Blacksburg, Virginia, has plenty to offer beyond a quick meal on the way to a Virginia Tech game. Its dining scene ranges from Brazilian wood-fire cooking and Nepalese dumplings to an Appalachian supper in a historic house, with longtime breakfast spots and wine-focused evenings adding different reasons to linger. These 15 restaurants are within Blacksburg itself; the list leaves nearby Christiansburg and the wider New River Valley for another trip.
#15 Souvlaki
Cuisine: Greek counter-service
Neighborhood: Downtown / College Avenue
Price: $
Best For: A quick, inexpensive meal near campus
Must Order: A pork souvlaki pita with Greek salad
Why It Made the List:
Souvlaki has served College Avenue since 1982, giving a quick downtown meal a long-standing local connection. Roasted-red-pepper hummus pitas, small pita pizzas, and baklava broaden the choices beyond the grilled-meat specialties. Its compact menu makes it a useful stop when the plan calls for a casual meal before continuing around town.
Known For:
- Grilled pork souvlaki pitas
- Gyros with tzatziki
- Spanakopita spinach pie
#14 Bull & Bones Brewhaus & Grill
Cuisine: Barbecue and American brewpub
Neighborhood: First & Main / South Main Street
Price: $$
Best For: A group barbecue meal with brewpub atmosphere
Must Order: A two-meat smoked-barbecue combination
Why It Made the List:
Bull & Bones carries its brewpub character into dishes beyond the barbecue platters. A German-style pretzel made by Blacksburg Bagel comes with mustard and four-cheese sauce, while the Cuban sandwich brings together pulled pork, ham, Swiss cheese, and pickles. Those choices give a group at the South Main Street location several ways to build dinner around different appetites.
Known For:
- Meats smoked in-house daily
- Two- and three-meat barbecue combinations
- Smoked wings with a choice of sauce or rub
#13 Avellinos Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria
Cuisine: Italian American
Neighborhood: First & Main / South Main Street
Price: $$
Best For: A familiar Italian dinner with plenty of choices
Must Order: Francesca’s lasagna or baked seafood pasta
Why It Made the List:
Avellinos’ menu gives a dinner at First & Main the structure of a traditional Italian American meal, with salad and bread accompanying many entrées. Nonna Soriano’s pasta fagioli combines cannellini beans, pepperoni, and ditalini in a tomato broth, while chicken saltimbocca layers prosciutto, spinach, and mozzarella with lemon-caper sauce. Those preparations offer reasons to explore beyond the pizzas and baked specialties.
Known For:
- Francesca’s lasagna with beef, sausage, and ricotta
- Baked seafood pasta with scallops, shrimp, and crab
- New York-style pizza
#12 Spicity
Cuisine: Chinese with Sichuan specialties
Neighborhood: Prices Fork Road
Price: $
Best For: Sharing a meal with Sichuan heat and contrasting textures
Must Order: Twice-cooked pork and garlic cucumber
Why It Made the List:
Spicity offers enough variety to build a shared meal around contrasts in seasoning and texture. Chilled tofu-skin, carrot, and cucumber shreds can precede richer dishes such as cumin-seasoned fatty beef or crispy shrimp with salted egg yolk. The selection of noodle soups and rice plates also gives a solo diner a practical way into the menu without ordering a large spread.
Known For:
- Mala dry pots with chicken, beef, or vegetables
- Fish with sour cabbage
- Toothpick beef
#11 Our Daily Bread Bakery & Bistro
Cuisine: French-influenced bakery and bistro
Neighborhood: South Main Street
Price: $$
Best For: A bistro dinner with a bakery finish
Must Order: Chipotle-coffee duck followed by a seasonal dessert
Why It Made the List:
Our Daily Bread extends the bakery visit into a full evening meal with a house salad included alongside its dinner entrées. Preparations such as raspberry-balsamic chicken and flounder with a lemon-caper buttermilk-dill sauce show the bistro’s range. A changing dessert selection, including fruit clafoutis or filled crêpes, makes the final course worth leaving room for.
