Ena’s Caribbean Kitchen

Spices set Linden restaurant apart

Ena’s sits on the corner of Cleveland and Myrtle Ave, in what some would consider to be a sketchy neighborhood (the heart of Linden). Ena’s itself, however, exudes none of that diciness. A nice brick building on the corner opens itself to a shining yellow inside, and behind the counter where one orders is a nice stockpile of Jamaican and Caribbean goods, mostly foodstuffs. There are maybe six or seven small tables inside along the windows, but from the looks of it, Ena’s is mostly takeout. Since I’ve never really had Jamaican before, I’m taking the restaurant’s word for it, but they offer such staples as Jerk Chicken, Oxtail, Grilled Lamb, various preparations of goat, and many kinds of fish (I’ve heard of a lot of fish, but the lineup here was completely unfamiliar to me: escovitch, ackee, saltfish, etc.

The jerk chicken was touted as the restaurant’s most popular dish, and for good reason. It’s not only the most familiar dish on their menu to typical American consumers, but also the tastiest. Ena’s spice blend is tremendous, capturing all the flavors that a jerk should—a nice compromise between sweet and spicy. The spices appeared to be applied wet, providing a nice sauce which one can mix with a side of rice and peas to integrate flavors. It’s worth noting that rice and peas do not contain peas; rather, the peas are actually kidney beans, and rice and peas is much closer to a dirty rice. Dishes come with two sides, sides include: rice and peas, white rice, cornbread, macaroni and cheese, cabbage, potato salad, fried plantain, collard greens, French fries, lettuce and tomato, mix vegetable, and “food” (boiled banana, yam, and dumplin). The rice and peas and white rice are a good base to have one’s meal with, but the combinations that are available are practically endless. Cornbread was run of the mill, reminiscent of Jiffy, but the fried plantain was fantastic, moist and sweet and easily even with El Arepazo as best plantains in Columbus. The mac and cheese is relatively soft and cheesy, and potato salad is very reliable and is topped with some kind of curry powder.

The grilled lamb, a special the day I went, was surprising in a good way. We were warned by the person who took our order that the lamb was a spicy dish, and she wasn’t kidding. It doesn’t look spicy at all, and with a name like grilled lamb, it certainly didn’t sound spicy, but the dish packed a kick that lay hidden within the sauce, which is quite different than the jerk sauce but filled with spices, especially a black pepper that made itself evident. The preparation of lamb was refreshing; too often have I had are either very tough or gelatinous. This lamb is a very nice middle ground, providing a nice little tug off the bone. It’s served with just browned onions, which were not soft yet, and green peppers. The lamb was very well executed, and a nice special to look for when it’s on the menu.

The oxtail might be an acquired taste, but I don’t think it was up to snuff on this day. Some unfamiliar to soul food or Jamaican cuisine might question whether there’s even meat on an ox’s or cow’s tail, but there most certainly is. It seems to be mostly flavored in its own juices, but so much fat surrounded the bones that the dish was hard to enjoy. The meat is a little tough if you can get to it. This was really the only rough patch in an otherwise pleasant and delicious meal from Ena’s.

The medium size is easily enough for one person, although a small dinner appears to be offered in the small print. The many preparations of fish that Ena’s offers is worth checking out, although I didn’t try them. Ena’s provides a very good introduction to Jamaican food for one who has never tried it, but also has some preparations for those more experienced/willing to branch out. Ena’s exotic spices and flavors help make it a great contributor to Columbus’ restaurant scene.

