Raad's Mediterranean Grill, 962 Cherry St SE ~ 8/11/15

We've been hearing about this place and finally made it there today for lunch. It's been in business for two years and when we walked in today, it was empty. That can't be good.

There are about nine tables set in a pleasant atmosphere and six chairs lined up against a street-facing window.

We walked in and were greeted with "to go or here?" Not the most welcoming greeting by our server. We seated ourselves and perused the 6-page menu. Appetizers & salads, two pages of entrees, beverages-smoothies-desserts, an ala carte and kids page, and a lunch menu. We had to start with a few appetizers ~ Samosas and Falafel. Our server, "is that all?"

The samosas were served with delicious tzatziki sauce and the falafel arrived draped in tahini and parsley. This was all made to order and we waited for it, but it was worth the wait. We next ordered from the entree menu, Gyro and Kafta. Each entree comes promised with salad, rice, hummus, fresh pita bread, and optionally served as a wrap or plated. We took plated. And we need to talk about the salad first.

We'd like to eat this everyday, seriously. There's a lemony dressing (house recipe) that tops off radishes, parsley, tomatoes, onions, lentils, pita chips made on the premises, and pomegranate seeds. The salad is alive with flavor and texture and is altogether amazing. The Gyro then arrived.

Hummus, rice and gyro were beautifully presented. As we are waiting for the Kafta, the owner and/or chef stepped out to ask whether I'd like tzatziki or garlic sauce (he whispers 'garlic'). How could we not take the garlic :-). He then notices our notes and camera. "Are you food critics?" Well, we do have a blog. "Why didn't you tell me? I would have taken good care of you." No. That's not how we like to review restaurants. And when the Kafta finally came out he accompanied it, chatting up the food, and due to his hovering we neglected to get a food photo, until the leftovers arrived at home :-)

There are 16 spices in the rice, according to our chef, and the garlic sauce and the rest of the food was well prepared and fresh. The garlic sauce was a great recommendation so don't miss it. We asked about the lack of customers and our guy said it's always like this because no one knows about them, which is sad because the food is wonderful. It's made as it is ordered, table for table. Pita bread is brought in from Detroit and was promised with the Kafta entree but never arrived so we can't comment on that other than we didn't get it.

Ideas for improvement? Train your servers to be more welcoming and customer savvy. Add building signage and update the tacky sandwich board sign. Clean the one bathroom customers use. Avoid loud conversations between the server and chef while customers are waiting for food, and don't make customers listen to your phones ring as well as to your subsequent conversations. And maybe change the soundtrack to a consistent mideastern vibe rather than a random jazz/pop thing.

Online reviews complain about the prices but there is a lunch menu available with reduced costs. We hope he stays in business and maybe he does well enough with take-outs and catering to stay alive.

The smoothies were recommended to us by the chef as being all natural with no added sugars, etc., so we took two to go. Delicious! Check out this place, at least for the falafel, hummus, garlic sauce, and the salad! They have local delivery service and you can find them on facebook and at www.raadsgr.com
Sad Update 2/18/16 ~ we drove by earlier this week and the restaurant is closed and the building vacant.

Reserve, 201 Monroe Ave NW - 4/3/13

This was its first week open for lunch (other than during ArtPrize) so we were happy to be there. Regardless of your feelings about the DeVos family, the restaurant is worthy of a visit. ‘Open Water,’ the 2009 ArtPrize winner (pictured first in its original ArtPrize location), after spending some time in the Art Museum, was purchased by Dick & Betsy DeVos and now hangs beautifully in this restaurant. 

We enjoyed a dinner here last year and partook of the lovely wine bar and charcuterie offerings. But lunch time is different, and the menu reflects that. It’s small, creative, and emphasizes locally obtained ingredients.

 

To begin, we ordered ‘Bacon Jam with Warm Bread’ - yes, Bacon Jam :-) along with ‘We Can Pickle That,’ which featured winter root vegetables in a pickled state. Both were so interesting and a treat for the tastebuds.

We selected our sandwiches accompanied by Potato Soup (with spicy guanciale & rosemary oil) and the soup was the standout; we wanted to take some home. The roast beef and lamb reuben sandwiches were delicious, as was the fried perch, but the perch sandwich was too large to eat as a sandwich and had to be de-constructed before consuming.

