1. 99 Main Restaurant
City: Newport News, VA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (757) 599-9885
Address: 99 Main St.
Description: This 75-seat, family-owned restaurant is located in the historic Hilton Village neighborhood of Newport News. The menu takes inventive leaps from a French classical base.
2. Kelly’S Tavern
City: Newport News, VA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (757) 246-0080
Address: 1010 Loftis Blvd.
Description: See the Virginia Beach location’s review on page 64.
3. Rocky Mount Bar-B-Q
City: Newport News, VA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (757) 596-0243
Address: 10113 Jefferson Ave.
Description: Not much to look at, this strip mall store features authentic North Carolina barbecue, sliced or minced pork with a side of slaw and fries. You can also get ribs, chicken, and other down-home meals. Or you can buy your barbecue to go.
4. Danny’S Deli
City: Newport News, VA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (757) 595-0252
Address: 10838 Warwick Blvd.
Description: Looking for a real sandwich while you’re out touring the Virginia Living Museum, Mariners’ Museum, or the Peninsula Fine Arts Center? Danny’s is the place, and you know it’s real because the sandwiches come with a real dill pickle slice.
5. Taste Unlimited
City: Newport News, VA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (757) 596-8651
Address: 702 Mariners Row
Description: See the Virginia Beach location’s review on page 62.
6. Das Waldcafe
City: Newport News, VA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (757) 930-1781
Address: 12529 Warwick Blvd.
Description: This long-time favorite offers up German food on a budget. Get your Rhineland favorites here, including spaetzle, rouladen, and goulash. The desserts are also homemade.
7. Nawab
City: Newport News, VA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (757) 591-9200
Address: 11712 Jefferson Ave.
Description: See the Virginia Beach location’s review on page 65.
8. Al Fresco Italian Restaurant
City: Newport News, VA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (757) 873-0644
Address: 11710 Jefferson Ave.
Description: If you’re going to call your restaurant Al Fresco, you’d better have outdoor dining. There’s a patio here just perfect for the situation. They’re closed on Sun.
9. Hayashi Sushi & Grill
City: Newport News, VA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (757) 223-5783
Address: 11820 Merchants Walk
Description: This is an upscale hibachi grill/sushi restaurant in the City Center area, an offshoot of an older Japanese Steakhouse restaurant in Williamsburg. Here you will find all the usual Japanese trappings, as well as familiar and exotic sushi menus.
10. Thaijindesu Thai & Sushi Bar
City: Newport News, VA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (757) 595-8410
Address: 2180 William Styron Square South
Description: The chef/owner trained at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Bangkok and still personally prepares all the sushi served here. You can choose between Thai or Japanese dinner menus.
11. Plaza Azteca Restaurantes Mexicanos
City: Newport News, VA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (757) 599-6727
Address: 12428 Warwick Blvd.
Description: See the Virginia Beach location’s review on page 67. A second Newport News location is located at 12755 Jefferson Ave., (757) 833-0271.
12. The Crab Shack On The James River
City: Newport News, VA
Category: Restaurants
Address: 7601 River Rd.
Description: How can the food not be fresh, what with the longest fishing pier on the east coast sitting right there beside the restaurant? The shack started life as an outdoor venue with six picnic tables near the James River Bridge. Now it’s able to seat 200 inside and out. Sitting here enjoying a sunset on the James River will feed your soul. The soft-shell crabs and spicy coleslaw are mainstays. It even earned a writeup in Coastal Living as one of “Our Favorite Seafood Dives.”
13. Schlesinger’S
City: Newport News, VA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (757) 599-4700
Address: 1106 William Styron Square
Description: This classic chop house was named after Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., a Pulitzer Prize–winning author, and attempts to recreate the atmosphere of his days in the Kennedy White House. The restaurant has won Wine Spectator Magazine’s Award of Excellence for its selection of more than 150 wines.
City: Newport News, VA
Category: Restaurants
Address: 10113 Jefferson Ave.
15. Crab Shack On The James
City: Newport News, VA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (757) 245-2722
Address: 7601 River Rd.
Description: For the ultimate crab dinner, you might want to wander down I-64 to drop anchor at the Crab Shack in Newport News. As popular with locals as it is with tourists, the Crab Shack serves up some of the best hard-shell crabs, crab cakes, oysters, shrimp, and even calamari, on the peninsula. It would be a shame to miss this place even if seafood is not your thing because the setting—a long closed-in porch jutting out over the James—makes the trip from Williamsburg worthwhile. Open daily for lunch and dinner.