Bring an appetite to Asheville.
Photos by Tim Robison
This article was originally published in 2021 and most recently updated on July 30, 2026, with current information.
Asheville is a small mountain town with a big reputation for culinary creativity. Always punching above its weight, the city has received 40 James Beard Award nominations and four national wins, and 15 restaurants have been recognized in Michelin’s first-ever Guide for the American South on its admirable F&B résumé.
Here are seven must-try restaurants to pin for your next visit and what to eat when you’re there.
Okra fries and thali at Chai Pani
Hours: Open every day, 11 AM–3 PM, 5–9/9:30 PM
Julienned strips of okra—deep fried, seasoned with Sicilian sea salt and chaat masala—are the bangers on which Chai Pani was built. They’re the perfect finger food while perusing the menu of Indian street fare at this super-size, newish (2024) location of the Asheville institution, which won the 2022 James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant. Thali (a traditional multi-course meal of protein, veg, rice, daal, bread, relish, and dessert) is served here on one big platter in a setting that’s bursting with color, art, garlands of paper marigolds, and eye-popping graphics.
Beers and burgers at Forestry Camp
Forestry Camp is a two-story tap room and tavern on the grounds of a 1930s U.S. government Civilian Conservation Corps site.
Photo courtesy of Burial Beer
Hours: Open Tuesday-Friday from 4–10 PM; Saturdays and Sundays from 11AM–10 PM
Step back in time and into the woods at Forestry Camp, a rustic property close-by Biltmore Village owned by Burial Beer. On the grounds of what was an early 1930s U.S. government Civilian Conservation Corps site is a two-story tap room and tavern; other renovated original buildings that housed the men working on the Blue Ridge Parkway are now used for Burial’s production brewery and Visuals winery. The beer bases are covered by more than 20 rotating Burial brews on tap, from IPAs to sours. The burger is a classic smashed patty with hunks of local cheddar, lettuce, tomato, and onion on a soft Martin’s potato bun.
Hot fish sandwich and sweet potato cabbage pancake at Good Hot Fish
Hours: Open Wednesday - Sunday, 11 AM–7 PM
Good Hot Fish is famed young Black chef Ashleigh Shanti’s 18-seat restaurant in Asheville’s brewery-soaked South Slope. Her signature menu item will not be brought to you in a brown paper sack, like the ones the fish frying women in her family sold from a tent on a church lawn.
But every bite of the catfish fillets dredged in Farm & Sparrow cornmeal—fried to a golden crisp, smeared with house-made buttermilk tartar, and tucked between two slices of squishy white bread—honors that history. As does the sweet potato cabbage pancake, a mash-up of a breakfast dish her mother used to make and the Japanese okonomiyaki, cooked in a cast-iron skillet.
Berenjenas con miel and brandy at Cúrate
Hours: Open Tuesday - Sunday, 11 AM–9:30/10:30 PM
Love eggplant? Get the berenjenas con miel. Hate eggplant? Get the berenjenas con miel. A starter in chef Katie Button’s James Beard Award–winning restaurant, it is often overlooked among Cúrate’s better-known Spanish tapas classics like pan con tomate, croqueta, jamon, and patatas bravas.
Chances are, your server will recommend the thinly sliced rounds of eggplant, delicately pan-fried in olive oil, sprinkled with rosemary and drizzled in local honey as a dessert. Best enjoyed with a glass of Spanish solera-aged brandy.
Stuffed French toast and shrimp & grits at Sunny Point Café
Sunny Point Café is a family-owned comfort-food favorite in West Asheville.
Photo by Alice io Oglesby / moon io media
Hours: Open every day, 8:30 AM–2:30 PM
For nearly 25 years, locals and visitors have lined up at West Asheville’s Sunny Point Café for breakfast, lunch, or brunch at this delightfully cheerful mother-daughter owned restaurant. The almost inevitable wait for a table is pleasantly passed strolling down the property’s garden paths between beds of flowers, herbs, and vegetables while sipping a Bloody Mary, Mega-Mosa, or ginger limeade. It’s all about the comfort food at this cheerful place, and the grilled sausage-and-cheese stuffed French toast piles it on. The blackened shrimp with roasted tomatoes on cheesy chipotle grits has its own fan club.
Farm-fresh veggies and local fish at Crusco
Hours: Open Wednesday - Sunday, 5–9 PM
The top-notch front and back of house team behind Crusco first came together at Cucina 24, one of Asheville’s most beloved restaurants, co-owned by chef Brian Canipelli, who unexpectedly passed away in February 2025. With the subsequent closing of Cucina 24, the core four moved to a new/old space in the River Arts District to open Crusco and pointed their culinary arrow at New American. What didn’t change is their dedication to two local growers, Gaining Ground Farm and the Culinary Gardener. The vegetable-forward menu still relies on what comes to the kitchen door that day and freshly sourced local fish. Count on a dining experience brimming with heart.
Ice cream sundaes and wine at Potential New Boyfriend
Potential New Boyfriend brings new meaning to “happy hour” with its house-made ice cream, wine, and hi-fi sound system that spins vinyl records.
Photo by Savannah Bockus/Explore Asheville (L); photo by Asheville Elevated Photography (R)
Hours: Open Tuesday - Friday, 5PM-11PM; Saturdays and Sundays, 2PM-11PM
Take this quiz: Is Potential New Boyfriend a) a wine bar, b) a sophisticated snack bar, c) a groovy cocktail lounge, d) a vinyl-spinning Hi-Fi listening bar, e) an ice cream and dessert emporium, or f) a 1983 Dolly Parton single? It’s g) all of the above!
Sprung from the mind of madly creative, mono-named owner Disco—who debuted on the Asheville food scene selling his Gospel Artisanal Ice Cream at farmers’ markets—PNB is a swanky nightly house party staged in a color-blocked mod fever dream bachelor/bachelorette pad. Sundae offerings change seasonally (a peak summer classic is Peaches & Malt: vanilla malt ice cream, malt ball crunch and peach compote). The beverage list is small, select, and formatted by spritz, cocktails, mocktails, and classic and aromatic wines.
