eatout-annarbor

Kana/pacific Rim

I disagree with the guest reviewer and with PsychTree Auxin regarding Kana. I wen to Kana twice, once in the old location and once in the new (now occupied by Pacific rim), thought the food was OK but the proselytizing was too heavy. Yeah, Jesus is just all right with me too, but when I am in a restaurant I want to eat, not have a prayer-huddle...

La Shish

Wow! I just found out that La Shish has opened an Ann Arbor branch over on Carpenter. This is like their fifteenth location now, but never before have they been so close to the People's Republic of Ann Arbor.  Their Dearborn branch was one of my favorite lunch and dinner places when I used to work as a consultant at Ford in the early '90's. I will definitely be reviewing them for nicetaste.com as soon as I get time.

La Shish in Ann Arbor/Pittsfield
2370 Carpenter Rd.
Pittsfield Township, MI 48108
734-973-2737

Even good restaurants have bad days

Last month, I wrote a post that highly praised the Oasis Grill on South University.  I was there last Sunday at 12:30 PM, the midst of the lunch hour. Nobody was eating there, and I soon realized why. They were mopping the floors with a nasty smelling solution that totally spoiled the restaurant atmosphere. I got my food to go and ate it next door in the Rendezvous Cafe.

Talking with the guy behind the register at the Rendezvous, one of the owners of both places, I learned that their regular cleaning folks had not come the night before, and they didn't discover it until they came in not long before opening time. It's a real dilemma - leave a dirty floor all day, or have a bad smell for a couple of hours during one of the heavier traffic periods. I would have gone with the dirty floor, but then I have no idea how dirty it was. It was their call, though.

In any case, it illustrates a common problem. Even good restaurants have bad days, at least some of which are out of their control. You can get the best of recommendations from someone who practically lives in a bistro, only to visit it on a bad day and think it's terrible. If the recommendations are good, don't be so judgmental that you won't give them a second try.

In the case of the Oasis Grill, I could have gone a few blocks west to the Ali Baba, or a few more to Jerusalem Garden, but I was on a quick break from a heavy study session at the library and valued my time more than the entertainment value of the food. Either way, I can forgive them for that day's problem. If they're mopping the floor again next Sunday at lunchtime, I won't be so forgiving.

Ann Arbor Dining Resources

Another colleague at www.nicetaste.com posted a list of websites that talk about Ann Arbor options for eating out. Not very encouraging to diners... I'm glad we've started www.nicetaste.com!

Sushi.com

There is a post about sushi.come by one of my colleagues at nicetaste.com, one of my favorite restaurants. Cheap, good japanese food! I usually get a kampyo roll and a salmon-skin roll, which together is a $9 lunch including tip. My wife gets a cucumber roll and kampyo roll for under $5.

If you've never tried kampyo, please do. It's strips of pickled squash that are suitable for American taste - not fishy, not spicy, just yummy...

Best Beer in Town

My vote: Leopold's, just south of Downtown on Main. The beer is microbrewed on-site, excellent, and organic to boot to satisfy your inner granola-child. The place is a bit like an airplane hangar, but the food is pretty good and it is a great place to take a big bunch of your friends. The picnic table seating works well, and they have all the usual bar games, plus a living-room like area with stuffed chairs and couches and whatnot. But you're there for the beer.

Students (and everybody else): don't drink and drive. It's an easy walk from campus.

Oasis Grill

You can find the Oasis Grill at 1104 South University, next to the National City ATM at the corner of East University.  It is the descendant of the hole-in-the-wall Oasis snack bar that is now a candy shop.  Both the new Oasis Grill and the candy store are owned and run by the same folks who do the Rendezvous just east of the candy store.

My wife and I used to love getting food from the Oasis and eating outside on the picnic table in front in warm weather. We'll see if that still will be possible next spring. The new place has most of the same food, but a bit upgraded in my opinion. I love Middle Eastern food because it is so healthy compared to the grease-laden fast food alternatives. Some of my favorites there:

• Tabbouli, a salad made from parsley and cracked wheat (aka bulgur), along with lemon juice, a bit of tomato, and some additional herbs. Sounds jarring from a traditional American perspective, where parsley is a decoration on the edge of the plate that we throw away after eating the meat and potatoes.
• Fattoush, a salad with bits of pita bread and yummy dressing.
• Felafel, a deep-fried croquet sort of thing made from chickpeas ground up and mixes with spices. Typically you eat felafel wrapped up in a pita with lettuce, tomato, and sesame tahini sauce, but felafel can be put on top of any of their salads (as can chicken or beef shawarma).
• Chicken or beef shawarma, usually eaten in a pita bread sandwich but also available as an entrée. Spicy but not hot-spicy.

