Cuisine: Peruvian

72 E Lynn Street
Columbus, Oh 43215
614.227.0070
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Open M – F, 11:00 am to 6:00 pm, Saturdays, noon to 4:00 pm

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Si Senor, best known as a popular downtown sandwich shop, just relocated from Long Street to a new larger location on Lynn Alley. The “& More” in their name refers not just to salads and desserts but also to their weekly Peruvian specials. On Saturday lunchtimes, the owners offer Peruvian-style ceviche and a weekly Peruvian special.

The ceviche, which comes in two sizes, is made with small chunks of tilapia fillet, sliced red onion, hot peppers, aji amarillo (peruvian yellow peppers) and lots of fresh lime juice. It’s served with sweet potatoes, salad and sweet corn. It’s unsurprisingly acidic – the lime juice is used to ‘cook’ the fish – but we didn’t find it too spicy.

Weekend specials include dishes such as papa rellena, lomo saltado, adobo de chancho, arroz tapado and tallarin saltado con pollo y camarones. On our most recent visit the special was pollo saltado, a dish of sauteed chicken, onions, tomato, peppers mixed with soy sauce, Peruvian spices, and french fries, served with rice. As you can see from the photo below the French fries are stir fried into what amounted to a very hearty portion. We loved the caramelized onion and the flavors of this dish, though the chicken was perhaps slightly overcooked.

Another Peruvian speciality is the empanadas. Available daily, these are filled with ground beef, onions, garlic, raisins and hard boiled egg. The crumbly pastry shell is topped with powdered sugar, which creates an interesting sweet-savory dynamic. The empanadas are served with a wedge of lime and some house-made hot sauce, both welcome accompaniments. Overall, we liked these a lot.

You’ll also see Peruvian influence in the weekday sandwich menu. Our recommendations would be the chicharron Peruano with chunks of fried pork, pickled red onions and sweet potato mayo or the jumping beef sandwich with roast beef, sauteed onions and tomato, melted cheddar and avocado mayo. On Fridays you’ll often find the popular fish tacos as a special.

If you still have room for dessert, Si Senor offers some Latin sweets including tres leches cake and flan. You may also find alfajores, buttery sandwich cookies with a homemade caramel filling in the middle (manjarblanco or dulce de leche), coated in powdered sugar.

1644 N High St (entrance is on Chittenden Ave)
Columbus, OH 43201
(614) 397-7493
Open 7 days a week, lunch and dinner.

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Sichuan Hotpot is the latest addition to the campus area’s lineup of Chinese restaurants. Located in a tiny walk-up space on Chittenden Avenue that seats around 24 people, the owners have opted to provide a small, focused menu based upon, as their name suggests, hot pot. No General Tso’s, no orange chicken, just steamy, brothy noodle stew served with this disclaimer; ‘please be aware all hotpots are hot and spicy and may cause discomfort in some individuals’.

All of the hot pots at Sichuan Hotpot include cellophane noodles (made from mung beans), seaweed, wood ear mushrooms (auricularia auricula), lotus root, dried beancurd skin, Chinese cabbage and bok choy. From that starting point, you can choose your protein (or a vegetarian option). There are 10 hot pot options in total: beef, lamb, shrimp, fish ball, shrimp ball, octopus ball, fish tofu, beef tendon ball, luncheon meat (aka spam) and veggie. All are priced between $5.99-7.99, and you can add additional proteins or enoki mushrooms for $1 each.

(clockwise from top left: fish tofu hotpot, beef tendon ball hotpot, lamb hotpot, luncheon meat hotpot)

Among our group of five, the favorites were the beef tendon ball (think flavorful meatball) and lamb (very lamb-y), with a couple of votes for the fish tofu (think mild fish cake) and the luncheon meat. The broth was very flavorful and would probably be classed as a medium spice level – additional chili sauce is available. Temperature-wise, all of our hot pots came to the table steaming and seemed to retain their heat surprisingly well. One bowl makes for a reasonably substantial meal.

There are a few sides/appetizers to snack on while you wait for your hot pot to cool down: crunchy fried chicken, chinese cruller, spring roll and glazed crispy mantou (deep-fried Chinese steamed buns). The chicken was a little more greasy than crispy although the flavor was good, the spring roll was fine but not especially memorable and the mantou, served with a sweet glaze, could almost be a dessert. The cruller is light and crispy and works well dunked into the hot pot. The last (untranslated) item on the sides menu is a sweet Chinese herbal ice tea.

 Left: glazed crispy mantou and spring roll, right: Chinese cruller 

For those in the campus area Sichuan Hotpot is a nice additional takeout lunch option.

