Local West

Yesterday we had dinner at Local West.   They have a variety of nifty sandwiches.  Pictured above is my order, the Groovy sandwich.  It had grilled portabella mushrooms, mozzarella cheese, tomato, and grilled onions.   The bread was nicely crispy.   I had macaroni and cheese as my side

Steve had the macaroni cheeseburger and sweet potato fries.  Obviously, if he had macaroni as his side dish, that would be redundant.   With a little bit of squishing, you can take a bit out of it.   Yum!

No leftovers, but I might have saved half of my meal if the weather were more refrigerator like.   I'd go again.

Belle's Bread

We were in Columbus yesterday and decided to check out Belle's Bread.  When I lived in the area, it was a smaller Japanese bakery that had melon soda and curry bread.   This place is much larger with a full lunch service available.  I was not disappointed.  It has many foods pictured in anime and visual novels.

I had a melon sodal float.   Wonderfully delicious.

Steve had a Calpico float.   Not as flashy as my melon soda but still tasty.

This is a ham and cheese sandwich.   It comes crustless with lettuce and mayo inside in perfect proportions.   I saved half of mine for later.

I also got to try this avocado and tuna sandwich.  I like avocado but wasn't wild about the tuna salad.   

This was Steve's coffee pudding.   Two different layers of creamy goodness.

I went with the mille feuille, which is another name for a neopolitan.   It was ever so decadant.   I really look forward to being in Columbus next to try their lunch menu.

Tabletop Cafe

Steve and I spent part of our weekend at the Tabletop with some friends.   It's a new board game cafe/bar that opened just the other week.   They have a nice selection of games to play.

Here is a picture of their front counter:

It costs five dollars for a play all day pass.   The place was funded by a Kickstarter.

This is the Cleveland Sunshine smoothie.  Very orange and banana.

Steve had the Coffee Banana smoothie.   Self explanatory.

These are the Avocado Pear bites.  They have blue cheese and honey too.  Very tasty.

Lastly, this is the Club Awesome.  You can add chips for fifty cents.   It was yummy.

I think we played at least 4 games.   It was a good time.   The cafe is very close to the West Side Market, so I imagine finding parking on a Saturday would be very difficult.  Definitely worth a visit.

River Dog Cafe

Tonight we had dinner at the River Dog Cafe.   Neat little place.  I didn't realize that they have been open since this past April.   They specialize in fancy hot dogs and sandwiches.  It reminds me of Happy Dog, but without the bar.

I ordered the Jenny Dog.  It's a hot dog with brie, bacon, and truffle honey glaze.  It's a very tasty flavor combination.   The honey glaze is extremely sticky though.

Steve had the Chubalub.  It's a hot dog with crispy onions, scallions, macaroni and cheese, and a fried egg.   Tasty, but again messy to eat.  

We also split an order of Tot-Chos, which are tater tots with taco toppings.   Best to eat these with a fork.  

I really liked this place.  Next time I would like to try their duck breast BLT sandwich.  

87 West

Last night a friend and I went out to 87 West.  The food was tasty and not too expensive.  The restaurant is a wine bar, and they have a nice selection of drinks.   Pictured above is their chicken breast sandwich with gouda, roasted butternut squash, caramelized onions, arugula, and balsamic aioli.  It was a good portion for splitting.

Each of had a bowl of french onion soup.  I wasn't able to finish mine and brought it home for later.  I would like to order their dessert next time.  They have a bananas Foster that I would like to try.

Koko Bakery

 After the show, we stopped in at Koko Bakery in Asia Town for dinner.   I've been there plenty of times, but I hadn't blogged about their food before.   They have bubble tea, Asian-style baked goods, rice bowls, and other good things to eat.   Two years ago we got our Christmas Cake from there.

That was a cream cake with strawberries and kiwi inside.   Not overly sweet, just perfect.

Today we got a couple of egg tarts (far left and right), a curry beef bun (bottom left), a bacon cheese bun (bottom right), and a chocolate mousse (image at top of page).  Yummy!

This is my almond bubble tea.

And this is Steve's mango smoothie.

The portions are the right size.  It's a great place to stop in for a meal or a snack.  Even better for taking home dessert!

Grilled Cheese Goodness!

We went out this afternoon for lunch at Melt with a couple of friends who had never gone before.  It's rather fun going down the list of sandwiches and pointing out all the ones that you have tried.  If you don't remember from my last review, Melt is a restaurant that specializes in grilled cheese sandwiches with many different combinations of ingredients. 

