I am one cheap S.O.B., this fact is not secret. But what I really like is getting an awesome deal. I will shop around for weeks or even months to find the best deal on whatever I’m buying. And then, because I am an arrogant ass, I will tell EVERYONE I know how smart I am because I saved $4 on a cheese grater. “Oh you, paid full price for your cheese grater? SUCKER!” God, that feels so awesome.

There is also something to be said for getting a good deal that’s no work whatsoever, and that’s why I like the Cleveland restaurant deals site idineDeals Cleveland. Every day they have a new restaurant deal for restaurants in Cleveland and the surrounding areas. For example, as I’m writing this they have a deal running for Chester’s Legacy Tavern (OMG ITS SO CLOSE TO MY HOUSE) where you can buy a $35 gift certificate for $15. I pretty much suck at math, but even I know that’s too awesome to pass up.

And that’s all this site is: great deals on Cleveland restaurants. No more hunting around for coupons or waiting for specials, this is a new deal every day. You’ll be leveraging group buying power to get these big discounts. But you have to act fast when you see a deal that catches your eye though – there is only a limited number of each available.

idineDeals is also great way to try new restaurants all over Cleveland and those certificates would make some mighty fine gifts (especially for your favorite fat blogger). If you want to keep an eye on idineDeals Cleveland for Cleveland restaurant discounts you can follow them on Twitter, become their fan on Facebook or do what I do and add them your your RSS reader.

idineDeals Cleveland

idineDeals Cleveland is sponsoring this post by providing compensation to the author.

New Cleveland Restaurant Deals Website

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Limited in the Cleveland area
Never seeing the site before I thought I’d check around to see where in Cleveland I could use the site to make reservations.  Not surprisingly, there are only 51 restaurants in the Cleveland area for which you can use opentable.com to make reservations. 

Thinking about that for a minute, I realized that it was surprising they had that many!  Can you think of 51 restaurants in the Cleveland area where reservations would be needed?  Me neither, but opentable.com does have all of the big restaurants on the Cleveland scene: Three Birds, Lola, Blue Canyon, Dante and San Souci.

How it works
Getting a reservation is pretty straightforward.  You choose a restaurant and the time you want to go.  Opentable.com will check their book to see if there are openings and report back.  You are either told you have the reservation or another time is suggested. 

If you confirm your time, your reservation is sent over to the restaurant.  It’s as easy as that.  I’ve used the service twice now and it has worked flawlessly both times.  When I arrived at the restaurants the hostesses had our reservations and we were seated.

Sounds great, but I already have a phone of which I am capable of dialing
You’re right, this is just one of those things that we already have a well established and efficient system for that somebody had to move online.  I think that it is nice to have the alternative to make a reservation online as I am not always able to get on the phone, plus it has a real advantage when the restaurant is closed. 

Opentable.com’s pitch is that you can earn points depending on the restaurants at which you book.  Earn enough points and you get a stuffed pink elephant or a sweet Def Leppard mirror.  Ok, maybe the rewards are a bit better than that.

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Strumming my tastebuds
Some time ago, being an influential member of the Cleveland food scene (I know, I’m hilarious), I was invited to the “Friends and Family” pre-opening party at Paladar.  Unfortunately, this was when I was slumming it on the overnight shift, so I couldn’t attend.

Somehow though, everyone I knew managed to have a fabulous Paladar story for me.  The margaritas, the guacamole, you name it and someone had a story about how great it was at Paladar.  I had to go.

Judging a book by its cover
I met my wife for dinner at Paladar on a rather steamy January day, a bit before the dinner crowd.  I was quite impressed by the open layout of Paladar with the seating situated around the impressive bar.  The loud colors and stunning design had more of the feel of a Latin dance club than a neuvo-latino restaurant.  Since I spend so much time in Latin dance halls I know this type of thing.

