Category: Cleveland

During our daily jaunts around Chagrin Falls last week, for dinner one of those evenings, we hit up Umami, an Asian restaurant with a little twist. Since we had C with us, we wanted to be able to sit outside, and as they have a couple small tables on the sidewalk out front, it worked out perfectly – we got to sit and eat while he people-watched. The weather was perfect, and he behaved pretty well, so it was a rather enjoyable meal.

Dinners are separated into small plates and large plates (and also salads and sushi), and we decided to split one of each. For the small plate, basically an appetizer, we chose Roasted Shiitakes – a nice heap of shiitake mushrooms laced with scallions and black sesame seeds, and served with a ponzu sauce (kind of a citrusy soy sauce). The mushrooms were meaty and tender, and not tough as they can sometimes be. The sauce was nice, not overpowering, but a little on the salty side, though we use a low-sodium soy sauce at home, so we’re accustomed to something a little lighter.

The large plate we split was the Massaman Curry Chicken, strips of chicken tossed with cherry tomatoes, galangal, and peanuts in a lime curry sauce, all served over a bed of black rice. The chicken was very moist and cooked to perfection, and the sauce was light and refreshing, with the lime providing a nice counter to the richness of the peanuts. The rice was sticky and had a light nutty flavor that worked well with the rest of the dish.

Finally, for dessert we shared a jasmine creme brulee, which came topped with a fortune cookie. It was your standard creme brulee (which I’m always a fan of) with just a hint of a flowery background. I’ve had other dishes that utilize flowers or herbs (lavender is a big one), and sometimes the ‘floweriness’ is overwhelming and masks the rest of the flavors. Not so in this case. You can just taste the jasmine, but it’s very delicate and does not take away from the creme itself.

Final verdict: Umami is a nice place for a good casual dinner. Nothing overly fancy here, and the sidewalk seating was a plus, although there are only a couple tables outside, so they may or may not be available. Service was reliable, pricing was reasonable (about $40 for both of us), and the food was very good. Umami gets five stars out of seven.

Note: I’ve revamped my rating system from a possible four stars to seven. S thought four wasn’t enough to cover the range of restaurants we visit, and I gave in without a fight. The best of the best will now get a seven, and Denny’s is still holding down the fort at one star.

A couple weeks ago, S and I crossed another restaurant off of our A-List Challenge. This time it was Balaton, which is located on Shaker Square, and serves Hungarian and central European cuisine. We arrived shortly after they opened on a Saturday afternoon, and were the only ones there, so we had the place to ourselves for a few minutes. My first impression was that this place was not at all into the trendy chic like some of the other places we’ve been recently. This is definitely more of a family, homestyle, Old World restaurant, from the pictures on the walls to the music, which was some kind of mix of 80s hits and New Age (interesting, and kind of amusing, to say the least). But, while some restaurants rely on staying trendy, some get by on food alone, and this is clearly one of those. They’ve been open since the 60s, and if I were to guess, I’d say it probably looks remarkably similar to when it first opened. Of course, they weren’t playing 80s hits in the 60s, but the decor is probably much the same.

We were started off with salad and bread, which was warm and chewy. I ordered the Szekely Goulash, which combined pork tips and sauerkraut, topped with a sour cream sauce, and all served over homemade spaetzle (most everything on the menu comes with the spaetzle). The sauce was a little on the salty side for my taste, but the pork was fall-apart tender, and paired perfectly with the sauerkraut.

S had the wiener schnitzel, which is supposedly their most well-known dish, and I can see why. It was thin and tender, and not overly greasy, as this dish can sometimes get. Again, simple but done near perfectly.

And for dessert – they have a sizeable dessert menu (including lots of crepes and tortes, many with ground chestnuts, which is not common among most dessert menus we see), but we ended up choosing a Chestnut Cream Torte – several layers of walnut cake, intermixed with chestnut cream and a few dollops of whipped cream. The cake was moist and not overly dense, the cream was creamy, and the flavors were super.

