Restaurants in Richmond

Virginia Barbeque first opened shop in a 100-year-old home in Ashland. The building's long history helped convey the sense of community roots that founder Rick Ivey wanted to express in his eatery's friendly, wood-smoked meats, and fresh-made sides. Now with locations across the state and a slew of accolades from the local media, Virginia Barbeque's mission to build a devoted following and pave a state highway with barbecue sauce is well under way. The restaurant's signature meats begin with a dry rub in a house spice blend before they take a 12-hour stint in a rotisserie smoker filled with hickory wood. Then, cooks hand-pull the meat and slather on house-made Virginia-style red sauce or North Carolina-style vinegar sauce.

In the true style of a pizzeria, Zeytin Pizza & Pasta's tables covers its tables with red-and white-checkered tablecloths. And in the spirit of modern design, the eatery’s tables stand out as tall booths, each of which is lit by a stainless-steel fixture that dangles from a high ceiling. From within this airy atmosphere, diners can feast on familiar favorites such as eggplant parmesan and calzones, or the Zeytin special, a pie topped with sautéed spinach, ricotta, virgin olive oil, fresh garlic, and mozzarella. The chefs also output house specialties such as ravioli, stuffed shells, and baked lasagna made using the secret ingredients of love and, probably, flour.

The owner and chef of the recently renovated Royal India Express was born in Punjab—an Indian region famed for its tandoori cuisine. Now under new management, the restaurant re-creates the tastes of that region, with a particular specialization in biryani. The chef roasts marinated shrimp in a clay tandoor oven, stuffs naan with garlic, and simmers tender goat meat in creamy curry sauce. Diners can also order from the Indo-China portion of the menu, which includes entrees such as chili-spiced paneer cheese with onions and peppers. An on-site sweets shop allows customers to taste traditional Indian desserts such as doughy gulab jamun or kheer.

Under the trained eyes of the chefs at BanZara Restaurant, tender pieces of lamb absorb the piquant spices in lamb khorma’s coconut gravy, while marinated chicken chunks cook over a charcoal griddle before being dunked into delicious sauce for a tikka dish. The culinary team also pulls from Indo-Chinese recipes, combining eggs with flavored chicken and cooking deep-fried dumplings with traditional Indo-Chinese spices. In addition to dinners, the chefs also craft a lunch buffet of new dishes every day of the week, which diners can sample while ensconced in the eatery’s leather booths or, if they ask very nicely, straight from the chef’s ladle.

Riverbound Café's friendly owner, Michael Cohan, dishes up made-from-scratch diner eats for breakfast, lunch, and dinner amidst his restaurant's casual maritime décor. From their post on the wall, paintings of beach life look longingly down upon crab cakes and other seafood shipped in fresh daily, and model sailboats and lighthouses surround eggs, burgers, and hand-cut steaks cooked to order. Boardwalk fries accompany all sandwiches, wraps, and melts, and homemade desserts entice sweet teeth with their siren song. Catering and box-lunch options feed off-site diners at gatherings of all occasions, including business luncheons, birthday parties, and meetings of the Box-Lunch Appreciation Club.

An iconic pig sits atop the roof of Carter's Pig Pen Bar-B-Que, where the scent of smoking chicken and simmering pork wafts through the air. Inside, chefs dress up hand-pulled meats and dreary cubist masterpieces either with a spicy, vinegar-based north carolina sauce or a thick, Virginia-style tomato sauce. Meaty cuts grace tables alongside classic Southern sides such as red-skin-potato salad and fresh-baked corn-bread muffins.