Ethnic Food in Cincinnati

I tried this once in International Forum but got very little response, maybe this is the better place for it. Especially interested in Asian food in Northwest Cincy but willing to try any good ethnic food and will travel for it. Hope you have some good suggestions. Thanks.

Are there any Ethiopian restaurants in Cincy?

carl reitz

Citybeat lists two, although I have no idea if they are current.

Call before you go.

http://www.citybeat.com/gbase/Restaurant/restaurantsearch?restaurant.neighborhood.district=%2A&cuisine=Ethiopian

Never been to either.

An interesting looking place has opened up at the corner of Northland and Southland Blvd's in Forest Park. Don't remember the ethnicity, will try to stop by and file a report here.

TJ, thanks for the Citybeat lead. I have not lived in Cincy for a dozen years so I do not know the area well anymore. But the Citybeat had listings for all kinds of neat food, i.e. Sri Lankan. Thanks for the tip.

carl reitz

Carlton: The Cincinnati Enquirer, after trumpeting the arrival of the first IHOP in Cincinnati (wow, I guess Cincinnati really has arrived on the culinary scene, we have an IHOP now) also goes on to review one of the Ethiopian restaurants listed on Citybeat, so I guess they really are open :-)

The review: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041112/ENT01/411120313/

quote:

Originally posted by TJ Jackson

Carlton: The Cincinnati Enquirer, after trumpeting the arrival of the first IHOP in Cincinnati (wow, I guess Cincinnati really has arrived on the culinary scene, we have an IHOP now) also goes on to review one of the Ethiopian restaurants listed on Citybeat, so I guess they really are open :-)

The review: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041112/ENT01/411120313/

TJ, I had a letter to the editor published in the Enquirer after the "Jinkies! Chain Restaurants!" Piece.....they quoted a Hyde Pahk lady as saying "who has time to cook?" I went, as the saying goes, off.....

They're building an IHOP in the former Beechmont Mall area now too....

I wish I had seen this article. I don't get the paper, I rely on the Enquirer website for web versions of their articles, and not all of them make it there.

I can't even find the article (or your editorial reply) in a search of the enquirer site.

Is it linkable? if so, you got one?

When was it?

Oh, and we just got our local Applebees in the past year as well, right on the Beechmont strip. Don't know how we survived without one this long. *laff* The place is always packed, and I have no idea why except lots of people in Cincinnati like dull formula-based food.

quote:

Originally posted by TJ Jackson

Carlton: The Cincinnati Enquirer, after trumpeting the arrival of the first IHOP in Cincinnati (wow, I guess Cincinnati really has arrived on the culinary scene, we have an IHOP now) also goes on to review one of the Ethiopian restaurants listed on Citybeat, so I guess they really are open :-)

The review: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041112/ENT01/411120313/

I thought the A-frame building on Beechmont was once an IHOP. I think it's a bar now. It might have changed names since, but at one time it was called the Blarney Stone. We ate lunch there on an 8th grade class trip and I swear it was an IHOP at the time. (McDonald's was packed, so myself and several of my fellow class rebels (AKA: troublemakers) ran across Beechmont to eat. We got in trouble later, but several of our less adventurous classmates were still in line at McD's when we finished.)

A buddy of mine who worked in the the same area for years as a youngster confirms that the frame building across from McDonald's indeed was once an IHOP....out of business by the early 80's.

Let's say we haven't had an IHOP in years and years, and now we are about to get the first of 3 in the area.

quote:

Originally posted by TJ Jackson

A buddy of mine who worked in the the same area for years as a youngster confirms that the frame building across from McDonald's indeed was once an IHOP....out of business by the early 80's.

Let's say we haven't had an IHOP in years and years, and now we are about to get the first of 3 in the area.

Yes indeedy. I grew up in Anderson Twp. and remember the IHOP well. If not at all fondly.

Apparently, IHOP has made Cincinnati it's "go to" place to test new menu items as well.....

This is totally off topic but cincinnati is also a test market for Red Lobster according to a waitress at the one on Colerain Ave.

Are they testing to see if Cincinnati can really be fooled into thinking RL is serving seafood?

carl reitz

Well, pretty much every Red Lobster in the city is packed every weekend night and does strong business every weekday night.....so I think this has already occurred, to be honest.

Cincinnati loves chains. Could be due to the very conservative nature this city is so well known for.

Sad nonetheless

Are you saying something detrimental about conservatives???? Hey, I'm just kidding. I live in Knoxville, we have too many conservatives here as well, TJ.

carl reitz

Nah, I think it's more about valuing predictability.

My wife, for example, is more interested in the predictably decent results at what she considers to be a good chain than to take chances on up and down single location places.

So I'll want to go to a family owned hole in the wall Italian place, she'll want to go to Olive Garden. She knows what she'll get there, suprises are rare. I want to go to a mom and pop pizza joint, she want's LaRosa's.

