Restaurants in Kent

El Tapatio's chefs invest in their kitchen's culinary culture, prepping authentic Mexican platters that range from chimichangas to the impressive super burrito. Though they specialize in a repertoire of steak, chicken, and seafood dishes, they extend the culinary invitation to veggies with meat-free meals. The cantina side of the restaurant mixes citrusy libations—including margaritas, daiquiris, and piña coladas—that counterbalance the spicy salsas and the wounded pride of losing a salsa-guzzling competition.

Since the chefs at Guys Pizza Co. use ingredients from local vendors in all dishes, the menu offerings vary slightly between each location. Nonetheless, every location serves the restaurant’s signature pizzas, jo-jos, and guyzones—larger-than-average calzones stuffed with mozzarella and three toppings. Each menu features more than a dozen specialty pizzas such as the Texas BBQ with grilled chicken, bacon, and barbecue sauce, and the Loaded Baked Potato, an unusual blend of garlic mashed potatoes, crisp bacon, and cheddar cheese. You can also build your own pizza from traditional or thin crust, four sauces—classic or zesty red, garlic white, and pesto—and more than 21 toppings including meatballs, gyro meat, and roasted red peppers. Chefs will prepare any 12- or 14-inch pizza as “take and bake,” an uncooked pie that can bake at the customer’s convenience in a household oven or backyard volcano.

Tomato-orange walls line East of Chicago Pizza Co, an homage to the tangy sauce nestled beneath pizzas' gooey mozzarella layers. In the kitchen, cooks mix fresh dough each day, sculpting it into five types of crust that hold a choice of 14 toppings, such as pepperoni, black olives, and mild banana peppers. They stuff loaded crusts with pepperoni and cheese and mold Chicago-style crusts as deep as Descartes's diary entries.

Most pizzas come in six round sizes, and thin-crust varieties can be ordered as 16-piece squares. The crew also builds sub sandwiches from savory meats and coats buffalo wings with succulent barbecue and garlic sauce. Dutch-apple dessert pizzas end meals on a sweet note, with a hint of satisfying crunch far superior to the sound of Cap'n Crunch eating his own hat.

The day after Thanksgiving marks the start of holiday shopping, the cryogenic refreezing of the Macy's parade floats, and the longest possible time before families once again sit down to Thanksgiving dinner. Entrepreneurs Ryan Napier and Nino Natale wanted to close that gap. Their revolutionary eatery, TGD, fills with the nostalgic aromas of America's favorite meal 365 days a year. In the fast-casual establishment, patrons enjoy platefuls of homestyle turkey, sweet potatoes, and stuffing without spending hours slaving over the stove or sobbing quietly to a rep on the Butterball hotline. But just because their food is quick serve doesn't mean it's unhealthy; the pair is devoted to daily prepared, preservative-free food. Jennifer Mastroianni of CantonRep.com asked, as many patrons do, “Are the mashed potatoes real?” In response, Nino held up a container of freshly peeled potatoes, letting the ingredients speak for themselves.

The oven masters behind Guys Pizza Co. understand the benefit of making their pizza dough daily and topping their pies with fresh meats and hand-cut vegetables. Kids will happily eat anything that looks like pizza, but parents can feel comfortable giving them slices made with real flour and ingredients instead of preprocessed concoctions. They cover wide New York–style pies and deep Chicago-style crusts with custom combinations of toppings that range from classic pepperoni and mushrooms to roasted red peppers and gyro meat. They can even meet the demands of gluten-free diners or gluten-free Bond villains by making small and medium pizzas with a rice-flour crust. The pizza-makers have also tested a variety of specialty pies, including the loaded baked potato topped with white garlic sauce, smashed potatoes, bacon, and three types of cheese. They also cook up hearty panini-style sandwiches called Guyninis, calzones that serve up to 10 people, and stuffed s'mores desserts that pack gooey marshmallows and chocolate into a graham-cracker square.

Since 1975, Italo Ventura has steered the operations of Italo's Pizza. As owner, president, and franchise director, Italo ensures consistent quality by distributing secret recipes and spices to each location by means of covert delivery missions inside submarine sandwiches. Signature pizzas capture the spotlight on the menu, but Italo's chefs also craft family-style meals with chicken buckets, pastas, and hot subs.