Nice and Tasty Food in Ann Arbor

Hong Hua 鸿樺 - 雲吞牛腩撈麵

I don't know about you.  But for me, I am willing to pay a lot of money to have a decent shrimp wanton and stewed beef tenderloin lo mein (雲吞牛腩撈麵) in Michigan.  This is such a common dish in Hong Kong but trust me you can't find many places in Michigan that can offer this dish in up-to-par quality.  But you won't be disappointed having this dish in Hong Hua.  We have another review about this restaurant here.
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(Note: Restaurant is outside of Ann Arbor)

Temptations

Of all the Indian restaurants' butter chicken in the Ann Arbor area, I love Temptations' best.  Its sauce is rich, creamy and just spicy enough.  Also, the chicken are all good quality white meat.  I would not say it's healthy given it has a lot of butter but I just can't resist its TEMPTATIONS :P  The Tandoori is very good there too, they manage to keep the meat tender and juicy even after the grilling.  Other Indian restaurants' are usually dry and hard.  The goat curry is good but it's not available in my past two visits.  I was really disappointed and complained about it to the owner.  Hope he will bring it back soon.
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Yotsuba Japanese Restaurant

I went to Yotsuba for lunch last Thursday.  It always has good lunch special (see above).  Sorry the photo maybe a little under exposed.  Out of all the lunch specials, I like the one with Udon and an Eel bowl best.
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Zenaida Chocolate Lounge

Thanks Todd, Brianna, Jon, Sarra and Sean for such a detailed review.  Please visit us again.
(Note: Review contributed by readers)

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Zenaida Chocolate Lounge

414 S. Main
Ann Arbor, MI, 48104

I had a lot of hope for this place, since it seemed that it would offer an actual good source for chocolate in AA in comparison to the crap they dish out at Kilwin’s, Chocolate Café and Schakolad. Instead, it turned out to be what I consider the prototypical AA restaurant – it lures you in with a halfway innovative and interesting menu and a cool space, and then drops you on your head with abominable execution. There is no doubt that this was the most comically terrible experience I have had at an AA eatery, and I was there on a Friday night so they should have been at their best.

Where to begin… Well, we walk in and see a “Please seat yourself” sign, although we were told that some of the couches/tables/beds were reserved. Luckily the place was pretty empty at the time (~7:30, still a little early for a lounge I guess) so we grabbed a bed and some extra chairs. Others after us weren’t so lucky; one group obeyed the “seat yourself” rules and took the couch next to ours, only to be evicted minutes later by the dishwasher coming out of the kitchen in full rubber glove regalia to inform them that in fact that couch was reserved. Ok, if you take reservations, perhaps you shouldn’t have a “seat yourself” sign.

After a few minutes of confusion about the ordering protocol (do we order at the counter or do they wait on us?) we managed to get the last two menus in the half-empty place. We perused the menus and saw a lot of items that sounded good, so we walked up to the case to see if we could get a look at things to narrow our choices down. Unfortunately, the case was pretty much bare except for a little mangled piece of chocolate mousse cake, a couple of cheesecakes and a few little tarts. To our inquiry of where the truffles are (there is a menu item that’s a selection of 4 truffles) we received the reply that in fact they were out of truffles, although they did have Vosges caramels for $2 each. This should have been our major hint to get the heck out of there, because we all knew from past experience that Vosges also follows the high-promise poor-execution methodology.

We decided to start out with a round of hot chocolates. We’d heard rumor that people complained about the small size and high price, but that the owner/chef had said that if you can finish the rich, decadent cup and still want more, just tell her and she’ll give you another one free. After waiting for 15 minutes for the beverages to come out, the joke was on us. They were all tepid, like they had been ready for 12 minutes before the waitress (who was a complete idiot, and had obviously never been a waitress nor bothered to look over the menu before) got around to bringing them out. Mine was the “best” of the bunch, with the best meaning that I would probably get it again if it cost half as much and was guaranteed to be hot. It was the Zenaida signature hot chocolate, flavored with rosewater (perfect proportion) and orange (non-existent). The dulce de leche one was what one would expect. The Carmen, which was supposed to have chiles and cinnamon, had hints of cinnamon but no trace of chiles and was a major letdown. After this we concluded that the owner could make the promise of free seconds not because the hot chocolate was so rich and decadent that one could not possible have room for another, but that nobody would wait around for 15 minutes for a subpar $4 hot chocolate.

