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.

Extra Helpings: One Hell Of A Reuben At Twig's Diner

By now I should have realized that you should never judge a book by its cover. While I certainly didn't go out of my way to avoid it, until a longtime reader and frequent commenter suggested I try the food at Twig's Diner, it just wasn't on my radar. Which was ironic because while I've known about this tiny little restaurant for at least two decades, had I known what was happening inside I would've already been a long and faithful follower. The original suggestion from my reader was to check them out on Sunday morning for breakfast. While they do serve breakfast during their hours of operation (7 AM - 3 PM every day), when I stopped by today in the early afternoon I was feeling in more of a lunch mood.

Twig's Diner was located at 334 31st NW, Barberton, OH 44203 and can be reached at 330-825-1016. Not surprisingly, there was no website associated with the restaurant at the time of this writing. There was a small eight car parking lot to the north side of the restaurant with ample overflow parking in a larger lot directly across the street. Parking in the small lot was the easy part. Backing out directly into a busy street when I went to leave was fairly tricky.

Here was a shot of the outside of the diner:


The place really does look tiny from the outside, but once inside, it felt much bigger. Seating forty-five guests at a time, the inside was decorated with hats, fifties memorabilia, and lots and lots of photographs of happy Twig's customers. Here was a shot of the lunch counter / entrance to the kitchen:


Attached to the wall next to my table was the following card:


I'm always leery of walking into a restaurant that has miscellaneous tchotchkes randomly strewn throughout the interior. At Twig's Diner, however, I began to understand more about Twig herself (who wasn't there, by the way) through her choice of decorating aesthete. Fortunately, it was nearly dead when I showed up for a late lunch so the floor manager (who also acted as my server) was able to fill me in on the story of Twig's Diner. It seems that Twig was actually just one of several previous owners of this space. Thirteen years ago Ernie, the previous owner, had spruced the place up a bit and put out a "For Rent" sign in the window when serendipity struck. Twig, a seasoned professional in the food and bartending industry, just happened to drive by the building and decided to fulfill a longtime dream of having a little place all to herself. She threw caution to the wind, opened up her eponymous diner, and thirteen years later I now had the opportunity to see why my reader had so enthusiastically endorsed the cuisine.

Here was a shot of the menu my server left at the table:






When I asked my server for recommendations from the menu, she whole-heartedly suggested the breakfast items from the menu. I indicated that I wasn't really in the mood for breakfast right now (it was 1:30 PM after all) and she immediately jumped to the back of the menu where she pointed out the reuben sandwich, titled "One Hell Of A Reuben." Clearly amused by the good humor in the naming scheme, I went on to ask what the soup of the day was. My server prattled off two or three until she came to the final one, lasagna soup. I've heard of stuffed pepper soup, but never lasagna soup. When I pushed her a little further, she basically confessed that one of yesterday's specials was lasagna. Rather than throw it away, they re-purposed it as a soup. Wholly intrigued by the notion of lasagna in soup form, I immediately ordered a cup of it.

Shortly thereafter, this arrived at my table:


I filled my soup spoon with some of the soup and brought it to my nose. The rich smell of long-simmered tomatoes and beef filled my nostrils. I took a bite and was rewarded with ... lasagna! The usual suspects were all there: Noodles, beef, ricotta, tomatoes. In addition there were some thinly-chopped carrots that while cooked through, clearly had not been in the original lasagna the day before. My guess was that the cook started the soup by sauteeing some aromatics, carrots and onion before adding the lasagna "base" and additional broth to essentially make a soup out of it. The soup was hearty and delicious and had I not decided to order a sandwich and a side, I could've probably been happy just eating an entire bowl of it. The garlic bread that accompanied the soup was grilled nicely, but it lacked a nice garlic edge to each bite.

When I was about two-thirds of the way through my soup, my sandwich platter arrived:


I decided to go with the One Hell Of A Reuben and to substitute the homemade onion rings for the fries for an additional $2.59. I'm so glad I did. First, here was a side shot of the reuben sandwich:


Built as a double-decker sandwich, the corned beef was tender and amazingly juicy. I had to make sure I ate the sandwich over my plate as juicy literally gushed back onto my plate. The sauerkraut and swiss cheese were nice, but the real flavor standout was the "special sauce." It turns out that Twig's was making their own 1000 Island dressing for the reuben and it was a beautiful combination of tangy, creamy, and sweet; a nice foil for the strong flavor of the corned beef itself. One of the nice things about Twig's reuben was that the salt was nicely controlled and not too overpowering. Between corned beef and sauerkraut, sometimes too much salt can be an issue. Not here.

