Three Strikes You’re Out

What: Chicken Red Curry and Lardna
Where: Nida’s Thai on High in Columbus, Ohio
Cuisine: Thai food
Affordability: $15-20

During my 6 months in Columbus, Ohio, I’ve had to privilege of dining on an expense account on a weekly basis. Some people may immediately think “Wow I can order filet mignon everyday!”, but the truth is, nothing beats home cooked meals, even if its just boiling plain broccoli.

One of my first meals in Ohio was at Nida’s Thai on High. (It sounds like a funny name for a restaurant, but its actually quite clever because the restaurant was located on High Street). They offer thai food, sushi pho, and Thai inspired cocktails. We ordered the Lard Na – vegetable and tofu stir fry with a gooey sauce on top of wide clear noodles (top picture), and the classic thai red curry (bottom picture). We all agreed that the food was delicious and that we would definitely come back again.

So we went back a second time. Although the food wasn’t as good as it was that very first time, it was still good enough to make us want to go again. So we went back a third time. Unfortunately the service was really slow, and the food wasn’t good at all. I recently learned to cook thai curry at home, and I feel like I can cook a better curry than the one I ordered that day – it was super watery and bland. As a group, we decided that that would probably be the last time we visited this place.

Side note, every time we went to this restaurant, there would always be a table next to us where the people seemed to be on their first date. So perhaps its a good place to take your date? Just be prepared for the usual bit of awkwardness or great eavesdropping, depending on which table you’re at!

 

Waterloo’s Fine Dining

Where: Bhima Warung
Cuisine: Indonesian
Affordability: $20 – $50

Pointers:
–  Although the outer exterior of the restaurant looks a bit like a run down shack, the interior is beautifully decorated and whisks your mind to somewhere exotic in Asia.

– The daily specials were oyster shooters which came with a shot of vodka infused with chilies. The oysters were small but fresh and paired nicely with the spicy vodka.

– We ordered the guay toew – fresh wide rice noodles pan fried with vegetables. The noodles were the perfect consistency and the dish was packed with so many different flavors that I didn’t even notice it was vegetarian. It was getting a bit too saucy at the bottom of the bowl was sitting in a pool of sauce, but the cherry tomatoes and pineapple chunks helped reduce the saltiness. We also ordered the khao soi – thin egg noodles fried in a chaingmai yellow curry. It was also very flavourful but was unexpected because other thai restaurants serve this as a soupy curry noodle dish.

– For drinks, we ordered Thai Iced Tea and mango lassi. Both were beautifully presented with slices of pineapple, orange and lemon, but the drink itself lacked specialty so it felt a bit overpriced.

– Definitely worth checking this place out, if you have the money to splurge, their main courses are pricey but each dish consists of at least 10 to 20 ingredients that all somehow work together. Overall, a great dining experience if you’re sick of the fast foods in the area!  They even wrap up your leftovers into a cute little swan 🙂

Indian meal at Avani, family style!

What: Kebob Sampler, Roti, Curries, Saffron Rice and Garlic Naan
Where: Avani
Cuisine: Indian
Affordability: $15-$20

Pointers:

– We started the meal off with the Kebob Sampler as the appetizer. This dish included Chicken Sheekh Kebabs 2pcs & Lamb Sheekh Kebabs 2pcs, Tender Reshmi Kebab 2pcs & Lamb Chops 2pcs all cooked in their hot coal tandoor oven, served over a bed of cabbage of onions. The meats arrived at the table on a hot sizzling plate and our group gobbled up everything cuz man, we were hungry! Overall, we loved the flavours produced from cooking the meats in the tandoor oven, and our favorite meats were the Lamb chops and Chicken Sheekh Kebabs.

– This Indian restaurant’s menu is meant for groups to order family style, so we decided to order 2 curries, and of course the necessary carbs to go with it. First curry was the Chicken Tikka Masala – Tandoor cooked, marinated chicken tikka in a mildly
spiced, rich & creamy sauce with a hint of coconut. The second curry was the Lamb Vindaloo – Spicy Goan curry cooked with chunks of tender lamb. And to go with the curries, we had the Roomali Roti, Saffron rice, and garlic naan.

– Being the foodies that we are, we eat Indian food on a regular basis and typically know what flavours to expect. But this time at Avani, we felt like the curries just didn’t hit the right spot. The tikka masala had a bizzare chinese medicine taste, whereas the spice from the lamb vindaloo was overpowering. The curries didn’t taste bad, they just had foreign flavors that we were unfamiliar with. The basket of Garlic naan on the other hand was FANTASTIC!

– Unfortunately we did not have the stomach power to order any other dishes, but from the menu it seems like they have a lot of Asian-inspired selections including Pad Thai, Green Curry and an Indian-Chinese version of Chow Mein. Looks like there’s a reason for us to come back next time!

Drooling for Roti

What: Lamb Roti
Where: Ghandi Indian Cuisine (Queen West)
Cuisine: Indian
Affordability: $10-15

Pointers:

– If you’ve never had this style of Indian Cuisine, you’re missing out…BIG TIME! Just imagine, a thin, chewy and crispy roti, freshly made right in front of your eyes. The lamb curry is piping hot, the perfect spice level in between mild and medium and it’s all wrapped up inside the roti. This dish is my favorite one to get because the lamb curry is superb with lots of melt-in-your-mouth potatoes incorporate with big chunks of tender lamb.

– For a girl who can eat quite a bit, I only managed to finish half, which was awesome because I didn’t mind eating the other half for lunch the next day 🙂

– Yum, yum, yum! You have to try for yourself!

New Thai Fave in Etobicoke

What: Coconut Chicken Soup & Pineapple Fried Rice
Where: Mangosteens Thai Cuisine (Etobicoke)
Cuisine: Thai
Affordability: $7 – $12 per dish

Pointers:

– Tucked away on a corner in what appears to be a seedy plaza on the corner of Kipling (one block east) and The Queensway, Mangosteens offer a cozy, yet trendy atmosphere with a small but very tasty menu and very attentive servers.

– I had the Coconut Chicken Soup and it was awesome. It’s like chicken soup but not salty. It has a hint of sweetness from the coconut juice, which made for an enjoyable dish. There were also chunks of chicken and mushrooms were a plenty.

– For the entrée, I decided on just the pineapple fried rice. It had chunks of pineapple, large shrimps, chicken, green onions, and roasted cashews stir fried in Jasmine rice and eggs. That did not need any other main. That was a meal on its own. And what a dish! It had an explosion of flavour that complimented each other. There was a good balance of spices that complimented the citrus of the pineapples. A definite “must-have” again.

– Will I go back to Mangosteens? You bet! It’s so rare to find a good restaurant in Etobicoke. It’s good to find these gems and keep them in mind when trying to figure out what to have for lunch or dinner.