One of our foodie friends, Erin of @Every_Last_Bite, is always sharing about her amazing eats from the RDU-Triangle area, and all we can do is salivate over our phones as we scroll through her grid. With Raleigh’s foodie scene booming and restaurants by renowned Chef Ashley Christensen, we have been planning to make a weekend trip to Raleigh and finally made it happen for Kriska’s birthday weekend this past October! At about 2 and a half hours away from Charlotte and with so many places to check out, the City of Oaks is a great weekend getaway if you’re looking for something to do as a mini trip from the Queen City.
There were so many restaurants and breweries that we wanted to check out and after going through about 25+ pinned locations on our Google map from perusing Erin’s grid and other Raleigh foodie lists, we narrowed our trip down to this itinerary:
It was very difficult to narrow down this itinerary, and honestly it felt like we were still going to miss out on all that the Raleigh food scene had to offer. But you can really only eat so much before you’re just punishing yourself with gluttony. LOL! After the weekend was done and we managed to check off each spot on our list though, we can honestly say that we did Raleigh right but definitely want to come back again. Read below to see what we ate and saw and let us know if you’ve been to any of these spots and what you think. We also want to know if we missed any of your spots and start creating our next Raleigh itinerary.
Brewery Bhavana | This brewery + floral shop + bookstore + dim sum spot was hands down our favorite stop, and kicking off our trip with it really set the tone for our foodie trip!
The airy space was beautiful and we could have spent a whole afternoon there. Every dish was perfectly executed and while we wanted more, we were trying to make sure we didn’t stuff ourselves since we had so many other food stops!
Make sure to order the xiao long bao, the scallion pancakes, shu mai, and Nasi Goreng fried rice.
We love their take on scallion pancakes–the bone marrow was so rich and so bad but so good! The presentation on the Nasi Goreng fried rice was so cool, but more importantly, it was really tasty. We didn’t want to waste a single morsel of rice despite being so full.
Budacai Raleigh | Of course we were going to stop here–did you guys see how many boba spots we stopped at in NYC {ICYMI: Our Foodie trip to NYC}
They had BROWN SUGAR MILK TEA, so of course, Kriska had to order it. Be ready for a sugar rush that was perfect to fuel up the rest of the day after the food coma from Brewery Bhavana.
DECO Raleigh | This shop had so many cute things–we wanted it all. It’s a great stop for local souvenirs and unique gifts. Kriska snagged a few pins to add to her collection!
Morgan Street Food Hall | The food hall game in Raleigh is pretty strong with two major ones, this and Transfer Co. Food Hall.
There are lots of options to choose from and we ended up trying four different stalls: Makus Empanadas, MKG Kitchen, The Katsu, and the Raleigh Mini Donut Company.
BITTERSWEET | Oh. Em. Gee.
BEST DESSERT WE EVER HAD.
BEST WE EVER HAD.
Their take on a s’mores was so RIDICULOUSLY good. We would literally go back to Raleigh just for this.
Lucette Grace | This place has a vast option of sweet treats (and also sandwiches, etc). As we only had a few minutes to spare before Beasley’s Chicken + Honey was going to open (and since we just had a lite breakfast from Heirloom), we opted for just trying out their French macarons. They passed the Grayson standard, so I guess we can recommend this spot! 🙂
Beasley’s Chicken & Honey | We couldn’t go to Raleigh and not eat at a restaurant by renowned chef Ashley Christensen. We warned that there’d be a line for BCH, and we literally walked by it at 10:30AM and there wasn’t a single person in sight. We decided to walk around some more and even stopped for a quick sweet treat at Lucette Grace, only to come back at 10:50am with a line already going down the street. We were literally the third to the last group seated before they had to start taking names with a wait time of 45 minutes! Phew!
Transfer Co. Food Hall | Our favorite between the two food halls for sure. Loved the layout and the brighter space, but MSFH just has a different vibe. Both our awesome spots for those seeking to try out multiple dishes within one place.
We tried three stalls:
BULBOX for some bulgogi fries and boba, Mamacrows for some French fries for Gray, and the MUST: Benchwarmer’s Bagels. Per Erin’s recommendation, we tried the bagel flight: bagel plus 4 choices of spreads for $6–what a deal, especially for the person that can’t decide what to get!
BURIAL BEER | The Burial Beer Taproom in Raleigh apparently got a recent makeover and we are in love with the space. There’s a literal floor-to-ceiling floating shelves of potted indoor plants and all sorts of curated antiques and art. It’s a great place to meet up with friends and grab a brew, and that’s what we did. We were able to meet our friend, Erin, and caught up over some freaking awesome craft brews–Burial Beer is hands down one of the best NC breweries. We are ever grateful to Ketan of Pop The Top, our favorite bottle shop in CLT, for introducing us to Burial!
CORTEZ | We are suckers for a great oyster special, and when we saw that Cortez runs their Dollar Oyster Happy Hour from 5-6PM, Tues-Sun…we had to make it our last stop of our trip. It’s also a recommended spot so we had to go. Turns out, that it was also their birthday so they had live band on the patio and we got to party with them.
Are you hungry and ready to plan your Raleigh trip? Let us know if you head that way and check out any of these spots. We’d love to know what you think.
This Raleigh guide recommended by Kriska!
cltremedy.com 