Mission Pizza
CITY GUIDES | NORTH CAROLINA
Where to Eat in Winston-Salem, From Fine Dining to Killer Burger Counters
By Maria Rodriguez | March 11, 2026
AUTHOR BIO: With a day job that requires constant travel, Maria Rodriguez is likely a regular at your favorite restaurant. She’s reviewed restaurants since 2007 in magazines from Spain to Seattle.
Winston-Salem has the kind of name that still sounds like two cities forced into a merger by men in suits, which, of course, it was. You can feel that split personality when you eat around town. Part of the city still leans old Southern money, Moravian history, and white-tablecloth formality; another part wants a burger smashed hard on the griddle, a very good natural wine, and a pizza that would hold up fine in bigger, louder food cities that never stop congratulating themselves.
That is what this list is here to track. These are the places that best explain how Winston-Salem eats right now, from old standbys that still justify their reputation to newer spots giving downtown and its neighborhoods more pulse. Together they make the case that Winston-Salem is not just a stop between larger North Carolina food cities, but a place with its own appetite, its own habits, and plenty of reasons to show up hungry.
Acadia Foods
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Acadia is a family-owned Southside spot doing breakfast, brunch, lunch, baked goods, coffee, wine, and pantry staples. The menu is full of things that sound simple until you notice the details, like mushroom pâté with walnut and herbs on multigrain toast and a breakfast collard green melt with bacon or tempeh, over-easy egg, cheddar, collards, and mayo on a grilled roll. It’s a spot where a quick breakfast can turn into leaving with bread, pastries, and whatever else looked too good to ignore.
Best for: Breakfast sandwiches and neighborhood-deli energy
Bobby Boy Bakeshop
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John and Lucia Bobby built Bobby Boy into a 2024 James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Bakery, and the reason is sitting in the case: croissants made with Vermont Creamery butter, pastries with Valrhona chocolate, naturally leavened breads, and sandwiches built on house bread. It feels exacting without becoming fussy, which is a harder trick than a lot of bakeries seem to realize.
Best for: Pastries and bread that make the city look good
Bernardin’s Restaurant
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Bernardin’s still plays the role of the city’s special-occasion restaurant with conviction, serving dinner in the historic Zevely House and leaning into the kind of Continental fine dining Winston-Salem has always had room for. The current menu runs from New England clam chowder and burrata with heirloom tomato and beet to lamb chops with crispy sticky rice cake and kimchi slaw, sea scallops with mushroom-leek risotto, and filet mignon. This is the place for a night when everybody wants proper service, a serious entrée, and the feeling that somebody still believes dinner should be an event.
Best for: Old-school fine dining
Forsyth Seafood Market & Café
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Forsyth Seafood has been doing this since 1984, which is enough to tell me a place knows exactly what it’s doing. It started as a shrimp business run by Charlie and Virginia Hardesty and now carries on with chef Ashley Hardesty Armstrong, while still doing the market-and-café setup, homemade coleslaw, hush puppies, and the kind of seafood plates that do not need a marketing team. It feels like a local habit more than a scene, which is often where the better lunches live.
Best for: Fried seafood without any unnecessary reinvention
Heff’s Burger Club
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Heff’s takes the burger format and gives it sharper ingredients, which is why the place has such a following. Heather and Justin Webster opened it with Goodstock black angus beef, Martin’s potato rolls, and Niki’s pickles. Then things get a bit crazy, like the Fatty Patty with pimento cheese and Cheerwine BBQ, ideally with kimchi cheese fries on the side. The vibe is fun without feeling like a burger theme, but yeah, it’s the burgers that are still doing most of the work.
Best for: Smash burgers that deserve the obsession
The Katharine Brasserie & Bar
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The Katharine gives Winston-Salem a polished French brasserie inside the old Reynolds Building. It’s led by chef Daniel Boling, and the menu leans into French fare with a Southern accent, including escargot à la Bourguignonne, steak frites with an eight-ounce Brasstown Farms cut, oysters, and a bar program that knows a marble counter should not be wasted on weak cocktails. This is where to go when the evening needs a martini, a little architecture, and dinner that understands the appeal of butter.
Best for: Date night and cocktails with some polish
Krankies
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Krankies has been waking up Winston since 2003, and people still line up for biscuits in a former industrial building. The biscuit menu alone makes the case: the Krankies Classic with brined and fried chicken, Texas Pete, and honey; the Dirty South with pimento cheese and bacon; and the Hangover Helper with sausage gravy. And it’s not all breakfast, with a lunch lineup that covers burgers, chicken sandos, gyros, and a pretty serious cookie selection. Plenty of places have a vibe; this one also has the food to justify the wait.
Best for: Biscuits and coffee to justify the wait
Mission Pizza Napoletana
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Mission has spent years proving that Winston-Salem can produce pizza to rival anywhere. Peyton Smith runs it as a small chef-driven osteria rather than just a pizzeria, and he’s earned national notice from 50 Top Pizza and Food & Wine. There’s a daily pizza tasting menu, the Pizzakase, alongside a prix-fixe option and a rotating à la carte menu. This is one of those restaurants that alone bumps up a city’s food scene beyond its borders.
Best for: A serious pizza dinner with wine
Mozelle’s
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Jennifer Smith’s modern Southern bistro keeps the menu current with dishes like braised pork belly skewers with ancho salsa and avocado crema, Southern spring rolls stuffed with pulled pork, shiitakes, napa cabbage, and collards, plus staples like shrimp and grits, tomato bisque, and fried chicken with peach chutney. In the West End, it remains one of the more reliable answers to the question of where to go that’ll keep everybody happy.
Best for: Southern comfort with a little extra polish
Pleasants Provisions
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Chef-owner Matt Pleasants opened Pleasants Provisions with a menu that pulls hard from Southeast Asian flavors, including dishes like Thai chicken laab, mushroom pad see ew, bánh mì, sesame noodles, shrimp ceviche, and shredded beef curry, plus a market section stocked with specialty goods. The whole thing lands in that useful middle ground between polished and easy, an exciting new addition for the city.
Best for: A new-school lunch or casual dinner with some range
Spring House
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Spring House has one of the city’s best settings, the last remaining house on Millionaire’s Row, and thankfully the restaurant does not coast on the building. Chef Timothy Grandinetti has led the kitchen since the place opened in 2012, cooking seasonal Southern-inspired menus in a century-old mansion and turning the place into something more than just a special-occasion backdrop, especially when White Tiger, its winter ramen pop-up, rolls around. It is still one of the clearest choices in town when dinner should feel a little dressed up but not stiff.
Best for: A celebratory night in a historic house
Young Cardinal Cafe & Co.
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Young Cardinal understands the value of a good all-day café, which is that it can become part of people’s actual lives instead of just their weekend plans. Owner Adam Andrews keeps the menu squarely in brunch-and-lunch territory, with biscuits and gravy, huevos rancheros, a breakfast burrito with pulled pork or chorizo, queso fresco, pico de gallo, and avocado cream, plus the kind of egg plates and cocktails that let a late breakfast drift comfortably toward noon. This is the place for biscuits, grits, and the general idea that the day can start later than originally planned.
Best for: Brunch that feels decidedly local
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