Restaurants in Newport, RI
 

We will be in Newport, RI for 3 nights. Would love some restaurant recommendations. We are fairly eclectic in what we like to eat. Seafood would be wonderful. Pricewise we're moderate, say ~$100 for 2, maybe a bit higher given the price of seafood. Any suggestions?

The Mooring is nice and has lots of seafood choices.

Ttt

Thanks! Will look into the Morrings -- any others?

Anthony's Fish Market and restaurant in Middletown is aggressively casual, cheap, and delicious.

If you're into food tours, Rhode Island Red Food Tours does one in Newport on Friday and Saturday afternoons.

The Brick Alley Pub and Fluke Wine Bar are also supposed to be good, although I've never eaten at either one.

I have eaten at The Red Parrot and liked it, but it's not primarily seafood.

A friend of ours took us to Anthony's Seafood. It seems to be a local favorite. It is casual and fun. But a little ways out of the town of Newport.

The Brick Alley Pub is my favorite. They do the best crab cakes there.

EstherIris -- we do like food tour, but wondering if RI has that unique of food?

Anthony's sounds like a good choice. We will have a car, so driving is fine. Will check out Brick Alley Pub, thanks. Would I need reservations there?

Bummer - just looked at the food tour and its only on weekends and we are there midweek.

A mini splurge at Castle Hill's Lawn. An iced tea or a cocktail in Adirondack chairs with an app while watching the boats go by is worth the price of admission.

http://www.castlehillinn.com/gallery

Rhode Island and nearby Masachusetts and Connecticut have a number of unique foods to try.

There are a great many people of Portugese, Azorean, and Cape Verdean descent, so their cuisine (especially linguica and chorice and stews made from them and sea food) are common in lots of restaurants.

Rhode Island has two kinds of chowder, pink and clear. Clear chowder is fish, onion, potato, and broth. No thickeners at all. My favorite. Pink chowder has a tomato base thickened by cream, but no floury glop, so it is good.

A New York System hot dog has nothing to do with NY but is delicious. The best are in Providence.

Evelyn's Drive In in Tiverton is famous for sunsets and Lobster Chow Mein sandwiches. Just down the road in Tiverton Four Corners is excellent ice cream. This whole part of the state is extremely rural and absolutely gorgeous.

Point Judith and Galilee are major fishing ports, and the Matunick oyster company, which is near them, makes good use of their products as well as their own oyster farms.

Ackislander - thanks! the things I learn on Fodor's.

Quahog, stuffed, that was new. I love the Portuguese kale soup.

Posted this in 2010 here and best I can tell, all these places are still open -- but haven't been to these places since then, no idea how good they are nowadays:

I've generally found the quality of Newport RI restaurants to be good. Views and low prices tend to be mutually exclusive, though.

Have especially enjoyed food at the Black Pearl and 22 Bowen's when I've tried them, maybe not the most panoramic water views but they're on Bowen's Wharf -- both are a little pricey. Views at The Mooring are good, food's not bad, also a little pricey. The Spiced Pear at The Chanler Inn has scrumptious food and a fine view, but dress better than jeans or shorts and bring a very healthy credit card -- this is a real special occasion dining spot. No views and no credit cards at Scales and Shells (Italian seafood and pasta), but good quality eats and not killer expensive depending on what you get. Flo's Clam Shack is a no-frills stand in line clam shack spot with okay prices, and depending on what table you score you may have a bit of a patio style view -- decent fried seafood, no waitress service. Brick Alley Pub and Salvation Cafe are decent and cheap family style pub grub spots, no views.

Good rundown of RI food specialties from Ackislander and Macross. Have seen the quahogs referred to as "stuffies."

Can only add to the list

-coffee milk, the java-based version of chocolate milk.

-Del's Frozen Lemonade, a local slushie type beverage.

-clamcakes, little fried balls of dough a little like a hush puppy, which despite their name are notable for their conspicuous lack of clams most of the time.

-johnny cakes, essentially a corn-based pancake.

The classic place to get NY System hot wieners is in Providence at Olneyville NY System. But that's a long schlep from Newport for a (very good, admittedly) hot dog.

The Newport Creamery is home to a reportedly ultra-thick ultra-rich milkshake called the "awful awful." Never tried one, but they have apparently achieved a bit of unique notoriety.

Brick Alley Pub is always crazy busy, no reservations. If you go, go at some slightly off hour (early dinner or late lunch) you'll still have to wait. They have great lobster chowder.

Anthony's, IMHO, is not as good as it used to be. It's in Middletown, as is Flo's. Flo's at least has a water view, Anthony's is eating in a strip mall.

The Black Pearl, with the absolute best clam chowder, has 4 options. They have a walk up stand where you can get chowder and hot dogs, an outside seating area, an inside spot they call the Tavern, and the most expensive inside area called The Commodore Room. The Commodore Room is the only area that they take reservations.
https://www.blackpearlnewport.com/

My sister told me she had a wonderful dinner at La Vasca. I haven't been. http://lavascanewport.com/about

It's on Thames street, in Newport they pronounce the H, unlike the English.

There's the Aquidneck lobster bar at the end of Bowen's Wharf, you walk through the lobster processing area to the dining area. Nice water views.

http://lobsterbarri.com/

Midtown Oyster bar is at the intersection of Thames Street and America's Cup Blvd. I had a decent meal there last May.

http://midtownoyster.com/

The best seafood in the area is about 30 mins from Newport is Champlins at Point Judith.

https://champlins.com/

Searching out Newport Creamery and an "Awful Awful" is not worth your time. Del's lemonade, however, is, just to say you had it. They often have stands of Del's at the beaches or parks.

Have fun!

Thanks, all! I think we will have plenty from which to choose for our 3 short days.

I did email Brick Alley Pub about reservations. They responded, "We do on a limited basis. Please call 401-849-6334."

To provide feedback. We ate at the Moorings and had an ok meal. Very nice server. Place was packed and very noisy. Our BnB recommended Salvation Cafe and that was excellent. We ate dinner in the back outside and everything was very was good. It's away from the hustle and bustle at the harbor. Our final meal was at LaVasca and it was very good. Once again very good servers and the food matched the quality of the servers. We made it to Grays Homemade ice cream �� In Tiverton. Fabulous! It's about 30 minutes from Newport Beach.

Thanks again for all the suggestions and information.