Restaurants in Mount Holly

To craft their braciola (italian beef rollups), Open Kitchen’s chefs begin with a large slice of top beefsteak. They stuff the steak with fresh italian sausage, prosciutto, and genoa salami, then simmer the concoction and serve it with pasta pomodoro. This is just one example of their vast menu of Italian fare, which also includes ravioli parmigiana, pizza, and sub sandwiches. Perhaps the pièce de résistance is Open Kitchen’s mixed Italian cuisine platter—pasta covered with chicken livers, slices of veal, chicken parmigiana, meatballs, and mushrooms for one or two.

Two decades removed from the opening of their first restaurant, the native Thai owners of Thai House continue to season meats, curries, and seafood with tropical Asian spices and embellish their three locations with hand-whittled teakwood silhouettes. Half-roasted duck and grilled shrimp swim in rice and noodles before catching cool, creamy waves of thai iced tea. Curries cascade over mounds of jasmine or brown rice imported from Thailand, and flotillas of Japanese sushi and sashimi cast their anchors alongside the spicy array of Thai fare. Mesmerizing notes of Thai music pervade the dining room, scoring dinner conversations and sword duels between chopsticks.

Large wooden doors—not unlike those used to secure Medieval-era tree houses—grant entry to a multilevel, pagoda-style building designed to resemble a Chinese temple. Within its walls, classic furnishings reflect Chinese traditions, including decor that celebrates the Chinese New Year and elegant curtains that drape among the small, softly lit dining areas. This is Wan Fu Quality Chinese Cuisine, where cooks curate more than 100 dishes—most of which are made in-house from scratch. A mixture of traditional, contemporary, and health-minded creations populate the menu, such as the restaurant's signature pineapple chicken.

Owner Dalton Espaillat can be stubborn when it comes to what he allows in his kitchen at Three Amigos Mexican Grill and Cantina. He won’t permit premade sauces, or anything but the freshest vegetables and meats. He insists that the previous day’s rice, beans, and stove be discarded, and that new batches be whipped up in their stead. Dalton’s team of skilled chefs is more than happy to oblige, nimbly folding their ingredients into Mexican specialties lauded by reporters from CBS Charlotte as the best in town. The culinary team also specializes in traditional seafood dishes such as camarones a la diabla, loaded with plump shrimp. The kitchen staff extends their culinary expertise to a sweeping array of enchiladas—including the enchiladas poblanas with mole that reporters from Creative Loafing praised as “boldly complex” and “densely flavored.”

Come nightfall, the chefs turn their attention to a late-night menu of Dominican specialties, from empanadas to chimi burgers—ideal snacks after a long night of dancing or rustling oxen. Customers await their meals out in the lively dining room, clinking glasses of micheladas and freshly squeezed margaritas.

Global Restaurant's Chef Bernard grew up along the sun-soaked shores of the southern French village of Nice, where his grandfather was a pastry chef and his father owned a fish shop. This rich familial and Francophilic culinary heritage inspired him to take chef apprenticeships in Paris, the United Kingdom, Russia, and upon globe-roving cruise ships. His travels infused an eclectic edge into his cooking, which still incorporates traditional meals, fusion concepts, and a French spirit. His journeys also yielded him more than recipes — during one of his cruises, he met his wife, Shannon, whose experience with the front end of the food-and-beverage industry led the pair to open their own restaurant in Charlotte.

Inside the duo's creation, Global Restaurant, electric blues and oranges brighten the space, and crisp tablecloths lay a canvas for dishes with inventive flavors and artistic presentations. Chef Bernard's specialties include cauliflower-goat-cheese sauce, boldly splashed across a seared sea bass, and date chutney and caramelized apples that dance across an all-natural duck.

The menu, which is in many ways a travelogue of Bernard and Shannon's journeys, has snagged the attention of the Charlotte Observer and of WCNC's Charlotte Today, which invited Bernard on air for a live cooking demo, where he seared some of his famous diver scallops atop the weatherman's greenscreen.

Feeding the discerning palates of the local community for more than 25 years, Great Wall of China South earns its longtime success with a sweet and savory smorgasbord of meat and vegetarian dishes. Inside the eatery, grandiose fish tanks and candles emit a soft glow on tables, from which plated Chinese fare wafts its spiced decadence and helps customers make decisions from the extensive menu offerings. Culling tastes from land and sea, chefs top pepper steak with onions, dunk chicken in sauces such as teriyaki, and marry dishes of shrimp and broccoli under the watch of their proud parents. Lavish Sunday lunch buffets line up the eatery's popular dishes in a sampling of eats that give guests ideas for what to order on their next visit.