1587 Restaurant

• 405 Queen Elizabeth Street, The Tranquil House Inn
• Manteo

• (252) 473-1587
• map

1587 is by far the most elegant restaurant on Roanoke Island. It exudes cosmopolitan class, with soft lighting, a copper-topped bar, polished wood, subtle lighting and a view of the harbor. Dining here is an intimate experience, with servers that make you feel as if you’re their only customer. Food presentation is a priority, and all dishes are works of art. Taste is important, too, and you’ll be wowed by dishes with lengthy descriptions of the style of preparation and unique combinations of ingredients. Fresh local seafood and produce, prime meats, fowl, game and vegetarian offerings are featured, and the desserts are outstanding. With a diverse wine list, a specialty microbrew list and small-production microbrews on tap at the bar, you’re sure to find the perfect complement to your meal. 1587 is open seven nights a week in the summer; call for off-season nights of operation. Reservations are recommended.

A Full Moon Cafe & Grill ... Your Island Bistro

• 208 Queen Elizabeth Street
• Manteo

• (252) 473-MOON (6666)
• map

This cafe is a locals’ favorite for its relaxed atmosphere, friendly service and eclectic eats. A Full Moon is on the busy intersection of Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh streets, where it has a touch of city style, allowing you to sit right on the sidewalk and watch the world go by. The menu features creative, nouveau American concoctions for seafood lovers, vegetarians and meat eaters using a wide variety of fresh seafood and produce. A Full Moon features grilled Angus steaks and great grilled seafood. Appetizers, soups and salads are delectable, and you can’t go wrong with any of the daily lunch and dinner specials, including wonderful pasta and quiche renditions. The wine list is extensive, with more than 70 bottles offered. New this year, owner Paul Charron has opened a brewery and is brewing his own beer. Enjoy the newly remodeled brew pub, where you can watch the ancient art of brewing as you enjoy a modern, flavorful beer. The café is open for lunch and dinner seven days a week in-season. Call for off-season hours. Dinner reservations are accepted.

Adrianna’s Restaurant

• 207 Queen Elizabeth Street, The Waterfront Shops
• Manteo

• (252) 473-4800
• map

If you want to see the water while you dine, this is the place to do it. Shallowbag Bay and Roanoke Sound are visible from every seat in the house, but Adrianna’s offers more than just good looks. The casual-fine dining restaurant offers creative dishes of what might be described as high-end but unpretentious. Everything is prepared in-house, using the best ingredients, from the Wagyu and Harris Ranch beef to organic and all-natural produce and as much locally harvested seafood as possible. Adrianna’s is open for lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday. They have the only full bar in Manteo at this time. Seating is available in the bar area as well as out in the courtyard, which is dog-friendly. Adrianna’s is well set up for in-house events like weddings and parties up to 160 people. The restaurant is one component of Beach Ball Events, which offers complete wedding packages of florals, catering, music, wedding planners, ministers and more. The restaurant must close periodically to accommodate these wedding events, so call ahead or check the calendar on their website to make sure they are open the day you are planning to come. They also take reservations, so you can call ahead to reserve a table for any size party.

Basnight’s Lone Cedar

• 7623 S. Virginia Dare Trail, Nags Head/Manteo Causeway

• (252) 441-5405
• map

This Outer Banks landmark is where you’ll find many a local eating every night, so you know the food must be really good. This is also North Carolina’s favorite senator’s stomping ground. Former Senator Pro Tem Marc Basnight is known to greet customers at his family restaurant, and daughters Vicki and Caroline are also there to make sure your dining experience is exactly what you expected. This restaurant is at the top of the list of many locals’ favorite spots. The service is genuinely friendly, and the portions are more than generous. You’ll enjoy the vast views of the sound and dining on their new outdoor deck overlooking the osprey nest. Basnight’s serves brunch Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and dinner seven nights a week beginning at 4:30 p.m. (During the off-season, the days they serve dinner vary, so call ahead.) They feature only local, fresh North Carolina seafood that comes in whole and is cleaned in their kitchen, vegetarian dishes, pasta and steaks. Their dedication to freshness includes their own herb garden. They also serve local produce and pork as well as free-farmed chicken. And you will marvel at their incredible wine cellar (well, it’s a room, really) featuring thousands of bottles of wine. This accompanies a roomy bar area where you can enjoy the full menu. They also have Karaoke in the bar area Friday and Saturday nights. Each year, they close December 31 and re-open right before Valentine’s Day. Basnight’s also offers on and off-premise catering for any size or type of event.

