22 Best Restaurants in Rhode Island, USA

With five indoor and outdoor dining areas, this casually elegant restaurant is the center of Jamestown nightlife in the summer, especially at its expansive open-air bar. A 150-year-old beech tree in the courtyard lends its name to the locally owned restaurant, which has retained key staff from the former Trattoria Simpatico at the same location and menu highlights include local calimari, a hot lobster roll, house-made pasta, and grilled seafood dishes.

Open up your meal with oysters Thermidor, Japanese style with miso, or grilled and topped with Parmesan cheese. Sip a fine vintage, relax, and pause to appreciate the sublime garden setting—complete with hopping rabbits nibbling at the landscaping—before diving into sea scallops served over lemon risotto or grilled sticky Thai shrimp. On a warm summer evening, there's no better place on the island for a romantic dinner.

No other restaurant in Newport can compete with the spectacular water views from the Sunset Room, one of four dining rooms inside the historic main inn. A perfect spot for a romantic dinner, Castle Hill Inn also serves lunch and dinner on The Lawn, allowing you to savor regional cuisine while watching sunlit clouds drift by. Weekend drinks on the inn's lawn is a Newport summer tradition.

Drinks at a bar favored by the sailing crowd, intimate dinners by the fire, and relaxing lunches overlooking Newport Harbor are a few of the experiences possible at this multilevel complex. The first-floor Candy Store serves casual fare and has a sushi bar; the second-floor offers casual dining in the Bistro and cocktails in the Midway Bar; and the Summer Porch and 12 Metre Yacht Club Room on the third floor have elegant fine dining requiring proper dress. For summer partying with the yachties, nothing beats the Boom Boom Room in the basement.

A summertime pilgrimage for people from every corner of the state, Gray's has been around since 1923 and sells more than 30 flavors of ice cream, all made on the premises. Coffee is the go-to flavor for many Rhode Islanders, but specialties such as Indian pudding and apple caramel spice have their adherents.

Overlooking the water since it first opened as an ice-cream parlor in 1916, the Olympia's varnished wood booths and a long marble counter echo the restaurant's rich history. The kitchen focuses on local and artisanal ingredients served with simple elegance and abundant flavor, including spicy flaked haddock and Milanese-style crispy chicken.

This aptly named two-story café is abuzz with college students and foodies who appreciate the freshly baked bread, especially when it's used to make inventive sandwiches like roasted butternut squash with caramelized onions, Vermont cheddar, and tangy-sweet pesto. The extensive breakfast menu (served 12 hours a day) includes thick-cut French toast, cornbread hash, and granola made on-site.

On the city's increasingly gentrified West Side (which fringes Federal Hill), this convivial bar and restaurant occupies a single-story redbrick storefront with a handful of sidewalk tables. A mix of students, artists, and neighborhood locals find their way here nightly for fair-priced, deftly prepared bistro chow and imaginative salads.

A tiny Warren restaurant known for offbeat beers, hot chicken sandwiches, and a burger stacked 10 inches tall has blossomed into this second location with more expansive indoor-outdoor seating and an equally enticing menu of decidedly adult, made-from-scratch comfort grub. Pair zesty Mozambique chicken tenders that are definitely not your kids' chicken nuggets with frozen sangria on a summer's day.

Creative cuisine emerges from the kitchen of this intimate bistro—the fare changes seasonally but may include pan-seared sea scallops, brined chicken, and the mouthwatering Eli's burger with seasoned fries. Arrive before opening and join the queue for a table; if they're all taken, dining at the bar, accompanied by excellent craft cocktails, is a small compromise.

This cheery tavern has three bars and 69 beers on tap, but hungry folks flock here for burgers and tasty pizzas—like the Pink Panther, which is topped with chicken, prosciutto, and pasta in a house-made pink vodka sauce. Also on the menu are Mexican dishes, mac and cheese with local Whalers beer in the sauce, and other comfort foods.

Fun and kitschy Ogie's bar and restaurant fuses trailer-park chic and colorful (maybe even garish) 1950s-style decor. The "Granny Boo's Kitchen" menu emphasizes "gourmet comfort food," which translates into the likes of tater tots with white truffle oil, grilled peanut butter and jelly, and mac 'n' cheese croquettes. The restaurant's backyard is one of Providence's best outdoor dining and drinking spots.

The black 1961 Ford Galaxie parked out front is the landmark steering you to this fun indoor-outdoor restaurant, bar, and night spot in Old Harbor. Find a table on the porch or in the garden and dig into the house specialty, barbecued pulled pork mac & cheese, washed down with a margarita blended with a local blackberry and honey puree. Fun snacks include a lasagna dip and crispy fish sticks; healthier options include a "power lunch" salad packed with quinoa, sunflower seeds, figs and beets, topped with an apple cider vinaigrette dressing.

At the Atlantic Inn, the food and beverage experience is as elevated as the hilltop location. The menu includes both small and large plates with abundant enticements for vegetarians as well as dishes that feature local fish and game. Noshing on tapas on the lawn is a memorable experience, but it's first-come, first-served for the limited supply of Adirondack chairs.

Share green curry mussels, spiced-up Thai lobster, sinful tuna poke tacos with fried wontons for wraps, and other seasonal small and large plates at this restaurant with a rustic garden setting.  With sprawling indoor-outdoor bars and seating, it's a quirky-fun meet-up spot that takes everything from buttermilk brunch biscuits to fruity cocktails and mocktails seriously.

Not only are johnnycakes a unique Rhode Island food, but there are also regional variations within this small state on how to make these white corn pancakes. Located right on the Little Compton Commons, of course, the Commons is a leading purveyor of the thin and crispy East Bay variety, along with family-friendly meal-time options, and fried local seafood. 

Ben Lloyd, the chef-owner of this "agri-driven" American restaurant, is committed to honoring the origins of the food he prepares. He purchases humanely raised and harvested meat, poultry, and fish whole from local vendors, butchers them in-house, and uses every part from nose to tail—combined with eggs at breakfast, cheese and fries at lunch, and fresh vegetables at dinner. The weekend brunch will fill you up with frittatas, home fries, donuts and more for just $15 per person.

The first tavern opened here in 1673—and ever since, the premises have served, in turn, as a tavern, boardinghouse, restaurant, and even a meetinghouse for Colonial Rhode Island's General Assembly. Today, the tavern provides an intimate fine-dining experience, the mood set by the low dark-beam ceilings, uneven plank floors, and four still-working fireplaces; an outside patio is a recent addition.

All-you-can-eat roast chicken, bread, salad, pasta with red sauce, and fries is a northern Rhode Island tradition that grew out of the need to feed many people efficiently. The 1,000-seat wonder known as Wright's Farm has served pretty much the same family-style menu since the 1950s. With 75 ovens, six dining rooms, and four bars, the mammoth banquet facility dishes up nearly 1 million pounds of chicken a year. Fans of kitschy local lore will enjoy a visit to this certifiable tourist attraction, where the gift shop sells chicken-themed doodads, toys, collectables, and candy by the pound.