Known For:
- Duck breast with chipotle-coffee coulis
- Butternut squash linguini with spinach and sage-white-wine sauce
- French macarons and European-style pastries
#10 Cabo Fish Taco
Cuisine: Baja-inspired tacos and seafood
Neighborhood: Downtown / South Main Street
Price: $
Best For: A casual taco meal in downtown Blacksburg
Must Order: Beer-battered fish tacos or barbecue mahi tacos
Why It Made the List:
Cabo’s Blacksburg location occupies a historic South Main Street property with a large outdoor patio. The menu draws on Baja’s coastal cooking while adding combinations such as kiwi-teriyaki fajitas and jerk chicken and shrimp in pineapple-cream pasta. Those dishes give companions who want something beyond tacos their own route through a relaxed downtown dinner.
Known For:
- Beer-battered fish tacos
- Barbecue mahi tacos
- Thai-chili tofu tacos
#9 The Cellar
Cuisine: Greek, Italian, and pub food
Neighborhood: Downtown / North Main Street
Price: $
Best For: A casual downtown meal with a broad beer selection
Must Order: Greek spaghetti and spanakopita
Why It Made the List:
The Cellar’s menu reaches from small pita pizzas to larger hand-tossed pies, giving a table several ways to share dinner downtown. Mussels with white wine, garlic, and fresh salsa, or Pasta Aegean with shrimp, feta, and pesto, provide alternatives to the familiar Greek favorites. Local bands add another connection to Blacksburg’s evening scene, though a particular performance depends on the schedule.
Known For:
- Greek spaghetti with feta, garlic, and olive oil
- Spinach calzones with ricotta, feta, and mozzarella
- The adjoining 6-PAK craft-beer shop
#8 Lefty’s Main Street Grille
Cuisine: American neighborhood grille
Neighborhood: South Main Street
Price: $$
Best For: An easygoing dinner with a varied menu
Must Order: Scallops and grits or French onion beef fettuccine
Why It Made the List:
Family-owned since 2004, Lefty’s combines a Main Street dining room and patio with a secluded taproom offering up to twenty-four rotating beers. The kitchen also explores combinations such as Korean barbecue chicken fettuccine with kimchi buttermilk-fried chicken and chili cream. That mix of settings and dishes gives diners room to choose between a leisurely patio meal and an evening around the taps.
Known For:
- Scallops and grits
- French onion beef fettuccine
- Eggplant Parmesan
#7 Gillie’s
Cuisine: Plant-forward café cooking
Neighborhood: Downtown / College Avenue
Price: $
Best For: Breakfast with vegetarian and vegan choices
Must Order: Gillie’s Special with potatoes, eggs, cheddar, and salsa
Why It Made the List:
Jan Gillie opened this College Avenue business as an ice-cream shop in a former antique furniture store in March 1974. Its evolution into a plant-forward café gives a meal here a connection to a long-running family business. Bread from nearby Bollo’s Bakery and options such as banana-walnut French toast add specific local and breakfast reasons to visit beyond the savory house favorites.
Known For:
- Pacific Bowl with soba noodles, fried tofu, and pickled vegetables
- Gillie’s Special with potatoes, eggs, cheddar, and salsa
- Custom stir-fries with tofu or house seitan
#6 Hamro Kitchen
Cuisine: Nepalese and Indian
Neighborhood: Downtown / Draper Road
Price: $
Best For: Exploring Nepalese dumplings and noodle dishes
Must Order: Chicken jhol momo
Why It Made the List:
Hamro Kitchen offers several ways to explore Nepali cooking beyond a bowl of soup or dumplings. Duck choila combines the meat with ginger, garlic, onion, and cilantro, while lamb sekuwa takes ginger-and-garlic-seasoned meat into the clay oven. Those contrasting preparations give a shared dinner on Draper Road a useful range of flavors and textures.
