Clover Eats!
Sharing restaurant experiences through photography!
CloverEats: sushi and dessert at Arlington Heights’ Wildfish!
Martin and I were in Arlington Heights looking for a movie theatre when we discovered we were quite hungry, and dropped into the nearby Wildlife restaurant. The decor was hip and modern, with green walls and a wall of liquor. Please excuse the bad quality of the images, I lost my iPhone 4 and so had to take them with my iPhone 3GS, which has a much worse camera.
The sushi we got was pretty good, and beautifully presented. I love the unique rolls every restaurant comes up with by themselves. Wildlife also offered Sake Flights, an array of different sakes, but I was driving and so couldn’t explore this particular aspect.
After dinner, we were pleasantly surprised with the wide range of dessert options offered. I’ve always said that dessert is my favorite part of a meal, and Wildlife was no disappointment here.
Check it out on Yelp; official website.
CloverEats! sushi at Ann Arbor’s Yamato
Olivia and Matt stopped by Ann Arbor with her little brother and little sister. After playing with my cat for a bit, we went out to eat!
Yamato is a cute little Japanese restaurant tucked in Kerrytown, near where the farmer’s market goes down. The sushi was not bad at all, although a little expensive. We ordered a variety of rolls and sashimi to all share, and happily enjoyed copious amounts of spicy mayo!
We didn’t explore the menu too greatly, but the food we tried was quite good!
I never used to like sashimi, but once I started working at Evanston’s Sashimi Sashimi, I got completely addicted to it. The chefs used to make me sushi for lunch and dinner, and so it really grew on me. Yamato was no disappointment, but at the same time, nothing to write home about. We ended up at Zingerman’s for amazing gelato and dessert; thanks again, Olivia, for the pint of Hazelnut Gelato!
Check out Yamato on YELP; Official Website.
CloverDrinks: Hot Spiced Buttered Rum at Ann Arbor’s Sava’s
Fred and I stopped by Sava’s after seeing Avenue Q because the sign outside mentioned something about HOT SPICED BUTTERED RUM.
Buttered rum!
The two glasses came with big lumps of butter, spiced sticks, and delicious soul-warming rum. We’ve since been back maybe three times, in hopes of more buttered rum, but unfortunately to no avail. The bartender promises its return with colder weather, but so far, we’ve had no luck in getting a second taste of this amazingness.
Burger and sweet potato fries!
We also shared a burger and yummy sweet potato fries while we were there. Here are some autumn-y photos of candles!
Candles!
More candles!
Check out Sava’s on YELP or its Official Website!
CloverEats: noodles at Ann Arbor’s Tomukun
If we keep up this pace, I think Fred and I will have eaten at all of Ann Arbor’s restaurants before M3 year. We’ve been steadily progressing down State St. and its surrounding roads, and decided on Tomukun for an afterschool snack.
Nigori sake!
I actually really like sake; I think it’s usually more flavorful than soju (which to me, tastes like sour water). Our waiter recommended the Nigori Sake, which he described as the best one in the house, so we got a bottle. It was milky and thick, and quite strong.
Pork buns!
The Yelpers rave about Tomukun’s pork buns, so that’s what we got first. Yelpers never lie, because these buns were freaking amazing. The pork was tender and juicy, the sauce was rich and savory. Deliciousness in one bite!
The noodles were all right, but nothing spectacular. After the pork buns, the noodles tasted almost dull by comparison. We also got a bowl of bibimbop, which was mediocre compared to the fantastic mixes that can be found in downtown Chicago.
Overall, I liked Tomukun’s minimal style and pork buns. Apparently there’s also Happy Hour from 3-6 and after 10PM on weekdays, and they have yogurt-flavored soju!
Check out Tomukun on Yelp, or its Official Website!
CloverDesserts: chocolate and spanish coffee at Ann Arbor’s La Dolce Vita!
Couches and little tables.
A little joint half-attached to Chop House, La Dolce Vita is a dessert-only venue! Seats are low, sometimes just couches, and the whole restaurant is pretty dimly lit in a dark, sweet atmosphere. Since dessert is my favorite part of the meal, I couldn’t believe my luck when I found out about La Dolce Vita!
Spanish coffee! Flamed!
For drinks, we got spanish coffee, the preparation of which involves flames and sparks! It was definitely a great performance on the waitress’ part; I videotaped it on my tiny camera, sorry for the bad quality. My favorite part is when the cinnamon lights up!
