Restaurants in Melrose

Plates of Turkish cuisine sail through the warmly lit dining room of Saray Restaurant, landing on tablecloths to dispatch kebabs, seafood, and vegetarian entrees straight to palates. The cozy den of Eastern delights has scooped up oodles of accolades with its sesame-flecked pita, including a spot on Boston magazine's Best of Boston 2008 list and praise from the Boston Globe, which called the restaurant "remarkable - and totally authentic."

Hot appetizers such as feta-spangled fried-zucchini pancakes and cold starters of stuffed grape leaves prime taste buds for Mediterranean feasts. Guests tuck into char-grilled striped bass and lamb-stuffed cabbage rolls during breaks between sword fights with kebab skewers dotted with chicken meatballs, lamb, vegetables, and cabbage. At the Boston University–area storefront, a false rooftop creates a village feel, and skillets hang invitingly behind a semicircular window.

At the helm of a glass-enclosed grill, a chef grills skewers of meat, fish, and vegetables over charcoal before serving them to guests seated around him. It’s Basho Japanese Brasserie’s version of a robata restaurant experience—rustic dining that requires guests to sit around a central grill, watching the chef cook the food before he or she serves it to guests on wooden paddles. It’s a type of traditional Japanese dining that’s relatively rare in this country. And yet, what really attracts people to Basho, according to Boston.com, is something that you can get at any standard Japanese restaurant: sushi.

But that’s not a bad thing. The review in Boston.com said of Basho’s sushi: “The restaurant gives the audience what it wants. Sushi and sashimi, ever and always, take top billing. Here, they deserve it.” The signature Basho roll’s thinly sliced asparagus, mushrooms, pickles, cucumbers, lettuce, and fried snow crab peek out from a cylinder of cucumber and soy paper. The Torch Toro roll wakes up taste buds with layers of torched toro—the fatty cut of the fish—and jalapeño. Ingredients for the rolls are flown in daily from around the world.

Organic Garden Cafe's vegetarian, organic dishes have earned the eatery nods in Edible Boston, Boston Magazine's "Best of Boston 2009," and Northshore Magazine's Best of Northshore Awards from 2009 to 2011. As owner Robert Reid told Edible Boston, the menu consists largely of gourmet raw foods, but has evolved to include "transitional items" such as hot soups, which widen the eatery's appeal. Pizzas on buckwheat, carrot, or flax crusts and nut butter 'squash' ravioli are heated under a food lamp, so that the food remains 80 to 90 percent raw, yet "tastes like it just came out of the oven." He's also added more seasonal and local items, working with nearby farms such as First Light Farm in Hamilton for greens and root veggies.

The café's staff also whip up smoothies at its juice bar, such as the Yoda's Jedi smoothie with strawberries, bananas, dates, and spirulina. Customers can also add a boost to their drinks with smoothie enhancers such as flax oil, maca root, bee pollen, and poltergeist sweat.

Sibling Rivalry's chefs and brothers, David and Bob Kinkead, push their lifelong, spirited competition into the kitchen, as they spar to create individual interpretations of seasonal ingredients. The warring cooks deliver choices centered around culinary staples such as beef, with David's grilled hanger steak taunting Bob's slow-braised beef short ribs, or seafood, such as sautéed sweet Maine shrimp facing off against crispy fried squid. The menu constantly changes with ingredient availability, double-dog-dares, and one-upmanship pushing the dishes to new heights, resulting in inventive cuisine such as crispy pressed half duck with parsnip purée and dried-cherry sauce.

While diners wash down bites with sips of wine and creative cocktails, their eyes dance across a dining room filled with hues of copper, beet, and crimson. Chef's bar seating entreats diners to gaze upon the busy inner workings of the kitchen, where they can see brotherly love, culinary combat, and furious games of I'm Not Touching You.

At Maki Sushi Bar, pale yellow walls accented with a crisp, rust-hued stripe surround dark wood tables and a sushi bar where chefs artfully slice up fresh fish into eye-pleasing Japanese dishes. Before diving into main courses, stomachs warm up with a series of calisthenics and bites of starters such as the gyoza's pan-fried pork dumplings. Signature specials blanket plates with bites from the deep blue, seasoned delicately and accented with unexpected ingredients. The tuna tartare flaunts minced tuna mingling with fried red onion and avocado alongside black tobiko and a quail egg, and the seafood martini hosts salmon, tuna, and seaweed salad in an long-stemmed martini glass. To sip more liquid spirits from stemware, patrons select from a full menu of signature cocktails, such as the Crazy Makitini or the Japanese mojito. After exploring a rainbow of nigiri, sashimi, and maki rolls, tongues delight in tasting sweet bites of tempura cheesecake à la mode or crafting sweet mouth guards out of mochi ice cream.

The Talk's owners keep their family recipe book wide open, just like the thick steel bank vault in their dining area, which also boasts a wine bar made of polished granite and wraparound booths that hug tables. Chef Billy Holt and his kitchen staff wrap their hands around fresh ingredients when preparing heirloom dishes, such as veal piccata, eggplant parmesan, and chicken marsala, as well as sea scallops broiled with seasoned bread crumbs and pan-seared trout with sun-dried tomatoes.

Sincere servers dart around the dapper dining area, jotting down orders, balancing trays, and seating private parties behind the vaulted door of the Vault room. In the dining room, guests lounge in beige booths and gaze at black-and-white photos or read the vinyl wall print that reads La Dolce Vita. The Talk also boasts awards such as "Best of the Best" in 2010, 2011, and 2012 from Market Surveys of America, and was voted the number one choice for dinner by Reader's Choice Awards in 2011.