Restaurants in Worcester

Within Hana Japanese Steak House and Sushi Bar, groups can watch hibachi chefs add dollops of teriyaki sauce to chicken and veggies on the grill in front of them. As flames rise over the tableside grill, the air fills with meaty aromas and applause from diners watching chefs’ virtuoso performances. Dishes include crispy duck with chili sauce, traditional udon noodles, and 11 house-specialty rolls filled with eel, lobster, and other ingredients sourced from the ocean's teriyaki-filled depths.

Determined to introduce the public’s collective palate to creative Asian-inspired food, the cooks at Noodles prepare their namesake dish following both traditional Thai recipes and their own unique formulas. They craft a multitude of soups ranging from the classic udon noodle soup to the unconventional nava noodle soup, which combines seafood, minced chicken, fish balls, fish cake, and crushed peanuts in a spicy lime broth.

Customers shouldn’t let the name fool them, though—the culinary team has more than noodles and broths in their wheelhouse. They also prepare six meat-based rice bowls and 10 salads that combine ingredients such as steamed shrimp, mint, crushed peanut, and carrots. The chefs also have their own specialties, including shrimp and tofu curry and Duck in Red—roasted duck simmered in panang-curry sauce and topped with string beans, bell peppers, and herbs. This is not to be confused with Duck in White—a female duck on her wedding day.

Owner Randy Price curates a creative menu of New Haven–style "apizza" in more than 30 styles. His team crafts fresh dough daily using unbleached flour, creates sauce from handpicked Italian and Chilean tomatoes, and sprinkles pies with cheese from home-schooled cows. The famous Challenger—a 22-inch pizza stuffed with a mélange of vegetables and meats that weigh in at nearly 10 pounds—presents the hungriest visitors with a challenge to conquer the hot wheel in an hour or less, a feat that has earned a place on the Travel Channel's Man Vs. Food roster of surmounted food battles.