Gourmet Guide to Hartford, CT: Best Restaurants

The City Steam Brewery and Café is Hartford’s very own brewery-cum-bistro and boasts a beautiful restaurant space combining the old and the new with a rustic, wood-panelled and exposed brick interior. Established in 1997, the brewery is dedicated to creating high quality brews and lovers of beer will enjoy sampling varieties like its smooth, easy drinking dark lager Uncle Dunkel or the chocolaty Black Silk Stout. City Steam’s menu focuses on classic American fare with dishes like its best-selling entrée beer braised pot roast amongst a number of burgers, sandwiches and all-day omelettes, while guests can also enjoy the brewery’s many live music events and comedy nights.

A quintessential Hartford dining experience, Max Downtown is located in the heart of the city’s business district and as such attracts a large number of professionals who are attracted by the restaurant’s spacious, vibrant and arty interior, award-winning wine list and menu that mixes international flavours with traditional, regional dishes. Max Downtown’s stylish space is dominated by a beautiful mural-like artwork, a piano and its huge, wooden bar – the perfect place in which to enjoy dishes like cast-iron seared Berkshire pork chop with herb-roasted fingerling potatoes, Brussels sprouts, bacon salad and grilled ramps, or the lobster crusted filet mignon with bacon wrapped asparagus and a lobster hollandaise sauce.

Definitely a must-try for lovers of seafood, Max’s Oyster Bar as established in 1999 by restaurateur duo Richard Rosenthal and Bob Cooke and in that same year went on to win the Best New Restaurant title in Connecticut Magazine’s Readers’ Choice Awards. Executive chef Scott Miller cooks up creative and contemporary interpretations of classic American seafood with dishes on offer that include the New England quahog clam chowder with house-smoked bacon and the yellow fin tuna with a fennel crust, zucchini parpardelle, yoghurt and mint. The restaurant’s interior was designed by award-winning designer Peter Niemetz and features a spacious dining hall, high ceilings and a contemporary yet rustic ambience.

Nestled on the edge of a pond in beautiful Elizabeth Park, The Pond House Café is a trendy, cosy eatery serving up eclectic and imaginative dishes based on locally sourced, organic ingredients – some of which are grown on-site in the café’s own herb and vegetable garden. Guests can choose to dine in the café’s stylish interior full of exposed brick, banquette seating and colourful artwork, outside next to the fire pit on its patio or stop by the café’s take-out window for a quick bite while strolling the park. Must-try lunch items include the turkey sandwich with smoked cheddar, arugula and artichoke aioli on cranberry-walnut bread, while dinner entrees include grilled salmon with walnut gremolata, sweet beets and grilled asparagus.

Vivo is a seasonal trattoria specialising in dishes inspired by the cuisines of Northern Italy and Northern California, located in a ground-floor space within the Hartford Marriot Downtown Hotel. The restaurant’s motto is ‘fresh ingredients, prepared simply’ and its focus on market-fresh and seasonal produce handcrafted into contemporary Mediterranean and California recipes certainly delivers. Vivo’s vibrant and inviting interior makes it perfect for a romantic dinner, business meeting or fun evening with friends, and guests can choose from executive chef William Reardon’s tempting dishes like the fried calamari appetiser with arugula, cherry peppers and lemon butter, or the coffee spiced hangar steak with caramelised onions, truffle fingerlings, ancho mole and crème fraiche.