Restaurants in Columbus, Lima, or Toledo Ohio

I frequently teach in Columbus, and my favorite restaurant there is the Peppercorn Duck Club in the Convention Center Hyatt. They have the best Sour Dough French bread between Paris and San Francisco. The style is Nouvelle Cuisine Americaine, yet with much larger portions and lower prices than is usual for this kind of restaurant. Their menu changes fairly frequently, but they always have a couple of Thai or other east-Asian dishes on it.  The desert bar is to die from, but what a way to go!

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Someone wrote:
 >
 >OOps, I guess my first attempt partially crashed and burned.  What this posting is supposed to say is that my parents live in Findlay, Ohio and I would like to know of any decent restaurants in the Columbus, Toledo, Lima area.  Chinese, Japanese, Korea

In Toledo, Ohio:

1.  Chinese -- Try Jing Chuan restaurant.  Has excellent Szechuan
   and Beijing style cuisine.

2.  Lebanese -- There is a very large Lebanese (& Muslim) contingent
   in Toledo, and they have some of the best Lebanese food I've
   ever had.  Try The Beirut restaurant -- I recommend the raw
   kibbe (if you don't mind eating raw ground lamb with spices),
   the stuffed grape leaves, the Fatoosh (a wonderful salad).
   There is another place (mostly a beer joint, but also has
   good Lebanese food, especially raw Kibbe) called Papa Alexi's.

3.  For fun -- If you are a fan of the show MASH (remember that
   show?), you may remember that the character Klinger (and
   also Jamie Farr, who played him) hailed from Toledo.  A
   place that he always referred to was Tony Packo's.  It's a
   fun sort of place that serves up big plates of sausage,
   sauerkraut, potatoes, and whatnot.  Their hot pickles are
   quite good and available in the local markets.

4.  Greek -- I remember eating at a couple of Greek restaurants
   there that were excellent, but for the life of me I can't
   remember the names.  One was something like Yianni's (it
   started with a "Y").

5.  Indian -- There is a fairly good Indian restaurant (can't
   remember the name) across the street (or nearby) the
   Southwyck shopping center.  Can't give you more info than
   that.

As for thai, you probably won't find any of that in Toledo (at least I know of nothing when I lived there, about 4 years ago). Same with Korean, though they have a great little Phillipino/ Korean/Japanese/Chinese market in town if you like to cook your own ;-).

Of all of the above, I think you should definitely eat at Jing Chuan and The Beirut.  I make a point of eating at both whenever I visit back in Toledo.

Carol

In Columbus there are a variety of decent restaurants.  For chinese Hunan Lion is pretty good, but doesn't compare to anything you would find in NYC or SF.

There are a variety of chef owned restaurants that are worth trying: Gourmet Market which is a mix of very rich dishes (wonderful cream sauces etc) and food in the California Spa style -- an odd mix.  There is Carolyn's which is a fusion of California and TexMex, Rigsby's in the short north area, and Lindy's in the German Village area.

Cheers,
Mark

Columbus actually has a pretty amazing number of very good restaurants.
A few favorites:

Moretti's - amazingly wonderful homemade pastas, inventive preparations,
            and truly great fresh, crusty Italian bread make this one of
          my favorites, and popular with every out-of-town guest I've
          taken there.  There are actually 2 in town now; one in Dublin
          (northwest part of town), and one in Grandview (west side).
          The one in Grandview is much smaller, but has more "character"
          in my opinion.  Reasonably priced.

al a carte - on North High Street just above the university;  very interesting
           place that has a changing menu of around a half dozen or so
           Balkan or Mediterranean influenced items.  Usually something
           lamb, something seafood/fish, something chicken, and something
           vegetarian are available.  They also have a VERY large selection
           of wines.  All of this at quite reasonable/cheap prices makes this
           a good choice when you want something different.

Lindey's, Carolyn's, Rigsby's - three separate, unrealted restaurants that
           I'll lump together, just because there are some similarities.
           All three have frequently changing menus and use the best/
           freshest ingredients in unusual and imaginative dishes.  All
           have an kind of understated classy feel to them.  All of them
           are fairly expensive.  Lindey's and Carolyn's are in German
           Village, Rigsby's in the Short North area.

55 on the Boulevard/ 55 Crossroads - these two are owned by the same people
           and have similar (though certainly not identical) menus.  They
           have uniformly superb food, though the menu is set and things
           are much more "normal" for the midwest than the innovative fare
           at the three I mentioned above.  Boulevard is a bit dressier/
           fancier than Crossroads.  Prices are not cheap, but not really all
           that expensive for a special night out.  Boulevard is downtown,
           Crossroads in Worthington (north).  Note that the same owners
           also run some less expensive restaurants called Wilhem's and
           Gottlieb's which are also good;  the two 55s are better, though,
           at least in my opinion.

The Refectory - this place is fantastic, but boy will it cost you.  Wonderful
           food all around, elegance galore, extensive wine list, desserts
           that are to die for all combine to make this a good choice
           for that very special occasion.  Be forewarned that it is VERY
           expensive.  Northwest side on Bethel Rd.

Reservations are a good idea at most of these places;  they're essential if you hit prime time on weekends - especially at Lindey's, Rigsby's, and the Refectory.

I know that you asked for suggestions for Oriental cuisines;  sorry that I can't be a lot of help here.  There are hundreds in the area, but most are not terribly different than the others (at least in my opinion).  Off hand, I'd probably say Hunan Lion is the best I've found, but none are really spectacular.

Mary J. wrote:
>We ate at a surprisingly good Mexican restaraunt in Toledo a couple of
>years ago.  I don't remember the name but it's right off the interstate
>on a long strip of motels, restaurants, malls.  Hope this helps a little.

Loma Lindas.
What I remember best about Loma Lindas is the margaritas. Very intoxicating. If you go, Friday nights were always a lot of fun. But be advised, the state Highway Patrol has a facility nearby, and they too are aware of how intoxicating the margaritas are. To the nearest .10 per cent.

Doug