Restaurants in Amherst Center

The kitchen at Salad Creations is like a symphony hall. Chefs rap their knives against their cutting boards, drawing their orchestra of fresh lettuce, vegetables, and fruits to attention. Staccato chops and legato slices pierce the air as the culinary conductors harmonize these ingredients in salads, wraps, and paninis, each arranged to be a quick, nutritious meal. They transpose any of their classic, signature, and premium combinations into different forms, be they salads or wraps. Otherwise, they welcome diners to improvise their own salad or wrap by picking a lettuce, choosing from nearly 50 toss-ins-avocado, candied pecans, hearts of palm, and wonton strips-then choosing a protein such as turkey or wild Alaskan salmon.

Salad Creation's dressing choices range from classics such as buttermilk ranch to creative blends including blueberry pomegranate and cucumber wasabi. In addition to salads and wraps, the staff also grills up paninis made with multigrain sunflower bread or italian ciabatta bread to create toasty sandwiches perfect for warming palms after being woken up from a cryogenic freeze.

Ballistic Shrimp Steamed Seafood serves a menu of fresh, quickly prepared seafood with a healthy twist. Instead of deep-frying their fare like typical fast food restaurants, they steam or boil shrimp, crab legs, and fish to serve alongside fresh vegetables or homemade chowders and bisques. Combo meals allow diners to sample a variety of seafaring delicacies at once including Canadian salmon, Brazilian lobster tail, and American shrimp that spent a semester abroad. The ocean-blue dining room features starfish and seashell accents and offers limited seating at round, high-top tables.

At 40 years old, and with 20 of those years spent running a country club, Tim Gilchrist decided it was time to kick off the cleats. He opened a café and instead of branding it with a clichéd name or the license plate of his first car, Tim landed on something a tad more sentimental: his mother's maiden name. Today, natural light pours through two large windows stationed at the front of Greenleaf's Cafe, where diners gather at tables or along an elevated countertop for breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner six days per week. The café also swings its doors open for parties and special events and caters outside gatherings such as weddings, birthdays, and anniversaries.

The crunch of cracking peanut shells lends a steady bass line to the din of merry conversation and clinking pint glasses at Broadway Brew Biergarten. Servers in German-inspired dirndls and knee socks flit between hand-built picnic tables, ferrying plates of wiener schnitzel and Reuben sandwiches. Behind the wood-inlaid bar, taps unleash 16 German and Belgian beers, such as Duvel, Hofbräu, and Spaten. Bartenders also uncap 80 foreign and domestic bottled beers without even using their teeth and shake and stir cocktails. To complement meals, Broadway Brew Biergarten maintains a fleet of hookahs ready to unfurl plumes of smoke scented with mint, fruit, and other flavors.