Spice and Street Food

Generally, I prefer a smaller menu at a restaurant. When I eat somewhere with too many delicious sounding choices, it makes it too hard to choose. I trust a good chef to narrow it down for me. The menu at Spice Street, in University Mall, is not narrow. The menu includes a few choices in many different cuisines, including sushi, Kung Pao, linguine and greek style kabobs. It's quite a menu to process. The benefit to this extensive selection, lies in group decisions. If you're going to dinner with a group of 8 or more (as I have at Spice Street), there's something for every palate. Thursday nights boast half price sushi and $5 martinis. Now, the $5 martinis were fabulous, they have a refreshing and intoxicating array of specialty vodka and gin drinks. However, I cannot judge the sushi because our waitress warned that we would have to wait over an hour to partake in the Thursday night special. This was really frustrating for me, because you should only hold such a special if your restaurant can handle it. That said, some really eclectic dinner choices kept everyone happy and satisfied. The restaurant is huge, and has a really nice patio, something that seems rare around Chapel Hill. It's definitely an enjoyable place to eat, and they have something for whatever mood you're in.

Spice Street

Indian Food: Dallas v. Chapel Hill

In Dallas, we have plenty of Indian restaurants to choose from. There's an entire suburb that has a neighborhood, Valley Ranch, with outstanding and authentic Indian cuisine offered in abundance. My favorite, actually at Knox and McKinney, is Roti Grill. The Kofta Masala is a vegetarian spicy food lover's dream. It's going to be tough to replace. Or so I thought. I recently tried Saffron, a more upscale Indian restaurant in the East 54 complex. The decor is outrageous, and I'm pretty sure it's not exactly authentic Indian food. It is, however, totally delicious. I shared the Nargisi Kofta, Gobi Musslam and Daal Bukhara with two other friends. Everything was very flavorful with sweet and spicy dishes. Dinner was a little pricey, but also much more food than we needed, so we certainly could have done well with less. Indian food is always a good choice for vegetarians and carnivores alike, and no one ends up sacrificing on flavor. So, which Indian restaurant reigns supreme? I'll take either one any time.

Saffron

Roti Grill in Dallas

American Tapas at Humble Pie

It's been a while since my last post, but this recent restaurant adventure has me excited and ready to continue blogging! This last Saturday, some friends and I decided to visit Raleigh, the "big city" about 30 minutes from Chapel Hill. We were going to try Poole's Downtown Diner, but after learning of a two and a half hour wait, we abandoned that plan really quickly. The hostess recommended Humble Pie, an American tapas restaurant nearby. Humble Pie is located in the warehouse district, and is in an old warehouse. The decor is industrial, but nothing to write home about. The food, however, was some of my favorite that I've tried in the Triangle. It's an innovative menu with various tapas plates that range from southern fare (fried green tomatoes) to Asian-fusion cuisine (sesame seared ahi tuna) and even pasta (butternut squashed stuffed conchiglioni). Everything was full of flavor, and Humble Pie definitely experiments with new flavor combinations. Tapas are usually best with a big group, and with three people we tried five different dishes. I want to go back for more! Humble Pie is definitely a restaurant where "the more, the merrier" applies.

Humble Pie

Poole's Downtown Diner (I am determined to review this one soon, maybe I'll have better luck if I go around 6PM)