Dec 12, 2025 - Food and Drink

The best restaurants that opened in the Triangle in 2025

Mala Pata's menu is centered around making its own masa from heirloom corn. Dishes include Tuna Tartacos, Aguachile, Pozole Verde and Grilled, Butterflied Whole Fish with fresh made tortillas and all the garnishes so guests can assemble their own tacos. Credit: Matt Ramey. — The spread of food at Mala Pata. Photo: Courtesy of Matt Ramey

It's been another year of growth for the Triangle's restaurant scene, which continues to see its national profile rise with visits from tastemakers, such as the Michelin Guide, and publications like Travel + Leisure.

Why it matters: While the Triangle lost several great restaurants this year — including classics like Mandolin in Raleigh and Littler in Durham — the region's dining options continue to evolve.

Here is a list of some of the best restaurants that opened in 2025. We compiled this list by eating our way across the region and chatting with fellow diners.

Don't forget to check out our story from this summer on the best restaurants across the Triangle.

Boatman Spirits Co.

Wooden table with plates of fried chicken wings, soup with chickpeas, a burger with fries, citrus and herb dish, olives in tortilla, flatbread with tomato salad, and drinks including a pink wine. — The spread of food at Boatman Spirits. Photo: Courtesy of Boatman

Seaboard Station has quickly become a hub of new restaurants since its first phase of construction was completed last year.

And one of the most ambitious efforts at making the downtown development into a destination is Boatman Spirts.

What to expect: Boatman, which opened in June, is one part distillery and bar as well as a restaurant focused on Mediterranean cuisine.

On the spirits side, Boatman operates a 240-gallon copper still that is used to make gin, vodka, whiskey, amaros and Arak, a Middle Eastern spirit.
The kitchen, on the other hand, is churning out Mediterranean staples like grilled halloumi, falafel, beef and lamb shawarmas and a lamb kofta burger. Dessert includes tahini ice cream and stuffed dates.

Location: 713 Seaboard Station Drive, Raleigh

Crawford Brothers

Opened in the waning days of 2024, this was the big year for acclaimed Raleigh chef Scott Crawford's debut in Cary.

After years of planning, Crawford Brothers, the Raleigh chef's take on a modern-day steakhouse, is one of the flagship restaurants of Fenton, a massive mixed-use development in Cary.

What to expect: The restaurant is by far the largest space of all of Crawford's restaurants.

The menu's focus is highly attuned to fine cuts of steak, with an emphasis on dry-aged beef, but the menu offers many highlights, including a rich duck breast and perfectly seared scallops.
It is the expert curation, though, in the restaurant's extensive wine library and cocktails program that ties a tight bow on top of the entire experience.

Location: 401 Fenton Gateway Drive, Cary

Dino's Pizza

Interior of a busy restaurant with red and white checkered tablecloths, stained glass pendant lamps, wooden booths, metal chairs, and multiple TVs above the bar showing sports. — The inside of Dino's in Durham. Photo: Alexis Clinton/Axios

What started as an ode to the red-sauce joints of chef Tom Cuomo's native New Jersey is now becoming a Durham classic.

What to expect: Dino's Pizza, a nostalgia-soaked pizzeria owned by Cuomo and prolific chef Matt Kelly, opened this year in Durham's University Hill.

The menu focuses on the oven-fired pizza, which features a delightful dough recipe that Cuomo and Kelly spent a year perfecting.
But don't sleep on its Italian chop salad, chicken parm and Buffalo-style wings.

Location: 3109 Shannon Road, Suite 100, Durham

Good Graces

Variety of breads, pastries with powdered sugar, sandwiches with chips, fruit salad, salad with croutons, and a latte on blue and white floral plates on a wooden table. — Photo: Courtesy of Good Graces

In its first year open, Good Graces has made a great case that it can be North Hill's premier third space, a place where people can linger or just grab a quick bite.

What to expect: Created by Haley Borden, Good Graces is billed as a market, bar and restaurant for the North Hills Innovation District, a $1 billion investment by Kane Realty to add more offices, apartments and retail to the edge of North Hills.

The restaurant and market transition with the day, offering coffee and breakfast in the morning before adding a lunch menu of sandwiches, salads and cocktails and wine in the afternoon.
On Fridays and Saturdays, the operation goes all day and serves dinner, too.

Location: 540 St. Albans Drive, Suite 130, Raleigh

Hatch Burritos

For years, Durhamites have traveled around the city on Saturday and Sunday mornings to find Hatch's addictive breakfast burritos at pop-ups.

The enduring popularity of Talitha Benjamin's food — a love letter to the hatch chiles of New Mexico — culminated this November in a permanent location after she raised more than $23,000 on Kickstarter.

What to expect: Hatch has added to a growing collection of restaurants and watering holes in Durham's Old Five Points neighborhood.

The area on Mangum Street has several establishments open, including Little Bull, Zeitgeist Gallery, Night School Bar and the Durham Beer Garden.
In addition to its breakfast burritos, Hatch is whipping up enchiladas, green chile stew, blue corn pancakes and a green chile pimento cheese.

