1. Jujube
City: Raleigh, NC
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (919) 960-0555
Description: In a little shopping center on N.C. 54 that you might miss if you’re not looking for it, Jujube serves up Asian-fusion dishes in a relaxed, hip setting. Oversized black-and-white documentary photographs of Chinese street scenes look down from the walls in the main dining room, and a row of cozy booths bathed in soft light beckons beyond. Surprising combinations like sweet potato fritters with black vinegar sauce and Jujube Bolognese—rice noodles in a sauce of braised pork, hoisin, and ginger—make for a delicious and light-hearted dining experience.
2. Dalat Oriental
City: Raleigh, NC
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (919) 832-7449
Address: 2109 Avent Ferry Rd.
Description: The dining room is comfortable and fairly nondescript, but the food is what you’ll remember. The menu offers a vast array of Chinese and Vietnamese dishes, and the kitchen executes them with precision and care. Most selections lean toward traditional specialties—pho, glass noodle dishes, spring rolls—and everything comes out kissed with bright flavor. Tofu sautéed with Chinese tender greens is a treat for soy fans, and squid with pickled mustard greens and cashews will satisfy anyone looking for adventure.
3. Duck & Dumpling
City: Raleigh, NC
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (919) 838-0085
Address: 222 S. Blount St.
Description: The Duck & Dumpling is a sleek setting for wonderful lemongrass-infused soups, tender dumplings and a litany of other great Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai dishes. Dumplings come with a variety of fillings—pork, duck, edamame, and mushroom, to name a few. Entrees include several delicious fish dishes, including pan-seared sea bass and poached diver sea scallops with ginger sauce. The interior is airy and warm, illuminated by scores of tiny lights that make each table feel intimate.
4. Sawasdee
City: Raleigh, NC
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (919) 878-0049
Address: 3601 Capital Blvd., Suite 107
Description: Sawasdee’s dining rooms are less ornate than some of the Triangle’s other popular Asian eateries, but its food is as good or better than most. The restaurant serves a menu of Thai favorites prepared with careful attention to the details of flavor and presentation. Chef’s daily specials reflect the needs of the season—hearty soups and stews in the winter and cool, tangy salads in summer. With a wide selection of curries, pad Thai, spicy eggplant dishes, and fried tofu, the menu offers something for just about anyone, from those with tentative palates to more adventurous diners. Sawasdee is kid-friendly, and they serve their portions of jasmine rice in the shapes of farm animals to cheer young diners.
5. Hereghty
City: Raleigh, NC
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (919) 781-5850
Address: 2603 Glenwood Ave., Suite 123
Description: Tucked away in a shopping strip at the corner of Glenwood Avenue and Oberlin Road, Hereghty is a quiet European bakery that turns out beautiful tarts, cakes, and desserts. Specialties include the Prag cake, a hazelnut ganache sponge cake drizzled with rum, and the eye-popping mixed berry tart. It’s a lovely place for a coffee and a treat.
6. Clyde Cooper’S Barbecue
City: Raleigh, NC
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (919) 832-7614
Address: 109 E. Davie St.
Description: It’s been there since 1938, which is why Cooper’s squat little building looks like a relic from another time beside the sleek skyscraper looming over it. Generations of regulars keep coming back, and Cooper’s reputation keeps winning new fans, including the members of U2. The band ordered Cooper’s ’cue delivered to their jet after their Carter-Finley Stadium show in 2009. Pork barbecue (chopped or sliced), chicken (barbecued or fried), and ribs are the staples. Get them with a number of traditional sides, including collard greens, corn and butter beans, and Brunswick stew, a long-simmered mélange of vegetables and chicken. Hush puppies, of course, come with everything.
City: Raleigh, NC
Category: Restaurants
Address: 328 W. Davie St.