Big Al’s Soda Fountain & Grill

• 716 S. U.S. Highway 64
• Manteo

• (252) 473-5570
• map

Big Al’s Soda Fountain & Grill is a truly fun dining experience, serving up classic American-fare in a delightful ‘50s retro atmosphere since 1997. It features an authentic, full-service soda fountain, juke box, dance floor, game room, gift shop and one of the country’s largest collections of Coca-Cola memorabilia. New owners have created a new menu that features fresh 100 percent USDA–certified prime Angus burgers, daily blue plate specials, all-American entrees like meatloaf, N.C. barbecue, family-recipe crab cakes, create-your-own salads and a great kids’ menu. You must save room for something sweet here. The soda fountain turns out tasty treats like homemade ice cream, milkshakes, malts, flavored cokes, sundaes and splits, and the homemade pies and cakes are fantastic. Big Al’s is right on the main gateway of Manteo, making it the perfect stop on your way to or from the Roanoke Island attractions. It’s open every day, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. March through May and September through November and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. June through August. You can eat in or take out. Large groups and private parties are welcome.

Cafe Lachine

• Mallards Marsh, 1789 N.C. Highway 345
• Wanchese

• (252) 473-5770
• map
• coupon

For a rare view of open marshlands while you dine, Cafe Lachine at Mallards Marsh is worth seeking out. Situated along the road to Wanchese, it’s a little off the beaten path but only about 5 minutes from Nags Head and Manteo. Sit on the screened back porch and listen to the birds chirp, and you’ll feel a world away from the busy beaches. Cafe Lachine is a casual, family-oriented restaurant serving local seafood and produce and home-style Southern cuisine. Johnson & Wales–trained chef Justin Lachine is the head of the kitchen, and he prepares everything in house. His wife, Johanna, a Culinary Institute of America graduate, is at the front of the house. The couple has worked together at numerous restaurants. Cafe Lachine is open for lunch and dinner daily and serves beer and wine. Because this is such a popular wedding event venue, it’s closed on weekends to accommodate private functions. WIth in-house catering, Cafe Lachine can accommodate up to 200 people for events.

Carolina Cupcakery / OBX Dessert Cafe

• 205 Budleigh Street
• Manteo

• (757) 204-4775

With a successful wedding business, three storefronts in Hampton Roads, Virginia, a feature in Modern Bride magazine and appearances on the Food Network’s “Cupcake Wars” and ABC’s “Extreme Home Makeover,” this cupcake bakery is well established regionally but new to Manteo. The store is a home base for their wedding business, and their specialty is towers of cupcakes in any flavor you can imagine. But you can stop by and pick up their cupcakes, too, for a snack or the perfect gift. The cafe also serves coffee and other breakfast baked goods, which you can enjoy outside on a cafe table or take it to go. Gluten-free, vegan and sugar-free varieties are available as well. Hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Carolina Cupcakery also offers cupcake decorating classes and birthday parties.

Coffeehouse on Roanoke Island

• 106-A Sir Walter Raleigh Street
• Manteo

• (252) 473-1295
• coupon

The Coffeehouse offers expertly prepared coffee and espresso drinks, tea, chai, hot chocolate, milk shakes and fantastic smoothies. Check out the selection of loose teas. Pastries, scones, homemade cakes, muffins and other baked goods tempt you for breakfast, lunch or a snack. With cafe tables, sofas and reading material, you’ll want to stay awhile. Lots of gifts are for sale here too – coffee beans, honey, T-shirts and handmade mugs, tea pots and candy. It’s open seven days a week in season; call for off-season hours.

