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 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.

Front Street Brewery, located in a beautiful historic building, is the place to go not only for a terrific variety of pub food, but for handcrafted beers brewed on site. Throughout the year, different types of micro-beers are produced by brewmaster Kevin Kozak, winner of two Gold Medals, with everything from lagers to porters to stouts to ales available at different times. You can order a beer sampler or take advantage of the $1.99 mug of the day, and you can take your favorite beer home with you too. As you might expect, there is a huge assortment of sandwiches from burgers, to pulled pork or chicken barbecue to homemade meatloaf to portabella mushroom wraps. Shepherd’s pie, shrimp and grits, fried shrimp and a bratwurst plate are just a few of the entrees. Front Street also has special events several nights a week, including free movies, Wii bowling, live music, and an interactive, live dinner theater called Mulligan’s Wake. Front Street Brewery is open from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. on Friday and Saturday and from 11:30 to midnight the rest of the week.

Riverboat Landing, with private balconies on the second floor overlooking the Cape Fear River and bustling Riverwalk, has a wonderful new, moderately priced menu. The restaurant is open daily for lunch and dinner and a kids menu is always available. Although there are lots of tasty items on the menu, the emphasis is on value. The restaurant has a full bar and an extensive wine list, with several wines available by the glass.

Crow Hill is a new restaurant in downtown Wilmington, with a location on Front Street just off Market that offers the perfect spot for people watching. The owners are committed to supporting local family farms and purveyors who show responsible stewardship of the land and sea, with a menu that focuses on fresh ingredients simply prepared but artfully presented. The menu changes frequently since it depends so heavily on what is available locally.

A recent well-received entree special was roasted Cornish game hen, raised in N.C., with wild rice and mushroom stuffing and pancetta roasted brussel sprouts. Appetizers include cornmeal crusted oysters, lamb meatballs and pork rillettes. Crow Hill offers a blue plate special each day featuring a different comfort food item. Those choices have included fried chicken, shepherd’s pie, and bacon-wrapped meatloaf. Crow Hill has a full bar with all ABC permits, an excellent selection of craft beers and wines and a specialty drink list rooted in classic American cocktails. The restaurant opens for brunch, dinner and late night and has a private banquet room that is suitable for wedding receptions or other special occasions.

Elijah’s is an American seafood grill and oyster bar that has been a mainstay in Historic Downtown Wilmington since 1984. It is located on Chandler’s Wharf in a building that was originally a maritime museum. Several of the paintings, ships models and nautical artifacts remain on display in the restaurant today. Elijah’s has a large deck overlooking the Cape Fear River and Riverwalk, which is a wonderful spot for people watching while enjoying lunch, drinks or dinner.

The menu at Elijah’s is extensive enough to please any diner. Of course the primary concentration is on seafood of all types, with oysters available on the half shell, steamed, fried, and Rockefeller. A Carolina bucket is comprised of steamed clams, mussels, shrimp, crab legs, sausage, new potatoes and corn on the cob. Other popular seafood items are seafood platters available either grilled or fried and shrimp stuffed with crabmeat. Landlubbers will find plenty of choices too, with New York strip steaks, vegetable linguine, sesame chicken, stuffed pork chop and filet mignon available daily with prime rib added on Friday and Saturday nights. Among numerous desserts are sorbets that change depending on what is in season, old fashioned apple pie, and a low country cheesecake that begins with bourbon pecan pie with creamy cheesecake on top, then finished with ganache. The restaurant is open seven days a week year round. It has a full bar with all ABC permits.

The Pilot House opened in 1978 and was the first restaurant in Chandler’s Wharf, which had just been restored. Only salads and sandwiches, dispensed from a service window to customers who sat in an outdoor dining area, were served since an on-site kitchen was not added until 1988.

The restaurant specializes in Southern regional cuisine and all dishes are made from scratch with fresh ingredients and fish and fowl that is native to the area. Everything from “down home cooking” to Cajun to traditional southern fare with a contemporary flair is offered.Two examples illustrate the diversity of menu choices at lunch. A fried green tomato sandwich with goat cheese, roasted red pepper and mixed greens on sourdough bread is one while another is chicken breast sautéed in olive oil, Marsala wine and garlic, with mushrooms, shallots and sage served over linguine. Crunchy pan fried catfish served with collard greens, grits and red-eye gravy represents a traditional southern choice.

Both the chicken breast and catfish are on the dinner menu as well, as are a tremendous choice of other dishes. Everything from a 9-oz. filet mignon to fried seafood platters to crabcakes served with vegetables, rice pilaf and beurre blanc, to Louisiana hot and spicy shrimp  are just some of the items offered. The restaurant has a full bar menu with all ABC permits and is open for lunch, drinks and dinner seven days throughout the year. The restaurant and deck is available for weddings and other special events. With several private rooms and deck spaces, events from 30 to 300 can be accommodated easily and with style.

If you’re craving a USDA Prime steak, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, located in the Hilton Wilmington Riverside, serves only prime meats in all the best cuts of steak, including filet, strip, ribeye, t-bone, and a porterhouse, which is prepared for two. Lamb, pork or veal chops and seafood, including a huge three-pound live Maine lobster, is on the extensive menu too, as is a wide choice of side dishes, including nine vegetables dishes, potatoes prepared eight ways, and seven salads. If you are really, really hungry, 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.

