WhereToEat: Cincinnati and N.Ky (open chat)

quote:

Originally posted by TJ Jackson

Tastiness is on the tongue of the eater, I suppose.... :-)

Maybe, but this is like driving a Hyundai and comparing it to a Lexus. Hyundai makes a decent car, but......

It may be that I have a higher opinion of Mios because I have them substitute their regular pizza sauce - the type used on their thin crust pizza's - on their stuffed pizza. It's fabulous. I don't like chunky pizza sauces. I did the same thing when I visited Giordano's a couple years ago while on a business trip.

While I'm not sure this has been listed, I had the pleasure of dining at The Root Beer Stand in Sharonville 2 weekends ago. The local Miata club to which I belong began its drive from the place and it was in fact the first day the stand was open for this season.

The Root Beer Stand
11566 Reading Road
Sharonville, OH 45241
Open Mon-Sat 10-9, Sun 11-9

It has been years since I had been there and although it was only 11:30am on a Sunday, I had to try the goods. I had the 6" hotdog with chili and cheese. Hotdog and bun were very big for the 'small" offering and the dog came with mustard, chili and cheese and wrapped in wax paper. Chili was not typical cincy chili, but a blend very common to the ice cream stand genre with cincy chili hints, but definately home made. I enjoyed it to no end.
I also had the root beer of course, and had to get a to-go cup due to time, but most suggest having in the glass mugs to improve flavor and experience.
Sweet yet earthy, the root beer did not dissappoint. If you have never had home made root beer, you mave have to adjust your taste buds a tad from the bottled stuff, but after a few sips the reason these folks have been doing it since 1957 rings home.

I need to get back and try a few more items and get pics so i'll keep you posted.

Prices are reasonable and it's a place I'd suggest for everyone to at least try once.
Enjoy.

Link to restaurant:
http://www.therootbeerstand.com/
Menus are pdf's at bottom of page

Just found a newer Vietnamese place in West Chester weekend before last. Chopsticks is just across from the Voice of America Plaza at Tylersville and Cox Rd. I used to get my Vietnamese fix at Saigon Dragon in Fairfield but haven't felt the ugre to go since I read here it is under new management and isn't as good as it used to be. So it was nice to find a new option.

I ordered the Pho Tai which was full of rare beef and very tasty. For some reason this area hasn't gotten on the Pho bandwagon like a lot of places so I don't have much to compare it too but I will definitely order it again. On another visit I had Hanoi style Rice Noodles. This was a plate of rice vermicelli with bean sprouts, cucumber, rice wine vinegar based sauce and their wonderful grilled pork.

Which leads to the real highlight of the menu the Bánh Mì, or Vietnamese Sandwiches. I am totally hooked on these things. They take good (if not great) french bread and pile it with grilled marinated chicken or pork, shredded carrots, cucumber, (optional) chilis and cilantro. Both meats are very flavorful and the juices mix with the toppings and soak into the bread. All this for less than a comparable sized sandwich at Subway.

The lady behind the bar is always friendly and offers you a complementary soft drink while waiting for takeout. Last time we talked about the dearth of Vietnamese food in SW Ohio and the fact that Pho and Bánh Mì support multiple mini-chains in many other parts of the country. Hopefully we will catch up soon.

I'll try to get some photos and post them next time I go for my fix.

Tom

Enquirer review...agrees about the sandwiches but didn't like much else:

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051103/ENT01/511040302/1026


edited for typos

Great writeup TPD...more more more :-)

It's great to see relatively new posters like yourself digging in and sharing their thoughts and experiences.

Thanks TJ... Been a lurker for a long time and a fan of the Sterns for well over a decade. I'm going to try an follow your lead and get more active on the board.

Tom

BTW in a previous post about Saigon Dragon arianej was looking for Pho with rare beef and tendon. This is on Chopsticks' menu along with Pho with tripe and other specialty cuts. The owner says she has to order some of these cuts from Chicago to get what she needs because they are not available locally.

quote:

Originally posted by jjjrfoodie

While I'm not sure this has been listed, I had the pleasure of dining at The Root Beer Stand in Sharonville 2 weekends ago. The local Miata club to which I belong began its drive from the place and it was in fact the first day the stand was open for this season.

The Root Beer Stand
11566 Reading Road
Sharonville, OH 45241
Open Mon-Sat 10-9, Sun 11-9

It has been years since I had been there and although it was only 11:30am on a Sunday, I had to try the goods. I had the 6" hotdog with chili and cheese. Hotdog and bun were very big for the 'small" offering and the dog came with mustard, chili and cheese and wrapped in wax paper. Chili was not typical cincy chili, but a blend very common to the ice cream stand genre with cincy chili hints, but definately home made. I enjoyed it to no end.
I also had the root beer of course, and had to get a to-go cup due to time, but most suggest having in the glass mugs to improve flavor and experience.
Sweet yet earthy, the root beer did not dissappoint. If you have never had home made root beer, you mave have to adjust your taste buds a tad from the bottled stuff, but after a few sips the reason these folks have been doing it since 1957 rings home.

