The Downtown Mall and the adjacent Belmont neighbourhood have the best concentration of restaurants. The Belmont area — south of the downtown, across the railway tracks — has developed a more neighbourhood feel, with a string of good independents on Hinton Avenue that draw a mix of students, faculty, and locals. For Southern cooking, the region around Charlottesville has a strong tradition of country ham, Brunswick stew, and buttermilk biscuits; The Pie Chest on Hinton Avenue is a good address for the baked goods side of that tradition.
The Downtown Mall itself offers a range of options from cheap sandwiches to more formal dinners. The Charlottesville City Market, held Saturday mornings on the north end of the mall from April through November, has local produce and prepared foods worth visiting before the rest of the city wakes up.