Restaurants in Cumberland

The McMahon clan doesn't just advocate family time; they live and breathe it every day at McMahon's Countryside Grille. Owned by Mom and Dad, the kids also chip in at the eatery, a fact applauded by Wicked Local. The menu's house-made comfort food, steak, and seafood dishes welcome clans coming together to break bread or draft the new family crest. The homemade meatloaf hails directly from the McMahon's own dinner table, and is a perfect precursor to the Bliss ice cream served at an outdoor window near picnic tables.

Indoors, weekly entertainment sets the restaurant abuzz, from live local musicians and comedians on the weekends to open-mic Thursdays, when amateur funnymen test their chops and skill for fending off flying tomatoes. Each Tuesday, contestants crowd into cozy maroon booths around wooden tables and answer quick-fire trivia questions.

When Gianfranco Marrocco left Italy for America, he had big dreams. But his high hopes for what he’d do with his new life were coupled with nostalgia for the outdoor cafés in his native country. Confident that the people of Providence would also enjoy the cosmopolitan atmosphere he longed for from back home, he decided to open an authentic Italian caffé. His dream was realized with the opening of Caffe Dolce Vita, situated in the heart of the picturesque DePasquale Plaza on Federal Hill.

Inside Caffe Dolce Vita, warm tones of copper and bronze showcase contemporary Italian style, along with sage-green leather banquettes (fondly referred to by many Americans by their pet name, “booths” or "great hide-and-go-seek spots"). The kitchen team brings out brunch, lunch, and dinner feasts of savory Italian dishes, such as veal parmigiana. Double espressos and cappuccinos perk up guests, along with specialty drinks at the bar, where servers pour popular Italian liqueurs such as Sambuca and Limoncello.

Since 1976, the sleek interior of Oki Japanese Steak House has hosted customers digging into plates freighted with sushi, hibachi-seared steak, and seafood. At teppanyaki tables, chefs build walls of fire around succulent meats while using gleaming knives to divide and recombine piles of fried rice and fresh vegetables. Nearby, sushi chefs focus on assembling immaculate rolls stuffed with tender slices of eel, salmon, and tuna.

From the road, Spirito’s Restaurant looks like a laid-back beach house, with white siding, a gabled roof, and a covered, wraparound porch. But indoors, furnishings such as candle-strewn chandeliers, enormous Persian rugs, and dark wood wall paneling create a more luxurious ambiance. White tablecloths host plates of traditional Italian pasta, grilled pizzas, and fish and veal entrees in subtle wine sauces. Glass stems can globetrot through an international wine list offering more than 20 wines by the glass and another 20 by the bottle. Spirito's also caters events with buffets, to-go trays, and hearty brunch spreads.

McFaddens Restaurant and Saloon combines the warm atmosphere and decadent fare of a family restaurant with the all the rowdy good times of an old-fashioned saloon. In the dining room, the wait staff shuffles around plates of classic fare for both lunch and dinner, including Black Angus burgers, roasted vegetable flatbread pizzas, and slow-roasted prime rib, with a few treats for kids, such as grilled-cheese sandwiches, cheeseburger sliders, and ice-cream pie for dessert. After dark, the bar comes alive with trivia and karaoke on Wednesday nights, supplemented by liquid courage in the form of beer towers and Ciroc ultra-premium vodka. Weekends start on Thursday with a live DJ and wrap up on Sunday with game-day specials during NFL games and professional rock-paper-scissor smack downs.

Intricate, sketch-like depictions of vines, porticos, and a rolling Tuscan countryside add rustic dimension to creamy walls, while in other dining rooms, elongated mirrors and a marble bar offer an urban anchor to an environment of grayscale and charcoal. It was this very juxtaposition that Jim Harris and Daniel Teodoro sought when they took ownership of Pizzico Ristorante, an eatery mingling components of northern Italian and American cuisine. 

White tablecloths populate with tuscan grilled pizzas, creamy risottos, and seafood and veal sautéed in subtle wine sauces. Four days a week, a local menu board offers meats, seafood, and produce from the farms and oceans of local Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Wine dinners escort guests through multiple courses of cuisine and complementary wine, demonstrating how different flavors can enhance each other's vivacity even if they aren't vinegar and baking soda.