More Lunch Adventures At Continental Cuisine

As adventurous as I am about my dining choices, sometimes I just get into a routine. Not necessarily over the seemingly limitless choices of restaurants, but when I find a great dish, I mean a REALLY great dish on a menu, a visit to the restaurant isn't so much about exploring other items which could also be equally as tasty, but rather enjoying the same thing over and over again. It's kind of like when I crave a specific type of food, the associated restaurant immediately pops into my head as well. Thus it is with Continental Cuisine in the Fairlawn area located directly across from Summit Mall. While their menu has a variety of Mediterranean-inspired dishes, I always end up ordering the chicken shwarma with a side of French Fries. Oddly enough, today I met up with a friend who also goes to the restaurant for exactly one thing, the gyro with the same side of fries.

So, in the spirit of change, even though both of us were still considering ordering our old stand-bys when we arrived, in an interesting twist of fate, by the time we got around to placing our order, both of us decided on giving their pizzas a try. Made from a homemade pizza dough, they were available in both small (10") and large (14") sizes and could be made from standard pizza toppings or many of the other Mediterranean ingredients available on the menu.

My friend decided to order the small Meat Lover's pizza, substituting the gyro meat for the ham:


And while I didn't try a slice of his, I thoroughly enjoyed my version, the small Mediterranean:


Topped with black olives, eggplant, tomatoes, and onions, each bite had a little bit of salty and sweet flavor to it. While the tomato sauce was fairly basic and didn't really stand out, the crust was very tasty and quite well done.

Here was a close-up shot of a single slice:


And here was a closer shot of the crust:


The crust had that nice balance of crunch and chew. I don't think Continental Cuisine aged their pizza dough, but I could definitely tell from the delicious flavor that it was definitely made in-house. With the addition of some dried red pepper flakes, I pretty much devoured my pizza (as did my friend). I had heard good things about Continental's pizza from other people and now I can confirm that they are all true. Was this crust in the Pantheon of all-time greats for me? No, there are definitely better out there. But this was far better than any chain pizza and I'd have no qualms recommending them to pizza aficionados out there.

About a week and half after my last visit, I decided to stop back in for another lunch, this time flying solo. While I was tempted to fall back into old habits, I decided to take a chance and try something else from the menu. Feeling in a red sauce kind of mood, the only option which would appease this lust (besides the pizza, which I already had) was the Lasagna. The menu indicated that all of the entrees came with either a house salad or their fantastic French Fries. I opted for the house salad because a) I've already talked about the French Fries and b) French Fries with Lasagna? Really? Um, no.

A few minutes later, my server returned with a quite large salad:

I had asked him if the restaurant had a house dressing and sure enough, they did. This rather simple lettuce and chopped tomato salad had been dressed with a lemon, garlic, and olive oil vinaigrette. The garlic wasn't particularly present visibly in the vinaigrette, but after a mouthful of greens, I could definitely taste it. While I would consider the salad a bit too overdressed, I found that the dressing was well seasoned and slightly acidic, a perfect dipping sauce for the pita bread that had arrived with the salad:

While the salad wasn't particularly inspirational with it's fair share of lettuce stems and very out-of-season tomato chunks, the accompanying pita bread was fresh and soaked up the extra vinaigrette nicely. I had to remind myself that I still had the lasagna coming, so I didn't want to fill up on bread. While most items I've ever ordered at Continental Cuisine have come out of the kitchen with surprising speed, my server informed me that the lasagna takes a bit longer to come to the right temperature. I'd say I waited maybe five minutes longer than normal, so it wasn't a huge problem.

When my lasagna did arrive, I heard it before I saw it:

Apparently having come straight from the oven and plated on a ceramic dish, as my server set it in front of me he admonished me to not touch the deep walled dish in which the lasagna rested. Visually noting the voracity of the still bubbling cheese and sauce, I took him at his word. After dropping off my dish, he asked if I wanted any of the extras; I opted for dried oregano and red pepper flakes:

Of course, before I added anything to the dish, I wanted to taste it on its own first. First impressions? If you like lots of gooey melted cheese and lasagna absolutely swimming in sauce, then Continental Cuisine's version will be right up your alley. While the menu had implied that the lasagna was made with meat sauce, they were only half-telling the truth. There was indeed meat in the lasagna, but the sauce was instead a marinara. I tried the marinara by itself and found it on the sweeter side of the scale. For me it was borderline almost too sweet, but there was enough acidity from the tomatoes to keep it from going too far. The cheese was of your standard shredded mozzarella variety and was either melted into a molten Napalm or crusted with a nice golden brown color on top of the actual piece of lasagna.

When I finally managed to get to the lasagna, I was neither wowed nor disappointed. Sadly, the layers of pasta and meat got lost amongst all of the red sauce in the dish. I did end up adding a little bit of oregano and red pepper flakes, but that wasn't so much to correct the seasoning as it was to just make the flavors a little more interesting. While I've been a big proponent of the other dishes I've had in the past at Continental Cuisine, this one left me feeling just a little flat.

