We recently visited Mount Airy NC and were able to try several locally owned restaurants in and around Mount Airy for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We definitely missed a few because of time constraints, and hope to return to explore a little more.
When visiting small mountain towns here in the Blue Ridge Mountains, we never really know what to expect as far as food quality and service. To be honest, it can be a little hit or miss for us on our travels, especially since we're foodies.
Many of the restaurants in Mt Airy NC pleasantly surprised us during our recent visit. We found several locally owned restaurants that serve up some great food at reasonable prices. This guide features our personal favorite restaurants in Mount Airy NC based on our visit in 2024. These are all places we enjoyed and would eat at again.
Our Favorite Restaurants in Mt Airy NC
While all the restaurants below are our top picks for where to eat in Mount Airy, if we had to pick just one, it would be Southern on Main in nearby Elkin NC.
To be fair though, all of them offer delicious food at very reasonable prices and provide good service as well. We based our picks on our own individual experience at each restaurant using criteria of service, cleanliness, food quality, portions and price.
Our favorite restaurants in Mount Airy North Carolina, are listed below in alphabetical order.
Barney's Cafe
We felt like we really couldn't visit Mount Airy NC and not eat at Barney's Cafe. They are open for breakfast and lunch. They serve traditional southern comfort food, including delicious mouth watering burgers, and some incredible looking desserts!
We visited for breakfast one morning, shortly after they opened.
Barney's Cafe is exactly what you expect, an old-fashioned cafe style restaurant themed to Mayberry and Barney Fife in particular. In fact, you'll find lots of Barney photos on the walls, along with other Mayberry items and photos as well.
For breakfast they offer lots of choose from, including breakfast favorites, Mayberry's Big Country breakfast, omelets, and biscuit sandwiches. We went with the Sweet Taste of Mayberry and Breakfast Favorite #1, and ordered coffee with both.
Jenn ordered The Sweet Taste of Mayberry with 2 scrambled eggs, bacon, and French toast (Jenn is a French Toast connoisseur). I went with favorite #1 with scrambled eggs, sausage patties, and hash browns.
I'm a stickler for good coffee and honestly, awful coffee can ruin a breakfast experience for me. The coffee at Barney's was hot and flavorful.
Overall, the breakfast was very good, certainly not the best breakfast we've had on our adventures, but definitely good, especially for the reasonable cost and portions. We really enjoyed it and would visit again for breakfast.
For lunch they offer salads, multiple Barney Burgers (the southern pimento sounded delicious), hot and cold sandwiches and ice cream. While we didn't get to try them for lunch, the menu certainly sounded good, and if lunch was as good as breakfast, it would be hard to go wrong grabbing lunch at Barney's.
Barney's Cafe is a convenient place to grab a simple but delicious breakfast or lunch at a very reasonable price.
Rusty Rooster Southern Breakfast
We visited the Rusty Rooster for breakfast one morning during our visit to Mount Airy, and liked it so much, we ate there again the next morning. While the name says "Breakfast," they do serve lunch as well.
They offer a large and family friendly dining area, and our experience deliver excellent service, large portions and a great breakfast. Their breakfast menu is huge, from breakfast tacos to eggs benedict. The prices are very reasonable, especially given the large portion sizes.
We arrived around 8am on a weekend, and it wasn't too busy. The hostess, who brought us to our table, warmly greeted us. We reviewed the large menus while waiting on our server, who arrived shortly after and was very friendly and helpful.
I'm a big eggs benedict fan. I ordered their standard eggs benedict with hash browns. Jenn ordered the French toast. Our food arrived quickly, hot, and as we had ordered it.
Both meals were excellent, not fancy, but just plain tasty. As you can see in the photos, the portions are large, but not over the top either.
Our server was attentive and friendly and kept our coffee mugs full.
Overall, we had an excellent breakfast experience at the Rusty Rooster, again, so much so we ate there again the next morning. We highly recommend them, based on our experience, and they were our favorite breakfast spot in Mount Airy during our visit.
2000 Woodland Dr, Mt Airy, NC 27030 - (336) 415-5395
Snappy Lunch
Snappy Lunch is the oldest operating business in Mount Airy, NC, opening in 1923. They have been serving up affordable good food for over 100 years.
For you Mayberry fans, Snappy Lunch is also the only real Mount Airy business mentioned in the Andy Griffith show. You may recall in the "Andy the Matchmaker" episode Andy is talking to Barney about going on a double date, and mentions going to Snappy Lunch.
