Get FREE email communications from Fodor's Travel, covering must-see travel destinations, expert trip planning advice, and travel inspiration to fuel your passion.
We've compiled the best of the best in The North Carolina Coast - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
French cuisine meets coastal Carolina at this charming bistro—refurbished by new owners in 2022—that melds fine dining with a casual lack of pretension. An excellent wine list—mostly France and California—pairs well with entrées like crab cakes served with pickled red onions and remoulade (among the North Carolina coast's best) and a confit duck quarter with mushroom risotto and microgreens. Don't overlook the cinnamon maple beignets for dessert.
Overlooking Pamlico Sound, this upscale bistro focuses squarely on locally sourced seafood, vegetables from the accompanying inn's garden, and friendly service by local staff. Among the favorites are shrimp and grits, grilled catch of the day, tuna ceviche, and crab cakes. There's a dedicated vegan menu, live music at least two nights a week, and a popular Sunday brunch.
This beautifully located restaurant offers creative takes on locally sourced seafood and other dishes; there's seating on a waterside patio for great sunset views, at the bar (live music some nights), or in the main dining area. You can also get a massage at AQUA Spa upstairs or relax with a craft cocktail at the restaurant's popular afternoon happy hour. At lunch, try the corn and crab soup and the fish or shrimp tacos. At dinner, besides the sunset, enjoy the selection of fresh fish (catches of the day vary), pasta, and steaks. There's plenty of parking.
Well known for its lunchtime sandwiches, salads, and gumbo, this quaint neighborhood bistro's dinner menu expands and goes upscale, with an emphasis on duck, pork, and local seafood. Seating expands from the bustling, black-and-white-checkered-floor dining room out onto the sidewalk.
Native Wilmingtonian chef Keith Rhodes is a James Beard Award finalist who sources local seafood for inspired, beautifully plated Asian- and Southern-influenced dishes. Copper fish sculptures decorate the dining room's sky-blue walls and watch you enjoy lump crab cakes, blackened swordfish, pan-roasted grouper, and other seafood dishes.
Housed in a replica of an early-19th-century Outer Banks Lifesaving Station, the dining room of this classic since 1946 feels like a nautical museum: classic clapboard construction, pine paneling, and walls of maritime artifacts. Miss O's crab cakes are perennially popular, as is the 14-layer chocolate cake.
The sophisticated dining room delivers inventive new American dishes, crafted out of local ingredients and coastal bounty. There are no wrong choices on the nightly changing menu, from beef tartare to a fried pork chop with honey apple glaze.
