Restarant Review: Mesh (2008)

Went to Mesh for the second time the other day. Great restaurant. Believe it or not, but this time it was for my birthday, again. Mesh is one of the fancier restaurants that I have been to. Here is last years review by me.

First off, everybody there knew it was my birthday and was very nice in congratulating me (not that I had a choice with anther birthday). Anyway, Sarah and I stated things off with the Potato Poppers again. They are definitely one of the best things on the menu. I got the corn chowder soup and it was just alright. Not nearly as good as their tomato bisque. For our meals, Sarah got the pan roasted chicken with gnocchi and I got the swordfish special. Both meals were excellent and the swordfish was the best I’ve ever had, perfectly cooked with a great flavor.

The desserts deserve their own special honors. As good as the rest of the food is, the desserts are just incredible. We have never been less than amazed by them. Sarah got Oreo ice cream. Yep, that’s it. And it was probably the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted. Simply great. I got “a tasting of 5 truffles” (the chocolate candy, not the fungus). Let me talk about each one. The first one was “chocolate toffee”. Really good and rich. Lots of flavor there. The second one was “blueberry”. This had a white chocolate coating and a very light blueberry flavored filling. Again, really good. The third on was my favorite. It was “gingerbread”. Holy cow! Sarah thought it was too much, but I liked it a lot. Really strong cinnamon and clove flavor. The last two were a little different. How about “Balsamic Vinegar”? Yeah, that was my least favorite. I appreciated how it was different and I didn’t hate it. But, there was something weird about eating chocolate and smelling and tasting vinegar. Kind of weird. The last one was “lemon rosemary”. This one was fantastic. It has a white chocolate coating with a lemon filling that had a strong rosemary essence to it. I thought the combination was great.

So, overall, good experience at Mesh. I would recommend it to anyone (who doesn’t care to spend $100+ for two people and doesn’t mind getting a babysitter for the kids).

Greek Isles Restaurant = Fantastic!

For Christmas my brother and I got some gift cards to a fairly new restaurant called Greek Isles. The restaurant is up on Hwy 129, so it took us a while to organize a night to meet there, but it finally happened. It’s a small restaurant with seating for 20 or so families. We were met with a large, muscular guy behind the counter who could tell that we were new to the whole Greek scene. He told us to go have a seat in the booth and he would wait on us (not something that normally happens, usually you get your food yourself). Well, it turns out that the guy was Konstantine Karvelas and he owns the restaurant (his day job is working for Grandview Hospital in Dayton running the heart-lung machine during open-heart surgery). One of the nicest guys I’ve met in a while. He helped us with our orders (and pronunciation) and delivered the food personally, taking great interest in how we like it and how we came to be in the restaurant.

Justin got the Loukaniko (spicy sausage) which was fantastic. Kate had the chicken Souvlaki which was pretty good. I had the gyro (how could I not?) and it was fantastic. Sarah’s pizza had some very tasty sausage on it with quite a kick. The hummus was some of the best I’ve ever had. So, after a great meal, the owner came over to make sure that everything was going okay and that the meal was up to par. The owner could tell how much we were enjoying the feast, so he decided to try out one of his dips on us: a spicy red pepper and feta dip. This was amazing stuff.

So, after a great meal, how could we not try the baklava? So, Justin got the chocolate dipped baklava. Amazing, yet again. I saw that he had Baklava Ice Cream, so I asked for that. He told me that they were out of ice cream and I acted disappointed. At this point, he said, “Just wait right there. They have ice cream next door.” He proceeded to walk outside with a bowl and come back with some ice cream with which he mixed in some baklava. Now that’s good service. I did feel slightly guilty. But, it was definitely worth it. Then, he would not let us tip him, as we were leaving.

Overall, this was a fantastic experience and I have a feeling we will be going back soon. I plan picking something up often, on my way home from work. I would completely recommend this small restaurant to others.

One other thing he mentioned was Greek Night. Apparently, once a month, they have a reservation-required, 100+ people, all night Greek party; with a live band and “dancing on the tables” fun. The belly dancers come out at 11pm and 1am, so make sure not to miss them.