To accompany my sandwich, I opted to go with the homemade onion rings:


Make no qualms about it, these were excellent! Probably on par with my other favorite homemade onion rings at Michael Symon's B Spot restaurant in Woodmere. The onion inside the ring was nice and meaty, but cooked perfectly until they were tender and sweet. The exterior batter was crispy, not greasy, and a beautiful thickness. The ratio of the batter to the onion itself was also nice; each bite rewarded me with a nice blend of coating and vegetable. Clearly this was an onion ring to be reckoned with. The only infinitesimally small criticism I had was that while there was salt in the batter, I could tell that they hadn't been seasoned after they came out of the deep fat fryer. They were a hair shy of being seasoned perfectly to my taste. At the same time, on the several occasions that I've had the rings at B Spot, I think they may be just a hair over-seasoned. I will say this for certain: I think these may be the best homemade onion rings in all of Akron and Canton and they give B Spot's a run for their money, too.

I intend to return to Twig's Diner very, very soon. Having now tasted the delicious food available on the lunch menu, I plan to sample some of their very unique and delicious sounding breakfast foods, too. I've been looking for a place with a good version of biscuits and sausage gravy and wouldn't you know it, Twig's has it on their menu and all of it is homemade. In addition, every day three kinds of pancakes are available: Plain, wheat, and sweet potato. On certain days of the week, additional flavors are also available. Belgium waffles, corned beef hash, omelettes, Twig's seems to have what you crave for breakfast. Well, at least what I crave.

Twig's Diner is now solidly on my radar scope and I hope that I can turn as many of my friends, family members, and readers on to it as I can. Highly, highly recommended.

Who Puts Red Pepper Flakes In The Refrigerator?

If there is any benefit to being unemployed and looking for work, it's that I don't have a 9-to-5 work schedule to which I have to adhere. Knowing that I was going to be having lunch with my aunt and uncle today, I decided to stop at my grandma's condominium on the way back home since it is on the way. Apparently she needed some errands run and I was in a perfect position to help her out.

After running the expected and a few not-so-expected errands, my grandma offered to treat me to dinner. Knowing that she has diverticulosis and can eat at very few restaurants, I suggested we go to one of the few places in Wadsworth that she can actually order something off the menu without her having to endure gastronomic distress afterward. Buehler's is a local chain supermarket that originally started in Wooster, OH and now has many stores around the area. While I don't know if all of the Buehler's have a restaurant inside them, I know for a fact that the Wadsworth and Medina stores do.

Fortunately, when we arrived at 6:00 PM on a Friday night, it was busy, but not packed. It's funny how some other Wadsworth eateries at this time would've had at least an hour wait. But then again, on the whole, the food at those other places is a bit better quality. But, I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself.

At least in the Wadsworth location, the Main Street Grill is located to the right of the main entrance, next to the deli counter. Here is a shot of the entrance to the restaurant:


For those that opt for it, the all-you-can-eat salad bar is right underneath the sign. I suppose that's also for convenience sake as those who want a salad "to go" don't actually have to go into the restaurant. The salad bar itself is pretty standard in it's offerings and if that is your thing, you probably wouldn't be disappointed. I should note that the salad bar is an addition that can be made to virtually any menu item for an extra $2-$3. Be careful to note that some entrees, like the one I would be ordering tonight, already came with a prepared side side, so spending the extra money for the salad bar might be overkill.

Once we were seated, I took a shot of the counter area. If you are by yourself, it might make more sense to sit at one of the stools. However, today we sat at a small table right inside the entrance:


Like I mentioned earlier, the entree that I settled on today already came with a garden salad, so I opted not to spend the extra $2 for the salad bar. Today's choice of dressing? Bleu cheese, on the side, please:


This was your standard iceberg lettuce garden salad. I was pleasantly surprised to actually find real pieces of bleu cheese in the dressing. However, the problem I had with this salad (besides it having no real character of its own) was that too many of the components had that "shredded" texture to them. But overall, it was a decent enough salad given its origins.

