Winnie's Tavern — Restaurant in Wilmington

newest and final update I have now tried this place 3 times. Always to go. I would suggest ordering your condiments on the side. The 2 times I built my own burger whether it was mayo mustard or ketchup that I had asked for there was so much of it on there that’s all you could really taste and it made it really hard to eat as the cup of mayo or mustard oozed out of the side with every bite and made the bottom bun soggy to the point of falling apart. The last time I was here I ordered it to go and when I picked it up I could tell it had been sitting a while in the box and the box had been tied up the plastic bag a long time. How could i tell? There was so much condensation that the napkins in the bag were wet and the inside of the box looked like it had been washed but not dried. This also added to the soggy bun issue. Maybe don’t put it in the bag until the person is there to pick it up. The box has vent holes to prevent this but with it being in a tied bag the vent holes did nothing at all. As my side I got the Cajun fries. When I’ve had these before at other restaurants they had the same flavor as Arby’s curly fries so that’s what I was expecting with these. I was wrong. These were so salty and spicy I couldn’t even eat them. They were also under cooked so they, along with the burger bun were soggy. Those ended up in the trash. It’s like I decided to eat while swimming in the ocean. I refuse to go back to this place with how inconsistent the food is and how the only consistent thing is that they pour a cup of each condiment on their burgers. The only good burger I’ve had from here was the bbq bacon cheeseburger so maybe order a preset burger rather than building your own. But in general there are a lot more places out here with way better burgers so I’d pass on this place and try anywhere else.

Update After my first experience with the food here I didn't plan on ever coming back. The restaurants owner's suggestion that the burger would be better had I dined in was ridiculous. Like somehow there wouldn't be a cup of mustard on my burger had I eaten there. Anyway, we drove by the other day and I told my husband "thats the place that's supposed to have the best burgers but I had one and it was terrible" he said I should try it again and pulled in. I ended up ordering a bbq bacon cheeseburger without the bacon. The girl taking our order was really great. We didn't have to wait too long for the food and the burger was delicious. Maybe not the best I've had out here but definitely a million times better than the first time around. So I'm glad my husband pulled in and forced me to give this place a second chance. I'll be back, I'll just never order a burger with mustard from here again 😆

Original post: For a restaurant claiming to have Wilmingtons best burger, this was a pretty big let down. The burger was dry, like crumbling apart when I bit it. It also didn't have any flavor. The toppings I asked for were tomato, mustard and grilled onion. They forgot the onions (no big deal it happens) and put about triple the amount of mustard any normal human would want on their burger; so really the only thing I could taste was mustard. I like mustard, but didn't want a mustard sandwich. The bun was not toasted. No one should claim they have the best burger unless it includes a toasted bun. So needless to say the burger was 100% thumbs down for me. On the plus side the sweet potato fries were very good, and the service was fast and friendly. I ordered online and my food was ready in about 15-20 minutes which was great, especially for a Friday night. But not the best burger I've had in Wilmington by...

Burgers are good but service is terrible! Service is so rude. I really don’t know why they get any business at all. Never have I ever had such poor customer service. Have been here a few times. The second time didn’t enjoy the front host’s attitude. We arrived right before they opened, but we were missing our third person in our party so we were forced to wait outside in the heat. We were not allowed to be seated until our third person arrived and they were barely any people in the restaurant! Ridiculous! I can understand if your small “cramped” restaurant is super busy and packed, but if there’s barely anyone inside the restaurant, what’s the big deal?! I see other people have had the same experience. You can make exceptions when there are barely any seating customers present. You have a larger range of customers besides the customers that are seating inside. And besides getting a bad review, word of mouth of how you treat your customers spreads like wildfire.

The third time got to-go, because didn’t want to deal with that nonsense. And I only came here again, because I still had a gift card I needed to use Otherwise I would avoid this restaurant like the plague. After taking my order, the front host said you can pull up your car right in front of the restaurant and we will bring the food to you. Well, we already parked and it wasn’t that far from the front door so we didn’t move our car. We also didn’t want to sit in our car any longer since we just had a long drive from the mountains. So, Instead, we went back to the car to change our babies diaper and then came back and waited inside the restaurant at a table by the front door that was not even being used for seating. I could feel and see the front host’s glaring eyes staring at me in the corner of my eye. The front host proceeds to tell us that we’re not allowed to wait inside the restaurant for to-go orders, that We have to wait outside. Mind you it is super hot that day and we have our baby with us. There were only two parties sitting inside the whole restaurant at this time, so it was pretty empty. And I had to order to-go in person, because they would not accept a to go order on the phone and paying in person. They would only accept to go orders either on their website or in person. But of course I couldn’t use my gift card on the website so I had to come in person. Luckily, that to go order was made pretty quickly so we didn’t have to sit any longer in that hostile environment waiting.

Will never come back here ever again!! Hope your staff learn some manners and better...

Wow I really hate myself for not coming here sooner. I was told about this place by a coworker that came here one time. This was about two years ago, today. I was actually reminding myself all week about it just thinking about this place, I finally did it today, and I do not regret it not one bit.

So I would list this place as one of Wilmington's Hidden Gems. Why? One reason being because of it's

LOCATION On the Corner of Waddell Street and Burnnett BLVD. This location is dusty, semi wooded and there is lots of traffic even a railroad so it's definitely a treasure to discover.

THE FOOD This place lives up to it's name as being "Wilmington's 'Best' BURGER" (est. 1962) This place has some history to it.

MY ORDER I really had a tough time deciding what to order since it was my very first visit, but no problem the waitress that helped me (so sorry I forgot your name but the check said EMMA) kindly pointed out the popular choices. They really had some great ones, but I went with the Carolina Burger. The Carolina Burger came with a half pound beef burger American Cheese, Mustard, Onions, Chili & Slaw, my side was sweet potato fries and drink was water with lemon(not because I'm cheap...what I save buying on a soft drink I can use to tip my waitress)

EXPERIENCE The whole vibe of the place was basically like a cool bar experience. Of course there is a bar in the middle of the place where you can sit at or some booths on one side and tables on another, they even have outdoor seating with umbrellas which is closed in by a wooden fence. Everyone was nice and welcoming. The decor was like a rustic plus beach theme some areas the wall had wood others had sheet metal all well kept. The place was clean and neat. It really felt to me like I was at a Carolina Beach bar in reality I was downtown Wilmington.

So don't be like me and wait two years or more... Go there now and give this place a great big hug because it's definitely worth your...