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Shareable items include zucchini cakes and shishito peppers, while the entree list features Mediterranean spice lamb rack with tomato confiture, bacon-wrapped rabbit saddle with carrot puree, and beyond. 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.
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Charlotte is home to one of America’s top 20 best restaurants, food experts say - Charlotte Observer
Charlotte is home to one of America’s top 20 best restaurants, food experts say.
Posted: Thu, 04 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Plus, you really can’t go wrong with a side of guacamole or choriqueso with fried corn tortilla chips. The Flanken is beef short ribs topped with horseradish gremolata at Supperland. Click on the restaurant names to learn more, with our own dives linked, where applicable. The next time you’re brewery-hopping in South End, shopping for art in NoDa, taking a walking tour of the historic homes in Dilworth, or hitting the museums in Uptown, use this guide to find all the best places to eat in Charlotte.
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Read on for our picks for the best restaurants in Charlotte, and start planning ahead. Even though Charlotte isn’t a coastal city, it’s only 175 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. Because restaurants here have prime access to fresh, local, and sustainable seafood. The large restaurant gets busy and chatty, but that won’t keep other people from staring in envy as a waiter passes by with your seafood skyscraper.
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Check out the original location on Central Avenue, because the plywood walls, laminate floors, folding tables, dartboard, and midcentury-modern light fixtures make it feel like your coolest high school friend's basement hangout. The small team and secret tasting menu at Kappo En, in the back of Menya, respect the tradition and elegance of a guided omakase, prioritizing an intentional dining experience over a trendy and flashy night out. For a pre-paid $185 per person, diners will be presented courses with ingredients straight from Japanese markets, and a catalog of sake and wine, with an option for beverage pairing.
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Easy-going and family-friendly, this hot dog joint has a longstanding devotion to Sahlen’s smokehouse hot dogs and sausages, as well as to handcrafting its own pickles, onion rings and chili. Try the JJ’s No. 1 Red Hot with chile relish, diced onions, mustard, and a dill pickle spear (with the option to deviate with a turkey, veggie, or all-beef dog). Enter this lighthearted, hipster establishment when searching for a craft beer, bottle of wine, sandwich, or salad (there are plenty of snack-ish items like potato chips and kale chips to pair with either). The second location of its kind, Rhino Uptown is also known for its locally sourced goods (like kombuchas and coffees) and baked items (reach for a cookie).
Order the Mind Your Own Beeswax or a Happy Go Lucky Punch if you’re feeling festive. Supperland is located in a restored, midcentury church in Plaza Midwood, where you’ll find tables in place of pews and a kitchen in place of a pulpit. Kick things off with baked brie bites, hot onion dip, or a seafood tower so tall it might be the closest anything from the ocean has ever been to God.
Fin & Fino is a spot in Uptown that serves incredible stuff from the ocean. They label themselves as a “social seafood house,” which, unlike most marketing slogans, is actually pretty accurate. The space is large and has plenty of room for your entire extended family or your lawn bowling team. Plus, its sweet spot is shareable plates, like fish boards, plates of scallops, and Faroe Island salmon that comes with capers, lemon, and beurre blanc. They also have a great raw bar, which serves no fewer than 12 types of oysters at a time.
Fin & Fino, Jon Dressler’s creative seafood palace, has added lunch hours, a sure sign of a returning uptown office culture. The Treatment, the $65 multi-course dinner tasting menu, isn’t available, but you can go with appetizers, salads, sandwiches (including a worthy fried fish on brioche for $15), and entrees like poke bowls. Located in the eclectic NoDA neighborhood, Haberdish’s menu is packed with hearty Southern favorites like fried chicken, BBQ ribs, cornbread pudding and dumplings. While Haberdish’s decor is farmhouse-esque and casual, don’t be surprised to see people dressed up for a night out on the town, here in part for the craft cocktail menu. As an extra special touch, drinks often include an ice sphere full of edible flowers.
O-Ku Sushi CharlotteArrow
As the most discerning, up-to-the-minute voice in all things travel, Condé Nast Traveler is the global citizen’s bible and muse, offering both inspiration and vital intel. We understand that time is the greatest luxury, which is why Condé Nast Traveler mines its network of experts and influencers so that you never waste a meal, a drink, or a hotel stay wherever you are in the world. The Super Boy, a double burger with housemade chili and slaw, might be the star of the show at South 21 Drive-In, but the curb-side service restaurant has plenty of other options too. Opened in 1955, the historic eatery continues to whip up Fish-o-Burgers, BLTs, and other favorites for its customers. With such a long-lasting legacy, the family-owned drive-in is proof that good food has been central to Charlotte’s culture for decades—and hopefully it will stay that way for years to come. Authentic Ethiopian fare is present in Midwood thanks to the team behind Abugida Ethiopian Cafe & Restaurant.
James Beard semifinalist Chef Greg Collier and his wife and business partner, Subrina Collier, however, have managed to solve this riddle at Leah & Louise. Billed as a juke joint with ties to the Mississippi River Valley foodways, the restaurant introduces its customers to menu items that combine the familiar in order to create the nuance of taste. 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. In fact, when your options are this vast, the only issue is choosing where to go—so we did the work for you. Taqueria Mal Pan’s tortillas make it stand out from other Mexican spots in town.
Don’t be shy about blanketing everything — the remnants of crispy crust or the lush burrata — in that bonafide Sicilian olive oil or the dipping trio, featuring a crushable Calabrian chili red sauce. While Pizza Baby is in its infant stage, finding its footing with busy nights and new employees, it has promising potential as a fun adult pizza party. Richly spiced stews, warm incense, and East African art make this Eastside spot feel like walking into a well-kempt home. Diners use their hands as well as rolls of the soft-as-lace flatbread injera to scoop and dip into dishes like crispy bits of beef tibs, or stewed chicken doro wat made with spiced butter, onion, and whole boiled eggs. An Ethiopian coffee ceremony perfumes the air as fresh coffee beans are roasted and poured tableside as an after-dinner treat. Joe and Katy Kindred’s Davidson restaurant Kindred was the area’s first to get serious (and well-deserved) national attention.
Gonzales-Mora’s Noche Bruta is a new Camp North End gem, taking over Hex’s sweeping space Thursday through Saturday evenings for a slightly fancier sit-down service. At reasonable prices, the hyper-limited menu still gets to a bit of everything — the flautas drenched in a salsa verde, the ribeye tacos, and a can’t-miss miso caramel churro. The crispy pork katsu sandwich marries Japanese, Hawaiian, and Mexican flavors between pillowy shokupan. Is there a regional cuisine that restaurateur Frank Scibelli hasn’t put his finger in?
Located in Charlotte’s historic Lucas House, the charming bungalow boasts five dining rooms with grand fireplaces and a sweeping veranda outside. Chef de Cuisine Whitney Thomas garnishes dishes like lamb kofta kebabs with edible flowers at Mico. Tacos El Nevado—which has two locations in Charlotte—can partially attribute its glowing reviews to its $3 tacos, nachos, and homemade tortillas. In a world where tacos can be overly complex, Tacos El Nevado sticks to the basics, resulting in a hard-to-beat formula.
