Location: Newport News
Top Restaurants in Newport News
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Newport News Food Guide: 10 Must-Eat Restaurants & Street Food Stalls in Newport News
Jutting into the water on the Virginia Peninsula, the city of Newport News has played an important part in the maritime history of the United States. A leader in shipbuilding since 1886, the booming shipyard is still producing nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers. Learn about naval history and the Golden Age Exploration at The Mariners' Museum, with 60,000 square feet of rare maps, nautical instruments and the USS Monitor Center, preserving the remains of the first ironclad warship.
Things to do in Newport News
1. County Grill
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 373 reviews
Reviewed By Jonathan H - Poquoson, Virginia
The food never disappoints and the service is phenomenal. This is one of those places that we can always come to and know it will be amazing.
2. Aago
Overall Ratings
5 based on 106 reviews
Reviewed By Isabelle B - Gloucester, Virginia
So tasty, tiny and wonderful. Great service and a wonderful little gem, don't want it to get too popular as it is only approx 20 seats! Have done lunch twice (in two weeks) with dinner brought home for husband. Looking forward to having dinner there soon!
3. Fin Seafood
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 254 reviews
Fin features the finest local ingredients while utilizing organic and sustainable produce and proteins whenever possible. Chef Kenny Sloane has perfected the use of these seasonal ingredients to complement his refined yet robust menu.
Reviewed By Anita R
Arrived early and was greeted by hostess who seated as immediately. Our server, Matt, was attentive and outstanding.. Explained in detail the special cocktails and food items on menu for 3 course dinner. I ordered Tuna appetizer which was delicious and my scallop dinner was equally yummy and cooked perfectly. Other seafood dishes included crab cakes (the best ever) and seafood paella. Desserts were tasty and decadent. Highly recommend "FIn"
4. Second Street American Bistro
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 531 reviews
Our large menu features local seafood, chicken and steak entrees, handmade burgers, unique Italian dishes, overstuffed sandwiches, kid friendly foods, munchies, fresh soups and salads, extensive, wine list and a relaxed separate bar area for socializing. Our outdoor patio offers a different dining experience while utilizing the same menus as the dining room and the bar "Second Street is a Casual Upscale Restaurant Marked by a menu full of unique and delicious culinary twists, stunning decor throughout, a comfortable atmosphere and a fresh upscale vibe unmatched in Newport News." Upscale casual without being "Uppity"
Reviewed By LadyEll - Newport News, Virginia
We ordered a variety of appetizers; tuna with three different sauces, Thai fired shrimp, crab melt with homemade potato chips, grill shrimp skewers with beans. I ordered the grill pork with collard greens and sweet potato mash. My entire dish was excellent prepared the pork was a medium well with great grill taste. The atmosphere is really nice and a lot of tables, a private dinning room. I will recommend this restaurant and visit again in the near future.
5. Texas Roadhouse
Overall Ratings
4 based on 148 reviews
Legendary Food, Legendary Service
Reviewed By Cargoman53 - Sacramento, California
Steak is always good, but I ordered a combination dinner with ribs, and was pleasantly surprised how good the were. Outer part of the ribs had the perfect amount of 'crunch', and were very meaty. Waiter was excellent; quick service and personable.
6. Smoke BBQ Restaurant and Bar
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 348 reviews
Reviewed By Ernesto S
I’m not a huge BBQ fan, but I had the pulled pork sandwich and it was amazing! I’m moving back to the area soon and I’ll be back to Smoke!
7. Circa 1918 Kitchen & Bar
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 164 reviews
Circa 1918 Kitchen & Bar, serving the best in Creative American cuisine in Hampton Roads.