Cuisine: Pakistani

425 Industrial Mile Road,
Columbus, Ohio 43228
614.275.2022
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This is the kind of story we like to write.

A cook from a restaurant we adore – Adil from Tandoori Grill – strikes out on his own to open a new restaurant, Khyber, in a new part of town. The owner of Tandoori Grill, Said, wishes him well; we’ve spoken to both and there are clearly no hard feelings. The food at Tandoori Grill remains great, the food at Khyber makes for an impressive debut, and just like that the city has doubled in quality Pakistani dining options. As far as we’re concerned, everybody wins.

Khyber occupies the west side space that previously held Azteca de Oro. As with Azteca, environs are humble but comfortable. As with Tandoori Grill, a small Pakistani grocery with a meat counter adjoins.

Khyber’s speciality is tandoori dishes – grilled meats and nan bread cooked in the tandoor oven. The nan bread is cooked to order and, like at Apna Bazaar/Tandoori Grill, it is thinner, less doughy, and in our estimation far preferable to most other options in town.

Of the tandoori meat dishes we’ve tried, we particularly like the seekh (ground meat) kebabs – available in lamb, beef or chicken. They are nice and juicy, feature a good amount of spicing and heat, and are great paired with nan and a little of Khyber’s yogurt based chutney.

Also tasty  are the chapli kebabs – burger-like ground beef patties with onions, tomatoes, chiles and spices.

The menu offers some interesting meat stews and satisfying vegetarian options. Stews include nehari - a rich beef curry stew with extremely tender slow cooked beef; goat quorma - a mild curry with lots of gravy and a meat based curry with wheat called haleem, barley, and lentils. Not listed on the menu but also available (and one of our favorites) is aloo keema, a ground meat and potato curry.

A little drier (in terms of the saucing) but still entirely enjoyable are the karahi dishes – curried meat, either goat or chicken, with tomato, green chili and onion.

For vegetarians, or as a great side dish for the tandoor grilled meats, there are lahori chana (whole chickpeas in sauce), mash dal (white lentil dal) or bhendi (curried okra). We particularly liked the okra and the mash dal. Adil said that there would be at least one dal available daily.

The menu is expanding and there are often specials. In addition to the listed items we’ve also tried samosas, goat biryani, cow’s foot curry and house made desserts including kheer (fragrant rice pudding) and semiya halwa (sweet, spiced vermicelli noodles).

One interesting, and somewhat incongruous, item is the New York style gyro. Served as more of a deconstructed dish, it’s comprised of rice topped with lettuce, gyro meat, pita slices, and a generous saucing. Unconventional though it may be, we’d take it over the vast majority of the gyros we’ve tried locally.

With the most expensive dish priced at $8, and many served for far less, Khyber is very good value for the quality of food and a great addition to the West Side.

4233 Shoppers Lane,
Columbus, OH 43228.
(Close to the intersection of Broad Street and Georgesville Road behind the Westland Mall)
614.276.2806

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We’ve been remiss in not posting about La Plaza Tapatia. We actually thought we had written about this restaurant/market combo before, but as we can’t find the post we apologize for holding out on you.

First the market: Plaza Tapatia is one of the largest Mexican markets in Columbus. It’s also our favorite. Consistently clean and well stocked, it features an impressive fresh butcher’s counter, an in-store bakery, and a large produce section. Dried goods, a snack counter and a fascinating kitchen-ware section round it all out. Some of our favorite things to purchase include: freshly made chorizo,  Koki’s tortillas (often freshly delivered and still-warm!), extremely cheap limes, avocados, freshly squeezed OJ, tres leches cake, paletas (Mexican popsicles) and pork rinds. More generally, though, we like that when we’re looking for a Mexican cuisine ingredient, no matter how obscure, we’re reasonably confident that we’ll find it here.

The adjoining restaurant is open 7 days a week and during the week (Monday-Friday) they offer a large buffet for both lunch and dinner (9am-9pm). The buffet is divided into three sections: the first consists of soups, entrees and hot sides.  The second section is fruit and desserts. The third section is garnishes, salsas and tostadas. Warm corn tortillas are included with your meal and are brought to the table.

The buffet varies a lot from day to day and there’s a wide repertoire of dishes. Highlights have included posole, pork in green chili sauce, Oaxacan beef chili, pork chops with spinach, huevos with nopales and sopes. There is always a variety of proteins that may include pork, beef, chicken, fish, eggs and beans.

