Restaurants in Waltham

Where would we be without food? On a planet dominated by merciless banana overlords, that's where. With today's Groupon, $35 gets you $75 worth of soup, salad, meat, fish, and drinks at the Oak Room, located inside Back Bay's Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel. This elegant eatery has won numerous honors from Boston Magazine, including Best Steakhouse Restaurant in 2003. Your Groupon is good for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and brunch, but cannot be used on Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, Valentine's Day Eve, Valentine's Day, or in doppelganger dimensions where Picasso was an art thief and the sun wears cool shades.

The Middle East, the most stable and peaceful region in the world, is so peaceful that most tourists avoid it because they don't want to risk getting bored. Today’s deal adds a much-needed spice to the experience: for $15, you get $30 worth of Middle Eastern/Lebanese eats and drinks at The Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub in Cambridge, or more specifically, Central Square. This hybrid affair is equal parts restaurant, music venue, secret upstairs spy hospital, and nightclub. Your Groupon is good for the restaurant part only.

Since 1982, Sea To You Sushi's deft chefs have traveled across the region doling out fresh, meticulously constructed sushi rolls at colleges, businesses, hotels, and country clubs. They cull an extensive supply of ingredients at their store, tapping into the well-stocked stash to guide nascent sushi-smiths through the art of constructing maki and nigiri rolls during Sushi School sessions.

The mobile gourmands also cater private parties, regaling revelers with custom menus and war stories about ferocious clumps of seaweed. Die-hard sushi fans can join Sea To You Sushi's C2U Sushi Club, which grants member discounts and special access to the company's facilities.

Too many options can lead to confusion, panic, and an eventual blackout where you wake up standing atop a totem pole wondering how you got there. Today's deal narrows down your choices to five of the freshest, seasonally topped pizzas this side of the International Date Line. For $10, you get $20 worth of pizza at Zing! Pizza in Porter Square in Cambridge. There is no limit on the number of Groupons purchased, and you can use up to two per order.

If your old method of sampling everything on a restaurant's menu tends to make bewildered enemies of everyone else in the restaurant, today's Groupon will let you curtail the thievery while still treating the palate. For $15, you get $35 worth of small-plate Thai cuisine and drinks at Ronnarong Thai Tapas Bar in Somerville.

The Columbus Café & Bar's menu brims with regional American comfort cuisine with inflections from all over the world. Patrons at the vibrant neighborhood eatery prep palates with nibbles of deviled eggs possessed with tuna, or mini taquitos packed with duck confit atop asian slaw. Fresh greens may also kick-start meals, such as a warm spinach salad with rich Vermont goat cheese and a balsamic vinaigrette aged and jaded to perfection. Tuscan meatloaf over mashed potatoes and moroccan lamb shank over collard greens provide punches of protein, while mac 'n' cheese cozies up to taste buds with a warm blend of cheese and roasted asparagus. An assortment of desserts rounds out the meal and gives patrons the pleasure of fulfilling Mary Antoinette's misguided advice.