Restaurants in North Lauderdale

Chef Esmeralda unites her proud Mediterranean heritage with American touches in each tapas dish her kitchen creates. Iberico Spanish-style cured ham, bruschettas, and fresh seafood—as well as larger entrees—give guests a taste of faraway cuisines as they enjoy their meals amid the trattoria’s wine-colored walls or on the patio. To complement these dishes, Esmeralda’s team of wine experts curates a menu of fine and rare champagnes and global varietals. Bartenders craft sweet sangria and margaritas, and on select nights, hookah smoke twirls upward, diffusing the soft light from the eatery’s crystalline chandeliers.

Red-checkered tablecloths and vintage-style Italian posters help to create a distinctly Old-World ambiance in Don & Sal's dining room. This dedication to tradition also extends to the menu of hearty and familiar comfort fare, which features freshly baked breads, housemade jumbo manicotti, and savory veal marsala. Pizza chefs can layer pies with up to 26 different toppings—including portobello mushrooms, hot cherry peppers, and prosciutto—before baking them to a golden crisp under space shuttles that take off behind the restaurant.

Mirrors and ornate paintings surround diners at Lily Garden with a serene atmosphere as they sample a menu filled with Hunan, Cantonese, and Sichuan dishes. Each white-clothed table in the dining room supports a crescent vase of flowers, and red paper lanterns dangle above the booths along each wall. Delivery and catering services are also available.

Tender pieces of chicken, beef, shrimp, and pork simmer in a variety of aromatic sauces, including curry, savory black bean, and fiery sichuan. The Triple Crown In Bird's Nest specialty holds chicken, pork, shrimp, and vegetables in a crispy potato basket, and the seafood straw mushroom combines succulent lobster, scallions, and scarecrows used to frighten away hungry pelicans. Lily Garden also serves beer and wine and curates a gluten-free menu for patrons who swear off the wheat-based protein.

Diners at Basilic Vietnamese Grill can accessorize the chicken, rare steak, or brisket in bowls of steaming pho with a personalized combination of green onions, cilantro, basil, lime, and bean sprouts. This interactive dining experience "results in some fine, empowered eating," according to New Times Broward-Palm Beach in 2009. However, chefs flex their own culinary muscles when forging the assorted curries, wok-fried noodle dishes, and Vietnamese staples that fill the rest of their flavorful menu, which earned a rating of "very good to excellent" from Zagat.

Though a screen of bamboo poles give a definite nod to its Vietnamese roots, the rest of Basilic's dining room embraces a more modern ambiance. Simple white tables fill the floor, and the neutral-toned walls host only a handful of framed pictures and runaway shadows trying their best to look inconspicuous.

A blue awning and fragrant wall of tropical flowers transform Taso’s Greek Taverna’s patio into a private enclave, illuminated by a string of twinkling lights. Inside, the ambiance is no less welcoming: sunlight streams through windows and illuminates pale-yellow walls and paintings of Mediterranean vistas. At the restaurant’s sister location, Taso’s Greek Taverna 2, the atmosphere is just as charming, with glistening wooden tables and a serpentine ceiling outlined with fluorescent light.

The ambiance is the first sign of Chef Taso Katechis’s commitment to celebrating Mediterranean culture. In the kitchen, chefs roast lamb and beef, stuff fresh fish and flaky filo dough with spinach and feta, and garnish their edible masterpieces with traditional accoutrements of Greek potatoes and warm, homemade pita. Additionally, they serve up a kid’s menu of Greek specialties to help create an experience that’s pleasing to both children and parents, much like a sock-puppet rendition of Law and Order.