Clover Eats!
Sharing restaurant experiences through photography!
CloverEats at Ann Arbor’s “Madras Masala”
The Experience: Fred and I were being adventurous and exploring Ann Arbor when we suddenly realized we were hungry. Yelp directed us to the nearby “Madras Masala,” an Indian restaurant with rave reviews. My favorite part of the restaurant were these arches in the middle, separating it into a front room and a back room.
The Food: My favorite dish is anything with paneer. Although paneer is supposed to be similar to tofu, I think it is way more delicious. Tofu is not so good, maybe because of the texture, maybe because my parents always encouraged me to eat it. The food was quite good! I (quite immaturely) picked out and ate all the paneer in my dish, and then left the sauce. Fred, however, made good progress on his curry. We had a good deal left over.
Mutter Paneer + Navaratan Khorma (Nine gems of India Curry).
Get it? Chilly?
The Bill: Everything was decently priced, and the service was good. I’ll definitely be returning to this during my stay in Ann Arbor!
I love Mango Lassi. Fred got chai.
CloverEats amazing pita wraps at Ann Arbor’s “Zamaan Cafe”
The Experience: This restaurant was recommended to us by the Microtel Inn employees, and it’s hidden in a strip mall near a FedEx and grocery store. I stopped by for breakfast before making the drive back to Chicago, and was joined by Fred, who had previously eaten here during Second Look.
It was empty at first, but filled up super fast.
The Food: My chicken shwarma pita wrap was the most amazing pita wrap I’ve ever had. With the first bite, flavors burst in my mouth: chicken, liberal garlic sauce, and fresh vegetables. It was so refreshing, light yet filling. I can definitely see why it has such high ratings on Yelp and such strong recommendations.
Soft and warm pita + GARLIC.
The Bill: Things were only $10 for my sandwich, salad, and coffee. It was a great deal for such amazing food!
Fresh, juicy salad!
Check it out if you’re ever staying in the Microtel recommended by UMich! YELP!
CloverEats! Pad See Ewe at Evanston’s adorable “Cozy Noodles”!
Cristina’s older sister Merina recommended Cozy Noodles, and we’ve been continually returning to it for over six years now! It’s an adorable restaurant, very eclectic and highly decorated.
The entrance to Cozy.
The Experience: One comes to Cozy for the experience. The restaurant is packed full of someone’s collection – he or she has accumulated everything from lunchboxes to license plates to toy robots over the years, and they are proudly displayed on the walls of the restaurant.
Some decorations.
There’s even a lifesize Elvis in the window, along with a Hello Kitty car and a water fountain. There are cute signs all around that say everything from, “Please (present your coupon at the beginning of the each meal, otherwise you could) save it!” to “Princess parking only, all others will be toad!” It’s really adorable.
An entire wall of license plates!
Robots and toys!
Lunch boxes!
The Food: Cozy has pretty good food; there’s nothing spectacular about it, but I’ve also never had a bad experience either. It can get pretty crowded on Friday nights, since it’s BYOB and Evanston is a college town. There’s a liquor store right across the street too, so it’s pretty much as convenient as you can get.
Moscato!
Pad See Ewe!
Although there isn’t any Mango Sticky Rice on the dessert menu, there’s some delicious mochi that comes nicely decorated.
Mochi!
The Bill: Cozy is a lot cheaper if you come for their lunch specials, which Evelyn, Cristina and I used to do all the time during our IMSA Mentorship lunch breaks. The dinner is a little bit pricier, coming to approximately $25 for two.
Overall: Cozy has yummy food and an adorable setup. Check it out if you’re ever far south! Official website; Yelp!
Snapshot: CloverSnacks at “Soupbox”!
Soupbox is an adorable little soup restaurant near Water Tower.
Hidden away above a pub, Soupbox offers amazingly delicious thick soups.
They even mix soups! For example, Broccoli White Cheddar + Lobster Bisque = DELICIOUSNESS!
Added hot sauce and garlic powder. They also have good bread, grilled cheese, and salad!
Snapshot: CloverSnacks on “More Cupcakes”!
Olivia, Rohan and I were downtown Chicago for a restaurant opening, when we decided to hit up MORE CUPCAKES! I believe Kathy Huang was the first person I got More with, and have been way hooked since then!
More is super delicious and has a wide variety of exotic flavors. Their cupcakes are always super moist and super flavorful!
We went on a Friday, and so it was Happy Hour! Free cocktail-flavored cupcakes! The store is tiny but superchic.
This cupcake has edible gold on it?!
It was delicious. I got Red Velvet, White Russian, Chocolate Toffee, and the daring Bleu Cheese savory cupcake!
The cupcakes are a bit (or lot) on the pricey side, but they are so creamy and delicious!
After eating, I still wanted more!
CloverSnacks! on creamy cupcakes at Evanston’s “Tiny Dog”!
There is something so delicious and hip about fancy cupcakes. Ever since visiting More Cupcakes in Chicago, I’ve become hooked on Red Velvet. (Thanks to Kevin Li for tagging me on More’s Facebook page, thus earning me and Martin two free cupcakes!) There’s also a Flirty Cupcakes van that drives around Evanston, which brings delight everywhere it goes. It’s the new Ice Cream Truck; and instead of chirpy music, they use Twitter posts to announce their presence!
CUPCAKE!
The Experience: Tiny Dog is relatively new, and still rather unknown, I think. It’s brightly decorated, with periwinkle blues and a whimsical green. Very cute.
Martin buying cupcakes for me.