I need to get back and try a few more items and get pics so i'll keep you posted.

Prices are reasonable and it's a place I'd suggest for everyone to at least try once.
Enjoy.

Link to restaurant:
http://www.therootbeerstand.com/
Menus are pdf's at bottom of page

BOY do I love this place. It's fairly near my workplace, and I found it thanks to this website a few years ago. The opening of The Root Beer Stand is one of the harbingers of spring for me.

The footlong hot dogs are, indeed, a foot long -- at least when viewed through my bifocals. None of this nine-inch stuff for them. And the root beer is indeed terrific. It's brewed using water from a natural spring; before the stand opens every year, the owner must open a manhole, climb down, and open the valve that pipes the spring water to the restaurant.

The decor -- if you can call it that -- is Roadfoodishly quirky: Baseball caps. At least a couple hundred of them. Hanging from the ceiling.

If you've never been, you owe it to yourself to go. I usually go out to lunch on Fridays.

One caution about the root beer stand - do the dogs and the rootbeer.

Skip the hamburgers, not good at all.

Then, of course, there is the "Timmydog": A footlong with everything -- and I do mean everything. Chili, cheese, onions, coleslaw -- you name it. I had a coworker who usually ate two.

Today, and the ripe old age of 42 (nearly 43), I ate for the first time at a restaurant serving Ethiopian food.

*shrug* I'm still a learner when it comes to foods.

It appears that the Langano Ethiopian Restaurant (map: http://www.gototown.com/cgi-bin/map.cgi?est_id=1896&MapButton=Map+with+Parking) opened in more or less the same space the venerable Temple Restaurant a bit earlier this year and is starting to attract a few customers. The menu is very limited and I think they're only open for breakfast and lunch, and are closed Monday

I had something called Gored Gored, served with a weird spongey "bread" - more like a very thin, very moist pancake rolled into a cylinder - and I did not get it's name but it was really good. It was basically small beef cubes (I was told these were typically served raw, but I was told they'd cook them if I wanted. I went with cooked for my first time experience) in hot spicy butter sauce, but I have no idea if this is remotely authentic. Maybe one of the readers more familiar with this type of food could tell me? And the name of the rolled bread?



I asked if this was hot before I ordered it, and they said no. I guess their idea of hot is a few hundred degrees higher than mine :-) It was right on the edge of my tolerance level but not over - my eyes were watering b the time I was done

Anyway - I thought trying a whole new cuisine (for me) merited my 2000th post here. This is post 2000.

Ethiopian rolled bread is called injera. The one time I ate Ethiopian food with a few people, all the dishes were served on one gigantic plate with a pile of injera. The idea was to tear off pieces of bread and use them to scoop whichever dish you wanted. Fun for a while, got to be a bit of a sloppy mixed up mess at the end. Plus very spicy.

Some of the Milwaukee regulars here seem to eat at an Ethiopian place there, maybe they'd know more about this cuisine.

Thanks TJR - I'll be going back for something they call "wot". Hopefully, it won't be nearly as spicey-hot.

Do the rolled "injera" shown above resemble what you had?

I like spice, but don't like as much spice-heat.

Yes, I'd say the injera looked like that. I think the meat dishes had much less liquid served with them but they had either vegetables or beans mixed in so were a bit different. Did your dish have a disk of injera at the bottom along with the basket of rolled ones?

Somehow we knew to unroll the bread, tear it into pieces, and use it to scoop up/dab the meat dishes. Now I'm hungry for injera - a search of recipes finds some hokey sounding fake ones and a few that sound like the real thing.

At some point in this thread, I seem to recall mentioning that the local Cincinnati franchises of Pizzeria Uno had changed their name to "Za", serving pretty much the same menu items but severing ties with Pizzeria Uno Corporate

The latest development is that the downtown location, in a prime space directly across the street from the Aronoff Theatre, has closed entirely and without any notice that I am aware of.

Update 5/19/2006: Now there is a "closed for Remodeling" sign in their window, implying that the pizzeria will reopen at some point in the near future.

The Cincinnati location of Hamburger Mary's has also servered ties with the Hamburger Mary's "chain" and is now named "The Universal Cafe"

Not sure if the menu is similar, but I'd bet it is

I've mentioned somewhere that the downtown location of Graeter's ice cream closed in late 2005, with no plans to open at a different spot

What I have leaned since is that Cafe Martin on Vine between 8th and 9th streets has arranged to sell a limited selection of Graeter's ice creams (including their famous chocolate chip ice cream) from a walk up counter inside the cafe.

