Restaurants in Moore

Blue Nile Ethiopian Restaurant follows East African culinary customs in its dining room and kitchens, where cooks draw on traditional recipes and spices. During meals, patrons are encouraged to partake in the practice of gursha, a tradition in which diners manually place food in each other's mouths to symbolize the bonds of loyalty and friendship. Traditional unleavened injera bread, forged from self-rising wheat flour and the native Ethiopian grain teff, accompanies all entrees, which chefs load onto one plate designed for sharing among the members of each table. Equipped with the pancake-like accessory, diners can scoop up a panoply of lamb, beef, and chicken stews infused with a flurry of spices that, like outtakes from The Muppets, range from mild to spicy. Blue Nile Ethiopian Restaurant's chefs shun artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives in all dishes, and vegetarian items arrive uncontaminated by butter, eggs, milk, and disparaging thoughts about Congress.

Owner Ricardo Lopez infuses each of his restaurant’s dishes with the distinctive flavors of Mexico, peppering marinated slices of chicken with chipotle spices and grilling steak with onions and peppers in an iron skillet. Couples and families sit at tables strewn with complimentary chips, queso, and salsa as they carve into cheesy chilies rellenos or fashion house-made flour tortillas into origami sombreros. Open seven days a week, the restaurant hosts special celebrations inside a private dining area and delivers orders of at least 10 entrees.

Staffers match their dish suggestions to each diner’s unique palate at China Wok, an eatery serving up Chinese cuisine in entrees, family-style dinners, and bottomless buffets. The kitchen crafts staple entrees such as sweet-and-sour pork, lemon chicken, and moo-shu shrimp, served with four savory pancakes. Family-style three-course meals of soup, appetizers, and one entree per person can be shared among groups or fed exclusively to the smartest child at the table. Alternatively, a range of steaming main courses, salad options, and ice creams fleshes out the bottomless lunch and dinner buffets, which fuse into an all-day super-buffet on Sundays.

Co-owner Marco Shaqiri presides over the 60-seat dining room at Spago Ristorante, an authentic trattoria that takes its name from a slang Italian word for spaghetti. An elegant dinner spot for a first date or third try at a breakup, the restaurant also serves its menu at a discounted rate during lunch, when specials start at only $8. Eclectic and trim, the menu cycles between robust pastas, fragrant seafood dishes, and eight types of pizza, with a tiramisu dessert made with espresso-soaked ladyfinger cookies.

Cooking was always LaDonna Andeel's passion, but when she opened LD's Specialties & Gourmet Cafe in January 2009, it became her business as well. Now, she spends her days doing what she loves: baking fresh quiche, crafting gourmet sandwiches to pair with pots of fragrant tea, and getting to know the patrons who stop by. She also bakes specialty desserts for private events held in her café or at offsite locations. For children's parties, LaDonna brings out a castle backdrop, pintsize tables draped with shimmering pink or powder-blue tablecloths, and other whimsical decorations.

Shorty Small's menu tells the tall tale of a short, fat man with a knack for charming the ladies who inherited a saloon from his inveterate pancake-flipper of a father. Since eating was Shorty's most cherished habit, his namesake kitchen piles plates high with tender, slide-off-the-bone ribs, pulled pork, and traditional catfish backed by the tastes of tangy barbecue sauce or peppery blackening spices. Five types of burgers crown hand-cut patties with bacon, mushrooms, or melted swiss cheese before old-fashioned desserts such as apple pie and blackberry cobbler anoint taste buds with more nostalgia than devouring a perfectly frosted photo album. Meanwhile, each smoky aroma finds its flavor pairing with an assortment of milk shakes, margaritas, and draught beers.