On weekdays Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant serves typical Chinese-American fare, but on the weekends, the dining rooms transform into a bustling dim sum parlor. Diners line up outside to wait for a seat as carts of sui mai, turnip cakes, steam rolls, and other dim sum classics pass from table to table. A cup of piping hot green tea is de rigueur, and the whole experience is best enjoyed with friends or family so everyone gets to try a bit of everything.

Bleu Olive is a family-run, Greek/Mediterranean restaurant that has been a North Durham mainstay since opening in 1994. An extensive mezze menu plus salads, sides, pastas, and entrees like paella, steak frites, and moussaka make for a dining experience that is very mix and match. Bleu Olive is also open for lunch, where menu standouts include excellent chicken shawarma and superb lamb kefte pita. The signature spanikopita is only available during lunch as well, so take note.

Sometimes all life needs is a classic steak frites. Or maybe moules mariniere? Cassoulet? Vin Rouge’s menu reads like a classic French bistro greatest hits list. As the weather warms, a table at weekend brunch in the walled patio is a coveted reservation. The wine list is an oenophilic Francophile’s dream.

Dame’s started in Greensboro, but gained acclaim in the Triangle when it opened the Durham location. Now situated in the Liberty Warehouse, diners line up almost daily for Dame’s take on this soul food classic. The restaurants has a list of specialties like the Red Crested Rose Comb (two fried chicken legs atop a classic waffle with strawberry schmear and candied pecans) or the Orange Speckled Chabo (a fried chicken cutlet atop a sweet potato waffle with orange-honeycomb schmear and orange dijon sauce). Diners can also create their own chicken and waffles adventure by choosing their preferred type of fried chicken, flavor of waffle, and flavored butter schmear.

Goorsha is the place to bring friends and family and gather around generous helpings of expertly prepared Ethiopian food. Doro wat, timatim salad, awaze tibs, and more grace the menu, all waiting to be scooped up with hand-torn bits of injera, the tangy Ethiopian flatbread that serves as your utensil. Also worth checking out is Gojo by Goorsha, a cafe and sandwich shop right behind the restaurant.

From the moment it opened its doors in late 2021, Queeny’s has become a downtown staple, bridging the gap between dive bar and neighborhood eatery and often open when other nearby restaurants are closed. Sandwiches like the birria French dip and the Mt. Airy sandwich (a marriage of a pork chop sandwich and a banh mi) have become customer favorites, and the chicken tenders alone are worth a visit. Unfussy cocktails, beer, and wine complement the food, and the colorful space includes a back garden, small bookstore, and podcast recording studio.

Mixologist Shannon Healy teamed up with chef Carrie Schleiffer for a craft cocktail and food combination that is as unique as it is tasty. Healy’s cocktails are legendary and rotate seasonally, while Schleiffer’s menu includes blistered shisitos, cornmeal-fried oysters, and crispy pork belly. The famous Alley burger (a half-pound patty, truffle cheddar, bourbon bacon jam, chipotle aioli, and arugula) is always available, and those in the know ask for it to be foie’d (a generous chunk of foie gras stuffed right in the middle). A selfie with a burger and a cocktail in the actual alley is a downtown Durham bucket list item.

Luna offers classic South American fare like handmade empanadas, Peruvian-style rotisserie chicken, and tacos, but what makes it really stand out from the downtown restaurant crowd are the extensive vegan and vegetarian offerings. Try the vegan chili-braised jackfruit in a grain bowl (quinoa, pearled rice, black beans, and kale) or in a patacon pisao, which comes with jack cheese, jicama kale slaw, and chile-lime mayo and is sandwiched between two fried plantain discs. Luna also does a bustling business in takeaway, and those empanadas travel well.

The sister restaurant of the legendary (and now-closed) Nana’s, NanaSteak has charted its own path as Durham’s go-to steakhouse. Traditional steakhouse fare gets a modern facelift with main courses like the charcoal-grilled filet mignon with Wagyu beef fat french fries and roasted Brussels sprouts or the crispy pork ribs with quick kimchi Napa cabbage slaw and a miso-ginger glaze. An extensive wine list and expertly crafted cocktails round out the experience, and the restaurant’s location right next to the Durham Performing Arts Center make it the perfect spot for a dinner-and-a-show date night.

Perhaps nothing represents the inexorable march of development in Durham than the loss of the original Parker & Otis space. Owner Jennings Brody created one of the Bull City’s most beloved eateries (cum-cafe-cum-wine shop-cum-gift shop) in Brightleaf Square and luckily was able to relocate the business to the American Tobacco Campus when a developer bought the original building. The new Parker & Otis is quite a bit smaller but still has all of the expertly hand-selected gifts, books, wines, stationary, and more. Longtime customer favorites like the grilled pimento cheese, turkey and pepper jelly sandwich, and green goddess tuna salad are still available at the deli counter, with the added bonus of now being able to dine al fresco amongst the meandering streams and lawns of American Tobacco.

Since opening in East Durham, Ideal’s has had lines out the door for its Northeastern deli-style sandwiches like the Harlem chopped cheese (ground beef, onions, provolone, cherry peppers, chop sauce), Philly roast pork (broccoli rabe, provolone, roasted garlic mayo), and a classic Italian sub. All sandwiches are served on daily baked bread — when the bread runs out, so do the sandwiches. Half of the shop is taken up by a small, mostly Italian grocery offering frozen meals, pasta, fresh local veggies, wine, and more. Ideal’s joins a growing East Durham restaurant scene that includes food trucks, Rofhiwa coffee and bookshop, Bull City Sweet Shoppe, and more restaurants and bars to come in 2023.

“Just drive down the road, and look for the cow” is how most people explain how to get to La Vaquita. Arguably the most famous of Durham’s many taquerias, La Vaquita serves a variety of traditional tacos on homemade corn tortillas. Think barbacoa, carnitas, lengua, al pastor, and more. There are platos tradicionales like mole poblano, ceviche, or polla a la crema, as well as tortas.

One of the oldest Black-owned restaurants in Durham, Chicken Hut is something of a local legend. The specials change depending on the day of the week (oxtails on Fridays), but the famous fried chicken is always available. Open in 1957, the restaurant is operated by members of the Tapp family to this day.