7 HOME FOOD REVIEWS
Ice cream dreams
7/11/2008 | Few foods inspire people to bust a rhyme. Sure, we've all heard the clever verse about beans, the musical fruit. And over the years, people no doubt have tried to garnish other foods with poetic praise.
Luna shoots the moon
6/13/2008 | In a town where just about every neighborhood boasts its own upscale bistro, Luna upholds a unique reputation. After pioneering the region's now-widespread L. A.
Salute your local heroes
5/30/2008 | Something doesn't quite stack up in the sandwich scene. Big chains compete to see who can sell more cut-rate subs Quizno's now has its own $5 sandwich deal to counter Subway and people seem to forget that a cheap sandwich does nothing but fill your belly and save you money.
Review: The Melting Pot
4/18/2008 | The Melting Pot doesn't do to-go orders, but the fondue restaurant offers take-home menus at the front desk.
The "why" to this apparent contradiction printed in stark-white text on the cover sums up the national franchise chain's brilliant approach to marketing: It's a "souvenir menu."
Maybe people take those keepsakes home to add to their scrapbooks, along with pictures from the big office party, prom night or bridal shower when they splurged and ordered the restaurant's marquee menu item, a four-course event dubbed the Big Night Out.
Remodeled, reinvented
3/21/2008 | After a short closure for remodeling, Cafι Marron is back with a slightly new look and a new face in the kitchen. Chef Dan Bower has completely overhauled the menu, adding even more French to the Browne's Addition restaurant's Franco-Spanish theme.
Easy choice for good Italian
3/7/2008 | I ran into a scion of one of Spokane's oldest Italian-American families, so I took the opportunity to ask, "What's your favorite Italian restaurant? ""The Italian Kitchen," he replied with zero hesitation.
Review: A savory symphony
2/15/2008 | Scratch opened on a wave of anticipation boosted by a sizable culture quake from across First Avenue. The location is a prime spot for an upscale restaurant perfect to serve the droves of spenders packing symphony performances in the newly renovated Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox so whatever filled the space was going to have automatic staying power.
Local buffets worth lining up for
2/8/2008 | In the food world, no beast is more ravenously dangerous than the all-you-can-eat buffet. Whether stuffing your face with four types of chicken tenders at Old Granny's Corral or shoveling curry at an Indian restaurant, you're heading for the groan zone.
Steer on in for tasty burgers
2/1/2008 | The Steer Inn qualifies as an underrated Spokane landmark.
It started 55 years ago as a Division Street walk-up burger hut and slowly morphed into an eat-in, drive-thru restaurant that tends to get lost amid the 5 gazillion fast food joints that have opened in the years since along the faux-freeway strip.
"Since I've been here, there's been so many chains coming through, and I've been worried about every one," said Pat Ferraro, who took over the North Division location more than two decades ago.
For those who like it hot
12/28/2007 | Some people don't do hot pot. "If I wanted to cook my own food, I'd eat at home," they say. "I am lazy and boring."
But some of us salivate at the thought of dunking raw meat fondue-style into boiling broth.
And for that, we have Vina Asian Restaurant.
Aloha spirit is tasty everywhere
12/7/2007 | Just days after Thanksgiving, with the snow fresh on the ground in Spokane, I was about to sit down to a nice Hawaiian plate lunch.
Distracted by visions of mai tais and hula girls, I looked up just in time to dodge a spray of brown snowy sludge kicked up by a Ford pickup barreling down Monroe Street.
Yeah, the setting for Aloha Island Grill is about as far from aloha as you can get. The food is a little more like it.
1228 tops list for fun dining
11/23/2007 | When you go to 1228 tapas, clear your schedule and bring your friends because you'll want to take your time and taste everything. This cool spot tucked away in the developing Grand Boulevard village takes a nontraditional approach to a Spanish ritual that originated, legend has it, in Andalusia, where tipplers topped their sherry glasses with small pieces of bread, called tapas (tapa means "lid").
Dishing out good Korma
11/7/2007 | My taste buds go bonkers over three syllables: Lamb Korma. Back in the late '90s, a version of this dish marked my introduction to Indian food. I've been looking for killer korma ever since, and a group of friends and I found it over dinner at Bombay Palace last week, hidden among the fast-food restaurants and motor-inns on Third Avenue.
