Restaurants in Anderson

Established in 2009, Mojo’s Famous Burgers mingles classic American eats with rockabilly music and décor inspired by tattoo art at two locations. The menu harkens to '50s diner fare with hand-cut onion rings, old-fashioned milk shakes, and build-your-own burgers with two patty sizes. A selection of specialty burgers crowns premium aged beef with toppings inspired by regional flavors—Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Philly, or Hawaiian style—and the chef’s favorite natural disaster. The eatery’s wall of fame commemorates diners who chowed through a food challenge featuring quadruple cheeseburgers or loaded foot-long hot dogs.

Owner Lazaro Montoto maintains a healthy diet, and doesn't believe in sacrificing flavor to do so. That's why he opened Tropical Grille as an alternative to the nation’s preponderance of greasy fast-food dives. Natural light pours from wall-length windows onto his steaming grill, where the smell of sizzling chicken and steamed veggies mingle with the aromatic release of Lazaro's flavor-packed spice rubs. He puts those blends to good use; in addition to spicing up the grill, they also infuse his signature pork, which marinates for 12 hours before taking a trip to the slow-roaster for inclusion in thick sandwiches and hearty wraps.

Everyday Organic’s culinary wizards seek out chemical-, hormone-, and preservative-free ingredients from local farms to healthify mealtime with an organic menu that features light and fast eats alongside hearty sandwiches and salads. Starters encourage pre-entree nibbling on roasted-veggie dip, which perches atop pita wedges like a proud, amorphous bird of prey. Grilled, marinated tofu tumbles over tabbouleh salad, whereas provolone, muenster, and baby-swiss cheeses melt in unison inside a gourmet grilled cheese. Guests can wash down big bites with gulps of milk massaged from mature soybeans.

At the restaurant, a small service counter welcomes guests inside the cozy eatery, where chalkboards announce daily specials and sage-colored tables hover over cherry-wood chairs. White and beige walls soak up the sunlight that pours through a large storefront window, where budding local vegetables can watch their future careers unfold.

At Lime Leaf Thai Cuisine, husband-and-wife owners David Cheng and Kanas Lam meld Thai and Asian fusion flavors to fashion lunch and dinner menus brimming with curries, noodles, and rice dishes. They infuse the lineup with six different types of curries, including red curry, gang pa, or panang neur, accompanied by tasty submersibles of pork, chicken, or beef. To sate cravings for Vietnamese flavors, they serve up bowls of pho in rich broth, simmering with delectable bites of seafood or beef. And their hibachi-style red snapper communicates with taste buds through a series of mouthwatering sizzles and Morse code fin flips.

Lime Leaf Thai Cuisine reserves Friday nights for live music in its chic lounge, which occupies the upper level of a two-story space complete with an on-site wine cellar and a private party room.

Mark Bucher still remembers from childhood the enticing aroma of burgers being grilled by Mr. Kaufman, his neighborhood butcher. For years, Bucher tried to find a burger that would match up to those memories, but never did—so he founded BGR The Burger Joint and started making his own.

BGR’s burgers start with high-quality ingredients—most importantly, all-natural beef from grain-fed cattle, free to run in the fields and given zero hormones, fillers, or antibiotics. The prime beef is dry-aged, blended, and ground fresh to form patties that are grilled over an open flame, and then placed atop buttery, locally made brioche buns delivered fresh each day. For nonbeef eaters, the menu's selection of burgers also includes turkey and veggie varieties, as well as The Greek, a seasoned lamb patty topped with tzatziki and feta, a combination that won out on the Food Network's Throwdown With Bobby Flay.

Diners can request all of BGR The Burger Joint's freshly made fries—from thick-cut yukon gold potatoes to asparagus fries—be topped with parmesan, rosemary, roasted garlic, or a tiny tiara. The staff hand-spins shakes with Gifford's or Breyers ice cream to create extra-thick treats for finishing off meals, and some shops curate their own selection of bottled vintage sodas.

For the past decade, Blue Sky Café owners Julianna and Mark Pletcher have continually added to a menu nearly as big and cheery as the restaurant’s namesake. Cooks are proud of their hefty, hand-formed burgers and their chicken—each served in a dazzling array of preparations—but there are just as many health-conscious wraps and salads and vegetarian and vegan dishes. A recent development is a creative, sweet-and savory brunch service, where cheese and garlic turn grits into a bowlful of decadence, prosciutto and parmesan put the Sicilian in a Sicilian frittata, and the kitchen’s all-day love of sandwiches is transposed into the Figgy-Honey: two slices of raisin-cinnamon toast clasping cinnamon goat cheese, honey, and fig preserves.

Kids get their own, more-flexible-than-usual menu, though they’ll have to weigh whether to dig in or finish what they’ve been drawing with provided crayons on the paper placemats. A further draw for tots is the playhouse that stands on an oasis of a patio, whose tall wooden fence encloses hanging lanterns, huge umbrellas, and plants trailing from every wall as they toward their goal of trying the sweet-potato fries everybody keeps talking about.