Restaurants in Lincolnton

In 1964, brothers Leroy and Forrest Raffel banded together to come up with a new restaurant concept. Arby's took off almost immediately on the coattails of its hallmark roast-beef sandwich and the founders’ idea of providing customers with fast, quality food. Over the company's 48-year franchise history, its foundational pièce de résistance of thinly sliced, juicy beef has been served in a many permutations, and continues to be popular today, served at more than 3,500 stores in North America. Today’s menu still ignites appetites with traditional beef sandwiches, plus hot and seasoned curly fries, fresh-chopped salads, and desserts good for richly capping off meals or bribing any bridge trolls on the way home.

In the kitchen at Mario’s Pizza, chefs heap cheese, steak, and sun-dried tomatoes onto oversize New York–style and sicilian pizza crusts. A white pizza covered in ricotta cheese, fresh garlic, and mozzarella reminds taste buds of eating a delicious snowman, and comes in sizes ranging from 10 inches to as large as 19 inches. Baked pasta and sandwiches, such as a philly steak or veal parmigiana, round out the menu.

Prosciutto's Pizzeria & Pub hosts a menu of New York–style pizza and Italian fare that earned the establishment Best Pizza and Best Italian Food from Citysearch in 2010. To complement the traditional pastas, white pizzas, and pies slathered in daily-made tomato sauce, a lengthy beer and wine list features craft beers, imported brews, and a wealth of red and white wines.

The family-friendly pub and pizzeria is divided in two: The kids side with video games and toys has seceded from an adult section that houses a nonsmoking bar lit by dangling icicle lights. Sports-casting TVs and athletic paraphernalia keep the vibe sporty for when the athletes return to claim their jerseys and balls. Thursday nights host cornhole tournaments outdoors on the patio, and live music energizes the air on Friday and Saturday nights.

Diners can take a trip around the US, with a glance at the menu at Alton's Kitchen & Cocktails, which borrows heavily from American regional fare. The kitchen stokes dreams of the Old West by gracing tables with lamb shanks from Colorado and salmon from Seattle, each teeming with tales of a life of train-hopping and hitchhiking east. Chunks of shellfish nestle into the New England–style lobster roll, and shrimp simmer in creole barbeque sauce, giving diners a taste of New Orleans.

A curved bar extends from exposed brick walls, which frame shiny dark wood floors. These floors match the tall, bistro-style tables and the high-manteled fireplace, which gleam beneath the light of cascading chandeliers, giving the room a refined, yet cozy feel. Diners can also find seating on an outdoor patio, where they can feel the breeze on their face, a sure sign that the moon is sneaking up behind them to steal their dessert.

At Sabi, the scents of spiced and marinated meats blend with a mélange of tropical mangoes and spicy peppers in inventive stir-fry dishes and sushi as guests clink glasses of wine and craft beer. The restaurant’s name borrows from the Japanese phrase “wabi sabi,” or “finding beauty in the imperfect,” such as when appreciating the tarnished patina of a bronze statue or the intriguing beauty of a mole. The eatery’s eclectic menus promise feasts of red-curry chicken, Louisiana blue crab cakes, and juicy tenderloin filets, among other Pan-Asian dishes and specialty sushi rolls. As diners savor the blend of Eastern and Western cuisines, they can feel good about a meal prepared under Sabi’s roof, especially on Mondays, when the Chow Down for Charity event raises money for local and national nonprofits, such as the American Cancer Society.

Owner Ronald LeBreton brings more than three decades of New England–area restaurant expertise to the menu at Joe Fish Casual Seafood. Diners sink teeth into haddock sandwiches, chargrilled mahi-mahi and salmon, or handmade crab cakes. Servers ferry plates of fresh seafood, steaks, and pasta to high-top bar tables or seats on the canopied outdoor patio.