Restaurants in Woburn

ZaZa's chef and culinary virtuoso Manrique Alvarenga's menu features a variety of regional Italian, American, and seafood cuisine. Patrons can sample specialties such as seafood risotto with lobster, clams, mussels, shrimp, bell peppers, and peas ($27) or herb-rubbed rack of lamb with au jus, butternut squash, and asparagus ($26). Follow an opener of ZaZa wings ($8) with the flavor fireworks of gemelli and sweet Italian sausage ($16) in a garlic-oil pecornio romano cheese sauce with leeks, black olives, and sun-dried tomatoes.

When owner Alessandra Siniscalco opened Café Piazza Dolce, becoming the chef of a celebrated Italian trattoria was the last thing on her mind. While the restaurant originally sold only espresso, gelato, and fresh baked goods, Café Piazza Dolce's popularity soon transformed it into a cozy eatery serving authentic Italian pastas, pizzas, and grilled dishes. The menu, comprised of both a weekend brunch and daily dinner selections, brings together entrees from every region of Italy. Caprese salads often start dinners, followed by house-made pastas for main courses. Hand-tossed pizzas rise in wood-fired ovens, topping with ingredients such as egg, prosciutto, or bacon pesto, and the kitchen's grill chars a wide range of proteins from steak to salmon. On the weekends, the chefs have a sleepover at the restaurant so they can be up early preparing pancakes, poutine, and gourmet egg sandwiches for brunch.

“Basta, basta!” The words may as well be a mantra at Midwest Grill. The term, meaning “enough” in Portuguese, is the perfect finish to the churrascaria’s all-you-can-eat cavalcade of grilled meats and hearty seafood dishes. Passadores—the Brazilian word for waiters—rotate around tables, slicing fresh-grilled skewers of beef sirloin, Brazilian-style ribs, and succulent lamb and pork loin on to plates at the feaster’s demand. This dining style is known as rodízio, and it doesn't just apply to churrasco meats; patrons can also opt for seafood options, such as Brazilian fish stew and sautéed shrimp, or engage a server in a duel with a carving fork. The all-you-can-eat meal is served at a fixed price at both lunch and dinner, and includes unlimited helpings from the salad bar and hot-food buffet. Each of Midwest Grill's locations also houses a TV-lined bar, where mixologists concoct cocktails and pop open bottles of Brazilian beer and wine.

For more than 30 years, Countryside Deli, Pizzeria & Caterers has mastered a vast menu of comfort dishes from America and Italy. Diners stroll up to the counter in Countryside's simple dining room to order hot or cold sandwiches, cheesy pizzas, or plates of gnocchi with eggplant and mushrooms. Its catering selection is equally diverse, featuring trays full of tortellini alfredo, chicken marsala, and eggplant rollatini, as well as sandwich platters and giant subs perfect for serving a bunch of fans watching a football game or one football player after a football game.

Friends Tom Jr., Tom III, and Tony wanted to open a place where patrons would instantly feel at ease, whether they wanted a filling meal or just to grab a beer and watch a game. So they decided to model their restaurant after one of Malden's most comforting symbols—its collection of red-brick firehouses. Today, District 7's red-and-black interior envelops guests in a firehouse theme right in Malden Square, where they savor plates of wings or marinated steak tips and sip a selection of conventional and specialty beers poured straight from bar taps—including a Guinness handle atop a miniature fire hydrant. As sports games roll on flat-panel televisions, guests share stories from high-backed booths or toast to the legacy of Smokey the Bear beside a cozy stone fireplace.

Spices from West Africa and steaks from Portugal unite at Bossa Nova Steakhouse, where chefs celebrate Brazilian cuisine’s variegated influences with colorful buffets and 15 kinds of meat. Diners can signal roving waiters to sidle up to tables and slice off choice cuts from swords bearing top sirloin, pork sausage, or chicken wrapped in bacon. Occasional live music lends a festive air to the dining room, whose colorful posters evoke the grandeur of the soaring mountains and cerulean harbors of Brazil. In another corner, diners savor their meaty feasts beneath a colorful wall of old bossa nova records which, with an ear placed against them, curiously sound like late-century hip-hop.