These 4 North Carolina Restaurants Make Yelp’s Top List

These 4 North Carolina restaurants make Yelp's top list. The dining review website unveiled it's 11th annual "Top 100 Places To Eat" ranking according to our source, Channel 9 in Charlotte. Sadly, there weren't any restaurants from South Carolina on the list. Come on now! Lots of great places in South Carolina but we aren't the experts in charge of making the list.

Dillsboro, Greensboro, High Point and Asheboro appeared on the exclusive list. What? No Raleigh, Charlotte or Asheville? How could this be. Rankings were based on ratings, reviews and community input. Haywood Smokehouse in Dillsboro came in the highest in North Carolina. It ranked 11th. That is indeed high on the list. It is known for its dry rub meats and Texas style. It got 4.8 stars and 582 reviews.

Odeh's Mediterranean Kitchen in High Point is on the list coming in at 43. It features fresh dishes and fresh ingredients from the Mediterranean according to the Charlotte Business Journal. It's a family owned place and it even grinds its own spices.

Freeman's Grub and Pub in Greensboro is on this year's list just like they were last year. It places at 49 and has 516 reviews. It gets 4.7 stars. If you head to Asheboro, check out The Table. This quote from the Charlotte Business Journal. "a full counter service eatery, bakery, espresso bar and market for breakfast, lunch and all day brunch on Saturday." It offers sandwiches on fresh-baked bread, seasonal meals with fresh, local ingredients, Counter Culture coffee and pastries, cakes and pies. These 4 North Carolina restaurants make Yelp's top list.

What's North Carolina's favorite junk food? A new poll from Casinos.com has a surprising answer. We’re talking about National Junk Food Day!  They released a state-wide junk food poll on July 21st. Why? Because it's National Junk Food Day! It only happens once a year and it’s a day worth celebrating for sure!  If there was ever a day to leave the salad in the fridge and treat yourself to some fat, sugar, salt, carbs, and calories, this is it. In honor of this food holiday, a new report reveals Americans’ favorite junk foods.

For research purposes, they left out fast food restaurants such as McDonald's, Wendy's and KFC.  Fast food places are worthy of their own nationally celebrated day (National Fast Food Day, November 16). Likewise, they didn't include drinks or sodas, and basically, anything you can consider healthy.

Fast food restaurants were excluded as I said earlier. This study instead refers to snacks available to purchase in stores. Sodas and chewing gum were also excluded.

I was shocked to find out what North Carolina's was. South Carolina too!

This very important data was collected over a 12-month period from July 17, 2022 - July 16, 2023.

In the case where a state had equal levels of interest for multiple snacks, search volumes for each item using "Semrush" were measured in that area to determine a favorite.

My all-time favorite junk food is pretzels. Any kind of pretzels. Rods, sticks, chocolate covered, honey wheat, burnt and hot soft ones! I love me some pretzels! I'm also a sucker for Gold Fish crackers and Peanut M&M's.

LauRen my co-host has her favs too. She said on the air the other day she loves Twizzlers, Pringles and assorted nuts. (BTW I said nuts is not junk food).

Casinos.com analyzed Google Trends and search data for the last year to determine what the most popular junk foods are in each state:

America’s favorite overall junk food in 2023 is … Sour Patch Kids! They’re the favorite in seven states. Arizona, California, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and North Carolina!

Nerds candy are the favorite in Florida, South Carolina and Virginia. I love Nerds. They do leave my mouth watering from the sourness! 

 Kit Kat is the most popular chocolate bar, it’s the favorite in Nevada, New York, Oregon and Washington. That's a great candy! The only bad part is, it melts bad in our summer heat! 

Pringles also did well and were the favorite in four states. Indiana, Montana and Utah. Pringles are only good when on a boat IMO. 

Butterfinger is the top choice in Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee. Not a big fan of butterfinger. Bart Simpson sold a lot of these in 90's with his TV ads though! 

Gummy Bears win in two states: Colorado and Hawaii. Good one! The island of gummies, Gummy Worms are good too! 

Rhode Island is the smallest state but has the biggest hunger for Animal Crackers. They're the favorite in Maine, Missouri, Vermont and West Virginia. I remember I called my vet she said she was eating Animal Crackers. True story!