New Haven, CTCheap Eats

A family-run drive-in that has been feeding Hamden for more than sixty-five years. CTbites' guide to Connecticut hot dogs points to the signature hot relish on its hot dog, a nod it has also drawn from Connecticut Magazine, and to the juicy lobster roll and the onion rings alongside. This is a true drive-in: order at the window, then eat in the car or at a picnic table out front. Get a dog with the hot relish, add onion rings, and take the lobster roll in season.

Edgar Marcial cooked in Connecticut kitchens for years, from Geronimo to Gabriele's of Westport, before opening this small downtown taqueria on Orange Street. CTbites describes corn brought from his birthplace in Oaxaca and milled in house into masa, tortillas pressed and griddled to order, and tacos kept to cilantro, onion and salsa rather than cheese or sour cream. Order the al pastor, shaved to order, then a mulita, the Tijuana-style pressed quesadilla, with birria in the middle.