Charlotte’s international food corridors

Charlotte’s international food doesn’t live in one Chinatown or one Little Italy. It runs along corridors: Central Avenue and the Eastway stretch on the east side, South Boulevard heading toward Pineville, and, increasingly, the strip centers of the ring towns where rent is cheaper and the families who cook the food actually live. This guide follows those corridors through the businesses in our directory. It’s a start, not a census; the east side alone has more restaurants than we’ve verified. Facts about each business come from its own listing or site.

Start at the grocery

Super G Mart carries what it calls the largest selection of international grocery in the Carolinas, from banana leaves and jackfruit to yucca root, fresh daily. It’s the anchor of the east-side corridor and the best single answer to the question “where do I find that.” Walk it once without a list. The produce section alone will change what you cook, and the hot bar and the food stalls around it are a lunch. Our read: if you visit one place in this guide, visit this one, and budget an hour.

Latin America

Viva Chicken does Peruvian pollo a la brasa, charcoal-fire rotisserie chicken from the streets of Peru, fast-casual, born in Charlotte. Fogo de Chão on South Tryon in South End is Brazilian churrasco with gaucho-style tableside service and a Market Table. Havana Carolina Restaurant & Bar brings Cuban food to Concord under the motto Sabor, Son, Salsa, with reservations and online ordering; it’s the reason to drive to Cabarrus County for dinner.

Mexico is the largest single presence on the corridors and the least represented in the directory so far. Mexilove Tacos & Tequila on South Tryon does birria, fajitas and a full tequila bar. Charros welcomes guests with mi casa es su casa at two Concord locations, open daily from 11. Carrburritos in Davidson is a family-run California-style taqueria making everything on site daily. Paco’s Tacos & Tequila serves Tex-Mex in Charlotte and Fort Mill, with wood-fired fajitas. The taquerias on Central Avenue and South Boulevard that don’t have websites, which is most of the best ones, will be added as we get to them.

Asia

Daebak Korean Restaurant invites guests, in its own words, on a journey through Korean cuisine, with reservations and online ordering. Daebak means “awesome” in Korean slang, roughly, and the name is a fair review. Hot Tuna Wok & Roll Bar in Harrisburg does sushi and wok dishes in an Asian-fusion room that’s busy for a town its size. And Sincerely Tea House in Davidson builds a global tea experience starting with matcha, which is the quietest way into this guide.

Europe and the Mediterranean

Tutti’s Italian Market & Deli in Concord is a market, deli and caterer open Wednesday through Sunday, and the closest thing the north side has to an old-style Italian grocery. Little Mama’s Italian in Charlotte and Mario’s in Matthews, serving since 1984, are the family-kitchen Italian restaurants. Cottage Grove Bakery sells English bakes by a baker born and raised in England, most Saturdays at Josh’s Farmers Market in Mooresville. Kefi Vineyards & Winery in Monroe makes Mediterranean-style wine on a Carolina estate. And Vetus Distillery, also in Monroe, distills rakia, the fruit brandy of Bulgaria and the Balkans, which is a corridor of one.

The Middle East and the pita

Pita Wheel in Gastonia grew from a 2014 food truck into a full-service neighborhood restaurant, and it’s the west side’s answer for a gyro plate. The larger Middle Eastern and South Asian clusters are on the east side along Central and Albemarle Road, and they’re the next section of this guide to fill in.

The soul food corridor

“International” undersells one of Charlotte’s oldest food traditions, which grew up on Beatties Ford Road and the west side and is as much a corridor as any of the ones above. Cuzzo’s Cuisine does gourmet seafood and Southern favorites, wings, lobster mac, fish, tenders and shrimp, with pickup and delivery. The barbecue tradition is its own guide; start with Hickory & Heart in the Providence area, which took over The Q Shack in 2017. And the Historic West End neighborhood page is where the west-side restaurants will show up as we add them.

The people behind it

The Carolinas Asian-American Chamber of Commerce, established in 1999, connects and advocates for Asian American businesses across the Carolinas through a network of entrepreneurs and community leaders. Chambers like this are how a restaurant on Central Avenue with no marketing budget ends up with a permit, a lease and a website, and the chamber’s own events are one of the better ways to find restaurants before anyone writes about them.

How to eat the corridors

The corridors also move. Ten years ago the east side was where you went for pho and pupusas; now a lot of those families have opened second locations in Concord, Monroe and Indian Trail, closer to where they live. Follow the strip centers along Highway 74 and Highway 29 and you’ll find the newest kitchens a year before any food writer does.

Go with a group so you can order more. Ask for the menu the regulars use; a lot of places keep a shorter English menu and a longer one. Cash still matters on Central Avenue. Lunch is cheaper and calmer than dinner almost everywhere. And use the restaurants directory by town, since the ring-town strip centers are where the newest kitchens open first. If your family’s restaurant isn’t here yet, list it. This is the guide with the most missing from it, and we know it.