When I travel to the Southern U.S. states and eat hearty and comforting local food, it always feels like going to a big nana’s house, where there is a cheerful old lady waiting, her hands smelling of peach cobbler, roasted pecans and cinnamon. When I hear heavy Southern drawl I feel like I am being embraced in a big warm hug and I imagine a Southern nana saying: “Oh, doll, you got skinny, let me fix ya a plate!”
This is exactly how I felt in Raleigh, North Carolina. When I was preparing for our trip (see my previous post Things to do in Raleigh with kids) I knew that Southern cuisine will be at the top of my list of family friendly attractions in Raleigh. I definitely wanted to go on one of the walking food tours in town. Imagine my frustration when I found out that these yummy Raleigh food tours are for adults only, no kids allowed!
Disappointed I was, but not discouraged. I decided to create a Raleigh food tour myself – with kids in mind. It took me a while to do research and discover the best cafes and restaurants to visit and now you can use my kid-friendly self-guided walking Raleigh food tour without paying extra to tour companies. Most of the restaurants highlighted below are located in downtown Raleigh in close proximity to each other. All of them offer great quality food that is very reasonably priced. I suggest visiting one or a couple of places a day. Many of them are dessert places so there is a potential for sugar overload if you do them all in one day. 😉
Highlights of my kids-friendly Raleigh food tour:
Best place for breakfast in Raleigh: Big Ed’s City Market – classic Southern comfort breakfast with funky farm antiques hanging from the ceiling.
Best place for lunch in Raleigh: Beasley’s Chicken + Honey, one of the most popular restaurants in town serving perfect Southern fried chicken with honey and waffles. The Chef and the proprietor here is Ashley Christensen, who in 2014 was awarded the James Beard Award for “Best Chef: Southeast,” and in 2017 was named Chef of the Year by Eater.com.
Best place for dinner in Raleigh: The Pit Authentic Barbecue. North Carolina is known for its legendary barbecue joints. The Pit continues this tradition by serving authentic whole-hog, pit-cooked barbecue. The highest quality of its food brought The Pit country-wide fame when they won a rib challenge on Food Network’s “Throwdown with Bobby Flay.”
Honorable mention: Sitti (Lebanese cuisine) and Sono Sushi. Both places have delicious food that our kids loved and they both offer lots of healthy options.
Best desserts places in Raleigh
Lucettegrace – French bakery with scrumptious cakes and sandwiches which you can either enjoy for breakfast or lunch (eating in or to go). My most favorite cake was Zihuatanejo, which is delightful piece of tropical goodness with the flavors of passion fruit, mango and coconut.
Nearby attractions: State Capitol, History Museum, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
Amorino Italian Gelato – ice cream place serving about 2 dozen varieties of rich and tasty Italian delights + macaroons.
Nearby attractions: Marbles Kids Museum
Slice Pie Company – THE place for the best Southern pies. We tried pecan and coconut cream pies and they were both amazing.
Nearby attractions: State Capitol, History Museum, Marbles Kids Museum
Two Roosters Ice Cream – Raleigh staple, wonderful place with unique ice cream flavors such as blackberry hibiscus and guava cheese cake.
Nearby attractions: Mordecai Historic Park and Raleigh Trolley Tour
Videri Chocolate Factory – small artisan chocolate factory specializing in dark chocolate. You can do a FREE self-guided tour of the factory and FREE chocolate tasting. To see the chocolate making in action it is best to visit Videri between 11 am and 1 pm.
Nearby Attractions: Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts
These awesome place will have you fed for 5 days easily without being repetitive. If I missed any great dig, please, leave me a comment – I am sure to check them out next time we are in Raleigh.
If you found this information about Raleigh food tour useful, please do me a little favor and share this information with others, for there’s a good chance that it will help them with their travel plans. 🙂 Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram where I post many more cool photos and videos about our trips than I could include in a blog post, and organize some nice giveaways!
