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Manteo/Roanoke
Island
1587 The restaurant on the main floor of The Tranquil House Inn is known for some of the best food in the Outer Banks area. Big windows face the waterfront. Peach sponge-painted walls, polished tables crossed by colorful runners, red oak flooring, blond wood trim and warm copper accents cast a mellow glow across the airy interior at nightfall. It’s an appealing setting for food billed as "global fusion." Honey wheat bread with butter bearing a hint of cinnamon and a superior salad of spinach and gorgonzola with pecans, pears and roasted peppers got our dinner off to a good start. The evening’s main-course choices ranged from grilled North Atlantic salmon over a wild mushroom soufflé to pan-seared pork loin medallions atop southwestern crawfish and silver queen corn hash. Among them were an excellent Asian-style lacquered mahi-mahi on a bed of wilted greens and spring vegetables, plus an interesting shrimp and chicken phad thai over sesame cappellini. A bottle of Mirassou riesling accompanied from a well-chosen wine list. Desserts included banana crème brûlée, frozen chocolate marquis, almond-cappuccino cheesecake and, our choice, Mexican tarragon ice cream in a puff pastry sandwich. (252) 473-1587. Entrées, $15.95 to $20.95. Dinner nightly, 5 to 10, mid-February through November. Closed Monday-Tuesday in spring and fall. Clara’s Steam Bar
& Seafood Grill Clara Shannon, part of the oldest and most ubiquitous restaurant family in the Outer Banks, runs this large, with-it establishment in the Waterfront Shoppes and condominium complex. Her parents own the venerable Owens restaurant and her cousin owns RV’s restaurant, both in Nags Head. Here are a yellow bar area favored by young women at our visit, a rear dining room with booths and black tables onto the water and, a bit removed from the action, a large side dining room with an art deco motif. The last was our choice for a casual dinner that included Clara’s signature tuna kabob and Mediterranean shrimp with feta cheese over angel-hair pasta. She-crab soup and a salad accompanied. Key lime pie was the least filling of the rich desserts offered. The wide-ranging menu offers something for everyone. The fried calamari and grilled portobello mushroom are highly recommended appetizers. Typical of main courses are Greek chicken, prime rib, grilled Japanese salmon and something called broiled shadboat, a combination of shrimp, scallops, fish and crab cakes based on a family recipe. (252) 473-1727. Entrées, $9.99 to $18.99. Open daily, 11:30 to 8:30 or 9. Full Moon Café Outdoor tables in the courtyard are the seating of choice at this establishment with a vaguely tearoom atmosphere inside. White trellis dividers break up the expanse of glass-topped tables, and cobalt blue vases and mauve walls lend color. The menu is extensive, particularly for lunch, when the Full Moon is said to be at its best with exotic sandwiches (how about a black bean burger?) salads, quiche, eggplant napoleon and pasta. The dinner menu changes nightly. The dozen entrées when we were there ranged from Low Country shrimp and polenta ("the house version of shrimp and grits") and salmon topped with lump crab to pan-seared pork tenderloin with raspberry coulis and beef charron, both served over polenta. The shrimp and crab enchilada is a local favorite. (252) 473-6666. Entrées, $8.95 to $18.95. Open daily, 11:30 to 9. No dinner Monday-Wednesday in off-season. Owens’ Restaurant This is the granddaddy of Outer Banks restaurants, started by owner Clara Owens Shannon’s grandmother in the 1947. It’s large, locally popular and consistent, Clara still watching every plate that comes out of the kitchen and her husband Lionel seating patrons who sometimes endure long waits in the gift shop (no reservations are taken). We found it far more polished and with better food than similarly large and touristy seafood establishments that we have learned to avoid. White-clothed tables, vases of roses, oil lamps and low lighting lend glamour to a series of dining rooms that seem to ramble on and on. Each intimate room has its own staff. The family’s collection of early seafaring and Outer Banks memorabilia convey a sense of place. The encyclopedic dinner menu features "classic coastal cuisine. " That translates to almost every conceivable choice from pecan-encrusted Carolina catfish to Maine lobster to Smithfield pork ribs to tenderloin of beef wellington. Crackers with wispride cheese and a bread basket of hushpuppies staved off hunger before our main dishes arrived: delectable fried oysters with rémoulade sauce, shoestring potatoes and apple coleslaw and the Hatteras combination: a mix of broiled shrimp, sea scallops and lump crabmeat. From a pretty dessert tray lined with roses came blueberry cheesecake and key lime mousse with belgian chocolate. (252) 441-7309. Entrées, $14.95 to $27.95. Dinner nightly, 5 to 10. Closed January to mid-February. Other Choices. Farther afield from Roanoke Island are more good dining spots. Among the best are the top-rated Ocean Boulevard in Kitty Hawk, its sister restaurant Blue Point Bar & Grill in Duck, Flying Fish Café and Colington Café in Kill Devil Hills, and Elizabeth’s Café in Duck. Material excerpted from Inn Spots & Special Places in the Southeast, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2000. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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