Author Archives: hungrywoolf

Arirang

Posted on March 11, 2010 | 18 comments

Cuisine: Korean
1526 Bethel Road
614.459.8070
Open until 9pm

Click here to map it!

Arirang was first recommended to me by a Hungrywoolf reader (Thank you Molly). It has become my favorite place for Korean food, and I thought that it was still a wonderful secret until G.A. Benton from Columbus Alive wrote his humorous post about it this week.

From the outside you would never guess that this little grocery store has a restaurant in the  back. You order at the store’s front counter and then take your ticket to the open kitchen at the back of the store. Find a seat and wait to be signaled to when your food is ready. There is no table service so you go up to the counter and collect it yourself. The menu has recently been updated and is in English and Korean with a clear indication of which dishes are spicy. There are three price brackets ranging from $4.95 up to $8.95.

With its extremely bright fluorescent lighting and slightly sterile feel, Arirang is not somewhere to go for the atmosphere but what it lacks in ambience it makes up for with the food. It is also extremely clean, good value and you can do some shopping while you are there.

Your meal will come with the traditional banchan (a selection of small dishes, including the requisite kimchi.) and there is an urn of complimentary barley tea as well as a water cooler.

My favorite dishes tend to be the spicy ones but there are plenty of options for people who do not like spicy food. Some of the beef soups are very lightly seasoned. The dolsot bibimbap (mixed rice in a stone pot) is also not spicy and comes topped with lots of vegetables, sprouts and kimchi. The egg was fried with a soft yolk rather than the raw egg that is often served. As well as large steaming bowls of soup and noodles there are also stir fried dishes and I really enjoyed the stir fried pork.

The picture at the top of the post is kim-bap, a Korean roll (a vegetarian sushi style roll) and we have enjoyed the crispy pancakes both mung bean and seafood.

The soups are extremely hot in temperature and usually arrive at a rolling boil. If you are really hungry, order a pancake or a roll to eat while you wait, to prevent searing your mouth. Also a good idea not to go right before they close – it’s hard to eat steaming food in a hurry!

18 Comments

Posted in Asian, Grocery store, Korean, Restaurant

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Los Galapagos

Posted on March 9, 2010 | 5 comments


Cuisine: Ecuadorean & Colombian
378 S Grener Road
614.878.7770

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Los Galapagos is a family run grocery store and restaurant specializing, as the name would suggest, in Ecuadorean food with some Colombian dishes thrown in for good measure. It is definitely off the beaten path, on Grener Avenue, south of Broad Street near the exit from 270 but well worth searching out. A couple of notes: It closes at 8.30pm so get there early if you want dinner and some of the Ecuadorean specialities (such as the hornado) are only available at the weekend.

It was a cold night and the morocho (a hot spiced milk drink made with dried corn kernals) was a very popular choice.

The food is all cooked to order and while we waited for our main dishes we snacked on some tostados (roasted corn kernals).

We also shared some empanadas. They had two varieties, chicken and cheese of which the cheese was most popular.  Taco Drew thought that the chicken tasted like pot pie.

And we couldn’t resist some plantain maduros.

Hunger staved, our eyes almost popped out of our heads when we saw the size of the main dishes. The prices make for an extremely good value. This was my chaulafan, an Ecuadorean take on chicken fried rice with ham , bacon and vegetables. It was really good and enough for two people.

CMH Gourmand and Taco Drew opted for the bandeja paisa, a Colombian platter with rice, avocado, ground meat, pork rind, egg, plantain, chorizo and arepa and beans (served separately). It was a feast of a platter and neither came anywhere close to finishing theirs.

The arepa was different to the ones we have had at trucks tasting more like grits than yellow cornmeal. The chorizo was particularly tasty and I was pleased to find that I could buy some to take home. Our friend had a soup with shrimp and plantains, not really a hit because the plantains gave it a peculiar texture. Although we didn’t try them on this visit we heard that the broth based soups are very good.

Like Restaurante Salvadoreno on the opposite side of town, Los Galapagos offers the chance to experience a different Latin American cuisine from the more common Mexican fare. A visit to one of these restaurants is a step beyond arm chair travel – when you walk in the door you almost feel like you have left Columbus. This is a no frills, yet charming, dining experience with satisfying, unpretentious food, generous portions and genial hosts.

5 Comments

Posted in Ecuadorean, Grocery store, Latin American, Restaurant

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Indochine

Posted on March 9, 2010 | 4 comments

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Cuisine: Vietnamese / Laotian
561 S Hamilton Rd
614.231.7357

Click here to map it!

Indochine in east Columbus, is light and bright with a spacious feel and it is very family friendly, as evidenced by the number of children in their Sunday best. The owners are extremely hospitable, chatting and joking with regulars and very willing to expand on menu items – I have never heard anyone describe a dish with such enthusiasm and pride.

The food is a mix of Vietnamese and Laotian with a variety of salads, noodle soups and pho, fried rice and sandwiches. I was curious to try the Laotian style dishes, which share similarities to both Thai and Vietnamese cuisines, as they were new to me.