Darrell’s Restaurant

• 523 S. U.S. Highway 64
• Manteo

• (252) 473-5366
• map

Darrell’s is a family-style seafood restaurant that’s a locals’ favorite and has been operated by the Daniels family for 50 years. Darrell Daniels started the Polar Bear Drive-In in 1960, and when the second generation came on board in 1972, the family changed the focus to a family-style seafood restaurant and renamed it Darrell’s Seafood Restaurant. Now the third generation is working here, and seafood is still the definite specialty. The fried oysters are widely touted as the best anywhere, served with the traditional fixings of cole slaw, French fries and hush puppies. Locals know that Darrell’s does seafood right. Land food, children’s fare and light eaters’ dishes are also available. Darrell’s has a new wood-fired grill for barbecue. Helpings are heaping, and desserts are delicious, if you have room. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served every day except Sunday. Darrell’s does on-site catering for groups and events of 20 people or more.

Fisherman’s Wharf

• 4683 Mill Landing Road
• Wanchese

• (252) 473-6004
• map
• coupon

It doesn’t get any fresher than this. At Fisherman’s Wharf you can dine on fresh seafood right on the harbor of an authentic fishing village. The Daniels family (one of the longest-standing Outer Banks families) opened this restaurant in 1974 and pride themselves in serving the freshest seafood on the Outer Banks. Fisherman’s Wharf is over a fish house, with boats unloading fresh catches right downstairs. Every seat has a panoramic view of Wanchese Harbor, so you’ll see all the activity of a working waterfront while you enjoy your meal. Everything, including dessert, is homemade. Fisherman’s Wharf serves lunch and dinner every day but Sunday, and they offer a children’s menu. The restaurant does not serve alcohol. To get there, head down N.C. Highway 345 into Wanchese. Stay on 345 (don’t veer off anywhere) almost until the road ends. You’ll see the restaurant at Mill Landing, on the waterfront. You can also get there by boat, and there are docks where you can tie up while you dine. Take-out ordering is available. 

Front Porch Cafe

• 300 U.S. Highway 64
• Manteo

• (252) 473-3160
• map
• video

This charming, free-standing coffeehouse is located at the stoplight on the main road in Manteo, next to the Ford dealership. The Front Porch Café offers a full espresso bar with a wide variety of coffee drinks. You will find a nice offering of teas and pastries like croissants, muffins, cinnamon buns and cookies, which are baked fresh every day. This location has plenty of seating and free wireless Internet access with power strips to keep your laptop humming. They roast their own coffee (at the Nags Head location) and have a wide selection of whole bean or ground coffee to take home, along with a nice assortment of coffee-related items (mugs, presses, etc.), great gifts and world music. New for this year is their wine bar, with a nice variety of wines available both by the glass or to take out. The Front Porch opens at 6 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 7 a.m. on Sunday.

La Cabana

• 112 U.S. Highway 64/264
• Manteo

• (252) 473-9364
• map

La Cabana (The Cabin) is a family-oriented restaurant and bar that serves home-style Latin food from Central American countries such as El Salvador and Belize. It’s a popular local’s spot thanks to its welcoming atmosphere, great service and quality food at affordable prices. Expand your cultural awareness and delight your taste buds with specialties like Guatemalan chicken, Belizean-style beans and rice, Salvadoran pupusas, Honduran fried fish with tajadas (fried green plantain) and Mexican fajitas. Chef Tony Calvio puts a Latin American spin on local seafood as well. If you think you don’t like Latin American food because it’s spicy, Calvio urges you to come in and try his mildly spiced dishes that are not hot, just full of flavor. Desserts are authentic as well, from tres leches to mandarin orange cake to plantain empanadas with vanilla custard.  It’s open for lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday (11 a.m. to 9 p.m.) and for Sunday brunch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Take-out orders are welcome. Ask about the Hall of Fame Burrito Contest that’s offered one Saturday once a month.

O’Neal’s Sea Harvest

• 618 Harbor Road
• Wanchese

• (252) 473-4535
• map

The O’Neal family is known on the Outer Banks for its commitment to harvesting and selling fresh seafood straight out of the sea. Their seafood market, O’Neal’s Sea Harvest in Wanchese, is a trusted source for fish, crab meat and crabs, shrimp, scallops, oysters and clams. This is an open-air fish market where you can see the guys at work cleaning and processing seafood. You can select a whole fish and they’ll clean it for you right there. Head down to O’Neal’s to pick up steamed crabs by the bushel or shrimp by the pound or to pick up a cooler full of seafood to take back home (they’ll ice it down for you at no charge.)

