Wining & Dining in Williamsburg

Williamsburg is a wonderful place to experience a lot of great food! During my time living in Virginia, I always enjoyed visiting my mom in Williamsburg, especially when I had the opportunity to take her out for dinner.

Today my visits to this area are less frequent and usually part of a vacation trip via our timeshare at Kingsgate. I've had the opportunity over the years to come to Williamsburg for conferences, but then I've typically been tied to the conference center hotel and its restaurant facilities. I must admit, Kingsmill Resort is outstanding and their dining first class.

While you are in Williamsburg, you owe it to yourself to dine in Colonial Williamsburg at least once! Your meal is as much about entertainment as nourishment. Period costumed servers and staff will add to your colonial moment in history.

Quick Tips:

Let's get the unpleasantries out of the way first. Williamsburg has every chain restaurant known to mankind . . . all the fast food places including McDonalds, Hardees, Wendy's, Arbys, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC, etc, etc, etc . . . and all of the next step up places like Cracker Barrel, IHOP, Red Lobster, Outback Steakhouse, Olive Garden, etc. This is good news in that if you have picky kids and don't want to experiment with your dining choices, you won't have to. With that being said, however, I encourage you to venture out of your comfort zone and enjoy what the city has to offer!

There are probably no less than 20 waffle and pancake houses. I can't say that I've ever had a bad stack of cakes or a crappy waffle. I would say visit based on convenience as all of the major tourist areas have at least one or two nice breakfast places. All of the breakfast places we've tried have very good southern breakfasts that include biscuits (and gravy if you like), grits and the really good country ham.

For dinner there are a lot of nice seafood and steak places. Many of them are along Richmond Road, which I personally consider the "main drag" of Williamsburg once you are outside of the restored area. Aberdeen Barn has been there for what seems like an eternity and was my favorite place to go with my mom. Today, I must admit that for David and me, Shackleford's II has become a "must do" when we're in town.

Near the restored area, locals and visitors alike enjoy the Cheese Shop for great deli sandwiches . . . or Trellis for fine dining (lunch or dinner).

Whatever you decide, there is rarely a reason to pay full price for your meal. Many, if not most restaurants advertised in the local tourist advertisement magazine. I am also a frequent user of www.restaurant.com for outstanding dining opportunities. Lastly, do not forget about the Entertainment Book. Even if you don't own a local version, owning in your own community will typically afford you the opportunity to get a nice deal through their online program. The one exception here would be the restaurants owned and operated by CW. Everyone pays full price in their taverns.

Best Way To Get Around:

If you are going to tour/visit the restored area of Williamsburg (Colonial Williamsburg aka CW), you can park your vehicle at the Visitors' Center and take the free shuttle to the restored area and nearby dining establishments.

There is a public transportation system (buses) that connects at the Visitors' Center but I've never personally used it. For me, I prefer to have my auto and can't imagine vacationing in Williamsburg without my car.

Additionally, with the expansion of the City of Williamsburg and the new suburbs throughout the area, many of the nice restaurants are in outlying areas in shopping areas. Both City Grille and Shackleford's II are examples of places you won't find on the beaten path and will need a car or hire a taxi.

If you are venturing outside of the restored area and need to be back into CW for an evening program, you'll want to plan on dinner for 5:00 or 5:30 so that you have no problem making a 7:00 show. For the later shows (8:30 or 9:00) you can plan on dinner as late at 6:30 but I wouldn't go any later as service can tend to be slow as the night goes on.

While Virginia isn’t well known for its wines, it is the number five state in the US for wine production, behind California, New York, Oregon and Washington. During colonial times, it was the law that all Virginian land owners were to commit a minimum of ten acres to the production of grapes for the purpose of building a local supply of grapes for wine production. Unfortunately, wine production did not really take, as farmers found another crop to be more productive: tobacco.

Williamsburg Winery is the largest of some 70 wineries throughout the state. From their humble beginnings back in 1985, they have become one of the better known producers of wines utilizing both local and imported grapes for their vast selection of varietals and reserve wines produced there.

When you arrive you will enter their wine shop, where visitors may purchase single bottles or cases of their favorites. It is in the wine shop that you purchase the tour tickets. Tours, including the wine sampling, are $8.00 per person. Look in the local tourist magazine for a 25% off coupon. In addition to the tour, you will be treated to a sampling of seven of their wines in a nice wine glass that is yours to keep.

