Mediterranean and Italian Restaurants Near Hartford With Water Views
Hartford itself has no restaurant on the water, so every answer here is a short drive out. The strongest is River: A Waterfront Restaurant & Bar in Wethersfield, right on the Connecticut River with a deck facing the Putnam Bridge, and the only one of the four that calls its own cooking Italian and Mediterranean.
The other three trade the river for a lake or a pond. Lakeview Restaurant & Bar sits on Coventry Lake with Mediterranean-leaning dishes on a New England menu, while La Notte Waterside Grille in Windsor and Cafe Pesto's in Farmington are straight Italian kitchens overlooking ponds. Those two also carry the highest diner ratings, 4.3 and 4.4, against 3.7 for River.
Our picks
- Eating on the Connecticut River itself: River: A Waterfront Restaurant & Bar. A 2,000-square-foot multi-level deck on the bank facing the Putnam Bridge, kept usable through winter by infrared heaters.
- Sunset over a lake: Lakeview Restaurant & Bar. A patio a few steps from Coventry Lake, with grilled octopus and gyros on the menu beside pot roast.
- A table on short notice: La Notte Waterside Grille. The least showy of the four, with window tables and a deck looking over a small pond, and lobster ravioli as the dish reviewers name most.
- Highest diner rating: Cafe Pesto's. 4.4 out of 5 on Restaurantji, though on far fewer reviews, with a patio over the water and portions big enough for leftovers.
At a glance
| Option | Address | Water View | Waterside Seating | Cuisine | Diner Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 Great Meadow Road, Wethersfield, CT 06109source | Connecticut Riversource | Decksource | Italian and Mediterraneansource | 3.7source | |
| 50 Lake Street, Coventry, CT 06238source | Lakesource | Patiosource | Mediterraneansource | 3.9source | |
| 1936 Blue Hills Ave. Ext., Windsor, CT 06095source | Pondsource | Decksource | Italiansource | 4.3source | |
| 1274 Farmington Ave, Farmington, CT 06032source | Lakesource | Patiosource | Italiansource | 4.4source |
Why none of them are in Hartford
The city's Connecticut River frontage is parkland (Riverside Park, Charter Oak Landing, Mortensen Riverfront Plaza), cut off from downtown by I-91, and none of it holds a restaurant. The four here run from Wethersfield, essentially on the Hartford line, out through Windsor and Farmington to Coventry, about half an hour east. If you want the river in view rather than a pond, Wethersfield is both the closest drive and the only choice.
River, lake or pond, and deck or patio
Water View names the actual water, because it changes the evening. River looks at the Connecticut River from a deck, and its heaters make it the one outdoor seat here meant for cold months. Lakeview's patio faces Coventry Lake and its wraparound windows carry the view indoors. La Notte has a deck over its pond, and Cafe Pesto's has a patio over water the restaurant bills as a lake, which looks more like a large pond in its own photos.
Two of the four also run a heavy banquet trade. Lakeview and La Notte both get loud or slow when a function is in, so a weekend booking there is worth asking about before you set your heart on an outdoor table.
How Mediterranean the menus are
Only River uses the word about itself, pairing prime steaks and wood-fired pizza with house-made pasta. Lakeview's Mediterranean label comes from the Connecticut food site CTbites, backed up by the octopus and gyros on its menu. La Notte's family came from the Greek island of Rhodes, but the kitchen cooks Italian, and Cafe Pesto's stays with pasta al mare, tortellini rose and veal parmigiana. If you were hoping for Greek, Turkish or Levantine food on the water, we found no such restaurant anywhere in the Hartford region.
The options in detail
River: A Waterfront Restaurant & Bar
The one restaurant near Hartford that is unmistakably on the Connecticut River: a 2,000-square-foot multi-level deck sits on the bank facing the Putnam Bridge, and the dining room and bar were built so nearly every seat shares the view. The kitchen, now led by Chef Xavier Santiago, runs to prime steaks, wood-fired pizza and house-made pasta, and the restaurant calls its own cooking Italian and Mediterranean-inspired. Infrared heaters keep the deck usable through the winter, which is rare here. It is the busiest and most polished of these four, and reviewers split on service when it is full.
Lakeview Restaurant & Bar
A year-round restaurant on the shore of Coventry Lake, about half an hour east of Hartford, with a wraparound-window dining room and a patio a few steps from the water. It grew out of a small lakeside eatery and has been rebuilt into something more ambitious; the menu sets New England standards next to Mediterranean-inspired dishes, so grilled octopus and gyros turn up alongside pot roast. It runs a heavy banquet and party trade, which is why the dining room can get loud and service slows when a function is in. The sunsets over the lake are the reason to ask for the patio.
La Notte Waterside Grille
A quiet Windsor room with a small pond behind it: the window tables look straight out at the water, and there is a deck over it for warm evenings. The family behind it came from the Greek island of Rhodes and has spent four decades in Connecticut restaurants; the cooking here is Italian, heavy on pasta, seafood and pizza, with lobster ravioli the dish reviewers name most often. It doubles as a banquet room, so a weekend can be booked with parties and service slows when the place is full. Of the four, it is the least showy and the easiest to get into on short notice.
Cafe Pesto's
The smallest and least known of these: a neighbourhood Italian restaurant on Farmington Avenue whose patio looks out over a pond, which the restaurant itself bills as lake views. The kitchen stays on familiar ground, pasta al mare, tortellini rose, veal parmigiana, stuffed salmon with crabmeat and shrimp, served with a house salad and warm bread for dipping in their own pesto, and portions are large enough that people mention leftovers. It carries the highest diner rating of the four, though on far fewer reviews. Come in warm weather and sit outside; the water is the whole point.
How we researched this
Two tests decided who is here: outdoor seating that faces water, and a source that calls the kitchen Italian or Mediterranean. The request was for Mediterranean restaurants in Hartford with water views, a set that turned out to be empty, so we widened it to nearby towns and to Italian, and the title says so. The closest miss was The Mill on the River in South Windsor, on a mill pond with a waterfall but describing its own food as modern American. Other waterside spots failed on cuisine (Tequila Rio next door to River is Mexican, The Ferry Grill in Rocky Hill is seafood, Pond House Cafe in West Hartford is New American), rooms like Zohara, Barcelona and Bricco failed on water, and three candidates had closed, including Vito's by the Water, whose Windsor building La Notte now occupies, and Mediterranean Flavors in Middletown, the one Greek possibility.
Ratings all come from Restaurantji so the four compare with each other; they are not Google scores, which run higher for River. All four fall in Restaurantji's $$ band, so price would have read the same on every row and was left out. The cells for River's deck and Lakeview's lake and patio cite CTbites' waterfront guide rather than the restaurants' own sites. Ask for the deck or patio by name when booking, since a private function can take over Lakeview or La Notte on a weekend.