Restaurants in Knightdale

The multitalented chefs at Café Asia Raleigh draw culinary influences from all over Asia as they devise a menu of cooked entrees and artfully rolled sushi. While sitting in black leather booths or at cherry-wood tables, diners catch whiffs of alluring aromas coming from the kitchen, where culinary wizards conjure up shrimp tempura appetizers, miso soups, and noodle and rice dishes, including lobster pad thai and chicken teriyaki served with steamed vegetables. Flavors from the ocean star in the restaurant’s sushi selection, which includes rainbow rolls with five types of fish and spider rolls with soft-shell crab, avocado, cucumber, and scallions.

Drawing on 25 years working in prominent Thai restaurants, owners Oddy and sister, Kanchana, have lined Thai Cafe's menu with recipes from their home digs of Bangpoo––a village southeast of Bangkok on the Gulf of Thailand. Striving always to balance the four basic Thai tastes of salty, sweet, sour/bitter, and hot, the duo also instills a precise flavor profile through meticulous knife work. Finely cutting ingredients into smaller pieces ensures seasoning coverage, stir-fry crispness, and an ego boost for the self-conscious baby corns.

Butter-hued walls prepare senses for yellow-, red-, and green-curry dishes insulated with tender morsels of chicken and beef. Skilled sushi artists slice sashimi and form hand rolls from yellowtail and tempura shrimp, and chef specialties dispatch from the kitchen with Thai barbecue, crispy catfish, and roasted duck––many of which have been left to marinate or cook overnight. Thai Cafe also conveniently represents each dish's spice level by placing two red peppers beside hot dishes, three beside Thai hot dishes, and an invisible pepper beside secret-recipe dishes for the eatery's magician clientele.

Though you may not find founders Linda Wolf and Julie Reid rolling sandwiches at Roly Poly, the duo nonetheless man everything behind the scenes. Prior to founding the sandwich-wrap chain in 1996, Wolf had decades of sandwich artistry under her belt, and Reid had entrepreneurial acumen as a business and finance major. Wolf and Reid attribute the success of their venture—which now includes 125 franchises in 24 states—to the philosophy behind it: Taste matters. In keeping with this belief, the two continually add gourmet ingredients to their deli-style menu. By stocking pantries with items such as brie cheese, sundried tomatoes, and mango chutney, Wolf and Reid ensure that every wrap, salad, and soup tastes great and nourishes the body.

Sandwiches come funneling out of the kitchen doors, spreading brushstrokes of steam that hint at grilled chicken, spinach, and prosciutto. Those mulling over the menu to build their own creations consider six styles of bread including wheat, caraway-studded rye, and sunflower. In the morning hours, croissants, bagels, and breakfast sandwiches prepare diners for stressful shifts as a manager or a hammock-catalog model.

Hanging blue lights illuminate the sushi bar at Saigon Bistro, where chefs slice, layer, and hand-sculpt rolls. Seaweed and rice shrouds the fresh fish, tempura, and vegetables of specialty rolls, while teriyaki and noodle dishes simmer in the kitchen. A variety of lunch specials pair eclectic Asian entrees with rice, salad, and soda, and a kids' menu grants youngsters reprieve from regular diets of peanut-butter sandwiches and plastic action-figure heads. Customers can feast in the chandelier-lit dining room and gaze back at the Asian ornamental stone lions positioned at the bar.