Seviche endows excitement

Creativity, quality and culinary excitement consistently win Seviche a place among my top five Louisville dining rooms.

One fan called Five Guys’ burg…

One fan called Five Guys’ burger “juicy, greasy and delicious.” Fair call on all three counts. Good dogs and fries, too.

Ole Hickory Pit, old Western Kentucky tradition

LouisvilleHotBytes in The Voice-Tribune

Anybody want a little mutton? I can hear you going “Eeuuww!” all the way from here.

Once beloved by our English and Australian cousins, who had a lot of sheep around, mutton has all but died out in modern times. You’ll rarely if ever see it in the grocery store or on a restaurant menu. In an age of mild beef, chicken and pork, “the other white meat,” mutton has a bad reputation as strong, greasy and gamey meat.

But you’ll find an enduring exception in Western Kentucky, around Owensboro and Paducah, where sheep are farmed and mutton lives on as a popular meat choice for barbecue.
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Rivue brunch goes round and round

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes

If you haven’t been up to the revolving top of the Galt House for a while, you may be surprised to see how much things have changed. Gone is the faux sailing ship look, with its blocks and tackles and green, purple and gold running lights.

Exit the elevators on the hotel’s 23rd floor now, and you step into a series of sleek rooms decorated in stark black and white. Light fixtures made from stacks of clear globes look like bubbles rising in champagne. But the real eye-catcher, as it has always been, is the lofty view of the Ohio River and the city all around.

When Rivue replaced The Flagship Room two years ago, the top-floor dining room highlighted a $60 million renovation of the entire hotel. (more…)

Another reason to love El Tarasco

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes
(By Kevin Gibson)

I love El Tarasco’s St. Matthew’s property. I go there for lunch several times a month with my friend and business associate Jerry, and we’re never let down — when it comes to quality Mexican at a great price, it’s hard to beat. The chicken tacos are ridiculously good.

Recently I was there with my buddy Fred, and he pounced upon a new menu item called tacos al pastor ($9.99). I tried a bite or two of his order and was immediately hooked. Not that my chicken soft tacos weren’t delicious, all stuffed with fresh, tender pulled breast chicken, lettuce and enough Chihuahua cheese to choke … well, a really big Chihuahua. But this al pastor stuff was that good.
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Great hot dogs, good gyros and…

Great hot dogs, good gyros and more, all under one roof in a Chicago-style eatery: Lonnie’s.

Bistro Le Relais: Still classy, a little less pricey

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

The economy is still pretty much in the tank, local unemployment is soaring, and gasoline prices are crawling upward again. Who can afford fine dining?

Faced with this fiscal reality, a number of Louisville’s more upscale establishments have undertaken menu resets, seeking to meet a shaky market with quality cuisine that doesn’t take quite such a bite out of consumers’ flattened wallets.

Over at classy Equus, for instance, the fine-dining restaurant and its adjacent partner, Jack’s Lounge, now share a single menu, including a good choice of small bites under $10 and a main-course list that ranges from the teens into the high $20s. It’s hardly diner-style pricing, but it moves Equus from the special-occasion category into a fair choice for the impulsive diner.

We’ve seen a similar trajectory at Le Relais, which I’ve always rated among the city’s five top restaurants, and, on any given day, its best. Over the past year, without sacrificing a bit of its first-class service or art-deco look, it has subtly shifted from high-end modern French grand dining to something more in the bistro style.
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Rivue brunch

The lavish dessert spread may be the best part of the $18.95 Sunday brunch at Rivue.

Dragon King’s Daughter gives sushi a new twist

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

“I just can’t do sushi,” my Facebook friend Suzie in Arkansas posted. “It’s the redneck in me.”

Maybe. But even the most ardent sushi-hater could be rehabilitated at Dragon King’s Daughter, where Toki Masabuchi puts an international twist on the creative sushi delights that have built her a loyal following at Maido Essential Japanese in Clifton.

Take the “Italian Picnic” ($10, pictured). There’s no fish in this delight, which features pencil-thin asparagus, tempura-battered and fried, tucked into a sushi roll topped not with seafood but Italian prosciutto, fresh basil leaves and a dab of Japanese mayo topped with a few toasted pine nuts. Is it Japanese? Is it Italian? It’s both - and it is delicious.

Masabuchi, who continues to work her culinary magic at Maido, too, recently took over the Bardstown Road quarters left vacant by the abrupt departure of Karma Café.

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Industry Standard: When restaurants attack

Insider Info For Those Who Dine Out
With Columnist Marsha Lynch

It happens to every restaurant patron at some point: disappointment over poor service, a substandard dish or an unpleasant atmosphere. The trick to getting a satisfactory resolution in such situations is twofold. First, attempt to pinpoint the source of the trouble. Second, make your dismay known to the proper parties - that means management.
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