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Naf Naf Grill

Sunday, October 25th, 2015

Naf Naf Grill is one of the first restaurants to open in the giant Hub apartment building on State Street. Serving Middle-Eastern fare, it follows an assembly line ordering concept similar to Qdoba and Chipotle.

First, do you want a pita with hummus or baba ghanoush, or do you want a bowl of rice, hummus or lettuce? Next, do you want chicken shawarma, steak shawarma or falafel? At this point, you can add chopped salad, purple cabbage salad, sumac onions and/or pickles. Finally, top off your creation with Tahini sauce, garlic sauce, S’Khug (hot sauce) or fire sauce.

The steak pita with baba ghanoush ($7.59) was a winning combo. Soft but sturdy pita houses the tender, bite-sized and lightly seasoned steak, and the mild baba ghanoush complements, not overwhelms, the flavor.

I also enjoyed the hummus bowl with falafel ($7.79). The falafel is made the way I like it–crispy on the outside with just enough seasoning to avoid being too bland. I would classify the hummus as pretty standard, which is why I’m glad I added the truly hot, hot sauce as well as the purple cabbage salad.

Naf fries (coin-shaped fries), lentil soup and Basmati rice comprise the rest of the menu.

Naf Naf Grill is open every day for lunch, dinner and carryout.

Tags: downtown, Middle-Eastern
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Estrellon

Saturday, October 3rd, 2015

Tory Miller, the executive chef and owner of Graze, L’Etoile and Sujeo, has now added to his portfolio a Spanish tapas restaurant inside the Ovation 309 apartment downtown called Estrellon, and it’s a beauty.

The menus are long, so let me get right to it. The two-page tapas menu is available in both the dining room and tapas bar and includes mostly bite-sized (meaning, for one person only) items, including special categories like croquetas, cheese and charcuteria. Most are served on toasted baguette.

The manchego croqueta ($3) is like a cheese curd but much gooier inside. It’s rich, and you probably can’t eat more than a few anyway.
The three-piece blood sausage ($3) reminded me of a blander version of Chinese sausage, and the accompanying aioli was subtle.
I couldn’t get enough of the jamon iberico ($15). It’s cut so thin that it melts in your mouth; it’s not salty and has a bit of smokiness.
I liked the oysters ($2 each), but I wish they didn’t come topped with the house relish, which took over the flavor.
The flaky smoked trout ($5) was a delight, and I liked the creme fraiche. However, I was indifferent to the sugar snap peas and pickled mustard seeds, as neither added anything to the dish.
I adored the creamy chicken liver ($4), and while it didn’t need the slightly tangy jam, they both worked well together.

The main menu, available only in the dining room, includes full-sized items, though that doesn’t mean large portions. For example, I enjoyed the grilled scallop dish ($14), though it’s too bad there was only one scallop, especially for that price. Fortunately, the bright-tasting sweet corn elites helps to fill you up a bit.

I regretted my choice of the lamb sausage ($14), which was quite dry and depended heavily on the aioli. On my next visit, I’ve got my eye on the Valenciana paella ($40 for two people), which comes with rabbit, shrimp, mussels, clams and chorizo.

As expected, Estrellon also has a respectable craft cocktail menu. I tried the Plum Loco ($10), which is a smooth mixture of plum brandy and dry white port; the Albariza ($10), which houses a nice sweetness from the ginger honey syrup; the La Plaza Viega ($11), a Manhattan-like cocktail that features Four Roses; and the Cherried-Away ($10), a balanced concoction of rye with cherry balsamic shrub, lemon juice and orange bitters, among other ingredients.

For dessert, the basque cake ($9) is a smart choice, as it features super moist cake and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The sorbet ($8) was bright and cheery, though the over-abundance of green grapes got tiring.

Estrellon is open for breakfast as a cafe Tuesday-Sunday, and both the tapas bar and the dining room are open for dinner Tuesday-Sunday. The Overture ramp is the closest parking ramp, but you do have to walk all the way around to Johnson Street to enter.

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See more photos in our Estrellon Flickr album.

Tags: downtown, tapas
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wiener shop

Sunday, September 20th, 2015

In a small storefront on Gilman Street, in the shadow of the gigantic Hub apartment building, you may find wiener shop, which like OSS, puts fancy toppings on a plain hot dog.

I really do mean plain. The bun-length, beef or vegan hot dog is jammed in a bun straight from the package. From there, it’s buried in toppings connected by a theme, all for $4.95.

Ones you may already be familiar with include the Chicago-style dog, topped with mustard, relish, peppers, onions, pickles and tomato chutney (but no poppy seed bun), and the Tucson Sonora dog, topped with bacon, avocado, mustard, cilantro mayo, pinto beans and pickled jalapenos.

The Vancouver Asian dog reminded me of sushi, and that’s because of the well-crafted sesame ginger slaw plus soy sauce, avocado and way-too-much wasabi mayo. For lack of a better term, the richness of this dog brought diminishing returns in enjoyment.

On the other hand, I was surprised by the somewhat bland taste of the New York street dog, as the pastrami kraut was not at all sour and wasn’t helped much by the mustard or NYC onion sauce.

Tater tots are the only other items on the menu. You can get them plain ($2.95) with your choice of sauce, and note, you will need the sauce, since these non-crunchy tater tots come from the oven, not deep-fryer. Try the awesome sauce, which uses a Sriracha-like sauce as its base. The other versions of tater tots come with cheese ($3.95) or chili-cheese ($4.95).