Restaurants in Old Saybrook

Located inside the CT Post Mall, Sakura Garden seats over 400 people, plus space for another 80 in their private party room, and uses warm lighting and exposed-brick walls to surround a decorative indoor tree that plays host to cherry blossoms and the occasional Cheshire cat. Experienced chefs decorate dishes with colorful pieces of sushi and hot hibachi entrees, and the sleekly sneezeguarded buffet arranges a long line of dishes brimming with a rotating selection of nearly 100 different sushi and traditional entrees. At the full-service liquor bar, which is highlighted by blue and purple lighting, customers can occupy their hands with martinis, sake, and beer while keeping an eye on the flat-screen TVs in case a public-service announcement comes on while enjoying happy hours every Monday through Friday.

Since 1974, Viva Zapata’s interior has cloaked diners in rustic comfort, complete with brick walls and wooden beams from a 200-year-old barn. A suit of armor stands guard at the eatery’s entrance, scaring away door-to-door jousters but allowing all others to enter the softly lit dining area bedecked with Mexican tapestries and antiques. Candlelight flickers across wooden tables that support homemade enchiladas, burritos, and marinated steak flanked by grilled peppers and onions. Baskets of complimentary peanuts beckon guests to throw spent shells on the ground as they did in the days before legumes grew naturally in prepackaged canisters, and barrel lamps at the bar illuminate a selection of domestic and imported beers and freshly concocted margaritas.

Walls the colors of dijon mustard and acorn squash lend warmth to an environment founded on dark hardwood floors and awash with white linens. The aromas of Mediterranean and Spanish cuisines waft throughout the handsomely dressed, yet unfussy, restaurant, inviting visitors to discover how Bistro Mediterranean and Tapas Bar earned a "Don't Miss" rating by The New York Times.

In the 4,500-square-foot dining space, which seats 150, tables populate with tapas of chorizo, pork, and cod, plus surprising accents of piquillo peppers and quail egg. Entrees include seafood stews and Spanish paella, as well as grilled cuts of meat doused in wine. A breezy patio accommodates outdoor dining in warmer months, and a 45-seat bar enables guests to sip on glasses of wine while they wait for a table or wait for a strange-looking blind date to give up and go home.

Owner and Sao Paulo native Felipe Franco embraces the culinary traditions of his home country, telling the New Haven Independent in 2012 that "my interest is to show Americans Brazilian food and culture." His menu brims with the country's signature cuisine, including Brazil's peppery national stew of black beans and meat, as well as moqueca—a seafood stew of fish, shrimp, mussels, calamari, or kraken-gone-astray that simmers inside a handmade clay pot. To accompany these entrees, the bartenders deftly mix potent yet refreshing caipirinhas using cachaça, or sugar-cane rum, Brazil's favored spirit.