In addition to the buffet there is a large a la carte menu with lots of meat and seafood options as well as an all day breakfast menu. The most popular dishes, especially at weekends are the parrillada and molcajete.

The parrillada (pictured above) is a true meat feast. While the menu claims that it feeds 3 to 4 people, we hardly made a dent in it with a group of 3. It consists of grilled chicken, two different cuts of steak (carne asada and aguja nortena), house-made chorizo, head-on shrimp, fresh pork chops, smoked pork chops, nopales (cactus), onions and jalapenos and is served with rice and beans, salad, guacamole, salsa and a seemingly never ending supply of tortillas. All of this for the more-than-reasonable price of $40.99. Don’t fill up too much on the chips and salsa beforehand.

The molcajete ($20.99) is comprised of the same elements but designed to serve two.

If you’ve saved any room there are also desserts from the bakery including their exceptional freshly made churros.

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed the vast majority of what we’ve eaten here over the years, and the fact that we’ve returned with some frequency might serve to bolster your confidence in that assertion… especially when you consider all of the fantastic taco truck offerings in close proximity.

Which is not to say that the taco trucks aren’t still enjoyed – they most certainly are – but rather that their offerings are inherently limited by their format. Tapatia does a great job of expanding the wide variety of the flavors of Mexico that can be found in Columbus.

It should also be noted that the restaurant does have a liquor license and serves a good range of Mexican beers and tequilas. They also serve margaritas, micheladas, and other Mexican cocktails. On Sundays you’ll often find Norteno or Mariachi bands and the restaurant can get quite lively when there’s a big Mexican soccer game on. It’s a spacious restaurant that can easily accommodate larger groups.

Cusine: Cambodian/Thai

375 Georgesville Rd, Columbus OH 43228
624.279.2903
siemreaprestaurant.biz
Open Mon-Thurs, 11am-midnight, Fri-Sat, 11am-2am, Sunday 11am-10pm

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We write up, on average, only one out of every four restaurants we try. Simply put, our goal is to tell you about the good in what’s out there. If we’re unable to find something we’d feel compelled to share with a friend, we’re not likely to share it here.

Even with that batting average established, we’ve had a particularly rough streak this summer (as you may have guessed by the frequency of our posts).  And, many of these unwritten experiences came from new restaurants serving some variation or another of Southeast Asian cuisine. We’ve had “pad thai” served as spaghetti noodles pan fried in what tasted of nothing more than soy sauce, eye poppingly gorgeous Vietnamese presentations almost completely devoid of any recognizable Asian (or other) flavors, and been presented with menus with dishes numbering in the hundreds… each more insipid than the last.

I suspect much of this comes from a desire to please the American palate – to reinvent Thai or Vietnamese as the Chinese have successfully done with their cuisine – and is attempted under the assumption that this is easily achievable.

It just isn’t working.

What is working is Siem Reap – an unassuming new Cambodian/Thai restaurant found in the shadows of the new casino, and named after a town in Cambodia situated next to a far more impressive edifice.  After a season of kissing frogs, this restaurant is sweet sweet redemption.

Our first clue to the goodness to come was the menu – not so much the items themselves, but more that the relatively modest number of items listed indicated that they weren’t trying to be everything to everyone.

Our next clue was the lagniappe – a small salad of pickled carrots, daikon, and green papaya garnished with roasted peanuts. A simple dish, and a perfect flavor combo to set the tone for the evening.

Sitting proudly atop the appetizers list were the stuffed chicken wings – a new concept to me, and one that I’m more than glad to be acquainted with. Four plump wings arrived, deboned and stuffed with what amounted to a spicy, lemongrass inflected chicken sausage threaded with glass noodles.  Juicy, complexly flavored, and sizable, each of the six at our table deemed these absolutely brilliant.  We ordered seconds. You want these, preferably now.

The beef skewers were far from the typical, anemic satay chew toys. These were actually very good, with the subtle marinade allowing the exceptional flavor of the conspicuously high quality beef to shine through. Add on the skillfully controlled char, and we were left wondering if we’d been temporarily transported to Fresh Street.

The larb – a cold minced chicken salad marinated in a lime sauce – was pleasant enough on its own merits, but didn’t have the bright citrusy punch of the (to me) preferable Thai preparation.

Our selection of mains was strongly influenced by the cold weather, which led us to rice soup and the curry ‘fondue’ hot pot. The rice soup was a pleasant, vaguely congee-like concoction served in a rich and somewhat sweet broth with pho-like sides of herbs, lime wedges, and bean sprouts. Chinese-style savory crullers were also provided, and cubes of pigs blood were an option.

