Restaurants in Watertown

At Al Wadi Restaurant, executive chef Walid Massad and his cooks transport palates to Beirut with flame-grilled kebabs and stews seasoned with Lebanese spices. Seated at linen-clad tables, diners clasp skewers of marinated beef tenderloin grilled over an open flame, and sink teeth into baked haddock with roasted pine nuts, served over spiced rice. The dining room shrouds every meal in elegance, with tiny chandeliers illuminating the inlets carved into the walls. Twinkling lights illuminate the bar, changing colors so servers know when they’re allowed to walk without disrupting foot traffic.

Penguin Pizza’s dough-melding staff prepares each of its 22 specialty thin-crust pizzas by hand. The same treatment is applied to custom pies, which can be topped with the menu’s “usual” ingredients, such as onions, pepperoni, and mushrooms, or its “unusual” fixings, such as smoked salmon, pulled pork, or duck confit. The casual eatery complements its pizzas with a line-up of draft beers and orders of homemade chili, spaghetti and meatballs, beer-battered pickles, and spicy wings that allow diners to taste the heat without trying to get a tan on their tongues. Though not included with this Groupon, Penguin Pizza features 335 beers.

As you sit down on one of the The Red Hat's green vinyl barstools and lift a mug of lager to your lips, you might be replicating the movements of a patron from more than 100 years ago. Except that he or she would have snuck a nervous glance at the back door between every sip. The historic establishment survived the Prohibition era in Scollay Square—an area known for its bawdy vaudeville theater and risqué entertainment—by functioning as a reputable restaurant by day and a speakeasy by night.

Though the taps now flow freely in the daylight, some things at The Red Hat haven't changed. The menu still provides sailors, dockworkers, and local shoppers with hearty, comforting dishes of wings, fried fish, and other pub snacks. As Mike Dunphy of Beacon Hill Patch put it, "The Red Hat is a rare reminder of Boston's yesteryear, bringing an earthy spice to the more refined palate of Beacon Hill—an unpretentious watering hole to gain some courage for the climb." The exposed brick, wood-paneled walls, and old-timey memorabilia also give the space a turn-of-the-century feel. So do the nostalgic street-scene murals depicting the days when Saturns were Studebakers and people walked their Electrolux vacuums instead of pet dogs.

Brightly colored walls, a permanent display of paintings by Dominican artists, and flavorful tropical dishes helped net Merengue a nod for Best Caribbean Restaurant in Boston Magazine's Best of Boston 2008. The kitchen yields a spread of meat and seafood items that range from fried pork skins and steak tips cooked in creole sauce to shrimp gumbo and a grilled red snapper in garlic-and-parsley sauce. Merengue’s two dining rooms seat 90 people, and a private room with WiFi and a PowerPoint screen projector provide ample meeting-room space. Catering menus for weddings and banquets offer a variety of serving styles, including formal seated dinners, self-serve buffets, and spoon feedings performed with accompanying airplane sounds.

Those seeking Grappa Restaurant might be surprised by where they find it—nestled inside a small building that used to be a house, in the middle of an industrial-warehouse street, between two commercial districts. But behind the front door lies a different atmosphere—only 11 tables sit inside the 700-square-foot space, surrounded by walls striped in pale yellow and blue and decorated with Botticelli paintings. At the center of the room, venetian Fortuny lamps cast light from behind white and yellow silk emblazoned with gold designs. The petite restaurant reverberates with classic pop tunes by singers such as Frankie Valli, often accompanied by crooning from the restaurant's three servers—Will, Carol, and Natalie—who also urge the regular clientele to join them.

Grappa Restaurant's chefs base their menu of traditional Italian food on dishes from the owner's childhood, when her grandmother and mother would fill the kitchen with aromas of seared veal, chicken, and marsala-wine sauce. The chefs conjure these familial scents and flavors as they stuff veal or chicken saltimbocca with ham and mozzarella; toss fettuccine bolognese with chicken sausage, meat sauce, and basil-almond pesto; and drape spinach-and-ricotta ravioli in housemade tomato sauce. Servers often end meals much like sophisticated elementary-school students end food fights: with traditional Italian desserts such as housemade ricotta cannolis.

Guadalajara, nestled in the state of Jalisco, was the birthplace of many of the flavors used in Mexican food. Those influences shine through in the recipes at Taqueria Mexico, where the chefs draw on family recipes brought by over from the inventive city. The dishes have helped earn the eatery very good to excellent ratings on Zagat.

As at any good taqueria, the gorditas, tacos, tortas, and burritos can be stuffed with a wide range of meats and veggies. Carnitas, pork traditionally slow cooked with green chilies, is nearly as tender as steamed beef al vapor. Lengua, or beef tongue, is also a time-tested taqueria meat. And like the dependents section of a scarecrow’s taxes, the eatery’s quesadillas brim with squash.