Restaurant review extravaganza 24 page 2

Tavern on France

At Tavern on France the other day, I studied a notepad printed with a list of ingredients and check-boxes as I considered ordering a custom “build-a-salad.” For the base price of $8.50, I could select a cheese (mozzarella, cheddar, smoked Gouda, blue cheese crumbles, Parmesan, pepper jack); four mix-ins (broccoli, green olives, shredded carrot, craisins, and 16 others); and one “crunch” (six options, including tortilla strips and candied pecans). I could add an array of meats and costlier vegetables for a modest fee. More >>

Nashville

Far East Nashville / Goha Ethiopian Restaurant

Let’s have a show of hands from anyone who has ever daydreamed about opening a restaurant with a spouse or significant other. Now, a show of hands from anyone who 86’ed the dream when they realized it hinged on the spouse or significant other doing all the dirty work. Mom-and-pop restaurants are hard business, and in the current economic environment, conventional wisdom and doom-saying media reports would have you believe that they’re going the way of, well, the mom-and-pop anything. But a couple of new couple-owned businesses in Nashville are bucking the trend, hoping to make a go out of hard work and unusual flavors from their faraway homelands. More >>

“Pho Sure: Diners flock to East Nashville’s new Asian eatery”

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New York

Liman

The ramshackle restaurant–part screen porch, part tinderwood dining room–teeters on the lip of the bay. Decorated with cheesy nautical art, it looks like the sort of spot where anglers sit late into the night drinking beers and telling fish stories. No one seems to mind that the place turns its back on the ocean, with nary a window looking out onto the steel-blue water; it’s as if everyone has had enough of it for one day. But the crowd isn’t drinking Bud–they’re drinking Efes. And this rustic spot isn’t in Maine or in Montauk–it’s in Sheepshead Bay. More >>

Orange County

Sol Cocina

I had my doubts when I heard that a cookbook author named Deborah Schneider was opening a Mexican restaurant called SOL Cocina at the old Mama Gina’s site in Newport Beach. There were just too many things to be cynical about. First, they had hired a PR firm to lobby local food blogs and this paper. For someone who lives to discover new places by word of mouth or by accident, that’s always a buzzkill. More >>

Phoenix

Local Breeze

Change can be good.

Back in March, locals mourned the unexpected loss of Palatte, a charming, casual brunch spot located just blocks from downtown, in the roughly century-old Cavness House. At the time, the closure seemed to be a poignant reminder of the recession, leaving a void in the area’s burgeoning but still spotty dining scene. More >>

San Francisco

Mercury Lounge

M.F.K. Fisher once said never to eat dinner in a room with a dance band. Since din with dinner is not our preference, we’ve tended to avoid places that tout music and live DJs. But a tip from a friend sent us to Mercury Lounge, whose Web site was alarmingly billboarded with upcoming events, including a comedy jam as well as music-themed evenings. But at an early-evening dinner we couldn’t have been happier with the delicious array of pan-Asian small plates. And, at a calm, relaxing Sunday brunch, everything we chose from an even more eclectic menu, including fried chicken and waffles and BLTs alongside Asian dishes, was tasty and satisfying. More >>

Jen Siska

“Small plate, big taste: honey walnut prawns.”

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St. Louis

Ranoush

The Delmar Loop has no shortage of colorful characters busking, begging, dressing up as clowns to hand out balloons and the Word of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, administering stress tests, shouting nonsense at no one specific, giving MetroLink a bad name, getting arrested or just plain hanging out, but if you happen by on a weekend evening, you might see something different: a belly dancer twirling and shaking among the patio tables outside the Syrian restaurant Ranoush. More >>