Restaurant ideas?
October 16th, 2008Gabe and I will be celebrating our 2nd anniversary next Thursday, and Aunt Kristin has agreed to babysit Madeline for the evening. We are looking for some place interesting and new (to us). Most importantly, it does NOT have to be kid friendly. Hopefully, I do not have to worry about strict dairy free restrictions, just avoiding heavy dairy at the moment. Please leave comments with suggestions in the Triangle area! What are your favorite special occasion restaurants?
Possibly related posts (automatically generated):
- The Dairy Free Life
During my pregnancy, I was sometimes frustrated by all the “rules” that I had to follow when it came to...
October 16th, 2008 at 6:16 am
O.k. – you have asked the right girl. I am a restaurant critic wannabe. Do you have a particular type of cuisine? I would recommend some of the following:
Steakhouses:
Rio Churrascaria – a brazilian steakhouse (great for meat eaters), there is one in Cary and one in N. Raleigh, neat concept if you’ve never been to one
Prime Only – a great steakhouse (do you see a theme), there are two – one downtown (it also has a sushi bar) and one in N. Raleigh
Sullivans – Glenwood South, great food, good bar scene
Angus Barn – of course
Seafood:
Fins – There is a new restaurant downtown called Fins. It is seafood. Though I haven’t been, it has been raved about by one of my coworkers and by local food critics.
Mura – a sushi restaurant in North Hills. The same owners also own Sono downtown.
Comfort Food:
The Pit – There is an upscale BBQ joint downtown now. It has brisket and ribs and smoked turkey, etc. It’s REALLY good.
Cajun:
The Big Easy – there is a New Orleans style restaurant on Fayetteville Street downtown. It’s really good and it has a neat decor.
Tapas:
Zely & Ritz: this place is neat because it serves small plates but ALL of the food is grown locally on a farm owned (?) by the chef and his wife. You might check to see if by chance they are having one of their special dinners. They sometimes have theme food dinners (honey dinner, tomato dinner) or wine dinners.
Just Plain Fancy:
The Mint: This restaurant downtown is really expensive, but it is supposed to be great. They have valet parking.
October 16th, 2008 at 6:28 am
Kim and I usually hit up Quiznos on special occasions. Seriously.
October 16th, 2008 at 6:34 am
One of our favorite places — which is just an “us” place (no kids) — is Hayes Barton Cafe (http://www.hayesbartoncafe.com/Home.html). It’s very small, you’ll knock elbows with your neighbor, I think it’s intimate, locally-owned/operated
, and the food is phenomenal. I am sure you have read my blog postings about this place.
The buckhead filet is the one to go for. It is usually not on the menu (not the main one) so ask for it. That is, if you go there.
The cakes, BTW, are HUMONGOUS. So either share an entree and share cake, or take some home. But don’t leave the cafe without at least one piece.
October 16th, 2008 at 6:59 am
I was just going to suggest Hayes Barton! Cindy beat me to it!! It’s very romantic i think, and the food really is wonderful.
October 16th, 2008 at 7:19 am
One of our favorites is Crook’s Corner in Chapel Hill. I LOVE their shrimp and grits (and I normally don’t even like grits).
October 16th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
My favorite is Mo’s Diner in downtown Raleigh. Don’t be fooled by the name. It is small, intimate, elegant, and the food is outstanding.
Rey’s is also really nice for a special occassion. Fearrington House is really elegant too.
My friend at work who is a MAJOR foodie loves Elaine’s in Chapel Hill best. She also recommends Mo’s a lot.
October 17th, 2008 at 7:34 am
We don’t get out to “nice” restaurants too often, but one suggestion I have that would fall into this category is where we went for our anniversary this past summer: Second Empire. Actually, we were technically eating in the Tavern at Second Empire, but we could order off of either menu and the kitchen and food were all the same, we just were seated in the darker tavern-type area of the restaurant instead of the main dining area. Regardless, I do highly recommend it for a special occasion! The food and wine were both excellent!
I also like going out for tapas whenever possible…it’s great to be able to sample small portions of lots of dishes! For this my suggestions are Red Room in downtown Raleigh, and Oliver Twist in north Raleigh. I would like to try Zely & Ritz, mentioned above! In fact, this seems to be a good list of lots of different local restaurants to keep in mind to try one day!
October 18th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Happy anniversary! And your daughter has an AWESOME name!
October 18th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
I have to agree with Ann — Mo’s Diner is also a great, romantic spot. I have been meaning to return there and I just need to put that on the priority list. You can’t go wrong with either Mo’s or Hayes Barton.
BTW, Prime Only in downtown Raleigh is closed…I’m sure you know from the news. We ate at the downtown location awhile back…fruit flies!!! Yuck!!!