Known For:
- Chicken momo in tomato-and-soybean jhol soup
- Vegetable thukpa noodle soup
- Wai wai sadeko with ginger, garlic, and herbs
#5 Blacksburg Wine Lab
Cuisine: Wine-bar plates and sandwiches
Neighborhood: Gilbert Street / North End
Price: $$
Best For: A food-and-wine evening with room to explore
Must Order: A cheese-and-charcuterie board with a focaccia sandwich
Why It Made the List:
Blacksburg Wine Lab grew from John Boyer and Katie Pritchard’s interest in making wine education approachable. Boyer’s Virginia Tech wine class expanded from sixteen students to more than fifteen hundred, a teaching background that gives the restaurant its particular identity. Tinned seafood served with house pickles, aioli, and chips or crackers offers another way to build a meal around tasting and comparison.
Known For:
- Build-your-own cheese and charcuterie boards
- Roast beef and olive focaccia with horseradish-dill spread
- Basque cheesecake
#4 The Loyal Restaurant & Bar
Cuisine: Regional American and Southern
Neighborhood: Virginia Tech campus / Prices Fork Road
Price: $$
Best For: A sit-down dinner close to campus
Must Order: Shrimp and grits or pan-seared trout
Why It Made the List:
The Loyal brings the former Preston’s and Continental Divide spaces together at The Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center. Goat-cheese and chive gnocchi with vegetable ratatouille, or pappardelle with short-rib ragout and herb crème fraîche, show the kitchen’s range beyond its regional favorites. The campus setting makes it a convenient dinner destination for visitors staying at the inn.
Known For:
- Shrimp with Wades Mill grits and applewood-smoked bacon
- Smoked Appalachian trout dip
- Bread pudding on the brunch buffet
#3 The Blacksburg Tavern
Cuisine: Appalachian and Southern
Neighborhood: Downtown / South Main Street
Price: $$
Best For: A family-style supper with local history
Must Order: Buttermilk fried chicken with pimento mac and cheese
Why It Made the List:
A meal at The Blacksburg Tavern places diners inside an 1892 Main Street house that owner Daniel Riley bought in 2007 with preservation in mind. Old photographs and Appalachian old-time and bluegrass music connect the dining room with the surrounding region. That sense of continuity gives a straightforward Southern dinner a setting closely tied to the town’s history.
Known For:
- Buttermilk fried chicken
- Family-style meals with several meats and sides
- Murals by the owner’s great-aunt Virginia McLaughlin
#2 622 North
Cuisine: Contemporary American
Neighborhood: Downtown / North Main Street
Price: $$
Best For: A dinner occasion with wine and a historic setting
Must Order: Duck with rum-spiced carrots and ginger jus
Why It Made the List:
The Victorian building at 622 North gives dinner several distinct settings, from its three main dining rooms to a garden patio overlooking Main Street. The kitchen pairs pork with a honey-chipotle cherry compote and Parmesan risotto, extending the menu beyond its signature poultry dishes. A wine list of more than a hundred selections adds another reason to settle in for an evening.
Known For:
- Duck with rum-spiced carrots and ginger jus
- Chicken cordon bleu with prosciutto and Gruyère
- Fried green tomatoes with pimento cheese and pepper jam
#1 Gaucho Brazilian Grille
Cuisine: Brazilian wood-fired cooking
Neighborhood: University City Boulevard
Price: $$
Best For: A leisurely dinner centered on the grill
Must Order: Picanha with rice and house bean stew
Why It Made the List:
Gaucho brings Brazilian cooking to University City Boulevard through an à la carte menu that lets diners build a meal around individual preparations. Its moqueca combines shrimp and chicken with coconut, Chardonnay, greens, and hot sauce, offering a different direction from the grilled meats. Sauces and vegetable sides give the table further ways to vary the meal without committing to an all-you-can-eat format.
Known For:
- Picanha grilled over a wood fire
- Cheese-and-tapioca dice with a choice of sauce
- Brazilian beef stroganoff with mushrooms
How we chose
We selected these restaurants for distinctive cooking, a clear sense of place, and a dining experience worth seeking out. Our editorial review considered current menus, official restaurant information, and local dining coverage, with attention to both special occasions and everyday meals. The ranking reflects editorial judgment rather than a numerical score.
Planning your next meal
Menus and seasonal preparations change; use the restaurant links to check the latest offerings and make reservations where available.
More dining advice
For help choosing a bottle with dinner, read our guide to ordering wine at a restaurant.
