Circa 1922 — Restaurant in Wilmington

Screaming, crying, throwing up because I wish I had gone to this place sooner, this is genuinely one of the best upscale restaurants in Wilmington (if not THE best) for a nice dinner. My family and I came here for dinner for a birthday and I could not have asked for a better experience, our waitress (who's name I unfortunately forgot, but she has dark brown hair and is a little shorter, but she deserves the world and also a crown and also a raise, she served us Sunday, April 7th around 5pm) was so extremely knowledgeable about the menu as well as the wines, and so accommodating and kind with impeccable advice and thoughts on menu items as well as the wine list. The crab dip (which she recommended) was AMAZING!! And my sister and I have lived in Wilmington for a while, so in a town full of crab dips, the one served at Circa 1922 is impeccable. The chose your own pre fix menu is a great deal for a full price appetizer, entree, and dessert compared to many other upscale restaurants, ($40.00 for the pre fix with all full sized amounts of food, while in comparison it could be $50+ to buy all of those items separately). I opted out of the pre fix personally because I did not need all that food at the time, but the rest of my party did the pre fix menu and they were almost too full to eat the included dessert, and even though I did not choose to do the pre fix, the waitress (the queen that she is) allowed me to select a dessert from the menu on the house, saying how she did not want me to feel left out without dessert. A tip is simply not enough for that gem of a woman, and I am so mad I can't remember her name because if I won the lottery, I would give half to this woman. The atmosphere and building itself was beautiful and had a very enjoyable old fashioned, almost rustic feel that was also great. The food was amazing, another recommendation from the absolute main character and best waitress in Wilmington was the Tagliatelle Bolognese which was absolutely amazing, I've never gasped when food comes out but seeing the absolute mountain of pecorino romano on the pasta (which is homemade) stopped me in my tracks. The Caesar Salad is 11/10 as well, I don't think I've ever tasted a better salad, the salad served here made me almost fall to my knees and thank God that Lettuce exists in this world so that Circa 1922 can serve such a salad. Shout-out to the cauliflower and cheddar soup that was also amazing, again almost fell to my knees and thanked God for bowls so we can be served that soup. Also the bread... thanking God for yeast and flour because oh my goodness gracious, the rolls at Circa 1922 are so good I almost fought my entire family for the last one, it's not just any restaurant pre-meal bread, they are mini sesame bun rolls that are so good I would go to war for whoever made them. I have said so much already but I cannot say enough good things about this place, shout-out to everyone involved with Circa 1922, the wait staff (ESPESCIALLY the queen who served us Sunday, absolute gem of a human you deserve the world), the bussers, dishwashers, chef team, managers, literally everybody, you are all amazing and I cannot wait...

This was my first time here and I do not see myself returning. My small group dined here on a Sunday evening after a show at the Wilson Center around 6pm. There weren't many people in the restaurant when we were seated so I expected it to be a nice meal. I will start by saying the appetizers and entrees were good, however the salad was lackluster. One of the salads came without dressing and after asking for some from our server, it took close to 15 minutes to get it brought to the table. We barely saw our server aside from when we were ordering our meal. We got one water refill from our server after our glasses had sat empty for several minutes and to get another refill, we had to flag down a busser. After salads and appetizers, one person in our party had put her fork on a plate that was taken away, and she was not offered or brought another fork and then did not have a way to eat her bolognese since our server did not come back to see if we needed anything. Due to waiting close to 30 minutes between each course for the next item, we got full off of crab dip, brussel sprouts, and the salads but we then waited at least 10 minutes for our server to come back and offer to box up our meals after they were brought to the table, even though we had barely touched them. At one point, we asked the busser to speak to the manager on duty and were told there wasn't one working. This was told to us after seeing the manager check in on every table and walk by us several times throughout the 2 hours we suffered through this meal. Each of us tried to make eye contact with our server or the manager several times to speak to someone about the long wait and to ask for something for the table, but we were never addressed. At the end of the meal, our server brought us our checks and said she appreciated serving us because every table had complained to the manager about food. While we had nothing outright negative to say about the food, we had wanted to say something about the service. I was baffled that the busser told us there was no manager working when it was obvious who the manager was. I was also disappointed that the manager didn't bother to ask us about the food if everyone else had something bad to say about their meals. All of the surrounding tables had been sat several minutes after us and were served entrees, got checks, and left before us even though we had put in our orders before anyone else. The three of us are all in our early 20s while the other patrons seemed to be 40 at the youngest. It almost felt like we were being neglected service due to our age, as everyone else was attended to much more frequently than us. Our group is all current and former service industry workers and we are very understanding of what may cause poor service, but this was quite frankly inexcusable. If our server had communicated any issues prior to giving us our checks this might be a different and more positive review, but that is not the case. I was highly disappointed after hearing good things about this restaurant from...

The ambiance is unmatched! The pianist is a beautiful touch in an otherwise loud restaurant. The decor is very chic and comfortable. The food I was conflicted with the rating. I wanted so badly to give 5 stars because you can taste the flavors- they're bold and you can tell the dishes are well thought out. We started with the grilled octopus and potato pave. The pave was wonderfully crisp and delicate. It was overtop of a puree (I want to say it was a potato base). It was excellent- must try!! The grilled octopus let me down. One of the tentacles was charred. Other than the charring, the texture was beautiful in the thicker parts of the octopus. The sauce that was paired was delicious, though...it did not go with the Octopus.

I ended up removing the octopus from the sauce and dipping it in the olive oil that came with the bread and then into the puree that came with the pave. In my opinion, if they placed the octopus over the puree with a sprinkle of smoked paprika, and a drizzle of olive oil- it would be a 10 star dish.

The table foccacia did not impress me. It was a great try to be different (much better than the prepackaged dinner rolls at most places). However, they were on the sweet side.. it was odd.

The paella was terrific! My only minor complaint was the undercooked peppers within the dish. Otherwise, the flavor was beautiful. It was more of a Barcelona style paella with chorizo. It was addictive and I kept coming back to it. My hubby got the butcher steak with sunchoke gnocchi with mushrooms. The butcher steak was flawless (I wanted medium- ordered medium rare as we always do since restaurants tend to overcook- it came out medium, so just be mindful to order a little more rare than you'd actually like) The gnocchi was inventive and really really amazing. The mushrooms were hit or miss. Some were perfect and some were overcooked/charred. The flavor they imparted were great!

Lasty but not least, the bananas foster was a flavor bomb. It was incredible. The banana bread was soaked in a dark rum sauce and adorned with a scoop of gelato. There was an accompanying brulleed banana that paired nicely with the candied walnuts. It was scrumptious! There was a dollop of whipped cream and a few sliced strawberry and blackberries/blueberries as a garnish which just felt out of place. It wouldn't deter me from ordering again!

The service left something to be yearned for. It wasn't the servers fault, as it was busy.. I just felt that if the server was a little more warm and engaging, maybe talked to me about the specials or reccomended drinks/apps from the start, I may have left with less gripes- I think some fine tuning and this place would be marvelous. I am just...