We had a few good dining experiences in the western suburbs of Cleveland while in town for my cousin’s wedding. The first came on our first morning in town. As we were driving across town from one hotel to another, we stumbled into the Coffee Pot restaurant in Lakewood. My wife researched nearby breakfast places while I ran into Target for a quick purchase and the Coffee Pot was her suggestion.

Outside Coffee Pot

It would be very easy to drive past the Coffee Pot without even noticing it was there. I don’t recall any protruding signage, just the simple neon in the front window. We were looking for it and nearly drove right past it. The inside is as simple as the outside with a few booths around the front and right sides, a long bar counter on the left where the server/cashier worked, and some small tables filling the rest of the space. At the back was the kitchen, where one cook worked to prepare all the food.

Inside Coffee Pot

We were told to sit where we like from the woman behind the counter. I found a high chair beneath the register for our little one, and she was right over to take a drink order. I just had water and my wife tried their run of the mill diner coffee. Though nothing on our visit would be out of this world, it was all so cheap and in plentiful quantities. For breakfast my wife had an omelette which was served with home fries and your choice of toast.  I didn’t sample the omelette, but she really seemed to enjoy it. The home fries were really good served with sautéed onion in the mix.

Omelette

I ordered a short stack of blueberry pancakes and a side of bacon. When my order arrived I was sure glad I went with the short stack of two pancakes. These were the largest and thickest pancakes I had ever seen. Even with my  wife’s  assistance, I could only eat one and a half. The bacon was crisp, just the way I like it to be.

Blueberry Pancakes And Bacon

Our entire meal cost us $16.39 including tip. The Coffee Pot is a great place for a cheap and filling breakfast.

My wife and I are slowly working our way through all the restaurants in our new neighborhood of Hyde Park. Two Sundays ago we stopped in at Poco a Poco  for dinner. We arrived around 6pm and found the restaurant mostly deserted except for a couple of tables outside on the front sidewalk. We also choose to sit outside to enjoy the wonderful fall weather. The same employee who sat us at our table was also our server for the evening.

Sangria

After looking through the rather extensive drink menu, my wife and I decided on a couple of drinks. She had the sangria while I went with the  sazerac. Both were fairly typical drinks, though I was shocked to see mine served in a martini glass. I had only had it served in an old-fashioned glass before. Also interesting was the color of the sangria was white and not red, like usual.  Next time I think I’ll just go with a beer, as the drinks were rather pricey and nothing outstanding.

Sazerac

Prior to our visit I was told that this was a tapas style restaurant, however when I glanced at the menu that was not the vibe I got at all. I saw a fairly typical layout of appetizers, entrées  , with a special section highlighting tacos. There is also a large selection of sides available. I guess you could order a couple different plates of tacos and some sides and then split it, but this is not what I think of when I hear tapas.

Rancheros

After going over the menu a couple of times I decided on the Rancheros ($16). This features 18 hour slow roasted pork stewed in tomatoes & smokey chipotles, served with refried beans &  Latin  rice. Not pictured above are the three tortillas that were served on the side, basically so you could make your own tacos. The price is higher than the other tacos on the menu, but this dish includes the beans and rice side, which I could have easily skipped. However the rancheros were delicious! The menu doesn’t  mention the soft cheese that was served on top of the mixed stew, but I really enjoyed it’s presence. If I could order these without the sides I would definitely get them again.

Vegetales Tacos

My wife ordered the  Vegetales tacos with grilled summer squash sauteed with red & green bell peppers, dressed with sour cream vinaigrette, fried avocados & pickled jalapenos ($9). She really enjoyed these and after just a couple of bites I could taste why. The fried avocado was unique and definitely one of the standout ingredients. Also the sour cream vinaigrette that they used was very tasty. I would not hesitate to order this dish again.

After our first visit to Poco a Poco I would suggest skipping the pricey cocktails. The taco plates could easily be shared between guests, but that’s as far as the tapas concept goes. I look forward to future visits so I can sample more of the taco varieties and also some of the sides that are offered. There are also a couple of other entrées  that look good, but those get much more pricey than the tacos.

While attending Second Sunday on Main a couple of weekends ago, I had the pleasure of trying my first slices from Fireside Pizza. I forgot to snap a photo of the food truck like contraption, but fortunately they have one on their website. Once I spotted this unique food cart I knew exactly what I wanted to have for lunch.  My wife agreed and we decided to split a pizza with pepperoni, roasted red peppers, and mushrooms.