We were seated in the main seating area near a few other patrons, but there were a number of open tables since we beat the dinner rush.  Our waitress was quick to take our drink orders as we surveyed the landscape.  The bar area was jam packed with people reveling in Latin music and big margaritas.

Starting out small
As the wife is a bit less adventurous than I, we settled on the chorizo papusa ($7) for an appetizer.  Although there were at least five others I would have ordered had she not been with me, especially the guacamole.

The chorizo papusa reminded me a bit of a Mexican torta in its presentation.  It was a patty of smokehouse chorizo sausage on a Salvidorian masa cake with Chihuahua cheese in a rich, creamy sauce.

The papusa was pretty good, however I thought the chorizo could have used a bit more punch.  While the sauce was spicy, it wasn’t too spicy. And the masa cakes were crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.

The wife really enjoyed it.  Almost a bit too much though as there wasn’t much to go around.  The papusa was quite small, less than three inches in diameter.  I would have thought two would have been fair for the $7.

A comforting explosion in my mouth
For my entree I order the Brazilian lamb stew ($17).  I figured that if Chef Matt Mytro bills this place as Latin comfort food, this would be a great test of his vision.  The Brazilian lamb stew is lamb served with rice, queso fresco in a jalapeno/cilantro broth.

The first thing I noticed about the stew was the freshness of the ingredients and the intoxicating smell that wafted up from my bowl.  A light broth was filled with pieces of lamb, tomatoes and big puffed up pieces of corn that were used almost like a bean in the dish.  I thought it was a really neat idea to use the corn as a starch component. 

It was comfort food, not to mention delicious.  Although the lamb did not have any distinct flavor, the fresh flavor from all of the vegetables and the divine broth just put a smile on my face.  The thing I liked the most about the dish was its sneaky spiciness.  If you took just one bite you might say that it wasn’t very spicy, but as it builds on your tongue, bite after bite, it really does have some heat.  A good heat though.

The whole dish was just fantastic, really superb in its implementation.  I would certainly order it again.  The funny thing is that I was able to have it two days in a row because it filled me up so well I could only eat half.  I took the other half the next day for lunch, and maybe I was just hungrier, but it may have tasted better the second day.

Knowledgeable and professional staff
I do need to mention our waitress for the night, Maggie.  She was freaking perfect in every way.  We had a number of questions about the menu as some of it was unfamiliar to us and she answered them all without missing a beat.  Not only that, but I don’t think my glass ever got below the half-way point before it was refilled again.  She was fabulous and you could tell she was quite well trained, so kudos to her.

Once wasn’t enough
I can’t wait to go back to Paladar.  The odd thing is that I think I will be just as excited to go back as I was the first time.  The food was fantastic with its fresh ingredients and unique dishes, certainly unique to the Cleveland area.  The service was phenomenal and we got to have dinner in a very cool atmosphere.  What more could you ask for?

Paladar
28601 Chagrin Blvd, Suite 900
Woodmere, Ohio 44122
216-896-9020

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If you like that video, you can find a bunch more here on YouTube.  Or, if you’d rather watch the show on television, you can check the show out during the following times on channel 15/23:

• Monday – 8:00 pm
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Be sure to check the out and visit some of the restaurants they are highlighting.

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Now, I know that Cheddars is in near Lakewood, but something strikes me as odd about this Plain Dealer story on the restaurant:

Cheddars Restaurant Serving Up Loads of Man n’ Cheese

• Cheddars – Cleveland, Ohio
• Cheddars – Cleveland, Ohio
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• You’ll be hard pressed to find a more beautiful restaurant
• Bring a tape recorder for the specials
• The lobster nachos are for more than two people
• Upscale dining comes with upscale pricing
• Watch for tears in your Tiramisu

The Blue Canyon in Twinsburg is housed in an gorgeous building that has been painstakingly designed to resemble a true Western lodge with exposed beams and a thirty foot high stone fireplace.  It harkens back to a simpler, more romantic time in this country, where taking out a couple of buffalo and a few dozen Indians was all in a days work.  I certainly could have used a comfy buffalo hide when we visited, as a bitter cold front was blowing through Cleveland, leaving a good bit of snow in its wake.

