Restaurants in Bethlehem

Ornate paper flags and glimmering stars are suspended from Fiesta Ole Mexican Restaurant’s colorful, tiled walls, accenting plates of authentic Mexican dishes that appear from the cocina. Chefs crease tortillas into tacos, fajitas, burritos, and enchiladas while sautéing a variety of meat, seafood, and vegetarian specialties. Bartenders pour cups full of Mexican beers and cocktails as dinner conversations blossom at tables and booths in the cheerful dining room. The restaurant hosts regular salsa nights, offering diners a reprieve from trying to dance with strangers’ great danes at the dog park.

Every Indian kitchen has a spice box brimming with seeds, stalks, barks, stems, and leaves. But really, what's in the box depends on the chefs and their background. In Spice India's case, the fragrant case is rife with the garlic, coriander, and ginger for hearty lamb and goat curries cooked in a tandoori oven. Surrounded by canary-yellow walls and colorful portraits, biryani dishes descend, layered with dried fruits, nuts, and essence of saffron. As the murmur of conversation swells, a full lunch and dinner buffet brims with masala and hearty seafood vindaloo and draws nervous glances from belts on their last day before retirement. To the pulse of live jazz music on select evenings, guests are encouraged to take advantage of Spice India's BYOB policy and bring their own libation of choice.

Spice India's chefs follow Punjabi traditions as they cook up authentic northern Indian cuisine to fill hearty lunch buffets with saucy fish curries, lamb vindaloo, and vegetarian paneers. While meaty kabobs cook in tandoori ovens, cooks knead more than 15 specialty breads, including garlic naan, unleavened paneer kulcha filled with homemade cottage cheese, and their house bread stuffed with marinated chicken. Guests can request a preferred level of spiciness to stop dishes from overwhelming their taste buds or setting the tablecloth on fire when spilled. Some nights, a live jazz band plays as guests sip the beer and wine they've brought to this BYOB eatery.

Chefs at Wrap'd Tight hand roll every cold or grilled wrap, filling them with ingredients from tuna salad to the monster meat pizza's four meats, mozzarella, and tomato sauce. This melding of classic and creative combinations extends to the eatery’s baked potatoes, such as the All or Nothing, which carries eight toppings to the dining room, patio, or potato weight-lifting finals. Wrap'd Tight caters to offsite eaters with party platters, and keeps on-location festivities lively with open-mic nights and the occasional live band.

Inside a 19th-century farmhouse, Executive chef Javan Small uses seasonal meats and produce sourced from local farms to create contemporary gourmet dishes that have earned praise from Gayot. The dinner menu changes to reflect seasonally available ingredients and has included seared duck under orange oregano sauce, cast-iron-seared scallops with bacon corn pudding, and grilled zucchini cakes drizzled in carrot-chipotle syrup. Chef Small creates each dish using the techniques he learned studying in kitchens across the US and Europe. The chef even spent time working at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Luxembourg, where he learned the knife skills necessary to shred old dream journals full of surreal dinner recipes.

With its quaint wood accents and large farmhouse windows, the restaurant's provincial style perfectly mirrors the pastoral origins of chef Small’s ingredients. The website likens dining at The Farmhouse to “stepping into an Andrew Wyeth painting.” The six dining rooms exude simple elegance with wide-planked wooden floors and wooden chairs. The Farmhouse also houses an English-style pub that houses more than 60 bottles of wine, a four-page list of bottled beers, and more than 30 kinds of scotch whiskey.