Back to the pond

After Erin and I had our adventure in a suburban/small town hell, we were relieved to be back in the city. It's just nice to know where things are and to see streets with different names.

Since we had missed out on lunch, we decided to head to Downtown for some dinner. Erin wanted to check out Saans since she missed their show on Friday. The photography there is incredible!

For dinner we went to the Atlantic Cafe on 325 South Main Street. It's a great little place with an amazing vibe and an awesome patio. Our server was the blond woman who I've had before. She's good, not great. But does a decent job of waiting tables.

We sat on the patio. I had a Newcastle, which is a great beer from the UK. It's dark, smooth and only half as bitter as you'd think. But for five dollars, I limited myself to just one. I ordered the salmon dinner. In order of yumminess the meal was crostini, salad, salmon and rice.

The crostini were incredible. These nearly bite size slices of bread were oven-grilled, slathered with butter and topped with Parmesan cheese. I couldn't help, but eat them all.

The salad was just as simple mix of greens with croutons, Parmesan cheese and balsamic vinaigrette. The balsamic was sweeter than what I'm used to and I was surprised to find myself eating the whole salad.

The salmon was grilled perfectly, but not quite as fresh as I would like. Plus with only one sliver of a lemon slice, I wanted more lemon and really I could've used a tartar sauce. It was served with a red sauce Atlantic puts on nearly every dish, but it just didn't quite go together.

Erin had the steak kebab and I'm pretty sure she loved it. She ate enough so she felt like she couldn't move after we finished. Not that I was going anywhere.

I ordered the chicken kebab to go for Ava. She stayed home because she wasn't feeling well. Once she had her chicken she seemed to like it. I'm pretty sure Ava's ordered this before and I think it's one of her favorite things from Atlantic's menu.

All in all, dinner came to just over $40. It was more than I expected, but I'm going to chalk that up to the additional cost of beer. Yay! Utah!

As always, Atlantic is worth the trip especially if you're every feeling nostalgic for Europe. My favorite is still the margherita pizza.

Eva

This is a great new place in Downtown. The small plate diner has been open for a couple months now. They say they serve Mediterranean food, but they seemed more strictly Italian to me.

The restaurant is fabulous! They have really cool, modern tables and chairs. Plus, some awesome artwork on the walls. I'm pretty sure it's from a local artist. The bright neon colors of the work bring in some much needed contrast with the dark wood of the tables, chairs and floor. The small space could easily be put to the test on a busy night, but there were only few tables when I was there so I had plenty of room.

Our server was a little shy, but she was great. She knew the menu really well and answered all our questions. She was helpful and made good recommendations. I wish I could remember her name.

For our appetizers we ordered calamari and french fries. The aioli was great! I'm pretty sure aioli is only code for fry sauce, but either way it was delicious. The calamari was fried perfectly nice and crispy breading surrounding a soft squid. Yummy! The fries had rosemary on them which is a stroke of genius. I must try this at home.

I ordered the octopus ravioli for my entree mostly because I'd never had octopus. It ended up being surprisingly good. Octopus is a little chewy, but the fried skin was nice and crispy. The texture paired really well with the artichoke pasta. I'm fairly certain the pasta was fresh and made by hand. It was fantastic! I would've been happy with just the ravioli and the sauce. The adventure of the octopus was just a plus.

Ava and Erin also had pasta entrees. I can't remember what they were, but I remember being impressed by the consistency of the dishes. All three were delicious! Like I said, homemade pasta.

When Ava, Erin and I were there last week they were still working on their alcohol menu so we had sodas instead.

All in all, I'm guessing our bill came under $50. I'm not sure because the fabulous Miss Ava bought us dinner. She is AMAZING! Oh yeah, and she has sexy, new hair to match.

If you're Downtown and want a quiet place for a sophisticated dinner, Eva would be a wonderful place. I hope you love it as much as I did!

A photo is worth...

How many words?


Well, in case you were wondering that's a falafel sandwich.


You can pick up for $5.95 at the super cool and wonderfully cheap O'Falafel on the corner of 800 East and 2100 South.

The word on the street is the Turkish coffee is incredibly strong, thick and bitter. So if your like me and like coffee with your cream and sugar, it's a food adventure to take carefully. For more about O'Falafel you can read my previous review here.

O'FALAFEL, ETC.

Is it more fun to say than schwarma? I think not, but falafel will have to do. I was really excited about the opening of this Mediterranean cuisine restaurant on 790 East and 2100 South in the old Saltimbocca location.

My friends were kind enough to humor me and we checked it out last weekend. Although, we arrived at 8:50 p.m. (they close at 9 p.m.). The guy at the cash register was in no hurry. The line in front of us was long and slow moving.

We placed our orders for Caesar salad, falafel, chicken and kefir. For the uninitiated falafel is essentially deep fried beans. It's surprisingly good. Served with pita bread and a cool yogurt dipping sauce. I found it very yummy. Although, the bright green color inside is surprising.

I was feeling adventurous so I also tried the kefir. It turned out it was grilled spicy beef strips. Although, it was good. It wasn't great and I'll probably order something else next time. The tomato sauce served with the meat was delicious. The rice was cooked perfectly, but it did need a little salt.

All of the vegetables were fresh and good, Goomba's salad looked amazing. The sauces were all delicious, I especially like the cucumber sauce Mrs. WP was served with her chicken. It was refreshing and cool and paired perfectly with the spice of the rest of the dish.

So although the kitchen was incredibly slow and we didn't even begin to think about leaving until 10 p.m. The family who runs the place was very kind. They were attentive to our table as they tried to figure out their own system for ordering.

The owner apologized personally to us for the wait. I think for being open for three days they have learned a lot. I'll give the wait staff and kitchen a couple of weeks to learn the ropes, but then I'll be back for more.

Plus, it's amazinly cheap. It was $5.49 for a falafel appetizer that was big enough to serve as one person's meal. For just under $7 Mrs. WP and I ordered our entrees and Goomba paid about $6 for his salad. Good food, a different experience, great people and cheap...the recipe for my kind of restaurant.