Your tour will begin with a brief video telling the history of wine making in Virginia and at Williamsburg Winery in particular. From there, a guide will take you on your walking tour through the wine cellar and a small portion of their production area. It was interesting to learn that some of their wines are not fermented in the 60 gallon oak barrels imported from France, but instead in large stainless “aging vats”. Their wine maker checks the aging process on a regular basis to assure that all is going well in the barrels.

After the tour, guests are invited up to the tasting room bar where a selection of wines is provided to give a nice representation of the Williamsburg Winery. The day of our tour, they were featuring (in this order): a dry Riesling, James River White, Vintage Reserve Chardonnay, Susan Constant Red, Barrel Aged Claret, Hening’s Statute Cabernet Sauvignon; and Vin Licoreux de Framboise Raspberry Dessert Wine.

With crackers and Gouda cheese to clear your pallet, it was easy to distinguish the variety of flavors and quality of the wines offered. I found the Barrel Aged Claret to be a bit too strong and robust for my liking but all of the others were very good. In fact, the Raspberry Dessert Wine, at 14% alcohol tasted more like juice suitable for a child’s sippy cup.

When we completed our tasting, we then returned to the wine shop to make our “take home” purchase. They also offer a nice discount if you purchase in quantity. A six bottle purchase received a 5% discount, a case (12 bottles) 10% and four cases 20%. While we do enjoy wine, it would have been difficult to justify purchasing 48 bottles but we did pick up 18 bottles of a variety of types for ourselves and as gifts for a couple of friends.

The retail prices on the Williamsburg Winery selections are very reasonable. Their reserve selections were $28.00 to $32.00, while varietals were $10.50 to $16.00 (premium varietals). Your typical “table” wines (blends) were $7.50 to $9.00. The three dessert wines they offer were $18.00. With our discount, we were able to get out of their for just under $200.

If you want to make a day of your visit to Williamsburg Winery, they also have the Gabriel Archer Tavern that serves lunch throughout the afternoon. They also have wine dinner events on Thursdays that include a light two course dinner and wine tasting for approximately $30 per person. More information can be found on this and other special events on their web site: www.williamsburgwinery.com .

Basic tours with wine tasting are available from 10:00am until 5:00pm, seven days a week. Their special reserve tour is $30 per person and by appointment only. Guests choosing this tour option will receive a more behind the scenes tour including a walking tour of the vineyards. All wines sampled on the reserve tour are from the reserve wine selections.

Just this week (May 6, 2008) Shields Tavern reopened with a renewed focus on the full dining experience for lunch and dinner. Previously they were more of a coffee and bakery shop, open to visitors for snacks during their time in Colonial Williamsburg and more specifically, Revolution City.

We opted for Shields Tavern quite frankly due to their more reasonably priced menu options to Christiana Campbell’s or King’s Arm Taverns. With dinner entrees in the $16 to $20 range (versus $26 to $32) you can see how a budget conscience visitor might choose Shields Tavern over the other Colonial Williamsburg options. If there is a negative to consider, it might be that Shields does not accept reservations where the other two highly recommend them. Not to worry, early May is really a shoulder season for Williamsburg with the bulk of their traffic coming from school field trip groups which rarely dine in the restored area of the city. We had a 30 minute wait, which was more due to their need to control the flow of patrons and not out of a lack of available dining space.

For dinner, the three of us sampled a diverse array of offerings. David had the ale potted roast; his Mother chose the buffalo meatloaf and I had the roasted half chicken. All three dinner entrees were flavorful and served with “revolutionary southern flair” true to the period. Each with sweet corn bread and biscuits, red skin mashed potatoes and veggies, we delighted in our dinner selections.

Shields also had a nice assortment of desserts including apple pie, whipped chocolate pudding, bread pudding and Williamsburg’s own locally made ice cream. We also enjoyed our diverse selections, sampling each of the other two. The Williamsburg brand of vanilla ice cream is quite rich and with a very strong vanilla bean flavor.

Perhaps the thing that most would take for granted or assume to exist, would be the ambience of dining in colonial times in dimly lit surroundings, as only the setting daylight and candles provide illumination to dine by. We were seated well before nightfall, but as the sun was setting outside, the inside warmth and coziness could be felt all around. Add to that the period costumed staff, a strolling musician or Mr. Shields himself, and I hope you can imagine the friendly Virginian hospitality for which Williamsburg has built a reputation.