To go along with the hot chocolates we had ordered the dessert cigars, which were corn tortillas rolled with cinnamon-sugar, fried and topped with gelato. We’d ordered dulce de leche gelato on top, but when the waitress brought it out she informed us that it was French vanilla because “that’s the way it comes.” What this is code for is, “I have no idea what the heck is going on and didn’t feel like telling the cook to scoop from the other bucket.” About 10 minutes after we ate the half-fried, doughy cigars with the French vanilla and Hershey’s syrup we saw someone come out of the kitchen with a half gallon of Edy’s French Vanilla. So not only was it vanilla and not dulce de leche, it was ice cream and not gelato.

Resolved to get some satisfaction before leaving we ordered the Belgian Bailey’s – a Belgian waffle with gelato of our choice drizzled with a Bailey’s & chocolate sauce. We again ordered the dulce de leche gelato on top. The waitress comes out 5 minutes later and asks “So, you wanted a dulce de leche hot chocolate with that, right?” Um, no. We had to go get a menu and show her than we had a choice of gelato. When the dessert came out 10 minutes later our hope was briefly renewed – it looked like it should and yes, it did have dulce de leche gelato on it. Who would’ve thought! We were brought crashing down once again when we dug in – the waffle tasted burnt even though it wasn’t, like they had burnt oil onto the waffle iron and never cleaned it off, and there was no trace of Bailey’s in the chocolate sauce/Hershey’s syrup (one of our group has an aversion to Bailey’s and confirmed that it wasn’t in there).

At this point we were resigned to the fact that no matter how hard we tried, we were leaving unsatisfied. We’d just get the bill and leave. Or maybe we would just wait around for the waitress to bring it by. And wait. And wait. The couch next to us was also thoroughly disgusted with their experience. They had been all lovey-dovey when they sat down and ordered their mousse cake, then had disgusted and ticked-off looks on their faces afterwords. They just gave the waitress their credit card and told her to ring them out. Once we saw this we walked up to the counter and paid rather than waiting any longer. One of our group asked the waitress if there was Bailey’s in the chocolate sauce. She had to reference the menu and said that no, it was “Gr-, Grand Murn-yer” (there was also a Belgian Grand Mariner). Then my friend pointed to the item above it, the Bailey’s version. So she replied that yeah it’s Baileys, and he retorted with “yes, I know it’s supposed to be Bailey’s, I’m asking you if there was actually any in the sauce because it didn’t taste like there was.” At this point, unable to come up with a reply that met even her low standard of intelligence, she just reiterated that yes there was Bailey’s in it and we left it at that.

During the course of our stay we saw the chef/owner talking to one of the large parties behind us; I’m not sure if she was just chit-chatting or if they were mad as well. It looked kind of like the latter. When she walked back to the kitchen I noticed she was wearing stiletto-heeled boots. What kind of chef wears heels? The answer, apparently, is one who had a lot of money laying around, friends & family who told her she was a good cook to not hurt her feelings, and a willing victim in the populace of Ann Arbor.

As an final indication for how bad our experience was, even after we had dropped around $30 on three hot chocolates and two bad desserts, we had to go to Busch’s and get some cookie dough and ice cream to make our own cookie sundaes. Our plan now is to get the owner of Chocolat in Brimingham to open a branch in AA to put the existing chocolate places out of business. In the meantime we will be going exclusively out to Birmingham when searching for chocolate, because Chocolat is truly a transcendent experience.

Reviewed by Todd, with concurring opinions from Brianna, Jon, Sarra and Sean
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Totoro - Another fine Japanese Restaurant In Central Campus

Just done with a class in Angell Hall or MLB and looking for a Japanese dinner?  Look no further.  Totoro has the freshest sushi in town within walking distance to many central campus buildings.  It's certainly not the cheapest place you can get Japanese food in Ann Arbor but it is definitely one of the tastier Japanese restaurant.  I love their Salmon, Tuna and Yellow Tail Bowl the best (see above).  Try it out!
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Pizza House

Well, I think no one will argue that Pizza House's Chicago-style deep dish is one of the best pizza in Ann Arbor.  The picture above is its deep dish Deluxe pizza.  Sorry only one pic as my friends and I were having just having a quick lunch.
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BeWon - Round 2

Just some other dishes (bibimbab, Bulgogi and Kichee Stew) from BeWon over plymouth road.  They already taste good just by looking at them, isn't it?  I love their rice a lot.  They seem to have a special recipe for it - mixing sticky rice with regular white rice (just my suspection).  It's really a nice place to have Koren food in the north campus area.  Caution: They use quite an amout of unions so make sure you drink enough water or have a piece of gum before your presentation in the afternoon.
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Ajishin

I have to mention Ajishin, my favorite Japanese restaurant although it is located in Novi.

Ajishin calls itself Sushi & Noodle. So they don't have a long list of menu choices like most other Japanese restaurants that also make up something to cater to the local eaters. But for every item on the menu, they make it in an authentic way. Other than sushi and noodle, they also have curry rice, grilled fish(Cod, Salmon, Yellow Tail), chirashi etc. You can also special order sashimi too. It is not a fancy restaurant, more a casual place,  like the sushi places you see in your neighborhood in Tokyo.

