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The Taco Project's menu features tacos with fillings like classic ground beef, free-range chicken, skirt steak, tempura-battered shrimp, and fish tacos with choice of sauteed or battered and fried cod.
Jesse Rinka / The Taco Project
Check out these seven new and noteworthy Connecticut restaurants, from a Greenwich Thai spot that centers its cuisine around housemade broths to a casual Hartford pizzeria and bar geared toward parents.
Riko's newest Stamford location opened April 5, as the pizzeria known for its thin-crust pies moved from its original Selleck Street location to a new, larger building on West Main Street.
Customer favorites include Riko's signature hot oil pie, and others with clams, chicken, vegetables and a meat lovers' option with pepperoni, ham, bacon and sausage. "Salad pizzas" feature pizza crust with tomato sauce and customers' choice of salad on top, like Caesar, spinach or antipasto.
Riko's also offers oven-baked wings, desserts and cocktails, and new items include a Nashville hot chicken pizza with pickles, a Nashville hot chicken salad pie and Nashville hot dry-rub chicken wings.
2010 West Main St., 203-674-8970, facebook.com/rikospizzastamford.
The Taco Project's menu features tacos with fillings like classic ground beef, free-range chicken, skirt steak, tempura-battered shrimp, and fish tacos with choice of sauteed or battered and fried cod.
The Taco Project opened in Stamford April 12, with a menu of tacos, burritos, burrito bowls, quesadillas, salads, desserts and cocktails.
Tacos are available with 10 different fillings: classic ground beef, free-range chicken, skirt steak, tempura-battered shrimp, and fish tacos with choice of sauteed or battered and fried cod. Others include BBQ pulled pork, marinated in housemade barbecue sauce; chorizo with potatoes, braised pork belly with pineapple glaze and a Cajun salmon with wasabi slaw.
This is the fifth Taco Project, with four others in Westchester County (Bronxville, Pleasantville, Tarrytown and Yonkers.)
1111 High Ridge Road, 203-703-9495, @tacoproject.
Four Dads Pub, an "old school neighborhood joint" that got its start in Granby, (and is indeed owned by four Connecticut dads) recently opened its second location in downtown Hartford. The casual restaurant and bar focuses on pizza, sold by the slice or whole pie, and comfort fare like wings, nachos, sandwiches, burgers, subs and chicken and waffles.
114 Asylum Street, 860-969-6128, @fourdadspub_hartford.
Owners Steve Garrett, left, and Eric Patterson at Post Oak Barbecue Co., in Fairfield, Conn. April 7, 2022.
Post Oak Barbecue Co., which had its soft opening on March 29, blends a variety of cooking styles and flavors that brings a new take on barbecue to the table.
Post Oak's menu offers classic smoked meats like baby back ribs, pulled pork, turkey, chicken and sausage, done in Texas and North Carolina barbecue styles. Other dishes have Asian and southwestern influences, like crab rangoons, sizzling char siu pork, pho bo, pork belly banh mi, nachos and queso blanco.
93 Post Road, 203-220-5100, @postoakbbqco.
Views of Albanian restaurant Cka ka Qellu that recently opened on Clark Street in downtown in Stamford, Conn., on Tuesday April 12, 2022.
Albanian cuisine has now joined the diverse lineup of cuisines in Stamford, with the introduction of Çka ka Qëllu late last year. Veal is a staple on the menu, with veal sausage dip for an appetizer or veal dumplings for an entree. For those looking for lighter fare, owner Ramiz Kukaj said the salads are “very authentic,” made with olive oil and “everything that was raised back home,” like tomatoes and cucumbers, plus homemade cheese.
15 Clark St., 203-354-0735, @ckakaqellu.
Birria quesitacos from MilSabores in Bridgeport, which specializes in Mexican and Venezuelan food.
MilSabores started out as a popular Norwalk-based Mexican and Venezuelan food truck in 2019, and its success with trendy birria tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, tortas and even ramen helped owners Edwin and Yohana Mondragon open their first brick-and-mortar in November.
At the small and casual Bridgeport storefront, with just a few dine-in tables, the Mondragons showcase dishes from both their cultures. Edwin is Mexican and Yohana is Venezuelan, and tacos, burritos, nachos and tortas share equal menu space with arepas, empanadas operadas and patacon (sandwiches made with fried green plantains serving as "bread.")
2043 Fairfield Ave., 203-345-2747, @milsaboresct.
Jillian and North Shutsharwan have opened Nit Noi, a new broth and Thai restaurant in Cos Cob.
North and Jillian Shutsharwan have opened Nit Noi, a new Thai restaurant, in the heart of Cos Cob. The menu includes a broth bar and a dumpling station along with traditional Thai dishes like guay teow gai (a soup with chicken, rice noodles and bok choy); khao mun gai (chicken and cucumber over jasmine steamed rice), tom kha ga (coconut soup) and several curry dishes.
3 Strickland Road, 203-485-9303, @nitnoiprovisions.