Nothing could’ve prepared us for the hot pot – essentially a simmering curry broth in which you cook food from the astounding piles presented with it. We’ll let the photos do the talking here:

The vegetable plate

The proteins plate

The whole shebang: veggies, proteins, and the simmering curry broth

If the photos don’t convey it adequately, let me be clear: this almost certainly would’ve been enough to feed all six of us; we actually had leftovers enough to feed two.

It also impressed us, once again, with the freshness and quality of the raw ingredients. The broth, an exceptionally mild curry liberally dosed with fish sauce,  seemed the perfect seasoning for everything… save, perhaps oddly, for the beef.

Vegetables were scooped in, squid and shrimp bathed, and beef quickly swished around. We were instructed that the pork rinds – an intriguing inclusion – were to be soaked until soft. That took some time, but was well worth it as the flavor was exceptional.

As was most everything else. It was good, and fun, and an absolute steal at $25.95.

We finished with two fine, if unexciting desserts (to be fair we might’ve thought better of them were we not so stuffed…) – sesame balls with yellow bean paste a coconut/rice jello dish.

So, to wrap up: 6 people ate staggering quantities of thoroughly enjoyed food, and paid $75 in total for all of it. Service was pleasant, knowledgable, and prompt. The space was clean and pleasant.

In it’s west side environs, Siem Reap is nothing less than an oasis in a culinary desert (mobile food excepted, of course). Do check them out.

This weekend marks the 57th Columbus International Festival.  The event will once again be held at Veterans Memorial.

We attended the festival last year and were pleasantly surprised by the variety of food on offer. This is a great time to embrace Columbus’ diversity and enjoy dishes from around the world from ebelskiver to chana masala. You’ll find representatives from countries including Pakistan, Brazil, the Netherlands, Poland, Scandinavia and Taiwan serving up dishes from their countries.

There is also lots of entertainment with music and dancing from a diverse group of countries including Korea, India, China, Bangladesh, Iran, Spain, Germany, Poland, Scotland, England, Slovakia, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Cuba, France, the Philippines, Ireland, Haiti, Russia and many more.

Adult one day entry ticket  $7.00 at the door, or $5 pre-purchased from the website.
Senior and student with ID $5.00 at the door.
Kids age 5 to 12 years $2.00 at the door.
Kids under age 5 $ FREE

Cuisine: Indonesian

2200 E Dublin Granville Road (161). Next to Taco Nazo.
614.843.8803
Open daily 11am-8pm
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Street Eats and alt eats come together in this brand new truck focusing on Indonesian cuisine. Owned and operated by husband and wife team Hendri and Vivi Hasan, they view their operation as their first step on a path to opening a restaurant. From our point of view, it’s a good one.

As of our first visit, Aromaku offers three distinct dishes. We started with the bakmi ayam – egg noodles with ground chicken. Indonesian food in Columbus is limited and this is a dish that we’ve not come across before. Served with some greens and bean shoots, the chicken is surprisingly flavorful with a noticeable amount of black-pepper. The noodles were nice and springy. Overall, a winner – especially at $6.95.

Next we tried the classic Indonesian dish rendang, a spicy beef stew made with coconut milk and strongly flavored with lime leaves. In many respects, Aromaku’s rendang sauce reminded us of a concentrated Thai tom kha - and that’s not a bad thing at all. Rendang is, by it’s nature, fairly rich, so the modest portion was just right and the salad (or achar) is a great accompaniment. Rendang is offered with either rice or a roti (shown below).

A quick elaboration on roti – they’re a flat, pan cooked bread, made to order. Aromaku offers them either plain or with green onion. We liked both but would give the edge to the green onion. Although they share the name with the Indian (whole wheat) roti, they’re quite distinct – white flour-based, pan fried, and much flakier. And, they’re perfection when paired with the rendang.

Lastly we tried ayam goreng (fried chicken) which is marinated in a complex spice mixture and has a crispy but un-breaded skin. A typical order would be two leg and thighs or four wings. This pleasantly flavored fried chicken is served with achar, lightly pickled vegetables.

The drinks selection is extensive and includes several tropical juices (mango, guava), a couple of  ice teas and the more obscure soursop, white gourd and sugarcane juice. The white gourd (aka winter melon juice) was particularly interesting and unexpectedly tasted of nuts and caramel. The teh kotak was an enjoyable jasmine tea drink.

Suffice it to say that, overall, we’re fans. Indonesian cuisine can, on occasion, be a bit challenging to the American palate, but the offerings from Aromaku struck us as being both faithful to their origins and well selected for wide ranging acceptance. Check ‘em out.