Even though we arrived close to 6 o’clock, the weather had kept most everyone away so we got the best seat in the house, right in front of the mammoth fireplace.  The entire atmosphere of the lodge relaxes you with its wooden fixtures, open grill area and paintings depicting Western scenes, making it a very comfortable and beautiful place to enjoy a meal.

Our server also did a great job of making us feel comfortable by promptly greeting us and taking our drink orders.  I felt a bit sorry for her though as she rattled off what had to be at least 10 different specials.  I would have had to have been on Ritalin to be able to listen to the whole thing.  Hey, celebrated chef Brandt Evans, three specials is probably plenty.

My Dad was taking us out to dinner that evening as a Christmas gift, so when the waitress mentioned the lobster nachos ($19.99) appetizer I knew what we were going to be getting for an appetizer.  My father has a bit of a problem with nacho dishes.  A restaurant could offer tortilla chips topped with used blackboard chalk, sand and turpentine and my Dad would turn to me with, “So, you wanna get the nachos?”  The lobster nachos at the Blue Canyon did sound delicious though, having flour tortilla chips topped with pieces of lobster, fresh goat cheese, scallions and a lobster sauce.
 
In fact, the lobster nachos were delicious, at first.  The creamy lobster sauce coated the homemade tortilla chips with just enough goat cheese to cut the richness.  However, the plate of nachos was huge! It easily could have fed 6 or 8 people, but my Dad and I were the only ones eating them at our table.  So…yeah…that’s a lot of nachos to eat, especially when you have dinner coming.  We did our best, but we couldn’t even reach the halfway point.  It reminds me of one of my favorite Mitch Hedberg jokes, “As a comedian, you have to start your act out strong, but you also have to save some of the good stuff for later… You can’t be like pancakes, all exciting at first, but by the end you’re f*ckin’ sick of ‘em.” R.I.P. Mitch.

The main course I ordered was exactly the kind of comfort food with which I am totally down, braised beef short ribs ($24).  The short ribs were served on a bed of caramelized parsnips along side a stack of garlic Parmesan pomme frites.  Pomme frites is french and it means really expensive french fries.  My fork met no resistance as it glided through the two long (?) short ribs and that velvety smoothness also greeted my mouth.  They were wonderfully rich in flavor, but not heavy.  The caramelized parsnips offered a simple sweetness, however the pomme frites fell flat, lacking any real flavor.  The dish was well executed, but it could be improved by losing the pomme frites and bulking up the rest of the portions.

After finishing dinner, the thought of going out into the first blizzard of the winter was much less appealing than stuffing ourselves with dessert.  I ordered myself a neat little dish called the Blue Canyon Smore ($7.50) that featured a graham cracker and peanut crust topped with homemade marshmallows and a chocolate gnache.  My beautiful bride, the picky eater she is, ordered a chocolate cake that is usually served with a cream liquor sauce.  Knowing that she probably wouldn’t like the sauce, she asked if she could order the dessert without it.  This, of all things, turned into a very weird and uncomfortable situation.  I’ll let her describe it to you:

We got done with dinner and I wanted some chocolate cake.  Just chocolate cake.  So, I asked the waitress, if I could just get the chocolate cake and skip all the junk they wanted to put on top of it.  Well, she goes up to the pastry chef, in clear view of our table, to ask her.  Apparently thinking she was invisible, this girl flips out.  Hands flailing in the air, pointing, sneering, just making a fuss.  It was like someone told her they didn’t like her poofy hat.  What a complete baby.

The waitress comes back over and says, “Our pastry chef recommends that you try the sauce as it is part of the dish”.  I could not believe it.  I asked the waitress if I could get it on the side at least.  She goes back over to the pastry chef.  Looking befuddled, she eventually relented, poured something into a small ramiken and slammed it onto the plate next to the chocolate cake. 

