Restaurants in Manchester

Chez Ben Diner serves everything you’d expect from a classic American diner—three-egg omelets, triple-decker club sandwiches, and burgers—with an unexpected twist: a selection of authentic French-Canadian dishes. Founded by Benoit and Solange Quirion, the restaurant recently passed to Windsor natives Joel and Anne Quirion who continue the family tradition of friendly service, all-day breakfast, and uniquely Canadian dishes, such as poutine, a combination of fries, cheese curds, and brown gravy. The emphasis on traditional Canadian eats hasn’t gone unnoticed: the breakfast poutine earned a mention in Serious Eats, and Roadfood.com calls the cretons—a cold pork spread that can be served on toast or used as stucco on a gingerbread house—“addictive.”

Domino’s has been decorating dough canvases with flavorful sauces, an assortment of cheeses, and high-quality toppings that range from classic to unconventional since 1960. Domino’s dough is tossed daily and stretched by human hands, not by clumsy catapults and model airplanes flying in opposite directions. Treat friends to a tasteful feast by checking the online menu and crafting a custom masterpizza with Domino's wide range of ingredients. Famished diners too starved to choose their own toppings can select from Domino’s American Legends, featuring signature flavors from throughout the land. Pizzas such as the Pacific Veggie, Honolulu Hawaiian, or Wisconsin 6 Cheese impart all the delicious diversity of a road trip without the hassle of decoding an atlas. Nonpizza fare includes pastas, sandwiches, and breadsticks.

Sakura Garden Glastonbury also offers freshly prepared sushi and sashimi, but it really dazzles with its hibachi entrees prepared by chefs styled as cowboys. Eighteen diners gather around hibachi grills to watch as the chefs, some of whom perform magic tricks and sing, create soaring flame towers while they sizzle up red snapper, scallops, steak, and chicken.

Sakura Garden West Hartford seduces taste buds with two distinct buffets of upscale Japanese cuisine served alongside a menu of freshly prepared sushi and sashimi. Diners moseying through the 8,500-square-foot space can peruse the cold buffet to test the effectiveness of a new parka or to acquire a stack of oysters on the half shell. The hot buffet features piping-hot teriyaki salmon and tender coconut shrimp.

Luen Hop Chinese Restaurant fills pint- and quart-size cartons with takeout staples including soft lo mein noodles, fried rice, and well-sauced cuts of seared pork, chicken, and beef. Roasted duck—a house specialty—complements mixed vegetables with its crisp skin and tender meat, and tofu and chicken surrender to sweet and spicy sauces during General Tso's good-cop-bad-cop routine.

George Carabase opened Buona Vita when he was only 23. But by spending his boyhood at his father's pizzeria, George learned the ins and outs of the restaurant business at a very early age. A graduate of the College of Culinary Arts at Johnson & Wales University, he draws upon his familial and formal educations at Buona Vita, which he's owned since 1998. Utilizing local produce, his traditional take on Italian cuisine encompasses generous portions of dishes such as veal sorrentino, as well as more than 20 available pizza toppings, including eggplant and clams.

CW's American menu—which features locally sourced seafood and thick-cut steaks—combines the comforting nostalgia of classic Americana with contemporary cooking techniques. Their modern methods include rubbing each cut of meat with a proprietary blend of spices before broiling them at 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit to seal in juices. When possible, the chefs source their seasonally changing ingredients from local businesses to encourage the local economy and give their wheelbarrow driver a break. In addition to the contemporary fare, Friday and Saturday evenings bring merriment and dancing as the restaurant showcases live jazz and prerecorded FDR fireside chats.