Click a dot for the "don't miss" item at each spot. Filter by cuisine type using the layer control.
March 2023 Update: We finally got to Zweli's, America's first Zimbabwean restaurant, owned and operated by the indomitable Williams duo. 10/10, we'll certainly be back for the oxtail which quickly sells out. Perhaps the happiest surprise: their lemonade was outstanding and almost worth a return journey alone.
The General Rule
The best food in any mid-size American city is almost never at the places getting written up in the local magazine. It's at the restaurant run by a family who moved here 20 years ago and is cooking the food they grew up with. Find those places. Ask people who grew up there, not people who just moved there.
A few highlights worth calling out:
- Picnic (Durham) — best damn chopped BBQ and fried chicken sandwich in the state. Don't argue.
- Lime and Lemon (Durham) — Gobi Manchurian. Holy hell.
- Gocciolina (Durham) — chalkboard menu, radicchio appetizer, the kind of Italian that makes you wonder what you've been eating.
- Lawrence BBQ (RTP) — the brisket is obvious, but somehow the most amazing Brussels sprouts you'll ever have.
- Zweli's (Durham) — Dovi chicken + their lemonade. Zimbabwean cuisine, nationally recognized, right in Durham.