Restaurants in Cary

A red bicycle hangs on a wall at The Red Bicycle Coffee Café and Catering. Its perpetual stillness contrasts the bustling activity of the café's baristas, who grind single-origin beans for bold cups of coffee and creamy lattes. Though the beans are imported from exotic locales such as Hawaii, Ethiopia, or India, the local coffee artisans at Joe Van Gogh in Hillsborough check the expiration dates printed on each bean before roasting them to ensure a fresh taste.

In addition to steaming cups of joe, guests can sip Mighty Leaf whole-leaf teas, nibble locally baked pastries, and chomp into sandwiches loaded with deli meats and cheeses. The Red Bicycle's light morsels and laid-back atmosphere also attract local artists and musicians, who display their work on the walls and swing by to strum a guitar or perform Brahms's Second Concerto on the kazoo.

Bavarian Brathaus was reviewed in the News & Observer and Demandy. Yelpers give it a four star average. Seventy-seven percent of Urbanspooners recommend the restaurant.

Countless combinations of crêpes, ranging from $3.25 to $6.95, fly off the griddle, made with traditional, whole-wheat, or buckwheat batter. The division of savory and sweet crêpes has drawn the attention of high-school debate teams, who often visit Coffee & Crepes to inveigh on this monumental decision. For those who side with the savory menu, the chef prepares mouth-watering ingredients such as ham, grilled chicken, or smoked salmon tucked in fresh medleys of various greens. The short but sweet menu provides crêpes rich in gooey goodberries and decadent sauces designed to rescue breakfast from an otherwise deserted dessert desert.

According to a 2009 Newsobserver.com profile, Backyard Bistro knows a thing or two about ribs. To create this St. Louis–style specialty, the Bistro encrusts the pork in a dry spice rub and leaves it to bask in heat and hickory smoke for three hours. They then wrap each rack in aluminum foil with a splash of apple juice, returning them to the smoker for another four hours before charring them on the grill under a glaze of tangy or sweet barbecue sauce. The Bistro also stokes up the smoker to tenderize the dry-rubbed pork shoulder––another specialty––for 12 whole hours, while slices of juicy beef brisket await to be smothered between hefty slabs of white bread and saddled next to sides such as crisp coleslaw, Mama T's potato salad, and baked beans. Both the regular menu of barbecue and American comfort food and the straightforward Sunday brunch represent the efforts of several local businesses. Brioche rolls for burgers and english muffins for benedicts are sourced from La Farm Bakery, then crowned with poached eggs and canadian bacon. The bar's 16 taps pour Bud Light and Belgian-style Backyard Brew, the locally brewed house draft, to cool meals taken out on the patio or into a neighbor's hot tub, while inside it's all about sports. Five big-screen TVs broadcast every play in high definition, and speakers at each table give diners the option of turning down the volume if they'd rather tune out.

Past a verdant forest of shrubbery, a welcoming umbrella-tabled patio, and homey bright red drapery, diners at La Shish tuck into sumptuous fare from Greece and Lebanon. Gyros crammed with beef and lamb lurk on the lunch and dinner menus, attended by tangy tzatziki sauce and a pronunciation coach. Entrees often arrive with house-whipped hummus and a Greek or Lebanese salad as well. News and Observer food critic Greg Cox is a big fan of La Shish, placing it on his “Hot List: Middle Eastern” not once but twice, and citing the baklava’s “shatter-crisp texture and golden brown color” as just two reasons why it is “without peer” in the region.

North Ridge Pub's casual kitchen whips up varied dinner and brunch menus of upscale pub grub. Meat minders take the Cameron steak's 9-ounce lean cut of beef ($13.95) for a dip in a soy-and-pineapple pool before laying it out on the grill to roast, and coat tender slices of meatloaf ($8.95 half/$11.95 full) in a secret sauce whose taste can only be deciphered with the help of a decoder ring. Savory sandwiches such as the Carolina shrimp burger ($7.95) and crab-cake sandwich ($7.95) warm hands as well as stomachs.