My grandma was very happy with her baked apples. It's one of the few sides she can order that she really enjoys. Looking and smelling pretty much like warm apple pie filling, I have no idea (and I neglected to ask) if they actually make them fresh or simply open a can of apple pie filling and heat it up.

After about ten minutes or so, our main meals arrived. I had ordered the meat lasagna with five kinds of cheese:


What, I hear you say? Where is that lasagna? As I was quick to discover, four of the five cheeses are on top of the lasagna and only one is inside, the ricotta. The mozzarella, Romano, parmesan, and asiago cheeses are all layers on top and then baked to a bubbly brown crust. While I understood the concept of a "baked" lasagna (they had other baked pastas available, too), for me this was just too much cheese. I think I would've preferred the cheese blend to be inside the lasagna rather than on top of it. Overall, the ground beef used in the lasagna lacked any real character (like an Italian sausage would, let's say). The pasta and the ricotta layers were nice and tender though.

As can be seen in the photo above, my meal was accompanied by two slice of grilled garlic bread:


While griddled nicely, there was a slight metallic taste associated with this, probably from the garlic salt that was used to give the bread flavor. While it has been eons since I've come across true garlic bread (using real garlic), this version was no better than many of its counterparts I'd find in other similarly priced restaurants.

Overall, the meal itself was average, pretty much living up to the standard that a restaurant in a supermarket would have. There was one odd moment for me when I received the red pepper flakes I asked my server for when she brought out my lasagna:


When I went to grab it, it was ice cold! Meaning that this had come straight from the refrigerator. Who puts red pepper flakes in the refrigerator? I mean, they are already dried so they won't go bad. They might lose their potency after a while, but they won't go bad. I'm sure that the explanation is one of those silly little stories that involves keeping the pepper flakes next to the containers of pre-grated parmesan cheese.

If you are looking for a better version of lasagna, try Marie's Pizza and Chicken, just up the road. But be prepared to get there early or late because there will be crowds during th prime dining hours. However, if you are eating with someone who has dietary restrictions or you just happen to need a nosh in the middle of grocery shopping, Buehler's version is certainly passable.

And Sometimes You Can (Go Home)

I've written about Marie's Restaurant located in Wadsworth, OH before and after my sort of disastrous meal at the Chicken Manor Restaurant in my last post, I decided that I needed an Italian food intervention to set things straight.

While my normal order is a medium pepperoni pizza, this time I decided to try something on the menu that I hadn't ordered before, the lasagna. One of Marie's strengths (besides their pizzas) has always been their marinara sauce and varieties of pastas. Add on to that fact that Marie's makes their lasagna daily from scratch and you can see what motivated me to order it.

First, my garden salad with side of French dressing:


Pretty standard stuff, and flavor profiles were in line with what I was expecting. The one thing I did notice were the cheese and croutons -- in a good way. The cheese was freshly grated and didn't overwhelm the salad and the croutons, which I have no doubt in my mind were not homemade, were actually decent. Flavorful without being overly salty and processed.

Next up is the lasagna. As with most places, you'll notice two things about the lasagna. The portion is huge, and it's largely invisible underneath a mountain of sauce:


This was a nicely constructed lasagna. However, the lasagna itself was not the star ... the *sauce* was the star. This was a marinara sauce that comes across as a meat sauce. The "meatiness" in the dish was amazing. The depth of tomato flavor that they developed when making the sauce just screams "umami". It's the same sauce that is used on their pizzas and I am beginning to realize why their pizzas are also SO good. I only ate about half of the lasagna and took the rest home for a second meal.

Finally, a shot of some proper garlic breadsticks and more of that delicious marinara sauce, this time used as a dipping sauce:


The garlic breadsicks were tasty and better than average, but still not a standout. In other words, the breadsticks alone are not enough to draw me into Marie's. Then again, being paired with more of that stellar marinara sauce is enough to elevate even the most mediocre of dishes.

Once again I have to heartily recommend Marie's for the aficionado of anything having to do with "red sauce" Italian places. It's nice to know that I can go home (literally) and find an excellent plate of pasta.

Big Night at Lembo's?

I was feeling in the mood for Italian tonight and even more in the mood for something hearty and filling like lasagna. Considering my options between work and home, I remembered that there was a mom and pop style Italian restaurant close to where I live that I had never been to, Lembo's Italian Restaurant. After realizing that they also had an on-line presence, I decided to visit their website and was delighted to learn that they also had their menu on-line as well. I began looking through the menu and noticed that many of their menu items had the word "home made" in front of them: the sauce, the pizza dough, the lasagna.

