Restaurants in Asheboro

Emerywood serves gourmet soup, salad, and entrees for dinner. Preheat your evening appetite with Cajun shrimp and crawfish cakes, served over greens with sweet-chili remoulade ($8.95), or the veggie quesadilla, with black beans, corn, roasted veggies & cheddar cheese, served on a flour tortilla ($6.50). To fill your appetite bucket to the brim, try a Big Daddy's pizza, which packs pepperoni, chicken, Italian sausage, jalapeños, onions, mushrooms, olives, and tomatoes onto a mozzarella-slathered crust ($12.95). Elegant entrees include shrimp and organic grits (with veggies, andouille, and a white-wine sauce, $17.95), Emerywood Lump Crab Cakes with sweet basil aioli and garlic mashed potatoes, pan-seared pork chop ($17.95), and cedar-plank salmon with fresh dill orzo ($18.95).

At age 6, Kostas Bakoulas used to stand balanced on a step stool, stamping paper bags with the logo and address of his family's eatery. "I started working there when I started walking," he says with a laugh. "As a child of an immigrant, that's just what you do." Kostas says he couldn't see himself doing anything else, and today he proudly runs his own restaurant, Kozzy's Grille. In 2011, readers of The High Point Enterprise named Kozzy's Grille the Best New Restaurant.

Almost everything at Kozzy's Grille is made fresh to order and never frozen in a vat of nitrogen. Though this may be a result of sparse storage space, it's a benefit to customers, who line up for gyros doused in tzatziki sauce made from Kostas's father's recipe as well as grilled chicken marinated in a blend also concocted by his father. Kostas's own favorite is the Kozzy-style gyro, served with french fries wrapped inside the pita, just as it's done in his parents' home country. Kozzy's Grille keeps an open kitchen, allowing Kostas to get to know his guests as he sears meats with aplomb.

Taste of Asia's menu focuses on Japanese cuisine, with the occasional sprinkle of Thai influence. The grill sizzles beneath slabs of miso salmon, hibachi dishes, or chicken teriyaki, while bubbling fryers help coat shrimp tempura in a crisp outer layer. Sushi chefs combine a variety of piscine elements to create sushi such as the 12-piece Earthquake roll, which tops a core of spicy salmon with a trio of tuna, whitefish, and avocado on top.

Patrons can gather around regular tables or at traditional low tables where diners sit cross-legged or kneel during their meal, which makes it easier to knight each other with chopsticks. As the relaxing powers of sake cocktails set in, diners can gaze upon a screen painted with kimono-wearing women or a TV at the bar.

At Big Shotz Tavern, chefs celebrate American comfort food with a vast menu of pizzas, burgers, and barbecue. They season and marinate chicken wings in homemade rubs, and whip up sauces and dips from scratch.

A bustling, lively atmosphere prevails in the spacious dining room. Big-screen TVs hover above the wraparound bar, and, in the warmer months, musicians serenade adorable diners with spinach in their teeth on the outdoor brick patio. The restaurant also hosts a weekly trivia night.

On Val Panizzut's first visit to his wife’s Mexican hometown, the co-owner of The Prickly Pear vowed he would name his first restaurant after the delicious fruit borne from cacti. Today, the fruition of that fruit-inspired idea offers expansive views of Lake Norman from its generous windows or patio seats, as well a menu of Mexican cuisine. Not content with just offering traditional tacos and burritos, the kitchen crafts modern Mexican dishes that have earned it numerous local press mentions. They pair the usual flavors of cotija cheese, chipotles and cilantro with, for example, fruits such as pear, mango, and pineapple, all in an effort to add savory, piquant, or sweet depth to shrimp dishes and adobo-rubbed chicken. To augment the adventurous atmosphere, live musical acts entertain guests on Thursday and Sunday nights—but they never say in advance exactly where in the restaurant they’ll hide as they play.

Tony, the owner of Bandido’s Mexican Cafe, learned the tricks of the trade while working at his family’s Mexican restaurant as a teenager. Today, he and his wife own and operate three Bandido’s locations, which serve sizzling fajitas, crisp tacos, and burritos stuffed with beef, chicken, pork, or sautéed spinach. The Herald-Sun's readers praised Bandido's as the Best Mexican Restaurant in 2009, and the restaurant returns the favor by awarding individuals who finish the El Gigante burrito—a massive compilation of steak and chicken fajitas, rice, black beans, and shredded cheese—with a T-shirt and gentle pats on the back. The restaurant often hosts live entertainment, and the Durham location supplements its selection of lunch and dinner fare with a Sunday brunch menu served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.