36 BEST Charlotte Restaurants to Dine At!
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Be transported to a tropical oasis with tiki inspired cocktails and an impressive raw bar. There are a minimum of 12 different types of oysters on deck at all times. The menu is meant for sharing with a rotating list of daily oysters, cheese and charcuterie boards, and the "Tower of Power," layered with 16 oysters, 16 shrimp, and 16 mussels. There are also several stand-out entrees, like the North Carolina mountain trout, severed with sweet potato, smoked carrots, fennel, radish, and greens. You’ll need to head up 16 floors in Ballantyne Village’s Panorama Tower to get to Hestia. The modern rooftop restaurant opened in March 2023 with a full-service bar and a robust menu featuring sushi, sashimi, and a variety of original takes on bar food.
Mano Bella Artisan Foods
There are lots of Italian restaurants offering fresh pasta, but not many make it the way Flour Shop does, which is right in the middle of the intimate dining room. Besides the pasta itself, the restaurant’s dishes include produce grown in the area and locally sourced meats. While it could be easy to fill up on starters, make sure to leave room for the squid ink linguine with chorizo and Carolina shrimp or the beef and pork bolognese. For years, the Queen City has steadily marched toward becoming a top food city in the South—with recent nods from the James Beard Foundation validating its expertise and growth. While barbecue and typical Southern fare can certainly be found within Charlotte’s city limits (check out Sweet Lew’s BBQ or Noble Smoke), the culinary landscape is more so defined by its creativity and variety in cuisine.
Pizza Baby
They’re made fresh, and include a sweeter and nuttier blue-corn variety that’s a perfect pairing with their excellent cochinita pibil. This Yucatán-style pork butt gets braised in citrus juices for 10 hours and comes topped with fried plantains, pickled red onions, guacamole, and salsa. Come for a quick, casual lunch on one of their outdoor picnic tables, but consider yourself warned if you have to go back to work afterwards, because you’ll probably want to try the margaritas.
Counter
Then, move to the family-style mains, like an 18-ounce prime ribeye or a whole roasted chicken, and sides like miso mac and cheese, broccoli with bone marrow butter, and charred carrots served with cornflake-peanut granola. Come for a fancy dinner and appreciate the fact that everything’s cooked over a 14-foot hickory and oak grill. They also have a speakeasy in the basement of a church annex, just know you have to make a reservation if you want to head down there for a nightcap (it’s worth it). Shopping centers are usually filled with chain restaurants serving 2-for-$20 meals that taste fresh out of the microwave, but every once in a while, you find a gem like Prime Fish.
Grecos Steak ‘n Hoagies
They pride themselves on fares that are heavy on the flavor and light on the fuss. While the menu may look familiar, with plenty of pizzas and pastas to order, each provides an unexpected quirk designed to delight the senses. We recommend pairing one of the boards with your beverage, for the flavor and for your Insta feed, you can get cheese, olive, smoked salmon, or sausage. The Flanken is beef short ribs topped with horseradish gremolata at Supperland.
Depending on where you plan to dine, you’re going to reserve a table, book a babysitter, schedule a ride-share, and get dressed to go out. The experience—food, service, atmosphere—had better be worth the price tag. But if $300 for a 16-course tasting (or $150 for 10 courses at lunch) is a bit rich, consider Omakase’s little sister in Ballantyne. It’s small and classic, with a full offering of rolls, nigiri, and sashimi, plus a great list of sakes. When it comes to unique dining experiences in Charlotte, none come close to the experience you’ll have at Counter!
The 22 Best Restaurants In Charlotte, North Carolina
It had us at “cheese cloud,” a fluffy pile of fluffy Parmesan or pecorino that customers can add to pasta for $3. Restaurant power couple Jeff Tonidandel and Jamie Brown always pay attention to the details, and their foray into Italy is no different. The menu of six or so housemade pastas and sharing-size entrees like branzino is rounded out with small plates (toasted hazelnuts and the whole fried artichoke are standouts) that you can keep all to yourself.
Best Restaurants in Charlotte: 2021
Born out of Diminch’s Your Farms Your Table Restaurant Group and named after his daughter, Restaurant Constance is highly focused on quality, local produce, and the power of connecting over a meal. Expect an evolving raw bar, inventive desserts, and a vast and creative non-alcoholic cocktail menu with your reservation. Under the prowess of former Top Chef contestant Jamie Lynch, the Charlotte-based eatery has grown in popularity and expanded to Charleston and Atlanta. The decor is stunning — feathered lamps hang above the bar and the restaurant ceiling is covered in writings from The Art of War. With brunch, lunch, late-night eats ,and dinner (from seared scallops to lamb burgers) plus a strong cocktail lineup, there’s something for every occasion.
