5 Best Restaurants in Williamsburg and Hampton Roads, Virginia

With vaulted ceilings and hardwood floors, the Trellis is an airy and pleasant place. The imaginative lunch and dinner menus change with the seasons. A good wine list complements such dishes as homemade sweet red pepper soup, beef tenderloin with cabernet sauce, and grilled market fish. The seafood entrées are particularly good, and many patrons wouldn't leave without ordering the rich Death by Chocolate, the restaurant's signature dessert. There's also great people-watching from the terrace.

The cool name is rather appropriate—if you weren't hungry before entering this cozy place, you will be after the enticing smells reach you. A rich-looking dining room outfitted with plush leather couches and stone walls makes you want to linger. Breakfast burritos and Belgian waffles are nice ways to start the day. Or end it with Southern caramelized barbecued shrimp over a mound of grits, and snack on fondue. You can even order a colorful cake if you're celebrating a special occasion.

After he introduced the world to its first ice cream cone at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Abe Doumar founded this drive-in institution in 1934. It's still operated by his family. Waitresses carry to your car the specialties of the house: barbecue, limeade, and ice cream in waffle cones (made according to an original recipe).

Reminiscent of old-fashioned Virginia tearooms, this Colonial-style restaurant has delectable goodies served in an 18th-century dining room. For breakfast there's Virginia ham and eggs, made-from-scratch biscuits, country bacon, sausage, homemade pancakes, and grits. Lunch brings Brunswick stew, Virginia ham biscuits, chicken and dumplings, fruit salad, and homemade pie. There's a gift shop adjacent to the restaurant. It's a great, inexpensive, and filling place for families on a budget; lunch reservations are recommended.

This hotel restaurant is known for its elegance, attentive service, and quality cuisine. Among crystal chandeliers, Asian silk-screen prints, and full silver service, you can sample chateaubriand carved table-side, as well as rack of lamb, Dover sole, lobster bisque, and house-smoked and -cured salmon. A jacket and tie are required at dinner, but optional at Sunday brunch. Breakfast or brunch may be good value, but dinner could be budget breaking for a family.