The one thing we miss is the tofu fapita, which was a kind of pita sandwich with cubed tofu simmered in a spice sauce. It was totally not Middle Eastern, but amazingly good and nutritious.

I don't know if you can take food from here over to Rendezvous, as you used to be able to do with the food from the hole-in-the-wall place.  It was nice in the winter to take a felafel sandwich or tofu fapita over to Rendezvous to eat with an espresso.

All in all, a new favorite fast-food place for me.

Tip Jar

If you give a large enough gift, I will cure cancer and create a peaceful world in which everyone has everything they need, and nobody gets two cookies until everybody gets one. Smaller gifts will be spent on cigars, port-barreled Glenmorangie single-malt scotch, late-bottled-vintage port, and donations to Food First. Not necessarily in that order.

Café Verde

The person quoted in the previous post can be forgiven on one basis, which is that s/he was writing in 2003, before the Food Bar at Café Verde on Fourth Street hit its stride. At this point, is is a great place to get decent, cheap food, including a reasonably diverse salad bar, two or three excellent soups, and hot bar items ranging from organic roast chicken to vegan/macrobiotic dishes.

Blatantly stealing from the current-as-I-write-this version of their Web site, here is their description of what they offer at the Food Bar:

Sample Sunday Brunch Menu:

Smoked Mozzarella Frittata, Cinnamon French Toast, Buttermilk Pancakes, Tofu Scramble, Herb Roasted Potatoes, plus oatmeal, granola, yogurt, cottage cheese, organic fruit salad, and more.

Sample Lunch & Dinner Menu:

Soups: Chicken Noodle; West African Peanut; Potato, Leek & Celery Root
Entrees: Linguine with Tuna,Capers and Olive Oil; Szechuan Tofu and Broccoli
Side Dishes: Organic Herb Garlic Potatoes; Brussels Sprouts; Organic Kale; Organic Brown Basmati Rice; Black Beans; Baked Chicken Pieces (Antibiotic- & Hormone-free Free-range)

Typical Salad Bar Items:

mixed greens spinach parsley red onion sprouts celery bell pepper

radish cucumber tomatoes broccoli red cabbage carrots green onions

feta cheese hummus baba ganouj pasta salad barley salad lentil salad yogurt

marinated tofu sesame sticks peanuts raisins sunflower seeds pumpkin seeds garbanzo beans

kalamata olives pickled beets parmesan cheese cottage cheese pita chips croutons

Because the food is mostly organically grown and very fresh, a meal there is not what I would call cheap. I reserve that term for meals at fast food restaurants; for example, at Wendy's you can get a junior bacon cheeseburger, medium fries and a frosty for a little over three bucks. The only problem is, after you buy it, you have to eat it.

I confess to having done so on numerous occasions, especially when on the road, and to have been satisfied with what I got for what I paid. However, when I compare this to a meal that costs a little over twice the price at Café Verde, there is no comparison. A huge fresh organic salad and a bowl of West African Peanut soup with a nice hunk of bread might set you back $7-8.00, but the quality of the ingredients is very high, the meal is both filling and a delight to eat, and it's good for you to boot.

To offset that effect, if you find it undesirable, head to the espresso bar up front and get yourself a large latté made with whole milk and double vanilla flavoring, and a completely unhealthy dessert. The coffee is all Fair Trade, soy creamer is available, and almost-completely-unhealthy vegan desserts are available.

The atmosphere is on the crunchy-granola side, which suits my taste as an aging Boomer, but the crowd is very diverse. The wireless access is free and as fast as any I've found around town. Computer geeks from the Menlo Institute next door wander in and out, including their generated and veneered leader, Rich Sheridan, who can entertain you with lengthy and animated renditions of old Firesign Theater acts. Now that's something you can't get at the $40-a-plate places. Each to his taste, but this place has everything I need in the way of cheap, healthy eats.

ann arbor is overrated?

In the "ann arbor is overrated" blog (ann arbor is overrated. ? Blog Archive ? A^2^n) I found this comment:

"It is no revelation that here, there are no salad bars or decent places to get healthy, cheap food that doesn’t give bacterial stomach infections.
The best food we’ve had here for under $40 a plate was made in our house. Contrasting this with every other place we’ve lived and we weep. "

I don't mind people bashing Ann Arbor or its food generally, but this was the last straw. Assuming the author does not live in a household of gourmands, he must simply be oblivious to the many fine restaurants here. Therefore, I am starting this blog. Its mission: to help people find the best Ann Arbor area food at the cheapest price.