The Best Restaurants in Raleigh, North Carolina | Bon Appétit

In our guide to spending an ideal day eating, drinking, and adventuring through a new-to-you city, Brigid Washington shares her picks for the best restaurants in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Raleigh is a city where opposites delightfully converge. There’s a robust industrial and entrepreneurial spirit here that naturally melds with long-standing agrarian traditions. North Carolina’s massive, year-round 30,000 square-foot farmers market—the lifeblood for hundreds of independent tradespeople—is just a stone’s throw from the research park and tech juggernaut Centennial Campus.

As a cookbook author and resident of Raleigh for some 20 years, I’ve found that this city is a place that satisfies all sorts of hungers. There’s a natural, warm ease in Raleigh that connects me to my childhood in Trinidad and Tobago. The shade from Raleigh’s majestic oak trees reminds me of the bountiful palms throughout my Caribbean. During the balmy summer months, that leafy covering is precious. The best restaurants in Raleigh opt for authenticity over pretense, and the sense of welcome and hospitality is palpable at all of my favorite spots, from Carolina barbecue to mouthwatering Laotian food. Raleigh is a city with real soul and heart, and these are the standout spots that make this place pulse.

The Essentials

  • The best time to visit is… during the late spring and early fall. The city is in full bloom, and the weather is mild and breezy.
  • Don’t forget to pack… great walking shoes and a water bottle. Raleigh is a very walkable city with more than a hundred miles of greenways.
  • Don’t leave town without… Bee Blessed Honey, a local brand that specializes in small-batch honey. If you’re looking for a sweet taste of the city to remember your visit, this stuff is a no-brainer. And if you’re in need of new jeans (of course you are), get a pair from Raleigh Denim—They’ll go the distance, long after your trip is over.
  • The best place to stay is… the Longleaf Hotel. It’s a modernized-but-retro motor lodge, featuring a lounge with great wine and vermouth-based cocktails.

a hand serving a biscuit sandwich with fried egg

A fried chicken sandwich from Big Ed’s.

Photograph by Cole Wilson

A True Southern Breakfast, and a Slice of Humble Pie

Start your day with some country cooking classics at Big Ed’s. A fixture of City Market in downtown Raleigh since 1989, this restaurant is the place to go for a true Southern breakfast experience—old-school favorites like salty country ham with red-eye gravy and house-made biscuits with blackstrap molasses. The recklessly large, buttery-crisp pancakes are equally delicious. Every visit, I vow I’m not going to order them—and every time I do, with zero regrets.