Bistro Bella Vita, 44 Grandville Ave SW - 7/1/12

We love the Bistro and have lunched here many times. But tonight was the first time we took advantage of their '3 course meal for $25.00' offering. Available Sunday-Tuesday, it is so worth it. There are three choices for each of the three courses (antipasti, primi, secondi).

A Waldorf salad and summer salad were fine selections, with fresh ingredients. The Waldorf was unique and included honey-roasted chicken, dried fruit, goat cheese, and blueberry vinaigrette. The summer salad was beautiful to behold and to consume: apricots, hazelnuts, beets, arugula, strawberries, and a peppercorn vinaigrette.

Next course first brought us Tagliolini Caccaitore, a lovely combination of pasta and roasted mushrooms, brussel sprouts, kale, bacon lardons, and a tomato-demi glaze. 

Second was Albacore Tuna with cucumber gazpacho, quinoa fritter, and crispy kale. Just as good, and creative, as the previous item.

Third and final course selection began with Porchetta, served with carmelized onion bread pudding, cauliflower, and blueberry marmalade. It wasn't a favorite. The pork was a bit bland and the blueberry combination didn't work for us.

But the Ricotta Ravioli was exquisite. The ravioli was perfectly prepared and nicely presented with asparagus, corn, and cilantro, and a great lime zest flavor.

All in all, this is a great opportunity to have a 3-course meal for a reasonable price. This menu changes weekly, unlike their main menu. They have a wonderful outdoor patio and the service has always been great. The wait staff is knowledgeable and attentive, without being overbearing. The restaurant is owned by the Essence Restaurant Group, which also owns The Green Well and Grove. They obviously know what they're doing.

 

April 2010 Visit
www.bistrobellavita

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

Ramona's Table, 2232 Wealthy, East Grand Rapids - 5/22/12

We've described the restaurant and its format on a previous posting (here) but wanted to share our very pleasant experience here again today.


It was a beautiful day and as we ran through our mental list of restaurants with outdoor seating, we decided on Ramona’s Table since we’d only been here once before, last June. The patio has been expanded, and other than the very loud talkers next to us (it’s impolite, people), it’s a very lovely place to sit and enjoy good food.

There is no wait staff service (that is a negative for us) and we were given menus to review while we seated ourselves. One of us stepped back in to order at the counter and pay for the meal. Shortly thereafter the food arrived, and when we were ready for our take home bags, our server wrapped it up for us, like last time, in a paper bag - nice touch (unfortunately, they use styrofoam containers for the salads).


No appetizers are available (there are salads and soups) so we started right in with sandwiches and our first one was the portabella “burger.” The marinated portabella mushrooms came with Havarti cheese (not smothered with it, thankfully, but just a small amount for flavor), tomato, lettuce, and their chipotle mayonnaise. Not being a mayonnaise fan, I was wary of this but the smoked chili pepper flavor came through wonderfully and added a nice kick. 

Our second sandwich selection was the grilled Hawaii Five-O, which nicely blended ham, pineapple, Swiss cheese, bbq sauce, tomato, and wild, mixed greens on sourdough bread. There were no complaints from the ham fan. The textures and flavors complemented each other expertly.

Each sandwich is accompanied by your choice of kettle chips, red skin potatoes, house-made cole slaw or one of their deli salads (they all looked amazing and interesting). The cole slaw was refreshing with its inclusion of chopped pickles and was slightly sweet. The broccoli salad with raisins had a very light sauce and is highly recommended for healthy and delicious eating.


They shop locally, cook creatively, provide very friendly service, and overall offer a restaurant you should enjoy and support. And be sure to check out the old Grand Rapids photographs that populate the walls inside.

Our June 2011 Visit

Find them on facebook, twitter, and on their website at www.ramonastable.com

Sandmann's, 1200 Wealthy, R.I.P. - 5/22/12

The big news in Grand Rapids today, at least for food people, is the closing of Sandmann's, by the bank. Allegedly defaulting on a large business loan and not making sales tax payments to the state for some time are not good business practices, but every BBQ fan is sorry to see them go. 

This once dilapidated corner held an old gas station that was renovated into the current Sandmann's in 2004 (they lost their lease in their previous location across the street, opened in 2000). And before that, these enterprising Grill Masters sold their goods on their own to people on lunch break and to festival goers. 