The Food: Cupcakes are always good! I like Tiny Dog’s smaller, moister cupcakes much better than Fraiche’s monster cupcakes. We got Red Velvet, Salty Caramel, and Strawberries and Cream. There was even a Dillo Cupcake in honor of Dillo Day! They weren’t particularly amazing, but weren’t terrible either.
The Bill: Our bill came to $10 for three cupcakes, which is a little expensive, but still cheaper than Chicago bakeries like More or Sprinkles.
Overall: Tiny Dog is a cute little cupcake shop, and while is a little far to walk for a sudden craving, remains much appreciated by college students! Official website; Yelp!
CloverEats! Gooey Buns and more at Evanston’s “Le Peep”!
Memorial Day morning was the day after Spring Formal, and I woke up starving! My first thought was of Dixie Kitchen’s brunch menu, but unfortunately, they were closed for the holiday. Their next door neighbor, Le Peep, was open though, so we hopped right in.
Quilts and plants.
Bright window seat.
The Experience: Le Peep has a homey feel, with simple furnishings that include an occasional chick statuette. Their menu definitely has some personality – dishes are named “Wanderer,” “Nomad,” etc. We came pretty near closing time (2PM), and so things felt a little rushed, but we still enjoyed a full meal.
Orange juice!!!
Butter Pecan coffee!
The Food: I compare every breakfast and brunch place to my gold standard, Walker Brothers. Le Peep was not bad at all, especially the delicious Gooey Buns™, which is an English Muffin with brown sugar, almonds, cinnamon and cream cheese! Ingenious! The omelette itself felt lacking, especially considering the Dixie Kitchen Jumbalaya Omelette I was craving. The coffee was Butter Pecan flavored, which was delicious; the coffee didn’t seem very strong though; I’m pretty sure I had several cups before feeling awake.
Blueberry pancakes!
Plus syrup!
The Bill: There’s a nice student discount here, and the meals are decently priced. I believe our final bill came to $25, which is not too bad.
Gooey Buns!
Colorado omelette.
Overall: Le Peep is a nice Evanston breakfast joint, although it is quite far down south. I prefer Dixie Kitchen to it, and so almost never go, but it’s not bad at all. Official website; Yelp.
Snapshot: CloverDrinks! at Chicago’s “Roscoe’s”!
We went to Boystown’s Roscoe’s after Dillo Day yesterday, and got a $15 pitcher of Absolut Pink Lemonade. I forgot to take a picture of the lemonade, but here are some snapshots:
A line down the block outside Roscoe's!
An awesome dance atmosphere!
There was also a $5 cover, which I guess is a Saturday thing? Official website; Yelp!
CloverDrinks! and dances at Chicago’s Salsa Club “Rumba”!
Rumba was described to me as a dining room/dance hall/club, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I went with Kevin, Marcy, and Julie; once we got off the El at the Merchandise Mart stop, I started feeling a little bit underdressed…
The Experience: We arrived just in time for the Friday night Salsa lesson, and started dancing right away! The lessons gave us a nice introduction and also made it less scary to go out on a dance floor with what seemed like so many expert dancers! (Sorry for the grainy pictures; my camera doesn’t handle dim lighting very well!)
The Drinks: Kevin, Marcy, and I all got cocktails. Since we actually arrived pretty late, we didn’t actually order any food. Marcy’s “Chica Fresca” was sweet and refreshing, whereas Kevin’s “Antigua” was quite bitter.
Marcy took this!
The Bill: There was a $10 cover charge to get in, and drinks were also quite expensive, approximately $10 each. But the live band was great, and the dancing was invigorating!
Overall: Rumba was so much fun, although it’s probably too expensive for a starving college student. Check it out for great dancing! Official website; Yelp!
CloverEats! delicious stir fry and roti at Evanston’s “Flat Top”!
Back in the day of IMSA Mentorship, we used to come here all the time. Flat Top is styled as an Mongolian Grill, with a giant heated plate on which your food is cooked. There’s a nice variety of sauces you can add, as well as contents of the actual food itself.
The grill!
The Experience: Basically, you write your name on a stick, and mix what you want to go into your stir fry. Then, you add any of six different colored, indicatory sticks that can do everything from change your stir fry into soup to add a piece of delicious roti bread. The food (and name-stick) will be brought back to you, and you can go up as many times as you want! During Mentorship lunches, we used to make another bowl as soon as our first bowl came back; this way, it would cook while we ate bowl #1, and when we finished, bowl #2 would arrive hot and steaming right away. Yeah, we might have been fatties back in high school, but we sure were efficient fatties.
Our bowls.
The Food: The stir fry is not bad at all, especially the meat. It beats the stir fry at Plex Dining Hall, that’s for sure. My favorite part is definitely the roti bread (it’s absolutely amazing), and I also really like the wide array of sauces. You can either hit or miss with your food; sometimes things mix really well, and sometimes they don’t. Flat Top used to have little recipes written on cards that you could make, but I always find myself putting the same things into my bowl – a little bit of noodles, peppers, onions, garlic, and pineapple. Yum!
Chalkboard info.
Noodles; food.
The Bill: Flat Top is a lot cheaper if you come for lunch, and also has Wildcard Advantage (show your school ID, get a discount). Drinks are also quite expensive; our final bill came to around $27, but that’s including a $7 mojito.
ROTI!
Overall: Flat Top is a nice restaurant to go to, especially if you’re hungry and can take full advantage of the all-you-can-eat option. Official website; Yelp!
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