Village Garden
 Akron, OH        Date of Visit  07/02/15        No Known Website

On our way to Jimmy Bigg’s Grill we passed the packed parking lot of the Village Garden. Always seems packed and we’re stopping in for lunch. The lot is packed for a couple of reasons…parking is a scarce nightmare. The second reason is the place is full and apparently so are the lots of every adjacent business, to the dismay of some.
 

Service was friendly but smoother for the regulars than it was for we the first-timers. The menu has the word Macedonian peppered through each page in what turns out to be a long-standing family restaurant.

The only “Macedonian” thing we ordered was a bean soup. Should have ordered more. The soup would have made my Dad happy with a porky base, flashes of spice, variety of legumes, bits of floating ham, all piping hot. Recipe for tasty. Steph ordered the turkey rice soup with her sandwich, which was fine but had nowhere near the depth and flavor of the bean.
 

Steph’s sandwich was also thinly flavored in my opinion. Shredded chicken salad didn’t have any of the interesting layers included in the one she had last week at the Pufferbelly. Meh. Our sandwiches ended up being like our soups.

I became enamored by the name of the sandwich I ended up ordering. I’m pretty sure it was called the Miami Rainbow. Rye, turkey, ham, cheese…pretty straightforward. Then it’s all topped with slaw and doused with Russian dressing. I like all that stuff and it was pretty good together. The sweet burnt-orange dressing, the pepper of the cabbage and the creaminess of the slaw (definitely on the creamy not vinegary end of the spectrum) were unique and worked pretty well together. I don’t imagine I will have distinct cravings but there was nothing wrong with it, at all. Steph’s sandwich came with functional chips, mine came with fat, hot, crispy steak fries. I’m feeling like 2011 Charlie Sheen. Winning!
 

The Miami Rainbow Was Better Than I Expected &...
 

On the way to pay the tab, the dessert case revealed a pan of baklava, which we ended up trying in the car. Way, way, way sweeter than any I can remember. As soon the sweet hit me I expected to be disappointed, never arrived. Seriously sweet, there is just enough bitter in the brown crusty layers on top to keep it from cloying. The Village Gardens seems like a place that has some real gems on the menu. I don’t think we uncovered the treasure but there was enough bling to warrant further investigation.