North Dakota is probably better known for its crops than the food served in its restaurants. Yet, whether you're looking for a light lunch or a gourmet dinner, you'll find it throughout the state.

Bismarck's Bistro: An American Cafe serves modern American cuisine. The dinner menu is extensive. Begin your meal with a "small plate" of painted buffalo carpaccio (or another on the menu), or choose a soup such as the chipotle white chicken chili. Entrees include beef and pork, and more exotic Moroccan lamb chops or braised buffalo with potato gnocchi. Pastas, poultry and seafood, along with the Bistro's trademark wood-grilled pizzas, round out the menu. You will also want to leave room for dessert, which changes daily. A lunch menu also is available.

The Buffalo City Grille, in Jamestown, has preserved the original brick arches and tin ceilings of its building. The menu features appetizers such as Wisconsin cheese curds, soups such as a crock of bison stew (enough for a meal), and a small variety of salads. The Grille's specialties include its prime rib, steaks, and of course, bison, served in a variety of ways. Fresh seafood, chicken and pasta round out the menu. The wine list is good, if not extensive.

The HoDo, in Fargo's historic Hotel Donaldson, has a full page of exotic appetizers, from walleye cakes to bison balls, and a page of soups and salads, all fresh and mostly organic. The page of entrees includes dishes from bison tenderloin to pheasant in sweet plum sauce. Summer evenings you can drink and dine in the Sky Prairie on the Roof, a garden overlooking the city.

Bismarck's The Pirogue Grille, serves dinner only, and the menu changes seasonally. For fall, you'll find appetizers (big enough for two) such as house-made venison sausage with sweet potato salad, or pumpkin gnocci in buttermilk sauce. The roast corn and bison soup are house favorites. Entrees include Alaskan king salmon with pumpkin seed mole and free range chicken with black mission figs and Madeira, among others. Desserts, too, vary by season, although the chocolate paté with raspberry sauce is a standard, or try pumpkin cheesecake with gingersnap crust.

Sanders 1907, in Grand Forks, offers a broad menu for all tastes. Appetizers include authentic French onion soup, calamari and more. Green salads and entree salads, like shrimp salad or chicken Caesar, are followed by house specialties such as Swiss Eiger beef (prime rib), walleye, or roast caraway duck. Other entrees include lamb grilled with garlic, a seafood mixed grill, filet mignon and pasta carbonara. An extensive wine list has something for each choice, including a Japanese wine for Sushi Thursdays -- flown in overnight from Hawaii. The dessert menu also is extensive.