation of owners. They would rather we told you about the people who came before them, which says a good deal about them. The fish is still cut by hand, the batter is still a secret, and the whale is still smiling.

Who was Moby Dick?

Moby Dick was a great white whale in the famous novel of the same name, written by Herman Melville between 1850 and 1853. Moby Dick was a monster among monsters, the terror of the deep. Whalers had hunted him for years, and all had come off second-best in the battle. Captain Ahab was one of those who had encountered him, and lost. Moby Dick had won by a leg: one of Ahab’s.

As master of the Pequod, Ahab scours the oceans for his deadly eighty-ton enemy, and the log of his voyage makes up an epic of the sea: thrilling, chilling, unforgettable.

Herman Melville. Our founder. Sort of. Well, ok, he wrote the book. Claudia Mueller read it, and thought up the name.

The crew

At Moby Dick, we take care of our staff: happy workers, happy customers. You can come back again and again and see the same smiling faces.

While many of our staff stay for a long time, it is the nature of our industry to provide jobs for students and younger people on a seasonal basis. For many of them this is an important rung on the career ladder, and here they learn the important part of working in the world: taking care of you, our faithful customers. We honour our staff at five-year intervals, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank them again, and again, and again. Without great staff there would be no great food.

We do not want to polish our own binnacle, but we think you will find that Moby Dick is also famous for its happy, long-serving staff. There has gotta be a reason.

Supporting our community

Each March at Moby Dick we celebrate the support we receive from our friends, neighbours and visitors to White Rock by giving back to those in need: 50 cents from each guest cheque in the month of March goes to the Peace Arch Hospital Foundation. We put our money where the chips go. Since this celebration began, Moby Dick, and of course its faithful customers, have donated thousands of dollars to the support of quality care in our hospital.

Tourism is important to our small city, and Moby Dick is always keen to lend a hand. Over the years we have flown the Moby Dick colours at the South Surrey Arena for the Surrey Eagles and at Softball City, backed a rider in the Tour de White Rock, and helped with the City’s Canada Day celebrations, for which the Mayor thanked us in 2004.

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