Cary’s Umstead Hotel ( official site ) has been awarded 4-star status by the Mobil Travel Guide . The hotel joins other North Carolina hotels receiving 4-star status such as Asheville’s Inn on Biltmore Estate and Richmond Hill Inn , Charlotte’s Ballantyne Resort , and Pinehurst’s Carolina Hotel . The Fearrington House Country Inn was the state’s only 5-star designee.

Heron’s restaurant (in The Umstead) (official link) also received a 4-star designation. It joins other North Carolina restaurants such as the Carolina Crossroads in Chapel Hill, Charlotte’s Gallery Restaurant , and Pittsboro’s Fearrington House Restaurant . 162 restaruants received the award nationally. No restaurants in the state were among the 17 national 5-star award winners.

According to Mobil:

It seems like an oxymoron—gourmet dining in a suburban hotel, but Herons at the Umstead Hotel is an exception. Tucked inside a large hotel in Cary, a suburb of Raleigh/Durham, Herons puts a Southern spin on American cuisine in a fashionable setting complete with a 2500-bottle wine cellar. The food is seriously good, but far from serious, and there’s even a spa menu designed for those participating in the hotel’s spa program. Of course, decadence is also available, beginning with the restaurant’s homemade cinnamon bun French toast with brown sugar streusel at breakfast and ending with the luscious brownie sundae baked Alaska.

The prestigious 4-star award is the latest for the upscale hotel developed by SAS’ Jim Goodnight. The hotel won 5-Diamond honors by AAA recently.