Diners' Choice: American restaurants in Hartford

OpenTable

Updated June 05, 2025

Looking for restaurants with the best overall American cuisine in Hartford? You’re in the right place. Each month OpenTable analyzes more than 400,000 new diner reviews. We sort the results by category to help you discover new favorites. It's a great partnership: you reserve, eat, and review. We listen...and deliver the results for all to benefit. Enjoy!

Nataz Restaurant - Southington

4.9

4.9 (374)

$31 to $50

American

Southington

About the restaurant

Prepared by Hand from Scratch

Nataz is about Food; serving you a lot of fresh, excellent and top-grade food, prepared by hand from scratch with the cleanest and most professional presentation possible. Everything is served with a smile, based on our ability to render service. We are about giving you what you want, when you want it, no matter what!

Top review

Jordan

Dined on Jun 12, 2025

Amazing food, welcoming staff, skilled attentive server. The most delicious and fun adventure in eating. I’m so glad we tried it!

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Popular dish

Zuppa

Millwright's Restaurant

4.8

4.8 (3876)

$31 to $50

American

Simsbury

About the restaurant

With its unique setting perched atop a waterfall in Simsbury, Connecticut, Millwright’s invites guests to dine in the 17th century mill with acclaimed, James Beard nominated Chef Tyler Anderson and his team. Featuring daily-chosen farm ingredients, the freshest and most select product, proprietary cocktails, and exciting wine menu, Millwright’s offers a new experience to the Farmington Valley farm-to-table dining scene. The culinary team understands the impact of the highest-quality fresh ingredients. Millwright’s kitchen thrives on local ingredients – grown, raised, produced, foraged and prepared – whenever possible. They also take the farm-to-table concept one step further. Millwright’s has partnered with a farm that will grow most of its organic produce. The “Inspired New England” cuisine at Millwright’s pays homage to the land, to the flavor-rich quality of local, fresh ingredients and to the time-honored cooking techniques that enhance the natural goodness of those ingredients.

Top review

Ethan

Dined on Jun 12, 2025

One of the best meal experiences we’ve ever had, highly recommend the chefs course option. Unbelievable location eating next to a waterfall

Millwright’s Tavern

4.8

4.8 (444)

$31 to $50

American

Simsbury

About the restaurant

Welcome to Millwright's Tavern. Open Tueday - Sunday.

Top review

Rich

Dined on May 25, 2025

Always a fantastic experience. It’s so nice to have such a wonderful place in town!

Sadler's Ordinary

4.7

4.7 (892)

$30 and under

American

Marlborough

About the restaurant

Sadler's Ordinary has been an institution in Marlborough for decades, serving top quality local seafood and ingredients, comfort food, and Fine New England Cuisine. Set in a colonial style building, our cozy dining rooms feature two fireplaces and we offer outdoor dining on a beautiful stone patio during the summer and fall. All of our food is made from scratch in-house, including our delicious desserts and bakery items. We are open for indoor and patio dining, as well as take out every day.

Top review

Peter

Dined 5 days ago

Great food and atmosphere. We keep coming back. Fathers Day out worked well with instant seating

Abigail's Grille & Wine Bar

4.7

4.7 (1665)

$31 to $50

American

Simsbury

About the restaurant

Abigail's Grille & Wine Bar serves modern eats in a renovated tavern that dates back to the Revolutionary War. Enjoy fresh oysters and clams from the restaurant's raw bar with a glass of wine or one of the restaurant's many fine cognacs. Lunch at Abigail's Grille & Wine Bar ranges from light salads with ingredients like country bacon or roasted cauliflower to an especially hearty chicken potpie and other meatier dishes. The restaurant's Monte Cristo sandwich is a true indulgence. Juicy steaks, rich house-made pastas and seafood delicacies like grilled swordfish and blackened redfish dominate Abigail's Grille & Wine Bar's dinner menu. The restaurant's bone-in Gorgonzola pork chop is a standout dish. A Sunday brunch menu includes your choice of cocktail.

Top review

Ryan

Dined 6 days ago

Enjoyed visiting my old hometown and enjoying a nice meal at Abigail’s. Great setting, love the history, and the food & company were excellent.