Our waitress, pretending that she wasn’t tending to a 7 year old pastry chef, brought our plates over and made sure the first thing I tried was the sauce.  I SAID I DIDN’T WANT THE SAUCE! LEAVE ME ALONE ALREADY!  But I tried it and guess what?  It tasted like crap.

My smore tasted fantastic and I woofed it down, but the pastry chef had already left a bad taste in my mouth.  The old lady had a point, if she wanted to eat chocolate cake without sauce, she should have swallowed her pride and served her some chocolate cake. 

Excluding the foot stomping we witnessed, our meal at the Blue Canyon was great.  Eating in such a beautiful environment would heighten any dining experience, but with the dishes that Blue Canyon puts out you could be served outside on a picnic table and still be satisfied.  Although often criticized for high prices, they do offer top of the line food and have plenty of awards to show for it.

Blue Canyon
8960 Wilcox Drive
Twinsburg, Ohio 44087
330-486-BLUE

Photo: sosico

Blue Canyon – Twinsburg, Ohio

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By far the most popular post we have ever had on Eatingcleveland.com was when we visited Cheddars restaurant, specializing in macaroni and cheese. You wouldn’t believe how many people come here looking for that post.

Our reader Ryan visited Cheddars in Cleveland last week and he had this to say:

I decided to go to Snickers this weekend and when I got there it had apparently combined with Cheddars. I’m new to the area and have been to Snickers twice, but never Cheddars, so I don’t know anything about what Cheddars was like before, but the experience this time wasn’t great (not awful, but not great).

It’s the same menu as snickers, but with all of the macaroni and cheese dishes from Cheddars. I was really excited as I love, love, love macaroni and cheese, but I noticed a pattern that most of them were served with onions in the sauce. I despise onions, so I decided on the only dish that didn’t note onions, a six-cheese macaroni and cheese (mm). I asked when I ordered if it also had onion and to my dismay I was told THEY ALL HAVE ONIONS, they onions are in the base sauce. Okay, most people will like that, but not everyone. Why wouldn’t they offer some dishes without the onions?

I decided to go with a sandwich instead. I ordered and asiago club thing without lettuce and tomato. The waiter, who did a fine job, asked if I wanted the fries, soup, or a third choice that I can’t remember. I chose the soup.

My friend ordered a salad and asked for a side of the macaroni and cheese. I was pretty disappointed about the macaroni and cheese and discussing it with my buddy when the waiter came back and said, “they kitchen doesn’t offer macaroni and cheese as a side dish.” I said, “it was offered as a choice for my sandwich?” The waiter said, “correct, but it’s not on the side dish menu.” I said, “oh, well then I’ll take the macaroni and cheese for my side dish and my friend here would like a cup of soup.” The waiter laughed and realized how silly it was. I’m glad he had a sense of humor.

For dessert we had the crème Brule and it was fantastic; by far dessert was the best part of the meal. Anyway, you should check it out and let people know about the awful practice of putting onions in ever macaroni and cheese dish.

It doesn’t sound like the kitchen at Cheddars is all with it. That being said, I am not surprised by the onions in the macaroni and cheese. It is part of the base sauce and when I went I couldn’t taste them at all. Hey, I married a onion Nazi and she ate the macaroni and cheese there without issue. I’d give it a second chance Ryan, or at least try some of your friends.

Find out all about Cleveland Restaurants and restaurants all around the country with online Yellow Pages. Wherever you are, with internet access you can find a great place to Dine anywhere from New York to Portland Restaurants and everywhere in between.

Whenever you get a chance to visit Cleveland, don’t forget to eat the delicious diets made with cheddars. There, you’ll find plenty of gi diet servings as well. It might hard to get your hands on the sacred heart diet because the population around is not health conscious to the extent that they could remain on a strict diet.

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