Restaurants in Kingston

Flipside’s brand new menu showcases thousands of different burger combinations, allowing diners to mix and match six different proteins with high-end ingredients including avocado and bacon, as well as creative sauces such as sweet relish and tarragon mayo. Farm-fresh sirloin patties anchor a dozen specialty burgers, including a Fat Daddy Reuben spackled in sauerkraut and onion rings. Slow-cooked pulled-pork sandwiches provide a sauce-smothered alternative to Flipside’s signature creations, as do herbivore-friendly salads that may be repackaged in a whole-wheat wrap. Sudsy drafts caterwaul from a dulcet quartet of foam-flecked taps, spurring choreographed pours and surprise visits from Spuds McKenzie behind a triangular bar, where mixologists concoct specialty martinis and margaritas.

Having already earned back-to-back spots on Connecticut Magazine's Best of Connecticut in 2009 and 2010, Liquid Lunch keeps bellies full and spoons out of the unemployment line with a slurp-worthy twist on midday meals. Culinary Institute of America graduate and owner Fred Bialek and his wife, Michele, were inspired to open the first Liquid Lunch in 2004, when they'd grown tired of lunchtime standards such as pizza, burgers, and lightly salted printouts of old PowerPoint presentations.

Today, at Liquid Lunch's still-growing roster of locations, a rotating lineup of gourmet soups cascades across the menu alongside six staple soups, including vegetarian lentil and split pea with ham. For an extra crunch, diners can plunge fork-first into salads, or explore healthy Sammiches, which escort taste buds around the globe with names influenced by their ingredients and spear-pickles engraved with necessary passport information.

Whether beneath the thatched roof of the tiki hut or at an intimate table surrounded by bamboo shoots, Papaya Thai and Asian BBQ’s tropical themes pervade the eatery’s confines. The barbecue bar grants diners a front-row seat to watch chefs expertly grill marinated meats and veggies on wooden skewers, wielding the power of fire like Prometheus to cook beef to its tender best state. A variety of Thai tasting plates and main dishes include classics such as pad thai, sizzling chicken in a thai barbecue sauce, and skewered chicken satay. From the tiki bar, bartenders pour tropical drinks such as papaya thai-ritas made with sweet mango and nutty monkeys, an almond-rum-banana concoction the staff delivers to tables by way of swinging through the rafters.

Little Thai Kitchen's chefs decorate porcelain canvasses with a menu of marinated Thai edibles presented in harlequin medleys beneath sprays of decorative bamboo. Stone and dark-cherry walls sprawl behind symphonies of silverware that clink gently like a robot with a rock in its shoe. Sticky sweet rice, veggies, and a variety of meats and seafood bask alongside spicy curries, including a green-chili concoction that the New York Times called "fierce and delicate at the same time." Frosted glass and brushed-steel lights spill warm light onto diners as they chat amid pastoral accents and artwork with Eastern influences.

Inspired by his upbringing in southern Italy, La Villa Trattoria chef Michael Sornatale crafts a rotating menu of seasonally inspired fare with free-range and organic ingredients. Unexpected combinations of simple ingredients, such as white-wine sauce and hot cherry peppers on the pollo e salsiccia scarpariello, give his traditional Italian dishes a creative verve. Sornatale also strives to incorporate less common tastes, including wild game such as roe deer and rabbit, without diminishing the accessibility of his menu. Chefs also concoct low-fat and heart-healthy items, and provide a list of Italian wines carefully selected to complement each entree.

At lunchtime, La Villa Trattoria’s dining area fills with natural light softly diffused with sheer, white curtains. Artist Kim Salander’s murals of the small Italian fishing village of Portofino combine with ambient fog horns to create a seaside ambiance indoors.

The menu at Jerry’s Brick Oven Pizza reads more like a roster of Italy’s most revered dishes. Of course, the flames from a brick oven graze the bottom of pizzas topped with pepperoni, mushrooms, olives, peppers, onions, tomatoes, or fresh garlic. But the selection also includes minestrone soup, chicken marsala, veal parmigiana, calzones, and homemade manicotti. The staff even pipes cream into fresh cannolis, providing a sweet finish to any entrée.