 

Added to that, we had to happily try the ‘Pork Fat Fries’ with garlic mayonnaise - recommended if you’re not too afraid of occasional tasty fat.

Service was very attentive and a little obsequious, but customers were light on this day and employees outnumbered them. A bored hostess stood nearby waiting for customers and willingly answered our questions about the restaurant.

The menu will be ever-changing and take-out is available. There is a small and somewhat hidden outdoor deck (far left in photo) that we will visit if summer ever arrives. So check it out, Grand Rapids.

Update:  6/1/13 Visit

 

Kitchen 67, 1977 East Beltline - 9/25/12

Located in a free standing building, the café shares its retail space with a phone store. We had not read much about the new restaurant and almost pulled away when we saw the drive-through window. 

Against our better instincts we decided to go in and check out the menu. We discovered that it is counter-service and menus were laying about on both sides of the entry, as well as at the counter. The space opens into the phone store which was a little weird. We again dilly-dallied about staying or going. We finally decided that the menu looked interesting enough to stay.

It’s a cool space with a lot of partitioned privacy, ever-changing lights above, large screen TVs, and music playing a bit too loud. (I did get called out on complaining about the music only when it was something I didn’t like :)

We stepped up to order and were then given a number to place on our table that a server came by later looking for a match. She brought just one of our orders, and without the fries, and thought our other orders had not been placed. But a few minutes later, the rest of our order appeared.

The Sizzling Bowl with steak came with the option of habanero sauce or asian ginger sauce. After being advised that the asian ginger sauce was hotter, this was the choice. To accompany the bowl, a garden salad was ordered. No Italian dressing was available but a balsamic vinaigrette was offered as a close substitute.

The Bowl contained pan-fried noodles, steak, portabella mushrooms, sautéed peppers and onions, green onions, and sesame seeds, with the afore-mentioned asian ginger sauce. Many diners complain if the meat portion is too small, but this bowl was too meat-heavy to maintain a nice balance. Flavors otherwise melded nicely but the sauce was mild and nowhere near the promised hot.

Our second entree was the Black Jack Burger accompanied with Asian Ginger Slaw and fries. Ordered medium-rare, it arrived close to that. Joined by pepper jack cheese, jalapeño bottle caps, sweet habanero sauce, chipotle mayo, and shredded lettuce on a brioche bun, it was an excellent burger that arrived with the requisite heat. The slaw was tasty but too wet, and the late-arriving fries were delicious, seasoned with a special Brann’s concoction. Our only other negative was the small, fast-food napkins that were available. The burger in particular was a 10-napkin event.

As we read the restaurant materials on the tables we discovered that the restaurant opened the drive-through for breakfast coffee & pastry seekers, and the counter-service lunch converts to full-service dining at 4pm, along the lines of Schnitz Deli transforming into Ada Grill. Great idea, and we’ll have to stop back to enjoy the dinner experience.

So - cool space, interesting menu, and good food (but a sloppy lunch presentation today - see pictures and commentary). The name is derived from the year John Brann, Sr, sold his first sizzler steak and we think his grandson, Johnny Brann, Jr, has a good thing going here.

www.kitchen67.com

Graydon's Crossing, 1223 Plainfield - 6/6/12

A beautiful day in early June required outdoor dining and Graydon's Crossing it was. 

We love the outdoor patio but haven't yet been able to enjoy the 2nd story

deck (never open when we're there).

The indoor restaurant area has dark wood, tall-backed booths and a long, attractive bar that exude cool pub ambiance. But we've enjoyed the food more on previous occasions.

Jerk and Jicama was our starter and the Jicama fries were interesting, as was the key lime aioli sauce. The fried clams were tough and chewy.

The Baingan Bharta was pretty to look at but tasted quite bland. The promised carmelized onion could not be found and the curried Dal had no kick to it. The chick peas and eggplant blended well and perhaps it was just our expectations that went wrong.

Drunken Drip Beef sandwich was their version of a French Dip and we added onion rings as a side. Pepperoncini and Italian seasoning make this their own, and it came on a toasted roll with provolone. The onion rings were huge and well prepared, as was the sandwich.

The menu is varied and frequently changes, the service is consistently good, and the atmosphere is wonderful. If you don't know Graydon's Crossing, do yourself a favor and stop in.

http://www.graydonscrossing.com/

Our June 2010 Visit

The Winchester, 648 Wealthy SE - 4/26/12

This is one of our "go-to" places when we can't decide where to eat, aren't going to necessarily write-up a review, and just want some interesting and unique food.  So we've been here dozens of times, have already written it up twice, but today decided to share our wonderful lunch.


