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Zipping back into Cleveland Heights for a quick bite, we stopped by one of our favorite restie Lemon Grass.
Lemon Grass in Cleveland Heights
various patrons dining at Lemon Grass
Started with a quick order of Stam Rolls which were perfectly G-B-D (Golden-Brown-Delicious).
Stam Roll
Stam Rolls – $5.95
G-B-D for shiz
Although the 6 rolls were thin, we found them to be delicious! Delicious with a light drizzle of the sweet chili sauce.
Inside the rolls
Insides were perfectly cooked and texturally awesome.
Easy order rolls again #crunchamuncha
Our typical order of Pad Thai sounded like an easy winner.
Pad Thai: the most famous thai noodle dish rice noodles stir fried with chicken, shrimp, egg, ground peanuts bean sprouts, scallions and thai spices – $9.75
Pad Thai
A bit heavy on the egg this time, but still delicious as always.
Wish they had more bean sprouts and green onions-thus providing more crunch and temperature differences. Fresh crisp and hot and spicy.
Easy order again too.
Since we’re heavy on the starches, we opted to try some fried rice (my death row meal).
House Fried Rice: Shrimp, chicken green peas, baby corn, red peppers, onion and tomatoes served with a cucumber and a wedge of lime – $11.50
House Fried Rice from Lemon Grass
Meh, OK.
I wasn’t quite sure about the cucumbers or the lime.
To me, the only “sour” taste that should reside in fried rice should come from fish sauce (if you even use it).
The char siu, green onions, etc…seemed to be cut by a blind guy.
Rough chop means chopped by a blind guy
Or maybe they just seem to like really rough chopping stuff.
Seemed like there should be more volume for $11.50 right? After all, it is the “house” version.
Well, maybe the chef lives in an expensive house.
We also ordered the special of the night, which was described as Drunken chicken noodles w/ vegetables – $10.95.
Special dish: Drunken chicken noodles w/ vegetables
Don’t remember how much this was, but to us, it seemed like a pretty typical chow fun dish w/ veggies.
After finishing this dish, I wasn’t drunk either.
Though, I guess kinda Thai w/ the addition of basil.
Overall, pretty typical busy night here at Lemon Grass.
Crowd swelled during the classic 6p dinner hour and then subsided post dinner hour during our weeknight visit.
Typical Lemon Grass night
Service was standard and our waters got filled regularly.
Overall, a great restie to dine on a weeknight in Cleveland Heights.
Also stopping off at Big Fun before AND after dinner is awesome too.
Reporting live from QuarryLaneFarms…
Recently, we have been exploring the Cedar-Lee (Cleveland Heights) area for grub.
So in true QuarryLaneFarms fashion, we rolled by this place, didn’t know what Anatolia Cafe was, and decided to have some.
uncha-uncha-uncha-uncha-uncha
We sat under their sign which was awesome. The neon-glow-stick-night-club-uncha-uncha music blaring from the speakers were a bit much to take in the daylight hours…but next time, we’ll be prepared.
How we should have dressed for the music playing...
Weather was so nice, we opted to sit outside and enjoy the sun.. Menu? We found that there are no Anatolia sandwiches…Apparently we will be dining on Turkish food. Sweet.
The REGION of Anatolia #didpayattentioninhistoryclass
Waitress came out and in broken English, asked for our drink order. Round of water please. She returned 25 minutes later to take our order. During our wait, we found that the old school Turkish grandmother sitting next to us provided great entertainment. As you can see, she was dressed to impress.
Old school Turkish Grandma
Our waitress brought out pita bread. Warm and delicious – nothing fancy, just warm. Better than other places that serve room temperature pita.
Pita Pita
Not much explanation on the menu with not much help in ordering. Peeps, it would be helpful if your staff explained a few things about your menu. After an uncomfortable silence, we decided to just order apps.
Cacyk or Cucumbers in Yogurt: Homemade yogurt mixed with finely minced garlic, cucumber, and dill simply put - a great dipping sauce. Score-1 for the vegetarians.
Cucumbers in Yogurt (Cacyk)
We dipped our warm pitas in this sauce and it was surprisingly good. On first glance, it seems like yogurt with some seasonings sprinkled in, but as you dive deeper in, you can see the minced cucumbers and dill in there. Great summery dipping sauce and probably healthy for you. Probably. Turkish Grandmother sitting next to us made it feel like we were dining in Turkey.
Falafel (vegan): Deep fried chickpeas and vegetables blended with spices
Falafel
We’ve had falafel in a ton of different places, but this one was a coarse chop/blend of ingredients. As vegan as they come, this dish was good…very good…almost as good as “finding out she’s a virgin”, kinda good. Delicious.
Now usually we don’t care much for vegan stuff, this one we would get again and again and again. Score-2 for vegetarian crews.
For desert, we opted for the traditional Baklava. Comparatively, we prefer Greek baklava over all others, but the allure of the Byzantine Empire to Ottoman Empire to Roman Empire to now what is current day Turkey…we just had to.
Baklava
Really syrupy and light, this was a great way to end our meal of appetizers. Even better enjoyed in the sun, our baklava was topped with crumbled crushed pulverized pistachios, it was simple and good. In our humble opinion, very sweet and good, but we still prefer the Greek baklava.
As we were leaving, two douche McGees rolled up blaring club music.
Skeedouche
Sporting their top down borrowed-from-my-Uncle Benzo, greased up slick hair-dids, and their Ed Hardy club shirts, the nightclub music blaring was now making sense.
Best part? The Turkish Grandmother yelled at them and told them to go inside. We like her.
Reporting live from QuarryLaneFarms…
Busy morning!
Deep in the heart of our lettuce patch
Aside from tending to the tomato patch, corn rows, the “giant” celery, herb garden, and lettuce patch this AM, we were reflecting on the amount of sushi we had last night. Note: Once that sushi ball starts rolling, nothing can stop it.
A formal review will be forthcoming about Aeoshi Cafe in Cleveland Heights our quiet secret little place for sushi. But to get you drooling we submit these two pictures for your review.
First off, we feel that Aeoshi Cafe has THE BEST EEL in Cleveland. Hands down the best.
The BEST Eel in Cleveland
Sorry Sushi Rock (@SushiRockOhio), Matsu aka Sasa Matsu, Aryoshi, etc…they have you easily beat. It has to do with the eel itself, the sauce, and the rice. Can’t exactly explain it…except to say that for us, it is the best piece of eel around. Maybe this could be our cue to do an eel only post. Hmmmmmmm.
Chirachi, at least in the Cleveland area, isn’t as popular when compared to other Japanese entrees (blah standard teriyaki chicken). But the large variety of various fish, roe, and bed of sushi rice, trust me, this is the best value type of sushi for your money. For those that can’t figure it out, here a link to a previous entree (haha) about Chirachi or if you need, here’s the Wikipedia entree too (haha-detailed huh?).
Chirachi, Sushi for Foodies
Often times, spelling is slightly different. Chirachi, Chirshi, Cherashi (OK-if they spell it “Cherashi” don’t eat it). But count on a standard order from us as we feel this as the standard comparison for quality and sushi preparation. More details? We’ll dive deeper into it later.
So that being said, I applaude those that try something new or even just a new place. Surprising, small mom and pop operations yeild superb experiences that cannot be duplicated by national chains…no matter how good their market. Because “Eatin’ good in the neighborhood” rhymes better than it really is…
Sux
Adventurous foodies and diners that take that extra step, are rewarded with a chef’s smile and food from their hearts.
Muncha muncha!
Reporting live from QuarryLaneFarms…
