Restaurants in La Vista

Each day, the kitchen magicians at 84th Street Cafe transform fresh, natural ingredients into home-style feasts. A warm and welcoming ambience complements the comforting cuisine by calming hungry nerves, allowing for laid-back taste-bud stimulation akin to licking batteries on a Tempur-Pedic bed. Amid a relaxing, window-wrapped atmosphere, patrons can sample a wide variety of big-portioned plates for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and every imaginary meal in between. Try a tongue-tantalizing breakfast burrito platter with chorizo, fruit, and hash browns ($7.25), a barbecue pork sandwich on a kaiser roll ($6), or a beef pot pie topped with crispy cheddar ($8.50, $12.50). Made-from-scratch desserts such as ice cream sundaes and pie du jour ($4.25 each) pair with each meal much better than a clingy barnacle.

Submariners and terranean civilians stop at Milio's for a menu of subs and sandwiches stuffed with hand-sliced meats, veggies, and cheeses nestled between bread that's baked to a crispy French finish throughout the day. Wrap mitts around an Italian club with capicola ham, Genoa salami, smoked ham, and provolone on a garden bed of lettuce and red ripe tomatoes washed in Italian dressing ($5.64). Herbivores nosh guacamole, tomatoes, alfalfa sprouts, lettuce, provolone, and Hellmann's mayo imprisoned behind fresh bread bars ($4.54). Algebraic amateurs can simplify with skinny sandwiches that isolate the variables to strictly meats and cheeses ($3.34). Milio's also offers 13 different varieties of chips.

Barley’s builds culinary character by guiding its delicious menu of traditional burger and steak fare through a series of exhausting yet rewarding victual rituals. Start with homemade flour chips ($5.95) with cheddar cheese and salsa as a way of making peace with growling stomach Gorgons. Equip both fists with a smokehouse burger (with cheddar, barbecue sauce, and bacon, $7.95) and a guacamole burger ($8.45), or contemplate the trinity of a triple club ($7.95) served with ham, turkey, bacon, and more between two slabs of marble rye. There are also a number of options for the vegetarian crowd, including the garden burger ($7.95) and garden Philly ($7.75), each stocked with 100% vegan patties. In between bites of burgers, steaks, and salads, sip on some fresh-squeezed ales and lagers from the bottle or tap, with varieties spanning the intoxicating rainbow from micro and macro brews.

Kick-start dinner with an order crab cakes, served with fried quail eggs and yellow pepper aioli ($14), or the trio spread plate with white-bean hummus, caponata, and red kidney bean pate ($8). Moving from primers to prime time, Zurlo’s offers a variety of classic and creative entrees. Its specialty is brick-oven pizza ($10), and it also offers standout selection of pastas, soups, salads, and cute Italian grandmas working the kitchen. The homemade porcini mushroom gnocchi is flecked with sun-dried tomatoes and smothered in Gorgonzola cream sauce ($14), while less landlubbing eats include seameats such as the oxymoronic jumbo scallops ($23) or pesto salmon sided with red potatoes ($18). To quell midday invasions from internal hunger trolls, Zurlo’s also serves lunch.

Jerzes pairs its plentiful pours with simple, unpretentious bar fare replete with delicious house-made preparations. Warm up a stiff palate with a few pre-dinner stretches of dragon wings, which are 10 jumbo wings served au naturel or tossed with mild, hot, barbecue, Buff-a-Que, or Stupid Hot sauce ($7.75). Much to the delight of visiting herbivores and healthy eaters, an all-you-can-eat soup and salad bar ($6.50) delights a lighter appetite with fresh trimmings daily. Bread-and-meat specialists can partner tall, frosty drafts with hearty sandwiches and eight signature burgers, all served with hand-cut fries. The Big Party Burger is a monument to bovine splendor, its cow-meat patty swathed in shaved prime rib, melted provolone, and horsey sauce ($9.25), while the Patriots Ultimate BLT ($6.95) or the buffalo-style Chieftain Chicken sandwich ($7.25) are sure to please pundits of pork and poultry. Overeager eaters can unclog gullet pipes with one of six on-tap domestic and imported beers or a less-malty glass of wine.

The restaurant’s ambitious menu, which is heavy on the seafood, aims to please with the genuine intent of the Crayola 64 Big Box. Start with an order of fajita nachos ($7.59) or guacamole ($9.59) before moving on to entrees that include combination plates, shrimp plates, and an ocean’s worth of seafood-centric dishes. Try the whole deep-fried red snapper, neighbored with soup or salad, choice of starch, and tortillas ($12.59). Side selections with an order of chips and salsa ($3.29) or beans ($1.89), and save room for flan ($2.50), which can be eaten or used as a smooshy pillow for taking a full-belly-induced siesta.