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The Research Triangle is home to seven major universities, so you can bet on having plenty of restaurants around to feed the thousands of students in the area. Chapel Hill, home of University of North Carolina, has several great restaurants. For upscale French, try The Fearrington House Restaurant. Chapel Hill has cheaper, student friendly restaurants, including Azure Grille, General Store Cafe and Jujube. Duke University students in Durham frequent Piazza Italia, Restaurant Starlu and George’s Garage. Raleigh itself has no shortage of restaurants. American favorites include 18 Seaboard, Glenwood Grill, The Twisted Fork and Winston’s Grille. For delicious Italian, try 518 West, Tavola Rossa or Vivace. Raleigh also has incredible Indian, Brazilian, Mexican, French and Japanese restaurants all over the city.
Chapel Hill Restaurants
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411 W. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, NC 27516
Italian. $$. Chapel Hill's 411 West is a rustic but elegant looking restaurant that specializes in Mediterranean food with an emphasis on the big flavors of Italy. Look for fresh pasta, wood-fired pizzas and great steaks.
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407 Meadowmont Village Circle, Chapel Hill, NC 27517
California. $$. Azure Grille is the place in Chapel Hill for inventive and inspired dishes that blend California's ingredient-driven cuisine with French technique. Choose from dishes like pan-roasted duck with grilled peaches and plums, broccoli raab and Thai basil ver jus, pan roasted halibut with tomato-bread salad and rosemary grilled shrimp served on toasted polenta. Azure also has a good wine list with about a dozen wines available by the glass.
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100 Meadowmont Village Cir., Chapel Hill, NC 27517
American. $$$. B. Christopher's restaurant is a classic American steakhouse that distinguishes itself with top-notch ingredients. The Chapel Hill restaurant partners with local growers like Isley Farms, Maple View Dairy, Lindley Mills, Ashley Farms and others while the beef is corn-fed and wet aged. Steak specialties include filet mignon au poive, spicy rib eye and a bone-in rib eye.
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1201 M Raleigh Rd., Chapel Hill, NC 21517
Steakhouse. $$$$. Bin 44 takes the steakhouse to another level with its elegant setting, wood-fired grill and crape myrtle-canopied patio. Steak dishes like the American Kobe ribeye and 32-ounce prime porterhouse are the stars of the menu but other choices like the grilled red grouper and big eye tuna with Szechuan peppercorns shine as well. Bin 44 wine cellar boasts 1,300 bottles and more than 300 varietals.
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211 Pittsboro St., Chapel Hill, NC 27516
Contemporary American. $$$. The Carolina Crossroads Restaurant is not only a stunning antebellum architectural jewel but one of North Carolina's premier restaurants as well. Located in the historic Carolina Inn, Chapel Hill's Crossroads Restaurant offers a changing, seasonally driven menu of contemporary American food that features dishes like oven-roasted snapper with shrimp jambalaya and Carolina gold rice, roasted grouper with basil pearl cous cous and roasted duck breast with sweet corn and chanterelle mushrooms.
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39 West St., Pittsboro, NC 27312
Contemporary American. $$. Don't let the humble name fool you. The General Store Café is a first-rate restaurant as well as a community focal point in downtown Pittsboro. Chef Jeff Howell has created a menu featuring local foods prepared with influences from around the world but with a southern twist. Look for dishes like hormone-free beef tenderloin with horseradish Dijon sauce, seared salmon with citrus beurre blacc and roasted eggplant roulade.
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1505 East Franklin St., Chapel Hill, NC 27514
Italian. $$$. Located in Chapel Hill's luxurious Siena Hotel, Il Palio restaurant serves inspired Italian cuisine with dishes like grilled North Carolina red trout with chickpea and black olive salad and pan-roasted snapper pancetta, Jerusalem artichokes, asparagus and a vin santo veal reduction.
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1201-L Raleigh Rd., Chapel Hill, NC 27517
Asian. $$. Chapel Hill's Jujube is a modern Asian restaurant that blends the flavors and ingredients of China and Vietnam and imbues them with a whimsical western sensibility. The result is a eclectic, lively menu that features dishes like crispy scallion calamari with sweet tamarind dipping sauce, spicy oyster mushroom curry with coconut milk, chili, lime, and cilantro, and Jujube "Bolognese"--rice noodles in a rich sauce of braised pork, hoisin, and ginger.
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201 S. Estes Dr., Chapel Hill, NC 27514
International. $$$. Chapel Hil's Spice Street is a culinary world unto itself. Inside Giorgio Bakatsias' restaurant is a grill, lounge, bar, market and cooking demo space. The grill is literally and figuratively the heart of Spice Street and the restaurant features an inspired-east-meets west menu that includes specialties like Morrocan chicken with preserved lemons, bouillabaisse with Madagascar prawns in a lemon-ginger saffron broth and kung pao chicken.
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2000 Fearrington Village, Pittsboro, NC 27312
French. $$$$. As North Carolina's only AAA Five Diamond restaurant, The Fearrington House restaurant offers sophisticated regional cuisine with French influences in an elegant and romantic setting. Executive Chef Graham Fox's acclaimed menus change weekly to highlight fresh, seasonal and local ingredients. Dishes include smoked duck breast with quail egg, sweet and sour dressing, veal sweetbreads with globe artichoke, black truffles, parmesan and petite herb salad, and Lane snapper with yellow corn, chorizo sausage, zucchini, sherry reduction and corn sauce. Just a short drive from Chapel Hill, the restaurant is located in the original Fearrington farm home-place and features elegant dining rooms furnished with European antiques accented with original southern art.
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—Reviews by Stett Holbrook
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