Winnies Tavern

This place is tucked away behind Sunset Park by the port just outside of downtown Wilmington. I’ve been hearing that they have the best burger in town, and they really do. The menu is simple and that means that what they do is what they do well!
Juicy burgers — try the jalapeño bacon cheese burger with a side of their sweet potato fries with the cinnamon honey sauce! Damn good! This is not fast food and every order is made to order so expect to chill for about ¹⁰⁄₁₅ mins before your food is up. They have a small kitchen staff to insure quality, so wait… it’s worth it!
The atmosphere here is old country diner with better music and great servers. The sweet ice tea is perfection and made every afternoon fresh! That’s a huge thing for me — I judge spots on the flavor and age of their tea!
There is plenty of seating at the bar and the main dining room but they also have a nice outdoor area and cornhole!
Great spot for lunch and dinner! Loads of regulars can’t be wrong and they’ve been here for 54 years, they must be doing something right!

Lives up to it’s rep as the best burgers in town. You will find burgers in Wilmington that are more creative and on fancier bread but you pay over $ 12 or more and another $ 6 for a beer. At Winnies you can get a really good hamburger and a cold beer for about $ 10 enjoyed in a first class dive bar. Anyone over 40 will know all the songs on the sound system and no one will judge you for drinking a PBR from a bottle.

Always great and consistent burgers! They don’t do anything fancy, and they don’t need to. Just fresh beef, simple toppings, and buns so soft you’ll want to sleep on ‘em. For $ 8-​$ 10, the best hamburgers in Wilmington hands down!
For appetizers, their Jalapeño poppers and Onion Rings are also great.

This place has been here since the 1960’s and its absolutely amazing !!! To be completely honest with you I had never been here until about a year or so ago unless I just don’t remember it lol. If you saw this place on a regular day you probably wouldn’t think twice about going in… if that’s the case you have honestly missed out on the best burger in town!
Make sure to get the sweet potato fries !!

Love this place! The burgers are AMAZING! The Mini Winnie is the perfect size and the sweet potato fries are really good. Great service!

I decided to try this place after reading the reviews. It is a cute little homey place. It seems like it’d be a relaxing place to grab a beer after work. Anyway, on to the food. The fries are standard fare, nothing to write home about. They could use some salt. The burger was good. Not great, but good. I enjoyed it and it’s better than, say a fast food burger. I got mine the bacon cheeseburger with mayo and pickles. I honestly think if the pickles and mayo weren’t on there it would have just been average. It’s affordable though and the woman who helped me was very nice and welcoming.

Not to get all hipster on you but I remember when Linda or Chris was the only person working a shift, the cost was $ 6, there was one menu on the bar with maybe 5 items total, and a woman (no joke) snuck a baby chick into the bar in her dress. The management then changed over and the burgers suffered for awhile. It’s taken me almost 4 years to come back and try it again.
And I’m happy I did. The burgers are back to being fresh and juicy and at $ 8+, it’s still a great price. It was very busy at 1PM so the wait to get the burger was fairly long… I’m not sure I would have been able to swing over there on my lunch break. It still holds onto a divey atmosphere so that was nice, now it’s just sprinkled with a lot more upper class folks who you can’t tell if they really want to be there, if that makes sense. I would give it 5 stars but there is still just a little sadness when I remember how amazing it used to be.

Not gonna write a long, flowery review. Just go, it’s great!

Nice hole in the wall place to grab a quick bite. I was recommended by a local friend, and was not disappointed. Try the BBQ bacon burger with cajun fries and the fried pickles. The food are hot, so let it cook down a bit before digging in!

Many have voted this restaurant best burger in town so I finally got around to trying it out for my self. No I was not disappointed and it may not be my favorite local burger but it was damn close. My only complaints was that American cheese is the only cheese option and the fried chicken sandwich was tenders not a patty so it fell apart while I was eating it. Overall these are nice big juicy burgers at a great place, in a casual unpretentious atmosphere.

Went to Winnie’s Tavern for the first time with great friends. Fantastic food relaxed atmosphere. The waitress noticed how much I was enjoying my friends sweet potato fries and bought me my own basket. I am diabetic but it was definitely with the extra insulin

Would be 10 if I could. As a NY’ER that knows a good burger, and considers himself to be a burger snob. I came down to visit some friends and they had never been here before. After reading the reviews and hearing that all their friends loved it here, we decided to give it a shot. All I can say…
Best burger you will EVER have! The fries are great too, the Cajun is good but needs salt. However, the Sweet Potato Fries are AMAZING!
I would highly recommend this place to anyone looking for a good burger and cool place to hang out and talk.
The staff here is great! Definitely the epitome of southern hospitality! I got better service here than I have in some 4 and 5 star restaurants!

