Where to eat in Wilmington?

[nizza]

Hi, I'm a New Jersey member and will be coming down tomorrow night, with a few friends, for a long weekend in the Wilmington area. Can you recommend some places in and around Wilmington? Thanks!

[SWoodyWhite]

I don't know much about Wilmington myself. I suggest checking some of the reviews from the local paper, at http://www.delawareonline.com/entertainmen...ning/index.html

Have a good time, and let us know what you find!

[wkl]

I have lived in Wilmington a long time and know the restaurant scene pretty well.Not knowing your budget here are some recommendations:

Toscana, decent Italian, kind of happening bar scene,good wine list.

Deep Blue, (same owner as above) mostly seafood all good although the chef left and the new one is not quite as good, imo.but a good place with a good wine list and okay bar scene depending on the night.

Eclipse,varied menu mostly new american style.recently renovated okay wine list.

Moro, very good, maybe the best in wilmington.I haven't been but everyone raves.

I can tell you much more, just let me know what your looking for.I can also tell where not to go.

[KatieLoeb]

I second the recommendation for Toscana.

[NulloModo]

What type of food are looking for?

If you want the best fried chicken you have ever had, search out Walt's.

If you want a very good traditional steakhouse experience, check out Walter's Steakhouse (not the same place as Walt's).

A little bit south of Wilmington is Newark, which is a fun little town, and has some good eats as well. The Iron Hill Brewery (the there are a couple other locations floating around, but the Newark location is the original, and imo, the best, although there is one on the Riverfront in Wilmington as well) has an awesome selection of craft beers as well as some interesting food. Some is traditional goes with beer faire, some is new american flaire, some is Euro inspired, all of it is very tasty.

Newark also has the HomeGrown Cafe which is sort of Hippy-food, but very very good Hippy food, and this time of year they should have their awesome pumpkin bisque on the menu. Ali Baba's on Main street has killer prices on very good middle-eastern faire. Their eggplant salad is the best I have ever had. Cluck-U also on Main St. has possibly the best buffalo wings anywhere in the world. I have eaten wings at many a place, and still none compare to a an order of their GlobalThermonuclear with the special blue cheese sauce. Flavorful, wonerfully spicey, crispy, meaty, just perfect (and the war-games reference is cute too).

If you get a change to drive down route 13/40 there are lots of good places to get crabs. I am not sure when is considered crab season, so now might not be the time ( I have never been a big fan of blue crabs) but Lestardo's always gets rave reviews from those I know who do. The Eden Square Shopping Center is home to Capriotti's, which makes the best subs in the area, and in my exerpience, beats out anything you can get at those places in NJ or PA. The Capastrami and Turkey Dinner subs are both particularly good, but the Slaw-B-Joe can't be ignored either.

So, yeah, there are lots of good eats in the Wilmington, Northern DE area. I don't know much about the fancy dining scene, but if you are interested i n any more good cheap eats, just let me know.

[NulloModo]

So, you have to tell us how it went. Where did you end up going? How did you like it?

[nizza]

Thanks for all the responses. At the last minute our trip did not happen due to working schedules. We are planning to try again next month and am looking forward to trying some of your suggested restaurants. We'll post back after our trip.

Thanks again!

[EllenH]

Was just in Delaware this weekend and had dinner Saturday night at Deep Blue in Wilmington. This wasn't my first visit but its been about a year since the last time so I was curious to see how it's held up. Turned out to be a very pleasant dinner!

The overall atmosphere is aiming at "hip" but is low-key enough not to be annoying. The dining room decor is minimalist and pretty classy; my only complaint is some of the tables are a tad too close together. It's a shame that the big glass windows look out on....downtown Wilmington. Not much people watching to do there.

Our food was all very tasty. Starters included micro-greens with beets, stilton, pears and walnuts (way too huge pile of greens, but delish cheese & pears at the peak of ripeness); lobster bisque (really creamy and yummy with big chunks of lobster); shortribs (this was my least favorite, meat was very bland and almost tough); and calamari (light breading, good calamari, sauce wasn't quite zippy enough for me).

For mains, we had seafood risotto (generous portion of really top-class shellfish on a fairly bland serving of risotto); veal chop (didn't taste this one, but my husband cleaned his plate so it must've been tasty); and wild salmon (the winner! salmon was perfect, flaky & flavorful, on a delicious bed of mashed potatoes and roasted root vegetables).

Desserts were good but not unusually so. My mixed berries were very fresh & had a big dollop of homemade whipped cream on top. Husband got an orange panna-cotta with a layer of chocolate/espresso pudding on top, served very elegantly in a martini glass; I don't think he was thrilled with it but I loved the chocolate & orange flavors.

Service was friendly & impeccable throughout. Pricewise this wasn't too painful (although from a DC perspective, seemed just a little expensive for Wilmington). Dinner including app, entree, dessert, glass of wine & a coffee came out to about $65/pp including tip (no tax in DE). I will be back & wouldn't hesitate to recommend Deep Blue.