Cedar Street Restaurant

12 Cedar Street, Sturbridge, (508) 347-5800.

Cedar Street Restaurant chef-owner David Vadenais created a menu that is both stylish and eclectic in his use of unusual spices and food combinations. Among appetizers: sausage and white-bean soup with plum tomatoes, bitter greens and Parmesan cheese, and applewood smoked quail, seared fois gras and portobello mushrooms with Granny Smith apples, cranberries and truffle oil. Roasted beets over field greens with goat-cheese-and-crabmeat fritters and sweet-red-pepper dressing was outstanding, as was grilled rack of lamb -- six small chops ringed around a mound of lentil and apricot-studded couscous. The lamb had been rubbed with spices -- we could taste coriander and allspice -- and was accompanied by a perfectly ripe fig cut into a star pattern.

Full review.

Price Range: $13 - $20.