Cuisine: Haitian

1784 E. Dublin Granville Rd (161)

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I have to admit that, prior to becoming aware of this restaurant, I’d given next to no thought to the idea of Haitian cuisine. And, upon learning of it, I presupposed we’d be in for something along the lines of Dominican and Puerto Rican – mild, plantain driven, and rice-rich.

And, assuming this restaurant is a good measuring stick, (and I’m inclined to believe it is…) well… kinda. Spicing is moderate, with the occasional kick of scotch bonnet peppers. Plantains are used, though their preparation was distinct. Rice, sure, but with a surprising twist. In spite of the similarities, our simple two plate meal made it clear that there was much that was unique to, and worthwhile about, Haitian preparations.

For example, the plantains with pikliz. The plantains were similar to Puerto Rican tostones in preparation (fry, smash flat, fry again), but semi-sweet plantains were used, giving it a flavor we found to be clearly preferable to any tostones we’ve had. The pikilz amounts to a cabbage slaw spiked with chiles – it was tart, bright, and spicy, and reminded us of an amped up Salvadoran curtido.

Next came the black rice with goat sauce. The rice is blackened by cooking it with a Haitian mushroom called djon djon, and was mixed with what I assume to be pigeon peas. It was served with a side of a reddish sauce containing chunks of skin-on goat meat (chicken is another option). Enjoyable, especially for those who appreciate a strong does of the flavor of mushroom (that’d include me).

We also tried the ‘white rice with vegetables’, which is actually legim – a thick stew comprised of eggplant, chayote, cabbage, carrots and beef, flavored with epis (essentially a sofrito). It’s perhaps not much to look at, but make no mistake, it’s mild, hearty, and delicious in a very comfort foody way.

Haitian & American Restaurant’s decor is at least a half-step above what’s expected from its strip mall environs, and was very clean. Service was extremely friendly, and eager to answer the many questions we had about this new-to-us cuisine. The menu also includes American-style favorites (mac & cheese, hamburgers, and the like) as well as a $5 menu smaller portions (the dishes above were around $10 each and came with the plantain & pikliz).

We look forward to exploring its menu further, and would encourage you to do the same.

Cuisine: Pakistani

808 Bethel Rd., Columbus OH
614.326.3777
Tuesday-Sunday 11:30am-9pm

When a place looks like this, and has great food, we’re all  kinds of happy:

That said, we understand that perhaps not everyone feels similarly. However, when you take the same great food and serve it in a setting like this:

…that should make everyone happy!

So here’s the story – when the space next to Apna Bazaar opened up, Apna’s owners pounced on it. They gave it the pictured makeover, named it Tandoori Grill, and evolved from functioning as a simple takeout counter to providing a true, full service, sit-down experience.

Tandoori Grill (and Apna – the takeout counter is still open) specializes in Pakistani cuisine, with an emphasis on tandoori-grilled protein preparations. If you’re familiar with northern Indian cuisine (most Indian served in Columbus is essentially northern Indian in inspiration), this should be comfortable territory for you.

Especially if you start with their tandoori chicken platter. The dish exhibits all of the traits one would expect from the style of preparation, but raises it to a level otherwise unfound in town. The char is restrained but present,  the marinade penetrates deeply and has a brightness and complexity of flavor that’s in a league of its own, and the tenderness is second to none.

It would’ve been the hit of the meal, were it not for the tandoori kabob karahi. This dish, made of ground chicken kefta-like kebabs that have been grilled, sliced, and tossed in a tomato based masala sauce,  had our table of 4 fighting over the scraps. It’s a bit on the spicy side, and a wonderfully complex melding of flavors and textures.

On a previous visit we tried the fish karahi, and found it similarly appealing. The kitchen took obvious care in not overcooking it, and the distinct flavor and texture of the fish made for a dish that differentiated itself significantly from its karahi-sauced compadre.

Our meal began with crispy, flaky samosa, one filled with a minced chicken mix, the other with a potato mix. Both were enjoyed, with our nod going to the chicken version.

Rarely have we had such a satisfying meal and yet left feeling like there’s so much more to try, but we’re big fans of dishes such as pakora, tikka masalas, kormas, and seekh kabobs, and eagerly look forward to the chance to taste them.

Especially since we’re relieved to report that food at Tandoori Grill is every bit as good as Apna’s has been. Service has been on the ball on both of our visits, making for a complete and completely pleasant experience.

Read more about Apna Bazaar and some of their other dishes here.