The 16 best biscuits in the Triangle, from fast food joints to local diners
The biscuit is the bedrock of a Southern breakfast. And, if you’re lucky, a Southern lunch and/or supper.
The News & Observer put together a list of the 16 most popular local biscuits and asked readers to help us pick the best one. The list came from fast-food giants, everyday diners and artisan bakers.
The final biscuit battle came down to fast-food chain Bojangles and Chapel Hill’s beloved Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen. Voting revealed that for Triangle readers, it’s always “Bo Time” (voting was super close, though).
Bojangles has more than two dozen locations in the area. The Triangle franchisee is Tri-Arc Foods, a 43-year-old company owned by Donna and Tommy Haddock. Tri-Arc Foods owns more than 50 Bojangles locations in North Carolina and Virginia.
The biscuits are handmade fresh daily, starting in the early hours of the morning, but available on the menu all day. Biscuit makers at Bojangles can turn out a 50-biscuit batch in three to four minutes, starting at 4:30 and 5 a.m. each morning.
A fluffy Sunrise in Chapel Hill
Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen is one of the most essential restaurants in Chapel Hill and likely the town’s most famous drive-thru.
For 43 years, Sunrise has made one of the Triangle’s most iconic biscuits, which general manager Randy Owen said is made in the old-fashioned Southern way. “It’s fluffy and large and a little crispy on top,” Owen said.
Like Bojangles, the most popular item is Sunrise’s chicken biscuit, a breaded and fried chicken breast best dressed with a little bit of Texas Pete hot sauce.
The 16 best biscuits in the Triangle
The best biscuit may be in the eye of the biscuit beholder. But this list is a great source for biscuit research.
BEASLEY’S CHICKEN + HONEY 237 S. Wilmington St., Raleigh. 919-322-0127 or ac-restaurants.com/beasleys
The chicken is the star of this casual Ashley Christensen spot in downtown Raleigh, but if the equation had another addition, it might be Chicken+honey+biscuits. Large, cloudy buttermilk biscuits are the style at Beasley’s, served a buttery brown and slicked with honey. The star sandwich is a chicken biscuit with pickled green tomatoes, honey and zippy dijon mustard.
BIG ED’S RESTAURANT 220 Wolfe St., Raleigh. 919-836-9909; 5009 Falls of Neuse Road, Raleigh. 919-747-9533; 231 Timber Drive, Garner. 919-900-7764; bigedsnc.com
A legendary brand of Southern restaurants in the Triangle, Big Ed’s is perhaps best known for its biscuits. The original downtown Raleigh location is a breakfast hot spot, with two other Big Ed’s added over the years. A Big Ed’s biscuit is, unsurprisingly, big, baked until browned and crumbly with a pillowy center, the perfect place to slide in a slice of country ham.
BISCUIT HAVEN Food truck in Raleigh. biscuithaven.com
This fairly new food truck in the Triangle is already making waves in the biscuit world, serving popular weekly pop-ups stocked with fried chicken biscuits, pimento cheese and fried eggs.
BISCUITVILLE Ten locations in the Triangle. biscuitville.com
On Saturday mornings, Biscuitvilles across North Carolina practically need their own lane of traffic. It’s fast food, but its Southern breakfast bonafides are real, even serving grits as a side. Fans of these biscuits believe a great biscuit doesn’t need to be three inches tall to pack intense flavor.
BOJANGLES Twenty-eight locations in the Triangle. bojangles.com
Perhaps the first name in North Carolina biscuits, Bojangles is the standard many biscuits are judged against. This fast food giant clearly puts a lot of pride in their biscuits, with many locations featuring a window where diners can watch batch after batch mixed up, rolled out, cut and baked to a crispy, salty perfection.
FLYING BISCUIT CAFE 9400 Brier Creek Parkway, Suite 101, Brier Creek. 984-219-2323; 201 S. Estes Drive, Unit E2, Chapel Hill. 919-537-8974; 2016 Clark Ave., Raleigh. 919-833-6924; or flyingbiscuit.com
With locations across multiple states, this popular and funky trio of diners in the Triangle lives up to its name. The biscuits are tall and big on fluff factor and always golden brown on top.