And then it hit me. Right in the middle of the pasta section, Timpano was listed. I sat at my desk at work for a moment, stunned. I have only had timpano once in my life and it was never at a restaurant. Immediately my thoughts turned to Primo in the movie Big Night. This couldn't be the one and the same, could it? Seeing as the restaurant was on the way home, I figured I would find out for sure.

I was seated at a table just past the all-you-can-eat salad bar and by the entrance to the kitchen. When my waitress finally came over, I asked about the timpano and how it was constructed. The waitress explained that it was just rigatoni layered with cheese and marinara. I further questioned her as to what other layers were in the timpano and she kind of gave me that ok-what's-your-deal kind of look. I quickly apologized and pulled up the link to the timpano I made earlier in the post. I explained to her about Big Night and the true timpano that is layered and covered with a pasta sheet. She looked relieved that I actually wasn't some creepy stalker guy. She finally dashed any hope that I would be mind melding with Primo tonight with a "you know, the one you're showing me does look really good, but ours is definitely not that." Rats.

So, instead I went with my original inkling and ordered the cheese lasagna with meat sauce. Almost all of the meals come with the all-you-can-eat salad bar and I have to say, if you like choices on your salad bar, then this is the place for you. It was absolutely huge, two full-sized islands with greens, pasta salads, soups, desserts, and breads.

First up, I grabbed a couple of pieces of focaccia bread from one of the covered steam tables.


First the positives. It was nice and warm. It had a nice softness to it. The herb and olive oil on the crust added some nice flavor. Unfortunately some of the positives were also some of the negatives. Sitting on the steam table kept the bread soft, but ultimately robbed the bread of any of its integrity. There was no difference between the crust and the crumb. Secondly, a light dusting of kosher salt would've really elevated this bread. It lacked the fine tuning that just a little bit of salt could've brought out.

Next up, a trio of pasta salads:


On the left we had a farfalle pasta with carrots, red bell peppers, and a creamy Italian style dressing. In the middle are small shells with celery in a creamy sauce. On the right are a fettucine style noodle tossed in oil and dried parsley. All three were unremarkable. Clearly the "home made" aspect applied to the food on the menu, not these salads. And looking around at my other choices on the salad bar pretty much resulted in the same conclusion: if you're really into the standard salad bar, this is the place for you. If you're looking for something special, you aren't going to find it here.

Finally, my lasagna came out. It was freaking huge.


First, I tried the meat sauce surrounding the lasagna on the plate. It was ok, a good depth of tomato flavor, but a little sweeter than I would've normally liked it. I could also pick up a hint of anise, more than likely fennel seed. I then started in on the lasagna. The first thing I noticed was that overall, it was a nice cheese to sauce to noodle ratio. A lot of times places absolutely douse the top with mozzarella cheese and it becomes too much. This one was nice. It was nice and sliceable as well.

I sliced off a bite that had layers of the pasta and cheese and sauce and let the flavors roll around in my mouth. And suddenly it dawned on me as clear as day: nutmeg! I could taste nutmeg. Thinking back quickly to my cooking school courses, a bechamel is often finished with nutmeg. But then it dawned on me that most lasagnas don't use a bechamel sauce. I actually liked the nutmeg in this. It was present just oh-so-slightly, but wasn't too overpowering.

When the waitress came around to check on me, I asked her about both the fennel and the nutmeg. To the fennel question, she said that she wasn't entirely sure, but they do make the meat sauce from scratch in house. When I asked about the nutmeg, she got this stunned look on her face and admitted that yes, there is nutmeg in the ricotta cheese mixture layered between the noodles. She asked how I knew that and I simply answered that I could taste and smell it. She copped to the fact that only a handful of people have ever been able to identify the nutmeg. Who knew?


This is a shot of the side of my lasagna showing the layers of pasta, cheese, and sauce. The pasta had a lovely bite to it, not too soft, not too chewy.

Fortunately, I had more than enough left over at the end of my meal, so I brought it home and will have it tomorrow morning for a late breakfast before leaving for a small trip to Cleveland, OH to have a fabulous meal at L'Albatross.

While the salad and bread was eh, so-so, the lasagna was definitely a winner in my book and I'm definitely eager to get back and try some of the other homemade specialties, such as their gnocchi.