Moe's Restaurant (Second
Visit) |
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Instead our friendly server, who managed the entire floor and the bar alone during our stay, hooked us up with a cup of soup, an appetizer, a sandwich and a salad. The soup arrived first and it was a superb start. Cauliflower/Gruyere. Thickly creamy, smoothly puréed cauliflower, floret nuggets with just a hint of texture and charred edges from roasting, all set off with the salty, nutty, and lightly sweet cheese from the Swiss. Stealing that one. The appetizer was a pastry wrapped wheel of Brie with sticky sweet apricot chutney along with fresh grapes, strawberries and wee toast. The pastry was a nice dark brown and while the cheese could have been consistently a little warmer throughout, everything worked well. Soft oozy dairy, fresh or cooked down sweet fruits and an option of flaky or crispy bread, I’d do it again.
Steph went with the chicken salad plate,
accompanied by pineapple, strawberries, greens and a little fig
muffin. Pretty sure there were walnuts in the chicken salad, past
that it wasn’t all that inventive and really relied on the fruit and
greenery to give it a hint of interesting. |
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I went with the grilled kielbasa sandwich with local gnar gnar &
brown mustard which is supposed to come on a sub bun…must have been
out of those as it arrived on a round bun which made keeping
everything together for a bite like holding a fist-full of rain. So
what. The bun was grilled, the kielbasa was also grilled to a
smoking hot but runningly juicy punch of lightly spicy and smoky
sausage. Love mustard with a bit of bite, especially on sausage like
this and it works really well with the gnar gnar. Oh, yeah, the gnar
gnar. If you haven’t encountered it yet it’s a vestige of the
burgeoning craft ingredient producers in Cleveland. Cleveland Kraut
is making yes, kraut. They are old school fermenting all kinds of
things and the gnar gnar is described as their spicy and gnarly raw
sauerkraut which isn’t as harsh as you might think but plays really
well with the fatty sausage. It’s the second time I’ve had one of
their products…both times it’s been the gnar gnar…it’s making me
curious about their other offerings, maybe whiskey dill or curry or
beet. Nonetheless, you can find some on a really tasty sandwich at
Moe’s, along with some other upscale fare. Maybe we will get there
for dinner someday. |
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Change in Ranking | |||||
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B | B | They Do Well. We'll Have To Risk Dinner Someday. | |||
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We
met some long standing going out to eat comrades in the Falls to
have some fun and grab some lunch. I suppose I have driven past this
building a dozen times and never had any idea that it housed a
restaurant. Before going we had checked online to see if it was a
franchise of the burrito place that goes by the same name, but no,
Moe’s is its own little place. While online we checked out the menu
and found the appetizers much more interesting than the entrees so
we thought we would try a few of those and split a couple of
sandwiches which we did end up doing. In a nondescript brick
building, if it weren’t for the little foldy sign out front I would
have driven right past, and we were looking for it. It is dark and
mature inside which gave me pause as we were lucky enough to have a
tiny being with us on the trip. The server was well versed,
outgoing, quick, and she went out of her way to take care of us and
our littlest companion, where some places would spend the day
frowning at him and us, she made us feel welcome from beginning to
end. |
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Starting with the apps we ordered five…the zucchini fritters with
garlic, cucumber and dill sauce, homemade parmesan peppercorn chips
and dip, rice-fried calamari with green papaya salad and somtom
dressing, lobster, shitake mushrooms and potato pierogies, and
braised short rib sliders with white sharp cheddar, horseradish
cream and crispy fried onions. The zucchini fritters were really
very good but the cucumber and dill sauce was a lackluster non
starter that really didn’t add anything to the dish.
The chips were outstanding, well
seasoned with a dark crisp, we would have been pleased with them
alone but the dip advanced the cause and really took the chips over
the top. |
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Excellent Chips with Great Dip |
Braised Short Rib Sliders...Stupendous |
Overdone Lobster Hurt the Pierogies |
The
sliders were fall apart tender and loaded with flavor although they
would have been helped by adding some extra horseradish cream which
the server had recommended. The somtom dressing on the calamari was
new to me with a sweet with a dusky umami undertone which echoed of
dark sesame oil. Some pieces of the squid were perfectly cooked, but
I did get a couple that had some serious tooth to them, nearing gum.
The rice flour had trouble standing up to the dressing and was
mostly soggy by the time the plate hit the table. Likely the biggest
disappointment of the appetizers was the pierogie mélange that
actually tasted spot-on. The pierogies were nothing overly special
but hey, pasta and potatoes, hard to go wrong. The shitake shrooms
were outstanding and there were big chunks of lobster meat sitting
right on top, show me the money! Well, the money is where the
problem resided. The lobster had been tragically over cooked or held
too long and was dry and rubbery, destroying an otherwise nice dish. |
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The pastrami with sauerkraut, gruyere cheese and a whole grain mustard sauce on rye was anything but light, also in a good way. Well balanced with each ingredient contributing to an excellent sandwich. The sandwiches at Moe’s are overall, very good. The appetizers for the most part are the same. Maybe the best part of the meal was the first appetizer, which I don’t think we ordered. Grapes, crackers, gummy treats, and crayons, all for our booster seated diner. Nutrition and fun on the house. Well above average food, great service and a nice place to boot. I’m really glad someone suggested this place, we will be back.
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Ratings | |||||||
Food |
Service |
Ambiance |
What's Best |
What's Worst |
Overall |
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B | A? | B | A | D | B | ||
Those Sliders
and Chips Are Awesome |
Ruined Lobster |