Mr. Zub's Deli - Akron Subs with Attitude

So its a beautiful Friday and I have just finished a long hike in the Wetmore area of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and I am headed to Cuyahoga Falls for the Rocking on the River concert and I want to grab some food to take to the concert.  I pointed the motorcycle towards Fairlawn, but noting hit my fancy, that is until I hit the Highland Square area on Market Street and I saw Mr. Zub's  (map is here).  From the outside it looks a bit scruffy, but the name intrigued me and I could go for a good homemade Zub, so I figured I would give them a try.  Well it turned out to be a great decision.  Mr. Zub's is a classic hole in the wall sandwich shop attached to the Matinee bar next door. 

Walking in you quickly feel the attitude.  The menu is unique and at times hard to navigate (you can see it on Zub's website here); but it has some real appeal, with sandwiches named after characters from movies with the movie and the year it came out helpfully identified for those of us with spotty memory.  Prices generally range from a couple of bucks for a Thorton Melon (Back to School) pizza bagel to about $7 for a few high end sandwiches; there is $10 Aunt Marge giant corned beef and Swiss. 

I ordered the Large Marge (Pee Wee's Big Adventure) Tuna Melt, subbing provolone for Swiss.  What I got was a decent sized hogie roll stuffed with Tuna, some red onions and tomatoes with perfectly melted cheese.    While not as impressively big as the chain subshops, this was very filling as there was a big portion of Tuna and all of the ingredients were high quality.  In addition, instead of putting the sandwhich through a conveyor toaster, this was oven baked until melty good.  What was unique is somehow they got the Tuna salad to taste more like a Tuna steak then the usual creamy mess you get at Jared's favorite place.  Overall a very nice and fairly unique interpretation of a Tuna Melt.

When I am in the area and feel like a quick sandwich I will be stopping by Mr. Zub's again.  If you are heading to Rocking on the River or Lock 3 its worth going out of your way and checking them out.

Swensons Driveins - The update

I know that I just posted my review of Swensons Driveins a week ago, but after going back on Sunday after another hike at the Gorge Park, I tried and saw a lot more of the menu, and I am even more impressed. After yet another very nice hike in the Gorge, we headed over to Swensons with 4 people and 3 vehicles (2 cars & 1 motorcycle). Thanks to this we ended up with a much wider variety of food. Let me comment on what we had. I had the shrimp sampler, which was a very nice sized portion of fried shrimp. The shrimp were nicely breaded and well fried, they were hot and tasty. An interesting thing to note is that while most places, the fried shrimp is fairly uniform, here the shrimp had a bit of variety to them almost as if Swensons is doing their own shrimp rather then using a large commercial product. Good popcorn type of shrimp and a filling portion. I also had the Mint Whip drink, which is a combination of phospate water, mint syrup and ice cream then blended. The result is lighter then a regular milkshake and had a frothy texture with a refreshing minty flavor. A real winner. The steak salad was another winner. A large green salad came in a large bowl, topped with tomatoes, eggs, cheese and chopped steak. Of special note was the peppermill brought carside for fresh ground pepper, a very nice touch and not something I have seen at any other fast food place. Swensons seems to take their salads seriously, making them fresh to order and serving a very nice salad. Among the other items we had was a very nice looking sloppy joe and Watermellon and Key Lime milkshakes. I got to taste the Watermellon and it reminded me of the watermellon Jolly Rancher. Mindy, thought it was a different watermellon flavor and said that while she was not impressed at first, the flavor of it grew on her the more she drank. The shakes were clearly hand made, no soft serve machine here. I saved the best for last; the fried zuchini were exceptionally good. Strips of zuchini were breaded with Italian seasoning and then fried. The results were excellent, with the Italian seasonings perfectly setting off the delicate flavor of the zuchini. Mindy liked it with the ranch dressing, I thought that while the ranch was very good, it overpowered the delicate flavor combination that had been created. I will definately get more of the zuchini in the future and look forward to trying the mushrooms. After another visit to Swensons I am even more impressed. The menu offers alot of choices and the food is made fresh to order. Add to that a place that isn't afraid of adding flavors and spices to its food and you have a winning combination. Once again the young and friendly staff make the visit enjoyable. What more could you ask for from a fast food restaurant?

Swensons Drive Ins - Akron Classic

So I was out in Cuyahoga Falls to take a hike in the Gorge Metropark, which by the way is a really nice park and well worth checking out (see the website here) and I was looking for a place to eat nearby. Well with Chapel Hill Mall and the other shopping centers nearby I figured it should be no problem; but I try to stay away from the usual chains. Luckily I noticed that there is a Swensons right by the entrance to the park, so since it had been a while I thought give them a try. For those who don't know Swenson's is a small Akron based chain of drive-ins that have been around since 1934. Swensons is a true drive-in; you park the car, or in my case motorcycle, a server brings you the menu takes your order and brings you the meal on a tray. That's right curbside service and eating in you vehicle still lives and thrives. Not only that but Swenson's actually has a fairly diverse menu (go here to see it) with burgers, other sandwiches, salads, fries, onion rings and lots of drinks, including some very unique ones. The menu and the place has a 50's feel, but they have added more modern things as well. I ended up getting a fish sandwich and an order of onion rings. For under $5 it was a nice meal. The fish was an actual filet nicely fried and served on a standard bun, overall freshly cooked and tasty. The onion rings were nice sized rings with a medium breading; tasty without being overly oily; a very good old fashion onion ring. I will be heading back when I am in the area to try the shrimp basket and some of the other sides like fried mushrooms or zucchini. I also want to try some of the different drinks; with 17 flavors of milkshakes, smoth-eees, phosphates and even drinks called California and Florida, it could take me a while to get through this menu. Some how the Mint Whip seems like it might be first on my list. The servers at Swensons are friendly and seem to be having fun, despite having to run alot to keep up. If you want to get away from the usual chains, or you want to get something a bit different, or heck you just feel like reliving Happy Days, give one of the Swensons locations a try (list of locations is here).