Ena's Caribbean Kitchen
2444 Cleveland Ave
Columbus, OH 43211
(614) 262-0988‎

Food for Thought, Food for the Soul

Seclusion doesn’t keep restaurant from solid execution of soul food specials

Food for Thought, Food for the Soul (which shall hereon be referred to as Food for Thought) is an interesting specimen. For one, it is the most impossible restaurant to find. An awkward, clunky name is the least of its problems. It sits in the basement of a 5/3 Bank at the corner of High St. and Henderson Rd, which is undergoing major, major construction right now. Outside of the 5/3 Bank on the sidewalk is a little sign that advertises Food for Thought, but even when you get inside, you have to follow signs to an elevator, and then a few turns in the basement to get to the actual restaurant. It resembles a converted cafeteria, complete with the rails where one would put their tray. The menu covers a pretty tame work-lunch domain; soups, salads, and sandwiches, but the real thing to look for is the daily special. $8.45 for a big serving of soul food, two sides, and a 12 oz. drink might not be the best deal in the world, but unlike the salad/sandwich offerings, I can guarantee that you won’t leave hungry.

The Thursday special was BBQ Spare Ribs w/ Food for Thought’s homemade sauce. It came with a choice of two sides (Baked Macaroni & Cheese, Mixed Greens, Baked Beans, Green Beans, Cole Slaw), a slice of bread, and a 12 oz drink. Indoor ribs are always a risk, especially when there’s no one in the restaurant ordering them (or, in my case, no one in the restaurant at all), but the risk of a special is always worth taking, in my opinion. Pam is the all-in-one waitress, manager, owner, and cook, and perhaps it was just when I came in, but she was also the only person working at the time. My worries were building, and in fifteen minutes or so, the food appeared, food which couldn’t come soon enough with “As the World Turns” on the TV in the background driving me a little crazy.

The spare ribs had a very nice color to them, showing some signs of well-doneness under the sauce. They were not the usual cut (or rather, how I’m used to having them)—instead of having a rack of five or six, they were individual and cut across two bones, with a little flap of meat under the bones leading me to the meatier rest of the rib. I don’t think this really added or detracted to the rib, seeing that it still had about the same amount of meat I’d expect. The sauce on it is a great complement- slightly sweet, slightly tangy and a little complex, as well. The greens were very flavorful, with most of the bitterness stewed out of them, and given a nice meaty flavor with what looked to be some pulled pork peppered in. The macaroni and cheese was a very nice rendition—cheesy throughout, with a hard crusty top.

Now the rest of the menu is rather ordinary, so I’d recommend going on day where they have soul food specials of note. Wednesdays are Buttermilk Battered Fried Chicken with the sides listed above, and a biscuit. Fridays have fried ocean perch fillets, with the additional side option of pan-fried potatoes and onions. And while I didn’t ask Pam herself about it, apparently her mother comes in on Fridays to help and provide delicious desserts, including sweet potato pie. Based on Pam’s version of barbeque spare ribs, I’m betting that most of the soul food specials and desserts are worth checking out.
Food for Thought, Food for the Soul
4400 N High St
Columbus, OH 43214
(614) 784-1600‎
(614) 784-1648‎

Dabakh Restaurant

Like nothing you’ve ever seen in Columbus, Dabakh is worth going bakh for



She brought out a brown manila envelope, nearly overflowing with a large stack of papers. She placed it on the table, and walked away. I silently nodded my head in thanks, and pulled out the papers. Instead of seeing a “for your eyes only” classified introduction or a debriefing, I was given my target, or rather, several dozen targets. “I’ll take the fish,” I muttered, making sure no one overheard us.

No, Dabakh is not the restaurant for spies and espionage. Although, there are good reasons for thinking so. Dabakh is a trek, as I found out the hard way. It’s not necessarily hard to see, but getting to Refugee Rd can prove to be difficult with construction and rivers and roads that dead end getting in the way. If one can make it to Hamilton Rd., it’s just a quick left on Refugee and another into the parking lot of what looked like an old Wendy’s. They’ve put up barriers and various decorations to make one forget that, but it almost adds to the charm. Dabakh wins the record for longest hours of a non-chain/Buckeye Donuts: 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Mon dieu! Oh, it’s worth mentioning that Senegal was colonized by the French, and so you’ll likely hear a “merci beaucoup” or “ça va?” The menu is by far one of the more unique in the city. The lunch menu is probably double the size of the dinner menu, and boasted many interesting options that are most definitely worth investigating. And the incident above that I began with—that was our waitress bringing out a picture of what seemed like every dish on the menu…and more. I picked out a few pictures that I liked, asked her for suggestions, and settled on a preparation of grilled fish. It’s unclear, but it seemed like most if not all dinners were prepared the same way. Preparation of meat, served with white rice, brown rice, couscous, French fries, spaghetti, or cassava, seasoned raw onions, caramelized onions, hardboiled egg, and mayonnaise—yes, mayonnaise.