I don't know if this will be available year round or just for the summer, but at least it is an option if you are staying downtown now.

quote:

Originally posted by TJ Jackson

Today, and the ripe old age of 42 (nearly 43), I ate for the first time at a restaurant serving Ethiopian food.

*shrug* I'm still a learner when it comes to foods.

It appears that the Langano Ethiopian Restaurant (map: http://www.gototown.com/cgi-bin/map.cgi?est_id=1896&MapButton=Map+with+Parking) opened in more or less the same space the venerable Temple Restaurant a bit earlier this year and is starting to attract a few customers. The menu is very limited and I think they're only open for breakfast and lunch, and are closed Monday

I had something called Gored Gored, served with a weird spongey "bread" - more like a very thin, very moist pancake rolled into a cylinder - and I did not get it's name but it was really good. It was basically small beef cubes (I was told these were typically served raw, but I was told they'd cook them if I wanted. I went with cooked for my first time experience) in hot spicy butter sauce, but I have no idea if this is remotely authentic. Maybe one of the readers more familiar with this type of food could tell me? And the name of the rolled bread?



I asked if this was hot before I ordered it, and they said no. I guess their idea of hot is a few hundred degrees higher than mine :-) It was right on the edge of my tolerance level but not over - my eyes were watering b the time I was done

Anyway - I thought trying a whole new cuisine (for me) merited my 2000th post here. This is post 2000.

Wow. My mouth is watering just looking at this, and I just finished dinner an hour ago.

quote:

Originally posted by TJ Jackson

At some point in this thread, i seem to recall mentioning that the local Cncinnati franchises of Pizzeria Uno had changed their name to "Za", serving pretty much the same menu items but severing ties with Pizzeria Uno Corporate

The latest development is that the downtown location, in a prime space directly across the street from the Aronoff Theatre, has closed entirely and without any notice that I am aware of.

I was just here a week or two ago with no mention of any problems. Was VERY slow though.

TJ, just went , with 15 friends this past Friday to the Schoolhouse restaurant where Buddy Roadhouse did his due dilligence last month.

I'll post a further review if you want more info as i think we darn near tried most of the stuff on the menu.

LMK.

Jerry

TJ, Ya been to June Bug's recently?

Well, I went back and gave City Q Barbecue another try today after a long day of flying rockets. I ordered a "Big City" platter with beef brisket and pulled pork. The brisket was really impressive, while I found the pork a little blah. (The pulled pork I made on my home smoker a couple of weeks back was a lot more flavorful.) I was shocked at how slow the business was for 6:00 on a Sunday evening. Nowhere close to full. True, there are a lot of other choices in the Tylersville Road area, but it was still a shock to get in and get served as fast as I did. (This gives me two nice choices for Sunday post-launch dinners. Chipotle is right across the parking lot.)

JJRfoodie: If you really, really liked it, format up a post like the ones in the review thread and I will supply a photo for it later as well as my comments (from visits perhaps 2 year ago). If you didn't just post about it here.

WVHillbilly: There have been a number of shootings in that area and the brother of the owner allegedly (it's on film, and he's admitted to it, but I say allegedly only because he is not convicted of it right now) shot a prominent political activist on the steps of Town Hall during a city council meeting. The victim died later, so now the charge is murder. Front page local news for several days. The shooter worked as a cook at June Bug's. I'm staying away from the area for now.

Wallyum: Glad you liked it. Have you tried Jim Dandy's right at the Sharonville exit off I-75? I figure that's right on your way as well. My favorite local BBQ is now Pit to Plate on Compton in College Hill. Also, I am planning a return trip to Langano (hopefully this week) for a tumeric-spiced dish they call a "Wot"

quote:

Originally posted by TJ Jackson

JJRfoodie: If you really, really liked it, format up a post like the ones in the review thread and I will supply a photo for it later as well as my comments (from visits perhaps 2 year ago). If you didn't just post about it here.

WVHillbilly: There have been a number of shootings in that area and the brother of the owner allegedly (it's on film, and he's admitted to it, but I say allegedly only because he is not convicted of it right now) shot a prominent political activist on the steps of Town Hall during a city council meeting. The victim died later, so now the charge is murder. Front page local news for several days. The shooter worked as a cook at June Bug's. I'm staying away from the area for now.

Wallyum: Glad you liked it. Have you tried Jim Dandy's right at the Sharonville exit off I-75? I figure that's right on your way as well. My favorite local BBQ is now Pit to Plate on Compton in College Hill. Alo, I am planning a return trup to Langano (hopefully this week) for a tumeric-spiced dish they call a "Wot"

Whoa, that's a wild story! I met JB's brother when I was there. He was one of the cooks. . . also, his best friend was one of the cooks.
It's not the best neighborhood in Cincy, but it seemed clean and safe during the day. JB said that none of the street corner thugs dared come onto his corner.
JB seemed very connected to local politics. He has mural in his restaurant depicting both national and local political and social leaders.
Sorry to hear of such a mess. I hope JB was not involved.