Friends,
I have eaten one of the best burgers I have had the pleasure of consuming. Beer, fries, burgers: paradise. No beer on tap, but plenty of domestics, imports, and crafts to choose from. There’s a bit of a local vibe, but very friendly staff – do yourself a favor and make Winnie’s the next place you go on a greasy voyage.

Excellent food. Service was superb!
My husband had the Bacon jalapeño cheese burger with grilled onions and sweet potato fries. Said it was great. I had the mini Winnie’s cheeseburger with onion rings. Again perfection.

One more star for the onion rings. My wife shared a burger, and they were nice enough to cut it in half and give us both a full serving of rings… pretty awesome.
Good place to eat before a Greenfield Lake concert.

A pretty good hole in the wall, not too loud on a week day. Food looks as pictured, depending on who is cooking. My burger was a little crispy but still good. Waitress was good and keep my glass full. Sweet tea is on point. Wish the fried pickles were rounds not Spears. I don’t know about the best burger in town… I’ve had better but it was tasty.

Here’s the deal. Upon reading most reviews I drove to Winnie’s Tavern. The appearance nearly fooled me. It looks outdated and a bit «run down» from the street. That said, I am sincerely glad I walked in. Ordered a Bacon Cheeseburger, Cajun Fries, and a bottle of beer. The burger was huge, great quality, loaded with the works, and cooked to perfection!
If you crave a great burger in a laid back «joint» atmosphere, make the trip. You’ll be pleased and like me, likely to return.
BTW: Great 70’s genre music!

Is the ultimate bacon cheeseburger. It is wet and hot and tasty!
The onion rings are made with fresh onion. Need to say more?

I held an opinion pole on my Facebook page by asking, «Who do you think has the best cheeseburger in Wilmington, NC?»
Winnie’s Tavern was suggested by so many people that it blew all the competitors away. The strange thing was, I had never even HEARD of Winnie’s Tavern before that time and have lived in Wilmington since 2000.
I think Winnie’s falls into the «best kept secret» category. The restaurant has been there for quite some time and celebrated it’s 50^th year anniversary in 2012.
After some research, I discovered that the restaurant it is named for Winnie Swanson who opened the tavern in 1962 after years of working at the old Chic-​Chic drive-​in in Wilmington.
Now, I must state for the record that the reason I have NEVER noticed Winnie’s Tavern before is because… well…it doesn’t look like much. In fact, it’s not the sort of place that you «notice» unless you are actively looking for it. It’s also not in a part of Wilmington that most people ever see as it is tucked away on a street near industrial oil tanks, factories, and the shipping industry.
Do yourself a favor and try to look past the façade on this place and go inside. Inside, you will find a typical bar/​tavern atmosphere and a few booths and tables.
Order a burger… you will NOT be disappointed!
I (as well as my wife) now agree that this is the BEST CHEESEBURGER in Wilmington.

In my last remaining weeks living in Wilmington, I had devised a list of places I wanted to try before exiting. During this last month, I had oral surgery, which impeded on my culinary adventure plans. Needless to say, after 3 days of eating soft foods, I was really craving a burger!
There is a constant debate among Wilmingtonians of «What’s the best burger in Wilmington?», and Winnie’s often comes on top. I can now understand why.
So my night to try Winnie’s finally came. We recorded the address and began our adventure. «Off the beaten path» is an especially relevant description of this place. It is near the port and about 10 minutes from downtown Wilmington. There is really nothing else around besides a residential area. So get your GPS out folks!
We arrived to Winnie’s and parked in the dirt lot. The appearance was expected as I have read from previous reviews. A man opened the door for us and welcomed us. I wasn’t sure at first if he worked there, but I think he was just a regular customer.
The restaurant inside has limited seating (a few booths), a bar area, and a pool table. We came on a Saturday around 7:30pm and there were a few other people in there. The waitress/​bartender was very nice and quickly took our order. I got the burger without mayo and sweet potato fries, and my boyfriend got the same thing but with regular fries. Our food came out quickly.
I now understand the hype about Winnie’s burgers! We did not request a certain temperature, and the burgers were cooked medium-​well (a little pink). I was so happy to be eating normally again and the burger was the perfect meal. The meat was juicy, the burger was huge, and the bun was fresh (as were the lettuce, onion, and tomato). Both types of fries were good, but the regular fries were a bit over-​salted.
I would not say this was the best burger I’ve ever had, but it was really really delicious. I definitely recommend Winnie’s if you want to have a unique culinary experience true to Wilmington culture.