Restaurants in Franklin

For years, the almighty sandwich has protected innumerable forks and knives from boiling-hot dishwashers, and Ricci's vast menu honors this tradition with a host of bread-busting deli sandwiches (starting at $4.79), including meaty mainstays such as corned beef, turkey, and roast beef. Geometrical gourmets can also indulge affinities for circular comestibles with a half-pound burger ($7.99) or fulfill sensitive sides with the tenderloin ($7.99), which is available breaded, grilled, or encased in bronze.

Veteran chefs prepare Stir Crazy’s Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and Vietnamese dishes on sizzling woks right in the dining room. So while diners-to-be ponder the menu of more than 50 traditional and innovative Asian creations, they'll witness knives quartering veggies and flames lapping at the edges of the wok as the sights, smells and sounds of the kitchen come alive around them. Should your taste buds riot at the sight of all this mouth-watering action, satisfy them with an appetizer like the Ahi tuna and avocado poke ($9), a spicy stack of fresh fish and cool veggies. For main courses, choose from an array of entrees like the sweet and sour chicken, a dish featuring tender pieces of crispy chicken tossed with broccoli, red and green peppers, onions, carrots, and pineapple in a sweet and tangy sauce ($12.75). Or manage your intake with the Crazy Feature menu, which offers smaller-in-portion but towering-in-flavor classics like Mongolian beef or sesame chicken, served with a crispy veggie spring roll (all $8.88).

The chefs at My Thai Cafe know that you eat with your eyes first, crafting classic dishes and handed-down recipes with an artist's precision and whimsy. They prepare generous bowls of tom-yum soup brimming with shrimp, lemongrass, kaffir-lime leaves, and galanga root, and stir-fry dishes including the pad ped with choice of meat and chili paste—a spicy concoction originating from the kitchen of the owner's aunt. Chefs garnish dishes with edible handiwork: carrots cut into butterflies, rice formed into heart shapes, and bunches of cilantro woven into fans for cooling fiery tongues.

Arni's planted its salad tongs into the Indiana dining scene back in 1965 with a firm dedication to swell cuisine served within a fun and welcoming environment by an accommodating staff. The joint's menu coddles down-home appetites with savory deep-fried pork-tenderloin sandwiches ($8.99) and chipotle-shrimp-and-bacon tacos that marry the bounties of land and sea within a pair of soft tortilla shells lined with veggies and special sauce ($9.49). Famous Arni's Junior Salads present their garden bounty in neat geometric rows of fresh greens, succulent cuts of turkey and ham, and ripe portions of radishes and green onions complemented by mozzarella cheese ($6.99).

Practice the sublime art of sandwich eating with today's Groupon to J.S. Reutz Café: $5 gets you $10 worth of comforting cafe fare. Located in the John H. Boner Community Center, this charming lunch spot serves high-quality Boar's Head meats and cheeses and Charlotte's Bakery bread every Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Let sweeping brushstrokes of pesto and architectural stacks of cheese adorn your internal art gallery at J.S. Reutz Café.The Breakfast Club: Director’s Cut: The lost director’s cut of this unforgettable musing on high-school stereotypes adds a cosmic perspective when the nerdish Brian (Anthony Michael Hall) falls off a desk during horseplay. Reaching out to correct himself, he tears a hole in the fabric of reality through which the cleansing light of heaven pours. The teens are trapped, not in detention, but in purgatory.

Mazatlan is a family restaurant that specializes in traditional recipes presented within a warmly welcoming environment free of rogue cannon fire or aluminum space bats. Spicy and mild-minded palates alike can mull over a full menu of savory standards such as custom-cooked steak or chicken fajitas ($11.75), as well as off-the-beaten-path treats such as seafood enchiladas with fish, crabmeat, and shrimp atop a bed of rice, guacamole, and pico de gallo ($8.99). Mazatlan's more straight-up specialties include the pineapple chicken grill topped with tomatoes, red onions, pineapple slices, and avocado ($10.75). And for anyone who has ever been tempted to order a taco that contained only more tacos, the fajita burrito ($8.99) might be the closest thing to living out the dream of foods wrapped within foods wrapped within foods. Once you've built up a solid mouth-fire, put it out with a signature 27-ounce Mazatlan Margarita (Tequila Cazadores, triple sec, sweet and sour mix, Red Bull, and Grand Marnier, $9.15) and some fried ice cream ($4.25).