Where the ‘Top Chef’ judges should eat while they’re filming in Charlotte
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- ‘Top Chef’ judges explore Charlotte’s culinary scene during 2025 filming.
- Highlighted restaurants reflect local flavors, seasonal ingredients, and craft.
- Chef-driven menus, tasting experiences and global influences lead suggestions.
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‘Top Chef’ films in Charlotte
CharlotteFive sat down with the Bravo show’s most famous faces to chat about exploring Charlotte’s food scene.
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“Top Chef” is coming to Charlotte, and we’re getting ready for all the attention that comes with the bright lights of reality TV.
Host Kristen Kish and judges Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons are coming to town — with a few stops planned for filming in Greenville, S.C.
Kish reached out to fans via Instagram, asking for recommendations on things to do and where to eat in Charlotte. And we’re here to help her and her colleagues out.
Restaurant recommendations can be a pretty personal thing. We each have our own preferences and opinions about what we like, and one person’s favorite spot can be another one’s nightmare. With that in mind, here’s a little bit about each chef that inspired our choices.
- Colicchio owns Crafted Hospitality, which operates a handful of fine dining restaurants in New York and New Jersey. Craft, Small Batch and Temple Court are American, Vallata is Italian and Craftsteak is a steak and seafood extravaganza. The common denominators are seasonal ingredients handled with care and artisanal producers at the top of their game.
- Kish’s lakeside restaurant in Austin, Texas — Arlo Grey — is an upscale haven with a focus on local produce. Its menu pulls from her classical training, showcased in dishes including kanpachi crudo with Texas peaches, lasagna with a morel mushroom ragu, and chicken milanese with fresh grits, pickled chow chow, cotija and annatto.
- Simmons is a food writer and television personality who’s also a trained culinarian. The cookbooks she’s written tell the stories of her adventurous eating all over the world, and she’s executive producing an NBCUniversal comedy under development about a food magazine.
Keeping in mind that this trio of food superstars make their livings creating and eating some of the best food anywhere, here’s where I’d send them and why.
Bird Pizzeria
Location: 510 E. 15th St., Charlotte, North Carolina, 28206
I can’t truly say Bird Pizzeria is having a moment right now as its kale Caesar salad is going viral, because it seems that it’s become famous enough that its moments are ongoing now. The New York Times pointed out last year that Kerrel and Nkem Thompson’s pizza was among the best in the nation, and the rest of us have been fighting for reservations ever since.
Please do go ahead and order that spectacularly topped salad drowning in house-made crouton crumbs and Grana Padano cheese. But also take your time in crafting the perfect order of its plain pie — simply tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and basil — or its white pie — with fresh mozzarella, ricotta, butter, garlic, olive oil and basil. Topping choices are sparse for a reason, a fact that won’t go unnoticed for those who eat for a living.
Counter-
Location: 2001 W Morehead St D, Charlotte, NC 28208
While Charlotte has seen plenty of tasting menu restaurants come onto the scene, there is no other that can fairly compare to Counter-. Chef and owner Sam Hart’s innovative concept crafts an entire experience around a theme, complete with a good bit of showmanship and flair.
With this summer’s Piedmont theme, prepare for a deep dive into all things North Carolina. At Counter-, it’s not just the painstakingly sourced local ingredients that find their way into the James Beard Award finalist’s food. It’s also the art on the walls, often the music playing over the speakers and the carefully crafted presentations, filled with facts and stories. Restaurant profits are also passed on to nonprofit partners The Bulb, The Relatives and Time Out Youth.
Community Matters Cafe
Location: 821 W 1st St, Charlotte, NC 28202
Community Matters Cafe, where James Beard Award semifinalist Chayil Johnson runs the show, has been at the forefront of my personal recommendations to friends all year. The place has it all: Excellent food with layers of flavor and a truly laudable mission centered on teaching job skills and life skills to rehab graduates working their way back into the community.
You’ll want to taste Johnson’s New Orleans roots with a pulled pork Johnny Cake for breakfast or his chicken sandwich for lunch. And as you’ll find in many of Charlotte’s best restaurants, seasonal, local ingredients are top of mind at all times.
Customshop
Location:1601 Elizabeth Ave, Charlotte, NC 28204
Customshop’s new American cuisine draws plenty of attention from Charlotte foodies for good reason. Its chef and co-owner Andres Kaifer packs personality and heart into its crudo, small plates and grilled entrees.
Among the popular items to try is the Rohan Duck Breast, with Covington sweet potato puree, duck confit pastelito, guava demi and sesame crumble. But — no matter your order — do yourselves a favor and save room for the flan with Cortadito whipped cream and chocolate crumble. The recipe comes straight from his mother’s kitchen, and you can tell.