Now the assets are seized and all that could be seen today were people reading the posted court order, and people photographing people reading the posted court order.

Here it is for your edification:

Sending very best wishes to the owners and hoping that things will work out and the restaurant and/or their food, will live on. Here's to sunnier days ahead...

Taqueria San Jose, 1338 S Division - 5/1/12

Recommended by a friend (thanks, Sarah!), we drove south on Division to find this little restaurant. When we spotted it, we realized that we’ve driven past it dozens of times but always thought it was a vacant, run-down, old drive-in restaurant space (maybe a previous life as an A&W?). We pulled into the parking lot, and almost bailed on the place because it looked like take-out only. But we were told there was indoor seating so we decided to check it out.

The small area seats 16 at best (4 tables for 3, and 1 for four) and ordering takes place at the window. (Outside in the old drive-in serving area are a few picnic tables to be enjoyed in good weather.) Two tables inside were taken and another customer was at the window, so we had a few minutes to check out the posted menu while we waited. 

If you need definitions of Mexican dishes, you won’t find them here. So look up birria de chivo, gorditas, tortas and/or menudo before you go. And having said that, after asking for gorditas and being told it would be a 20 minute wait, we went conservative and carnivore, and ordered asada tacos and quesadillas. Both arrived with cilantro, onions, tomatoes, and a grilled jalapeno, and we think they may be the best we’ve had in Grand Rapids. The jalapeno is grilled long enough to not burn your eyes.

 

What looked to be three family members (mother, father, daughter) could be seen working in the kitchen behind the window; the daughter took our order and delivered it to us at our table. All of them were incredibly friendly and we could see the mother making tortillas - how fresh can you get. The father came into the restaurant to talk to another customer, checked out our food, and brought us an unnamed sauce that should be used with the quesadillas - nice. 


Don’t bypass this amazing little place, and leave your tips in the jar. Some books can’t be judged by their covers and we’ll be back, specifically to try the gorditas. You’ll also get to watch Mexican soap operas on T.V.

There’s no website or twitter presence but there is a facebook created account, for whatever that’s worth. Look for the sign on Division and stop in.

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.

Bombay Cuisine, 1420 Lake Dr SE - 4/20/12

This is a crowd-pleasing place for lunch as evidenced by the packed room. We found one open booth that put us in a corner of a short hallway (leading into the attached Queen’s Pub) that’s behind the buffet (and a tall plant). So we couldn’t enjoy or experience the main room ambiance (which is charming) but we were happy we had a spot.

The lunch buffet is popular and our server assumed that’s what we wanted. But she brought us the requested menus and our water, and then disappeared. After about 15 minutes she returned and apologized for forgetting about us; she was used to lunch patrons eating from the buffet (service was perfect from then on - attentive, friendly, and informative).


From this very interesting two-page menu, we chose Samosa for our appetizer. The pastry puffs were filled with a slightly spicy combination of potatoes and peas and were hearty and delightful, and very large. The chutneys that accompanied them were just ok for us. We also ordered a side of garlic-topped Naan so had plenty of food before we even ordered our entrees.

Chana was selected from the Vegetarian Specials category and was an excellent choice. Garbanzos, green peppers, and onions were served up in a flavorful tomato sauce with basmati rice and plain Naan. It could have been spicier but we did not ask for it. All the same, it was nowhere near bland and the rice was cooked to perfection. (On the way out we perused the buffet and found Chana to be included; it didn’t look nearly as good as ours.)

From the Traditional Lamb Dish category came the Rogan Josh, also with basmati rice and plain Naan. The mild lamb flavor infused the entire dish, and the sauce came spicy, as requested. The combination of lamb, garlic, onion, ginger, tomato, peppers, and who knows what else made this dish a savory treat.

Nothing came out in a hurry and everything was freshly prepared. The timing between appetizers and main dishes was perfect and we were never rushed. In its defense, the buffet is huge and is your economical best bet.  We prefer to order from the menu, however, sometimes to negative effect (see Palace of India review, 2010.).


But Bombay Cuisine did not disappoint and we can’t wait to go back. They don’t have a website that we could locate but you can access their menu via mediafire.com; the menu there is not exactly identical to that of the restaurant but it's close. Find the menu link on their facebook page.