
Brewery Bhavana - Downtown
A stylish Chinese restaurant and brewery offering craft beer, dim sum, books, and flowers in a uniquely enchanting setting.

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Brewery Bhavana - Downtown

Highlights
Must-see attractions
A stylish Chinese restaurant and brewery offering craft beer, dim sum, books, and flowers in a uniquely enchanting setting.
"A truly unique dining experience that delights the senses with its ambiance, food, and concept."
Book Ahead for Reservations
Reservations are highly recommended, especially for dinner, as the restaurant frequently reaches full capacity.
Visit Before Dinner Rush
Try arriving before the peak dinner hours to potentially enjoy more menu options.

Quick Facts
Cuisine
Chinese, Dim Sum
Price
Mid-range
Highlights
Discover the most iconic attractions and experiences

Unique Concept: Brews, Books, Blooms & Bao
A truly unique space combining a brewery, bookstore, flower shop, and dim sum restaurant for an unparalleled dining experience.

Delectable Dim Sum and Chinese Flavors
Savor a vibrant array of expertly crafted dim sum and modern Chinese dishes, perfect for sharing with friends.

Peking Duck Perfection
Indulge in the highly praised Peking Duck, known for its succulence and crispy skin, served with fluffy bao.
Plans like a pro.
Thinks like you
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from TikTok, Instagram & Reddit
Book Ahead for Reservations
Reservations are highly recommended, especially for dinner, as the restaurant frequently reaches full capacity.
Visit Before Dinner Rush
Try arriving before the peak dinner hours to potentially enjoy more menu options.
Great for Solo Diners
The bar area offers a welcoming space for solo diners to enjoy excellent food and service.
Share Small Plates
Dim sum and small plates are ideal for groups, allowing you to sample a wider variety of dishes.
Tips
from all over the internet
Book Ahead for Reservations
Reservations are highly recommended, especially for dinner, as the restaurant frequently reaches full capacity.
Visit Before Dinner Rush
Try arriving before the peak dinner hours to potentially enjoy more menu options.
Great for Solo Diners
The bar area offers a welcoming space for solo diners to enjoy excellent food and service.
Share Small Plates
Dim sum and small plates are ideal for groups, allowing you to sample a wider variety of dishes.
What Travellers Say
Reviews Summary
Brewery Bhavana is lauded for its exceptional food, particularly its dim sum and Peking Duck, complemented by a stunning, unique ambiance. While service is generally attentive, some reviews note it can be stretched thin during busy periods. The creative concept of combining a brewery, bookstore, and flower shop makes it a memorable dining destination.
"This place is fancyyyyyyy. 11/10 for interior decor. It feels like a place I want to bring a date or friends from out of state to. Possibly even better in the daytime with natural light coming through the center of the building. The kitchen closed by the time we got there but drinks were still available. Not my favorite, but there is a pretty decent selection.
Can get a little loud with all the people talking, but its mostly a level white noise feel. Love the tall ceilings and the free to read books. Odd how they place actual candles next to them though.
Really cool place in downtown Raleigh."
Rasikanand Harvind
"Absolutely loved my solo dinner at the bar here. The menu is probably better with a person or three to split the shumai, bao, etc but is still worth going alone.
I did the bone marrow (~ $26) served with scallion pancakes and oxtail and it was insanely good. The pork and scallion shumai were a delight (~ $15). The bao were awesome but likely take up more of your appetite as a solo diner than I would do again. Great to share!
I had two beers, bao, shumai, and the bone marrow and was all in with tax and tip at $97.
The staff behind the bar were awesome. Great for couples or solo diners !"
Shelbi Svoboda
"Brewery Bhavana was a great restaurant that checked the box on mini things. The place was nice and clean, the layout and design was great and included a bar area and more of a formal sitting area. The background books on a bookshelf that you could read. The food was really good. I have to give props to the chili oils spice on the table. Delicious! We ordered several dishes and the dumplings were great, and the dim sum and buns were delicious. The crab Rangoon was great. We also ordered some jasmine tea, which was tasty and they have a wide selection of beer and wine. We ordered a couple of local beers that were really tasty. The customer service was good too. We had our waitress who checked on us every now and then and then other servers would bring out the food. Overall, we thought this place was pretty good and recommend."