The places she likes with few exceptions are all chains: Cracker Barrel, Bob Evans, Frischs, Olive Garden, Dixie Chili, White Castle etc etc. I think most Cincinnatians are like that.

quote:

Originally posted by TJ Jackson

The places she likes with few exceptions are all chains: Cracker Barrel, Bob Evans, Frischs, Olive Garden, Dixie Chili, White Castle etc etc. I think most Cincinnatians are like that.

I really wouldn't consider Dixie Chili a chain.

Three locations does not a chain make?

http://www.dixiechili.com/locations.php

:-)

quote:

Originally posted by TJ Jackson

Three locations does not a chain make?

http://www.dixiechili.com/locations.php

:-)

There were five at one time. Clifton I'm sure of because I vividly recall trying to eat a plate of spinning coneys there one night, and Independence I'm fairly sure of, but don't quote me because I have no firsthand knowledge of one, just a fuzzy memory from my college years. (Now that I think of it, most of those memories from that time period are fuzzy.)

quote:

Originally posted by Wallyum

quote:

Originally posted by TJ Jackson

Three locations does not a chain make?

http://www.dixiechili.com/locations.php

:-)

There were five at one time. Clifton I'm sure of because I vividly recall trying to eat a plate of spinning coneys there one night, and Independence I'm fairly sure of, but don't quote me because I have no firsthand knowledge of one, just a fuzzy memory from my college years. (Now that I think of it, most of those memories from that time period are fuzzy.)

According to Calvin Trillin's American Fried, Bert Workum of The Kentucky Post told him that Dixie Chili was the only place you used to be able to get a Seven-Way! A seven-way was a five-way with the addition of chopped-up wieners and topped with a fried egg.

I'm going to put in another plug here for the Saigon Dragon, a truly excellent place to get Viet and Chinese cuisine at very reasonable prices - wonderful lunch specials with rice, entree, soup, and eggroll for 3.95. The place is a bit shabby in appearance and it is a bit hard to spot (rh side of the road if heading north from JJ) but its true roadfood, imho.

It is just north of the famed Jungle Jims, so shop there then when you've worked up an appetite, head for Saigon Dragon

Closed on Tuesdays. No idea why.

quote:

Originally posted by carlton pierre

Are there any Ethiopian restaurants in Cincy?

carl reitz

The Blue Nile, up the road in Columbus on N. High St. has good Ethiopian fare.....

Is the Cincy breakfast meat Goetta considered ethnic or merely regional?

I don't 'know' the stat's on how Many Ethiopians actually reside in or near Cincinnati, But I can tell you there was a whole 'Wadi' full of extremely Tall Skinny Afro-Something folks filling the aisles of the African food and spices section at Jungle Jim's a couple of weeks ago. Maybe it was a tour bus stop??

Goetta is regional, not ethnic

quote:

Originally posted by Al-The Mayor-Bowen

....at Jungle Jim's a couple of weeks ago.

All these trips up here to JJ's and you never report on any good roadfood type places you eat at around here :-)

I still say you need to hit one of the following on your next trip:

Blue Ash Chili
Saigon Dragon
Pit to Plate BBQ
Price Hill Chili
Mio's Pizza
Sugar N Spice (morning/early afternoon only)

:-)

quote:

Originally posted by TJ Jackson

quote:

Originally posted by Al-The Mayor-Bowen

....at Jungle Jim's a couple of weeks ago.

All these trips up here to JJ's and you never report on any good roadfood type places you eat at around here :-)

I still say you need to hit one of the following on your next trip:

Blue Ash Chili
Saigon Dragon
Pit to Plate BBQ
Price Hill Chili
Mio's Pizza
Sugar N Spice (morning/early afternoon only)

:-)

OH yeah. Pit to Plate. My boss brought that in for the Thanksgiving dinner at the company last year.....Marvelous barbecue.

Hey, TJ, looks like the Damon's in Eastgate is becoming some sort of Asian restaurant . . . if the addition of the Pagoda overhang and red-lacquered doors with a gold dragon is any indication. (It's a hint....)

Taqueria Mexicano has changed hands and is now "Los Portales." We found this out when we ordered take-out last Friday; we weren't informed on the phone. When we went to pick up the food, they told us of the change and had decided to make their own substitutions for items no longer on the menu! (My wife is particularly lamenting the loss of "wet burritos".) I have to say the food was pretty dreadful..... Another one bites the dust.

Where was Tacqueria Mexicano? I'm afraid I never became acquainted with the place.

quote:

Originally posted by TJ Jackson

Where was Tacqueria Mexicano? I'm afraid I never became acquainted with the place.

In that strip center across from McDonald's and Pizza the Hut, to the south of 32 across from Meijers. It was a very nice place -- good food, good prices, NO clientele. It's where the Cajun place used to be.....

TJ,
It's the timing that does us in about eating on the JJ trips. We usually do the walk-about there hitting all the free samples (Costco Style) especially the dips and cheeses. So when we come out of JJ's we have grazed our way to "semi-Full". One of these days we'll decide to chow-down BEFORE entering the store, and I will use your list to satisfy our needs then.
AL

Mr Mayor: *grin* awesome