Durham, North Carolina, offers a vibrant culinary scene with numerous restaurants catering to health-conscious diners. Whether you're vegan, vegetarian, or simply looking for wholesome, nutritious meals, Durham has something to satisfy every palate. This guide explores some of the best healthy food options in Durham, highlighting restaurants that prioritize fresh, locally sourced ingredients and offer diverse menus to meet various dietary needs and preferences.
Plant-Based Delights at Pure Soul
Pure Soul is a standout vegan restaurant that offers "kind comfort food" in a relaxed, Caribbean-themed setting. The restaurant is known for its welcoming atmosphere, friendly staff, and delicious plant-based soul food.
Catering and Parties: Pure Soul provides catering services for events and parties, offering a unique vegan experience for any occasion.
Customer Experience: Customers rave about the exceptional service, cleanliness, and flavorful dishes. Even non-vegans appreciate the food, noting that it is both satisfying and delicious. The ambiance is enhanced by beautiful plants and a relaxed vibe, often accompanied by a DJ.
Popular Dishes: The Soul Bowl is a highly recommended menu item. Other popular choices include the classic lemonade, soul egg rolls, and collard greens.
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Mission: Pure Soul aims to create a welcoming environment where everyone can enjoy savory soul food, regardless of dietary restrictions. The restaurant emphasizes kindness, cleanliness, and a sense of community.
Farmside Kitchen: Wholesome Farmbowls
Farmside Kitchen, located in Research Triangle Park (RTP), specializes in "farm bowls" - hearty grain bowls and salads made with thoughtfully sourced ingredients. The restaurant is committed to sustainability, working with local and regional farmers who prioritize healthy and regenerative practices.
Commitment to Sustainability: Farmside Kitchen focuses on building a virtuous cycle that benefits customers, farm partners, and the planet.
Menu Highlights: The menu includes a variety of options, from vegan and vegetarian choices to bowls topped with meat and cheese.
Popular Dishes: Customer favorites include The GOAT, The Pitchfork, and The Root Veggie Bowl.
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Clean Eatz: Healthy and Affordable
Clean Eatz in Durham offers a variety of delicious and affordable healthy food options. With a focus on providing nutritious meals, Clean Eatz caters to customers looking for convenient and healthy choices.
Menu Options: The dine-in cafe menu includes burgers, wraps, flatbreads, meltz, and build-your-own bowls. Customers can also enjoy smoothies and other healthy snacks.
Convenience: Clean Eatz provides meal plans that can be ordered online and picked up, making healthy eating easy and accessible. Most meals are under 500 calories.
Additional Services: In addition to the cafe menu and meal plans, Clean Eatz offers Grab ‘N’ Go meals and catering services for various occasions.
Diverse and Delicious Options
Durham's culinary scene also includes a variety of other restaurants that cater to health-conscious diners, offering everything from breakfast and lunch to dinner and special occasions.
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Breakfast Restaurants
- Monuts: Known for its mix of amazing donuts, hearty breakfast sandwiches made with local ingredients and seasonal veggies, and creative brunch plates. Popular menu picks include the Heirloom Summer bagel and the seasonal granola bowl.
- The Refectory Cafe: This all-day restaurant serves a great breakfast with lots of warm, classic options, including ricotta pancakes with a fruit topping and savory meals like smoked salmon benedict. They also offer vegan options like a tofu scramble.
- Bull and Bean: A hybrid bakery, cafe, and wine bar that serves breakfast all day. The menu spans from loaded vegan hash browns to a colorful acai bowl, with many gluten-free options available.
Lunch Restaurants
- Happy and Hale: A local mini-chain that serves cold salads, warm grain bowls, and tasty smoothies. Customers can build their own bowl with a variety of roasted veggies, grains, greens, and protein toppings.
- Bul Box: Another spot with locations across the North Carolina triangle region, Bul Box is a great healthy restaurants Durham, NC, especially for a quick lunch of a takeout dinner. There are different meal options, including warm grain bowls, cold poke bowls, and a make-your-own bowl.
- Foster’s Market: One of our absolute favorite places to find healthy food in Durham, Foster’s Market is an old standby. Go at lunchtime and you can choose a sandwich off their menu, or opt for a plate of three ready-made salads and sides. Many of these options are gluten-free, and it’s easy to add something like a protein or roasted veggie to a menu item.
Dinner Restaurants
Luna Rotisserie and Empanadas: We love the variety of flavors at Luna, and the fact that it’s so easy to get a mix of hearty carbs, perfectly cooked proteins, and bright, fresh veggies. (And, that this is a great place to take anyone who’s vegan or gluten-free because of the multitude of options.)
Parts and Labor (inside Motorco): Alongside bar food staples like loaded fries and sliders, Parts and Labor has a pretty extensive vegetarian menu that includes things like a tofu bahn mi, eggplant chapati, and vegetable samosas.
Zweli’s: Durham’s only Zimbabwean restaurant. We love coming with a group to order all three samosas on the menu (beef, veggie, and sweet potato), and to order meat dishes that are a little harder to find elsewhere, like braised oxtail and stewed goat. All of the sides are vegan and most are veggie-centric, so it’s easy to fill your plate with a variety of flavors and textures here.
The dishes: The dishes include everything you’d expect, from crunchy papaya salad to rich Thai curry to stir-fried noodles. But everything is done well, the service is friendly, and the food is perfect for when you’re tired of eating the same thing at home every night and just need a little something different.
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