This NC restaurant’s fried chicken ranks as some of nation’s best. Why fans love it
North Carolina is home to one of the nation’s best places for fried chicken, a new report finds, so bring your appetite.
Haberdish in Charlotte ranks No. 9 on a list of top restaurants where customers can’t get enough of the Southern classic, according to results published in June.
To rank the 25 best fried chicken restaurants in the country, the review website Yelp said it studied places that serve the crunchy dish. It “ranked those spots using a number of factors, including the total volume, geographic representation, and ratings of reviews mentioning ‘fried chicken’” that customers left in the year leading up to mid-June.
The results were released for National Fried Chicken Day, which falls on July 6. Ahead of this year’s occasion, only one North Carolina dining destination made Yelp’s list.
What makes the NC restaurant’s fried chicken special?
Haberdish is known for serving Southern favorites from its space in Charlotte’s NoDa neighborhood. Those favorites include chicken that’s “brined, battered” and fried before it’s served as a whole bird or in smaller portions. The menu also offers fried chicken sandwiches, tenders and pieces of poultry served with waffles or “tossed in housemade Nashville hot sauce.”
On Yelp, fans raved that the restaurant’s fried chicken was crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. Several who tried the dish also loved the sides, which include collard greens and mac and cheese.
Haberdish, which earned more than four out of five stars on Yelp, draws inspiration from the Charlotte area’s ties to the textile industry, CharlotteFive reported. Its name derives from “haberdashery,” which refers to clothes or the shops that sell them.
“Haberdish combines the word haberdashery with dish … as we use the table to bring our mill town’s history to life through food,” the restaurant wrote on its website.
Overall, the nation’s top-ranking place to eat fried chicken was Kimchi Red, in the Atlanta-area town of Alpharetta, Georgia.
This story was originally published July 5, 2023 at 12:18 PM with the headline "This NC restaurant’s fried chicken ranks as some of nation’s best. Why fans love it."