New this year O’Neal’s Sea Harvest is opening a lunch restaurant where you can enjoy all these seafood delicacies expertly prepared right on site. WIth a plan to be open in May, they’ll serve shrimp, scallop, oyster or soft-shell po’boys (depending on the season), seafood baskets, grilled gamefish wraps, burgers, fresh tuna and shrimp salads and crab cakes. (You can get the salads and crab cakes to take home for dinner as well.) Seating is outdoors. O’Neals is located in the setting of Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park and Wanchese Harbor. To get there, head down N.C. 345 at the big intersection on Roanoke Island. Stay on 345 (do not bear right at the church) and turn left on Harbor Road.

Ortega’z Southwestern Grill

• 201 Sir Walter Raleigh Street
• Manteo

• (252) 473-5911
• map

Ortega’z Grill brings some cultural spice to downtown Manteo. The specialty of this Southwestern-inspired restaurant is slow-roasted or grilled chicken, pork, carne asada and shrimp, which are served in burritos, chimichangas, nachos and other TexMex–style dishes. Other house-made specialties include a Southwestern-encrusted rib eye, a full rack of barbecued ribs, lamb shank, applewood-smoked pork chops, build-your-own kabobs, local seafood from Wanchese harbor, healthy salads and soups and more. Desserts include homemade cheesecakes, flan and churros (apple-filled pastries drizzled with caramel icing). Ortega’z serves beer and wine, with a wine list dedicated to the regions where the owners grew up – Northern California and Chile – and a good selection of wines are offered by the glass. The atmosphere is colorful and casual, and the restaurant gets a little more dressed up for dinner. In warm weather you can dine outside on the patio.

Poor Richard’s Sandwich Shop

• 303 Queen Elizabeth Avenue, Manteo Waterfront
• Manteo

• (252) 473-3333
• map

Poor Richards is the local meet-and-greet neighborhood sandwich shop by day and bar by night. It has two doors, one leading from the Manteo boardwalk and another off the street. You can eat inside in a booth or table or sit outside on the patio right next to the water. You order at the counter, get your drink and your number then wait for your meal to be delivered to your table. Poor Richards is a Boar’s Head deli serving hot and cold sandwiches made to order and served with chips and a pickle. You can also get burgers, hot dogs, soup, chili, salads, fries and onion rings and ice cream. For breakfast, there are egg sandwiches, toast and bagels, pancakes and bacon and sausage. Breakfast and lunch are served Monday through Saturday, and lunch is served on Sunday. In the summer, they also serve dinner most nights until 8 p.m. In the evenings, Poor Richard’s After Hours, a pub in the front of the restaurant, is open and serves wine and beer. They open at 5 p.m. every night but Sunday, when they open at 3 p.m. The pub offers karaoke on Wednesday nights year round and live music on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights year round. In the summer, there’s music on Thursday nights as well.

Sugar Creek Soundfront Seafood Restaurant

• 7340 S. Virginia Dare Trail, Nags Head/Manteo Causeway

• (252) 441-4963
• map

Offering a primo location right on the water, Sugar Creek has been serving the freshest seafood available to locals and visitors for years. The views of Sugar Creek and the Roanoke Sound are incredible. The outdoor walkways and decks on the property are great for strolling along and viewing the resident wildlife. Before dinner, enjoy a drink from their outdoor gazebo bar — or, new this year, enjoy the outdoor dining deck. The fresh, local tuna, shrimp and scallops are expertly prepared at Sugar Creek and keep seafood lovers happy. Also on the menu are favorites like steaks, prime rib, chicken, ribs, pasta, salads, soups, burgers and sandwiches. Sugar Creek won the 2010 Taste of the Beach People’s Choice award for their Shrimp & Grits. They have a children’s menu. The newly expanded dining room easily accommodates large parties and special events like rehearsal dinners. Sugar Creek serves lunch and dinner daily in season and is open from March through December. Check out The Sugar Shack, located next door, for great take-out seafood and a quick bite.