Lunch at Colonial Williamsburg?

When we are visiting Colonial Williamsburg, are we limited to eating at onsite restaurants? Are there a number of choices? Do you have recommendations? Do we need reservations?

Deb

We ate at one of the restaurants for lunch and made reservations. Might have been Christina Campbell's Tavern. We ate lunch last year at a place called Huzzah in the lot of the welcome center. Love the Colonial area and have been 4 times.

http://www.history.org/visit/diningExperience/otherDining/#huzzah

Also Shields, Kings Arm, and Chowning's are the 3 other taverns onsite that I remember in addition to Christina Campbell's, they are all good. We made return visits to both Shields and Chowning's. Personally I loved the taverns, and wouldn't waste meals out on plain ol contemporary restaurants, but that's me. Chowning's was pretty inexpensive and was more "fast tavern food", but fun with entertainment in the evenings, and the others moderate but worth it.

Depending on time of year, you might need reservations for dinner, except for Chowning's, but you should be able to walk in at lunch - at least, we were able to, over Xmas week.

For more info and downloads of some menus, go here:
www.history.org/visit/diningExperience/ - same URL as above but click on links of all the taverns.

Thank you both. I might call about reservations since we have a party of six.

One other question because I can't remember how things work. Do you have to have a ticket to CW to visit the restaurants? Or is the ticket just for admissions to buildings/sites?

Deb

I don't think you need tickets for restaurants, only for certain buildings (not all).

Grab some sandwiches at the Cheese Shop or go and have a hot dog and BBQ at Retros. Both are better for lunch than CW.

Blue Talon Bistro is fantastic.

i was introduced to burgers with fried egg there a few years ago. delicious!

and they also have 50% off wine bottles once a week, forget which day.

I'll second the recommendation for The Cheese Shop.

We were just there in June, and we were getting hungry for lunch. So we asked a local what tavern they recommended. They suggested to go to The Cheese Shop instead, and we were not disappointed! It was so good that we had lunch there again later in the week.

Kurt

You don't need any tickets to visit any of the taverns. You may want to take a look through Williamsburg to see if you want to purchase the tickets or have self-guided tours...you can see lots on your own. Discounted tickets are available at the resorts. We enjoy Colonial Williamsburg a lot but enjoyed visiting the James River Plantations even more....particularly the Berkeley Plantation..most are a short drive from Williamsburg.

FYI,
Shields is now a coffee shop that also sells snacks
Chownings is now counter service in the back of the tavern, outdoors

Laurie said:

Also Shields, Kings Arm, and Chowning's are the 3 other taverns onsite that I remember in addition to Christina Campbell's,

Click to expand...

I appreciate everyone's comments and advice. The Cheese Shop was already on my list. Maybe we'll just see what end of the CW area we end up at when we're hungry.

Thanks!
Deb

we loved seasons !

Deb, try the place on the corner called "Seasons", I think...nice atmosphere and good food.. Cheese shop is also great... loved it... Trellis has great desserts !! ( Not food, but the bookstore in that area is also nice to browse in.)

I would vote for Chickahominy House.