I had the Wake and Bacon, which is eggs, bacon, and American cheese.   They actually ask you how you want your eggs.  I went with over medium, that way the eggs wouldn't be all runny when I bit into the sandwich.

My husband had the Cleveland Cheese Steak.  It contains slow roasted beef, shaved thin, garlic wild mushrooms, sautéed onions & peppers, provolone cheese.  

My friend had the Wake and Bacon, but substituted ham for eggs (foreground sandwich).   It is similar to the former menu item, the Porky Cheese Sandwich.   The Porky cheese sandwich contained honey ham, bacon, and Swiss cheese.  I don't know how long it has been gone from the menu, but it was pretty good.  The sandwich in the background is the January sandwich special, the Hungry Hungarian Paprikash Melt.  It has pulled roasted chicken, homemade dumplings, creamy Paprikash sauce, and provolone cheese.

All of the sandwiches we ordered had french fries and cole slaw.   None of us were really cole slaw fans.   However, Melt will substitute extra fries instead.   I'll keep that in mind for next time.  The sandwiches are served on Texas toast and they are really generous portions.  Each of us boxed half of our sandwich to take home.   Each sandwich is definitely two meals.

Joe's: A Fine Deli & Restaurant

Last night we went out to Joe's Deli, which was highly recommended to me by a couple of friends.  We went of a Friday night, so the place was busy.  The wait time for us was approximately 40 minutes.  The restaurant moved into their new building just last week, and the old one will be torn down for additional parking lot space.  The restaurant also has a dedicated counter for carry out.

We decided to order two different dinner combos.   Each comes with a soup or salad, potato or rice, vegetable, and a roll and butter.   The portion sizes are generous and can easily be shared (for an additional 2 dollar fee if you eat in). Although the wait to be seated was long, once we ordered, the food felt like it just flew out of the kitchen!  The service was speedy and polite.

My husband ordered the matzo ball soup.

 I had the chicken soup.  It was very tasty.  I couldn't finish it all though.  The kitchen didn't skimp on the noodles.  The bowl was swimming with them!

The rolls were warm and firm, but on my friend's suggestion we also ordered muffins.

This one was white chocolate cinnamon my husband picked.

Mine was the butter-rum flavored one.   I think the muffins were one of the best parts of the meal.  They were nice and warm, and I could tell they came right out of the oven.  They are truly a delight and could serve to be dessert.

My husband ordered liver and onions because he never had it before.   That's rice pilaf on the left.

I ordered by fish fry with mashed potatoes and gravy.  It's worth noting that the broccoli florets on the right hand side are about the size of my fist.

Lastly, we ordered dessert to go because we were already so full from all the food!   This is their cassada cake.   We split it for breakfast this morning.  It consists of fresh cream, sliced strawberries, and custard filling.  It's sweet, but not overly sweet.

The food at Joe's Deli isn't that expensive considering the volume you receive.  With two dinners, two breakfasts, and a couple of sets of left overs, I'm going to consider this to be six meals. 

Melt Bar and Grilled

I love grilled cheese sandwiches!   There is just something so special and comforting about the simple combination of buttered bread and melted cheese.   Melt Bar and Grilled specializes in many varieties of gourmet grilled cheese and a large selection of beers.

This was my pick tonight, the Parmageddon.  2 potato & cheese pierogi, fresh napa vodka kraut, grilled onions, cheddar. 

My husband had the Turtle Pizza Roll Melt tonight.  Authentic pizza rolls, homemade marinara, basil pesto cream cheese, provolone, romano.  Notice that the pesto sauce resembles the mutagen slime featured in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series!   This was originally a limited time only sandwich of the month and I believed that we had missed it.  However, to our surprise, it is now a permanent addition to the menu!

We split the Wookie's Revenge bread pudding for dessert.  The website describes it as:
"Order 66 got you down? Tired of having your palatial treehouse paradise shot up by battle droids? Forget all your cares with Rich chocolate and banana bread pudding chock full of hickory smoked bacon and chunks of Reese’s peanut butter cups. Topped with a chocolate peanut butter glaze and toasted coconut and garnished with whipped cream, chocolate sauce, coconut flakes and crumbled bacon."

We were actually warned that it contained bacon and were assumed to be vegetarian tonight!   We just both happened to order vegetarian sandwiches tonight, so it was very nice of the server to make sure of our diet choices.

The bread pudding was very rich, but I think the most prominent flavor after the chocolate was the coconut.   I couldn't seem to locate as many peanut butter cups or bacon bits.  Still, it was very tasty.

My husband and I both boxed up one half of our sandwiches to go home along with a heaping portion of fries.   One order at Melt definitely yields two meals.