L’Ostrica
Location: 4701 Park Rd D, Charlotte, NC 28209
Tasting restaurant L’Ostrica has earned a reputation for making the most of seasonal ingredients — and putting out beautiful plates — while giving foodies a variety of other entry points to get a taste.
Owners Cat Carter and Eric Ferguson‘s approachable point of view includes market service with soups and sandwiches, and a bar menu where caviar service and fresh oysters are served alongside charred onion and truffle dip and fresh Casarecce pasta. Popups and its popular Sunday Suppers offer another avenue for more casual dining.
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Mazi
Location: 1300 South Blvd. Suite 101-F, Charlotte, NC 28203
Mazi, a new restaurant from Chris Coleman’s Built on Hospitality group, may have only recently opened its doors, but its Mediterranean flavors are already getting plenty of love.
With chef de cuisine Whit Thomas running the kitchen, creative dishes like tuna kofta, m’battan and mushroom shawarma presented on collard leaves are unforgettable. But I’d be remiss not to mention the braised beans with charred tomato brodo, confit tuna and chile crumbs. (In fact, at any Built on Hospitality restaurant, you’ll find some kind of bean dish with depths of flavor you didn’t know were possible — a fact I regularly repeat.)
Update: Mazi unexpectedly closed July 30 after a short run in Charlotte’s South End.
Omakase Experience by Prime Fish
Location: 2907 Providence Rd STE 101, Charlotte, NC 28211
Chef and owner Robin Anthony’s Edomae-style omakase restaurant crafts some of the freshest and most innovative sushi you’ll find in Charlotte, with fish imported directly from Toyosu Fish Market in Tokyo.
Whether you make reservations for an extravagant 10-course lunch or a 15-course dinner of small plates and seasonal nigiri that bends to the expert chef’s whims, you’re in for a treat. Just sit back, soak in the luxury of the exclusive experience and savor each bite.
Restaurant Constance
Location: 2200 Thrift Road, Charlotte, NC 28208
Restaurant Constance, whose chef and owner Sam Diminich was a James Beard Award semifinalist this year, is a local favorite. The intimate dining room offers a cozy atmosphere for taking in Diminich’s modern American fare, crafted with seasonal ingredients from nearby farms he’s forged tight relationships with. It’s so well-loved, we even hosted a Charlotte Observer event there.
The menu changes regularly, but one thing that always stands out beyond the norm are Diminich’s salads, layered with expertly paired flavors and textures that elevate them from a standard starter to a main attraction.
Sweet Lew’s BBQ
Location: 923 Belmont Ave, Charlotte, NC 28205
You can’t really visit the Carolinas as a culinary expert without making a few trips for barbecue, getting a taste of Eastern, Western and South Carolina styles. We’d start off at Sweet Lew’s, which serves up traditional chopped pork shoulder seasoned only with salt and pepper, leaving room for the twangy Eastern Carolina-style vinegar sauce to steal the show.
We’re tightly restraining ourselves on the topic by also recommending CharlotteFive Readers’ Choice best barbecue winner The Smoke Pit and nearby Lexington Barbecue, which has the hearts of many Western NC-style barbecue fans. Another shoutout goes to Jon G’s in Peachland, where many a Charlottean has spent hours outside, waiting for a taste of its Texas-style barbecue after a Saturday drive just about as long.
Sora
Location: 2907 Selwyn Ave, Charlotte, NC 28209
Sora, a newcomer to Charlotte’s fine dining scene, puts out classical French dishes with Asian influences in its nine-course tasting menu. With dishes that are adjusted almost daily and are tailored to the special needs of each diner’s reservation, veteran restaurateur Birdie Yang has shot for the stars and hit one.
Expect delicate amuse-bouche, velvety broths you keep going back to and top-of-the-line ingredients, wrapped up with desserts that will linger in your mind for weeks.
Supperland
Location: 1212 The Plaza, Charlotte, NC 28205
Supperland finds itself among the most-often praised restaurants in town, and it’s not without cause. Owners Jeff Tonidandel and Jamie Brown — who recently opened Leluia Hall (another great choice) and run a slew of other successful Charlotte restaurants — are naturals at making guests feel warm and welcome.
With James Beard Award semifinalist Colleen Hughes at the bar and a menu of Southern steakhouse and potluck favorites put together with local ingredients, you can’t order wrong. But while you’re there, you should give serious consideration to that wood-fired onion dip and the miso mac and cheese.
Where would you send the ‘Top Chef’ team to eat?
Enough of my thoughts, because I could easily add on 50+ more suggestions. Let’s hear yours, too. Where would you send the “Top Chef” host and judges to eat? There are no wrong answers here: Share them all!
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This story was originally published July 25, 2025 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Where the ‘Top Chef’ judges should eat while they’re filming in Charlotte."
