Great Italian Food – Kure Beach NC

We love quality Italian cuisine!  We love Eastern Tennessee too!  Unfortunately, these 2 loves do not mesh where we live… Whenever we go on a trip, at least one meal will be in a well rated Italian restaurant.

For our trip this past September, I’d done a little pre-trip research and I’d made note of Freddie’s, an Italian Restaurant in Kure Beach North Carolina.  At the time that I added it to my list of dining possibilities, it had 187 excellent/very good vs. only 16 poor or terrible reviews in Trip Advisor.

I grabbed this photo of Freddie’s off the Internet.  Believe me it didn’t look this cute when we got there for dinner.  The weather had continued to deteriorate and the wind was at gale force and the rain was coming down in bucket loads!  There was no way I could take an exterior photo! 

The interior of the restaurant was warm and cozy with an Italian touch, wood trim, decorations, lights and checked table cloths.

Despite the awful weather, Freddie’s was quite busy!  I suspect that if the weather had been better, despite the fact it was off season, we would have normally had a hard time getting a table at the last minute. 

We knew that life was going to be good when our waiter, Curtis, brought us this hunk of crusty Italian bread with seasoned dipping oil… We all love really good bread!  

Our entrees came with a big salad bowl of goodness… We’d messed up the bowl before I remembered to take a photo.  The salad is comprised of Romaine Lettuce, mixed with red cabbage and spinach then topped with garbanzo beans, beets and tomatoes, was finished off with “Barb's famous dressing” and parmesan cheese.

Note: Barb is the owner of Freddie’s and her salad dressing was so good that we bought a number of jars to take home with us! Laurie included them in her families Christmas gift bags! Barb's salad dressing was a big hit!

This was the Shrimp Scampi. ($21.00) The shrimp was served on linguini and sautéed in a butter, garlic, lemon and white wine sauce.  Winner #1!

This was Laurie’s entrée, the Veal Marsala...veal and mushrooms sautéed in Marsala wine sauce over linguini. ($28.00) Another excellent meal indeed!

Bill had Freddie’s Special Chop…a flame grilled pork chop, topped with cherry peppers and finished with Freddie’s secret balsamic sauce. ($25.00) This was our 3^rd great entrée!

As for myself, I went for the Steak Barbara. ($29.00) This hand cut ribeye steak hand cut ribeye steak was grilled and then topped with chopped garlic, parmesan and mozzarella cheese, and finished in the oven.  I chose spaghetti with marinara sauce for my side.  The steak was medium rare as ordered and it was very good.  I really liked the side of spaghetti too! 

Desserts were shared… This was the Crème Brulee. ($7.50) All agreed that it was very nice.

This hunk of chocolate goodness was the Guinness Stout Cake. ($6.00) It too was excellent!

Laurie loves a good Cappuccino and she was very happy with Freddie’s version. ($4.50)

So, despite the stormy and miserable weather outside, our day ended with some really good food in a warm and relaxing atmosphere.  Our only complaint was that Freddie’s doesn’t have an outpost in the area around Knoxville Tennessee!  We would recommend Freddie’s to anyone visiting the area around Wilmington North Carolina. 

Freddie’s Restaurant is located at 111 “K” Avenue in Kure Beach North Carolina.  Phone: 910-458-5979.  Freddie’s has been in business for 20 years and we’re very happy that they weren’t put out of business by the rain and coastal flooding that pounded the area right after we headed home.  Freddie’s website is found at http://freddiesrestaurant.com/default.asp.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for joining us for dinner!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave