Restaurants in Irondequoit

Yummy Hot Pot and Grill’s chefs create a menu of more than 100 Chinese favorites, from spicy kung pao beef to general tso's shrimp, scallops, and chicken. The menu features such savory selections as lo mein, fried rice, and seafood dishes, plus family packs for two to three people that include different meal combinations and passive-aggressive fortune cookies.

California Rollin' Sushi Bar's crew of nimble-fingered sushi slingers prepare fresh sushi rolls and 70 cooked comestibles to populate an extensive Americanized menu. Raw delicacies include the hamachi maki, which corrals lemon-kissed yellowtail and scallions, and the cooked Cinema roll, whose shrimp and avocado add a cool complement to the tangy crunch of onion rings. The Leviathan roll ensconces bites of eel and cucumber inside another rolled layer of tempura shrimp and seaweed salad. Patrons can accompany each meal with with unique dessert rolls such as the tempura-cheesecake roll with a fried Oreo and draughts of hot sake, the traditional Japanese beverage made from fermented rice.

At Juan & Maria's Empanada Stop, a bell chimes regularly throughout the day, ringing along with the festive Latin music in the background. Its sound does not indicate the time, however—it greets every 50th customer to the empanada hot spot and rewards him or her with $5 worth of complimentary Spanish cuisine. When Chilean couple Juan and Maria Contreras opened their stand in 2000, they rarely had the opportunity to use the bell, as they were serving between 10 and 20 customers on any given Saturday. Today they dish out their empanadas to more than 1,000 guests, vying to beat their current record of 1,404 patrons in eight hours.

Their popularity stems in part from a commitment to traditional, healthy cooking methods. Each of their empanadas is handmade and stuffed with one of 12 types of filling, including 90% lean beef and pork as well as vegetarian options. The deep fryers are filled with light salad oil, and none of the menu items include chemicals or preservatives. Juan and Maria extend the same homemade treatment to their fruit juices, which can be frozen and sold as "Juan-sicles," and their four hot sauces: green gold, red gold, spanish mayo and spanish ketchup.

Attitude accounts for a second element of the pair's success. Their mix of hospitality and cultural pride draws diners to the light-blue shop, where Juan exuberantly lists the specials to newcomers. They have hosted the Juan & Maria's International Spanish Festival for the past four years, showcasing customs from 20 Spanish-speaking countries alongside their empanadas.

In the historic, three-story Spring House, Monroe's Restaurant surrounds patrons with hardwood floors and chandelier lighting as they taste savory family recipes. Where ballroom dancers once glided across spring floors, high-backed booths now cozy up next to a fireplace, warming up diners as they explore lunch plates of paninis and flatbread pizza. Chefs arrange colorful dinner dishes of filet mignon and housemade gnocchi soaked in a sauce of your choice alongside salads of baby arugula, crispy pancetta, goat cheese, dried cranberries, and a port wine vinaigrette. Occasional live entertainment wafts music into the air around the dark wood of the bar, exposed-brick pillars, and diners sampling sips from an expansive wine menu.

Within his cozy, red-brick restaurant, chef CJ Grimes and his staff dole out Southern homestyle dishes from a rotating menu. Regular offerings of pork chops and fried catfish or haddock couple with sides of collard greens, seafood gumbo, and dirty rice, and daily specials tempt taste buds toward savory servings of ox tail, barbecue pork spare ribs, or meatloaf. The cozy dining area welcomes visitors to warm up their appetites and fork-tossing arms with games of pool and darts, and the friendly staff and homey atmosphere may inspire groups to linger longer while enjoying a daily dessert such as peach cobbler or pumpkin cream-cheese cake.

The Original Crab Shack hauls in fresh fish, crab, lobster, shrimp, and clams every day from the ports of Boston Harbor, often getting the seafood in less than 12 hours after it comes off the boats. In the kitchen, cooks transform the catches into seafood through the power of steam or a fryer, filling pots with clams and lobster or baskets with tender fried shrimp and clam strips. Behind their full bar, which is decorated with fairy lights and nautical décor such as anchors, cheery bartenders pour beers or wine and mix specialty cocktails. Light blue walls, punctuated with Cape Cod–style windows, surround the interior of Crab Shack, which is filled with small tables as well as two 10-seater farm tables in the center of the room.