Timothy Williams
What People Like
What People Dislike
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, reservations are highly recommended, especially for dinner, as the restaurant is very popular and can get fully booked.
It's a one-of-a-kind establishment that combines a brewery, a dim sum restaurant, a bookstore, and a flower shop.
Yes, solo diners can enjoy the food and atmosphere, especially at the bar area.
The Peking Duck is a standout, along with various dim sum options like seafood dumplings and bao.
Yes, they have a wide selection of craft beers on tap, including house brews with unique flavor combinations.
While reservations are best, you can try visiting before the dinner rush or checking for bar seating availability on a first-come, first-serve basis.
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s 25 Best Restaurants 2023
Dinnertime transforms into an arrival at a long-awaited travel destination when you settle into your simplistically designed seat at the nirvana that is Bhavana. Sample your way through its signature (and simply divine) dim sum amid the lush garden eatery-meets-sleek bookstore, an ambiance that manages to nail the magic combination of appeasing the eyes while endlessly appealing to the appetite. Truly a tour of the senses, Bhavana has showcased its breathtaking backdrops, blooms and elevated Far East fare for six years and counting—and with the addition of executive chef Chun Shi, we can only expect the outwardly unassuming Moore Square gem to keep the bao buns and handcrafted brews coming—along with droolworthy selections such as the nasi goreng crab fried rice or pork belly rice cakes.
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Ranked as one of the top 10 coolest restaurants in the world by Forbes, people travel from all over the country to try Raleigh's newest Restaurant/Brewery/Flower Garden/Library sensation, Brewery Bhavana. One of my favorites, you'll want to make sure your reservations are made far enough in advance to reserve a table. If, for whatever reason, you're reading this and unable to book a reservation because you're like me and wait until the last minute, here's my recommendation: Go to the restaurant before the dinner rush and see if they have room; if not, try Bida Manda (Laotion) OR Caffe Luna (Italian) which are both next door and on this list!
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What do you get when you mix books, beer, blooms and bao in Raleigh?. One of the most unique dining experiences in the country!. Brewery Bhavana—the brewery, bookstore, flower shop and dim sum restaurant all rolled into one incredible offering—was named to Bon Appétit's annual Hot 10: America's Best New Restaurants 2017 list thanks to the food (a modern take on dim sum, next to a menu of large plates), the beer (rotating offerings poured from a 40-tap wall behind the bar) and the people ( brother and sister Van and Vanvisa Nolintha, who own Brewery Bhavana along with brewmaster Patrick Woodson, know a thing or two about hospitality).
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Brewery Bhavana’s four-in-one concept, featuring beer, Dim Sum, flowers, and a bookstore, creates an unprecedented space that delights visitors from all walks of life. The books and flowers create a setting that is unlike any I’ve seen in a brewery – intended to make its modern space as “comfortable as a living room.” While they do achieve this goal, it’s the beer and dim sum that catapults it to near the top of my list of best breweries in Raleigh. While the focus is on Belgian beer, Brewery Bhavana’s offerings extend beyond any particular genre and will typically include at least one sour, fruited, grisette, and stout on tap.
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An award winning establishment, Brewery Bhavana is a one of a kind place offering a brewery, dim sum restaurant, bookstore, and flower shop all-in-one. Stop in to try one of their craft beers and admire its unique concept that helped land Brewery Bhavana on Bon Apetit’s 2017 Best New Restaurants of the Year, Forbe’s 10 Coolest Places to Eat in 2018, and Conde Nast Traveller’s 2019 15 Most Beautiful Breweries, Distilleries, and Wineries around the World lists. It does get crowded but the bar area is first come first serve, so step on up and try their unique beer varieties.
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Start with a contemporary Asian dim sum-inspired menu, developed by the owners of Bida Manda, the award-winning Laotian restaurant next door. Pair it with a selection of 40 craft beers, including an assortment of house brews that spans the style spectrum from classic farmhouse ale to mango peppercorn saison. Nestle a flower shop and a small book store into the middle of the airy dining room, and frame the whole space in gauzy curtains and a high-gabled glass ceiling.
