Back before we went to New Orleans, Restaurant.com set up a deal to buy $100 Restaurant.com gift cards for $10. I bought $1000 in gift cards for $100. I figured we would get good use of them with a large group in New Orleans. Long story short, we didn’t use all of them, so I bought several for the Outer Banks restaurants we were interested in trying. We decided to use as many of the Restaurant.com gift certificates as we could.
Monday
Lunch – South Beach Grille
For our first Outer Banks restaurant, we made the short drive to South Beach Grille. We shared cheese sticks as an appetizer, while I had a southwest quesadilla and Mac had a buffalo chicken sandwich with battered fries. The place was not too far away from our rental house and had good food and service. After the $25 gift certificate, we spent about $15.
Dinner – Mako Mike’s
This place has HUSH. PUPPY. CORNBREAD, y’all. I died and went to fat kid Southern heaven. We decided to split our entrees of chicken Mako tacos and margherita pizza. After the $25 certificate, we spent around $20. We also took a slice of Snickers ice cream pie to go. Yummy.
Tuesday
Breakfast – Stack Em High
We went out to breakfast and headed down the highway to Stack Em High, a family owned diner in Kitty Hawk. I ordered biscuits and gravy with grits, Mac had a western omelette, and we split a bowl of fruit. The biscuits were light and fluffy, and the gravy was spicy and creamy. Sadly, the grits were a bit underwhelming. Mac thoroughly enjoyed his omelette stuffed full of peppers, onions, and sausage.
Lunch – Lighthouse Bagels and Deli
Even after breakfast and a snack, we decided to grab a quick bite for lunch. Our horse tour driver mentioned Lighthouse Bagels and Deli as we passed it because they have a French toast bagel. We split the daily special of a turkey BLT with pesto. I also managed to spill my entire drink all over the counter and myself. Super. The sandwich was on ciabatta and was a nice filler.
Dinner – Sunset Grille
We started back down south and stopped in Duck. We wandered into a few shops and grabbed dinner at the Sunset Grille. The food was.so.good. Pretty sure we ordered cheese sticks, too. Mac enjoyed linguine alfredo with chicken, while I dined on chicken tarragon with artichokes and wild rice pilaf.
Wednesday
Lunch – Harbor Deli
On the way down to the Graveyard of the Atlantic museum, we grabbed lunch at the Harbor Deli in the town of Hatteras (BTW, Hatteras Village is not the town of Hatteras). I had a turkey and Swiss on Kaiser sandwich with sweet potato fries, while my beloved enjoyed the Kite, a curried chicken salad sandwich, with battered fries. Delicious and a great find for a quick lunch.
Dinner – Pamlico Jack’s
Our Restaurant.com gift certificate selection took us to Pamlico Jack’s where we ATE DINNER ON A PIRATE SHIP. It was worth sweating to death and sitting in the blazing sun. We split tasty chicken eggrolls. I had a cheddar burger. Mac enjoyed a black, bleu, and bacon burger. We also took their lava cake to go. Overall, very delicious and reasonably priced. We took a few more pictures (again, because it was a pirate ship) then left.
Thursday
Lunch – Ortega’z
We decided to eat lunch in the downtown area of Manteo and happened across Ortega’z. We split a southwestern spring roll as an appetizer (but it was more of a tortilla than an egg roll wrapper). I ate a very tasty chicken taco salad complete with fried shell, and Mac ate a buffalo chicken sandwich. Mac ate a lot of buffalo chicken sandwiches and mozzarella sticks during our honeymoon. While the food was good, the service was atrocious. When we arrived (before a lunch “rush”), we saw at least three waitresses to three seated tables. In spite of this, we waited 10-15 minutes before one came to our table. She took our drink orders and didn’t hear or ignored that I asked for a soda, so I didn’t get one. Our food came out reasonably quickly, but we had to wait for our check.
Snack – Carolina Cupcakery
After the aquarium we returned to downtown Manteo and walked around a bit. We happened across the Carolina Cupcakery, where I sampled a cherry limeade treat while Mac nommed a Reese’s peanut butter cake. Yummy.
Dinner – Adrianna’s
I found a Restaurant.com offer for Adrianna’s in Manteo. I made a dinner reservation for 5 (to make it to the theater with time to spare), but we showed up around 3:30. Our early arrival took us to the bar. We ordered some drinks, and Mac ordered the daily appetizer special: a chicken pesto pizza with banana peppers and mushrooms. We were seated just before 5 pm. I ventured out and ordered a New York strip steak with a bing cherry compote and shoestring potatoes. Mac had chicken with penne pasta and garlic cream sauce. This was the nicest restaurant we ate at during our honeymoon.
Friday
Lunch – Chilli Peppers
We went north on the highway a mile or so to Chilli Peppers, a cleverly named southwestern joint. For an appetizer, we split frazzled onions (fried onion straws). I then tried the chicken quesadilla while Mac indulged in the daily special: a fried chicken sandwich with bacon. He also ordered a side of jalapeno potato salad. We splurged a bit and split a chocolate eclair cake for dessert. All our food was fantastic, and we had good service. It was also reasonably priced.
Dinner – Kelly’s
We used another Restaurant.com certificate for our last dinner in the Outer Banks at Kelly’s. Mac ordered a specialty drink just to get a super sweet glass. Kelly’s had light and fluffy sweet potato biscuits and yeast rolls. I wasn’t terribly hungry, but I ate my fill of these. For dinner, Mac tried chicken and linguine with a pancetta bacon-red pepper cream sauce, while I sampled the bronzed chicken with linguine in a sweet onion creme fraise (but without shrimp). We were sufficiently stuffed and took our leftovers to go.
Saturday
Lunch – Big Al’s
In keeping with Blacksburg-named places, the last stop in our tour of Outer Banks restaurants was at Big Al’s. We shared smothered fries for an appetizer. I splurged on chicken tenders with hush puppies and fried okra (really, the chicken was for show), and Mac surprisingly ate a buffalo chicken sandwich. Good food, friendly service.
Our Outer Banks honeymoon: Our Outer Banks house rental experience | Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills | Duck and Corolla | Hatteras | Roanoke Island | One more day in the Outer Banks | An Outer Banks sunrise
