Restaurants in Waterbury

Owners Aura Showah and Douglas Waterbury attribute the success of Widow Brown's Cafe, which has been in business for more than 35 years, to culinary consistency, a family-friendly ambiance, and an eclectic menu that has earned the eatery a feature in the News-Times. While two-handing a burger or steaming sandwich, patrons can peruse the chalkboard around the fully stocked bar for a list of weekly events, such as trivia, karaoke, and raucous tax-preparation luaus. Wooden wall panels glow in the light of wall-mounted TVs as forks venture south for American comfort fare or globetrot with Asian-, Irish-, and Italian-inspired dishes. As frozen drinks or draft beers chill boothside, diners can bust billiards at one of the café's pool tables or surf the café's free WiFi for instructional videos on how to correctly execute robot dance moves.

Like high-school students at a science demonstration, patrons at Koo gather around a table, oohing and ahhing as flames dance high in the air. But instead of test tubes and beakers, the person behind the table wields knives and spatulas, slicing and flipping meats and veggies over a hibachi grill. Once each morsel has sizzled to a crisp golden brown, chefs divvy them up onto plates, and the guests devour the food that was just cooked right before their eyes.

Hibachi meals—which include filet mignon, scallop, and lobster-tail options—are not the only Japanese fare served within Koo's bold red and gray walls. Regular tables host plates of wok-fried noodles, teriyaki shrimp, sesame-crusted ahi tuna, and sushi rolls. Chefs also whip up smaller, tapas-style plates, so groups can bond by sharing steamed shrimp dumplings or stacking thai spring rolls into a rickety Jenga tower.