You might be tempted to get one of the very exotic drinks that Dabakh offers. The bouye, which is juice that comes from the baobab tree, is an acquired taste. A taste most certainly acquired by five-nine year olds. That’s right, the baobab tastes like liquid Smarties. Extremely sweet, it might be good to have a sip of but it’s very difficult to have for a whole meal. Perhaps the ginger drink is a safer choice, you think. You’d be wrong again. It hits the mouth and immediately the tongue recognizes it as mouthwash flavor, until a little sweet aftertaste kicks in. I’m not absolutely sure that they brought out the right drink; there was no indication of ginger. They brought out traditional Senegalese bread to the table, cut into small ovals…hey, it’s baguette! Good baguette, too—not quite as crusty as La Chatelaine’s, but just how you’d imagine it.

The Dibbi (grilled lamb) was very good— smoky, crispy, seasoned and cooked well. You’ll be tempted to gnaw the meat off the bone. The couscous was a little dry, and quite a heaping serving for a diner to make their way through. I’d probably recommend the rice—either white or brown. The white rice, slightly sticky, was a much better canvas for picking up the flavors of the dish, and also felt a little lighter and the texture less interfering, if that makes sense. Dabakh does a nice job mixing in vegetables, topping main courses with fresh onion, peas, corn, green pepper, and carrot. One hardly notices them, but they add a wonderful freshness and texture The grilled fish had a very interesting preparation—it either was lightly fried, or covered in egg and bread crumbs and grilled well, I really couldn’t tell. Regardless, it was extremely flavorful and well-spiced. It might have been a little on the salty side, but you a restaurant can get away with this when it is serving a very large and mild tilapia. A good deboner will thoroughly enjoy this dish; a poor one will, too, albeit after a little work.

Things to note: I dined late, but everyone who came in got takeout, so don’t be surprised if you’re the only person sitting in the dining room. What dish the couscous came with and what the rice came with got mixed up, so be careful when ordering. So what does Dabakh provide to Columbus? It provides a hub and gathering place for the small but growing Senegalese/west African community. It exhibits the diversity in language and flavors and certainly adds richness to the culinary scene.

Dabakh Restaurant
4470 Refugee Rd
Columbus, OH 43232
(614) 626-4976
www.dabakhrestaurant.com
Be forewarned, website plays music.
Lunch menu items start at $7 dishes.
Dinner menu starts at $10 dishes

Bilan Restaurant

Familiar flavors make Somali unknown a hit

Bilan could be the most unknown restaurant in Columbus. It has one, I repeat, one mention on Google at somaliscoop.com, but the yellow pages listing has it mistakenly listed as Dilan. Driving by it, one would have no idea that it is a Somali restaurant. The name is generic sounding, the sign only says breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and there is a cryptic looking map on their sign that is almost surely not Somalia. It’s in a tiny little strip mall where a small supermarket used to be the cornerstone, which then turned into a Vietnamese supermarket, I think. Needless to say, it was long closed. There’s not much to speak for Bilan’s exterior, nor its interior. There are a few Somali decorations inside, along with a very nice TV, but other than that, it’s rather plain. I was welcomed in by someone sitting down in the restaurant, but aside from the chef, the waiter, and a kid who had to have been some relation to them, and one diner, the establishment was empty. From the shouting that greeted me when I entered to the flavors that followed, it was clear that this wouldn’t be your typical meal.

