Restaurants in East Chicago

A metallic blur passes over the sizzling grill top, lifting briefly to send a single scallop arcing through the air and landing neatly on a plate. The hibachi chefs at Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar shape artful cuisine with panache, charming diners with dexterous knife work as they sear morsels of seafood, steak, and chicken at tableside grills. A selection of sushi and sashimi includes specialty maki, such as the chicago roll, which encloses shrimp, egg, and avocado in a layer of sushi rice, providing a culinary alternative to the city's signature hot dogs topped with celery salt and boiled Air Jordans.

Honey Baked Ham Co.'s specialist butchers boast more than 40 years of experience preparing glazed meats. The staff slices roasted hams weighing up to 16 pounds, each dry cured, hickory smoked, and oven baked to fend off hungry snowmen. A fine glaze of honey and spices covers each ham, which is cut spirally to keep its sections intact for horizontal slicing. To complement its sweetly seasoned protein namesake, Honey Baked Ham Co. also furnishes meat collectors with honey roast beef, pork, and turkey.

For more than 30 years, owner Art Trevino has loaded tables in Cilantro's dining room and patio with a menu of traditional family recipes. One of 11 children, Art learned to cook and precisely divide a taco into 11 segments alongside his siblings in their mother's bustling kitchen. Veggies add a hint of virtue to platters of cheesy burritos, steak, and chicken in options such as seafood-stuffed portabella mushrooms and chiles rellenos. A bright purple bar marqueed by garlands of colored lights pours 16-ounce "Mugaritas," house-made sangria, and a list of anejo and reposado tequilas designed for sipping through the finest cactus straws.

After taking over his aunt’s Maxwell Street hot-dog stand in 1941, Serbian transplant Jimmy Stefanovic began building iconic sandwiches whose recipes lay untouched nearly 70 years later. The foundation of the menu is the Maxwell Street polish sausage sandwich, a third-pound smoked-pork-and-beef frank whose crunchy casing warms a bun packed with yellow mustard, sport peppers, and sweet grilled onions. Although the menu has expanded over the years to include burgers, bone-in-pork-chop sandwiches, and grilled chicken, customers can still elect to wash down meaty bites with the bottled grape and strawberry sodas of yesteryear. The 24-hour counter ensures customers can fulfill cravings around the clock, and pairs each sandwich with a heap of free french fries that patrons can use as bait to lure more sandwiches into their brown paper bags.

Mastering the secrets of Indian cooking takes a lifetime, but tasting the mystery takes a much shorter period than a lifetime. We're pleased to bring back a popular Groupon deal: $15 for $35 worth of delicious Indian fare at Randolph Street eatery Veerasway. Plus, today's Groupon also gets a year's subscription to Time Out Chicago for free. Follow @Groupon_Says on Twitter.

Originally opened as the Top Hat Drive-In in 1953, Sonic has grown into a burger-franchise mecca that today operates out of 3,500 locations across the country, making it the nation’s largest chain of drive-in restaurants. Sonic specializes in made-to-order American classics—including burgers, hot dogs, milk shakes, and marshmallow Ford Thunderbolts—which customers order and receive without ever having to leave their cars. Unique menu items include toaster sandwiches stacked on thick slices of texas toast, as well as the brand’s signature tots and fresh limeades.

Sonic’s numerous awards include a 2011 Zagat survey ranking it among the top five fast-food restaurants in three categories: Best Value Menu, Best Milk Shake, and Best Drive-Thru. The benevolent eatery has also donated more than $2 million to public schools throughout the country through their program Limeades for Learning, which helps to fund educational projects and retirement plans for classroom guinea pigs.