Our Pizza Creation

After placing the order I was told to check back in ten or fifteen minutes and that it would be ready. After running into some friends and looking through some of the street fair vendors, I walked back to find our pizza waiting for us. The crust of the pizza was perfect! I love a nice crisp outside crust that is still warm and chewy on the inside. The sauce had a little sweetness to along with the fresh tomato taste and the toppings all seemed to be of the highest quality and in good amounts.

Great For All Ages

Even though he is easy to please, our nine month old son was also a big fan of the pizza!

After having prior dinner plans spoiled due to circumstances beyond our control, my wife and I stumbled into Lemon Grass for dinner. This was the first dinner in a long time without our infant son at our sides. We walked in and asked for a table for two and were led to the back of the restaurant. Upon sitting down my wife and I both realized how dark and dreary it was in the back of this narrow restaurant. We asked our server if we could move toward the front of the restaurant and he directed us toward a table that sat along the front windows. I guess we should have asked for a table up there at the beginning since he seemed more than happy to  accommodate  our request.

Chicken Thai Spicy

I can’t find a menu online other than their lunch offerings, but I think what I ordered was called chicken  Thai  spicy. If that’s not right it was some basic dish of chicken with mixed vegetables in a light but spicy sauce. It was served with a side of white rice. Lemon Grass uses the 1-10 spice rating for their dishes and I went with an 8. It was fairly spicy but I could have used just a bit more I think. Other than that the dish was well prepared and tasted good. I would definitely order it again.

Paht Thai

My wife went with the Paht Thai. The way that the dish was presented was nice in that you could easily leave out some of the ingredients if they were not to your liking. She also ordered an 8 on the spice scale which seemed to be enough for her. I sampled only a small bit of her dish, but it tasted pretty much like Pad Thai should. She agreed that the dish was good and fairly standard, nothing out of this world. With that said I think she would easily order it again on a future visit.

Compared to Bangkok Bistro, which I reviewed earlier this year,  I would say that the spice scale at Lemon Grass seems to be dumbed down just a bit more than the already weak scale at Bangkok. The serving sizes were a bit larger at Bangkok but I also think that their prices were too. With all of that said I would bet that we will likely return to Lemon Grass in the future and I would recommend it as a place to get a solid Thai meal for a very affordable price.

A couple of weekend ago I finally made it to a restaurant that I have wanted to try,  Dilly Café. I actually stopped by earlier that week to pick up a bottle of hard to find Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout. I remembered there being a patio and suggested it to my wife on a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon. We arrived to find the restaurant fairly crowded and were told it would be a fifteen or twenty-minute wait for a table on the patio. We grabbed the paging device and headed to the back of the restaurant where there is a bar. We found an open bar table and before we could even decide on beers our pager had alerted us that our table was already ready. I like when that happens.

We soon realized why the wait for an outside table could be unpredictable as we found that there was only one server taking care of the many tables on the patio. We often had to flag him down to place a drink or food order. Though that made the pace of the meal quite slow, we didn’t mind, and other than the server being overworked he was friendly and very courteous. We actually ended up staying on the patio for the majority of the afternoon, as did a number of other tables. The weather was perfect and their beer selection is quite good.

Grape Pecan Chicken Salad Sandwich

As far as the food goes, I was really impressed. I am a big lover of chicken salad and I especially love it when there are various fruits and nuts (besides almonds) in the fresh mix. Their grape pecan chicken salad had two great additions to the  white meat chicken breast and celery. I really loved the chicken salad as well as the  multi-grain bread, and the lettuce and tomato were top quality. The only thing I should have done was ordered something other than ruffled potato chips on the side.

Mariemont Gobbler

My wife went with the Mariemont Gobbler sandwich, which features  turkey, imported Brie, cranberry chutney, and lettuce on a  baguette. Again this sandwich was very good! A large slice of Brie was included on the sandwich and went perfectly with the cranberry flavor. She also substituted sweet potato fries instead of the chips, which I should have done. I don’t think there was an extra charge and they were much better than the standard chips. Lesson learned and I will be sure to change it up on future visits. We will definitely be back soon, especially since we both bought a recent LivingSocial  coupon.