Watami and Yellowtail - Japanese Buffets

After all the Chinese Buffets we have had to deal with, Northeast Ohio has recently gotten two Japanese Buffets. Now I love Japanese food and have a bit of knowledge since I spent quite a few years working at Shijuro and then Shuhei restaurants, so I figured I at least had to check them out. First up is Watami Japanese Seafood Buffet at 7703 Ridgewood Drive in Parma. This is in the Parmatown strip mall. A nice sized, but not overly large restaurant has been carved out. The setting is very nice and simple, with clean lines and light wood accents; the tables are up front with the buffet in back. The overall feeling is clean and light, with a modern Asian feel. The buffet is divided into two sections, on the right is the hot side. You start with a couple of soups, miso and a crab miso. Both are acceptable, if a little strong to my taste. You then have a steam table of Japanese hot food. The Tempura falls short, with the breading not nearly light enough. The fried rice and yakisoba were pretty good, but this is not what you come to a buffet for. Overall, most of the hot food is not quite up to snuff, I blame this primarily on having to sit on the steamtable; not the best condition for Japanese food. On the Left side is the cold side, which comes through much better. The front has a number of cold salads, I tried a couple and they were not bad. Next comes the Sushi section. A number of Sushi Chefs turn out a variety of maki (rolled) and nigiri sushi. In addition to the items that they put out on the buffet, they will make selected handrolls upon request. The selection is heavily weighted towards the maki rolls, with a limited selection of nigiri sushi (where the fish is on top of the rice). While the sushi here is better then any other buffet I have tried in the area, it still is not quite up to true Sushi Bar quality. The rice is cooked properly, but it is a bit underseasoned; a problem with much of the mass produced sushi, they just do not add enough vinegar to the rice and there is no wasabi on the nigiri. At Watami, I found the fish and seafood generally fresh. Rather then rely on the best quality fish simply prepared for the sushi, Watami tends to go more towards the combination rolls, where the fish will have other food to accent it. I did want to add that the desserts that I tried were actually pretty good. The cakes were moist and flavorful and the fruit was fresh. My overall experience at Watami was good, and with a lunch time price is $7.99 Monday-Thursday and $8.99 Friday and Saturday I felt like I got my moneys worth. I have moved away from buffets, preferring to get made to order food in reasonable quantities, but if you are in the area and need to really fill up, you should consider giving Watami a try. A good place to fill up and a step above the typical Chinese Buffet. Yellowtail Seafood Sushi Buffet is in Fairlawn at 4054 Medina Road, which is right by the I-8O ramp. It is located in one of the shopping centers and took over a space that used to be a Chinese Buffet. Walking in I was impressed, this is a large restaurant and clearly a lot of time and money was spent on transforming the space. There are a number of glass enclosed dining rooms and a very nice bar area. The buffet is arranged along the middle of the restaurant, in a large U with the hot food on one side, salads on the other and sushi in the middle. Once again the hot food, while looking good, did not hold up well due to having to sit. I did at one point manage to get some tempura just after it had been added to the buffet and it was significantly better then the pieces I had tried earlier, but still not up to top tempura standards. I can tell you that I was disappointed in the crab cakes and crab balls, both of which were more filler then crab. Off of the salad side I tried a couple of items that seemed interesting, but while well prepared, they were nothing special. So lets get to the sushi, since this should be the draw at Yellowtail. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed. There is a good variety to choose from, but the quality was lacking. The maki sushi were ok, although quite a few of the items were very similar, with the fish mixed with mayonnaise or other dressing and then used to fill the roll. In the end, this is a way to hide lesser quality fish and seafood, but it tends to make everything similar. Unfortunately the nigiri sushi was even worse. First the rice portions under the fish were too big; which makes sense for a buffet where they are trying to fill you up; but does not make for good sushi. Even worse was that the fish itself was not all top quality. While the White Tuna was good, I did have a piece of the regular Tuna that was quite a bit stronger then it should be. The other fish ranged in quality, but none was what I expect to be used for sushi. The food quality issue was especially upsetting considering that Yellowtail charges $15.95 for lunch and $25 for dinner. At those prices I expect to have top quality food. For me the easy choice is to take that amount and go to a real Japanese Restaurant and have a good meal. I also had a service issue. When my waitress approached me about drinks, I asked what came with the buffet, she listed off soft drinks, ice tea and the like; I had the ice tea. Imagine my surprise when there was an additional $2 charge for the drink. I called this to my waitresses attention; while she apologized she did not take the extra charge off the bill. So my recommendation is to stay away from Yellowtail, while the place looks great, it is overpriced, the food quality is mediocre and they have some of the worst sushi I have had. You get a much better deal at Watami, but for me I am headed for Shuhei and some good food.