Kiflis Restaurant (Second
Visit) |
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The food, well…there’s a reason for second chances. The burek (I’ve
only ever had it here) is still a cheesy surprise of a hundred
layers. The gyro was so much better than the first journey. Tasty
and hot lambloaf with crispy edges was stacked into the warm pita
and topped with the required accouterment. I had the deeply seasoned
Cevapi sausages for the first time at New Era
Restaurant and thought I’d give em another go. Kiflis’ version
is much milder and surprise!, it comes as a sandwich. I don’t know
how you are supposed to eat this thing, 10 rolly-polly sausages are
difficult if not impossible to keep from rolling around. They are
good, even if mild, and the sandwich introduced me to whatever kind
of bread they arrived between. Dunno what it is…it is really
flavorful, fluffy on the inside and super crisp and chewy on the
outside, super. It ain’t ever going to hang on to those sausages but
you can spill everything all over the plate, tear off some bread,
wrap a link and top it with the onion, tomato, lettuce and yogurt on
the plate. Soooo much better than our first trip. |
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The sign out front says Walnut Strudel made them famous…it’s good…my
Mom’s friend makes it better around the holidays but it’ nice to
have a hook up year round. We tried another piece of baklava, turns
out the first time wasn’t an accident, it’s their thing. Baklava
stew. It’s soaked with the honey and too much for me but to each
their own. |
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Change in Ranking | |||||
Original Score | Which Way? | New Score | Why For? | ||
D- | B- | SO MUCH Better! Except For Baklava |
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So, for the second time we tried to dine at a new recommendation in
Cuyahoga Falls to find once again that Sundays…and now days for that
matter is not a good time to visit. The first time we left the empty
parking lot we meandered aimlessly around The Falls looking for
another option. During our reconnoiter we passed an odd looking
place on Graham Rd with a Greek name and quite the proclamation on a
sign box on the side of the building. It read “Stop in for best
Gyro”. Now I love me some Yee-rohs and as soon as we were again
facing a locked door we were headed up to Graham Rd. |
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The restaurant sits on the corner of a strip mall and gets more interesting once you walk in the door. Obviously furnished with excess home cast offs or garage sale finds, it is cleaner than the first glance would suggest…as long as you don’t study the couch or the arms of the chair. The couple of tables and chairs seems tidy and we decide to stay instead of follow the example of the cars that are pulling up to the drive up window for their treats. We approached the mismatched counters and display cases to the lone woman behind the counter. There was someone else in the back but they never left the ovens. While we waited for things to heat we checked out the varied offerings in the small grocery area, everything from candies from other countries to Paula Dean jams. We got a couple of beverages from the reach-in near the door. All cans are the same price from soda to energy drinks. Steph had a Coke and I as a über-tart San Pelligrino Lemonata. Hey, it’s all the same price.
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Wee Grocery |
Self Serve Beverages |
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This Is "Best" Gyro |
Unless, Of Course, You've Had Others |
It took a short bit and everything was delivered to the table. We had ordered a turkey ham and cheese sandwich, a cheese burek (more on that in a sec) and of course the gyro. Let’s just get to the point. The gyro was what lured me in. It was also my least favorite by far. Steve’s super sauced gyro at the West Side Market Cleveland, Bills glorious gyro on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, the football sized tank from Hanini’s …or a number of other options…the sign is at best naive.
Not only was the lamb meatloaf relatively cold it was obvious the
cone was rotating in front of a heatless contraption, observed in
the lack of texture the surface tends to take on from the element as
it rolls by. Add to that the thin and lackluster sauce, the meat to
other ratio and the overall plainness of the whole mess…it is a long
way from good and far from best. I’m nearly ashamed to admit what I
did enjoy. At least half of it anyways. |
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This Was New To Me...The Burek |
Surprising Cheese Combo But Tasted Pretty Darn Good |
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Lack of shame first. They had a sign inside the door about their burek. It fortunately came with a description, since this was my first encounter. A Turkish original it is made of tubes of flaky dough, rolled into an almost spiraling seashell shape stuffed with either cheese, beef, spinach and cheese or apples. They had the cheese version fresh so we went with those. I was a little leery of the cheese combo. Feta and COTTAGE? It is much better than it might sound. The dough is flaky and the saltiness of the Feta plays well with the simple dairy fattiness of the curds. I would have taken an apple home to try later but I had more errands to run and it didn’t seem like it would last long in a saddlebag hovering over the exhaust.
What really surprised me was Steph’s sandwich. First I was horrified
and then I was ashamed. I thought she had ordered a turkey and ham
sandwich. What she had ordered was a turkey-ham sandwich. When it
arrived I had difficulty averting my gaze from the unnatural and off
putting color of the “meat”. If Expo made a dry erase marker labeled
“meat” they would need interference from Disney and Stan Lee to
produce this stuff. She asked if I wanted a taste…I heard NO in my
head but I have been making her taste all sorts of stuff for a long
time…and she hadn’t choked on the first bite…so I said yes. The roll
was incredible (did they bake it there?), the cheese was alright,
the ham impersonation was salty and a little smoky and the dressing
on the greens did what the tzatziki sauce completely failed to do on
the gyro. Much better than expected. |
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Started Simultaneously Laughing & Crying When This Hit Table |
Simply Unnatural And Sordid Color But Was Much Better Than Gyro |
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We took a couple pieces of baklava to go and we should have paid attention to the more rational side of our brains. There was a sign on the display case that reported the fridge as broken and you should ask for some of their treats, including the baklava. The thing is…the pan of baklava is sitting there in the bottom of the broken fridge…where our two pieces came from. We attempted to eat it in the car and would have been better to just drop it in the trash on the way out. It was a disaster. Imagine biting into a lightly sweetened, sweat soaked kitchen sponge that runs down your chin, or onto your steering wheel, or pants, or seat. The nuts were burned, the supposed to be flaky Phyllo was a soggy mess, and it was a horrible way to finish an adventure. We didn’t try the walnut strudel that made them “famous” or other things on the menu…if you go, you might be best suited ordering things that sound the least attractive (Mauve Meat, for instance) and stay far away from the baklava.
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This Disaster Could Turn You Off Of Greek Cuisine For Some Time |
Ratings | |||||||
Food |
Service |
Ambiance |
What's Best |
What's Worst |
Overall |
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D | C- | C- | C | F | D- | ||
Ha, Ha, Ha..."Ham" | Baklava Tragedy |