131 MAIN is a Blakeney dinner option for steaks, seafood and American dishes cooked over a hickory wood fire. The covered porch and fire pit give you another way to enjoy the evening. Dining-room reservations are available through Resy; the bar and patio take guests first come, first served. The restaurant is cashless, so bring a credit or debit card.
300 East has been serving East Boulevard in Dilworth for more than 35 years, in the Street Car Station Shops. The kitchen works seasonally with an emphasis on seafood and local sourcing. It runs weekend brunch from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. There is patio seating, weather permitting, and patio tables cannot be reserved. Guy Fieri filmed it for the Indulgent Dishes episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
Abugida is a family-run Ethiopian room on Central Avenue that describes itself simply as a 'Family owned authentic Ethiopian restaurant'. The food is eaten the traditional way, scooped with injera rather than cutlery, and the kitchen keeps a wide range of vegan, vegetarian and gluten free dishes on the board because Ethiopian fasting cooking is built that way. The cafe also serves a full coffee ceremony, poured at the table with frankincense burning alongside it.
Alexander Michael's has been a Fourth Ward neighborhood tavern since 1983, inside the brick Crowell-Berryhill Store that opened in 1897. The room kept pieces of Charlotte with it: the bar and back bar were made from solid oak doors taken from the old Independence Building, and the beer cooler came from a Charlotte grocery store around 1920. Come for a burger, a beer and a building that survived when much of the neighborhood did not.
BellyUp! Charlotte / Over 50
Good places to eat and drink in Charlotte, minus the nightclubs. When a spot gets loud later or draws a lot of kids, the card tells you.
20 spots
300 East has been serving East Boulevard in Dilworth for more than 35 years, in the Street Car Station Shops. The kitchen works seasonally with an emphasis on seafood and local sourcing. It runs weekend brunch from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. There is patio seating, weather permitting, and patio tables cannot be reserved. Guy Fieri filmed it for the Indulgent Dishes episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
Angeline's is the restaurant inside the Kimpton Tryon Park Hotel in Uptown, on Church Street across from Romare Bearden Park. It describes its cooking as traditional Italian with a Southern twist, with seasonal Southern ingredients handled by Italian technique. It serves breakfast on weekday mornings, brunch on weekends and a late-night menu from 10 to 11 p.m. every day. Valet parking runs a discounted $15 for up to two hours.
Boudreaux's has been cooking Louisiana food in NoDa since 1999. Its own site describes Cajun, Southern and Low-Country offerings made from scratch with care. It now runs a short week, Friday through Sunday only, with brunch at 11am on Saturday and Sunday, and it opens specially for Fat Tuesday.
A French bakery and bistro in SouthPark, open since 2007. It calls itself a casual-gourmet neighborhood restaurant built on French culinary traditions, and it runs a full bakery alongside the dining room. Brunch is the service it is best known for, and it books live jazz on Sundays.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
Cajun Queen has been serving Cajun food in a 100-year-old house in Elizabeth since 1985. Its own site says there is live jazz seven nights a week in the upstairs dining room, which makes it one of the longest-running live music rooms in the city that is a restaurant first. The kitchen runs nightly fresh fish specials alongside the standards.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
Church and Union sits at the corner of 5th and Church Streets in Uptown Charlotte, which is where the name comes from. Top Chef alumnus Jamie Lynch is the chef partner and Aaron Dearing is executive chef. The restaurant describes itself as being in Uptown's historic district, a few blocks from its sister restaurant La Belle Helene. Both are run by the Charlotte-based 5th Street Group.
A daytime room in the ParkTowne Village shopping center on East Woodlawn, open from breakfast through mid-afternoon and closed by 3:30 every day. Its own site describes all-American breakfast and lunch with globally inspired dishes, gourmet coffee and cocktails.
Ever Andalo is the Italian room on North Davidson Street in NoDa from the Tonidandel-Brown Restaurant Group, the same Charlotte company behind Haberdish a few doors down and Supperland in Plaza Midwood. The kitchen makes its own burrata, fresh pasta and desserts in house, and the wine list is entirely Italian, put together by sommeliers Michael Klinger and Catherine Dawson. The bar is run by Colleen Hughes, who took the MICHELIN Exceptional Cocktails Award at the group's Supperland in the same 2025 selection. Ever Andalo was named MICHELIN Recommended in the inaugural American South guide and serves dinner six nights plus weekend brunch.
