For more than a decade, Durham has been at the heart of the Triangle’s food scene.
Here are the Durham restaurants that made The News & Observer’s Top 50 in the Triangle.
Aaktun
The trend of all-day cafes is suddenly everywhere, promising coffee and pastries, sandwiches and late-night cocktails. No one does the all-day café quite like Aaktun, which looks more like a seaside Mexican cave than a restaurant. Created by current “Top Chef” contestant Oscar Diaz, the walls at Aaktun are lined with curved pink grottos that can carry whispers across the table while the sun beams in through skylights. Even still, your rum punch is the brightest thing in the room, a blend of pucker and bite.
704 Ramseur St., Durham and 401 E. Main St., Clayton | aaktun.info | $ – $ $ $
Cheeni
The depth and warmth of Cheeni surrounds you when you walk through the door. There’s a rattan rocking chair draped with a blanket, curious in a restaurant, but familiar in a home, which, of course, is what Cheeni conjures, filling a menu with regional Indian dishes from the memories of James Beard-nominated owner Preeti Waas. Don’t be embarrassed if you can’t move beyond the craveable chaat section on the menu, where masala fries in the aloo chaat or the bread pakora, essentially fried cheese sandwich, touch the deepest parts of our snacking souls. Larger dishes bring the family together; the Mangalorean chicken, a coconut curry with a slowly building heat, like being warmed by a fire…