This story first appeared in CityView magazine’s October 2026 edition.
From Afghan kabobs and West African fare to Japanese ramen, Filipino favorites, and Southern barbecue, Fayetteville’s dining scene offers a rich history of reflecting the many cultures that have long called the city home.
It’s a cultural diversity that is beautifully on display in the breadth of restaurants, cafes, food trucks, and family kitchens scattered throughout Cumberland County.
That diversity has helped create a notable food scene: Today, more than 600 restaurants are listed across the Fayetteville area. It has largely eschewed trendy, upscale spots in favor of affordable, hyper-authentic strip mall joints and small family-owned eateries that were designed to give back to homesick soldiers, military spouses, and veterans who have lived, and eaten, all over the world.
A Culinary Passport
Food is often the first entry point into connection, crossing divides that otherwise might seem insurmountable. With food, we get family recipes, intimate traditions, surprising commonalities and, above all, a true generosity of spirit. Cooking and eating is service in its most human form, a labor-infused gift from the chef to those who are hungry.
On any given day in the city, your meal could be Afghan kabobs and rice as easily as it could be Japanese ramen, Vietnamese pho, or Thai curry. There is Filipino lumpia, West African fufu and stews, Puerto Rican specialties, rich Mediterranean and Middle Eastern dishes, Indian curries, and tandoori cooking. In areas like Cliffdale Square, you can find a German bakery, an Indian restaurant, a Puerto Rican diner, and a Japanese hibachi spot sharing the same parking lot.
At Germène’s Home Kitchen & Bakery on Robeson Street, which opened just this year, owner and operations manager Eddy Claude shares food rooted in his upbringing.
Born and raised in Haiti, where he owned his first restaurant, Claude spent nearly 21 years in the U.S. Army. His Fayetteville restaurant grew from simple roots: weekend gatherings where Claude cooked traditional food for family and friends.
Eventually, encouragement from those around him helped turn those gatherings into a permanent restaurant, and the name itself is a tribute to Claude’s late grandmother, Germène.
“She was a loving and generous woman who believed that everyone who came to her home should be welcomed and fed, whether or not they had money,” Claude said. “I wanted the restaurant to continue her legacy of feeding people and caring for them. That is also the meaning behind our motto: ‘Cooking with love.’”
Every one of Fayetteville’s international restaurants, from the most modest grab-and-go to the priciest sit-down spot, tells the story of one family’s foodway.
On Person Street, diners can find Taste of West Africa, a Ghana-focused restaurant serving traditional West African soups, fufu, rice dishes, and stews. Mai’s Kitchen brings Thai cooking to the downtown area. There’s delicious Vietnamese food at places like Vietnam Kitchen or Saigon Bistro. Afghan Kabob serves grilled kabobs, rice plates and other Afghan and Middle Eastern fare on Raeford Road, and the much-loved Pharaohs Village serves traditional Egyptian fava bean falafel, shish taouk, and halal platters.
There is rich Indian food, too, along with boldly flavored Caribbean, Puerto Rican, Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Mexican, and Italian restaurants. For diners, the city’s food scene is something of a culinary passport.
At Ichi-Kaku Japanese Restaurant, owner and executive chef Yohei Kamiya thinks of his restaurant as a small doorway connecting Japan and Fayetteville—an idea that speaks to the larger role international restaurants can play in a city like this one.
Kamiya grew up in Nagoya, Japan, and worked in Japanese restaurants in New York and North Carolina before opening Ichi-Kaku in 2022.
Kamiya wanted his restaurant to do more than simply reproduce familiar Japanese dishes. He wanted the flavors, aromas, and temperatures of the food to carry some of the emotion and memory associated with his home country.
When Ichi-Kaku opened, Kamiya had his family’s support from the beginning. His sons, Alex and Max, worked alongside him, his daughter Michelle provided moral support, and his wife Tara managed operations. Kamiya ran the kitchen himself seven days a week. After approximately six months, the team began to grow gradually to its current team of 15 people.
Today, the menu includes Ichi-Kaku Signature Ramen, built around a tonkotsu-based pork and chicken broth with dashi made from ingredients including shiitake, kombu, bonito, and mackerel. Chicken katsu curry and crispy Wagyu gyoza are among the other popular dishes.
That same sense of familiarity is at the heart of Kusinera Filipino Cuisine on Legion Road, owned by Esperanza “Nanette” Thomas and her husband, David.
Nanette’s interest in Filipino cooking began with the dishes she grew up eating, and the restaurant grew from her passion for sharing those foods with others. For her, Filipino food is closely tied to family, gathering, sharing, and belonging.
At Kusinera, diners can indulge in a platter filled with steamed rice, pancit, lumpia, fried pork belly, grilled pork belly, and chicken and pork skewers. Shanghai lumpia, pancit and sisig are among the other Filipino favorites on the menu.
The Thomases say Fayetteville has welcomed them, providing a place where they know Filipino families can find familiar flavors and where diners who have never experienced Filipino cooking can discover something new to love.
More Than What’s on the Menu
That dual purpose—dishing up a taste of home and providing a humble introduction to something new—is part of what makes food so communal. Across Fayetteville, diners are afforded the gift of flavors from countries and cultures that perhaps aren’t primarily associated with North Carolinian cuisine.
There is, certainly, barbecue, fried chicken, and sweet tea here. Chefs at eateries like Circa 1800 do thoughtful work around using local farms and seasonal ingredients that pay homage to the area. There are burgers, pizza, brunch, and bakeries. Longtime local institutions exist alongside newer restaurants and food trucks. But here, as much as anywhere in the state, global fare thrives alongside Southern favorites.
And the dining options only continue to grow. Fayetteville’s current landscape gives diners an ever-expanding number of ways to experience their community through food. According to The Fayetteville Observer, last year alone another 50 restaurants joined the city. The scene is a reflection of the people who live here—a melting pot in the truest sense. Each restaurant, from Ohana International to Desde Mi Balcón Restaurant and SimLo’s Island Cafe, lets diners see where each individual restaurateur has come from, what they grew up eating, what they chose to bring with them and what they’ve integrated when they arrived.
Either way, the invitation is essentially the same: Pull up a seat, try something new, bring someone you love with you. There are plenty of tables waiting for us all.