Our service was superb, as per usual, with a friendly and informative server. We love the changing menu and started with the shrimp nachos, which came highly recommended. Our server did not steer us wrong.

Small pieces of black tiger shrimp came atop curried granny smith chopped apples and guacamole (dig down a little so as to not miss the tart apples that combined wonderfully with the guacamole and shrimp). The drizzled sweet soy sauce and house-made tortilla chips made this an excellent appetizer choice. We did run out of chips before we consumed everything else, but we still had our forks.  


And who could resist a crab BLT? Soft-shelled crab was flash-fried and sandwiched with bacon, locally produced lettuce (Vertical Paradise Farms, a greenhouse farm in Caledonia), nicely spicy mayonnaise (specifically, sesame-sriracha kewpie Japanese mayo), and cherry tomatoes. Served on a toasted vienna roll from a local bakery (Nantucket Bakery), the well-prepared and delicious sandwich required multiple napkins and was accompanied by house-made black pepper kettle crisps. 

When asked for an opinion regarding the ordering the gator po' boy or the fish tacos, our server did not hesitate for a second: fish tacos. It's been several years since we've ordered fish tacos after having a horrifying, fishy experience at another restaurant, so this choice was a bold move. 

As it turned out, our server was right again. Just the list of ingredients will make your mouth water: lemongrass coriander rubbed tilapia, latin citrus slaw, saffron aioli, and grilled locally made El Milagro flour tortillas, served with fire roasted vegetable salsa and house-made plantain chips. Although we preferred the kettle crisps over the plantain crisps, the tacos are highly recommended. 


The Winchester looks for local food sources for its ingredients, and in season, looks no further than across the street at its own garden.

And don't miss their fantastic food truck around town and at special events.

Best Food Truck Name Ever

They have a very active presence on facebook and twitter, both as The Winchester and What the Truck (Twitter as @TheWinchesterGR and @tacotruckGR). Find the ever-changing menu on their website: http://www.winchestergr.com

6/15/12 - Here's a nice shout-out from USA Today.

CitySen, 85 Monroe Center NW - 2/13/12

We first visited this restaurant, located in the City Flats Hotel, last December and were totally taken with the setting, the service, and the food. Today was almost as good.


In contrast to their restaurant CityVu in Holland, CitySen is on the first floor with a street view, obstructed by the window trim. What you see are headless bodies strolling by. In summer, with the windows open, it’s probably much better.


The setting is classy and modern. Two booths are available at the windows (with the aforementioned obstructed views), and high top tables and other tables for four and two lead up to the bar. Other small rounds wrap around beyond the bar. The menu is small, specific, and interesting.

In our earlier visit, we started with shrimp and sausage gumbo, which was good but the shrimp was nowhere to be found being over-powered by the sausage. Today we began with the Veggie Roll (sticky rice, avocado, and spicy kimchee).


Followed by the Spider Roll (tempura soft shall crab, cucumber, spicy mayo in sushi maki roll), we have to conclude that sushi is not their specialty. The rice consistency was mushy and tasted of cream cheese. The seaweed wrap was very, very fishy tasting and overpowered everything in its wake.

The lobster spring rolls were another matter and very worth ordering, as are the risotto cakes (mushroom risotto cakes with ratatouille and parmesan crisp). All was fresh and crisp, with balanced flavors.

Both meat lovers and vegetarians have choices here and for the former, we can recommend the Cubano: black forest ham, crisp pork belly, gruyere, pickles, dijon, mayo, on a hoagie bun. And the tenderloin sliders that consist of three mini beef tenderloin sandwiches with steak butter will melt in your mouth. Add blue cheese if you wish.

Sauteed shrimp with brussels sprout leaves, pork belly and horseradish cream sauce was beautifully created and presented. 

All in all, this is a lovely dining experience. The service is consistently excellent with very knowledgeable and polite servers. In the summer, they offer an outdoor patio. It’s not a full dining experience, but if you stay away from the sushi you will enjoy the remaining small plates that are offered. If you’re a hotel guest, this is a wonderful on-site lounge/restaurant during your stay.
http://cityflatshotel.com/grandrapids/bistrobar/citysen/dinner/