Katalina's (Update at Bottom)
 Columbus, Ohio        Date of Visit  08/31/14            http://www.katalinascolumbus.com

When we arrived at Jegunda’s, a box of treats awaited us. We didn’t go to Katalina’s but she had brought them home for us. I checked out their menu online and I have a feeling we will have to make a return trip…some interesting things are being offered. Today’s breakfast was something we had heard about…the pancake balls.
 

Original to Katalina’s per the menu, I expected them to be reminiscent of Takoyaki; the Japanese batter balls sometimes cooked at the table in little cast iron pans. Only these don’t come filled with octopus but dulce de leche, fig butter, strawberry jam, pumpkin apple butter or nuttella. We had the nuttella. They look more like two little pancakes had been stitched together with a scoop of hazelnut/chocolately goodness inside. They are served with a little cup of syrup and spicy bacon.

The bacon is glazed with something containing a hint of spice. And it’s BACON! Do whatever you want to it, just put it in the box. The little smack of spice and sweet was a nice touch regardless. If I had my druthers, I would like to see the bacon take another minutes worth of heat to increase the crisp to flab ratio. If you have no interest in pancakes filled with nutty chocolatude, we probably ought not go out together. But these things are dangerous on a psychological level. Eat a whole chocolate cake. Result = Shame. Eat a five pound bag of M&M’s. Result = Thursday/What’s the big deal?
 

Lightly Spicy Bacon
 

Creative Beverages
 

We also sample their ultra pulpy and fresh oj, a watermelon lemonade with specks of spearmint and an unsweetened berry tea brought close to sweet with the berries alone. Yeah, we'll be going back to Katalina’s.

We Did....

A quick update. After Jegunda welcomed us to the Bus with nutella filled pancake balls, I checked out Katalina’s menu and found it intriguing. On the way back from Cincy for diner en blanc we stopped off the freeway to sample a wider range of options.

The place is cramped and simple but everyone seems to be in a good mood, anticipating local and interesting plates. There are fun little quirky things inside and outside, little mason jars and dispensers for self serve water, odd local items for sale, and picnic tables loaded to the gills with locals trying to assuage the Buckeyes loss from the night before.

We tried pancake balls with dulce de leche this time…still good…nutella better. It was all interesting but some was better than others. My least favorite by far was the Mexican “French” Toast. Brioche with cinnamon, nutmeg and Mexican chocolate served with maple syrup from the state. The disappointment was not that it was bad, but there was nothing remotely Mexican about it. It should be called French “French” Toast. Make it at home, get something more interesting at Katalina’s.
 

The “award-winning” breakfast tacos may not have had much competition. Three white corn tortillas are filled with house made chorizo, scrambled eggs, tomatillo sauce, tomatoes, avocado, queso fresco, crema and topped with pico. These were also fine but short of flavor. The house sausage is crafted more for the timid than chorizo fans and the additional ingredients didn’t really lift the dish. Fortunately, there are loads of condiments on the table including a bottle of the now ubiquitous sriracha which brought some life to the tacos.

The special for the day was the Heuvos Rancheros. These started the move towards past ordinary. I don’t know where or who Shagbark is, but their chips are rustic and flavorful. In this dish they are topped with black and adzuki bean puree, citrus adobo, homemade ranchero sauce, snowville creamery crema, avocado slices and two sunny side up eggs. These were better than the tacos as the beans with the adobo and ranchero sauces added rangy flavor enhancement and the oozing yolks brought much more egginess than the scramble. Overall, an improvement over the tacos but also was much improved with some squeezes of the green topped bottle.
 

Tacos Looked Great But Lacked Greatness
 

The afterthought were called Boylan’s Brown Betty Biscuit Balls. More balls. These were delicious. Soda biscuit balls are filled with Beeler’s ham, local Amish cheddar, then served with Cooper’s Mill apple butter. The biscuity spheres had a pretzelesqe finish on the outside and were stuffed with an excellent salty and savory mix of ham and cheese. I am not a super fan of apple butter. It’s alright, that brown and sweet smear I know as apple butter. I’m assuming the reddish stuff in the little cup was Cooper’s Mill version. Much more like an apple jam, a dip brought a fresh plop of sweet to the savory and already tasty stuffed biscuit. For those who put a slice of cheddar cheese on their apple pie, imagine biscuit pie, with a bit of ham and the brown layer of pretzeliness Wendy’s fans have gone gaga over. I was hoping for a knockout in every round. We did find some nice treats and I’m still wondering about other things on the menu. Are there more balls?