Restaurants in Natchez

The seasonal fare at CrawDaddy's sends wayward appetites straight to the Louisiana coast to learn the art of festive Cajun dining. Shelled and nonshelled entrees wash up on tables surrounded by the cozy dining room's seafaring-themed décor, which includes rustic-style wooden tables and light-blue walls. Fried-catfish baskets and piles of painstakingly boiled shrimp lie beneath handsome wall hangings of essential fisherman tools, such as crisscrossed oars, fishing nets, and a pocket English-to-trout phrasebook used to persuade fish in their native tongue.

Fred Cerami’s first venture into the food industry was selling hot dogs on the streets of Hattiesburg. He loved feeding people, but wanted to incorporate his Sicilian heritage and generations of family recipes into his work. So in 1977, he left the streets, came inside, and laid down his roots within the kitchen of Cerami’s Italian Restaurant. Today, Fred’s daughter Alissa runs the restaurant, but not much else has changed. The kitchen still churns out homemade ravioli, lasagna, and spaghetti with meatballs, Italian flags still adorn the walls of the dining room, and Fred’s old Hattiesburg hot-dog wagon is still there, enjoying its healthier second act as an all-you-can-eat salad bar.

Mazzio's Italian Eatery's staff rolls out a buffet for lunch and dinner populated with tasty Italian cuisine that they also serve à la carte. The restaurant's staff has been perfecting its culinary modus operandi for more than 50 years, long enough to evolve the pizza selection to include three levels of thickness. Chefs bake standard, deep-dish, and thin crusts—available in gluten-free form—and load each with toppings such as caramelized onions and giant pepperoni. The kitchen makes pasta plates to order, some baked in the oven, such as lasagna, and some tossed in sauce, such as the mainstay spaghetti and meatballs. The signature calzone radiates the ambrosial scent of pizza dough stuffed with meat and cheese, and it's meant to be shared, unlike a pogo stick.

A flame-spewing hibachi grill and a glowing blue sushi bar send Japanese fusion cuisine onto the chopsticks of hungry patrons. Award-winning sushi chef Ethan wei Huang melds a variety of culinary influences into his artfully plated dishes, which are crafted with fresh filets flown in from Hawaii. For an original twist, Huang bundles his special rolls in rice paper, soy paper, and white seaweed, which becomes unfashionable in undersea gardens after Labor Day. French-style steaks and lamb chops put a continental spin on the menu, and a martini bar boasts more than 10 specialty cocktails. Wasabi Sushi & Bar also offers an outdoor patio-courtyard where diners breathe in fresh air between bites.

Proprietor Anne Amelot-Homes and her father, executive chef Christian Amelot, want to fly you to La Ferté-Bernard, their hometown in France. Unfortunately, paying airfare for everyone who asks would be too expensive, so they opened Anjou—an eatery that aims to bring the cuisine of their French village stateside. And amid dark wooden furniture and stonewalls, their menu of authentic bistro fare achieves just that. Waiters whisk out plates of steak frites coated in maitre d' butter and bowls filled with cassoulet—stewed navy beans with sausage and duck confit. White tablecloths also frame American-inflected entrees such as Café de Paris burgers garnished with herb butter, brie, and Gustave Eiffel's abandoned blueprints for a New-York-Paris skyway.:m]]

Sombra Mexican Kitchen’s chefs take pride in the methods they use to arrive at their contemporary take on Mexican cuisine. Though they pickle their jalapeño peppers and stir their enchilada sauces back in the kitchen, they can’t resist allowing guests a peek at the creative process. So, under the twinkling lights of the multihued dining room, they craft their flour or corn tortillas from scratch. While the flavorful disks are still hot, they proceed to blanket each with homemade guacamole and salsa brimming with Mexican oregano and epazote. They also slow-roast whole chickens and sizzle USDA Choice skirt steaks for meals that can be enjoyed on one of two outdoor patios or amid the dining room’s eclectic collection of cow skulls, Mexican blankets, and foliage teeming with wild piñatas.