As one might expect, it wouldn’t be much of a tavern without ale and other adult beverages. They feature a full bar service to include several colonial period choices including several with rum. For us, we opted for the freshly brewed iced tea which was very refreshing after a full day.

Our service was less than stellar, which would be the only knock I would have on our dining experience at Shields Tavern. The young lady indicated that the night of our visit was her first day on the job. With that being said, it seemed to us that the pace of things coming out of the kitchen created additional problems for those with an evening program to get to. For us, the leisurely serving of supper was fine.

Our dinner, including non-alcoholic beverages and desserts came to $100 including gratuity and taxes. I’m confident that the three of us would not have gotten out of either Christiana Campbell’s or King’s Arms for under $150 so if you are looking for a budget option to experience dining in Colonial Williamsburg style, Shields Tavern fits the bill nicely/

Note: Shields Tavern is open daily 11:30am – 8:30pm and does not accept reservations. They do participate in the Williamsburg refill mug program. You purchase your mug for just $10 and receive free refills for all of 2008 at all of the taverns in Colonial Williamsburg as well as the café in the DeWitt Wallace Museum, Huzzah! and at the Kimball Theatre.

During every vacation trip, you know how you stumble across a pleasant dining surprise? Well on this trip, Cities Grille was such an experience for us. We didn’t learn of them through word of mouth or even the local tourist advertisements, but rather, through my favorite resource for dining on a shoestring budget . . . Restaurant.com! For just $10 you can purchase a $25 dining gift certificate and when they have sales, you can get them even cheaper. The certificates I bought for this trip were 70% off, so I paid just $3 for the $25 discount.

We arrived just as they opened for the evening at 5:00pm so we were immediately seated. Within minutes the main dining area was nearly half full and at 6:00pm a large group arrived to be seated in the private dining area. Given that this was a Tuesday evening, we knew that while away from the tourist area of Williamsburg, this was the place that locals came to enjoy great food and wonderful company.

As I started to review the menu, I knew I was in trouble. Not one to really know why I like or dislike certain dishes, only that I do or don’t . . . I wasn’t sure how to assimilate the flavor combinations with the dishes on their eclectic menu so I opted for the Rancher’s Platter. I figured it would be hard to go wrong with flat grill steak and mashed potatoes. David was very adventurous in his selection of the Tobago which was pork tenderloin with a very spicy yet sweet tangerine, ginger, mango and pineapple creation and served with shrimp slaw and jasmine rice. Mom had the “Chicka_a_whatsit” which was chicken served with mushrooms, scallions, tomatoes and bacon. Our dinners were outstanding. We passed around and shared, particularly David’s because of the unique combinations of flavor taste sensations.

Salad was ala carte, as seems to be the common practice at most restaurants in Williamsburg. I had the garden salad served with a homemade crumbled blue cheese dressing which was outstanding, while David and Mom had the Caesar’s salad. Served with freshly baked rolls it was a nice start to our dining experience. Because dinner was so outstanding, we all knew that if ever we were going to opt for dessert, this would be the place to do it because everything was homemade and prepared on the premises. Mom and David shared a crème bruelle and I had the key lime pie. Mmmmmm yummy goodness for all.

It was nice to splurge on this meal, especially knowing that we had the $25 gift certificate. Our dinner, including tip and tax came to $90 so at a total price of $65 we felt we had an exceptional meal at an affordable price. With that being said, all of us agreed that even had we paid the full (non-discounted) price of $90 for our three dinners, it was a most outstanding dining experience.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that our server John was most friendly and helpful as we tried to navigate the complex menu offerings. He was also attentive and right there whenever we needed refills of our beverages. It is our opinion that this was a highlight of our dining experience which was filled with a number of very good restaurants. We will look forward to our next trip to Williamsburg and the opportunity to experience the taste sensations of Cities Grille.

My personal bias against hotel restaurants will come through in this review, I’m sorry to say. Not because I’m sorry that I have a bias, but more that I’m sorry that this restaurant fell short in many ways and was much like the cliché hotel restaurant . . . short on menu selections and disappointing in overall value.

