Restaurants in Arlington

The brainchild of gastromind chef Gregg Brackman, G Bar and Kitchen's dishes marry creative recipes with quality ingredients. Start with the beet salad, a blend of golden beets, goat cheese, and watercress bathed in lemon-olive oil emulsion ($9). Noodle-centric dishes, including classic gnocchi with tomato-romano pomodoro ($17), satiate comfort-food seekers. For a main course, try the crispy-skinned chicken with mashed russets and tequila-lime buerre blanc ($24) or the eggplant with pomodoro and parmesan ($22). Side selections include the parmesan au gratin potatoes ($6) and creamed shallots and spinach ($5). View the complete menu here.

Back when Cilantro opened in 2002, Boston Magazine praised the eatery for its "authentic, hearty, and diverse Mexican specialties," which they called "breaths of fresh air." More than a decade later, owner and executive chef Esther Marin still aims to keep her lunch, dinner, and dessert menus interesting, creating new recipes that infuse Mediterranean flavors into upscale Mexican dishes. Using only all-natural ingredients, she crafts entrees that range from cheese-stuffed meatballs in chipotle sauce to pork chops crowned with chihuahua cheese and pineapples. A selection of 48 tequilas wash down meals inside a dining room wrapped in exposed brick walls that keep diner’s conversations from escaping the restaurant.

Each item on El Pelón's menu is rammed completely full of fresh ingredients, tongue-punching spices, and authentic garnishes. Drop in for a rotundly satisfying carnitas quesadilla (slow-braised pork sandwiched between jack cheese and tortillas; $3.50) and a side of fried plantains ($3.95) before returning to your dust cloud of fighting cartoon characters, or double up on your face with tacos de la casa such as El Pelón's twin cornmeal-breaded pescado tacos ($6.50), stuffed with spice-infused cod, arbol-chile mayo, limed onions, pickled cabbage, and cucumbers. To fight the good appetite fight and look dashing whilst doing so, grab onto a mighty El Guapo ($6.50)—the house's famous signature burrito—bursting at the seams with grilled steak, Mexican rice, black beans, fried plantains, jack cheese, fire-roasted salsa, lettuce, and authentic crema. All of El Pelón's showstoppingly spiced toppers are available as sides, enabling mad-scientist diners to experiment as liberally or as conservatively as they like with the bounteous beauty of El Pelón's celebrated flavors. To make your mouth feel even more Mexican without the hassle of chewing a sombrero, wash it all down with Mexican Coca Cola, made with cane sugar instead of fructose, or some Jarritos soda (both $1.75).

The skilled chefs at Brunello Bistro tantalize the culinary lobes of the brain with a fusion menu of Italian and Mediterranean fare served with aesthetic flair. Enchanted epicureans, like disoriented Christopher Columbuses, will immediately set a course for Brunello's antipasti plates, such as mussels served either bianco in a garlic-and-wine sauce or spicy pomodoro in a hot fra diavolo sauce. After a second course of soup or salad, all roads lead to Brunello’s entrees, which include the signature lobster-potato gnocchi and the lamb osso buco in a port-wine sauce with mascarpone-cheese polenta. Diners worried about upsetting humanity’s uneasy truce with sheep can instead venture out into one of Brunello's idiosyncratic plates, such as braised duck with wild-mushroom risotto and asparagus. Each duo's chew-a-thon concludes with sweet bites from the frequently rotating dessert menu.

As what he calls a third generation “falafel-teer”, Rami Cohen opened his eatery in 1991, shortly after he and his wife Mirav relocated from Jerusalem to Boston. Over two decades later, the Cohens are still crafting kosher Middle Eastern specialties, earning praise from publications such as Boston.com, which writes that “what the restaurant does it does very well.” Cooks stuff golden-fried falafel, marinated turkey shawarma, ground beef kabobs, and grilled chicken inside fluffy pitas with homemade babaganoush and hummus or splayed across a platter with a fresh salad. Guest can order their feast at the counter and take a seat inside the small restaurant, or arrange for pick-up or delivery and enjoy their meal in the privacy of their neighbor's treehouse. Rami’s also offers catering, and sells hummus, babaganoush, and tahini by the pound.

No matter what country her family was living in at the time, Longteine “Nyep” De Monteiro—the wife of a Cambodian diplomat—always heard the same thing when she served dinner at one of her lavish parties: “This is so good! You should open a restaurant!” It wasn't until the rise of the Khmer Rouge forced Longteine and her family to relocate to America that she began to seriously entertain the idea. Longteine finally opened The Elephant Walk in 1991, where she filled the menu with a mélange of her favorite Cambodian and French recipes.

Since then, Longteine’s daughter Nasda and her son-in-law Gerard Lopez helped her expand The Elephant Walk to three locations. All three Elephant Walks separate their kitchens into French and Cambodian preparation lines, each staffed with chefs adept at both traditional and contemporary dishes. Each dish makes meticulous use of flavorful, wholesome ingredients such as ripe plum tomatoes, fresh tuna, Vermont goat cheese, and organic tofu. The Elephant Walk also serves up a host of vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free variants.

The Elephant Walk loves to feed the mind as much as the mouth. During its regularly scheduled Cafe Science series, Brandeis professors deliver compelling lectures on a variety of topics from the Large Hadron Collider to explaining why science alone cannot turn water into chocolate milk. As part of the restaurant's mission to make a positive impact in the community, owner Bob Perry designated the Waltham location as The Elephant Walk’s Benefit Restaurant in September 2009. The restaurant has since given upwards of $180,000 to local, national, and international nonprofit organizations fighting poverty.