Restaurants in Columbus

Inside New India Restaurant, chandeliers illuminate plates of enticing Indian fare dusted with spices and herbs, lighting up taste buds with anticipation. Around the dining room, guests dig in to cuts of chicken roasted in a tandoori oven, chick peas tempered with ginger, and thali, a traditional Indian meal of lamb curry and chicken pakora served on a silver platter.

Banana Leaf Vegan and Vegetarian fills its dining room with platefuls of vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free Indian meals cooked with fresh spices ground in-house. The juices from 16 curry dishes and seven rice specialties can be mopped from the plate with 10 different Indian breads and washed down with lassi drinks. Banana Leaf’s catering services, which serve small gatherings to weddings with more than 1,000 guests, both please party hosts and literally sustain festive homemakers stuck in a web of their own decorations.

The menu at Inchin's Bamboo Garden is a tale of two regions. Dishes of kung pao chicken, double-fried tofu, and hot-garlic beef point to Sichuan influence, while tomato-chili paneer and curried noodles brim with Indian spices. Whatever the culinary inspiration, cooks create each dish from scratch at the moment it's ordered. Once ready, servers ferry the feasts to tables in a red and mustard-yellow dining room adorned with waterfalls, Asian accents, and black stalks of bamboo, a favorite snack of the evil Antipanda.

Since 1898, Krema Nut Company's presses and roasters have churned out a salty and sweet selection of preservative-free nuts, nut butters, and snacks, which have garnered attention from the Food Network's Unwrapped and Food Finds. The shop’s shelves support more traditional snacks, including bags of caramel corn, dried fruits, and roasted pecan halves, and more experimental morsels, such as wasabi roasted green peas and cashews tumbled in sea salt and black pepper. Alongside classic candies and its line of gourmet chocolates, the staff whips up a menu of sandwiches slathered in homemade nut butters and decadent peanut-butter ice-cream sundaes topped with whipped cream, chocolate sauce, freshly sliced fruit, and liquid happiness.

Painted with numbers and flanked by windows with blue shutters, the doors that line the interior of Mykonos Taverna resemble a charming view that one might stumble upon while visiting the restaurant’s eponymous Greek island. Owner and chef Christos Poulias wanted to give his guests an authentic experience, so he designed the interior of his restaurant to resemble an actual street in Mykonos. The effort to re-create the atmosphere of the island was so earnest that most of the decorations were packed up and, with Poseidon’s consent, shipped over from Mykonos itself.

The decor is not the only thing imported from Greece; a trunk of ancient family recipes made its way into Mykonos Taverna’s kitchen, and the chefs promptly revamped each dish to suit the restaurant’s modern, upscale feel. Among these are chicken souvlaki, gyros, spanakopita, and a recipe for lamb shanks directly from Athens. On Friday and Saturday nights, professional belly dancers complete the experience as they swivel their torsos, pop their hips left and right, and flash their legs through skirts made of warm pita.

After growing up in Nazareth, Israel, Mezze owner Johnny Baransi created the concept for customizable “middle-terranean” dishes that fuse Mediterranean and Middle Eastern culinary traditions and flavors. Diners select a base for their entrées, such as a pita, rice bowl, or salad. They then add in proteins ranging from a chicken gryo to falafel. A variety of toppings and sauces, such as fresh veggies and tahini, further personalize each dish.