Chapel Hill Restaurant Guide
Chapel Hill Restaurant Reviews
Welcome to our Chapel Hill restaurant reviews guide where you'll find top restaurants off the beaten path, both locally owned and chain. In fact, some of the best restaurants in the Chapel Hill just might be the little mom and pop operations flying under the radar. For some of the best picks in Chapel Hill, you've come to the right place.
Our Chapel Hill restaurant reviews guide can help you make sense of the thousands of options out there. Happy eating!
Also check out our Best Restaurants in Chapel Hill 2025 Guide
This is one of my favorite places in Chapel Hill. Owned and managed by its executive chef Giovanni, who is very friendly if you get a chance to meet him. The Southern Italian food is as good as it gets, and focuses on seafood, pastas, and paellas. Quaint antiques decorate this walls of this tiny tra...
Top of the Hill has quickly become the premier restaurant and bar in Chapel Hill. Both students and alumni gather here for drinks and dinner - even Coach Matt Doherty makes an occasional appreance. The beer (which they brew themselves) is world class, and the food, though on the expensive side, is o...
This place is open 24-hours. That's probably because the food is only good when you're drunk and hungry at 3 in the morning. Greasy mac'n'cheese, fried okra, and mashed potatos provide great sides to a cheese biscuit. For many, the drinking experience is not complete until a stop is made at Time-out...
This is a nice casual restaurant, and it has gained new life after its renovation. The food here is good, but in my opinion, the atmosphere is its best quality. Right on the corner of Franklin and Columbia streets, Spanky's looks out into the heart of downtown Chapel Hill - no place is better for a ...
This little restaurant caters to a primarily liberal/alternative crowd, and all they serve are strombolis, calzones, and pizza. That's just fine, though, because what they do serve is some of the best in town. They have a wide variety of ingredients with which to customize your meal, and the waitsta...
What a cute little diner this is! You'd expect to find nothing but sandwiches and fried foods here, but they also offer tasty pastas and seafood entrees. Nothing fancy, just good, tasty food that's well within eveyone's price range.
I've been to LA, NY, and DC, and I still haven't found better Mediterranean food. This little restaurant doubles as a market, and offers inexpensive authentic entrees. Great cous cous and hummus!
This is a unique restaurant. Nestled in a plain shopping center, it offers great California-style deep dish pizzas, salads, and sandwiches at low prices. My favorite thing to get is a portobello mushroom sandwich (about $6) and a salad (just $2). This is a good place to go for a casual meal.
I am proud to say that Hector's was the first restaurant I visited as a student in Chapel Hill. They offer the best burgers in town, and they can put a Greek twist on them by serving them with special spices or on pitas. (For vegetarians, their "greek grilled cheese" is a nice alternative to a burge...
This little place in a Chapel Hill basement - now called "Goodfellows" - offers the best barfood in town. Their wings (25 cents on Mondays) are the biggest and best in town, especially with their habanero "Hell XXpress" sauce. The twenty or so beers they have on tap are a nice asset, as is their cle...
El Rodeo offers the best Mexican food in town, along with the most authentic staff. The margaritas are great, and so are their giant (48oz?) draft beers. This place sees its regulars come in each week, with prices and quality as favorable as they are.
This is certainly an interesting place - a little restaurant on the edge of Carrboro, set in a cozy retro-type diner. The food is good - Southern with an alternative twist to it - and the crowd is eclectic to say the least. When I visited, I saw a man in a flannel shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots at o...
This nice little Chinese restaurant is hidden in Eastgate shopping center, and from the outside, it doesn't look like it has much to offer. If you do happen upon it though, you'll find a friendly and courteous staff and some of the best (though not the most authentic) Chinese food in Chapel Hill. Lu...
A college student can't eat here on his own budget more than once or twice, so this fine restaurant obviously caters to alumni and visitors to the University of North Carolina. The food here is excellent, with heavy emphasis on the presentation, and the dining room itself exudes Southern elegance. T...
This nice little restaurant has really come around in the past year (2000) to be one of the hippest places to eat and drink in Chapel Hill. The food here can be a bit rich, so come hungry. After ten, the bar begins to hop, featuring local bands and terrific drink specials.
Good food, better beer. This restaurant is great for casual dining, but I do not recommend driving there; you'll want to sample a few pints of their own microbrews. The food is a nice compliment, with great sandwiches, pastas, and the like. Try the "artichoke and cheese rarebit" appetizer.
I'm not a big fan of Southern food, but this restaurant has always been enjoyable for me nonetheless. The waitstaff, consisiting mostly of UNC students, is one of the friendliest in town. Low prices and sizable portions... there always seems to be at least one police officer dining here.
This cute little Mexican restaurant offers some of the most afforadable entrees in town. Lunch prices are almost all around the five-dollar mark. The salsa is good, as are the margaritas. Not a bad joint for a basement establishment.
This is a good place to go to fill up. The food is mediocre, but the price for the buffet is right - especially for hungry students.
This restaurant, though not much to look at, offers some of the best wings and sandwiches around. Tuesdays, they feature 25 cent wings, which is always a great value. Try the Blazin' sauce if you dare.
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