Restaurants in Newburg

Pregame with spinach artichoke dip (4.99) or a hearty helping of fried pickle chips, hand-breaded dills fried to a crisp and served with peppercorn ranch dressing or a Cajun horseradish dip ($3.99). Most of the thin-crust pizzas, salads, chicken, steaks, pastas, burgers, and sandwiches on Aspen's menu cost less than $10. Flavorful meaty dishes include a chili-rubbed pork tenderloin trio (three pork medallions wrapped in bacon and grilled and bathed in honey lime dressing, $9.99) and Hawaiian-style grilled chicken topped with a fresh grilled pineapple ($7.99). Aspen Creek's pan-seared salmon ($10.99) is hand cut, superbly seasoned, honey-glazed, and totally unable to travel upstream in search of superior gold prospecting.

Old-World street lamps light a path towards Cricket's Café, a red-brick eatery brimming with Tuscan-inspired decor and the aromas of gourmet café fare. The design for the restaurant started at the owner's table, where she and her husband sketched a layout with indoor and outdoor seating, including three meeting rooms with high-def projectors. Throughout each of these areas, waiters carry plates loaded with breakfast items, sandwiches, and specialty drinks. The café pros can also transport their comestibles to casual office parties or formal debutante balls held in bouncy castles with catering service.

Joe’s OK Bayou claims to be “da best Cajun,” but there’s also a humility to the enterprise—starting with the playful name and extending to decor that alludes to a low-country shack with a sheet-metal awning and rough wooden walls. Home-style cooking comes naturally to owner Joe Wheatley, whose father farmed grain and raised hogs before opening similarly rustic restaurant The Feed Mill with other members of the family in a former feed-storage building.

Since 1995, Joe and his team have striven to introduce Louisiana flavors to a northern audience, seasoning crawfish étouffée and chicken-and-sausage gumbo with spices that are bold but not painfully hot. Visiting in 2008, the Courier-Journal’s Marty Rosen found that this mission succeeded, with “bold, accessible flavors, friendly, quick service and extremely affordable prices.” He also found oysters “big and glossy with fine, firm textures—as fresh-tasting as any I've eaten along the Louisiana or Alabama coasts” on the menu’s wide selection of simply prepared coastal creatures—fried gator tails, catfish filets, and frog legs among them. Abita beers, the star of the drinks menu, hail appropriately from Louisiana, and join wines and other domestic and imported brews at the full bar.

Skilled sushi chefs handcraft blossoms of pickled ginger and sashimi to pair with dollops of wasabi and delicate butterfly garnishes. Behind the glass cases at the sushi bar, they forge signature rolls such as the chef's favorite Lobster Paradise roll with mango, kiwi, and tempura lobster tail. Along with sushi, the chefs prepare pho, Vietnamese noodle dishes, and teriyaki chicken. For offsite dining, the restaurant offers carry-out, delivery, and catering services for business meetings, parties, and lunchtime stakeouts.

A ring of rice encircles the Caviar roll's morsels of yellowtail tuna, smoked salmon, avocado, and cream cheese. The roll's exterior is just as complex, with its delicate crust of masago, tempura flakes, and eel sauce. Sushi chefs assemble hearty sushi rolls such as this at the spacious wooden sushi bar, which curves and twists its way from the front to the back of the dining room. Sushi is the focal point of both the dining room and the menu itself—chefs slice 80 different rolls, ranging from traditional crab and avocado to exotic flourishes such as squid and kiwi. To enhance their sushi selections, diners can consult the sake menu, or fold it into a paper plane and drink whatever beverage it lands on.

Natives of Palermo, Italy, brothers Vincenzo and Agostino Gabriele share twin passions for food and their Italian heritage. Both loves are combined under the same roof at Vincenzo's Italian Restaurant—by the owners' count, a winner of more than 20 separate culinary awards. Chef Agostino Gabriele began his culinary career at age 14 back in Palermo before moving on to kitchens in Milan, Dusseldorf, and St. Louis, commonly known as "The Dusseldorf of the Midwest." Gabriele's internationally honed cooking skills helped him become a James Beard–honored chef and win a DiRoNA award with his brother for Vincenzo's in 2007 and 2008.

Inside the kitchen, Chef Gabriele tops plates of al dente spaghetti with South African lobster tail and petite shrimp and roasts farm-raised chicken breast with asparagus tips, sun-dried tomatoes, and gorgonzola cheese. The eatery, which also offers an extensive wine list and soufflé desserts, has been visited by a number of celebs, including Muhammad Ali, Steven Spielberg, and Sylvester Stallone.