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If you’re feeling peckish afterward, consider ending the meal with a slice of pound cake. While new restaurants tend to get all the hype, the older establishments—the ones that have been greeting guests for decades—quietly and steadfastly serve their well-loved dishes day in and day out. Mama Ricotta’s, an Italian stalwart in Midtown, has been open for about three decades, and if you’re craving a chicken parm sandwich or a plate of penne alla vodka, it won’t disappoint. Part of Charlotte’s FS Dining Group, Mama Ricotta's sister restaurant, Little Mama’s, opened in 2020. Whether you’re meeting a blind date, your entire bird-watching club, or a coworker who’s always begging for an after-work Happy Hour, Dilworth Tasting Room is the place to go.
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Try the Crispy Umami, with tempura shrimp, avocado, eel sauce, and shoestring sweet potatoes, and pair it with something off their list of 70 sakes. No matter where you are in Charlotte, you aren't far from a fantastic meal. The city's restaurant scene has spread, not just geographically, but gastronomically. The tried and true dishes every Southern city ought to have down by now are on offer—fried chicken and barbecue at Midwood that will leave you happily stuffed. But roving restaurants have ignited a food truck frenzy and quirky takes on the classics are all the rage at newer places that continue to pop up. The Queen City also has some truly innovative spots that have earned national recognition, like the ever-changing, multi-award-winning Kindred.
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According to Chef Sam Diminch, the “seasons write the menus” at Restaurant Constance, a 10-table, no-concept restaurant. 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.
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The entire South is obviously obsessed with meat and animal products, so Sanctuary Bistro, with a rotating all-vegan, gluten-free, and organic menu, is a really welcome addition to the restaurant scene. This is a place where stuff like soy, tofu, and mushrooms mimic the textures, richness, and meatiness of meat and cheese. In other words, you won’t have to sell dishes like jackfruit bourguignon or crispy tofu au poivre too hard to your cousin who only eats chicken tenders. We like Sanctuary best for a weeknight dinner, where we can post up in the dining room at the bar. And since it’s located in a shopping center, there’s always a parking spot.
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What is Charlotte Cuisine? - Charlotte magazine
What is Charlotte Cuisine?.
Posted: Mon, 08 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
The menu and atmosphere of a restaurant may define its public perception, but it’s the people behind the operation who become the heart and soul of the entire entity. Lang Van’s owner Dan Nguyen is well-known and loved in the community, and her passion for serving Vietnamese dishes is equally matched by her uncanny memory for customers and their orders. If you once ordered pho, spring rolls, or the vermicelli noodle dish Bun Bo Xao, there’s a good chance she’ll remember. Chef Hector Gonzales-Mora fans are thrilled for him to have a new home after departing Resident Culture.
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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Charlotte may be hours away from an ocean, but Fin & Fino takes its role as a “social seafood house” seriously. The restaurant receives a daily delivery of its fish and shellfish—all of which were raised or caught sustainably–to make its roster of seafood dishes. Not to mention, there’s an impressive, playful cocktail menu; Call of the Clam, Endless Breadsticks, and Papa Was a Rolling Stone are all options to wash down your delicious meal. 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. The restaurant has only 20 seats, and you’ll want to take a date to the L-shaped sushi bar to watch the chefs prepare edomae-style sushi with yellowtail from Japan, salmon from Denmark, and tuna from Spain. You can’t go wrong with any of the sashimi and nigiri, but the special rolls are also so good and include Southern influences you won’t find elsewhere.
Tucked into an old pharmacy building near Eastway Drive, it’s got an eclectic vibe with flea market funkiness and a menu of homey classics, like fried chicken drizzled with honey and pecans or pimento cheese fritters, plus a weekend brunch. The wine selection is a surprise, and there’s a full bar in case customers want something harder. Uptown workers always need a good business lunch spot in their pocket (especially if the tab is coming from the boss’s pocket).
Sustainably caught or raised seafood is the star here, headlined by the $150 Penthouse, a tower of oysters, mussels, shrimp, scallop ceviche and butter-poached lobster tails. There are plenty of non-seafood items here too, like the duck breast and wagyu flatiron, but the truly adventurous eaters should opt for The Treatment, a $65 chef's choice sampler that includes a $5 donation to charity. You don’t need to book a ticket to New Orleans to get your fix of Cajun dishes. Instead, head to Eddie’s Place in the Cotswold neighborhood, where she-crab soup, muffuletta sandwiches, and po’ boys are menu staples.
The experience isn’t cheap — $175 for 10-course menus and $235 for 14 courses (most courses have more than one item, pushing the number of creations to as high as 50 bits and bites), and wine pairings can add $100 to $300. But it’s regularly selling out, proving that Charlotte eaters are willing to go all in on an experience. 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. Try banh xeo, a classic curry-yellow pancake filled with shrimp; com chien thom, pineapple fried rice served in a hollowed-out pineapple half; or the crispy quail, served with a little dish of salt and black pepper with lemon. Is there anything more satisfying than picking up a dense, build-your-own-salad-bowl to-go on a work day for under $15?
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).
In his spot within the Mint Museum Uptown, Executive Chef Jonathan Moore plates dishes as pretty as the art on the walls nearby. The menu takes on dishes from across the globe, like Pulled Duck Arepas, Pork Belly Bulgogi lettuce wraps and a Gullah Paella from right here on the Carolina coast. There’s a walk-up window for those in a hurry and a little outdoor seating, but there’s usually no trouble finding a seat inside the Good Wurst. You can’t go wrong with a menu that stretches from bagels to Reubens to a deep pocket of “wursts” — dogs and brats.
Sure, this town has technically existed since 1768, but we weren’t invited to sit at the Big City table until the early 2000s. That might explain why Charlotte doesn’t really have that one tangible dish. What’s our version of the juicy lucy in Minneapolis, the half-smoke in DC, or hot chicken in Nashville? Lorem Ipsum is, in a way, a hotel bar, but it’s cooler with Justin Hazelton at the helm, cozier with moody candlelight, and with much, much better music. That’s the main part of this bar’s identity — listening to rotating music offerings over the specialized sound design system, with paired visuals projected onto the wall. Alongside a small, specialty wine and beer list for sipping, there’s a classy Earl Grey take on an Old Fashioned, a banana-infused rum cocktail, and a salted, citrusy tequila drink, just to name a few.
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. El Puro looks and feels straight out of pre-revolutionary Havana, with an atmosphere and a menu of Cuban classics to back it up. They have dependably great cocktails, served in tiki glasses and garnished with things like charred edible flowers, to drink in the glow of the neon sign hanging above the stage. New-kid-on-the-block Substrate is a neighborhood enoteca that adds stunning vermouths, amari, and natural wine to Optimist Park.
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.
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. Described as a “Southern steakhouse meets potluck,” Supperland covers a lot of ground, from a spatchcocked branzino to a bone marrow broccoli, to a service of caviar that’s sustainably farmed in North Carolina. Veteran restaurateurs Jamie Brown and Jeff Tonidandel brought in Chef Chris Rogienski to handle the kitchen in this former church.
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