Check out this amazing restaurant: http://kostasgreekisles.com/index.html

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Cooking Class at Jungle Jim's

For my birthday, Justin got the both of us a cooking class at Jungle Jim's. This was the Whole Grain Cooking class with Stephen Lee (the HerbMiester). Jungle Jim's has some great cooking classes. I would recommend them to anyone. This was Justin's first class and my fourth. We got there and sat down in our seats and noticed that the average age seemed to be slightly high. I think all the whole grains talk appealed to the older crowd and the health concience. Little did they know...

So, Stephen Lee is a great cooking teacher. He was funny and quirky. His claim to fame was that he developed the current KFC green bean recipe. That's kind of cool, n'est pas? Anyway, we started with the Forest Mushroom and Millet Soup. It was pretty good. Needed more salt. You know what millet is? Bird seed. Seriously. Our "salad" was Barley, Corn, and Brown Rice Salad. This had a simple olive oil and lemon juice dressing and was actually very good. I was surprised. Not my normal good eats, but I liked it.

The main course was Shrimp and Broccoli in a Cream Sauce over .... get ready for it .... you're not going to believe it .... .... waffles. Yes, over waffles. Buckwheat waffles. I know, weird. But, very good. On the side we had some rye cornbread that was excellent. The best thing of the night. Simple to make, just buttermilk, rye, cornmeal, eggs and shortening. Oh, yeah. Shortening. He used lots of shortening. I think a lot of the people in there thought it would be a "low fat" class. They were wrong. He used lots of the good stuff.

Finally, we made it to the best course. Dessert! We had Steamed Oatmeal Pudding with a Hard Cider Sauce. Very good. The sauce was more of a whipped cream and the pudding was more of a fruit cake, but they were tasty.

Overall, a very good class. Thanks Justin. I will have to go back. :-)

P.S. Oh, and I got Stephen Lee's signed cookbook "Go Withs". Excellent.

Birthday at Mesh

So, for my birthday, Sarah and I went to a relatively new restaurant called Mesh. This was one of the fanciest restaurant that I have ever been to! I would call the interior modern-contemporary. On the back wall was a glass case surrounding a 15 foot wall of wines (I assume for temperature control). The food at Mesh was contemporary American with emphasis on presentation. The fancier the better. They go for lots of little plates of food. So, on with our meal!

When we first arrived, the chef brought us a small, bite-size appetizer. This changes day to day and was not bad. Small piece of crisp bread with goat cheese and a tomato/olive stuff on top. Not bad, but not my thing. (Sarah actually tried this!) For an appetizer, we got the potato poppers. Little egg shaped fried mashed potatoes with a hint of chili oil and salt. Sarah really liked these a lot. I got the tomato bisque soup. It was served to me in a bowl that didn't have soup in it. It had a few pine nuts, a small blob of red paste, and a small blob of green paste. That was all that was in the bowl. I was slightly confused for a second. Then, she brought out a small metal pitcher that had the soup in it and poured the broth into my bowl. Very fancy. Let me tell you, that was probably the best soup I have ever eaten. Oh, the red blob was tomato paste and the green blob was some kind of basil stuff.

On to the main course. Sarah got the redskin potato ravioli. She says, "it was really good". I got the scallops on top of some kind of potato stuff on top of tomato. The scallops were excellent. (I know. I didn't get the lamb. I was just in a scallop mood.) Here's a camera phone pic of the scallops:



For dessert, Sarah got the "cheesecake". It wasn't quite what we were expecting. It was a Bailey's chocolate cake with a layer of cheesecake in the center. This was topped with a very light buttercream frosting. Very yummy. I got the raspberry, chocolate terrine. This is apparently a very dense, chocolate, fudgy-like torte. The chocolate had a very good raspberry flavor with some sauce drizzled all over it. Not only that, but it also had sugar encrusted cashews with it. Excellent dessert. I was just too full to fully enjoy it.


Overall, this was a fantastic place. The kind of place where the waiters stand at attention on the wall waiting for someone to need something. Every time my silverware was dirty, they replaced it. They served the food on your left side and removed the plate from your right.

Definatly NOT kid friendly; but I can't wait to go back. The only problem is that it is kind of pricey. We spent $71 without drinks. So, i would recommend this as a special occasion place.