I've seen the mural....of course, the largest image on the mural and centered therein is his own picture :-)

Please check out the following two links

http://www.wcpo.com/news/2006/local/04/26/beatty.html
http://www.wcpo.com/news/2006/local/04/15/oba.html

and yes, I had met Howard (the alleged shooter) a year or so ago on one of my trips to June Bug's as well.

Wow,
What a sad story.
What a terrible waste.

This week's Cincinnati Enquirer dining news had enough of significance that I thought it worthwhile to post a link to it here

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20060512/ENT01/605120307/1026/rssenq0502

To sum:
- The Diner on Sycamore is reopening as "Vinyl" serving "modernized comfort food"
- Tousey House in Florence is closing. Arguably was the best fine dining restaurant in Northern Kentucky
- Hamburger Mary's reopening as Universal Cafe. I mentioned this about a week ago in this topic, but there's more detail in the article

quote:

Originally posted by tpd

BTW in a previous post about Saigon Dragon arianej was looking for Pho with rare beef and tendon. This is on Chopsticks' menu along with Pho with tripe and other specialty cuts. The owner says she has to order some of these cuts from Chicago to get what she needs because they are not available locally.

Thanks, tpd! :) I just got caught up and saw your previous post too, Chopsticks looks like someplace we'll definitely have to try. I love good pho tai, and the presence "specialty cuts" is a good sign.

Am curious about the banh mi as well, I've seen it in San Francisco but never in this area yet.

quote:

Originally posted by TJ Jackson

Thanks TJR - I'll be going back for something they call "wot". Hopefully, it won't be nearly as spicey-hot.

Do the rolled "injera" shown above resemble what you had?

I like spice, but don't like as much spice-heat.

Doro wat? I like that, but heat level varies. I don't know if it'll be as spicy as what you had the first time, but I'm intrigued that another Ethiopian place has opened up in the Cincinnati area.

The other area places I've tried this cuisine has been the East African Restaurant in Cincy and the Blue Nile in Columbus. Both places served it on a large platter with a big round of injera on the bottom and piles of food on top. EA serves the extra injera rolled up similarly to your picture.

I don't know if you're a big fan of lamb, but Blue Nile has a dish called "Yebeg Tibs", it's chunks of lamb, peppers, and onions-- incredible combo. I think both places have sampler dinners we usually get... a nice assortment of meat, lentil and vegetable dishes. Sometimes it comes with a slightly sweetish pile of cheese curds that ought to help kill the fire in one's mouth. ;)

quote:

Originally posted by arianej
Doro wat? I like that, but heat level varies. I don't know if it'll be as spicy as what you had the first time, but I'm intrigued that another Ethiopian place has opened up in the Cincinnati area.

Variety is good :-)

They have like 3 different dishes labelled "wot". Unfortunately, they didn't have a carryout menu I could take with me for reference

quote:

Originally posted by arianej
The other area places I've tried this cuisine has been the East African Restaurant in Cincy and the Blue Nile in Columbus. Both places served it on a large platter with a big round of injera on the bottom and piles of food on top.

I might be able to get over to Teranga (in a strip center on Vine just north of Galbraith in the Hartwell area) at some point.

The second time I went into Langano, they had the injera flat on the plate, like one might place a doily under a fancy dessert. The oblong dish of meat and sauce was then placed atop that. I thought it odd to stack dishes atop food, and so I lifted it up and pulled the injera out before I chowed down

quote:

Originally posted by arianej
I don't know if you're a big fan of lamb, but

I like lamb chops, but I've yet to have lamb any other way. I am guessing I'd like it. The menu at Langano has a "Lamb and Beef" heading, but none of the dishes include lamb at this time. I am guessign they'll add it in when/if they have enough traffic to justify the added food cost.

quote:

Originally posted by arianejBlue Nile has a dish called "Yebeg Tibs"

One of the dishes at Langano is called "Tibbs" but it is a beef dish. with the same pictured sauce more or less plus onions and jalapeno peppers. Again, I had to have them tone down the heat, as I am such a spice-heat wimp.

quote:

Originally posted by arianejSometimes it comes with a slightly sweetish pile of cheese curds that ought to help kill the fire in one's mouth. ;)

On my second visit, they served me some boiled milk in a side dish - very mild and sweet, reminded me a bit of a cross between ricotta and cream cheese

TJ, did you ever get around to trying Hibachi Master on Beechmont? We went again for the first time in almost two years last night and found that it has changed from a counter-service place to a sit-down place with waitresses. The food was very much the same, but the final bill had doubled since our last visit. We probably won't be making another trip as a family because something about the meal has affected my wife's stomach on the last two occasions, but I might go with the kids.