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We've compiled the best of the best in New Bern - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
Chef Ashley Moser's open kitchen at this magnificent, brick-walled, fine-dining hall (it's arguably the best restaurant in a 100-mile radius) generates intensely pleasant flavors, from smoked deviled eggs adorned with a fried oyster to the local striped bass over succotash and mushroom puree. The wine list is excellent, but don't overlook cocktails like a margarita that's crowned with sea-salt foam.
In the former drugstore of the pharmacist who invented Pepsi-Cola, this tile-floored, light-filled corner café is a magnet for visitors and local businesspeople wanting a quick sandwich or large salad for lunch. In the evening the Chelsea is more upscale, with entrées in the upstairs dining rooms (there's an elevator) including shrimp and grits and a candied-bacon rib eye. The bar is well stocked, as are the Pepsi products, the nonalcoholic drinks of choice in New Bern.
This black-and-white-spotted café and ice cream parlor is popular with families. Sandwiches, "cowlossal" all-beef hot dogs, "cowsadillas," house-made caramel corn, and apple pie "à la moo" are served, too.
This little downtown seafood joint with sidewalk and indoor seating serves fresh coastal food in a setting full of local charm. You'll see plenty of fried seafood on the menu, but the raw bar (combination platters of oysters, clams, steamed shrimp, and crab) does not disappoint. Daily specials include deals on whole Maine lobsters, peel-and-eat Carolina shrimp, and beach-friendly cocktails.
New Bern's only waterfront restaurant doesn't rely on geography to impress—the craft cocktails, seared scallops, and entrées like salmon and local littleneck clams over angel-hair pasta simply taste even better when you're seated directly over the water.
