Ladies and Gentlemen, this year's Connecticut Magazine's "Best Restaurants" issue is on bookshelves. No real surprises this year, I think. Overall excellence winner went to Napa & Co. in Stamford, reflecting the new foodie trend towards local, organic foods, and Runner-up was Union League Cafe in New Haven, an old classic. The Waterbury area was a little less represented than I would like it to be, but isn't that always the case? Our notable winners included:
Statewide Best New Restaurant Winner: La Tavola in Waterbury (Congrats!!!)
Statewide Winner Best Steak Restaurant: Carmen Anthony Steakhouse in Waterbury(no surprise here)
The New Haven County Dining Guide section did feature a few of our other favorites, including New Haven restaurants like Bentara, Bespoke, Caseus, L'Orcio, Miya's Sushi (this year's Valentine's dinner), Pacifico (last year's Valentine's dinner), and Thali. The only other Waterbury restaurant noted was Diorio's (our very first Valentine's dinner, cute, I know). So we are a little disappointed. While we agree that the Waterbury food scene could be better, we think there are restaurants that deserved to make the cut much more than Señor Pancho's of Cheshire, which won some award.
So here is the Renee and Scott list of "Waterbury Restaurants that we think Connecticut Magazine should pay more attention to next year":
Drescher's Restaurant (German)
Peruvian Corner Restaurant (Peruvian)
Kumo Japanese Cuisine (Japanese/French)
Lisboa Restaurant (Portuguese)
Frankie's/Big Franks (Hot dogs and BBQ)
Vasi's (Greek/Italian)
Avventura's (Italian Deli and the first place I take my non-Waterbury friends when they visit)
Nardelli's (Grinders)
Anatolia's (Turkish)
Sweet Maria's (Bakery, I know it's not a restaurant, but sometimes dessert can be dinner)
By the way, we just wanted to mention that recently Waterbury has begun to show yet another side of its cultural diversity with the opening of Fattoush Restaurant and Market (an Arabic/Lebanese Restaurant and Market) and Quick Falafel. Scott and I can't wait to get out and try both, and you should too!
