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These Are the North Carolina Restaurants the Michelin Guide Missed
Some stellar NC spots got snubbed entirely, while others deserve a star on top of their Michelin recommendation.
By Eric Barton | Nov. 6, 2025
AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.
One star. For the entire state. That’s the tally Michelin handed out in its North Carolina debut. It’s like walking into a restaurant expecting a multi-course chef’s counter and finding just one item on the menu.
Sure, maybe it’s first-year jitters. An inaugural Michelin Guide to a region can often read like a draft. They saw it in Tampa, where the first edition gave no stars at all.
But North Carolina cooks with range and conviction, from sharp-edged tasting menus in the Triangle to wood smoke and mountain produce in Asheville, Charlotte’s polished dining rooms, and the seafood that didn’t travel far in Wilmington. To sum up the state with a single star isn’t minimalism; it’s an oversight.
So we did the work. We ate, cross-checked, argued, and came back with a list Michelin missed—rooms with a point of view, kitchens that prize craft over choreography, and plates that speak with a local accent. If the official ledger feels thin, here are 14 restaurants that deserve a star next year.
Crawford & Son, Raleigh
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Scott Crawford’s flagship in Historic Oakwood is the tight, quietly confident room where his New American cooking reads as precise rather than overly conceived. The menu shifts with the season, but the warm malted wheat rolls with hickory butter are the table-setter, and rich, long-simmered mains (think braises and short rib) show the kitchen’s control. Service is polished without theater—a point underlined by its James Beard finalist nod for Outstanding Hospitality. Michelin added it as a “recommended” restaurant, but few places in the state deserve a Michelin Star more.
>>>READ MORE: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO RALEIGH>>>
Cúrate, Asheville
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If Asheville had a town square where people went to drink vermouth and snack on salty ham, it would be inside Cúrate. Chef Katie Button, a James Beard Award winner, runs the kind of kitchen that doesn’t just serve Spanish food—it seems to channel it from some rustic Basque tavern where the walls smell like garlic and sherry. There’s jamón Ibérico so good it should be protected by UNESCO, a perfect tortilla Española served below braised oxtail, and a wine list full of things you should absolutely let the server pick for you. It’s listed as “recommended in the Michelin Guide now, but the fact that what may be Asheville’s best restaurant didn’t earn a star is a clear oversight.
>>>READ MORE: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO ASHEVILLE>>>
The Fearrington House, Pittsboro
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This one’s for the people who appreciate white tablecloths and actual table-side service. Set in the rolling countryside of Pittsboro, The Fearrington House Restaurant feels like an English manor house where the kitchen just happens to turn out perfect plates of butter-poached lobster. Executive chef since 2022, Paul Gagne is a master of restrained elegance, the kind of person who makes you rethink what a carrot can be. The wine list is, as expected, extensive, and if you’re not finishing your meal with a cheese course, I don’t know what to tell you. All of that conspires to a restaurant well deserving of a star, not the “recommended” ranking it has now.
Fin & Fino, Charlotte
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Fin & Fino in Charlotte’s Uptown is where you take people when you want to show off. It’s a seafood spot that isn’t trying to be New England or New Orleans—it’s just doing its own thing, and it’s doing it well. Executive chef Tom Hite puts out raw bar selections that taste like they were flown in from a place where people say things like “briny” unironically. The seafood towers are stacked high enough to make your server nervous, and the cocktails are so balanced you could probably stand them on their own.
>>>READ MORE: THE BEST RESTAURANTS IN CHARLOTTE>>>
Herons, Cary
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There’s fine dining, and then there’s Herons, the kind of place where even the butter looks like it got a Michelin star. Tucked inside the Umstead Hotel in Cary, the restaurant is helmed by Steven Devereaux Greene, a four-time James Beard semifinalist who somehow makes every plate look like it belongs in a museum. The seasonal tasting menu—dubbed The Art Tour—feels like a slow, carefully choreographed flex, featuring dishes so precise you almost feel bad eating them. Almost. It’s the kind of meal you sit through with a straight back, trying not to embarrass yourself while savoring foie gras brûlée and whatever impossibly delicate thing just arrived on a hand-thrown ceramic plate. This is another restaurant now on the “recommended” list that decidedly needs a star.
Kindred, Charlotte
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Davidson’s Kindred is one of those restaurants that people go to once and then make excuses to drive back for. Chef Joe Kindred, a perennial James Beard semifinalist, made the menu famous with his now-iconic milk bread, a small, fluffy roll that should really come with a warning label because you will eat three before your entrée arrives. The squid ink pasta is another signature, but honestly, order anything and you’ll see why this place has a national reputation. Again, landing on the “recommended” list is a star, but next year this needs a bump up.
