Restaurants in Wyomissing

Good Eatz Green Café stocks its kitchen with local, sustainable, and organic ingredients to fill its menu with gluten-, dairy-, or animal product-free meals. Wholesome recipes include maple buckwheat pancakes and Mexican-style frittatas, as well as ahi tuna sashimi, gluten-free cheese ravioli, seitan meatloaf, and Black Angus cheeseburgers.

In addition to its devotion to sustainable ingredients, Good Eatz boasts other green qualifications such as membership in Oxfam and Green America, formerly Co-op America, a box and paper reuse program, and Energy Star appliances, which can be plugged directly into the sun.

The ingredients used in Chinese, Japanese, and Thai cuisine are vastly different, as are the methods of preparation. At Zhuang's Garden, they come together in surprising ways. Eight crackling hibachi-grill tables and a sushi bar represent Japan, and Chinese décor and the aromas of lo mein hint at the traditions of that nation. Glasses of wine clink together above plates of Thai food at the BYOB eatery, where the dishes include curry that is the brilliant yellow of turmeric or a banana salesman’s business card.

The chefs at Ciabatta stay up through the night, hand shaping and scoring dozens of loaves of airy bread until each perfectly resembles its namesake, which means slipper in Italian. Inside the flaky crust, the restaurant's sandwich smiths bury caches of oven-roasted turkey or parmesan pesto ham. They also toss the flavors of their Italian heritage into fresh salads and personal-sized pizzas. To complement their Italian eats, the staff at Ciabatta invites their guests to bring along their favorite wine, beer, or fizzy lifting drink at no corkage fee.

In 1989, Dan Gallagher and Dan Smith joined their respective names and began pursuing one common goal: to bring a contemporary alternative to Berks County's dining scene. The 40-seat eatery was successful in the Dans' hands until 2005, when Bill Woolworth and MD. Monir stopped in for dinner, fell in love with the place, and decided to buy it.

Though much of the space's original charm remains intact, the new owners gussied up the decor with white tablecloths and floral arrangements, and they solicited the help of executive chef Jason Hook to lighten the rotating menu. Jason draws on his experience studying in France and working at The Four Seasons in New York to craft healthful, contemporary French- and Californian-inspired dishes. In every preparation, he highlights the ingredients' natural tastes, often pairing local cuts of meat and poultry with fresh, seasonal ingredients and luxurious flourishes such as truffles or Lamborghini-scented foam.

Hook, Woolworth, and Monir also frequently evaluate their wine selections to ensure that they pair well with the evolving menu, which changes every week. While sipping glasses of red or white, diners can question servers about the building's rich history in the Penn's Common Historic District. Before the restaurant settled into the space, it was inhabited by an old-style soda dive, a prison doctor's home, and a grassland populated with roaming dinosaurs.

At the bottom of Aashiyana Fine Indian Cuisine's chimney sits a construction that has been the tool of Indian chefs for centuries: the tandoor. This traditional clay oven sears meat to its core with super-hot flames, turning chicken a signature bright-red color and transforming wayward snowmen into quivering pools of regret. Chefs drench these succulent morsels of tandoori meat with creamy curries and yogurt-based sauces, which they can customize to each guest’s preferred level of spiciness. Fluffy piles of wild-grain rice or buttery naan flatbread are available to escort entrees to the table, and the restaurant’s BYOB policy invites guests to bring their favorite brew or wine to temper the tingle of spice.

A short flight of stairs splits the dining room neatly in half, amplifying privacy by creating two intimate spaces. Maroon napkins folded into crown-like shapes await diners at each table, ready to flop into laps or adorn heads when the staff spontaneously knights you the Tandoori King.

Award-winning Caesar salad, wings and chili grace the menu at The American House Hotel, whose chef weaves French, Italian and American influences into an eclectic culinary tapestry. The eatery’s signature appetizer, roasted, horseradish-stuffed shrimp wrapped in bacon, entices diners alongside hearty Black Angus chili. Diverse entrees include the charred 14-ounce T-Bone, pecan-encrusted mahi mahi, and a 12-ounce rib eye steak with jumbo lump crabmeat. Wines by the bottle or glass round out the dinner options. Saturday night diners can return with another rotation of the clock for breakfast served on the first Sunday of every month, which showcases morning classics such as stuffed french toast and eggs benedict. Diners feast in a Victorian-era dining room, whose tin ceilings anchor chandeliers that evoke a time when everyone wore wooden clogs.