Tag Archives: restaurant

Yusho

LOGAN POSER RAMEN

LOGAN POSER RAMEN

Street food is popular in Asia.  Japanese street food has many varieties.  Yusho restaurant has some creative Japanese style street food dishes that are done perfectly on the hot grill.  Chef Matthias crafts dishes in an art form.  Each dish is uniquely presented.  Besides grilled items, Yusho offers noodles on Sundays.

You also would not want to miss meeting the sake master Tim there.  Tim is very knowledgeable on sake varieties.  He is friendly and very enthusiastic on sake.  He is a certified sake sommelier.  He continues to study sake.

Takashi

Seafood Salad

Seafood Salad

I love this new seafood salad at Takashi restaurant.  Chef Takashi’s restaurant is located five miles northwest of downtown Chicago.  It features French American cuisine with Japanese influences.   Every dish is perfectly prepared and is extremely tasty.   The presentation of each dish is unbelievable beautiful and eye pleasing.  The menu changes often.  It follows seasonal ingredients.

When I am there, I like to order the tasting menu.  It provides the best samples of Chef Takashi’s current signature dishes.  I highly recommend the tasting menu for the first time visitors.

The Winchester

This is a unique neighborhood community strong place.  The menu offers seasonal ingredients from local farms and changes often.  The dishes are well prepared and healthy with lots of vegetables.  The hours are great.  It is one of the few restaurants that opens late in Grand Rapids.   I especially love their fried chicken and salmon sandwiches.  Their fish tacos dish is also amazing.  The prices are very reasonable for the high quality prepared food.  They also have good wine and beer selections.  Overall it is a great place to hang out when you want to relax, to meet with friends or to just grab a bite with some drinks.

A New Turn In The South


I was attending a conference in Atlanta Georgia in June 2012.  I knew my flight would arrive in the early morning, so I planned for a breakfast restaurant. I found Empire State South restaurant.

My husband was with me, and we both loved the restaurant.  The restaurant is sectioned off in three parts, the courtyard, the coffee bar and the dining room. While we were waiting for our table at the coffee bar, we were lucky enough to meet chef Hugh, the author of A New Turn In The South cookbook.  He was witty and friendly.

We had one of the best southern breakfast we ever had.  Instead of oily and heavy, the dishes were well prepared with local sourced ingredients in the season.  We immediately bought the cookbook because we would like to reproduce these delicious dishes.

The cookbook has many good creative southern recipes with simple ingredients and some chef Hugh’s cooking notes with personally stories.  It contains enough beautiful photos to inspire an amateur.    You will also find two useful howtos, “how to cut a mango” and “how to cook a global artichoke”.

Nana

If you are driving into Chicago from the east, Nana is a great dining choice.  The location of Nana is easy to drive to and is right before hitting Chicago downtown traffic jam.  Although it is situated at the south side of Chicago, near the corner of 33rd street and Halsted street, the area feels very safe, and parking on streets is very easy.  You can just take 35th street exit off highway I-90/94(Dan Ryan Expressway).  It takes less than 10 minutes off the highway.

Nana serves local, sustainable and organic dishes in the American comfort food style.  I love breakfast and Sunday evening fried chicken there.  It is a great place to take a break before you head into downtown Chicago or before you leave Chicago.

Grove

I love this restaurant. Everything is always perfectly prepared. The dishes are clean, simple and creative. The presentation of every dish is usually very pleasing to the eyes. The tastes are refresh and overly delicious. You definitely want to go for the “Taste Of Grove”. It gives you the three-course choices from each course section of the entire menu. It is always hard to make the decisions for the three courses.  You just have to visit the restaurant again for the dishes you’ve missed.

Grove uses locally grown products whenever is possible.  The chef is very conscious of seasons.  The menu changes based on the availability of different produces seasonally.  The attention to the details on cooking and preparing dishes makes this restaurant the best in Grand Rapids Michigan.