The grab-and-go grocery and freezer sections are heavy on high-end snacks and a few cooking ingredients. There’s a parking deck right behind it, but it doesn’t validate parking (yet), so add $5 to your bill unless you live within walking distance. This snug ramen shop overlooking the Charlotte Rail Trail in South End features deep bowls of steaming ramen ranging from vegan to pork belly. Start with the shishito peppers and the crispy fried Brussels sprouts with light bonito flakes, and end with the soft serve ice cream of the day — miso ginger is the latest.
Prime Fish
When Plaza Midwood brewery Resident Culture expanded to a cavernous space in South End, it found space for chef Hector González-Mora, whose breakfast taqueria had already attracted a following. González-Mora has thrived, and now El Toro Bruto has a full menu, from breakfast to lunch to dinner. It’s the kind of thoughtful Mexican cuisine that’s taken a while to find a home in Charlotte.
Dining in a winter wonderland: The coolest heated patios in Charlotte - Charlotte Observer
Dining in a winter wonderland: The coolest heated patios in Charlotte.
Posted: Mon, 18 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
JJ’s Red Hots
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.
DAVIDSON
The restaurant is small and cozy, with exposed brick walls, soft lighting which provides a warm golden glow and simple yet elegant decor. Luckily, Good Food gave up its no-reservations policies, meaning there’s no longer a painfully long wait to get a table. There’s a decidedly low-country Carolina vibe at Fin & Fino, not just because of the fresh seafood on offer but also for the beachy and airy feel of the place.
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. If you were dropped blindly into Sweet Lew’s, you’d think you were in a small-town BBQ joint, not a restaurant in North Carolina’s largest urban city. The place is small and humble, with Coca-Cola, Cheerwine, and RC Cola memorabilia on the walls alongside vintage photos from when the building used to be a Texaco service station. Order the Sweet Lew Sampler at the counter from a menu scrawled on a chalkboard.
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?
Wagyu pot roast, miso mac and cheese, and broccoli grilled with bone marrow butter will barely leave room for desserts like salted honey pie. Nestled between the Mint Museum and the tail end of the Tryon Street business corridor, Fin & Fino’s cocktails and impressive raw bar make it a seafood haven. 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.
NORTH END
This uptown restaurant is just swanky enough, with black leather seats and faux cherry blossom branches hanging from the ceiling. T Breakfast, which turns the table into a breakfast buffet of fried chicken, bacon, eggs, donuts, biscuits, and jams. Highly sought-after food truck El Veneno has a permanent setup at Birdsong Brewing for Sunday brunch. The breakfast tacos are unlike any other, with scorched, spiced meats hugged by corn tortillas. 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.
Little Mama in SouthPark is his upscale sequel to the ever-popular Mama Ricotta’s. But the thrill of shuffling downstairs to your kitchen to forage for lunch has definitely worn off. Now that some of us (most of us?) are back to morning commutes and afternoon slumps that don’t include binge-watching HGTV makeovers, it’s time to return to going out to lunch. Whether you pick it up to go or take a seat while you take a break, a lot of new options have popped up. The menu in this lounge-y hangout just got a makeover thanks to the onboarding of chef Greg Collier, known for his Rock Hill brunch hot spot The Yolk, and his leadership with the pop-up dinner series called Soul Food Sessions. Under the prowess of former Top Chef contestant Jamie Lynch, the Charlotte-based eatery has grown in popularity and expanded to Charleston and Atlanta.
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).
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.
