Mediterranean and Italian restaurants near Hartford with water views

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.