Im not too far away from Boone..20miles.
Our usual spots are:
Booneshine brewing. They are serving out of Basils italian restaraunt, which is really good. The stickboy pretzels and beer cheese dip is awesome, as is the bruschetta.
Lost Province Brewing. Wood fired pizzas, awesome mac n cheese, and burgers.
Both have awesome beers. Booneshines "Dank Vader" black ipa is on tap again and so freaking good.
If Japanese is your thing, Koto's is pretty good. As is the mexican joint in the Walmart parking lot (name escapes me).
The walmart also caries reloading gear in limited selection, but halfway decent prices. Kind of unusual but pretty neat to see.
Woodlands bbq is really good as noted above.
Blowing rock is kind of a tourist trap...lots off Floridians, but still neat to check out. We usually hit Six Pence Pub for fish and chips, or Blowing Rock brewery (see a trend yet..beer..mmmm)
If you get up to Banner Elk, try Flat top Brewing for a pint (their name is changing to something else that escapes me) and then go over to the Bayou smokehouse and grill. They have some amazing bbq items there. Banner Elk cafe also is really good with a big variety,all of it good.