Restaurants in Williamsburg

Melding the refreshing iciness of the polar ice caps with the sweet bounty of the fruit market, each cup of berrybody frozen yogurt takes taste buds on a globe-trekking journey of refreshment. Made only with natural ingredients and full of healthy nutrients and probiotics, berrybody yogurt is nonfat, contains less than 20 calories per ounce, and is much tastier than gnawing on a crabgrass salad or frozen crab-icicle. Visitors can savor original tart or green tea frozen-yogurt flavors available in small ($3.75), medium ($4.75), or large ($5.95) sizes. Crown your treat with three of 30 available toppings, such as watermelon, coconut, blueberries, and Oreos. New yogurt flavors are available every week for “Flavor Friday,” and patrons can also treat themselves to additional menu items such as the sippable blender ($6.95) or spoonable blast ($5.95).

Just as Thomas Edison stumbled through useless prototypes of light bulbs and movie cameras before perfecting the phonograph, the alchemists at Qdoba Mexican Grill took 47 attempts before landing on the franchise's signature blend of three cheeses, known simply as queso. That attention to detail still pervades every aspect of the menu, as employees spend hours each day chopping, dicing, and simmering the fresh ingredients that find their way into burritos, taco salads, and grilled quesadillas. Beyond the marinated bites of chicken, beef, and pork and hand-crafted tortillas, cooks protect their ripe, fragile avocados from harm by smashing them into batches of fluffy guacamole.

Frequent diners at Qdoba come for the eatery’s signature flavors, but they may not know how far the staff travels to obtain them. Qdoba’s staff visits various parts of Mexico on a regular basis in search of flavor combinations that later enhance the shop’s burritos, quesadillas, and taco salads. Among these blends are ancho-chili barbecue, gumbo accented with cilantro rice, and the three-cheese queso, a creation that took 47 tries to perfect. Along with sought-after flavors, Qdoba’s staff members pride themselves on their painstaking preparation of fresh ingredients, from fire-roasted tomatoes to mouth-watering poblano peppers.

The beats of lean cuts of meat sizzling on the grill and ladles clanking against trays of zesty vegetables fill Qdoba Mexican Grill during construction of made-to-order Mexican fare. As healthy-eating devotees, Qdoba's staff stocks its kitchen with nutritious ingredients, seasonal flavors, and 100% cotton candy–free tortillas.

In an effort to find a healthy alternative to fast food without sacrificing speediness, the creators of Pita Pit began assembling their signature sandwiches for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late-night snacks. At each location, thin, Lebanese-style pitas encircle lean, grilled meats and fresh veggies. Sandwich selections span the spectrum from gyro meat and falafel to turkey and prime rib. The staff empowers customers to make healthy choices by displaying nutrition information for each bread, meat, and post-meal toothpick and corralling a selection of healthy sandwiches, which dining companions can wash down with fruit smoothies.

Every pitted pita at Pita Pit comes with your choice of flavorful vegetables and toppings, and you can even build your own—although you'd best leave the actual construction to Pita Pit's pita pit crew, who can skin, field-dress, chop, and fold your pita in under 15 seconds. Exercise your mastication muscles on any of the Lebanese-style pita-ria's meatiest contenders: the Dagwood, with turkey, ham, and roast beef ($6.65 for regular, $5.40 for small); the chicken souvlaki with lemon-garlic chicken ($6.15 for regular, $4.90 for small); or the Philly with grilled onions and mushrooms ($6.50 for regular, $5.25 for small). Vigorously vegetarian options abound as well, including the hummus with feta cheese ($5.50 for regular, $4.25 for small) and the Garden, which packs a farm's worth of tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, and anything else that grows roots and is not human hair into its warm, bready folds ($4.95 for regular, $3.70 for small). There's even a breakfast menu (the Morning Glory contains scrambled eggs, avocado, grilled peppers and onions, and sauteed tomatoes, $5.50) and a healthy menu, which somehow finds a way to cut even more calories and fat from the already healthy regular menu, particularly if you ordered a build-your-own triple-cheese and bacon pita deep-fried in chocolate.