Restaurants in Countryside

Drawing on more than 25 years of deli experience, the family of owners of Epic Market & Grill expertly hand-pick items to fill their menu of sandwiches and burgers. Cooks whip up house-made tzatziki sauce for gyros and make each day’s special from scratch. Take-home domestic brews complement Epic burgers piled with mushrooms, onions, bacon, and fried eggs. In addition, breakfast, lunch, and dinner fare fills the catering menu, which in turn fills office workers and their filing cabinets’ refrigerator drawers.

Incorporating Spanish, Italian, and North African influences in their French-inspired Mediterranean fare, the eclectic Old-World cuisine of Mediterranee Restaurant earned a spot on Gayot's list of the Top 10 French Restaurants in Virginia Suburbs in 2012. In addition to classics such as house-prepared pâté and rack of lamb encrusted with herbs de provence, chef Imperato and his staff occasionally move beyond the French borders by incorporating flavors like house-made curry into their dishes. For an extra twist, they'll also add Asian flavors with ingredients such as sichuan peppercorns and baby bok choy.

On the rare occasion that its 25 television screens are not broadcasting live sports, Broadlands Sports Bar & Grill allows guests to hold their own competitions in an Xbox-equipped lounge. At the center of the dining area, a long wraparound bar sits like a tropical island in an ocean of beer. The bar staff pours 16 on-tap brews to complement the menu of steaks, wings, sliders, wraps, and desserts. Live DJs frequent the bar each weekend, bringing karaoke singers to the stage on Fridays and letting tiny singers out of their road cases to sing during dance parties on Saturdays.

A panoramic panoply of wall-mounted flat-screen TVs flickers inside Chics N Wings' spacious dining room, as ardent sports fans dig into a menu of rib-sticking bar fare. Piping-hot pots of house-made chili offer a hearty meal, and 10 types of wings migrate to reach warm pools of ranch, barbecue, or cilantro dressing. Freshly cut chips accompany a sizzling spread of seven Hall of Fame burgers, as guests lean back in high-backed cherry-red chairs, and DJs spin tunes and the occasional dinner plate every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. Sudsy drafts from Sam Adams and Stella Artois are dispensed at the bar, quenching the thirst of sports fans that are parched from auctioneer-style color commentary.

At TurCuisine, servers deliver plates of creamy hummus, thinly sliced doner kebab, and plump, juicy dolma, helping the eatery earn an OpenTable Diner's Choice Award for Best Mediterranean Restaurant. Succulent chicken and lamb kebabs or cheesy pide pizzas round out lunch and dinner, while breakfasts and brunches of halloumi cheese, scrambled eggs, olives, and salami plates start off mornings in the traditional Turkish manner. Flaky baklava cakes cap off meals with sweet notes of nut and honey.

Like the food, the surroundings cultivate a cosmopolitan vibe, with streamlined furnishings decked out in bold red and white—the colors of the Turkish flag. On select nights, belly dancers help create an exotic atmosphere by twisting their midriffs, swirling gossamer scarves, and delivering seductively phrased lectures on the Ottoman Empire.

When it comes to restaurants, the word “express” can make people immediately picture fast food. But at Shish Kabob Express, time and attention go into the making of every menu item. Each day, the culinary staff grinds high-quality meat and crafts all the cuisine from scratch, ensuring that each piping-hot kebab is fresh, savory, and possesses good manners.