Out and About

Dishcrawl's first Raleigh tour a success

Dishcrawl, a company that organizes and runs "restaurant crawls," had its first event in Raleigh last night, and judging by the lively crowd and empty plates, it was a huge success.

Posted 2013-02-07T22:12:57+00:00 - Updated 2018-07-13T18:30:50+00:00

Guests visited Centro on Dishcrawl's first tour in Raleigh.

Caitlin Zanga

Dishcrawl, a company that organizes and runs "restaurant crawls," had its first event in Raleigh last night, and judging by the lively crowd and empty plates, it was a huge success.

Out & About was invited to the event, and we live tweeted and took pictures the whole evening. You can check out the tweet log of the night below.

Guests visited ORO on Dishcrawl's first tour in Raleigh.

The evening started at one of our favorite restaurants, Bida Manda, which we've visited before. They serve up delicious Laotian cuisine, and for the appetizer course of our restaurant crawl, we had crispy pork spring rolls and spicy chicken curry. The bar creates innovative cocktails, including the Rosey Smash, with bourbon, fresh lemon juice, rosemary, and tangerine. Another popular drink is the Champagne Cocktail, which is flavored with house-made sugar cubes.

We moved on to ORO for the next course, where we took up the entire second floor seating area. The meal was braised pork belly, a mini version of their shrimp and grits, and a huge bowl of macaroni and cheese for the table to share. I don't even like grits, but these were actually really good. And of course, the mac 'n cheese was delicious.

The Dishcrawl group walked up Wilmington Street to Centro, which was named one of our Five Faves, for the next course. We had a private dining room reserved, and the long communal tables allowed everyone to mingle and meet new people. The manager was very helpful and friendly, and explained all the dishes, which most of us had never eaten before. The meal was a creamy, cheesy mixture of chicken and corn tortillas with pickled onions on top, which was unexpectedly spicy, served with leafy greens, pumpkin seeds and a cilantro dressing.

Our last stop on the crawl was Troy Mezze, which we had never been to before. They served a trio of desserts: chocolate mousse loaded with Kahluah and Turkish coffee, rice pudding with a sprinkle of cinnamon and bakalava. They were all very good, but my favorite by far was the chocolate mousse. The restaurant, tucked away in Historic City Market, was a perfect and relaxing place to end the tour.

Chocolate mousse, rice pudding and bakalava at Troy Mezze on Dishcrawl's first tour in Raleigh.

This was Dishcrawl's first Raleigh event, but they're already gearing up for more. Adam, the Raleigh tour manager, is hoping to eventually have more than one tour a month and focus each tour on different areas in Raleigh, such as Glenwood Avenue, Cameron Village and North Hills. The next Dishcrawl event is already in the works for March.

The restaurant crawl was a lot of fun, and we met some great people. It was a great way to explore new restaurants and sample their food. We would highly recommend going on a Dishcrawl tour in the future!

In case you weren't glued to your phone last night, we put together a summary of our tweets from the event. Remember to follow us on Twitter @WRALOutandAbout, and you can see more photos from the night on Instagram (WRALOutandAbout). Don't forget to download our smartphone app!

Who is headed to the Dishcrawl in Raleigh tonight? We are excited! will be live tweeting the action.