Address: 42270 Grand River Ave, Novi, MI 48375
Phone:(248) 380-9850

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(Note: Restaurant is outside of Ann Arbor)

La Shish Restaurant - great Lebanese food now in Ann Arbor!

Today I am going to write about a restaurant I haven't yet visited - the new Ann Arbor location for La Shish, a chain of Middle Eastern restaurants that got its start in East Dearborn and is now all over the Detroit area.  The new location takes over where Bill Knapp's crashed and burned on the southwest corner of Washtenaw and Carpenter, just east of the US 23 interchange. Here's the address and phone:

La Shish in Ann Arbor/Pittsfield
2370 Carpenter Rd.
Pittsfield Township, MI 48108
734-973-2737

Writing about a new restaurant is always a risk, but in this case I think it's worth taking the chance.  Recently opened restaurants are still working out their routines and getting the staff's skills and attitudes aligned with the aims of the owners, so a little forebearance may be in order. What I provide here is a reminiscence of my years at Ford when I ate in the original La Shish almost weekly.

Lebanese food is generally very healthy and fresh, so it is no accident that the La Shish standard menu opens with fresh-squeezed fruit and vegetable juice concoctions.  The mango smoothie was always my favorite, but the vegetable juices are incredibly good too, especially the carrot juice. If you have never tasted fresh carrot juice, with its layer of calcium settling to the bottom just waiting to help strengthen your bones, you are in for a treat.

Salads - what can I say? The tabbouli, the spinach fatoosh with feta, the lamb and chicken shawarma salads, every salad I ever ate there was heavenly.

I will jump right past the appetizers, because since my last visit a few years ago mediterranean quesadillas have appeared, a concept I find rather jarring.  I will say that if you ever want a great light lunch for a meeting of five to seven people, the Vegetarian Maza is a great buy, with quantities of several traditional Lebanese snacks - grape leaves, hummus, tabbouli, felafel, baba ghannooj, and those curious fuchsia colored pickled turnips, along with a bunch of snack-size vegetable spears for dipping.

My fondest memories are of the entrees at La Shish in Dearborn. I have had a love of Lebanese food since my college days in Cleveland, when I used to go with a friend to a restaurant called Middle East in the midst of the wholesale food district. Middle East was owned by his uncle, and we got the best food in the house every time we went.

One of the key differentiators between good and great Lebanese restaurants is a dish called "Kibbee Nayee", lean raw lamb ground fine, pressed into a flat layer on a plat, and served with pita, vegetable garnish and olive oil. Lamb is a delicious meat when grilled in shish-kebabs , cooked just to medium lest it get tough. Likewise, in kafta (meatballs) it is just fine. In these dishes, lamb has to be fresh to be good, since it acquires a kind of gamey taste that grows stronger every hour after it leaves the animal. Refrigeration slows down but does not stop the process. Cooked lamb is still excellent the next day, pretty good a day or two after that, then things go downhill rather quickly. The flavor problem is magnified in older lambs, which are well along the road to muttonhood by four months of age.

For perfect kibbee nayee, hours count, as does the age of the lamb. The creature must be no more than a few weeks old, still milk fed, carefully butchered no more than a few hours before the dish is served, stripped of any visible fat, and ground to order. In this condition there is no gamey taste, just an exquisite deliciousness. It was the specialty of the house at the Middle East Restaurant, and we ate it before lunch when the lamb was butchered no more than an hour before. The pita was warm and soft, the olive oil fragrant, the experience unforgettable. Dinners there were also wonderful, but nothing surpassed the kibbee nayee served at lunchtime. Kibbee nayee was often unavailable at dinnertime because the owner refused to serve it if it was not perfect.

Almost twenty years passed in which I never found another dish of kibbee nayee that measured up. Then I went to work at Ford and a friend who had emigrated from southern Lebanon introduced me to La Shish, a restaurant owned by his former engineering professor when they both were back in the home country. This was the real thing.

OK, enough about raw meat. Every entree I ever tried was good to great. Favorites from those days included shish kabob (lamb or beef, both great), shish tawook (chicken shish kabobo), and ghallabba. The latter is a stir-fry vegetable dish with other things in it - meat for the meat lovers, potato for the vegetarians. Vegans and vegetarians have a good choice of selections on the La Shish menu. The vegetarian ghallabba was always one of my favorites.

For dessert, I always got baklava and Turkish coffee, but the creme caramel was good too.

I can't wait to go try the new location. If reality differs from my memory of the original, I will let you know right here.
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