Charlottesville - Places to Dine
Inside the Downtown Mall, and along East Main Street, leading to the mall, practically any restaurant you choose will please your palate and your sense of style. For a casual yet tasteful lunch, the Horse and Hound Gastropub, on West Main Street, offers a cozy atmosphere, reminiscent of English libraries with its wood interior, deep red walls, green plaid fabrics, and framed pictures of (surprise) horses and hounds on the walls. Although the Horse and Hound is relatively casual, the menu is anything but run-of-the-mill. Starters include Cornish pasty (beef filled puff pastry) and mussels steamed in Erdinger Wheat Beer and red curry; large salads include ingredients like poached pears, blue cheese, and champagne shallot vinaigrette; the four burger choices all center upon prime beef; sandwiches run the gamut from a Scottish smoked salmon wrap with lemon aoli to a pork chop sandwich with coleslaw. If you come for dinner, expect an interesting medley of entrees, ranging from fish and chips to shrimp and grits, to duck breast with a black currant sauce. A separate bar in the Horse and Hound offers a wide selection of beers, including a pitcher of Stella Artois, Erdinger Hefe-Weizen, and many more.
For another casual lunch or dinner restaurant option, South Street Brewery, along East Main Street, offers an upscale pub-like atmosphere, with a larger interior than the Horse and Hound. South Street Brewery serves surprisingly good food and a huge selection of mainstream and unconventional beers. Besides burgers and sandwiches, South Street’s all-American menu offers a great Jamaican jerk chicken entrée and large dinner salads. One benefit to South Street Brewery is that along with the casual atmosphere, you get lower prices than a number of other restaurants along the Downtown Mall.
If you’re interested in dinner, you can step into a New York City restaurant at the Blue Light Bar and Grill. This extremely modern restaurant is one large rectangle inside offering both an upscale bar and restaurant only for dinner patrons. The menu comprises many fusion-style options. A sampling of the starters includes: crispy pot stickers, ahi tuna “bonbons,” and Thai shrimp tacos. Entrée options include Dungeness crab cakes, roasted Virginia trout, portabella mushroom fricassee, and a seared filet mignon. The raw bar in Blue Light offers shrimp, oysters, clams, and a wide selection of caviar.
Also inside the Downtown Mall, Zocalo offers delicious meals for Spanish-influenced and creative dinner entrees. Zocalo, in Spanish colloquialism, means “center of town” and is quite appropriate for its location in the center of Charlottesville. Inside its comfortably modern atmosphere, diners can choose from vella jack cheese fritters, spicy tuna tartar, and chili broth steamed mussels from the “entradas” menu. “Platos principales” offers key lime free range chicken, black bean and corn rellenos, chili dusted sea scallops, and more. And of course, the “dulce” choices include Dulce de Leche crème brulee, and Mexican chocolate bread pudding. Diners close to the open kitchen (which somehow never gets too loud) are offered entertainment in the business. During warm weather, diners can sit outside, and during cold weather, diners can huddle by the large indoor fireplace.
Just past the Downtown Mall, on Water Street, sits Cassis, offering dinner plates as warm and hearty as the elegant atmosphere. Appetizers include French onion soup with gruyere and crostini, flash-fried oysters with spicy remoulade, and confit duck and caramelized onion tart. Entrée choices include grilled venison steak with blue cheese polenta, seared tuna with a spicy cherry glaze, braised lamb leg with potato gnocchi, and duck breast with braised red cabbage among others. Dessert is rounded out with peach cobbler, vanilla crème brulée, and warm apple tart.
Amongst all of the excellent restaurant options, the Downtown Mall and surrounding streets offer unique shopping, in the many boutiques and antique stores—and one really neat toy store—and enjoyable places to spend the night, including the Omni, which opens directly out into the Downtown Mall and opposes an indoor ice skating rink and a movie theater.
Charlottesville - Places to Dine
For another casual lunch or dinner restaurant option, South Street Brewery, along East Main Street, offers an upscale pub-like atmosphere, with a larger interior than the Horse and Hound. South Street Brewery serves surprisingly good food and a huge selection of mainstream and unconventional beers. Besides burgers and sandwiches, South Street’s all-American menu offers a great Jamaican jerk chicken entrée and large dinner salads. One benefit to South Street Brewery is that along with the casual atmosphere, you get lower prices than a number of other restaurants along the Downtown Mall.
If you’re interested in dinner, you can step into a New York City restaurant at the Blue Light Bar and Grill. This extremely modern restaurant is one large rectangle inside offering both an upscale bar and restaurant only for dinner patrons. The menu comprises many fusion-style options. A sampling of the starters includes: crispy pot stickers, ahi tuna “bonbons,” and Thai shrimp tacos. Entrée options include Dungeness crab cakes, roasted Virginia trout, portabella mushroom fricassee, and a seared filet mignon. The raw bar in Blue Light offers shrimp, oysters, clams, and a wide selection of caviar.
Also inside the Downtown Mall, Zocalo offers delicious meals for Spanish-influenced and creative dinner entrees. Zocalo, in Spanish colloquialism, means “center of town” and is quite appropriate for its location in the center of Charlottesville. Inside its comfortably modern atmosphere, diners can choose from vella jack cheese fritters, spicy tuna tartar, and chili broth steamed mussels from the “entradas” menu. “Platos principales” offers key lime free range chicken, black bean and corn rellenos, chili dusted sea scallops, and more. And of course, the “dulce” choices include Dulce de Leche crème brulee, and Mexican chocolate bread pudding. Diners close to the open kitchen (which somehow never gets too loud) are offered entertainment in the business. During warm weather, diners can sit outside, and during cold weather, diners can huddle by the large indoor fireplace.
Just past the Downtown Mall, on Water Street, sits Cassis, offering dinner plates as warm and hearty as the elegant atmosphere. Appetizers include French onion soup with gruyere and crostini, flash-fried oysters with spicy remoulade, and confit duck and caramelized onion tart. Entrée choices include grilled venison steak with blue cheese polenta, seared tuna with a spicy cherry glaze, braised lamb leg with potato gnocchi, and duck breast with braised red cabbage among others. Dessert is rounded out with peach cobbler, vanilla crème brulée, and warm apple tart.
Amongst all of the excellent restaurant options, the Downtown Mall and surrounding streets offer unique shopping, in the many boutiques and antique stores—and one really neat toy store—and enjoyable places to spend the night, including the Omni, which opens directly out into the Downtown Mall and opposes an indoor ice skating rink and a movie theater.
Charlottesville - Places to Dine
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