JUBALA COFFEE 8450 Honeycutt Road, Suite 104, Raleigh. 919-758-8330; 2100 Hillsborough St., Suite 100, Raleigh. 919-792-1767; 200 Park at North Hills St., Suite 140, Raleigh. 984-200-5048; or jubalacoffee.com
The Jubala brand of biscuit is endlessly crumbly (in a good way) and lightly sweetened, which adds a nice depth to a sausage and egg sammie, or doubles down in the indulgence of, say, a smear of raspberry jam paired with a silky cup of specialty coffee. This is what morning routines were meant to be.
MAMA DIP’S KITCHEN 408 W. Rosemary St., Chapel Hill. 919-942-5837 or mamadips.com
A Southern food icon in Chapel Hill, Mama Dip’s Kitchen continues to serve the gospel of freshly made sides, soul-warming desserts and classic biscuits.
MONUTS 1002 Ninth St., Durham. 919-286-2642 or monutsdonuts.com
Among the array of excellent baked treats at this Durham doughnut shop and diner, the biscuits have a particularly strong point of view. They’re square, for one, and huge, big enough for crispy fried chicken and a pickle with hot honey, or simple and sublime with just a smear of pumpkin butter.
NEAL’S DELI 100 E. Main St., Carrboro. 919-967-2185 or nealsdeli.com
A favorite in downtown Carrboro, the biscuits at Neal’s Deli are among the largest and fluffiest one can find anywhere, made with buttermilk and baked to deeply golden brown.
RISE SOUTHERN BISCUITS & RIGHTEOUS CHICKEN Nine locations in the Triangle. risebiscuitschicken.com
This fast casual brand basically rewrote the local word on biscuits in the Triangle, quickly building a loyal following with numerous locations from Carrborro to Raleigh. The Rise biscuit is a buttery behemoth, crispy on the outside and fluffy throughout.
STATE FARMERS MARKET RESTAURANT 1240 Farmers Market Drive, Raleigh. 919-755-1550 or realbiscuits.com
Adjacent to the agricultural delights of the State Farmers Market is a Raleigh biscuit landmark. Down to the website address, the Farmers Market Restaurant promises the realest of real biscuits, baked in the old fashioned way with a golden brown top and luscious pull-apart, cloud-like bites.
SUNRISE BISCUIT KITCHEN 1305 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill. 919-933-1324 or sunrisebiscuits.com
This iconic Chapel Hill drive thru biscuit shop is among the first names in Triangle biscuit cravings, feeding generations of UNC students and locals and calling biscuit devotees from far and wide to the tiny kitchen on Franklin Street, particularly for fried chicken biscuits.
TIME-OUT RESTAURANT 201 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill. 919-929-2425 or timeout247.com
At all hours of the night, any night of the year, Time-Out will be there for you on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. The comfort of an all-the-time diner, especially in this case, is that you can find a giant, crumb-tastic biscuit whenever the need or craving arises. The famous order is the chicken and cheddar biscuit, which has drawn the attention of eaters like “Man Versus Food’s” Adam Richman.
TRUE FLAVORS DINER/DEBBIE LOU’S BISCUIT SANDWICH SHOP 5410 N.C. 55, Durham. trueflavorsdiner.com
As one of the Triangle’s most popular brunch destinations, True Flavors launched its own biscuit-centric brand, Debbie Lou’s, specializing in fork-and-knife biscuit towers. One of the standout creations is the blueberry chipotle chicken biscuit, an artisan mashup of a certain Big Biscuit’s Bo-Berry treasure and a fried chicken biscuit.
UNION SPECIAL 2409 Crabtree Blvd., Suite 201, Raleigh. 984-200-3094 or unionsprecialbread.com
Nestled among the bready wizardry of this Raleigh bakery, alongside airy croissants and artisan sourdough, is a perfect little biscuit. Usually ordered with a crispy cutlet of fried chicken, the Union Special Biscuit is richly golden, big on crumbliness and crispy and soft in the right places.