8. Big Ed’S At City Market
City: Raleigh, NC
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (919) 836-9909
Address: 220 Wolfe St. in City Market
Description: Big Ed’s looks like the kind of place where you’re going to get real Southern cooking, and it is. It’s a big, noisy room and every available inch of wall space is covered in antique farm equipment, old advertisements, and pictures of politicians and actors who’ve dined there. Service is prompt and friendly, and the portions are huge. The pancakes, omelets, and sausage gravy are spot-on, but it’s the biscuits that make a trip to Big Ed’s the best part of your day. Warm from the oven, they are so light and airy that you hardly have to pick them up off the plate. Eat them with jam or smothered in creamy, savory sausage gravy. Big Ed’s is closed on Sunday.
9. Helios
City: Raleigh, NC
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (919) 838-5177
Address: 413 S. Glenwood Ave.
Description: Glenwood South’s favorite place to caffeinate, Helios is sleek inside with an airy, roomy sitting area. The coffee is good, the lattes and cappuccinos are well-made, and the menu options include bagels, cupcakes, and soy bars. The roomy patio is a great place to soak in the sun or sit in the shade of one of the wide umbrellas and watch the foot traffic on Glenwood.
10. The Morning Times
City: Raleigh, NC
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (919) 836-1204
Address: 10 E. Hargett St.
Description: Next door to The Raleigh Times Bar in downtown Raleigh, the Morning Times brews powerful lattes and serves fresh sandwiches and bagels. The downstairs has great windows for people-watching, and upstairs is a roomy, cozy lounge with couches and tables where laptops are always glowing. Local artists’ work dots the walls, and Morning Times is always a stop on the monthly First Friday gallery walk.
11. Irregardless
City: Raleigh, NC
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (919) 833-8898
Address: 901 W. Morgan St.
Description: The Irregardless led the Triangle’s farm-to-table movement before there was a name for it. Open since 1975 around the corner from N.C. State’s main campus, the Irregardless serves an interesting menu of vegetarian and omnivore entrees. Cheery landscapes and street scenes by local artists adorn the walls, and on Saturday nights the dining room’s parquet floor makes way for dancing to the sounds of local jazz musicians. The menu is diverse, with everything from vegan grilled vegetable biryani to paella to buffalo chicken macaroni and cheese. Small plates are available for those who want just a nibble.
City: Raleigh, NC
Category: Restaurants
Address: 426 S. McDowell St.
City: Raleigh, NC
Category: Restaurants
Address: 301 Glenwood Ave., Suite 100
14. Mecca
City: Raleigh, NC
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (919) 832-5714
Address: 13 E. Martin St.
Description: One of the oldest restaurants in Raleigh, the Mecca has been filling the bellies of politicos and regular Joes for more than six decades. The place is small and dark inside, with wooden booths and lots of noisy chatter. Have the biscuits and gravy for breakfast or the daily special for lunch, which is usually meat—baked chicken, barbecue, hamburger steak, etc.—with Southern-style vegetables—slow-cooked collard greens, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese (yes, that’s a vegetable in the South). Mecca takes cash only, because the vintage register up front isn’t set up for electronic cards. If you want to see what eating in Raleigh was like in the mid-20th century, this is a pretty good picture.
15. Sandwhich
City: Raleigh, NC
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (919) 929-2114
Address: 407 W. Franklin St.
Description: The chef behind the culinary creations at Sandwhich is a graduate of New York’s French Culinary Institute, and he applies the same level of perfection toward his sandwich board that most other chefs direct toward elaborate French menus. Veggies and meat come from local farmers, and the combinations are inspired. Try Lex’s Favorite, which mimics a classic country French salad—sunny-side-up farmers’ market eggs, roasted tomatoes, crispy bacon, and local, organic greens on wheat—or the Paratha—spiced chickpeas, fried eggplant, fennel, spices, and fresh cilantro. Don’t go in and try to micromanage the chef’s vision. Just accept that he has created amazing sandwiches and trust his judgment. You’ll be glad you did.