NC chef to be featured in upcoming episode of Food Network’s ‘Chopped’ - Charlotte Observer
NC chef to be featured in upcoming episode of Food Network’s ‘Chopped’.
Posted: Mon, 08 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The wood-fired pizzas—like the pepperoni and sausage pie with house-made fennel sausage, roasted tomato sauce, mozzarella, and pepperoni—are worth the hype. But the fresh pasta is also outstanding and come in gluten-free variations. Save room for dessert, the Zeppoli—a fried dough doused in powdered sugar served with salted caramel dipping sauce—is not to be missed. “Sustainability” and “heirloom ingredients” sound like culinary buzzwords, but they’re true North Stars for Chef William Dissen and his team at Haymaker.
Two killer breakfast options include the soft conchas enveloping barbacoa cheese, creamy avocado, and scrambled eggs, and the specialty sourdough jalapeno bagels with fried eggs, queso, and bacon. Owner Dan Nguyen and her family-run Vietnamese restaurant are so beloved in Charlotte that regulars started a fundraising campaign to keep the place open through the pandemic. The menu at lunch and dinner still has more than 130 items, and Nguyen still uncannily remembers what customers like when they come back. Joe and Katy Kindred’s Davidson restaurant Kindred was the area’s first to get serious (and well-deserved) national attention. But Hello Sailor, which dropped anchor in 2017, brings the fun and flare.
Upon graduation, she met her partner, Cameron, and they traveled the world together crossing 85 countries and seven continents. After, many years of international travel they settled down a bit and launched Lost in the Carolinas to share their experiences about and travel tips on South Carolina and North Carolina. One cannot just leave Charlotte without a visit to at least one of the fabulous breweries that are around town and Wooden Robot is a great one to start with. This contemporary farmhouse with an urban touch features a varying selection of beers crafted in Charlotte. It’s set inside the sleek hotel the Ivey’s and feels like a sexy extension of that atmosphere for sure. The cocktails offerings are often a contemporary take on old school classics, such as the Viper, made with tequila, orange liquor, cucumber, lime, and cayenne pepper.
Grilled octopus, seasonal campanelle pasta, and seafood boil paint the menu’s landscape. A noteworthy gustatory delight is the Treatment, a personalized tasting menu that includes a $5 charitable donation to an area nonprofit. Now that office traffic has returned to Uptown, the restaurant added weekday lunch as well. Is there a serious diner in the country who hasn’t heard the raves for multiple James Beard-nominated chef Greg Collier and his wife Subrina? The menu even features a rotating PWYC (“pay what you can”) dish, so every customer can enjoy a meal regardless of financial status.
A “best restaurant” label doesn’t necessarily mean sky-high prices; in fact, Brooks’ Sandwich House—where cash is the only accepted form of payment—serves $4 hot dogs and $8-a-pound beef chili. The nearly 50-year-old, family-run roadside stop recommends getting your cheeseburger made “all the way,” which includes mustard, onions, and the house made beef chili. A “rock n’ roll ramen shop” is a far cry from the Southern-inspired menus you’ll find in numerous eateries across Charlotte—and that’s the point.
Calle Sol is as dependable as a 1998 Toyota Camry—it’s the restaurant we turn to whenever we want a guaranteed excellent lunch or dinner. For lunch, go with a Tampa- or Miami-style Cuban sandwich with a side of fried sweet plantains. And even though you might have other responsibilities, you should still pair it with an off-menu spicy margarita that uses muddled rocoto chili peppers. This spot sits on a corner in one of Charlotte’s most walkable neighborhoods, which means it’s always buzzing, and you should definitely make a reservation. Union BBQ is boldly serving Texas barbecue in North Carolina out of a weekend-only food truck.
The Queen City is now a mouthwatering melting pot home to various cuisines. At the rustic yet refined Heirloom, farm-to-table fine dining feels familiar and friendly, not fussy. The restaurant sources everything from its coffee to its meats, grains, and vegetables from North Carolina farmers, foragers, and purveyors, with sublime results. The menu changes accordingly with rabbit and duck making regular appearances. Authentic Ethiopian fare is present in Midwood thanks to the team behind Abugida Ethiopian Cafe & Restaurant.
Set inside an old service station, this no frill joint lets the sweet taste of perfectly smoked meats speak for themselves. They specialize in good, old-fashioned comfort food, and who are we to deny ourselves a festive evening full of fried foods? The burgers are piled high with patties and toppings, the hot dogs come in all forms, and the sandwiches cover all the classics. A bit off the beaten path, this Italian eatery is hidden away in a historic home. Its atmosphere is warm and inviting, with a cozy decor that will have you feeling comfortable within seconds. The beer choices are local, and the wine list is a curated collection of the best Italy has to offer, both by the bottle and by the glass.
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