Restaurants in Birmingham

Soft light fills the air at La Guardia, which has been serving traditional Italian fare since 1979. In addition to pastas, chicken, and steak, the menu stars 15 veal dishes, such as vitello saltimbocca, a Roman specialty that douses veal medallions and prosciutto in a butter, wine, and sage sauce. Chefs celebrate seafood on two of their eight specialty pizzas, with a fresh tomato and crab meat pie and a crust heavy with calamari, cuttlefish, octopus, and anchovies. On Friday and Saturday nights, live entertainment from a guitar soloist infuses dinners out with music without requiring guests to play kazoos carved from dry penne.

As he toiled away on the assembly line at Ford Motor Company, autoworker Karl Kurz dreamed of opening a traditional German tavern like those he remembered from his hometown of Weikersheim, Germany. In 1933, he finally got his chance, working nights and weekends to convert a dilapidated Chinese hand laundry into a tiny bar that he called the Dakota Inn Rathskeller.

Eighty years later, the Rathskeller—now run by Karl's grandson—has expanded from three tiny stools to 2,000 square feet. The eclectic décor pays tribute to Karl's memory: trophy animal heads and RV hood ornaments seized during family hunting trips decorate the walls, and hand-painted murals depict scenes from Karl's life, including a rabbit hunt and a group of friends downing enormous mugs of beer. Through arched porticos, waiters in traditional German-style garb deliver Bavarian bratwurst, pork schnitzel, and German-style potato pancakes known as kartoffelpuffer. At night, the hand-carved walls reverberate with German drinking songs such as the “Schnitzelbank”—or woodworker’s bench—as if in tribute to Karl’s remodeling efforts.

Though he's continued to refine his culinary skills for more than 20 years, Chef Enzo's mastery of Italian food was cemented at age 26, when he opened his first restaurant, Tutto Ristorante. Today, using locally sourced ingredients, he pushes his innovation of Italian cuisine even further at Enzo's Trattoria. Instead of supplying signature pastas, he gives diners a choice of 11 noodles—gnocchi, gluten-free penne, and whole-wheat spaghetti among them––and 14 sauces, including vodka sauce and housemade meat sauce.

More housemade elements grace Chef Enzo's grilled paninis, which he fills with housemade sausage and meatballs. His other meaty mains include veal scallopini topped with white-wine tomato pesto sauce and prosciutto and chicken breast sautéed in wild-mushroom blush sauce, named for how embarrassed chefs get seeing mushrooms go wild. Available by the glass and bottle, wines from Australia, Italy, and Canada complement meals, which unfold in a lantern-lit dining area where guests feast beneath brick archways and among painting-lined walls.

In a 1930s-era walk-in vault that once guarded diamonds, The City Grill now stores ruby-hued merlots and cabernet sauvignons. The vault is a relic of McCreery’s Diamond Store, whose art-deco aesthetic has been revived by The City Grill, setting the perfect backdrop for feasts of upscale culinary creations.

The restaurant’s carefully designed atmosphere relies on illuminated globes, exposed brick, and black-and-white photomurals depicting the days in Windsor’s past when even robots had to get around by horse-drawn carriages. A spacious patio invites guests to soak in the fresh air and sip libations that range from Chilean syrahs to signature dessert drinks such as an espresso martini.

The drinks pair with globally inspired food dreamt up by Executive Chef Shawn McKerness, who previously captained the seafaring kitchens of the luxurious Holland America Line cruises. McKerness combines fresh ingredients from local sources for a menu of contemporary food that, like the moon’s wardrobe, changes seasonally. Diners might slice into a horseradish-encrusted tenderloin, Maui-style ahi tuna, or red snapper lounging under exotic fruit salsa.

Hikari Japanese Steakhouse's thespian chefs grill Japanese-inflected steakhouse fare in breathtaking tableside performances as rice artisans craft fresh maki and nigiri from an open-air sushi bar. Cuts of steak, shrimp, and lobster dance on sizzling grills situated in the middle of each dining table, where chefs chop, flip, and ignite each luscious morsel in a more theatrical culinary display than Hamlet's famous TV-dinner scene. The full bar decants cocktails, beers, and an exotic sake and plum wine fusion to patrons 21 and older, whereas children 10 and younger can sup on kids’-menu items tailored to simpler palates.