The Gourmez

Saint Jacques 6112 Falls of Neuse Rd. North Raleigh Website $25-$40 Saint Jacques is not cheap, but it is my favorite fine dining experience in recent memory, by which I mean since winter or so. My memory is that bad, I promise. Regardless, Saint Jacques is an oasis in a North Raleigh strip mall. Cream [...]

Flights 4100 Main at North Hills North Hills Renaissance, Raleigh Website Entrees: $17–$28   Normally, I jump right into a review, leaving any musings on my experience for the end. This one requires more set up because Flights is in a transition period and it shows. So you should understand before I go on what [...]

Kinston, NC, Blogging: Chef and the Farmer This is the third and final installment on our recent day trip to Kinston, NC. Blog 1 covered the various ways we amused ourselves by the Neuse riverfront last month. Blog 2 was on Mother Earth Brewing, which we were delighted to discover is based in downtown Kinston [...]

Maximillian’s Grill 8314 Chapel Hill Road Cary Website $19-$35 Maximillian’s Grill, not to be confused with Maximillian’s Pizza Kitchen next door though I’m going out on a limb and saying they’re related, appeared this year on Greg Cox’s annual list of top 20 Triangle restaurants. It always flies under my radar; I keep forgetting people [...]

Weathervane 201 S. Estes Drive University Mall, Chapel Hill Website $11–$38 Weathervane is the restaurant portion of Southern Season, and hearty southern dishes have a definite home here. Chef Ryan Payne has had a fantastic year, winning pretty much every local cooking contest he has entered. I had previously tried his food at Fire in [...]

Midtown Grille 4421-115 Six Forks Road North Hills, Raleigh Website Entrees: $19 — $29 Closed on Sundays I had never heard of the Midtown Grille before the Angus Beef night at Fire in the Triangle. Chef Scott James did not win the night, but as you can read in my write-up on Durham Foodie, I [...]

Mint 504 Franklin Street Downtown Chapel Hill Website Entrees: $13 to $20   Mint is an upscale Indian restaurant that resides in a former bank. Thus mint serves as a double entendre for the location and the popular herb in Indian cooking. Most of the space is full of light from the storefront glass, complimenting [...]

Bloomsbury Bistro 509 Whitaker Mills Road Five Points, Raleigh Website Entrees: $19–$35 Bloomsbury Bistro is located in a shopping center right near the Five Points intersection in Raleigh. The restaurant is cozy with French provincial coloring and a mural on the back wall of what looks like a relaxed afternoon in the country. The rest [...]

[One] Restaurant 100 Meadowmont Village Circle Meadowmont Village, Chapel Hill Website Small plates: $8–$14 Entrees: $17–$24 [one] (or one or [ONE] depending on what part of the website, building, or business card you look at) is a new restaurant from Shane Ingram, the chef and owner of Four Square in Durham (my review), one of [...]