We normally don’t post about stuff like this, but restaurant.com is temporarily offering 80% off of  its $25 gift certificates, which are normally $10-12.50.
$2-3 for a $25 gift certificate is a very fine deal, and there are some decent Triangle restaurants that participate.

Apologies for the lack of pictures but this one taken from El Rodeo’s website. I had a hard drive failure last week and lost my most recent images. Oops.

El Rodeo is a twothree-restaurant chain in Durham; their other restaurants are in Brightleaf Square and on North Duke Street. This one is located in what I can only assume used to be a national chain restaurant, as evidenced by the booths’ upholstery—an atrocious, sports-themed pattern. The rest of the large space is decorated with the sombreros that denote a Mexican …

You kind of just know a place is going to be good when every time you drive by, the parking lot is packed with white utility trucks; and such was the case with Libby’s Too.
Libby’s Too is located right at the Durham/Orange county line in a brick, nondescript building where HWY 70 turns into Hillsborough Rd. It’s a no-frills, 12-table room where you order at the counter. Open for breakfast and lunch, Libby’s is cash only and most of the meals come on styrofoam plates.

At breakfast you can get a sausage/bacon/fatback …

Restaurants

ASIAN KITCHEN (1125 W. NC HWY 54 SUITE 801, DURHAM, NC, 27707)
CAPRICCIO (3820 N. ROXBORO RD., DURHAM, NC, 27704)
Foodstands
POLLOS LA CARBONERA (606 FAYETTEVILLE RD., DURHAM, NC, 27701)
(Replacing Bull City Wings?)
Mobile
JAMAICA JAMAICA OSORIO MFU (4853 S. APEX HWY., DURHAM, NC, 27713)
*DISCLAIMER: Presence on this list indicates that a restaurant has been inspected, not that it is necessarily open for business today (although it usually is).

Last week my boss offered to take me out for a nice lunch and I thought I’d take advantage of the opportunity to try the relatively new Restaurant Eden in the space that formerly housed Starlu.
Opened this past summer, Restaurant Eden’s interior feels really similar to Starlu. Though my memory can be a bit fuzzy, I couldn’t point out a single change. On a rainy Friday afternoon, the relatively empty space felt oversized and too fancy for the casual menu.

Eden’s website claims it strives to offer simple, fresh American cuisine …

So first off, Bralie’s doesn’t have food. Though each of the two times I’ve been there, I’ve been offered a slice of Domino’s pizza.
Yep, that’s the type of place this is. It’s a bar with a neighborhood feel and friendly service. It’s the type of bar where you can get pizza delivered, share it with your fellow patrons and no one bats an eye.
Bralie’s has cheap beer and lots of daily specials. It’s not fancy and it’s not trying to be. You can order beer by the bucket, play darts …

While browsing through some of the recent entries here at Carpe Durham, I noticed that we’ve experienced a serious taco drought lately!   So I set out to cure this problem with a trip to Toledo Carniceria & Taqueria (2223 East NC Highway 54 # F)  in the Park Terrace plaza.

The menu at Toledo offers typical taqueria fare – tacos, gorditas, tortas, quesadillas, burritos, etc. A hand written note taped to the bottom of the menu board informed me that the weekend’s special was menudo and pozole. I was excited to …