Reviewed By M C - Newport News, Virginia
One of our two favorite restaurants on the peninsula (Newport News/Hampton/York but not including Williamsburg). The other favorite is Al Fresco, but two different cuisines so I don't rank either over the other. Circa luckily is a short walk from out home which makes it even more enjoyable. As you may note from a lot of the reviews noise level can be an issue. The restaurant is small and popular. We ate recently at 5:30 on a Thursday by 6ish place was almost full. I would make a reservation no matter which day you are dinning here. One other little thing I have gotten in a habit of doing is I stay away on a Fri/Sat night. We're retired so why deal w/weekend crowds when you don't have to and I have found on matter of the restaurant they tend to be louder. Also w/Circa I have gotten into the habit of inquiring if they have any reservations for a party of over 6 when we are planning dinning. There is no exaggeration it can get loud and being small tables are close to each other.
All of that said that is the only negative in my opinion. The food I have found is always excellent. Creative, at times inspiring, fresh and for the quality reasonably priced.
The wine list is not huge but has nice varied selection of red's and whites. One of the few restaurants in the area that actually has a cooler to keep red wines at cellar temperature. To me, a wine lover, that is huge...nothing is more disappointing then getting a nice glass or bottle of red and it's at restaurant temp of 72 degrees plus or higher if near the kitchen. They have excellent bartenders/servers, small place so everyone multi tasking and very knowledgeable. My wife had couple cocktails that she loved.
Food we shared a pork belly app that was good to very good. A horseradish crab dip that my wife was scared of since she isn't a horseradish fan. The seasoning was mild the dip was very good. Interesting light air chips of some type. Nice they didn't fill you up like slices or bread or crackers would have. Served in small cast iron ramekin so stayed hot.
Entrees my wife had a snapper dinner. Thick succulent piece of snapper with wonderful sauce on it. Purred fava bean on the side w/few other vegs. I had duck breast with a wonderful none sweet sauce. Large portion of duck perfectly cooked.
Apps were in the $ 9-12 range and our entree's were $ 25-27.
Everything w/out exception was worth it.
8. Harpoon Larry's Oyster Bar
Overall Ratings
4 based on 712 reviews
Reviewed By M C - Newport News, Virginia
I have eaten here in Hampton and then NNews when they moved and always enjoyed it. The Hampton location was a bit divvy but moving to larger location in N News still very casual but brighter and better for large parties and families. My last review was in 05-17 and was very positive.
We enjoy eating here mid afternoon to miss the lunch and dinner rushes. At dinner and later large bar is packed and can get very loud. In the past I have found the food to be good to very good and the service while casual generally very helpful. A lot of times you have a younger server but surprisingly how well many of them know the menu and the various fish/oyster selections.
We were seated quickly in a booth as requested. It was around 230pm so restaurant was no more then 20-25% full. The menus we were given was one laminated one, one on paper that had seen much better days. Was not much more the printer paper but had all the menu items that were on the laminated menu. The wine/beer list was also on a piece of printer paper, dirty wrinkled...truly unappetizing. Made me think ok , this is a restaurant and that is one of your first impressions of the place is dirty cheaply prepared menus. The apps run $ 9-14 and sandwiches $ 10-14 and entrees higher and they can't or don't care about the look of the menu one of your first impressions of the place? They have the same menu all day so not the place for a cheap lunch if that is what you are looking for.
They offer some specials on food and beverage though out the week. We went on a Wed which in the past offered all bottles of wine at half price.
They use to have table toppers telling what the specials were but had none this time. I did notice the wine list was much larger and better and pricier selections. That said they had 3 very nice chard's listed and even though I found out that ' wine wed' was a thing of the past I still decided to get one of the more expensive bottles. The waitress was new and lacked knowledge of the menu, how to open a bottle of wine or what a wine bucket was. When she brought the wine she never presented it and my wife and I were talking. She was fumbling badly and I didn't want to watch here butcher the cork or embarrass here. I heard it pop out and she said there we are, and I looked and noticed it was not the normal chardonnay shaped bottle and was a red wine. I apologized and said how sorry I was but she had gotten the wrong wine and never showed it to me. She was fine went back to bar to get the right wine. 2nd time was right wine but again major struggle to get cork out of bottle. Then she got worried she couldn't get the cork off the corkscrew. I did it for her not a big deal, but she really lacked even rudimentary training.
