7 Montgomery County Restaurants Named Among Best In Area

Montgomery County is home to a wide array of stellar cuisine. Hotspots like King of Prussia, Ambler, and Lansdale are home to some of the nation's best chains, local food, and ethnic options.

But as you ponder your many delicious options this weekend, you might be wondering: where are the best dining spots in the area?

Seven of them are right here in Montgomery County, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. The publication recently put out its list of the 25 top restaurants in the Philadelphia suburbs. Establishments from Princeton, N.J. to Delaware County, Pa. were included in the analysis.

The following Montco eateries were included in the list:

BLACKFISH, 119 Fayette Street, Conshohocken

The ever-evolving dinner menu is highlighted by beet salad, oysters, grilled scallops, corn risotto, seared mahi-mahi, dry aged strip steak, roasted longfin tuna, gnocchi, and more. Here's what Philly.com's Craig LaBan has to say:

Ten years ago, Chip Roman’s first bistro gave Conshohocken a sophisticated taste of the New American BYOB movement and became a trendsetter in suburban dining.

CANTINA FELIZ, 424 S. Bethlehem Pike, Fort Washington

The dinner menu features pickled chile, smoky brisket, highly rated nachos, and much more.

...one of the region’s most satisfying Nuevo Mexican dining experiences, blending a colorful, casual space with outgoing service, excellent tequila cocktails, myriad fresh guacamole variations and a menu built to please a broad audience.

DUBU, 1333 W. Cheltenham Ave., Elkins Park

Dubu's dinner options range from a wide variety of soups, vegetarian specials, "stone pots," and Korean grilled BBQ.

The name means tofu, in a nod to the bubbling bowls of spicy soondubu stew that make the signature dish. But you don’t have to be into bean curd to appreciate that this hidden gem, tucked into a surprisingly contemporary space at the back of an Elkins Park strip mall, is one of the area’s best all-around Korean restaurants.

FARM AND FISHERMAN TAVERN, 575 Horsham Road, Horsham

The dinner menu has everything from salads, large supper plates, "for the table" appetizers, and a range of sandwiches and burgers, including Farmer's Cheesesteak, Veteran's Stadium Roast Pork, and a Braised Greens Panini.

Can real food - seasonal, local, scratch-made, and creatively presented - survive in the suburbs in a way that feels accessible to a wide audience weaned on chains? The answer is yes. And co-chefs and co-owners Josh Lawler and Todd Fuller have cracked the code, transitioning from their fine-dining backgrounds to create a perfect neighborhood restaurant with their second edition of F&F Tavern.

MISTRAL, 160 N. Gulph Road, King of Prussia

Mistral offers an array of shared plates with ingredients from local farms. Wings, bacon beignets, tuna poke, tempura squash, and Amish chicken breast are some notable choices.

Can a serious restaurant survive and thrive at the mall? Princeton’s star Scott Anderson is giving it a compelling effort with this airy King of Prussia sibling to his Central Jersey original, where a flexible menu of gorgeous plates in various sizes and diverse international influences finds a delicate balance between accessibility and modern culinary craft.

THE BUTCHER AND BARKEEP, 712 Main Street, Harleysville

The dinner menu is highlighted by an array of small plates like crab cakes, tuna, fish and chips, lamb chops, and bouillabaisse. There are also unique dinner sandwiches like roast pork, cubano, and pork carnitas tacos.

Can you imagine a bumping Northern Liberties-style gastropub slipped into a quiet retail strip “out in the sticks”? That’s exactly what Standard Tap alums Cody Ferdinand and Gerard Angelini have created at the Butcher & Barkeep in Harleysville, channeling that “city vibe by turning the lights down low and the music up.”

TIRED HANDS FERMENTARIA, 35 Cricket Terrace, Ardmore

This classy brewery also has excellent food options, including a famous burger with mustard, hummus plates, and more.

(No brewery has done more to put a suburban town on the national hipster map than Tired Hands, the iconoclastic producer of funky saisons and experimental “milkshake” IPAs that can incite blocks-long lines of beer geeks who’ve traveled from far and wide in hopes of scoring the latest release.

Photo: Morguefile