Restaurants in Highland Springs

Most Americans won’t get the chance to see Cuba, but they can experience the culture and flavor with Kenn-Tico Cuban Bar & Grill’s cuisine. In a dining room decorated with panoramic shots of Havana Harbor, plates are filled with traditional grub such as a sandwich of sliced pork, ham, swiss cheese, pickles, and mustard on grilled cuban bread. Other classics include salmon topped with mango sauce, ropa vieja—shredded beef served up with onions, garlic, and peppers—and yucca sliced and fried until it looks like french fries back from a Caribbean vacation. Accompanying these dishes are homemade fruit milk shakes, freshly squeezed lemonade and limeade, and soft drinks such as Ironbeer and Materva. Knowing that their clients don’t always have time to stop in for their favorite dish, Kenn-Tico's chefs load up a cart with wraps and beverages to offer quick lunches downtown during the workweek.

Joe Helbing captained Howlett's Tavern for 13 years before deciding to explore a new career path, only to discover he missed the clink of beer glasses and the chatter of happy guests. Having reaffirmed his passion for the restaurant biz, Joe reopened his restaurant, where he continues to serve the original Howlett's memorable menu of steak-house favorites.

Deep in the kitchen, chefs grill a variety of hand-cut steaks, ribs, and fresh seafood dishes. To craft their signature crab cakes, they season fresh lump crab with a savory rémoulade. Come lunchtime, they turn their attention to making thick paninis and hearty burgers and shaking their fists at the relentless midday sun. Guests linger over last sips of cocktails and final bites of housemade pecan pie at tables that speckle the spacious dining room.

Inside Cha-Cha's Cantina, margaritas flow freely from pitchers as late-night dance parties rage and music pounds against the exposed brick walls. The bar is known both for its huge water-pong tournaments and its Southwestern food, which includes fresh Maine lobster tacos and burritos filled with slow-roasted duck. On weekends, diners can stop by to brunch on bison flank steak with eggs and hash browns or just grab a zesty omelet to throw at a passing airplane.

Riverbound Café's friendly owner, Michael Cohan, dishes up made-from-scratch diner eats for breakfast, lunch, and dinner amidst his restaurant's casual maritime décor. From their post on the wall, paintings of beach life look longingly down upon crab cakes and other seafood shipped in fresh daily, and model sailboats and lighthouses surround eggs, burgers, and hand-cut steaks cooked to order. Boardwalk fries accompany all sandwiches, wraps, and melts, and homemade desserts entice sweet teeth with their siren song. Catering and box-lunch options feed off-site diners at gatherings of all occasions, including business luncheons, birthday parties, and meetings of the Box-Lunch Appreciation Club.

Servers armed with avocados, limes, chopped spices, and a traditional molcajete mortar and pestle mash fresh tableside guacamole at The Patron, a verdant ritual that whets appetites for the Mexican meal to come. The chefs assemble standards such as fajitas, burritos, tacos, and mix-and-match combinations thereof, as well as specialties that include camarones Patrón, shrimp and mushrooms in chipotle cream sauce, or Patrón gorditas stuffed with slow-cooked pork carnitas and pico de gallo.

Glasses and silverware clink against a wooden bar that extends in a long L-shape, its size proportionate to a tavern with lofted ceilings and exposed-brick walls. On the Rox—a recent addition to the historic Shockoe Bottom area of Richmond—seems to do everything a bit bigger than most, and its upscale menu is no exception. Depending on the time of day, the neighborhood bar’s kitchen sates appetites with grilled paninis, succulent steaks, and hangover-busting brunch fare. On weekday nights, servers ferry plates of chorizo paninis and pan-roasted trout to diners sipping on craft beers at four-top tables. Early risers scarf down waffles with bananas and bacon-maple caramel during weekend brunch, and the more health-conscious crowd nurses vitamin C–laden mimosas and iron-rich bloody marys.