The food and wine were only reason I didn't give a ' terrible ' rating. So lets talk about the food. We shared stuffed mushroom app. The mushroom caps stuffed with their crab imperial. The dish had a thin layer of sauce under them. Small issue but one cap was huge the other two very small, just threw off the appearance. The taste was excellent and food was hot. For lunch my wife had fried shrimp and fries. She likes their fried shrimp a lot, I don't think they compare with surfriders but they are fine. The fries not fresh cut had seasoning and were also good. I got fried scallops. Had never had them here and the scallop themselves were good, the coating was light but they had been fried at too low a temp and were dripping with frying oil. The star of my dish was apple coleslaw I got as a side. It pointed out the inconsistences of the food. Showed a kitchen running w/cooks and no chef or kitchen manager.
Now I will address the atmosphere on the day we dinned. The restaurant is casual not a white table cloth place at all but in the past as I said servers knew their stuff, food generally good to very good and if bit loud or kids being noisy you get use to it. They have a large long L shaped bar. The long side of the bar runs down the side of the restaurant that faces J Clyde Morris, when you make the turn and come down the short L there are about a dozen stools then a large opening that leads into the kitchen. After the opening there is a short section that has maybe 8 stools. That is area they open raw oysters and have large steamers for oysters/clams etc. They use to have a blackboard listing an avg of 12 different types of regional oysters available raw or steamed. I noticed that was gone. Unfortunately on this visit there were 6-12 apparently off shift employees hanging out on that section, spilling over to the next section. They were all drinking, loud, one off duty waitress was obnoxiously loud. Hoodies were on hats were on..wandering in an out of the kitchen. They would go outside in groups of 3-5 for awhile and then come back in for more drinks. It came close to being uncomfortable. There was a manager I guess that waddled by a couple of times in an out of the kitchen. He made not comment to the off duty employees drinking and being roudy so have to take it was not a big deal to him. Our bill before tax/gratuity was $ 115 so was a big deal to me. I love bars and am fine w/loud but this was crass and really in poor taste.
My wife agreed but said the food was good, wasn't the waitress fault she was new etc but in writing the review thinking about the whole experience no way I can say more then poor. It was like someone new owned the place but I saw old familiar faces so that isn't the case. I just get the feeling the ship is rudderless. I will try again in 3-4 months but if the same issues are there won't bother to return. Ashame that this casual seafood place that use to have a great selection of local oysters appears to be sinking into the ocean.
9. Schlesinger's Steakhouse
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 226 reviews
Serving dinner nightly, signature entrées include the kind of Prime Steaks found only in the finest steak and chophouses in the country. Other popular entrées include the Steak Schlesinger (our version of Steak Oscar), Lump Crab Cakes, a Tuna Mignon and South African Rock Lobster Tails. Schlesinger's also offers lunch Monday-Saturday 11-2:30pm and Sunday Brunch Buffet 11-2:30pm.Private Rooms for groups up to 40.
Reviewed By kirby105 - norfolk,va
Second trip here for Thanksgiving, as it was the last trip it was very good. Had a little of everything including the prime rib which was excellent. Turkey was also very good, moist not dry. Ham was also very good. Not inexpensive but To me well worth the price, which compared to other cheaper places is a far better value. I also like the fact that they don’t pack you in like cattle during special events like some restaurants do to maximize turnover. Always have room to move around and actually talk at a normal voice level. We have also gone for Sunday Brunch, which is almost the same food, again excellent.
10. Kero Sushi and Japanese Restaurant
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 55 reviews
Reviewed By Ron C
We are visiting from California and we're pleasantly surprised at this place in a strip mall. They have a wide selection of lunch specials. The quality was good and the prices much less than we are used to. The service was personable and attentive. Will definitely come back if in the area
