I didn’t realize how spoiled I was with the restaurants in my hometown of Fairfield until I left! The first time I moved out was when I went to Penn State for college. I was shocked that I couldn’t find decent sushi or Italian food anywhere nearby! For almost a year, I lived in Spain to teach English. You know how in London you can get great Indian food? Not the case for me in Spain – I couldn’t find good Mexican food for the life of me. Until I left Fairfield, I wasn’t able to cherish just how good we have it! As a born and raised Fairfield local, these are the best restaurants in Fairfield, CT that are worth every penny!
Mexican Food $: Senor Salsa
Senor Salsa is one of my absolute favorite restaurants in Fairfield, CT. I’m very selective about where I eat out, and this is one of the only places I am always down for. Located in the middle of that weird roundabout area between the Kings Highway Cutoff and Post Road, the only downside to this place is the location. If you’re going at a normal meal time, odds are there won’t be many parking spaces left from the small selection. Let one person drive, and the other person hop out to pick up your order!
best bang for your buck
In a world where everything is getting more and more expensive, Senor Salsa truly feels like it’s worth the money. My go-to order is the El Champion Burrito. This is the only Mexican restaurant where I will choose a burrito over a bowl! First, El Champion is MASSIVE. I can only eat the whole thing at once if I skip a meal before going. It’s that big. So it always serves two meals for me!
Second, everything in the restaurant is the most mouth watering, well seasoned food I’ve tasted. In the El Champion, you get the classic, delicious, rice and beans, with lettuce, mexican crema, salsa, AND guacamole included. All of that plus chicken is $11.95. I normally pay an extra $1.80 to sub the chicken for steak, and it’s the best $1.80 I will ever spend. To get all of this at Chipotle, it would be at least 3-4 dollars more.
The queso is also fantastic – I seriously grapple for like half an hour if I really need to eat it plus a bag of chips too. If you cannot already tell, this is potentially my favorite place to eat in town, and possibly one of the best restaurants in Fairfield, CT!
Mexican Food $$: Bodega Taco Bar
If you are looking for a more high scale, sit down Mexican restaurant, Bodega might be for you! Bodega is downtown in the same complex as Hands on Pottery and that Rolling Ice Cream place that’s miraculously still in business. It’s a pretty small restaurant, so getting a reservation is key if you’re coming with a bigger group or don’t want to wait at all.
The food here is to die for! Everything tastes incredibly fresh with tons of flavor! My go-to order is the Argentino Bowl, with hanger steak, charred onion, salsa, cilantro, rice & beans, queso fresco and avocado. Not that different ingredients wise compared to Senor, but a vastly different meal! Everything tastes like it was just grilled or just prepared a moment before it got brought to you. This used to be my favorite meal in all of Fairfield, but unfortunately because of the management, I don’t plan on going back.
bad service story
My best friend went and had lunch at Bodega, left cash on the table with the check, then headed out. She then went to work, where in the middle of her shift, her boss got a call from Bodega saying that she dined and dashed. My friends obviously panicked, since she works in the food industry and would never do that. She left work mid shift to go figure out what happened.
When she arrived the management basically told her that she had to pay with a card right then and there for her meal, or they’d call the cops. She asked them to watch the footage, that she did pay and left cash on the bar for them, but they refused to watch the footage showing what happened. My friend was there for two hours trying to convince them to just watch the footage, until her boss came and demanded to watch it.
Sure enough, someone picked it up off the bar on their way out. Why did they refuse to watch the footage? Why did they decide to look up who she was and call her place of work? I have so many questions about why they manage the restaurant the way they do. While the food is great, I personally don’t want to eat where I feel like the bosses can bully customers around. So decide for yourself if the food is worth the experience or not!
Best Pho/Soup: Pho Nha Trang
Pho Nha Trang has been a recent find for my family these last few years, and I wonder where it has been my whole life! This pho place is on the Post Road, across from the Two Oh Three Store. I’ve never actually been inside since we always get take out, but if it’s so good as take out, I’m sure it’s even more amazing in store.
