Rada

Rada is a 46 seat neighborhood restaurant on Selwyn Avenue in Myers Park that became one of the most talked about dining rooms in the country within a year of opening. It did it without a splashy launch or an influencer campaign. Chef Callan Buckles and owner Eloy Roy simply opened a small, good restaurant and let the food and the room speak, and both The New York Times and the Michelin Guide noticed.

The feel is a West Village bistro dropped onto a Charlotte side street: close tables, a short list of plates built to share, and a menu that changes often enough that regulars never order the same meal twice. It is the kind of place people book for a Tuesday because they cannot get a Saturday, and then decide they prefer Tuesdays.

What to know

• Plates are intended to share; order for the table rather than by person.
• Start with the snack section. The Gilda and the eggplant escabeche are the two that stick around.
• 46 seats means reservations are hard. Weeknights are the realistic way in.
• Recognized by both The New York Times and the Michelin Guide in its first year.