Location: 723 N. Mangum St., Durham

Mala Pata

Hand holding a wine glass with a light yellow iced drink garnished with a dried citrus slice and a paper straw, inside a bright, modern cafe with colorful wall art and wooden furniture. — Mala Pata's Nixta Tonic. Photo: Lucille Sherman/Axios

From the creative minds behind spots like Centro, Gallo Pelón, Ex-Voto and Locals Seafood, Mala Pata had an envy-inducing first year, when it nabbed a Bib Gourmand recognition from Michelin just a few months after opening.

What to expect: With a menu focused heavily on seafood and the fresh masa it makes in-house, Mala Pata has rightfully earned all of the plaudits it's received.

The restaurant's menu jumps across different Latin American cuisines, and features items like enchiladas with a Cheerwine-infused mole, aguachile featuring North Carolina shrimp and a fried whole flounder with al-pastor sauce.
Pro tip: The Colombian buñelos, fried cassava-corn fritters made with cotija and chilli oil and smothered with agave butter, are dangerously delicious.
Location: 2431 Crabtree Blvd., Suite 102, Raleigh

Omakase by Kai

Plate of sushi rolls topped with spicy salmon, jalapeño slices, green onions, and red roe on a wooden table in a sushi restaurant with brown chairs and a sushi bar in the background. — Photo: Alexis Clinton/Axios

Another new entry to the growing collection of restaurants at Seaboard Station, Omakase by Kai is yet another sushi restaurant worthy of being named among the Triangle's best.

What to expect: Like other great sushi joints, you can experience an omakase-style meal, letting the chef select which slices of fish you are served.

Or you can choose from special and classic sushi rolls.
Other menu highlights include: chicken karaage, nori tacos and bento boxes.

Location: 15 Seaboard Ave., Raleigh

Peregrine

Peregrine, a restaurant formed from a partnership between Raleigh chef Saif Rahman and artist Patrick Shanahan, has a menu unlike what Raleigh has seen before.

Namely, because it is so deeply personal to the life of its chef.

What to expect: Peregrine was the first fine-dining restaurant to open at The Exchange, a $1 billion mixed-use development east of North Hills on St. Albans Drive.

Its menu charts the path that Rahman, previously of the restaurant Vidrio, has taken to get to Raleigh — from his grandmother's cooking in Bangladesh to the global influences that in his childhood home of Queens and the Mexican heritage of his wife.
Standout dishes include a salt-cured amber jack, duck breast, Bengali wedding chicken and a Dhaka-inspired shish kebab.

Location: 1000 Social St., Suite 150, Raleigh

Serratore's Pasta & Pizza

Interior of a restaurant with green booth seating, wooden tables, and chairs. Exposed brick wall adorned with numerous framed pictures and posters. A large potted plant on the booth divider. — Photo: Courtesy of Josh DeCarolis

After creating one of the best Italian restaurants in the Triangle with Mothers & Sons, chef Josh DeCarolis turned to downtown Hillsborough for his next venture.

In September, DeCarolis launched Serratore's Pasta & Pizza there in the former Radius Pizza space on Churton Street.

What to expect: Serratore's is a classic Italian-American joint created with the history of Italian food forged in the kitchens of the Northeast in mind.

The menu includes pizzas, hearty pastas and veal scallopini served four different ways.
Plus, you can top it off with a prosecco slushy from the cocktail menu.

Location: 112 N. Churton St., Hillsborough

TaTaco

Oscar Diaz doesn't stop.

TaTaco, which opened in March, was the chef's third restaurant in Durham since he left the Raleigh restaurant Cortez and he still has plans for more.

What to expect: In less than a year, TaTaco has become a hot brunch spot and a late-night destination in downtown Durham.

The restaurant's menu offers staples of Mexican cuisine, including tacos and quesadillas, enchiladas and flautas.

But nestled next to those options are creative entrees like clams dunked in a complex birria broth and fresh seafood options, like a tuna and hamachi crudito.

Location: 620 Foster St., Suite B, Durham

Wedgewood Cheese Bar

Interior of a cheese shop with a glass display case filled with various cheeses, green tiled walls, wooden shelves with wines and products, and a flower arrangement on the counter. — Photo: Lucille Sherman/Axios

Wedgewood Cheese Bar, which opened in a historic carwash building this year, has made the unique claim for the title of North Carolina's first standalone cheese bar.

At the very least, though, the cheese shop fits in with the quirky and artisan-loving vibe that Carrboro has crafted for decades.

What to expect: Inside Wedgewood, you will find scores of cut-to-order artisanal cheeses from all over the world, like a taleggio, from Lombardy, Italy, or creamy stilton from England.

The shop's cheese-centered menu features sandwiches, charcuterie, soups, salads, snacks and a wine list curated in partnership with Chapel Hill's Rocks + Acid Wine Shop.

Location: 100 Brewer Lane B, Carrboro

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