When ordering take out, they give you the broth and the other ingredients in two separate containers, so you can make it however hot, spicy, limey that you’d like. For my family of five, that’s a lot of containers, so they put everything into a cardboard box from the shop that they probably received with their deliveries. My family always orders pho, and I either get the vegetable pho – with tofu and tons of veggies, or the beef pho. On a cold night, this is the most warm, cozy, and tasty meal that exists to me.
If I’m really hungry, I will eat the whole thing, but my mom always eats half for dinner, half for lunch the next day. All of the pho is $13.50, so it’s a great price for the amount of food and quality of food you get, making it one of the best restaurants in Fairfield, CT.
Sushi $: Shumi Revolving Sushi
Shumi has only been in Fairfield for about a year and a half, but it’s quickly become one of my favorites. I remember the day I saw the ad that Fairfield was getting a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. I was SO excited, especially because it’s on Black Rock! Right in between Sorrento and the Spirit Shop is Shumi, with sushi chefs preparing food right in the middle of the conveyor belt!
It’s a super fun experience to come here with a group and see how many plates you can finish – they end up stacked really high! I like sitting at the seat next to the belt, so I can be in charge of grabbing plates for the tables. The sushi tastes fresh and good in combination with the experience makes it a great time! While they don’t have the largest selection when it comes to the sushi on the conveyor belt, all of it is delicious! When I was a college student and had the summers off, I loved the $26 a person for unlimited food on a weekday lunch!
My personal favorite all-you-can-eat sushi place is not in Fairfield, but in Stratford called Kuma. No conveyor belt, but you can order from a selection of sushi, sashimi, appetizers, and desserts for just a few more dollars a person!
Sushi $$: Fin or Lilac House
When looking at the slightly more expensive sushi restaurants in town, I prefer either Fin or Lilac House! Which I go to depends on what side of town I’m on, since I’d rather just drive to whichever is closer.
I love the Maki Combinations at Fin. You get three 6-piece rolls with either a salad or miso soup on the side for $18.50. The sushi is always super fresh and yummy from Fin. The general consensus is, I feel like the whole town loves Fin. I used to work at one of the country clubs in the area, and families always came with enormous trays of sushi from Fin! I personally haven’t tried Nordic Fish yet, but I’ve heard they’re also pretty good and are giving Fin a run for their money!
The Lilac House is on Black Rock in the same complex as UPS and Alina’s Bakery. I can’t count how many times in middle school I heard kids prank calling the Lilac House. I don’t know why that was a trend, but it cemented the Lilac House as an establishment of this town for me.
Sandwiches: A&S
I’m incredibly thankful that Fairfield has so many Italians. Without them, we wouldn’t have many of the great establishments in this town, like A&S. It’s technically a deli or small grocery store, but no matter what you get, it will be delicious. More often than not, my family goes to get a nice loaf of bread from A&S, or if we’re on the go, we get the best sandwiches in town!
They do everything right here. The bread choice is always perfect, soft on the inside but the crust has a little crunch to it. The ingredients in the sandwiches are classics and always pair incredibly well together. There are two sizes of sandwich, so you can pick which you’d prefer based on how hungry you’re feeling. It’s always a great meal when you’re getting a sandwich from A&S. The only other sandwich place that I would say competes in terms of quality and taste, is Guetanos in Westport. That place is amazing as well, but a farther drive than I’d prefer!
Italian Food: Centro (or better yet) Mario the Baker
Again, thank you to the Fairfield Italians for making such good restaurants! One of the best restaurants in Fairfield, CT, is Centros for their fantastic Italian food. Located right on the town green, this restaurant has take out, indoor and outdoor seating, as well as a counter where you can buy fresh pasta to cook at home. Whether or not it passes the health inspection this year, it doesn’t change the fast that the food here is delicious! While I don’t go super often, after having a mouth watering meal here, I always ask myself “why don’t I come here more?” And the answer is, it’s a bit pricey and didn’t pass the health inspection in 2024.
