Restaurants in Joliet

Over the past 50 or so years, Chicago’s Little Italy may have endured a wave of gentrification, but it still manages to maintain its original charm owing to establishments like Fontano’s Subs. Since 1960, Fontano’s has assembled top meats and cheeses into decadent, hefty sandwiches, including italian beef, italian sausage, and italian meatball. The team behind the counter sides these handheld meals with familiar deli sides including coleslaw, potato, and macaroni salads and Good Humor ice-cream bars harvested directly from the earth’s frozen core. The popularity of Fontano’s has spurred five additional storefronts across Illinois where customers can expect to find the same quality subs as those from its flagship location.

When Hounds Blue Moon began serving up inventive pub fare in 2008, the menu included a modest selection of eight signature stuffed burgers. That list has since expanded to offer diners 26 varieties of burger, each bedecked with elaborate ingredient combinations such as avocado and jalapeno jack cheese, chili and cheese sauce, bacon and cheddar, or roasted jalapeños and pico de gallo. During dinner hours, palates can further expand with Italian dinner specialties such as the chicken vesuvio roasted with potato wedges and peas. And on Sundays, staffers at a brunch buffet customize comfort fare by sizzling made-to order omelets and carving off slices of meat in the shape of each patron's favorite Aleutian Island.

Flavors from India and Pakistan meet on Sara's Grill & Eastern Cuisine's menu, which incorporates halal meats and fragrant spices into its extensive selection of dishes. Decadent curries send savory and spicy aromas wafting past diners' tables to tempt taste buds with lingering scents of cilantro and ginger. In the kitchen, a clay tandoor oven bakes orders of naan and roasts skewers of marinated chicken or goat. Cylindrical pendant lamps and sconces illuminate damask-stenciled walls to create an intricately artistic vibe, much like a tattoo of a Rube Goldberg–device.

Mrs. T's Pizza has been family owned and operated for 30 years. Cooks slide thin, pan, and stuffed pizza crusts into ovens, each crowned with a custom-built combination of toppings ranging from green peppers to fresh garlic and bacon. Along with the pies, cooks also load italian beef on crusty rolls and bake pans of mostaccioli under a bubbling layer of cheese. The freshly homemade dishes cover high-top tables filled with diners watching sports on flat-screen televisions and sipping draft beer. Customers may place carryout or delivery orders to enjoy their meal at home or in a neighbor’s mansion. There is no additonal fee for delivery.

To spread the good word of raw food, Doin' it Raw teaches foodies and newbies the vegan basics during cooking classes. Chef Linda arms students with the ingredients, equipment, and recipes necessary to swiftly craft nutritious raw dinners and desserts, saving the cost of ordering takeout from a neighbor’s greenhouse. Main courses such as pizza or bagels shirk flames in favor of a dehydrator, the use of which teachers thoroughly detail. Sweeteners reaped from Mother Nature's garden tinge dessert recipes for delicacies such as chocolate macaroons or lemon squares. Patrons fend off food comas and advancing herds of hungry rabbits to query experts about raw-vegan diets during Q&A sessions that

This cozy eatery isn’t really a diner, a drive-in, or a dive, but that didn’t stop its celebrated italian-beef pizza pie from being featured on the Food Network show of the same name. Cooks craft that superstar’s mozzarella and pepper-topped crust to order alongside other thin, deep-dish, or double-dough pizzas, and they form round meatballs and shape-shifting alfredo sauces in-house. Servers descend upon red-checkered tabletops with plates of juicy half-pound burgers or classic spaghetti, and they proffer glasses of wine and other liquid libations from the full bar.