Beautiful!
For the actual dessert, we got an amazing molten chocolate brownie. It was beautifully presented, and absolutely melted in the mouth. Delicious chocolatey goodness!
Gooey deliciousness!
Check it out on Yelp; the official website!
CloverDrinks: milk tea at Ann Arbor’s Bubble Island!
Is there anyone who doesn’t love bubble tea? There is something so delightful about the little bursts of tapioca or jelly that shoot out of the straw amidst either milky tea or fruit smoothie. Steven Sun took us to Bubble Island, a little shop south of the university that caters specifically to bubble tea cravings.
Despite it being pretty late at night, there were lots of students up and about, sipping bubble tea and playing the assortment of board games offered. Of course there were students studying on laptops and more students laughing at the crashing Jenga pieces.
There was a wide variety of bubble tea and bubbles – everything from grass jelly to mango stars. While the customization was great, I thought the drinks were a little expensive – probably around $5 for a regular size. The Jenga pieces also had lots of mini graffiti from past players on it, everything ranging from “pull me” to phone numbers to a Gears of War Lancer.
Check out Bubble Island on YELP!
CloverCooks: chocolate chip cookies!
Eggs, butter, salt, flour...
I am very excited to present to you guys the first ever baking post in CloverEats! Struck by a late-night craving for chocolate chip cookies, we hunted through Phi Rho supplies for cookie-making materials: butter, check; flour, check; sugar, check; eggs, check.
From the quagmire, a semblance of cookie appears.
At first, it looked like there was going to end up being way too much dry material, but eventually, we got something that appeared to be cookie dough-esque.
Plating the cookies...
Aaaand the final masterpiece, along with a Princess Peach inspired note. Everything took a lot shorter than I expected, which makes me want to bake more and more!
The final masterpiece!
Recipe from 101 Cookbooks, one of my favorite cooking blogs with beautiful photography!
CloverCooks: Korean Barbeque at Chicago’s San Soo Gab San
Tiny parking lot and small sign.
I’ve always been a huge fan of Korean Barbeque, and one of my all-time favorite restaurants for it is the amazing San Soo Gab San, a tiny little spec in north Chicago. It’s a little difficult to get to from Evanston without a car (one has to take either two buses or a train and a taxi), but somehow I’ve ended up there more times than any other Korean Barbeque location. This time, I went with Joe and Xuan from lab, for one last delicious meal before leaving Chicago.
So many banchan!
San Soo Gab San offers the most banchan, side dishes, that I’ve ever seen a Korean Barbeque place offer. There’s a huge wide array of dishes, with everything from potato salad to moo kimchi. The menu also offers a wide array of non-BBQ foods, including amazing naemyung and sushi.
From raw...
San Soo Gab San uses good, old fashioned charcoal grills that are carried, flaming, to tableside. The coal crackles and sparks and the meat sizzles. It is the most delicious way to cook kalbi!
...to cooked!
This is one of the places I will miss most about Chicago! In the meanwhile, check it out on Yelp!
CloverEats! legitimate Chinese food at Evanston’s Phoenix Inn.
Apparently Phoenix Inn used to have a bad reputation. I’ve heard of people getting food poisoning, the restaurant being shut down, and tons of terrible things about it. However, having opened again under new management, I decided to give it another shot (it helped that NUAsian, one of Northwestern’s cultural magazines, sent me there on a photo assignment).
Not having been there before, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the decor was nice and a big window let in lots of light.
I should really carry my DSLR around more.
Martin and I shared some dishes, which I don’t remember the names of, but were recommended to us by the staff. They were nothing extraordinary, but we didn’t get food poisoning!
The service was fast (though we were the only people in the restaurant), and the food was filling and cheap. You can read more in the latest issue of NUAsian.
Snapshot: Personal Pizzas at Evanston’s Lou Malnati’s.
I met up with my friends Alleliah and Charlie for a quick lunch at Lou Malnati’s. I lived across the street from this restaurant my entire freshman year of undergrad, but never knew much about it, except that they served something called a “chocolate chip pizza.” I always thought it would be a pizza with chocolate, but it turns out just to be big cookie with ice cream.
A salad with packaged breadsticks!
Supercute personal pizza!
I forgot what the exact deal was, but I remember it was very cheap for this lunch special of salad + pizza. I only hope that someday they make an actual chocolate chip pizza.
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