We started with a Vietnamese classic, a banh mi sandwich (ba mon) with 3 types of meat including headcheese. Not quite as delicately assembled as the Mi Li variety but with the same characteristic mix of flavors and every bit as fresh and craveable.

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Next were two salads, papaya salad accompanied with pork rinds, which even at ‘2 stars’ was too spicy for most of us to enjoy, and marinated cabbage with shrimp and chicken that was so vibrant and refreshing with its lime, cilantro and chili dressing that it was an instant favorite.

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Next were two beef salads, both Laotian style – Goi thit bo and crying tiger with ginger sauce. The crying tiger didn’t live up to its name: it was the papaya salad that was voted most likely to make someone cry. The Goi thit bo was a successful marriage of flavors, very similar to the Thai style dish yum nuea. The crying tiger was lightly seasoned beef strips to be dipped in ginger sauce.

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One of our favorite dishes was a cold rice noodle salad bun cha gio thit heo nuong (number 22 I believe) with pieces of spring rolls. Presented in a four seasons style, the light dressing comes on the side and you pour it over the ingredients and mix them together.

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We sampled two different types of noodle soups (banh canh), one with chicken and blood pudding  and one special (pictured) that was not on the menu. These steaming hot bowls would be a perfect winter meal.

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4 Comments

Posted in Asian, Laotian, Restaurant, Vietnamese

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Mi Li Cafe

Posted on March 8, 2010 | 10 comments

Cuisine: Vietnamese
5858 Columbus-Wooster Road
Columbus Square Shopping Center
614.899.9202

Click here to map it!

Until recently Mi Li Cafe was our go-to for Vietnamese food. Although we have now tried most of the Vietnamese restaurants in town (that we know of…), Mi Li is still easily our number one place for banh mi sandwiches. A banh mi is a Vietnamese sub made with crusty french bread, sliced pork, house-made pate, mayo, cilantro, jalapenos, carrot and cucumber. It is a wonderfully refreshing mix of crunchy and chewy, spicy and cool, and is exceptionally satisfying. They are also very good value, too. We didn’t think that the bahn mi could get much better until we tried the new banh mi with grilled pork. It’s a winner.

While we usually head to Mi Li when we’re craving a banh mi sandwich, we have managed to sample, at one time or another, everything on the fairly limited menu. One of our other favorites is the new bun cha giothit nuong, rice vermicelli and salad topped with egg rolls and barbecue pork. The barbecue pork really is that good.

The banh cuon is a rice crepe with minced pork, pork patties, bean sprouts, cucumber, basil, fried onions and a fish vinaigrette. Good but not as superlative as the above dishes.

Mi Li also has an above average pho, the Vietnamese staple, with our preference going to their pho dac biet (noodle soup with beef, tripe and meatballs).  The bo kho (beef stew) has a richly spiced broth that also hits the spot.

The cafe has an unusual atmosphere that is a cross between a cafe and a waiting room. The rack of glossy magazine made it a little like a trip to the hairdressers, and like many Asian restaurants the TV can be a little loud but you can flip through Cosmo while you sip the potent Vietnamese coffee.  Or play pool!

Beyond the Vietnamese coffee, Mi Li’s beverage choices include frozen bubble tea and some more adventurous options including che ba mau which is three types of beans and coconut milk and sam bo luong, a drink made with seaweed and ginko nuts. Trying both of these drinks seems to have given us a certain respect with the proprietor – she repeatedly exclaims surprise at how brave we are. If you like coconut milk and red beans the che ba mau is definitely worth trying.

10 Comments

Posted in Asian, Restaurant, Vietnamese

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Dosa Corner

Posted on March 8, 2010 | 1 comment

Cuisine: Indian
1077 Old Henderson
614.459.5515
Dosa Corner web site

Click here to map it!

Dosa Corner is a small no-frills South Indian Vegetarian restaurant with a small dining area and a focus on take-out. We have tried more than a few things at Dosa Corner and, so far, have enjoyed them all. Appetizers include samosas, medu wada (lentil donuts) and pakora. Except for the idli (steamed rice and lentil dumpling) all appetizers are deep fried.

The speciality of the house is of course the dosa, and there are many different variations offered here. A dosa is a thin crispy crepe made from rice and lentil flour that usually comes wrapped around some sort of filling, although you can get them plain. Favorites include the channa masala dosa with curried chickpeas, potatoes and lots of fresh cilantro and the mysore masala dosa with roasted onion chutney  and topped with a cilantro potato mixture.

Another good option is the spicy spinach uthappam. An uthappam or uttapam is a pancake in which the other ingredients are cooked into the batter such that it looks a little more like a pizza. It is thicker, spongier and less crispy than a dosa. All dosas and uthappam come with dipping sauces.

Dosa Corner also has a variety of rice and curry dishes. Pictured below is the mutter panneer made with homemade cheese. The main dishes are around $7 and for around $10 you can get a thali (combination meal) with either a dosa or with curry and poori (fried bread).

Portion sizes are generous and the owner is friendly and helpful. There is a specials board and lots of pictures of the food on the wall – helpful for when explanations aren’t entirely clear. Dosa Corner also offers Indian sweets and snacks.

1 Comment

Posted in Indian, Restaurant, Uncategorized

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