Luxury comes at a premium
10/16/2007 | Churchill's Steakhouse is the kind of place where deals are made over big, juicy steaks. So, to analyze Churchill's from the proper perspective, we brought along a red-meat-loving friend with a high-flying job in the financial industry. He looked around at the elegant, understatedly British dining room piano tinkling away in the background and he said, "Yes, this is very much like the places I take clients in San Francisco." Then he opened up the menu. And these are almost San Francisco prices," he said.
Have it your way at Mojo
9/10/2007 | Tucked back in the parking lot behind Shari's on the 300 block of North Sullivan Road in Spokane Valley, you can find one of the best sandwiches to appear on any menu in the region: The Cheesy Chicken Apple. The name is, well, cheesy, but don't let that stop you from charging into Mojo, running up to the counter and ordering one later today, tomorrow, or next week.
Old pub grub goes upscale
8/31/2007 | I looked with mild alarm last year on the idea of upscaling the historic Fort Ground Tavern.The old tavern was a beer-scented Coeur dAlene institution, right next to North Idaho College. Now, after checking out the new restaurant-ized version, all I can say is: What was I worried about?
Sour never tasted so sweet
8/14/2007 | Some people still love carbs. Yep. Love 'em. So much so that we actively seek out the bread aisle in the grocery store, hunting for a Tuscan loaf to dip in garlic-infused olive oil as a midnight snack. Those of us who haven't forgotten the unwavering deliciousness of bread should thank the yeast deities for The Sourdough Place.
Follow your nose to the Smoke House
8/8/2007 | No mystery about how the Historic Smoke House BBQ and Saloon smokes its ribs: The big, black smoker occupies its own parking spot, right outside the front door.Which means visitors to the cool little mountain town of Wallace simply can follow the scent of wood smoke to this terrific, authentic joint in the heart of downtown.
Oh, baby, that's some good Italian cuisine
7/27/2007 | Seven months after opening, Bambino's Pizza and Gelato already bears a striking resemblance to its older restaurant sibling, Angelo's Ristorante. This is great news. If you only have one Italian meal to eat in the Inland Northwest, go straight to Angelo's; if you can squeeze in two, consider wandering two blocks south down Fourth Avenue in Coeur d'Alene to Bambino's.
Out-of-the-way burgers
7/13/2007 | Nothing is more American than a burger, fries and a shake and nowhere do they taste better than in America's small-town drive-ins. The nation's burger obsession was born in locally owned, out-of-the-way burger palaces. And these local institutions still do it better than the Clown and the King, although not necessarily faster.
China Garden grows beyond Spokane peers
7/6/2007 | Not long after I arrived in Spokane, a knowledgeable, long-time resident described the landscape of local Chinese restaurants as a wasteland of neon lights and sauces with so much food coloring that they exude their own glow.
People in the know flock to Donut Parade
7/6/2007 | The Donut Parade is legendary on the North Side, but if you're new to Spokane (as in, within the last 20 years) you can be forgiven for being oblivious.
Kim's packs Japanese and Korean classics in Styrofoam
6/19/2007 | The torn take-out menu taped to the counter at Kim's Teriyaki proclaims that you are about to order the "best teriyaki in town. "Fans of the older Kay's Teriyaki Plus up on East Francis Avenue might disagree with Kim's claim, but they will probably be too busy helping themselves to seconds at Kay's all-you-can-eat lunch buffet to protest too loudly.
Fit for gods
6/15/2007 | If you think "Spokane Valley bistro" is a contradiction in terms, try "Spokane Valley wine bar. "Yet since December, Ambrosia Bistro and Wine Bar has been attempting to prove that a quality downtown-style bistro can thrive out in Applebee's territory. After several visits, I can attest that Ambrosia is proving its point nicely. This place, tucked directly under that strange round billboard in the Argonne Village strip mall, has a Latah Bistro kind of feel. Turns out, the executive chef is Jeremiah Timmons, formerly the sous chef of the Latah Bistro.
Tres Fiestas masters big-platter Mexican
6/1/2007 | I grew up squirting ketchup on what we called tacos in Montana: store-bought hard shells filled with ground beef, lettuce, tomato and cheap cheddar cheese. Then in 1991 on a dirt street in Tijuana I tasted slivered steak folded into a small, fresh corn tortilla with chopped chilies, cilantro and onions.
