Restaurants in Helena

Whether amongst the cantina's chandeliers, the saloon's rustic surrounds, or the outdoor patio's crackling fire, guests at Fuego Cantina can savor a bevy of Mexican cuisine seven days a week—and until 2 a.m. on Monday through Saturday. Seasoned chefs cover hand-rolled enchiladas in house-made sauce, mix house-marinated meats into fajitas, and fill quesadillas with fixings such as grilled Portobello mushrooms and caramelized onions. Along with Mexican items, the inventive kitchen captains also smother half-pound hot dogs with relish and sauerkraut and top burgers with house-made chili and sharp cheddar cheese.

To wash down feasts, bartenders at Fuego Cantina's two bars keep 14 beers on tap and pour more than 30 wines by the glass. They also mix up specialty mojitos, margaritas, and martinis, such as the combined chocolate ganache and Godiva liqueur of the Death by Chocolate. In addition to tasty treats and drinks, Fuego Cantina enlivens evenings with karaoke on Tuesdays, pin-the-tail-on-the-cacti on Thursdays, and live music throughout the week.

Plucking their name from the American Indian nickname for the Cahaba River’s swampy banks, Mudtown’s owners and staff strive to embody their neighborhood, serving a menu of dishes prepared with fresh, locally sourced seafood, meat, and produce. In their intimate dining room, they cloak tables with hearty portions of new york strip steak with bacon mashed potatoes, grilled mahi mahi with fried green tomatoes, and Cajun po' boys with shrimp or catfish. Their bartenders liven up the southern-inspired American cuisine by shaking signature cocktails, such as their lemon-lime-drop martini, into glasses and pocket protectors. The staff also delivers meals through a catering service for special events such as corporate lunches and birthday parties.

To ensure each of The Fish Market Restaurant’s dishes are as fresh as possible, the two families at the restaurant's helm carefully source the seafood in everything from the eatery’s classic fish and chips to the heartier charbroiled swordfish steak. The chefs often infuse their creations with Greek and Cajun flair by sautéing shrimp with feta cheese and sliced olives or topping snapper with etouffée and crawfish. Thanks to a constant influx of culinary inspiration, the menu expands regularly, adding to the custom selections available for off-site catering services that can nourish gatherings from small dinner parties to massive cloning experiments gone wrong.

Local meats, fresh veggies, and imported spices enhance the traditional Thai and Japanese food at Surin of Thailand. Chefs manipulate yellow, red, and green curry dishes with splashes of coconut milk, citrus juice, or peanuts, and they marinate select meats overnight before slow-roasting them until they’re tender enough to fall apart when looked at. To ensure a sushi menu that’s just as authentic as the Thai dishes, many of the restaurant’s chefs train in Japan under the tutelage of sushi masters. The result is a menu of more than 20 varieties of sushi and nigiri, many of which feature pan-Asian flourishes such as plum sauce and drizzles of panang curry.

Naji’s Pita Gourmet stocks and cooks Middle Eastern foods of all kinds in their combination bakery, grocery store, and restaurant. The bakery is populated by warm and soft preservative-free pita bread, which bakers ship all across the country or turn into crunchy pita chips. In the restaurant, that same pita cradles tender slices of shawarma and gyro meat, dives into plates of hummus, and wraps up crunchy falafel. Patrons can try to mimic Naji’s fare at home after a stop at the grocery store to pick up olives, grape leaves, spice bends, and cardboard cut-outs of the cooks.

Classic Tex-Mex scents season the air at El Gringo, where a colorful mélange of nachos, chimichangas, and fajitas grace plates. Nachos and guacamole commence feasts before juicy cuts of sirloin transform into sizzling carne asada. Veggie quesadillas, enchilada-and-burrito combinations, and fried ice cream get washed down with buckets of beer or margaritas pulled up from local tequila wells.