Luminosa
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In the newly refurbished Flat Iron Hotel, executive chef Graham House steers a wood-fired, Italian-meets-Appalachia menu that prizes touch and restraint. The kitchen builds around flame: lemon pizza with smoked mozzarella and fennel, Apple Brandy beef carpaccio with smoked-trout tonnato, and seasonal vegetables that actually taste like the farm they came from. It all reads as confident rather than fussy. In the inaugural guide for North Carolina, Luminosa earned a Bib Gourmand and a Green Star, but next year it deserves a Michelin Star too.
Machete, Greensboro
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Greensboro’s Machete is the kind of restaurant that doesn’t need a long description—it just delivers. Chef Kevin Cottrell plates up dishes that are as artful as they are delicious, like charred octopus with heirloom beans that somehow taste like they were meant to be together all along. The menu changes often enough that you have to keep coming back, which, frankly, is part of the plan. The minimalist, modern interior tells you all you need to know: just pay attention to what’s on the plate. The fact that Machete, or any other Greensboro restaurant, didn’t end up on the “recommended” list has to make locals wonder if inspectors failed to make it to town.
>>>READ MORE: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO GREENSBORO>>>
Manna, Wilmington
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Manna in Wilmington doesn’t have the pomp of a “fine dining” spot, but it has the kind of quiet confidence that comes from knowing your food is better than most. Chef Carson Jewell turns out contemporary American dishes that are equal parts elegant and unfussy—think seared scallops with just the right amount of butter and seasonal sides that remind you vegetables don’t have to be an afterthought. There’s a well-curated wine list with 700 selections, a menu that changes daily, and the intimate dining room makes it the kind of place where people lean in when they talk. This is the kind of restaurant that seems designed for a Michelin Star, and the fact that no Wilmington spots ended up on the “recommended” list makes me wonder if inspectors made it to the Carolina coast.
The Market Place, Asheville
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There are farm-to-table restaurants, and then there’s The Market Place, which has been doing it since 1979, long before it became a trend. Chef William Dissen is relentless in his sourcing, which is why his Sunburst Farms trout tastes like it came straight from the mountain stream itself. The steaks are dry-aged and local, the produce is always in season, the kind of thing that usually earns attention from Michelin. The Market Place not appearing in this year’s guide came as a surprise to Ashevillians, especially because of the restaurant’s commitment to sustainability. Chef Gordon Ramsay once called Dissen “the most sustainable chef on the planet”—hey Michelin, here’s your Green Star recipient for next year.
Pure & Proper, Black Mountain
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Set in a meticulously renovated Pure Oil station, Pure & Proper feels both polished and cozy. It’s the kind of place where you’ll ask the owners, Heidi and Richard King, where they bought the decorations, like the throw sheepskins on the chairs. Chef Jake Whitman, a Black Mountain native, cooks like he knows the rules and doesn’t mind breaking them—turning out dishes like lamb belly okonomiyaki, pimento cheese croquettes, and a blew-my-socks-off dish I had the other night: steak tartare with rye everything tuile, sumac sauerkraut, 64-degree egg yolk, dill labneh, and chipotle. It’s the rare place that manages to be both serious and low-key, the kind of restaurant that you’ll be booking again as you walk out. Perhaps inspectors didn’t make it to Black Mountain, because if they did, Pure & Proper seems destined for the guide.
Second Empire, Raleigh
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If you like a little history with your fine dining, Second Empire is your spot. It’s inside a restored 19th-century mansion, the kind of place where you’re almost surprised they let you eat duck breast while surrounded by so much expensive wood paneling. Chef Daniel Schurr’s menu is classic but never boring, with dishes like pan-seared lamb that would probably taste just as good on a paper plate but feel better served on fine china.
The Silo Cookhouse, Hendersonville
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Chef Brett Suess, an alum of The Market Place, turns fine-dining into something far more personal, weaving Appalachian ingredients into dishes that are not only expertly plated but also delicious: charred carrots with pistachio and dukkah, PEI mussels in a white-wine chimichurri, and potatoes under a blanket of shaved Parm. Mains land with quiet confidence: the Joyce Farms roasted chicken sharpened by black-garlic greens, and a crisp-skinned trout over spring-onion soubise and local mushrooms. It’s polished cooking with charm, the rare dinner that just simply feels like something special.
Spring House, Winston-Salem
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Winston-Salem’s Spring House feels like the kind of place where people have long, meaningful conversations over slow-braised short ribs. Chef Timothy Grandinetti has a deep love for Southern ingredients but doesn’t feel the need to do the whole farmhouse chic thing. The result? Shrimp and grits that remind you why the dish became iconic in the first place and a menu that changes just enough to keep you on your toes.
>>>READ MORE: THE BEST WINSTON-SALEM RESTAURANTS>>>
The Inaugural North Carolina Michelin Guide Has Arrived
Here is every restaurant that ended up in the inaugural Michelin Guide to North Carolina, from stars to recommendations.