Connecticut is home to several excellent restaurants, drawing visitors from surrounding states including upstate New York and New England. Many of Connecticut's top restaurants specialize in traditional regional cuisine, which includes lobster specialties and locally-purchased seafood. Of course, locals know their restaurants best, and the annual Readers' Choice Awards provides helpful insight into the top restaurants the state has to offer.
Located on a 27-acre farm in Eastford, Connecticut, the Still River Café was named top restaurant in the category of "Overall Excellence" by Connecticut Magazine in its Readers' Choice Awards for 2010. The restaurant is housed in a 150-year-old barn on the North Ashford Farm, offering a country setting for its casual, distinctive American cuisine.
Still River Café's menu offers traditional New England fare with flavorful accents, including Nantucket Scallop and Maine Shrimp Ceviche with edamame puree and dried cranberries for appetizers, and smoked Maine Lobster, cranberry-stuffed Manchester Farms Quail and Amish Organic Free Range Chicken with parsnip curls and chicken sate as entrée options. The restaurant's dessert menu features more locally inspired favorites, including North Ashford Farm Poached Pears, "Evening Tea" with Crème Brulee and "Coffee and Doughnuts," with flourless chocolate cake and molten ganache as proxies for the proverbial "doughnuts."
Still River Cafe
134 Union Road
Eastford, CT 06242-9722
860-974-9988
stillrivercafe.com
Good News Café in Woodbury, Connecticut, also received top marks from Connecticut Magazine's Readers' Choice Awards for 2010. The farmhouse-style, cheery diner was named best American restaurant and best in "Overall Excellence" in Litchfield County.
Good News Café boasts fresh, locally farmed ingredients with a focus on springtime cooking and flavors. The restaurant's starter menu includes seafood specials such as Lobster Soup and Lobster Chunks, Crab Tacos and pecan-crusted oysters, as well as several salad varieties. The dinner menu offers Moroccan Chicken with couscous, vegetables and apricots, a singular Tuna Melt on English Muffins with roasted tomatoes and bacon, and BBQ Berkshire Pork with coleslaw and yucca fries.
Good News Cafe
694 Main Street South
Woodbury, CT 06798
203-266-4663
good-news-cafe.com
Carmen Anthony Steakhouse in Waterbury, Connecticut, won best prime rib restaurant and runner-up best steakhouse by Connecticut Magazine readers in the Readers' Choice Awards for 2010. The Waterbury location is the original for the restaurant chain, which now includes several locations across the state. The atmosphere is sophisticated and elegant, typical for an upmarket steakhouse.
The restaurant prides itself on offering "thick Angus steaks" and "Maine lobsters up to five pounds." The menu also includes Potato Encrusted Crab Cakes, Blue Point Oysters and Yellowfin Tuna as appetizers, and a variety of fish selections as entrée options, including swordfish, tropical mahi mahi and Chilean sea bass. The restaurant's steak specialties include certified Angus porterhouse and Carmen Anthony "Signature" Sliced New York Steak. House specialties include roast rack of lamb, Carla's Lobster and Alaskan king crab legs.
Carmen Anthony Steakhouse
757 Main Street South
Woodbury, CT 06798-3702
203-757-3040
carmenanthonyrestaurant.com
