The Banks Grill — Restaurant in Morehead City

UPDATE - Nothing has changed, all of what I say below is still true.

These folks just know how to treat people! And it just so happens that they serve the most amazing breakfast around.

This is STILL an absolutely outstanding local eatery. I have been here many, many times on different trips to the area and have not ever been disappointed in the least. The fact that it is under newer ownership has not changed this one bit - Jeremy is good people.

The staff is super friendly and make you feel like family visiting their house to share a meal. Today we were served (really served, not simply tolerated or put up with, like at other places) by T, who said she is the "new girl" here. You can tell a place is awesome when you come back year after year and see the same people working there. T fits right in here. Great service, great smile, attentive and witty, and very much present "in the moment" - we definitely felt like we were her focus, not a distraction from it.

Take your pick of the menu, you WILL be satisfied! All food is served for those with an appetite - no skimpy plates or bowls at this place, so come in here hungry!

If you like grits, you have to try these! They are fine, not coarse, and they are cooked with cream and butter and need nothing else added. The best grits I have ever tasted, anywhere, bar none!

The build-your-own omelette rivals any I have had anywhere else. Plenty of options for add-in ingredients, too.

The biscuits are gi-huge-ic! And they offer some of their own homemade jams for you to try on them. You'll want to get you a jar or two.

The French toast has vanilla in the butter and comes with specially prepared "island-style" bananas on top!

The sausage gravy is sure to please, piled high atop one of the XXL-sized biscuits. These are extremely unique biscuits - they are light and airy, not a typical Southern biscuit, but for some reason they seem right at home here!

Sweet tooth? The homemade beighnets rolled in powdered sugar are very tasty! Or try the "almost famous" cinnamon roll, an absolute treat: sweet enough, but with plenty of cinnamon, and topped with an extremely generous portion of pecans.

The coffee is delicious and your cup is not allowed to be empty any length of time. Service comes with plenty of smiles and warm hospitality, Carolina-style. If you are disappointed here, I don't know...

Have been hearing about this place for a while, so when a friend invited me out I jumped at the chance. Sadly, a huge disappointment. It was mother's day and the special was Lobster Benidict and they also had "bengiets". The bengiets were cooked in the same oil as all the meats so it had a dense flavor and I guess the oil needed to be changed as they were very dark. The lobster "Benidict" felt just like that... a betrayal. I love Eggs Benidict, it is my favorite breakfast...and lobster is my favorite seafood. The plate was served. It was a lobster "cake" over two biscuits. Instead of the delicious Canadian bacon, that is the staple of a wonderful Benidict, it was 2 bacon strips. The sauce was barely a smear. I should have known there was something amiss when I was asked "how did I want my eggs cooked?" I should have changed my order right then, but I wanted to give them a shot. I like to be adventurous with food. I took one bite and returned it. I was with company, so just asked the waitress to being me a regular eggs benadict. Welp....same plate, just no lobster cake. I stomached my way through it. When checking out I was asked how I liked it. I was polite but told her what I thought, especially that I envisioned actual lobster and not a "cake". Her reply was, oh, well everyone ELSE raved about it, and you're not going to get real lobster for that price" How rude.

Update 6/12/16: Really sad when they have to have an obvious "friend of the restaurant" post a 5 star rating just to counter my honest 1 star opinion of my experience. The waitress never said it was a lobster cake to me, you can go to plenty of places to get lobster rolls (made with REAL lobster meat) for $13. (I found a great place called the Island Grille that has incredible Benidicts since). I do know what good food is, I have a culinary background. You obviously DON'T Jauquline, saying the bengiets were delicous lmao.... yah, if you like the taste of meat...

First off, if I could give it 6, 7 or 8 stars on a scale of 1 to 5 I would. Food and service was exceptional.

We had a short wait, maybe 15 minutes, to be seated. To be expected on a Saturday morning at brunch time.

Once seated, we gave our drink order to the greeter and then our server came with the drinks and to take our order. We ordered the Mini French Toast Beignets while my wife decided what she wanted to eat.

Once the beignets were delivered, we ordered. We should've ordered about another 10 orders of these warm, magically sweet pillows of outrageous deliciousness. They were amazing.

My wife ordered the MYO 3 egg omelet with mushrooms and American cheese and I opted for the Steak & Egg Shack with biscuit.

Both came a short while after we ordered and were platefuls of food. My wife's omelet was perfectly cooked with plenty of cheese and lots of mushrooms. Must've been good as she ate the entire thing. (Very unusual). My food was in another level of goodness. The pieces of steak were tender, and the onions, peppers and black beans were all perfectly cooked. Paired with the scrambled (my choice) eggs was the exact perfect bite size everytime. The biscuit was enormous with a little crisp to the outside, but incredibly fluffy inside. But what put this all over the top was the house-made steak sauce. It is beyond delicious. A full fork of steak and eggs dipped in it with a bite of biscuit is surely what heaven better be like.

The service was excellent. Our server was on time with checking on us and every server offered coffee when they walked by.

This is by far the best breakfast/brunch we have had in the area. There's more I want to try and I want their Beignets again and again, so we...