Pepperoni & Mushroom

Last Friday my wife and I ordered pizza from Ramundo’s Pizzeria for us and her youngest brother who was staying with us for the night. She placed the order and decided to get two 18″ traditional crust pizzas, one with pepperoni and mushroom and the other plain with cheese. We  had the pizzas delivered and they arrived in timely fashion from the tiny pizzeria that is just down the road from our house.

Cheese Pizza

Both pizzas looked great upon delivery and arrived hot from the oven. I started with the pepperoni and mushroom pizza and was immediately hit with a bit of spiciness in the sauce, which I am a fan of. The sauce wasn’t sweet at all like some of the other pizza places around town. The toppings were pretty good and in fairly generous amounts. I also sampled the plain cheese which was good, though in this case I preferred some toppings. The cheese used on the pizzas was good, but the crust was a little plain. I’m told that they also serve New York style pizza, so next time I will have to give that a try. Overall this is a solid pizza that I’m sure we will order often in the future.

As many times as I’ve visited Lucile’s Creole Cafe near our old home in Denver, I have never once reviewed it, other than mentioning it in other reviews as my favorite breakfast place I have ever found. On our most recent visit to the mile high city I made sure that we stopped in for breakfast one morning and I actually took some photos this time around.

On this particular visit we actually arrived before the doors had opened at 8 AM on Saturdays. This was actually not the first time this has happened, but it’s always a good idea to get to Lucile’s early as the wait for tables just gets longer as the day goes on. Fortunately for us we didn’t have to wait for a table any longer that it took to seat the few others that were actually ahead of us, in line before the doors has opened.

Cajun Bloody Mary

If you do find a wait for a table, you can enjoy one of their  Cajun  Bloody Mary’s around the fire pit outside. Their bloody mix is spicy and delicious. The drink comes garnished with a shrimp, okra, olive, and a massive stalk of celery. The also have great mimosas and Cuban OJ.

Carlin County

On 99% of my visits to Lucile’s I always order the same thing, Carlin County ($7.35), which is sausage gravy on a buttermilk biscuit.   Served with red beans and grits (substituting potatoes for grits).  Chef Mickey’s sausage gravy is like nothing I’ve had before. It is really spicy, thick, and full of andouille  sausage. Also worth mentioning are the  biscuits, which are served on the side with many of the other dishes. They are massive, easily enough to share with another.

The red beans are also very good, and while the potatoes themselves are nothing fancy, their homemade ketchup is to die for! In fact we bought a bottle of it to bring home with us. It is that good. They also make their own hot sauce and various jams that are on the table for the biscuits that arrive at your table before the rest of your meal.

My wife typically orders one of four different egg based items:

• Eggs Jennifer –  Thomas’ english muffin, spinach, tomato, avocado, poached eggs and hollandaise. Served with grits or potatoes. $10.20
• Eggs New Orleans – fried eggplant slices with creole sauce, poached eggs and hollandaise. Served with grits or potatoes and a biscuit. $8.95
• Hank’s Eggs – potatoes, onions, peppers, cheddar cheese and three eggs, scrambled together and topped with avocado and tomato. Served with a buttermilk biscuit. $9.20
• Farmer’s Eggs – potatoes, onions, peppers, cheddar cheese, sausage and three eggs all scrambled together. Served with a buttermilk biscuit. $9.20

Downtown on Dwellable

If you’ve followed my blog for any amount of time you know that I enjoy Mexican food. More recently my wife and I have been on a quest for a solid Mexican restaurant close to our new home in Hyde Park. While this wouldn’t fall in the nearby category, La Mexicana in Newport does fall into the solid Mexican restaurant category.

Complimentary Chips and Salsa

La Mexicana was recommended to us by multiple people and we finally found the time to give it a try a couple of weekends ago. We arrived at the unassuming and plainly decorated restaurant just before noon on a Sunday. Immediately chips and salsa were delivered to our table and I noticed a sign across the room stating that the first round was free but any refills would cost us. The chips were fairly standard, but the salsa was delicious! It was refreshing to have a spicy green tomatillo salsa instead of the typical bland red.

Mexican Coke

Whenever I find Mexican Coke on the menu I almost always have to order one. I don’t often drink soft drinks but I make an exception for the sweet taste of Coke make with real cane sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup. Yum!