All in all, another fine selection. As long as you know what to expect, and you’re not looking for something flashy, but just good homestyle food, you can’t go wrong. One word of advice – get the small portion. Many dishes are offered in small and regular, and since we were heading to a party later that evening, we got the small portions, which were plenty big, even for me (and a couple dollars cheaper). Service was good, prices were reasonable (about $35 for the two of us, including dessert), and the food was good Hungarian staples.

Rating: 3 out of 4

A couple weekends past, S and I were able to go out with another couple for an evening away from the kids and some adult company. We are very fortunate to have a high-quality food scene here in the Cleveland area, and the restaurant of choice this time out was Flying Fig, a quaint little eatery right around the corner from the West Side Market.

The menu changes daily at The Fig, and they like to source as much as possible from local family farms and artisans. It’s a fairly small space, seating maybe 50-60 (totally wild guess, I apologize if it’s way off), not including the bar by the entrance. Lighting is low, and I would imagine it can be quiet, although on this night it was not. Probably my only complaint would be the people at the bar that were a little overly excited, and made it necessary for us to shout on occasion just to be heard across the table. Funny how alcohol tends to make you think that everyone else also wants to hear your conversation… But I digress. The place is casual, after all.

S and I started the evening’s festivities with the Medjool Dates, which were stuffed with chorizo, wrapped in smoked bacon, and smothered in a smoked pepper sauce (and which we’ve since replicated at home – yum!).

For the main course, S went with a molasses glazed Ohio pork loin, which came with sweet potato, pickled radish, watercress, jalapeno, and cilantro. Quite the combination of flavors. I chose a duck leg confit, accompanied by salad of frisee, bacon lardons, duck fat fingerlings, and topped with a poached egg and a dijon vinaigrette. My only other experience with duck was many years ago, and not good, which is surprising, because ordinarily I’m a vacuum when it comes to food. This duck was perfect, however, with a crisped skin and meat that just melted off the bone, and not too fatty.

Finally, there were several very tempting desserts, but we picked the Warm Molten Chocolate Cake, topped with Kahlua syrup, chocolate ganache, and served with fig ice cream. It was as good as it sounds.

The overall experience was very nice – a good place to go to enjoy a night (or at least a couple of hours) of grown-up time and good food. Service was good (I forget our server’s name, but he was a hoot), food was fantastic, and prices were comparable to other similar establishments – total bill was just over $60 for the two of us, which included the appetizer and dessert. 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.

S and I went to Raintree Restaurant in Chagrin Falls for our anniversary dinner last weekend. What, you were thinking the subs with her dad was our anniversary dinner? Anyways, we thought we could catch some dinner and check out the Blossom Time Balloon Festival that evening. Turns out, the balloons didn’t launch (due to wind, I think) but we did have a nice dinner and got to observe the behavior that’s typical of adolescents at a festival.

The restaurant is set in the middle of town, close to the falls. The atmosphere was nice: quiet, relaxing, maybe a little dark for me, but it also could have been because my eyes are still not used to the sun after so many months of gloominess. We got there a little after five, and didn’t have to wait, perhaps because most of the locals were filling up on fried dough and lemonade. Service was prompt, and we got our bread and water right away. Dinner also came out quickly, so no need for too much idle chit-chat 🙂

I ordered one of the nightly specials, a Scrod Spinachi (pictured below – I did the best I could in the low light). This consisted of filet of young cod topped with sautéed mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes, with a side of steamed spinach and smashed potatoes, all in a lobster butter sauce. Good combination of flavors and textures – the fish was perfectly moist and flaky, and I enjoyed the slight chewiness of the tomatoes. The sauce was mild, with just enough lobster to complement the rest of the dish.

S had one of the house specials, the Dublin Lawyer, which was composed of lobster meat sautéed with scallions, mushrooms, Irish whiskey, and cream, all over a rice pilaf. Think lobster stew. Lots of big lobster chunks, and the sauce had a hint of sweetness to it, along with a depth provided by the whiskey. Definitely a good reason that it’s one of the classics.

All in all, it was an enjoyable experience – food was very good, service was good, and prices were reasonable (total cost was around $50 for the two of us, including tip). I’ll give it three out of four stars on my newly created star rankings, with four being the most upscale you can get, and one being Denny’s.