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The immaculately decorated dining room at Brewery Bhavana and its dim sum menu continues to be one of the most popular places to eat every night of the week in Raleigh. The menu is so delicious, offering a plethora of baos and dumplings as well as delicate peking duck and a comforting rice congee, that you can sometimes forget its excellent in-house made beer. The restaurant's popularity has come with controversy, too, as its leadership resigned in 2020 due to
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If you’re planning a downtown dining experience in Raleigh, there is no doubt you will find the right dish to satisfy your taste buds with nearly 200 restaurants nearby. To name a few… Mulino Italian Kitchen & Bar serves hand-tossed pizzas and freshly-made pasta and meatballs in their trendy outdoor dining room. Good Day Good Night has it all, from delicious coffee and pastries each morning to decadent entrées and drinks in the evening.
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A standing crowd favorite, Brewery Bhavana is the perfect place to visit this summer—the restaurant combines books, beer, blooms and food in a gorgeous setting. The brewery offers mainstay options as well as rotating seasonal flavors—like a refreshing saison with local berries for summer. Bhavana, Sanskrit for “cultivating,” celebrates beauty with a delicious dim sim menu served with specialty cocktails and house-brewed craft beers.
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The team behind Laotian restaurant Bida Manda partnered with ambitious homebrewer Patrick Woodson on Brewery Bhavana in downtown Raleigh. The menu offers dim sum (shrimp and corn dumplings, bbq pork buns, duck egg rolls, etc.) as well as larger plates such as steamed whole fish, Peking duck and kung pao pastrami. Choose from intriguing beers like chocolate rye stout and mango peppercorn saison.
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This brewery is truly unlike any other, combining a brewery, taproom, flower show, bookstore, dim sum house and Chinese restaurant. The brewery brings Belgian brewing characteristics, known for its elegance and subtlety, to American craft beer. Its core beers include Plow, a pale ale, Grove, a double IPA, Glean, a fruited beer, Bloom, a Belgian brew with 8.1% ABV, amongst others.
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Hours: 11:30am – 10:00pm – Monday – Thursday, 11:30am – 11:00pm Friday – Saturday, 11:30am – 9:00pm Sunday. Probably the most unique breweries in downtown Raleigh considering it’s a four-in-one concept; beer + dim sum + flower shop + bookstore = one unprecedented space. On paper it sounds like a misfit, but whoever said a microbrewery and fine dining can’t coexist, were wrong.
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In this elegant establishment, you can find home-brewed beer, cocktails, Dim Sum, flowers, books, and gifts. For those who do not know what Dim Sum is, it is a Hong Kong style meal consisting of small servings of a variety of foods to make up a meal. Dim Sum is great if you cannot choose which dish to get because the servings are so small that you can get everything you want.
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This is a unique place in Raleigh where you can not only enjoy delicious food but also beer, books, and beautiful flowers. This is because Brewery Bhavna is not just a restaurant but also a brewery, book shop, and a flower shop all combined into one. Go to Brewery Bhavna if you want to enjoy reading your favorite book with delicious lunch or to sip on your favorite drink.
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Located in the historic Moore Square Park in downtown Raleigh, Asian-inspired Brewery Bhavana has to be one of the most unique concepts for a restaurant. It’s a four-in-one establishment: part brewery, dim-sum restaurant, bookstore and flower shop!. And apparently it’s a concept that caught on as it earned a spot on Bon Appetit’s list of America’s Best New Restaurants.
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His latest project, Brewery Bhavana, which he runs with his sister Vanvisa, is about more than just food: the dim sum restaurant is also a microbrewery and flower, book and magazine shop. Grab a seat next to the bookshelves and order a sampling: Shanghai-style mooncakes, soup dumplings and char siu bao (steamed buns stuffed with Cantonese barbecue pork) are a must.