Torta

For lunch my wife decided to really mix it up and ordered the Mexican sandwich known as a torta. Similar to most items on the menu, you have your choice of twenty, yes twenty, different meat and  vegetarian  fillings. She went with the pollo, grilled chicken marinated in adobo sauce. The torta is served with lettuce, tomato, onion, avocado, and  mayonnaise. The sandwich looked so good upon its arrival that I agreed to split halves with her. It tasted just as delicious as it looks and sounds. I was pleasantly surprised by this and would definitely consider ordering it again.

Flag Burrito

I decided to try the flag burrito after a recommendation from a friend. She was right on with this recommendation as the burrito was excellent. I also ordered it stuffed with grilled marinated chicken. Also inside were plenty of rice, beans, lettuce, and tomatoes. It was then covered in both red and green sauces and a few streaks of sour cream. It was a gigantic burrito but we managed to eat every last bit. My wife and I both preferred the green sauce, but both were good. I know at the beginning of the review I said La Mexicana was a solid choice, but it went beyond that is already my favorite Mexican restaurant in the city.

My brother recommended McAlister’s Deli to me as a good spot for a quick sandwich. There was actually a location relatively close to our old house in Denver, but I had never heard of it before. Anyway a couple of Saturday’s ago my wife and I found ourselves within a couple of miles of their Mason location and we decided to stop in for lunch.

Outside McAlister's Deli

The location of the deli is in the epitome of the northeastern Cincinnati suburban sprawl, but I won’t hold it against them. Upon entering the front doors we walked down the center of the restaurant to the ordering counter at the back. An employee asked how many in the party and then pointed at the table where we should sit and pointed out the number on the table. We stepped up to a cashier, gave him our number, and then ordered from the rather large menu.

Spicy Southwest Chicken Griller

My wife went with the spicy southwest chicken griller ($6.99), featuring sliced grilled chicken breast topped with guacamole, fire-roasted corn & poblano pepper relish, pepper jack cheese and chipotle ranch  on a ciabatta roll. This sandwich is put on a panini press before being served. I stole a couple of bites and it was good, definitely spicy, but full of lots of different flavors. The price included a choice of side, and she went with the fruit.

Southwest Turkey Melt

I went with the southwest turkey melt ($7.29) with a side of potato salad. This sandwich is layered with smoked turkey, applewood smoked bacon, pepper jack cheese, spicy guacamole and chipotle ranch, then topped with lettuce and tomato on a baguette. I didn’t realize the similarities between what we ordered until the food had arrived, but I was definitely able to taste their similarities. I guess we are kind of predictable with our ordering. This sandwich was also good. The baguette was softer than I was expecting. Most times baguettes from delis are crunchy on the outside, but not this one.

Overall I wouldn’t go out of my way for lunch at McAlister’s but it will do just fine if in the neighborhood.

A couple of Friday’s ago my wife and I were staying in for the night and decided to order pizza from Mio’s Pizzeria. It had been many years since I had last had pizza from Mio’s but once our stuffed pizza arrived I immediately remembered it. To go along with our stuffed pizza we had a coupon for a free original crust pizza and we also added an order of breadsticks. We actually wanted the cheese covered breadsticks but the regular ones were delivered  instead.

Breadsticks

Speaking of delivery, our driver had a cool little handheld credit card machine to process our order. It was nice not having to give our credit card number over the phone for once. But back to the breadsticks. They were very average in taste and though there were six of them, I don’t think it was worth the $4.99 price tag. I would skip these in the future.

Windy City Classic Stuffed Pizza

On to the star of the night, the Windy City Classic stuffed pizza with  Italian sausage, onion, green peppers, and three cheeses. The 13″ large pizza isn’t cheap ($22.99) but it is well worth the cost. Plus the slices of pizza are so large that just two of them is a complete meal. Everything about this pizza was excellent! The mix of cheese was tasty and the sauce was exquisite! Even the crust, which can often be overlooked on a pizza, had a great taste making each slice enjoyable until the last bite. My only complaint was that the toppings on the inside seemed a bit scarce.

Original Crust Pizza

I skipped over the original crust in favor of the stuffed for my first couple of slices, but I did manage to stuff down one slice of this pizza before calling it quits. This 12″ medium pizza would have cost  $10.19 without the coupon. Overall this pizza was pretty good, but in my opinion it couldn’t compare to the stuffed. Maybe if I hadn’t had the stuffed pizza first I would have felt differently about this one, but in my opinion it is worth the extra money to get the stuffed and skip the original. It’s delicious!