These are the 10 essential restaurants in Durham and Chapel Hill

In the rapidly evolving Triangle, keeping up with the changes in the dining scene is a daunting — albeit rewarding — challenge.

For the last several years, each annual Best Restaurants list has included some two dozen restaurants that weren’t on the previous year’s list. For local foodies, that translates to an unending feast of new flavors.

But what if you’re new to town? Or you’ve got out-of-town guests, and you want to give them a real taste of your hometown? The local landmarks that reveal the region’s culinary history, as well as relative newcomers that are leading the way in its evolution?

We call these restaurants “essential,” those that define the local dining scene.

If only there was a list of such essential restaurants. A concise list that, if you were only in town for 48 hours, you could hit a few of them and feel confident that you had gotten a good taste of the local flavor.

A list like this one.

Last week, we explored the top 10 essential restaurants of Raleigh. This week, we’re heading west to check out Durham and Chapel Hill.

These are what I consider to be essential after being a dining critic for more than 20 years. Let me know what you would add to your “essential” list in the Triangle.

DURHAM

M Tempura

111 Orange St., Durham

919-748-3874 or m-restaurants.com/m-tempura

You’ve had tempura before, no doubt, but odds are you’ve never had tempura like this. Chef/restaurateur Michael Lee opened M Tempura in late 2018, one of just a handful of restaurants in the country serving omakase-style tempura. Like omakase sushi, the tempura version is a chef’s choice selection presented one course at a time, delivered straight from the fryer to your plate so that each morsel can be appreciated at its freshest, most delicately crisp peak.

Tempura is offered only in the evenings (and it’s a tiny space, so reservations are a must), with three omakase options, ranging from the the Basic (nine courses plus steamed rice with a runny tempura egg and miso soup) all the way up to the M Omakase, a lavish 17-course tempura feast.

I named M Tempura the Triangle’s Restaurant of the Year, and it’s tempting to say the honor isn’t just for M Tempura, but for Lee’s entire body of work. Let’s call him essential to Durham’s dining scene. His collection of restaurants in Durham includes M Sushi in 2016, M Kokko (a tiny, casual spot specializing in Korean and Japanese chicken dishes), and M Pocha (Asian street food-inspired small plates). All are first-rate.

M Tempura, recognized by Bon Appetit as one of the country’s 50 best new restaurants, raises the bar.

Picnic

1647 Cole Mill Road, Durham

919-908-9128 or picnicdurham.com

When you pull up in front of Picnic, you may think you’ve got the wrong address. Aren’t barbecue joints supposed to be situated at a country crossroads, miles from any city? Then why are you looking out across a patchwork of suburban lawns, a hushpuppy’s throw from downtown Durham?

Trust me, you’ve come to the right place. Wyatt Dickson is a leader in a new generation of pitmasters who are reviving the art of traditional North Carolina barbecue. He cooks whole hogs exclusively over hardwood coals. But pulled pork is by no means the only attraction. Fried chicken is some of the best around. It’s brined, then marinated in house-smoked buttermilk before being fried to a juicy, golden brown turn in a raggedly crunchy batter.

Rose’s Noodles, Dumplings & Sweets

121 N. Gregson St., Durham

919-797-2233 or rosesdurham.com

Thanks in large measure to the Triangle’s three major research universities, the area’s demographics have made it a magnet for prime culinary talent. When Justin and Katie Meddis arrived from Charleston by way of San Francisco to open Rose’s in 2013, the region scored a two-fer. Justin’s Asian-inspired offerings are sufficient reasons to make Rose’s a must, going beyond the restaurant’s namesake house-made noodles and dumplings to include the likes of caramel braised belffish with clay pot rice, Japanese katsu sando, and sake butter-sautéed NC squid.

But it’s impossible to imagine leaving without sampling at least a couple of Katie’s superb pastries. And by all means get a few of her caramels (salted or fennel — better yet, both) to take with you.

Saltbox Seafood Joint

Two locations in Durham: 608 N. Mangum St. (walkup only), 2637 Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd. saltboxseafoodjoint.com

Fair warning: This deceptively modest-looking eatery will spoil you for fried seafood. That’s because owner/chef Ricky Moore, a New Bern native and Culinary Institute of America alum, has some pretty exacting standards, having worked in fine dining restaurants before opening the original Saltbox in 2012 (a true seafood shack with no indoor seating, just a few picnic tables out front.

Moore, who was named a James Beard Award semifinalist in the Southeast in February, insists on serving only fresh local seafood, so the selection is short, sweet and seasonal. You’ll typically find just a half-dozen or so options, available as a plate (with thinly sliced fried potatoes and and a distinctive dill- and parsley- punctuated slaw) or on a buttered and toasted hoagie bun.

On any given day, you might find flounder, oysters, grouper and bone-in croaker on the chalkboard menu. Be sure to check the sign out front, too, where for a few weeks in the spring, you’ll see the words “It’s Wahoo Season.” Take the hint.

Yamazushi

4711 Hope Valley Road, Suite 6-A, Durham

919-493-7748 or yamazushirestaurant.com

The area’s oldest Japanese restaurant started out as a sushi joint in 1986. Decades later, after years of battling the growing BOGO sushi trend, owners George and Mayumi Yamazawa considered retiring. Instead, they decided to give the area its first taste of kaiseki, a multi-course dinner featuring a procession of small, artful dishes prepared only with fresh, seasonal ingredients.