The menu is split into breakfast, lunch, and dinner sections, although I couldn’t quite figure out why the dishes were split up in the way that they were, only that it must be Somali tradition. They all seemed to be either pasta, rice, or stew-like dishes, some served with a banana, which appears to be a popular accoutrement at Somali restaurants. Pasta may be surprising, but as we all remember from high school history, Somalia was targeted by Italy during African imperialism in the late 1800’s, and while Somalia resisted major Italian influence, Italy successfully took over parts of the country. They finally took over the whole thing during a portion of World War II, before sort of losing it after the war and completely in 1960. Hence, the pasta. Most of the dinner dishes come with canjeero, which is pretty similar to an Ethiopian injera bread.

This bread, which is filled with little holes, is more reminiscent of a pancake, and is good to soup up the sauces and juices of Somali dishes. But as we got our dishes and tasted them, it was clear that Bilan was a trip down memory lane rather than a mind-blowingly new culinary experience.

The muufo with chicken steak was rice served with chicken that was pounded down, chopped up, and grilled, and let’s just say it sported some familiar flavors. The rice was something right out of India—flavorful Basmati long grain, with some bright orange and yellow grains providing great color for the dish. The chicken was seasoned very well, and the chef provided some nice char and well-doneness to the chicken that made certain bites heavenly. Cooked onions and peppers gave the dish a nice crunch as well.

Another dish, kirish o mirish, which according to the waiter was going to contain chapatti, did not but still had a very similar preparation of chicken, with some different spices, only this time served with what appeared to be thick rice noodles…where have I seen this before??? Ah yes, the old Thai standard Pad see ew. These noodles picked up some of the same flavor as the chicken, including the char, which was so reminiscent and the closest thing I’ve seen to how the master preparers of Pad see ew at Thai Aree in Chicago make the dish.

The muufo with beef stewed had little cubes of beef served up with recently added onions, green peppers, and tomatoes, with the inclusion of some cilantro to give it another dimension of flavor. The beef cubes were a little tough, and had little piece of fat on them, but the taste was almost surely familiar…it sort of reminded me of pot roast, or, well I’ll be, beef stew! And the sauce…yes, exactly like beef stew. An enormous surprise to see the American home-cooked classic cooked to a tee by Somali immigrants, but yes, that’s exactly how it tasted. So while it did taste like beef stew, I wasn’t exactly in the mood. The waiter put out two sauces on the table, and I wanted to see if I could adjust the flavor of the beef stew sauce. I asked what the two sauces were, and he said, “this one…is ranch. This one, is hot sauce.” I tossed some of the hot sauce on without thinking twice, and, what was this, yet another piece of the meal recognized by my tongue! It tasted like Mexican green salsa, like the tomatillo, jalepeno based ones. This one kicks butt, however, probably one of the best ones I’ve ever had. I asked him what was in it and he said, “Oh, jalepenos, garlic, vinegar, green and red pepper (read: chile pepper), cilantro, blended together.” Why if that’s not a recipe for salsa if I’ve ever heard one. He saw me enjoying it so much, that he happily added some to my takeout bag. EDIT: I just had a little of this hot sauce on some leftover pasta. Man, did it kick my butt. I had half the one ounce container and thought I wasn’t going to make it through dinner. So hot sauce aficionados, be warned…

On my way out, I asked about some bags filled with what looked to be a dessert sitting in a display case. He said that they were tradition Somali sweet biscuits that were served with tea after a meal. I got some and tried them with some tea; the flavors won’t be anything you haven’t had before, their just sugar and flour, sort of firm unless you dip them in the tea. But like much of the tastes at Bilan, you’ve probably had them before. Whether in an Ethiopian, Indian, Italian, restaurant, or in your own home, you’ve seen these flavors. And they’ve rarely been executed as well, or in a more unlikely atmosphere…

