It’s a question asked by lots of foodies. Just how spendy are some of the best restaurants in the area? The Lovefood.com website recently addressed the issue with their “most expensive restaurant in every state” list. 

They looked for the priciest main course or tasting menu at restaurants and avoided those that offered just one very expensive dish. Many of them were steakhouses, or Michelin-starred restaurants like The French Laundry in California or Alinea in Chicago. Or Masa in New York, where the 26-course omakase menu is about $750 per person. 

For North Carolina, the most expensive restaurant was Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse, a chain with 15 locations – including one in Charlotte.  

Wilmington doesn’t have a Michelin-starred restaurant right now, but we do have some luxury dining experiences and some high-end steakhouses. Here’s a look at what we found. 

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Offering dishes at a certain price point can be a difficult reputation to carry.  

“I believe there can be a stigma,” said Taylor Trumbetti, chef at G Prime Steak & Cellar near Wrightsville Beach. When he started as executive chef there more than a year ago, he said one of his tasks was to balance the experience and the prices at the restaurant.  

“I don’t want it to be pretentious,” he said, adding that he tries to have dishes at a variety of price points. “I want this place to be welcoming. I want everyone to be able to come in and enjoy it.” 

David Gerin, of the Alfalla Hospitality Group, which owns the Sugo Italian Steakhouse at the Hotel Ballast in downtown Wilmington said their focus is on providing a luxury dining experience that emulates the best Italian-style New York steakhouses.

For those restaurants that offer great food and an upscale experience in the Wilmington area, there’s a similar range of entree prices, usually from $30 or so to $70, or a little more. Some of those are for pastas, or fresh-caught seafood. You might pay more for a shareable seafood tower, or specialty caviar. But often the most expensive items on a menu are the steaks, especially with beef prices up more than 12% this year. Because of that, prices often fluctuate at local restaurants, too.

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It’s the wagyu 

Steaks at restaurants like Sugo, G Prime, Ruth’s Chris Steak House and True Blue Butcher & Table in Wilmington typically start at more than $40. Ruth’s Chris signature bone-in filet is listed at $86. Sugo also dry ages steaks in house for 35 days for the ultimate beefy and nutty flavors. A 16-ounce ribeye prepared and babied in such a way was recently priced at $89. True Blue’s Steak Flight, with samples of several selections, can be around $125 but varies with market pricing. Showy tomahawk steaks can also cost more than $100, but are usually served in portions meant to serve two (or more). 

But wagyu is usually the priciest choice. Some local restaurants import A5 Japanese wagyu that has a distinctive white marbling that melts into a buttery texture when it’s prepared. Australia and America are other sources for the elite beef.

At True Blue Butcher & Table, diners can get wagyu tenderloin or strip by the ounce, recently priced at $30 and $26 per ounce. Sugo offers it as four- or eight-ounce steaks, recently priced at around $30 an ounce. They also offer an American Wagyu, with a 12-ounce ribeye listed at $125.

At G Prime, the Georgia flatiron wagyu is the introductory selection at $55 for 14 ounces, Trumbetti said. The Australian wagyu filet is $76 and six ounces of the A5 is $149. 

“We see a few people come in for wagyu each night,” said Shannon Smith, sommelier for Sugo. She’s the one who comes to the table when meals are ordered to help pair them with a great glass of wine. One of her favorites with wagyu is merlot, she said. 

“It has a softness that pairs well,” she said.

At G Prime, Trumbetti said he sells five to 10 A5 wagyu steaks a week. 

“But our big seller are the Australian filets. We move 50 or 60 Australian filets a week,” he said. “It’s so tender and has the most beautiful marbling. … People come here for that steak now.” 

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Allison Ballard is the food and dining reporter at the StarNews. You can reach her at aballard@gannett.com.