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Popular dish

Chicken Parmesan

Max Downtown - Hartford

4.7

4.7 (284)

$50 and over

American

Hartford

About the restaurant

Located right in downtown Hartford since 1996, Max Downtown continues to add to all that the city has to offer with its legendary service, food and drink selection. Max Downtown has won a number of awards including Connecticut Magazine's Best for Overall Excellence, Hartford Magazine's Best Power Lunch Spot, Best for Business Entertaining and Best Wine List; has been featured in the Hartford Courant's Great Steaks: The State's Sizzling Best and was rated "Don't Miss" by the New York Times.

With a significant list of vintage and non-vintage wines stored in-house, Max Downtown is excited to additionally offer its stunning wine mezzanine as a focal point. Our selection is bound to have the perfect accompaniment for your occasion whether it’s by the glass or by the bottle.

If spirits are more your style, Max Downtown's whiskey bar features a broad selection of international bourbons, ryes, scotches and whiskeys crafted across the globe, from Kentucky to Japan.

Top review

Lisa

Dined 6 days ago

Excellent service, creative cocktails, pork chop was so good and you have to get the baked Alaska!

Artisan - West Hartford

4.8

4.8 (1711)

$31 to $50

American

Hartford

About the restaurant

ARTISAN celebrates the theme of craftsmanship, combining 18th Century classic Scandinavian design with New England-inspired farm-to-table seasonal cuisine, artfully prepared by Executive Chef and Partner Frederic Kieffer.
PLEASE NOTE THAT OUTSIDE TABLES ARE RESERVED UPON REQUEST BUT CANNOT BE GUARANTEED.
If you have reserved a table outdoors, please be advised that in the case of inclement weather, we will do our best to accommodate your party inside at the same reservation time, however we cannot guarantee a table inside at the same exact time and may need to adjust the reservation time accordingly.
PLEASE CALL 860.937.2525 IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS

Top review

SHARON

Dined 3 days ago

The food was great and service very attentive. We would go again.

Market Grille

4.7

4.7 (869)

$30 and under

American

Manchester

About the restaurant

Market Grille in Manchester, Connecticut is a nice combination between an upscale eatery and a casual restaurant. You can meet your coworkers there for drinks just as easily as you could bring your child to Market Grille for their birthday. The menu is mostly modern American cuisine, but there is also an extensive wine and beer list.

The four-cheese lasagna at Market Grille is very good. Two other very popular entrees here are the classic fish and chips and the stuffed domestic pork chop. If you like seafood, the raw bar here will not disappoint. Every day, fresh oysters of all varieties are offered.

Top review

MaureenVIP

Dined on Jun 10, 2025

Great atmosphere inside and on the outside patio (have eaten both) and friendly service. We were a half hour late (I apologized), half of our party did not show, and they still had our table and were very courteous. Wonderful waitress, very patient with us.

Max Oyster Bar - West Hartford Center

4.7

4.7 (349)

$50 and over

American

West Hartford

About the restaurant

Featuring modern renditions of classic American seafood, Max’s Oyster Bar menu has something for everyone. While seafood is the focal point, there are selections for even the most ardent landlubber. Ethnic influences are apparent throughout a menu filled with new interpretations on traditional fare. The raw bar offers an extensive variety of bi-coastal oysters and shellfish.

In it’s freshman year, 1999, Max’s Oyster Bar was awarded “Best New Restaurant” by Connecticut Magazine. Since then it has won numerous Reader’s Choice Awards, including “Best Seafood Restaurant”. Zagat’s Survey has also given Max’s Oyster Bar an “extraordinary” rating.

Top review

RobertVIP

Dined 3 days ago

Always a great experience the many times we have dined there

Union Kitchen

4.6

4.6 (796)

$31 to $50

American

Hartford

About the restaurant

Union Kitchen was nominated for Restaurant of the Year: Hartford County by the Connecticut Restaurant Association in 2023 and 2024. In a space that formerly housed a speakeasy, the ambitious restaurant combines New American cuisine with a world class beverage program.

Top review

Marie

Dined on May 25, 2025

Delicious food- standouts were the carrot soup and the salmon! Great and friendly service provided by Zack! Wonderfully curated wine list and the special choc bread pudding dessert was fabulous! Will return! Thank you

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Popular dish

Fried Chicken Katsu Sandwich

Popular dish

Roasted Pork Belly

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