Wilmington, NC Fine Dining Options

First published on http://www.wilmingtontoday.com/restaurants-fine-dining/ 

We hesitated to categorize restaurants as fine dining because for many, the term is synonymous with expensive. Although restaurants have to base their prices on the quality of the ingredients used, the food at these restaurants in well worth the price. Do yourself a huge favor. Try them all.

If you’re craving a wonderful USDA Prime steak, there is only one place to go in Wilmington that carries nothing but prime meats in all cuts. That restaurant is Ruth’s Chris Steak House, located in the Hilton Wilmington Riverside in Historic Downtown Wilmington. On the menu are all the best cuts of steak, including filet, strip, ribeye and t-bone, and you can even order a porterhouse for two.

Chops are available in lamb, pork or veal varieties and seafood, including a huge three-pound live Maine lobster, is on the available also. There is a wide array of side dishes to accompany your meal, including nine vegetables dishes, potatoes prepared eight ways, and seven salads.

In case that’s not enough, you’ll also find a vast assortment of appetizers, an extensive, award winning wine list, numerous beers, a full bar and delicious desserts. The lounge opens at 3:00 p.m. daily with dinner beginning at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday and at 5:00 p.m. all other days.

The newest restaurant downtown as this is being written is Manna, which many consider a particularly apt name for a restaurant offering food of such superb quality. Located on Princess Street between Front and Second, Manna is beautifully decorated, tastefully appointed and serves food using ingredients that are the freshest,  most available locally.

The menu changes often depending upon what ingredients are fresh. Among the recent outstanding appetizers were the beet box salad with beets, goat cheese, field greens, orange supreme, pistachios, ginger and red wine vinaigrette and a bisque of butternut squash, sage and barlotto with preserved lemon. Bread and butter is an item you’ll want to order since the bread is made in house and is accompanied by wonderful, infused home churned butter. Scallops and beef filet were other dishes that drew raves from diners.

Just some of the recent delicious entrees – obviously named by a clever writer – include groupies in the water, seared grouper with watercress and mascarpone risotto and watermelon radish vinaigrette, and an American pig in Barcelona, comprised of Serrano-style ham, spinach, local goat cheese, walnuts, red navel oranges and a grilled leek vinaigrette. Tuna is delicious too, and Manna has a nice rack – of lamb, onions with saffron and medjool dates, brown butter and walnut couscous, preserved lemon and coriander.

Cocktails at Manna are earning good reviews, and clients appreciate the quality of the service too.

Reservations are a very good idea and are required most weekends, although one could do worse than to enjoy sitting at the bar while waiting patiently for a table. Manna is open daily for dinner at 5:00 p.m. each day except Monday, closing at 10:00 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and at 11:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Manna is available to cater events for special occasions.

Port Land Grille, an attractive restaurant with well spaced tables, well trained staff and superb food, is located in Lumina Station. You won’t find run of the mill entrees here. Examples of chef owner Shawn Wellersdick’s seafood entrees are wood grilled wild striped bass and cajun BBQ rubbed North Carolina catfish over crawfish meat. Meat dishes currently available include antelope tenderloin, wood grilled Long Island duck breast and Port Land Grille’s meatloaf, made with 100 percent ground Provimi veal!

Port Land Grille also has a number of special dishes that are offered at a very modest price for a restaurant of this quality. For $19.95, you can order a USDA Prime sirloin steak that is served with two side dishes, including such favorites as salt and pepper fries and spinach either creamed or sauteed in butter and garlic. The bread and compound butter Port Land Grille serves is also terrific. Port Land Grille has a full bar and an extensive list of wines not offered elsewhere. Save room for the superb desserts.