Bilan Restaurant

3949 Cleveland Ave
Columbus, OH 43224
614-337-2442

Omara's y Pollo El Inka

New restaurant remains very much the same, churns out unique Peruvian delights

Omara’s is really tucked away, across from the pastel-colored Continent off of 161 and Busch Blvd. A google search reveals absolutely nothing about the restaurant, so it has the cleanest of slates. I think it might have gone through a name change (nee: Andino Chicken), but the inside and menu is almost certainly the same as I remember.. The rotisserie chicken (Pollo al Carbon) that they pride themselves on is still as present as ever, ¼ of a chicken for $5.00. Compare this to the California chain El Pollo Inka, which sells a ¼ chicken for 8.25…

The appetizer, Papa Rellena, is a sight to behold. Mashed potatoes stuffed with ground beef and spices are deep fried into a golden brown orb. Just a light crust keeps a hungry diner from getting to the perfectly-textured mashed potatoes. Served with fresh and lime covered pickled onions with little diced hot peppers mixed in on the side, this dish was executed perfectly.

The pollo al carbon could have been crispier (where the chicken was crispy was absolute bliss), but the chicken was full of flavor. In a typical rotisserie chicken, a bite is flavorful if you get part of the spice-rubbed skin, but once you get into the chicken, it is not. At Omara’s the spices and herbs penetrate the chicken so that every bite is flavorful, even when the spices have to compete with the stronger taste of the dark meat. The chicken came with a choice of sides which I can’t quite recall now. The cassava fries were starchy and good if dipped in something, but nothing remarkable. The store manager/waitress/part-time cook/owner? brought out a yellowish sauce, which might have been for one of the dishes or perhaps all three, I wasn’t really sure. It has sort of funky tanginess to it, and a definite kick. She said it was made from the aji amarillo, a yellow chile pepper only found in Peru. The sauce is completely unique, and you’d be hard pressed to find it in the Midwest, so we should consider ourselves lucky to have it in Columbus.

Lomo Saltado is as typical as Peruvian dishes come. I had the pleasure of having some Lomo Saltado in Peru, so I speak with a little bit of expertise. And while I was pretty disappointed with the dish when I had it in Cuzco, I’m happy to say that Omara’s preparation was much better. The dish is strips of beef stir-fried with peppers, onions, and tomatoes over a bed of French fries. The dish is slightly garlicky and salty with a hint of soy, almost verging into Chinese food territory. The beef strips were well-cooked and trimmed of fat very well, and the dish as a whole came together quite nicely with a generous sprinkling of cilantro on top, despite the seemingly odd inclusion of French fries (believe me, it’s as traditional as Lomo Saltado comes). The wedges of tomato, which can lose texture and make sauces watery, held together and stayed refreshingly crisp and fresh. How college kids haven’t discovered Lomo Saltado is beyond me, because it sounds like the perfect 1 a.m. drunk meal—filling, nonsensical, and flavors mixing that they’ve never tasted before.

I was way too stuffed for dessert, but our multi-talented manager/waitress insisted that we try a little, on her. She mentioned a flan, but instead brought out a small serving of beige/yellow ice cream, which she said was lucuma flavored. I took a bite, and thought to myself, “hmm, this tastes sort of mapley or caramely.” My brother, who was dining with me, said, “this tastes exactly like butter pecan,” which, after thinking about it, was pretty close to the flavor. I asked her what lucuma was, and she said, “it’s a fruit, from Peru. You can’t find it anywhere else.” The image of a fruit that tastes like butter pecan was mind-boggling and amazing. So if you don’t go to Omara’s for the extremely flavorful and cheap rotisserie chicken, or the deep-fried mashed potatoes, or the lomo saltado that’s better than Peru’s, check out the lucuma flavored ice cream that sort of tastes like butter pecan. Omara’s could use the business, considering that it was pretty empty when I went, and the owner was eager to give me her card. Omara’s execution of very rare and unique dishes makes it a standout. But let’s just hope that business will pick up, or else these rare Peruvian flavors could just become rarer.

