Category Archives: BY PRICE FOR TWO

$$ Modest ($30-$50), Commentary, St. Matthews, Westport Village, and environs, World Food

First Look: Two tasty new ethnic spots – La Catalana & Cocos Lokos

stuffed eggs  
Stuffed eggs at La Catalana

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes

Adding more options to Louisville’s growing ethnic-eats scene, two interesting restaurants have opened in recent weeks, offering dishes that your mother never made at home … unless your mother came from the Caribbean or Barcelona.

Cocos Lokos (“Crazy Coconut”) has been open for a few weeks in the Hunnington Place shopping center near I-64 at Hurstbourne. Started by former employees of Havana Rumba, it offers Cuban cuisine accented with a few dishes from around the Caribbean.

La Catalana (“The Catalan Woman”) opened last week in the short St. Matthews strip center that also houses Havana Rumba and Del Frisco’s, just behind … wait for it … where the old Sears store used to be. It’s Louisville’s first restaurant featuring the Catalan fare of Barcelona, Spain, plus a selection of dishes from around the Mediterranean.
Continue reading First Look: Two tasty new ethnic spots – La Catalana & Cocos Lokos →

$$ Modest ($30-$50), Bistros, Commentary, St. Matthews, Westport Village, and environs

Selena’s brings comfort to Willow Lake

Selena's Combo

An old, popular East End country dive bar, closed for years, reopened about a year ago as Selena’s and has been drawing crowds ever since, owing its growing popularity to bountiful food, friendly service and a relaxing atmosphere. “A tradition since 1979,” read the black awning over the entrance to what used to be the Willow Lake Tavern when we visited soon after it opened last fall.
Continue reading Selena’s brings comfort to Willow Lake →

$ Budget (under $30), Commentary, Downtown, NuLu and Butchertown, Frankfort Ave., Clifton, Crescent Hill, QuickBytes, Southern Indiana, World Food

One gyros, two gyros, many gyros

gyros sandwich

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes
(REVIEWED: A.J.’s Gyro Café; It’s All Greek To Me)

Let’s get one thing clear: The Greek word “gyros” is a singular noun. Like other similar Greek words that occasionally appear in English — kudos, logos, ethos — you don’t delete the final “s” if you’re having only one. A “gyro” is a kind of helicopter.

The menu at a new Greek-style eatery in Southern Indiana provides us a clear, simple overview: “Gyros is singular.”
Continue reading One gyros, two gyros, many gyros →

$ Budget (under $30), Commentary, Pacific Rim, South End

Café Thuy Van: Vietnamese off the beaten path

More than 30 years after the first wave of Vietnamese immigrants came to Louisville, these refugees and their children and grandchildren have moved into the mainstream of community life.

Much like our Latino, Bosnian, Senegalese and other immigrant neighbors, these refugees of war brought Louisville a gift that delights both our hearts and our tummies. Our Vietnamese community has made a significant contribution to the cityscape in the form of inviting Vietnamese restaurants and groceries. Continue reading Café Thuy Van: Vietnamese off the beaten path →

$ Budget (under $30), Commentary, Downtown, NuLu and Butchertown, New and noteworthy, Pacific Rim, QuickBytes, Southern Indiana

TanThai sets new standard in Thai food

Ginger chicken with green beans

Foodies, food lovers and food geeks who’ve been around town for a while will recall the happy shock that comes with the discovery of an ethnic spot that stands out from the pack: A new arrival with food preparation and style that hint at something special going on in the kitchen.

So it was with Vietnam Kitchen, almost a generation ago now, around the same time as the Mayan Gypsy truck went land-based with its first bricks-and-mortar location. More recently, we’ve seen it with Saffron’s for Iranian and Red Pepper for hardcore authentic Chinese.

In each case, the food, the mood and the service — but especially the food — signal that this place is, well, different.

Now welcome another ethnic standout, TanThai Cuisine of Thailand. Continue reading TanThai sets new standard in Thai food →

$ Budget (under $30), Baxter, Bardstown, Highlands, Commentary, Guest columnist, News announcements, Pacific Rim

Café Mimosa returns

By Kevin Gibson
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes

The familiar logo on the former Lentini’s reads “Café Mimosa,” but the sandwich board out front says it all: “We open now!”

A fire destroyed Café Mimosa’s former location — along with its partner Egg Roll Machine — in January. Owner Phat Le vowed to reopen; the former Lentini’s made sense since, well, he already owned it.

The new Mimosa, replacing recent tenant Jarfi’s, seems more upscale than the old, but food and prices are much the same.
Continue reading Café Mimosa returns →

$ Budget (under $30), Bistros, Commentary, Frankfort Ave., Clifton, Crescent Hill

The Patron won’t go away, and we’re glad

Crab and eggs

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes
(LEO photo by Ron Jasin)

Early in August, Chef Amber McCool announced “a new path” for the popular Patron Restaurant, involving a move to a still-undisclosed location at an uncertain time. In the meantime, the restaurant at the corner of Frankfort Avenue and Cannons Lane would continue catering and wholesale operations as well as “calendared events.”

That calendar, it seems, has been full, with food and music events on Wednesdays (Kim Sorise’s “Wax on Wednesdays,” with 12-inch LPs and 12-inch pizzas), many Fridays (“Burger Night” with music, burgers and brews), and a tasty menu-based brunch on Saturdays and Sundays.

My wife and I didn’t really have food in mind when we drove past the Patron early on a recent Sunday afternoon, but the sight of a jammed parking lot lured us in. Sure enough, the place was slammed with happy brunchers, but it took a minute or two for us to be seated.
Continue reading The Patron won’t go away, and we’re glad →

$$ Modest ($30-$50), Bistros, Commentary, Southern Indiana

The Windsor is slick, and so are its napkins

grilled salmon

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes

“Five-second rule! Five-second rule!”

It didn’t matter whether I was decked out in fancy all-weather wool slacks on a Thursday evening or well-worn jeans for a Tuesday lunch: No matter the fabric, no matter how I folded and knotted the thing, the slick, slippery burgundy polyester napkin would not stay on my lap.

I must have invoked the five-second rule a dozen times or more, grumbling every time I plucked my fallen napkin from the floor, during a couple of recent meals at New Albany’s otherwise delightful Windsor Restaurant and Garden.

Come to think about it, the irritating napkin slide was just about the only nit I could find to pick with this splendid eatery, a worthy successor to the late and still lamented Bistro New Albany.

Young co-chefs Justin McMillen and Cory Cuff were barely old enough to legally sample their own wine list when the classy dining room and bar, with its lovable New Orleans-style patio, reopened in the old New Albany Inn last year.
Continue reading The Windsor is slick, and so are its napkins →

$ Budget (under $30), Commentary, Hurstbourne, Middletown, Jeffersontown, New and noteworthy, Pacific Rim

Thai comes to Fern Creek

Pad Thai at True Thai

With all due respect, the Fern Creek neighborhood has long been the kind of place where “ethnic” means barbecue or diner fare.

But the arrival last year of Sake Blue, one of the region’s top Japanese restaurants, changed that metric forever. Now add Thai to the mix with the opening of True Thai in the Glenmary Plaza shopping center just beyond the Snyder.
Continue reading Thai comes to Fern Creek →