True to tradition, every aspect of the meal is carefully considered, from the earthenware dishes and sake cups (all hand-made by George Yamazawa) to a bamboo-screened dining room that only seats four to six diners, allowing Mayumi Yamazawa to provide a level of service that’s unheard of nowadays.

You might say it’s a gastronomic fairy tale with a happy ending. And you’ll certainly say that the kaiseki experience at Yamazushi is one of the most memorable meals of your life.

Note that the restaurant is on select nights (currently Wednesday, Thursday and Friday), and reservations are required.

CHAPEL HILL AND CARRBORO

Crook’s Corner

610 W. Franklin St., Chapel Hill

919-929-7643 or crookscorner.com

Crook’s Corner has been a Chapel Hill landmark for four decades — a span during which, remarkably, the restaurant has had only three chefs. Legendary founding chef Bill Neal is widely credited as a pioneer in contemporary Southern cuisine who made shrimp and grits the nationally recognized dish it is today.

When Neal died in 1991, the mantle passed to Bill Smith, who for the next 17 years walked the tightrope of preserving Crook’s heritage while leaving his own mark with signature dishes like green Tabasco chicken and Atlantic Beach pie. Smith retired in 2018, and Justin Burdett — who cut his culinary teeth under James Beard Award-winning chef Hugh Acheson — stepped into his place.

By gradually adding his own imprint to the menu while faithfully preserving the iconic dishes of a restaurant that the New York Times once dubbed “sacred ground for Southern foodies,” Burdett has proven himself a worthy successor.

Lantern

423 W. Franklin St., Chapel Hill

919-969-8846 or lanternrestaurant.com

When Andrea Reusing opened Lantern in 2002, the farm-to-table movement was a distant blip on the local culinary radar. And the concept of applying that philosophy to a contemporary pan-Asian menu was unheard of.

Word spread about the winning combination, and in 2011 Reusing won the James Beard Foundation award for Best Chef in the Southeast. The menu has evolved since then, but the chef’s uncompromising standards haven’t wavered. With temptations such as pea shoot and scallion dumplings, Vietnamese-style NC shrimp and local pork spring rolls, and spice-cured mulard duck with local sweet potato-ginger puree, served by a welcoming, well-trained wait staff in a sleek contemporary Asian setting, Lantern shines as bright as ever.

Reusing’s influence extends to Durham, where she is chef of The Durham hotel’s restaurant, which also has been honored as The News & Observer’s Restaurant of the Year.

Mama Dip’s Kitchen

408 W. Rosemary St., Chapel Hill

919-942-5837 or mamadips.com

Named for the late Mildred “Mama Dip” Council (and still run by her family), this beloved local institution has been serving up down-home Southern fare since 1976. The fried chicken is legendary, but it’s by no means the only rewarding option on a menu that covers the traditional Southern repertoire from chicken and dumplings to smothered pork chops.

Pan-fried salmon cakes are just like Granny used to make (if Granny grew up in these parts), and there’s a cornucopia of country-style vegetable sides to choose. If you’re there for breakfast, whether you choose the sweet (pecan pancakes) or savory (fried catfish and eggs) route, be sure to take a little detour for some sweet potato biscuits.

Merritt’s Store & Grill

1009 S. Columbia St., Chapel Hill

919-942-4897 or facebook.com/merrittsstoreandgrill

Merritt’s began life as an Esso station in 1929, and morphed over the decades into a small convenience store. In recent years, the selection has dwindled to little more than bags of potato chips, a few plastic-wrapped baked goods and souvenir T-shirts. But you’re here for the grill, which was added in 1992, and has become locally famous for its B.L.T.

This is the quintessential B.L.T., one that doesn’t skimp on the B (thick, crunchy slices), the L or the T (local when in season). The sandwich is offered in single-, double- or triple-decker versions, on your choice of locally baked bread. Mayo is optional, but recommended. More than a dozen add-ons are available, from avocado to pimento cheese. But with a B.L.T. this good, that would just be gilding the lily.

Pizzeria Mercato

408 Weaver St., Carrboro

919-967-2277 or pizzeriamercatonc.com

By all rights, Mercato shouldn’t even be in the running for best Neapolitan-style pizzeria in the area. The pies are baked in a gas oven, not the wood-fired standard for the genre. Topping combinations frequently stray outside traditional bounds to include the likes of fennel sausage with mustard greens, or Brussels sprouts with guanciale.

But those toppings are prime quality, including many from the nearby Carrboro farmers market, which also supplies ingredients in Mercato’s superb antipasti and salads. And even a diehard Vera Napoletana purist couldn’t fault the textbook crust.

All of which comes as no surprise when you know that owner/chef Gabe Barker is the son of two James Beard award winners: Ben Barker, who won Best Chef in the Southeast in 2000, and the late Karen Barker, winner of America’s Outstanding Pastry Chef in 2003. Talk about culinary pedigree.

This story was originally published March 9, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "These are the 10 essential restaurants in Durham and Chapel Hill."