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Across the street from Moore Square, this chill, elegant brewery eschews the aesthetic and decor of the common Industrial Palette & Cable Spool Table setup that most breweries adore. With one word beer titles that have two word ingredients, ex. Glean - a mango peppercorn saison, Brewery Bhavana is more of a chic restaurant that just so happens to operate a kettle.
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Bida Manda Laotian Restaurant and Bar is a standout establishment that pairs traditional Laotian dishes with a modern twist, while Brewery Bhavana combines a brewery, dim sum restaurant, flower shop, and bookstore all in one unique space. For those craving Italian, Gravy offers homemade pasta and sauces that bring the flavors of Italy to North Carolina.
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What do you get when you mix craft beer, thirst-quenching cocktails, and traditional Chinese dim sum?. Brewery Bhavana, a highly rated restaurant nestled right in the middle of the historic Moore Square. High ceilings and minimalist dining room decor give this Raleigh restaurant a modern vibe that sets the stage for its colorful plates to truly shine.
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Few places in Raleigh (or anywhere) are as ambitiously eclectic — and beautifully executed — as Brewery Bhavana. Located right next to Bida Manda, it blends the flavors of Cantonese dim sum with the artistry of beer-making, all wrapped in a space filled with blooms and books. At its heart, this is a dim sum destination, and they do it incredibly well.
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Brewery Bhavana - Downtown is a delightful gem that transcends the ordinary dining experience. As soon as I stepped through the door, the inviting atmosphere coupled with the friendly buzz of conversation welcomed me. This isn't just a restaurant; it’s a harmonious blend of brewery, dim sum eatery, and flower shop, making it a feast for the senses.
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Part brewery, part bookstore, part dim sum restaurant, Brewery Bhavana is a culinary destination in Raleigh's Moore Square District. Whether savoring a craft beer or sampling dumplings, this establishment offers a dining experience. Alongside its craft beers, the establishment offers a diverse menu of dim sum and other Asian-inspired dishes.
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Experience the intersection of food, beer, and community at Brewery Bhavana. This innovative concept combines a brewery, dim sum restaurant, flower shop, and bookstore under one roof, creating a unique and immersive dining experience. Brewery Bhavana offers the best taste of Raleigh, from the house-made beers to the handcrafted dumplings.
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Brewery Bhavana: Hands down, this was probably the most beautiful restaurant space I’ve ever visited in my life. It’s a brewery, dim sum restaurant, flower shop, and bookstore all in one space — and somehow each element is executed well. The beers were excellent, and my boyfriend and I still dream about the Scallion Pancakes that we had.
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Both a brewery and convivial kitchen, Brewery Bhavana brews up some inspired and innovative beer. With a focus on Belgian beer, though not limiting themselves to any particular genre, Bhavana is a Raleigh hot spot. Beer lovers can take advantage of the relaxed and chic atmosphere while tasting their wide range of elegant beers.
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One of the brewery's flagship beers is the "Bhavana Blonde," a crisp and refreshing blonde ale. The beer is made with locally-sourced honey, which gives it a subtle sweetness balanced by a slight hop bitterness. Another favorite is the "Farmhouse Saison," a traditional Belgian-style farmhouse ale brewed with a unique twist.
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Visit Brewery Bhavana for a luxurious night out – Raleigh’s most lavish nightlife venue!. Brewery Bhavana fills every tap with its brew at all 40 cabinets. Along with its extensive beer selection, Brewery Bhavana also offers Asian-influenced food in addition to a nearby flower and book shop with various items for sale.
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Brewery Bhavana has something for everyone, with a brewery, restaurant, bookshop, and flower shop all in one place. They specialize in delicious dim sum, with sticky buns and dumplings that will make your mouth water. They also offer a variety of other Chinese-inspired dishes that are sure to impress your taste buds.
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Brought to you by the folks from Bida Manda, this modern take on fresh beer and fancy Chinese dim sum (small plates) offers a great experience along with excellent, fresh beer. A bit pricey for what you get but a unique space with a beer bar, flower shop, and library, conveniently located near Moore Square.
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It’s called Brewery Bhavana, and it’s what happens when a flower shop, bookstore, brewery + dim sum restaurant have a baby. This sounds like a strange concept, but it’s wonderfully executed. Grab reservations in advance, but arrive early to grab a beer and peruse the book selections together.
