Redbeard1969

Hi Guys, you're talking about my neighborhood here! Yes, there is a gelato place here, La Gelateria. It's absolutely wondeful! The choices are usually pretty extensive (though in colder months they make less since there's not so much a demand), and best of all, you can sample anything you want. Usually there's one cooler full of fruit gelatos/sorbets, and then a cooler with the more decadent ones. Some of the flavors have been "americanized," but everything is really good. For a small dish, which you can have 2 flavors in, it's $3, which seems a lot at first, but they pack A LOT into that small dish. They also have a shop at Legacy Village in Lyndhurst. The place is owned and operated by Valerio Iorio, who runs Valerio's restaurant in Little Italy. Apparently he missed the gelaterias of his homeland, so he opened one here. And since it's opened, several places in Little Italy have also added gelato to their menus (though as much as I like gelato, nothing tops the lemon ice from Corbo's Bakery in Little Italy). As for Aladdin's, avoid the fancy-looking cakes in the case. It's my experience that usually they've been sitting around for a few days, so they dry out. But if you have a good dinner at Aladdin's, you won't have room for dessert!! Definitely go for appetizers; the hummus is good, as is the baba, but I've really grown fond of the foole m damas (though lately the Heights Aladdin's has really been overdosing on the garlic in their foole), and the loubie bezeit (green beans). In terms of their menu, the shwarmas are good, as is the shishtawook. My fiancee and I lately have gotten into their "pitzas," she prefers the Farah's Favorite, and I like the chicken pitza. We eat there so often that we can usually get in, get seated, give our orders without even reading the menu, eat, and get out faster than if we were at a fast-food joint. And the food's always fresh and delicious!

Well, I'm no expert on Asian cuisine, but I have gone around a bit and tried a few places that I thought were quite good. In Cleveland Heights, check out Sun Luck Garden on South Taylor. If you've ever read Laura Taxel's book on Cleveland's ethnic eateries, you'll see that she positively gushes over Sun Luck. After having eaten there several times, so will I. It's one of the best Chinese restaurants I've ever eaten in. You'll see much on their menu that looks familiar ... until you taste it, and then you realize that the chefs have approached their food from a slightly different angle. And the results are delicious. It's a small place in a bland, nondescript strip mall, but the food is amazing. If you like Chinese, give it a try. Another good place to go is Cleveland's small Chinatown district, which is roughly around East 30th and Superior/East 30th and Payne. There's a ton of good Asian restaurants there, serving pretty authentic food to all the Asians who live in that neighborhood. One little place that I really enjoy is Pho Hoa, a Vietnamese place inside Golden Plaza, a multi-use building at the corner of East 31st and Superior. I've not dabbled widely in Vietnamese, but I like the "some assembly required" concept. When you order their pho (which is outstanding, not only in taste, but in value, because they give you a massive bowl for $6 bucks), they also bring out a plate with bean sprouts, cilantro, lemon slices, other garnishes, and even hot sauce. So then you customize your soup any way you want. It's damn good. They also do sandwiches now, though I have to confess that I've not tried them yet. I usually can't get past the soup! But save room, because across the hall is the Golden Bakery, a tiny Hong Kong-style bakery (mentioned in a previous post by Tokakris), where you can get absolutely decadent desserts and cookies, and a wealth of stuffed buns (stuffed with curried beef, curried chicken, pork, etc.) that are cheap and delicious. It's one of my favorite places to stop for lunch. Every time we're in that area of town we stop by. We have to. It's that good! The beauty of the Chinatown area is that there's a whole ton of restaurants and markets in a very small geographic area, so it's really easy to explore and try. And give it a try! For some reason, plenty of people have no trouble hopping on a plane and taking a trip to a completely foreign country, and then explore all over the place ... but yet they'll NEVER explore their own home city! Don't be a wuss ... get out of the suburbs, come into the city, and see what's here! And as a final aside ... I tried the Bankok Thai take-out place on Warrensville Center in South Euclid this past weekend ... the food was wonderful, the prices were right, and we had scarcely a wait. Everything we had was delicious, so I'm definitely adding that menu to our file of great restaurants in the Heights area.