Today, Snappy lunch servers burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, and their world famous pork chop sandwich. The restaurant is so popular that there is often a line out the door and up Main Street to get in. Fortunately, the line moves fast.
We arrived in Mount Airy around lunchtime and headed straight to Snappy Lunch. As expected, there was a line, but we didn't have to wait long. The interior is what you would expect of a simple historic diner serving great food. Simple and effective, with a red and white interior. We sat in the room on the other side of Floyd's Barbershop.
While the different menu items sounded really good, we couldn't resist ordering the world famous porkchop sandwich with some chips and a soda.
The food came out quickly, and our sandwich was wrapped in paper. Opening it up, revealed a pressed sandwich that smelled wonderful. The porkchop sandwich is a thin porkchop, batter dipped, fried, topped with chili and slaw and placed on bun and pressed. The secret is in the batter, which reminded us of pancake batter.
While simple, the sandwich is delicious, and messy in the good kind of way.
We really enjoyed our visit, the reminder that a fancy "ambience" isn't required for great food. Snappy Lunch delivers just that, simple, great food.
Southern on Main in nearby Elkin
We're cheating a little on this one, as Southern on Main isn't in Mount Airy, but it's only a short drive away and honestly, well worth the drive.
Southern on Main was our favorite dining experience during our visit to Mount Airy and should definitely be at the top of your list. They deliver excellent food with a casual yet upscale dining experience.
We arrived in Elkin well before our dinner reservations, just to explore a little. It's a cool and historic town. Southern on Main is located directly in the heart of downtown Elkin at East Main Street and South Bridge Street. The restaurant is in a historic Elkin building, with a beautiful vineyard mural on the side.
Southern on Main server lunch, dinner and Sunday Brunch. We arrived for our 7pm dinner reservations, and were greeted and seated by the friendly hostess. We began looking over the menu, which was full of mouth watering items like shrimp and grits, mountain trout, friend green tomatoes and southern popcorn (fried okra).
We decided to start with an appetizer of the pastry wrapped baked brie, with caramel drizzle and sliced apples. We also ordered some drinks, including their "butter my ... old fashioned" with smoked brown butter syrup.
The baked brie was fantastic, especially with the caramel drizzle. We really enjoyed it, and it was the great start to what would become a fantastic meal.
After agonizing over the many delicious sounding choices, we ordered our entrees. Jenn went with the Pan Grilled Pork Medallions with port wine and dried cranberry sauce, with asparagus and mashed sweet potatoes. I went with a filet topped with gorgonzola cream and crispy onions, with a lump crab cake and French green beans.
Both meals were absolutely fantastic, and full of lots of complex and complimenting flavors. Both the steak and pork chops were perfectly cooked, as requested as well.
The dessert menu was just too tempting, and we shared the apple sonker (Southern and Main is on The Sonker Trail) and the pecan pie with ice cream. As expected, both delicious and the ice cream on both was exceptional.
Southern on Main was a pleasant surprise for us. While we love exploring new restaurants in small Blue Ridge Mountain towns, we don't generally experience food this good, and Southern on Main is one of our top favorite restaurants in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Thirsty Souls Community Brewing
We visited Thirsty Souls Community Brewing during a Juneteenth festival on Market Street (aka the hip side of Mayberry). While primarily a craft brewery with a selection of 12 different locally crafted beers, they also have a nice selection of wines, ciders and food.
The food menu contains salads, different finger foods (including meat and cheese trays), and their speciality, artisan pizza. They even have a cauliflower crust available on request.
We found a table indoors, ordered a beer flight, some wine, and a Margherita Pizza. The place was really busy, but still seemed very open, casual and inviting, with a mixture of tables and comfortable couch seating areas near the windows. We definitely got a very strong local and friendly vibe.
They also offer outdoor seating, but it was a hot day during our visit and most guests were staying indoors.
Our Margherita pizza was served quickly, and the chef cooked it to perfection with fresh ingredients (which honestly surprised us). It tasted delicious. The mini-brick ovens cook the pizzas quickly as the chefs make and cook them to order.
The wine selection was fantastic, as were the wines. The beer flights are a selection of four locally crafted beers from their list of 12 available. My favorites were the Arseways Irish Ale, and the White Ghost Hefe. I'm not an IPA drinker, so passed on their IPA selections.
We loved our visit to Thirsty Souls Community Brewing. The beers, wine and atmosphere were wonderful. While the selection of food is small, it's all very good, and if you love pizza like we do, you'll be thrilled with the offerings and fresh flavors. Definitely stop by!