In addition to the pita bread brought out during my salad course, the lasagna also came with a small plate of cheesy garlic bread:

In addition to the single slice of toasted bread, there was even MORE shredded cheese sitting next to it, just in case I hadn't gotten my cheese fix from the lasagna. The bread was toasted nicely with a prominent but not overwhelming garlic flavor. I suppose for those who think that there can never be too much cheese on a dish, this would suit them well, but for me, I would have liked it better sans cheese.

All criticisms aside, I did end up eating the entire dish of pasta as well as my garlic bread, if that says anything. While I don't think I will be ordering the lasagna again (or the house salad unless the tomatoes are actually in season), I have had so many other great meals at Continental Cuisine, that I know I will be returning time and again for either the pizza or their Mediterranean wraps and the still amazing French Fries. I heartily suggest you check them out if you haven't already.

Kibbe And Shwarma And French Fries, Oh My!

I am completely convinced that if you want really good French Fries, the kind that are golden brown on the outside and creamy and hot on the inside, you need to find yourself a place with a Mediterranean cook. I'm not saying that you can't find excellent French Fries elsewhere, but anecdotal evidence from my epicurean travels tell me that some of the best fries I've ever had have been Greek and Lebanese.

When I discovered Continental Cuisine several years ago, I wasn't sure what to expect. While out on a lunch break looking for something unique, I stumbled across the storefront directly across the street from Summit Mall in Fairlawn, Ohio. The restaurant billed itself as Mediterranean, but one look at the menu convinced me that there were other influences as well.

Here are two shots of the outside of the restaurant:



Once inside the main door, there was a small storefront area that sold Mediterranean items that aren't common in most grocery stores. While I didn't have time to peruse the bottles, cans, and jars today, I certainly have in the past and found some interesting items that I purchased for home use. The dining room was down a hallway to the left and every time I've been, it's always been self-seating. Once I sat down, my server brought me a menu to look over.

Here were several shots of the menu. Notice the heavy Greek and Italian influences on the choices:





Today I decided to give the “Kibbe Ball” appetizer a try. At only $1.99, it seemed like an economical way to give these international flavors a taste. I asked whether the kibbe was made from the traditional meat, lamb. My server indicated that they were actually made from beef. After a few minutes, my appetizer came out of the kitchen along with a basket of fresh pita bread:


Here was a shot of my kibbe ball:


And a shot of the interior:


First, let me say something about the pita bread. So often, even in Greek and Mediterranean restaurants, the pita bread is unforgivably stale. It's not that I expect these restaurants to make their own pita bread on-premises, however, I have to question how hard is it to serve pita bread that is soft and has that wonderful chew to it? Fortunately, Continental Cuisine's pita bread had none of those problems as it was fresh and wonderful. They either go through a lot of it so that their inventory is always fresh, or they get it from someplace local right after it is made. In fact, I had to make sure I didn't fill up on pita bread before the rest of my dinner arrived.

The kibbe ball was quite good, too. As my server sat it down in front of me, the slightest aroma of cinnamon wafted up from the plate. When I asked my server if there was cinnamon in the dish, she replied that she wasn't entirely sure, but cinnamon was a spice commonly used in many of the dishes. The kibbe ball was fried nicely and wasn't greasy in the least. While very good on its own, dipped in a bit of the slightly thinned yogurt was a nice way to balance the fattiness of the ground beef with the tanginess of the yogurt. Had I not ordered a sandwich wrap and French Fries, I probably could've eaten at least three or four more of these.

At just about the same time that I finished up my appetizer, my wrap and French Fries arrived at the table. Here was a shot of my chicken shwarma wrap:


And a close-up of the filling:


This was a wonderful mix of grilled chicken, fresh tomatoes, parsley, pickles, and a garlic yogurt tahini sauce. The wrap itself was nicely grilled and crunchy on the outside, but still soft on the interior. The nice thing about getting a sandwich wrapped this way was that as you get close to the foil, you simply peel off a layer, discard it, and proceed with the eating. The tahini sauce added a nice moistness to the wrap without making it too wet. I definitely recommend this sandwich.

Finally, the French Fries:


All of the sandwiches are a la carte; however, you can add this entire plate of French Fries for only $1.50 more. As you can see from the picture above, you get A LOT of fries for you $1.50. This was easily enough food for two people, maybe even three. Every time I have had the French Fries from Continental Cuisine, they have always been excellent. Clearly these are not fresh cut fries, but they were fried to what I consider to be perfection: Crispy and golden on the outside, creamy and steamy on the inside.

I'm not sure when the busy times are, since every time I've gone for lunch or dinner, there have been perhaps three or four tables with people sitting at them. Considering that the restaurant and shop have been around for quite a bit of time, they are obviously making enough money to stay open. I would heartily suggest that if you are in the mood for Mediterranean fare or just some really excellent French Fries to check out Continental Cuisine. There should something on the menu that will just hit the spot.