Caffe Phoenix has been a mainstay in historic downtown for more than 25 years. The restaurant serves innovative cuisine with Mediterranean influences in its very attractive new location on North Front Street. The restaurant also supports the arts with a new show every six weeks. Open for lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday, Caffe Phoenix offers Sunday brunch too. Delicious salads, focaccia pizza and panini sandwiches are among the luncheon selections. Steaks, seafood, pasta, chicken and pork tenderloin are but some of the items that you’ll find on the extensive dinner menu. A full bar and large wine list also are offered.

Fat Tony’s Italian Pub has two locations in Wilmington, one downtown on Front Street and another on Racine Drive near UNCW and Wrightsville Beach. The huge menu offers everything you would expect and more: pizza by the slice or whole pies with the choice of a host of toppings, appetizers, salads, sandwiches, numerous pasta dishes, and calzones, among many others. What you might not expect is that Fat Tony’s offers the largest selection of draft beers in Wilmington. At last count, there were 25 beers on tap, available by the pint or pitcher. Numerous wines are offered too. Both locations are open daily from 11 to 2 a.m.; on Sunday they closed at midnight.

At 138 South Front Street you’ll find Little Dipper, Wilmington’s first restaurant offering numerous types of fondue. For example, there are five different cheese fondues on the menu, with variations within those five. Cheddar ale fondue, a blend of sharp cheddar and emmenthaler cheese melted in a beer base, offers a choice of beers as mixtures, each producing its own distinctive taste. Stella Artois is light in color and flavor, Yuengling produces a medium body and nutty flavor while Guinness imparts a full-flavored dark beer taste.

Several salads and numerous vegetarian dishes are available to meet the dietary wishes of vegans. Other  options include beef, chicken, pork and several seafood entrees and those who are totally undecided can mix and match. Try to save room for dessert since chocolate fondues are delicious and popular for good reason. The restaurant has a full bar and is open Tuesday through Sunday at 5:00 p.m. Little Dipper has an extensive wine list and several special drinks. Try the chocolate martini.  It is delicious. Little Dipper offers specials several nights a week with half-price bottles of wine on Sunday and a four course, bargain prix fixe menu on Thursday.

Specialties at Mixto, a restaurant specializing in contemporary Latin fushion food, are Argentina chimichurri steak and special Mixto tamales, tacos and burritos. Shrimp or chicken quesadillas and fish tacos are among the most popular items on the innovative menu. Chips are served with a unique salsa prepared in house daily, and there is a full bar with all ABC permits. Especially tasty are the Latin American drinks, with mojitos and margaritas as well as a large selection of tequila among the best choices for cocktails. Mixto is open for lunch and dinner seven days a week and is located on Water Street downtown, just across from the Cape Fear River and steps from Market Street. Saturday and Sunday brunch features mimosas, bloody mary’s and sangria as well as the chef’s famous shrimp and grits. The outdoor patio offers a perfect spot for people watching or for winding down after a hard day’s work – or play.

Sixteen sakes, an extensive wine list and a large number of special drinks such as a Pomegranate ginger mojito are found at YoSake, located on the second floor of the historic Roundabush building on Front Street. The restaurant has a full pan-Asian menu as well as all types of sushi available nightly from 5:00 p.m.

Some of the favorite entrees are a Thai-style bone in pork chop served with wasabi potato cake and marinated asparagus, caramelized jumbo shrimp served with vegetable tempura and a warm soba salad and spicy braised coconut chicken served with fresh fennel, fresh chilis, tomatoes, spinach and rice. Firecracker shrimp is another popular choice. Don’t pass up dessert either: fresh mango cheesecake or scrumptious coconut banana ice cream are available. YoSake has half-price sushi and appetizers each evening from 5:00-7:00 p.m. and a local service industry special on Tuesday night, with a 20 percent discount on food from 7:00-10:00 p.m.

A new wine bar in Historic Downtown opened to rave reviews in 2011. The Fortunate Glass is located on Front Street between Market and Dock and is a great hit with those who appreciate the opportunity to sample a large number of wines by the glass and in two different size pours. A smaller size is suitable for those who intend to sample several and a larger size for those who know what they want.

There are 50 wines by the glass and 300 wines by the bottle. There are always several bubbly wines by the glass available and numerous rosé wines too. The wines are available at many different price points (and lots are offered in the $7 to $10 range) with excellent wines available for what you pay in some other spots for vin ordinaire. Those who prefer beer are well served here too. There are 30 craft beers available with some on tap, others in bottles.

The Fortunate Glass offers a thoughtful and delicious selection of cheeses, cured meats and small plates for those who would like a bite to eat while they’re enjoying their spirits. Desserts are offered too. This beautiful spot is a wonderful addition to the choices available downtown. It opens at 4:00 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday and at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

If just a pick-me-up is what you’re looking for, try Kilwin’s Chocolates and Ice Cream, located at 16 Market Street. Numerous varieties of chocolates and ice cream are available and a sweet treat may be just the nosh you need to complete your sightseeing, shopping or exploring trip. But if you really want to treat yourself, take home a box of their creamy, made on site fudge. It is delicious.