Billing themselves as “The best Creole restaurant in Williamsburg” they are highly advertised in the local tourist magazines and featured on Restaurant.com, we had at least moderate expectations for this place. As we navigated through Williamsburg’s tourist area to the edge of the restored historic area, I soon realized we were going to be dining at a restaurant in a hotel. Sure enough, this one is located inside the Four Points Sheraton

We arrived shortly after their published dinner hour of 5:00pm to be greeted by the hostess who sat us as the first dinner patrons. The bar area was filled with men who looked to have just gotten off work, drowning their rough day in beers and cigarettes (hack – hack).

As we reviewed the menu, a young man came by for our beverage orders; unsweetened iced tea for David and water with lemon for Mom and me. I continued through the one page menu, with a deep sinking feeling that this was going to be a huge let down. When he returned with our drinks, I asked him if they served hush puppies with their entrees. “NO?” How can you be a Cajun or Creole restaurant and not have hush puppies? He just shrugged and said “Gee, I don’t know.”

When he returned for our dinner orders, I whimped out for a chicken dish that was served with a robust Creole sauce. It was spicy but not overbearing on the meat. Mom had the same while David thought he would experiment with their jambalaya and a side of black beans and rice.

While we all found our meals to be generally acceptable, they were really nothing to write home or brag about. That was probably my greatest disappointment in that I enjoy bragging about great food and this meal simply left me feeling empty inside even if my belly was full.

This experience would be one of the few negatives of sampling and experimenting with dining options while on vacation. It comes with the territory when shopping for a restaurant through a broker type service such as Restaurant.com. Still, with that being said, with our $25 discount gift certificate, the price we paid for our dinner was reasonable at about $53 total (after using the gift certificate). Some might say “you get what you paid for” but I would argue, that what I got was the “typical restaurant in a hotel experience” . . . good enough to send you to bed with a full tummy but not longing for the next opportunity when your travels may bring you back this way again.

If you’ve found my journal entitled “Dining in Williamsburg – Not Just Pancakes” you no doubt read my reviews on National Pancake & Waffle House and Shackleford’s II, two of Williamsburg’s finest. On this trip we paid two visits to each of these perennial favorites . . . and neither disappointed. While it is a bit hard to gush about a pancake house, I must say that National Pancake & Waffle House (1605 Richmond Road) is sure to please. We dined there for breakfast on our first and last mornings in town. Both experiences were excellent with prompt, attentive service and hot delicious meals. If you like Virginian country ham (the salty variety) you will find this restaurant to serve general portions along with your eggs, belgian waffles, pancakes or whatever accompaniment you choose.

Like several of the other pancake type establishments in Williamsburg, they are only open for breakfast and lunch, serving breakfast or lunch throughout.

Now for my personal favorite restaurant in Williamsburg . . . Shackleford’s II in the Monticello Shopping Center. Found last spring through Restaurant.com, we knew we would have to try to score dining certificates again for this trip to Virginia. Because of its popularity, they have very limited availability and if you’re later than mid morning on the first day of the month, you are out of luck until the first of the following month. I was fortunate to score two $25 dining certificates for our trip!

Both nights that we dined here, I had the crab cakes. They were no different than I remembered them from last year. The lump crab meat was wonderful, with only enough added ingredients to bind the cakes together while being sautéed. While normally served with rice, I opted for the baked potato to go along with the medley of zucchini and squash.

David had a steak the first night and the crab & shrimp Norfolk the second. Mom enjoyed a shrimp alfredo dish one night and the chef’s special of salmon, shrimp and tuna. We all thoroughly enjoyed each dining opportunity. As with other restaurants in Williamsburg, salads are ala carte. Shackleford’s salads are abundant in greens, tomatoes, cucumbers and red onions. Their salad dressings choices are generally what you would expect and you can opt for a Caesar’s salad if that is your preference.

Dinner each night, after our $25 dining certificate was a very reasonable $50 including tax and gratuity. Please keep in mind, this was for dinner and a non-alcoholic beverage and no dessert. They do have a full service bar and quite an extensive dessert menu. With a salad and our entrée, however, we found that we simply did not have room to indulge in one of their sweet sensations.

If you are looking for a reasonably priced seafood menu, I would not hesitate to recommend Shackleford’s II with or without a discount or dining certificate.