Haberdish is a Southern mill-town kitchen on North Davidson Street, built around fried chicken, Southern vegetables and an apothecary-style craft cocktail programme. The name and the cooking both reach back to NoDa's textile mill history, which is the neighbourhood the restaurant sits in. It belongs to the Tonidandel-Brown Restaurant Group along with Ever Andalo a few doors up and Supperland in Plaza Midwood. MICHELIN named it Recommended in the inaugural American South guide in November 2025, and it serves lunch, dinner and weekend brunch Tuesday through Sunday.
A southern kitchen and cocktail bar in Cotswold built around fried chicken, with salads, sandwiches, seafood and a house side of spicy zucchini fries the restaurant calls its number one seller. Its own line is 'Southern Inspired, Gourmet Driven.'
Local Loaf has been on East 35th Street since 2013, serving gourmet sandwiches, brunch and entrees that its own site describes as chef-inspired takes on classic dishes. Chef Adam Spears runs the kitchen. The signature is hand-breaded chicken with poached eggs and house sauces.
A fully vegan fast-casual room on North Davidson Street that calls itself Charlotte's first vegan restaurant in the Arts District. The menu runs to waffles, wraps, burgers and pastries, and the kitchen leans on South African dishes alongside soul food. CLTure names Tallulah Duffin as the owner. A second grab-and-go counter, Oh My Soul On The Moo've, is mentioned on the site without its own address.
A vegan fine-dining room on Rea Road in south Charlotte, run by owner Jennifer Jones Horton and executive chef Barry Horton, who ran a restaurant of the same name in Berkeley, California for five and a half years before this one. Its own site sums the kitchen up as sustainable, local, organic, dairy-free and gluten-free, and frames the whole thing as healthy for the planet, environment and all living beings. It serves lunch and dinner Wednesday through Friday and brunch on Saturday, and publishes its holiday closures a year ahead.
Soul opened in Plaza Midwood in 2009 as one of Charlotte's first small-plate restaurants, in a 68-seat upstairs room with no reservations and a waitlist that regularly ran two hours. Its own origin story says it was the first in the city to make local house deejays an integral part of the dining experience, and the house music has stayed. It lost the Plaza Midwood lease in 2022 and owner, chef and DJ Andy Kastanas spent three years building the replacement, reopening in August 2025 at 4110 Raleigh Street near the Sugar Creek station with roughly triple the seats, a semi-private dining room and a patio. The original interior designer, Scott Weaver, did the new room too.
Go early. It turns into a late-night spot later in the evening.
Supperland is a Southern steakhouse inside a restored mid-century church on The Plaza, from the same Jeff Tonidandel and Jamie Brown group behind Haberdish and Growlers Pourhouse. Its own site says the restaurant occupies a restored mid-century church in Plaza Midwood and is plain about the work involved: restoring an old building is never an easy task, especially when that building is getting turned into a restaurant. The Bar at Supperland runs out of the church annex behind the main room, and there is a reservations-only speakeasy. It was named a Selected restaurant in the 2025 MICHELIN Guide American South, and its lead bartender Colleen Hughes won the guide's 2025 American South Exceptional Cocktails Award.
The Artisan's Palate is a small-plates room on East 36th Street that describes its own food as globally inspired and locally sourced, elevated comfort food served tapas style, with craft cocktails and a weekend brunch. It opens at 8am on weekdays, so it runs as a coffee-and-breakfast room before it becomes a bar.
The Goodyear House is a restaurant inside a restored 1920s mill home on North Davidson Street, and the name comes from how the house grew. Its own site explains that when folks had a good year, they would add onto their homes, so each section could carry a different colour or style. Behind the house is a tree-covered garden and patio built for gathering. The kitchen serves lunch and dinner through the week, plus brunch on Saturday and Sunday.
A Mediterranean room on Selwyn Avenue from Noble Food & Pursuits, running handmade pasta, pizza and seafood. It keeps a heated patio open year round and splits the day into lunch, an aperitivo window from 2:30 to 5, and dinner.
The Pub at Uptown is an Irish pub on West Trade Street in Charlotte's Third Ward, in the Gateway district near Truist Field, Bank of America Stadium and the NASCAR Hall of Fame. It is open from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. every day and runs its full kitchen menu until 1:30 a.m., which makes it one of the few genuinely late kitchens in Uptown. It added weekend brunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Parking is free in the garage attached to the building.
Go early. It turns into a late-night spot later in the evening.
An all-vegan food truck started in 2019 by Akil and Paris Courtney, working plant-based versions of seafood and fried chicken: bang bang shrymp, krab cakes and chik'n wingz, with a weekend brunch service.
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