More often than not, if we’re looking to get Italian food, we’ll go to Mario the Baker in Bridgeport. While it’s pretty small there with not a lot of parking, the food is unbeatable! I always eat more than I should because I cannot fathom throwing out something that good! Plus, since it’s in Bridgeport it’s priced lower than it would be if Mario the Baker was in Fairfield.
Pizza: Colony or Maiones (go to New Haven for better pizza)
Whether you believe it or not, New Haven has been named “the pizza capital of the US.” While Fairfield is a ways away from New Haven, we still have some pretty good pizza in town! I have two favorite pizza places in Fairfield, the first being Colony, which probably isn’t a surprise to most people!
Colony is a Fairfield staple, with their one of a kind thin style pizza. The pizza is great, since it isn’t too heavy, and the layers of dough, sauce, and cheese are cooked nice and crispy to be beyond delicious. It’s like a typical Fairfield activity to pick up a pie to go, then head to the beach. Bonus points if you go to Sasco, back into a parking spot and eat in the trunk! While people have big opinions on whether or not they like Colony, it’s a Fairfield establishment with yummy pizza nonetheless!
Maiones, at my house
In my house, our go-to pizza joint in Maiones. I’ve lived in Fairfield the majority of my life, and we have gotten pizza from Maiones for dinner, 95% of the Fridays I’ve been alive for. Maiones is not just a Stratfield village staple, but a Sforza household one too. The pizza is fantastic. I love how, on the occasion when it’s my turn to pick up, you can see the cooks right behind the counter making the pizzas.
In addition to great pizza, they have Italian sandwiches, food, and also prepared food you can buy, eat up, and enjoy. I like how I’m not just limited to pizza at Maiones, though I’ve never strayed away from ordering it! Recently, my family has become obsessed with the chicken and pepper pizza, which is something I wouldn’t personally order myself, but now is my favorite! These are two of the best restaurants in Fairfield, CT!
BEC: Country Cow or Hole in the Wall
A Fairfield STAPLE is having a bacon, egg, and cheese (BEC) sandwich for breakfast. There are tons of places you can get them, and after trying most, these ones are the best restaurants in Fairfield, CT for a breakfast sandwich.
Country Cow, located in the same complex as Sunny Daes on Black Rock, makes one of the best BECs in Fairfield. They grill up your sandwich just seconds before they hand it to you, giving you one of the most tasty, savory sandwiches of all time. If you’re going, remember to bring cash, since they’re a cash only restaurant. Why is it like this? What are they a front for? I don’t know, and I’m not asking anymore questions because I love my BECs from here!
Hole in the Wall lives up to its name. It’s a tiny storefront with an even smaller parking lot on the Post Road before Dunkin. At my local country club job, the employees would order BECs almost every single morning, so I quickly tried out many Fairfield breakfast places. Hole in the Wall quickly became one of my favorites, with their quick yet cost effective service and delicious food. Everything is seasoned beautifully and melts in your mouth as you eat it! Depending on which side of town I’m on, is normally the deciding factor of which I go to.
Honorable BEC mention: Tasty Yolk. Where else can you simply text in your order? Just Tasty Yolk I think! They’re expanding quickly, with a truck down by the Adventure Park on Park Ave, another over by St. Pius, and now a storefront in Black Rock! I especially appreciate their griddle smashed potatoes and spinach wraps!
Conclusion
This town is chock full of great restaurants, and we should be extremely grateful for it! Many of the best restaurants in Fairfield, CT are truly worth the price you pay and get you extremely delicious food. After visiting “Tony’s NY Bagels” in Amsterdam and getting a “pre fried” egg on my BEC, I then decided to shut my mouth from every speaking bad about the food in my great hometown of Fairfield! There are so many great restaurants that I am sure you disagree with most things that I wrote. And while that may be frustrating, what a good dilemma to have!