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Start at Brewery Bhavana, where you’ll not only find a Belgium-inspired brewery, but also a dim sum restaurant, community library, bookstore and flower shop all in one. Traveling with picky eaters or just can’t decide what to eat?. Head to Morgan Street Food Hall or Transfer Co.
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Unique places make for memorable dates and Brewery Bhavana is quirky and fun with craft beer, flowers and dim sum all in one place. The minimalistic and trendy decor makes this unlikely combination work. Next, impress your date with tickets to the North Carolina Symphony.
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For those looking for a more modern and unique dining experience, Brewery Bhavana is a must-visit. This extraordinary establishment combines a brewery, dim sum restaurant, flower shop, and bookstore, piquing your curiosity and making it a true one-of-a-kind destination.
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Brewery Bhavana is a modern Asian restaurant also has a brewery and flower shop attached. The menu changes seasonally, but we love their seafood dumplings and pork bao. The restaurant is a beautiful space with a classy and clean look about it without being stuffy.
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Editor's Note: Photo taken from the establishment's official social account. A post shared by Brewery Bhavana (@brewerybhavana). If you’re looking for a chic contemporary setting with some of the best platters and crafted beers, this is the place to go.
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The final bar we visited was Brewery Bhavana- not only do they have a bar on one side of the restaurant, but they also serve dim sum on the other side and have a small shop in between with books, candles and more. I loved the vibe of this place.
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Brewery Bhavana is one of the most beautiful spaces on this list. It offers a unique experience with its drinks, books, flowers, and menu of dim sum. This is one you’ve got to try at least once for its incredible atmosphere and delicious food.
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Literally translated to “touch the heart,” Bhavana has done just that for the devoted beer drinkers of Raleigh. They have created a space inspired by sharing. Sharing plates, sharing laughs, and sharing a diverse range of innovative brews.
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If there’s a wait, and there is, I can grab a book from the library and hang out at the bar until my table is ready. The jiaozi dumplings fill me with bliss, which I follow up with some lo mein washed down with Glean, a peppercorn saison.
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Brewery Bhavana has to be one of the most fantastic concepts for a restaurant around. It calls itself a dim-sum restaurant, but it is so much more. It also has its own brewery with 20+ craft brews on tap, a bookstore, and a flower shop!
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Brewery Bhavana isn’t just a brewery; it’s a sensory experience. Located in the heart of Raleigh, this unique establishment combines a craft brewery with a dim sum restaurant and a flower shop. Yes, you read that right – a flower shop.
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Brewery Bhavana is big, both in its footprints and its concept. It’s a flower shop, a bookstore, a restaurant, and a brewery, all at once. It’s a 9,000-square-foot restaurant that you’ll definitely want to make reservations for.
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Our brewery will be a lovely background for your wedding, rehearsal dinner, birthday celebration or corporate event. Alongside our bar we also have the option to reserve our Carriage Room for smaller gatherings of 10-15ppl.
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- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (282 reviews)- Detailed ratings: Food (4.5/5), Service (4.5/5), Value (4.0/5)- Type of cuisine: Asian- Price: $$ - $$$- Address: 218 S Blount St, Raleigh, NC 27601-1408- Read more on Tripadvisor
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Anytime a local found out I was from out of town, I could barely finish my sentence before they asked if I was going to Brewery Bhavana. “They brew their own beer!. ” “Try their cocktails!.
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Not far off, Brewery Bhavana uniquely melds a brewery with a bookstore, flower shop, and dim sum restaurant, creating a singular experience within the downtown landscape.
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Brewery Bhavana is fantastic as well as Bida Manda next door (same owners). Make a reservation (or just go right when they open at lunch, never fails)
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218 S Blount St, Raleigh, NC 27601Phone: 919-829-9998 Visit Website. View this post on Instagram. A post shared by Brewery Bhavana (@brewerybhavana)
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Blount St. | Certain menu items like the General Tso chicken and the pork mapo tofu can be made vegan upon request.
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