Dewey's Pizza

Popular Cincinnati chain doesn’t live up to hype

Dewey's Pizza, the newest entry to Grandview’s already crowded pizza scene, was bustling with excitement. The bulging building couldn’t hold all of the eager customers, and so people leaked out the doors, awaiting their long anticipated takeout or table. The wait, I was told, would be twenty-five to thirty minutes. Or maybe less, I was reassured. A glass window showcased the pizza makers, who were swiftly grabbing the premeasured and preformed dough to spin them in the air, much to the delight of the many young children that watched. The children would then bang on the windows, either trying to throw the workers off their game, or gain their attention. They were unsuccessful on both parts, as the unfazed pizza makers twirled the dough behind their backs in ostentatious show. I decided to stick it out, to see if the stroller-toting Grandview mothers were onto something. A fellow customer in the restaurant reassured me as I considered leaving, “this is the best pizza in Columbus, without a doubt…Rubino’s, no way, this is much better…Figlio? I go for their pasta, but this pizza is better.”

Besides the Dewey’s Original (cheese and tomato sauce) and the X-Pepperoni (extra pepperoni), Dewey’s specialty pizza menu boasts some very odd options. Many of them load on the toppings to an almost ridiculous point (take the Ryan’s Inferno, which sports olive oil, light mozzarella cheese, buffalo chicken, gorgonzola cheese, red onion with ranch dressing and celery after the bake). Kudos to you if you can taste the olive oil after that flavor onslaught. Prices range from pricey ($9 for the basic 11’’ cheese), to the pricier ($20 for the 17’’ Wild Mushroom)

Not exactly in the mood for a buffalo chicken gorgonzola ranch pizza, I sampled the Killer Veggie (tomato sauce, mozzarella, mushrooms, onions, black olives, green peppers, with fresh tomatoes and parsley after the bake), and got a half mixed mushroom white pizza, half plain cheese red pizza. Dewey’s is very accommodating in doing half pizzas, but don’t expect them to be exactly half pizzas. The mushrooms were distributed across Also, don’t be suckered in for their Wild Mushroom when you can do a Create Your Own Pizza with the same ingredients for less. Another curious piece of the menu is the omission of pricing for their drinks ($1.99 for all the curious out there, a price that I’m sure most in the restaurant would be willing to pay).

The house salad featured nice mixed greens, but fell into the all too familiar problem of making the dressing too sweet. It was supposedly a balsamic vinagrette, but when the salad already has dried cranberries on it, a dressing shouldn't even verge close to being sweet. The mixed mushroom half pizza looked enticing, covered in four or five different kinds of mushroom. The first bite was bursting with flavor. With the flavor of salt and garlic, to be more specific. I remembered watching the pizza maker and seeing him grab a handful of chopped white something, and put the pieces together. On their white pizzas, Dewey’s uses way too much garlic. Perhaps it would be a little harder to notice on one of their topping-packed pizzas, but on my mixed mushroom it was painfully clear. The crust, which the reassuring man at the beginning of my review said was the best he’s ever had, bar none, was nothing special. The bottom was soft until about a bite before the crust, where it got lightly crunchy (think ritz cracker crunchiness). But the crust felt almost artificial, like a pizza crust lite. I would’ve liked to have seen the pizza stay in a few minutes longer, where the whole pizza could have developed a crispness about it and the crust a thorough crispness. The cheese pizza was sufficient, but absolutely nothing I haven’t seen before. Ingredients felt standard, as did most anything in this restaurant (except the prices). The killer veggie fared better, with the vegetables toning down a little of the salt, and providing a better freshness and flavor to the pizza. But Dewey’s was largely a forgettable experience, with decent offerings at very questionable prices. I thought of all the Grandview pizzerias that are on par with or better than Dewey's- Panzera's, Cowtown, whatever the people from BonoToGo come up with, Figlio, etc. We can only hope that the addition of Dewey's doesn't lead to their demise.

