Restaurants in Chester

At Simba Tropical Grill, cooks make it their mission to bring the cuisine of East Africa to the East Coast, serving up platefuls of aromatic, traditional cuisine. Surrounded by the deep canary yellows and reds of the dining room, diners can browse the menu before digging in to Kenyan-style flatbread quesadillas or grilled chicken thighs glazed with a sweet coconut sauce. The full bar also pours imported Tusker Lager from Africa, wines, and house cocktails.

With a menu of scratch-made meat and veggie dishes accented by colorful sauces and collar-heating Cajun spices, the culinary artists at Nora Lee’s French Quarter Bistro transport taste buds to the lively streets of New Orleans. Hunks of daily-baked bread soak up creamy crayfish bisque or chicken-sausage gumbo, and bacon-wrapped meatloaf made with ground fillet and andouille sausage tempts forks and knives.

Beginning with the time-honored flavors of traditional South Asian cuisine, Bawarchi Indian Cuisine Restaurant's chefs create accessible dishes that represent the culinary traditions of India. Their selection of crepe-like dosas draws inspiration from the southern portions of the country, as evidenced by the mysore masla dosa, lined with spicy chutney and stuffed with vegetables cooked in southern Indian spices. As a demonstration of their commitment to northern cooking techniques, the chefs roast everything from lamb and chicken to shrimp and salmon inside a clay tandoor oven. The chefs even look to the Indo-Chinese border when creating dishes such as the cauliflower fritters cooked in spicy manchurian sauce.

At PrimoHoagies, the staff piles Thumann’s deli meats, italian cheeses, and flavorful spreads into a dizzying array of Philadelphia-style sandwiches. The menu matches hunger pangs to sandwich styles such as spicy Diablo hoagies, chicken-cutlet combos, and vegetarian options. The staff cuts crispy italian bread into a trio of sizes or folds fillings into low-carb or whole-wheat wraps. For bigger gatherings, hosts and hostesses can feed guests with hoagie trays and sampler platters with italian meats and cheeses rather than forcing the guests to take grazing breaks in the yard.

Since its humble south Philadelphia beginnings in the 1990s, PrimoHoagies has quickly expanded throughout the region and garnered several awards on the strength of its cold-cut sandwiches, made with Thumann's brand of gourmet meats and cheeses. The shop's robust menu features dozens of specialty hoagies, many of which were created in-house rather than underwater, as is the industry norm. Sharp Italian hoagies teem with prosciutto and genoa salami, and pork Diablo hoagies marry Thumann's homestyle roasted pork with a blend of piquant spices.

Since the first Friendly's opened in 1935, staff members have been serving up hand-crafted ice cream in scoops, cones, and sundaes alongside juicy beef burgers crowned with crisp lettuce and tomatoes. Now with locations spanning the United States, Friendly's has come a long way from its first modest shop in Massachusetts, which sold double-dip cones for 5 cents. Today, servers scoop ice cream in classic flavors such as chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry and dish out new twists on the favorites, including Fribble soft-serve shakes and Friend-z ice-cream desserts whipped with toppings such as Oreos, Butterfingers, and Reese's peanut-butter cups. They also top crisp belgian waffles with scoops of ice cream and hot caramel and fill dishes with new ice-cream flavors such as Vienna Mocha Chunk and Rockin' Poppin' Cotton Candy.

Behind the grills, cooks build big beef burgers such as the Vermonter with melted vermont white cheddar and maple-pepper bacon on a toasted ciabatta roll. Healthier options include meals under 555 calories, such as the sweet and spicy grilled shrimp over rice pilaf and the chicken-caprese sandwich.