As we are on vacation this week at Topsail Island, NC this week’s Dining with Dad is not a local Ohio joint. Last year we decided to go to Wilmington for DWD and decided to do so again. There’s so many options in downtown Wilmington that we could be doing this for years to come. Since the weather was overcast, we decided to do DWD since it’s about an hour drive down to Wilmington so we’d use a day that we aren’t on the beach all day.

I usually keep the location a complete secret but this week I ran through a couple options with Alex and Chloe. They decided on the restaurant that is “on a boat”, which was about all I told them. We arrived in Wilmington around 5pm and headed over to Anne Bonny’s Bar and Grill to get our name in. The wait was about 20 minutes so we decided to walk around a little.

We finally got our text and headed back to the boat. It’s an old barge that they have converted into a restaurant. They had a railing spot open for us first but I didn’t really want to have to try to talk while leaning forward and back all dinner so we waited until they had a table clear for us. It was only another 10 minutes before a table opened up.

I looked at the menu before we left and I knew there were several appetizers that they may order. When we got there and they started looking at the menu outside, Chloe said maybe she’d just get several apps as her meal! I could have seen that. In the end, the only app they decided on was the fried pickles. They were very good and the one thing we all noticed was that it was the most pickles we’ve gotten at any restaurant that we’ve ordered these, and we do them OFTEN!

Last year when we came to Wilmington and went to Bourbon Street, I remember Chloe wanting the crab cakes and was very disappointed when they didn’t have them. Well not this time Chloe! She ordered the crab cakes and they had them this time. She found a little gnat in there, which she wasn’t sure came with the crab cake or came later, but she found it and got it outta there. =) She was very happy with them and ate almost all of them. She was stuffed!

I was surprised that Alex didn’t go for the cheese curds as an app, as he loves them but said it wasn’t the same since it wasn’t with poutine. So then I figured he would get a burger as that is his go-to at these type of restaurants and he surprised me again. He went with the Tropical Chicken. I hadn’t seen that yet on the menu and after I read it, I was a little jealous as I probably would have gotten that. He said it was really good, and was surprised when he got some bacon as he didn’t remember reading that it was on there. I got his last bite of chicken that he didn’t eat and it was a bit dry but I’m sure the rest of the ingredients helped cover that up as he enjoyed it.

Since Alex took my chicken idea, I went for an interesting sandwich. I’m a big fan of a Reuben, so I went for the unique Crab Cake Reuben. I’d never heard of such a thing and I’m a fan of crab cakes as well so I had to try it. It really worked well together. I would definitely get this one again. I could have used more sauce on it but otherwise a great choice.

One of the best parts of going down to Wilmington is hitting up Kilwin’s. You can’t go down there and not stop in for some ice cream. We walked around for a little bit before heading over there as Chloe was stuffed from her crab cakes. But after visiting an art store and just walking around a bit, we headed over and got our ice cream. You just can’t beat a freshly made waffle cone with homemade ice cream!