After leaving the jam-packed Dewey’s, I was almost tempted to sing a song. “Do They Know There’s Other Pizza in Grandview?” isn’t a well-known tune, but one that would certainly enlighten those suburban mothers and twenty-somethings who thought Dewey’s was the best thing they had ever seen. That is, if they could even hear it over the din the restaurant produces, between the blasted music and the kids/adults screaming. Something tells me that Dewey’s will not only survive, but will succeed with the formula it has created. Why its successful formula doesn’t include tasty pizzas at reasonable prices is beyond me, however…

Johnnie's Tavern

Time-honored haunt keeps it simple

How can a place fly so under the radar after being open for 61 years? Is the location of Johnnie’s, a rural looking Trabue Rd. just across the river from Scioto Country Club, keeping Johnnie’s from finding major popularity? These were questions I pondered as I waited for my meal at Johnnie’s Tavern. The place is the epitome of the words “old school.” One walks in and gets the feeling that absolutely nothing has changed since it opened, besides the neon beer sign in the window. In fact, every single person in Johnnie’s appeared to be a regular; two or three guys were hunched over at the bar, talking about the Cavs’ chances over a bottle of beer, and a few booths were occupied with couples or old fathers and sons.

The menu is very easy to miss. It’s written on the wall behind the bar, but for those sitting at tables, it’s simply printed on a little tabletop menu sign. I will print the menu, in whole. Cheeseburgers, Roast Beef Sandwiches, Fried Bologna, Coney Dogs (only on Wednesdays), French Fries, Onion Rings. There are a few bar-appealing appetizers, consisting of mostly fried vegetables, but I don’t think they are very popular offerings. Oh, and drinks come in frostily iced mugs, a nice touch that doesn’t exist anywhere else in Columbus, I don’t think Cheeseburgers come with the option of quite a few cheeses—swiss, pepper jack, provolone, cheddar, and American, I think.

I'd imagine that not much has changed since Johnnie's opened 61 years ago...

The cheddar cheeseburger took 6 or 7 minutes to come out, rivaling any local fast-food chain. But the burger is beyond comparison of a chain. Around ½ or ⅔ pound beef, cooked medium well, with a healthy serving of crisp onion, pickle, tomato, and lettuce on an unobtrusive sesame seed bun. All of these toppings aide the overall success of the burger, but stand aside to let the burger shine. This is beef at its finest. Beef flavored beef. It’s as if the beef came from cows that ate beef which came from cows that ate…grass. The beef is barely seasoned, and even the cheddar struggles to get its say in because the beef is so powerful. It’s extremely delicious, however. A burger from Thurman’s, which is generally regarded as one of the best in Columbus, is very comparable to Johnnie’s (Thurman’s is 67 years old, making both restaurants ripe for comparison. Thurman’s burgers tend to get a little bogged down in toppings, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Thurman’s and Johnnie’s burgers are cooked nearly the same amount of time—medium well, although Thurman’s picked up a little crispiness on the edges. Thurman’s, if one orders just a cheeseburger, would find the beefy flavor very good, but I don’t know if it’s as intense as Johnnie’s, or if the other stuff on the burger just makes it not seem as strong. And it’s worth noting that Johnnie’s burgers aren’t nearly as stomach-stuffing as the Thurman behemoths. Regardless, they are both good burgers, and easily up there as the best in Columbus.

The Johnnie's Burger (left) is right up there with Thurman's (right). Pictures not to scale.

French fries are the typical, double fried diner sort, extra crunchy. Nothing extraordinary, but what you’d expect from a place open 61 years. After the close of Nancy’s, it’s the next restaurant I’d nominate for Jane and Michael Stern’s “Roadfood” series (the feeling you get driving around San Margherita is roadfoody—it’s hard to believe that Johnnie’s Tavern and the surrounding country houses are so close to Columbus. And what little Johnnie’s does, it does very well. San Margherita may be a tiny little village whose existence is in doubt, but they have a treasure in Johnnie’s.

Johnnie’s Tavern

3503 Trabue Rd
Columbus, OH 43204
614-488-0110