14850 Dining

This small eatery specializes in Korean and Japanese cuisines, including sushi, salads, bento boxes, and bibim bap. They excel in both hot and cold weather, with a cold sashimi variation of bibim bap, which is normally served hot. For winter, try the bibim bap served in a hot stoneware bowl. The food is good, but service can get slow when they're busy.

Offering wings, subs, and pasta dishes in addition to pizza, Bella Pizza has taken over the corner pizzeria stand in the Center Ithaca atrium food court. At the heart of downtown, this is a cluster of eateries we might wish were open longer hours -- like, say, at dinnertime or late-night. Lunch specials start at $2.25 for a slice and a soda. The pizza's crisp and tasty, and we look forward to exploring the rest of the menu.

In the basement of the Dewitt Mall, this tiny cafe offers breakfast, lunch, and Sunday brunch featuring lots of local food and creative recipes. Enjoy a cup of soup and a sandwich, or creative breakfast platters available any time. It gets crowded fast, especially on weekends, so be prepared for a wait -- both before and after you're seated.

The new Capital State Kitchen Japanese Restaurant adds Japanese food next door to the same family's Capital Corner Chinese Restaurant. They offer good-quality sushi and Japanese entrees, though there's nothing especially innovative about their menu and the prices are a little higher than similar downtown offerings. We're intrigued by a new all-you-can-eat offering, $14 for lunch and $21 for dinner, in which you can keep ordering appetizers, sushi, sashimi, teriyaki dishes, rice or noodle entrees, and dessert until you've had enough.

Delilah's is the latest incarnation of the downtown eatery formerly known as WildFire and the Lost Dog Cafe. They've got burgers and wings and a tempting menu of southern comfort food they're choosing to call "Savannah Fusion Cuisine."

Jade Garden offers a small but well-stocked Chinese lunch and dinner buffet right off the Commons, plus tasty food prepared to order for dining in or carry-out service. The restaurant is clean and casual, and while they don’t compare to the sheer variety at the larger buffets in town, they don’t seem to have to.

Catering to an interesting mix of business owners, college students, and everyone in between, this wine and tapas bar offers an ever-changing menu of creative food, and a broad array of wines to sample. Since the menu changes every night we can't suggest a specific dish, but we'll tell you that if it sounds like an odd combination, it's probably exquisite. Try the sangria.

This beautiful space on Restaurant Row has good fare from sandwiches and salads to steaks and seafood, with quick and attentive but not overly pushy service. A wine list includes some decent Finger Lakes offerings, and the bar makes a great mojito. Try brunch, as well, for a good variety of omelets and eggs benedict variations, and either brandied french toast or a stuffed french toast. We'd provide a link to their web site, if it didn't start spewing unsolicited music at you. We won't do that to you, but we have faith you can find them if you so choose.

Twenty years after opening his first restaurant, Just a Taste, Lex Chutintaranond has opened Mia on the Ithaca Commons, featuring pan-Asian cuisine embodied in a variety of fresh and interesting dishes. It's a very seafood-heavy menu, but there are also lots of meat and vegetarian dishes. We were impressed with the friendly and helpful service, and the delicious food. Be warned: when they say spicy, they mean it! (Try the spicy saketini cocktail.)

Our favourite among the area's traditional, round pizzas is from Napoli Pizza, at the foot of the East State Street hill in the Gateway building. Napoli's roots go back decades in downtown Ithaca, and they know how to make their pizza. Napoli also has by far the best wings in town, great cold or hot subs, and beer on tap if you're dining in or waiting for your pizza.

We find Pizza Aroma's pizza to be just pretty good, but they're noteworthy for offering soy cheese and Daiya non-dairy cheese, a real boon to vegans who love pizza and don't want to skip the cheese. If you're not in a pizza mood, try the Salvadoran menu.

This new Mediterranean eatery in the former location of Micawber's on downtown Ithaca's "restaurant row" has just opened, promising fresh ingredients prepared to order. The menu features standards like falafel, hummus, and shish kebabs, as well as seared lamb chops and grilled swordfish. The owner is formerly of the tiny but tasty King David kiosk in Center Ithaca, so we look forward to trying the food. Their web site promises beer and wine soon.

Whether you call them subs or grinders or hoagies or whatever, Shortstop Deli specializes in those long sandwiches on fresh-baked French bread, or smaller sandwiches on kaiser rolls. They've got the usual ham, roast beef, and turkey, but they've also got seafood salad, eggplant, seitan, or prime rib. For the last few years, the Shortstop hot sub menu has had a selection of the famous Hot Truck French bread pizza subs. Supplement your sub with a fresh hot bowl of soup or chili. In the morning, enjoy their own custom coffee roast and a breakfast sandwich.

A tiny Thai and Laotian eatery at the back of the Gateway Center, just east of the Ithaca Commons, Sticky Rice has a rabidly loyal following for its freshly prepared dishes. Enjoy the tamarind fish soup, the summer roll, and the spicy garlic chicken, but save room for the sticky rice and mango dessert. If you catch them open despite oft-unpredictable hours, pick it up or get it delivered; there aren't enough tables.

At the foot of the Seneca Street hill, The Shop has handmade espresso drinks, French press or pourover coffee by the cup, and even a nice selection of good tea. There are locally baked pastries, there's local art on the walls, and there's often live music. The Shop even shares its home with Model Citizen Custom Tattoos. Talk about your multitasking opportunities.

Added next door to the Taqueria, Viva Cantina offers a similar, slightly deeper, burrito-and-taco menu plus a great selection of tequilas and some excellent margaritas at the full bar. The food's all pretty good, but we have trouble justifying the $1.50-$3.00 price hike from essentially the same items if ordered next door. (It would make more sense if a sit-down meal came with complimentary chips and salsa, as at pretty much every other Mexican eatery on the planet.)

Is it the simplest restaurant concept ever? In the space best known as Juna's, Waffle Frolic features handmade waffles, from basic to buckwheat to gluten-free, with a wide variety of toppings including fruit, Nutella, bacon and eggs, and even all-natural, free-range fried chicken. There are also variations on the grilled cheese sandwich theme. A meal gets expensive fast, but it's a fun treat. The coffee, roasted by Coffee Labs in Tarrytown, is top notch. Our biggest concern is that the often-confused service better matches the food's simplicity than its price.