Raleigh–Durham, NCItalian

INDY Week and The News & Observer include Gocciolina in Durham's Italian dining coverage. The Guess Road restaurant keeps the room modest while the kitchen emphasizes handmade pasta and a frequently changing chalkboard menu. Choose a pasta that reflects the current season, then add a vegetable or small plate rather than treating the meal as a single-course visit.

The News & Observer's Durham guide highlights Mothers & Sons for hand-rolled pasta and wood-fired cooking. The downtown trattoria draws on regional Italian traditions while letting the pasta station and grill set the menu's rhythm. Share at least one pasta and one grilled plate so both sides of the kitchen have room on the table.

The News & Observer's Chapel Hill guide includes Bombolo for an Italian menu that is comfortable borrowing accents from elsewhere in Asia. The result is a compact neighborhood restaurant with handmade pasta and bolder flavor combinations than a conventional trattoria. Let the current pasta list lead and ask which dish most clearly reflects that cross-cultural approach.

The News & Observer's Raleigh guide covers Brodeto, chef Scott Crawford's expansive seafood and pasta restaurant at Raleigh Iron Works. The dining room is designed for a broader meal than a quick bowl of noodles, with coastal dishes sharing space with handmade pasta. Order across both parts of the menu to understand the restaurant's Adriatic frame.

The News & Observer's Raleigh guide highlights Figulina's Italian cooking with North Carolina references, including country-ham carbonara and an nduja Scotch egg. The corrected Harrington Street address places the restaurant in the Warehouse District. Start with a pasta that uses a regional ingredient, then add one of the kitchen's more playful small plates.