The March Hit List, Lunch Edition: Shy Bird, Petit Robert, Sumiao Hunan Kitchen, and More

Mida’s regionally focused Italian fare and freshly made pastas are available in the afternoon via its “Express Lunch” menu, which can be enjoyed via patio on weekdays, through full-service indoor dining on weekends and by takeout or delivery seven days a week. It features casual entrees like a 12-inch eggplant parm sub, short-rib lasagna or a fried chicken sandwich with spicy aioli. Any can be coupled with sides like garlic butter focaccia or fontina-stuffed arancini and enjoyed as a set-price lunch combo.

Dining status: open for indoor and outdoor dining by reservation. Order here for takeout and here for delivery.

It’s well established that eating ribs for lunch calls for an afternoon nap, and we think you deserve both. Here to provide the former is the Congress Street outpost of Smoke Shop BBQ, which can furnish your lunch hour with its meltingly tender St. Louis-style pork ribs, which come with a choice of two sides — everything from mashed sweet potatoes with maple syrup to herb butter-slathered Texas Toast. For a comparatively light meal, you can always pull for the fried catfish sandwich, with tartar sauce and bread-and-butter pickles.

Dining status: open for indoor dining by reservation. Order here for takeout.

Rotisserie-centric neobistro Shybird dresses down for lunch, doling out sandwiches like saucy chicken Parmesan on garlic ciabatta bread, or a braised short-rib sandwich with horseradish and pickled red onions. Lighter options include a rotisserie cauliflower melt with crispy onions and lemon aioli, or a warm harvest bowl that tops a base of quinoa, brown rice and greens with butternut squash, kale, and maple Dijon dressing. And of course, there are always the full or half rotisserie chickens.

Dining status: open for indoor and outdoor dining by reservation. Order here for takeout and here for delivery.

Lunch at the Monument is an embarrassment of comfort-food riches. Cases in point: toasted meatball subs with pecorino, wood-fired chicken wings in spicy ancho chili sauce, and slow-cooked carnitas tacos. And that’s not even touching the shareable pizza selection, which includes Buffalo chicken, meatball ricotta, butternut squash with wildflower honey, and more.

Dining status: open for indoor dining by reservation. Order here for takeout and here for delivery.

Add some Gallic élan to your afternoon with a Petit Robert lunch, whether you’re ordering it in or lazing over one of their café-style patio tables. While you’re free to do it up with sautéed foie gras and apricot puree, followed by steak frites au poivre, you can also opt for simpler French delights like a croque monsieur or a Parisienne-style omelet.

Dining status: Open for indoor and outdoor dining by reservation. Order here for takeout and delivery.

The tony Nantucket import allows for quick but decadent lunches of fried softshell crab sandwiches — and of course the foie gras-topped Lola Burgers — as well as lavish main courses, including lobster fried rice with snow peas, and halibut in a smoked soy-sauce glaze or pan-seared over fresh linguini with Livornese sauce. Lola also trades in that other favorite lunch indulgence, sushi, with a wide-ranging menu that lists king crab hand rolls, togarashi-spiced tuna tataki, and specialty rolls like the Yutaka, with barbecue eel and king crab.

Dining status: open for indoor dining by reservation. Order here for takeout and delivery.

Stillwater’s weekly changing “Brown Bag” specials pack portable fare — think Cobb Salad with lemon vinaigrette, or a chicken salad sandwich with smoked bacon — together with hand-cut chips and boxed water for a seamless grab-and-go takeout experience. Alternatively, you can engage either indoors or to go for its heavier-duty comfort dishes, like a smoked pulled pork sandwich on Texas Toast or Ritz cracker-crusted fried chicken thighs.

Dining status: open for indoor dining by reservation. Order here for takeout.

The Back Bay seafood temple has moved from its pint-sized original digs into the much larger space once occupied by sister restaurant Met Back Bay. The takeaway: You can now call ahead to secure a table, and plan for a leisurely afternoon that begins with a “Grande” seafood tower housing a dozen oysters, lobster cocktail, Jonah crab salad, and more, before easing into a basket of fried Ipswich clams, or skate cheeks with whipped potatoes and brown butter.

Dining status: open for indoor and outdoor dining; call 617-267-0691 for reservations.

While Sumiao bucks expectations by focusing squarely on the cuisine of Hunan province, it also offers that most beloved of Chinese restaurant traditions: the lunch special. Weekdays, you can choose from a dozen of Sumiao’s dishes — such as stir-fried braised beef with Fresno peppers, spicy cauliflower with pork belly and garlic, or ginger and scallion chicken with green chile — and have it paired to either hot and sour soup or the pumpkin-based “melted gold” soup for $13.

Dining status: open for indoor dining by reservation. Order here for takeout and here for delivery.

As the only Massachusetts restaurant to be verified by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana — upholding Naples’ exacting standards since 1984 — Mast is a reliable pick for charred yet chewy pies. And during lunch hours, it uses its pizza dough to make panini stuffed with prosciutto di Parma, grilled sirloin steak, or housemade meatballs. Of course, should your afternoon inclinations lean towards pizza, a Diavolo topped by spicy Calabrese sausage or an Ai Funghi with wild mushrooms and black truffle oil is only an ask away.

Dining status: open for indoor dining by reservation. Order here for takeout and delivery.