Morgan Street Food Hall: Over-Hype Central

Morgan Street Food Hall is a trendy take on the infamous suburban food courts found is malls across America. Oh and it has booze! The hype surrounding this newer addition to downtown is completely over blown though.

Well We Know What Street Its On

Smack dab in downtown Raleigh is the Morgan Street Food Hall. This trendy city eatery is a relatively new fixture. Other great nearby stops include Nash Square , Sitti restaurant and the NC Science Museum just to name a few.

The Parking in downtown is scattered between different parking garages but you can usually find a spot even on a busy weekend at a fair rate. I highly recommend checking out the official Raleigh Parking map in order to keep your parking search to a minimum. Generally, parking garages are a safe bet even during peak hours. I do not recommend using any of the on street parking in Raleigh. Most of Raleigh’s downtown is relatively new so most of it is well lit and easily accessible. There are some clearance concerns if you have an oversized vehicle but that is about all.

It is worth noting that there is access to the building from both Morgan Street, West Street and Harrington Street. I did not realize this until walking all the way around the building.

Neon Mixed With Edison Bulbs

The Morgan Street Food Hall frankly reminds me of a food court in a mall. I suppose that should not be a surprise since “food hall” is in the name. There are many small walk up restaurants with common seating both inside and outside (covered!). The ambiance mixes really well with much of the night life in downtown Raleigh at the moment. They even have the loud music playing too. We paired our visit to Watts And Ward not too far away.

If you want to get a drink to get the night started, there is also an indoor-outdoor bar that patrons are encourage to check out. This seems to be purpose built as a perfect catch all and meeting place to start or end a night on the town. Oddly enough just about all of the restaurants start to close down at 9pm even on a Saturday evening.

There is also axe throwing! Now this is not like some of the purpose-made axe throwing establishments out there. This was arguably an add-on that happens to fit the space well. In a different era, I could see this replaced by bowling or pool or even darts. Some recreation activity makes the building seem more alive.

Well There Are At Least Options

The entire draw of this design is to offer something for everyone. So no matter how many picky eaters you have, everyone will be able to find something they like. Though there are options, you have to either put in some leg-work or some homework to understand what they all offer you. We ended up just looking at the first few places we saw and picking between them. The purpose is to meet up with friends here so why would we want to go walk around to 2 dozen options.

If you really want a specific type of food, you will probably find something close to what you are looking for. However, everyone I talked to found the food quality was just… Okay. Each one of these shops tries to show off as a boutique with unique options. We tried the Empanadas shop and this gourmet fries spot. I honestly found myself thinking about Anita’s Mexican Restaurant and Five Guys fries instead.

Now again, there are tons of places here so I cannot review them all in one evening justly. If you have some particular favorites, let me know so we can check them out if we head back.

Over Hype Central

Morgan Street Food Hall is in a trendy part of downtown which has given it a lot of hype. Having visited a few times I find it all largely underwhelming by most accounts. The food is over priced and, from my experiences, adequate at best. They seem to try to mimic some of the club/bar atmosphere but I would much rather something on the low-key side. This is where we are looking to start or end a night so maybe turn the music down just a little.

Overall

The Morgan Street Food Hall offers a wide variety of food options with a trendy night life atmosphere. I am frankly not a fan of the boutique restaurant options that they have and would much rather spend my money on something off the beaten path. Worth checking out if you find yourself in the area exploring.

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