I must make a brief note on my selection of the best restaurants, because I feel the fine dining connoisseurs among us may find much to quibble about with my list. There are no true steakhouses or fine dining establishments among my list, largely because I don’t often have the opportunity to eat there. My list contains my subjective observations on the best restaurants to go to in the vast majority of social situations, and are equally acceptable for relaxing with family or holding a celebration or meeting.
5) Luigi’s has been voted numerous times Akron’s best pizza, and it is no wonder. This restaurant is the very epitome of the small-town restaurant model, with beautiful and original hand painted designs on the walls, and continually friendly service. Their salads are fascinating in their simplicity–I still have no idea how they made a salad taste so good with nothing but iceberg lettuce, Italian dressing, and piles of cheese. In addition to their area-famous pizza, they serve other traditional Italian dishes, from lasagna to baked ziti, but the real heart of the restaurant is the pizza.
Chicago-style deep dish of the thickest variety, Luigi’s pizza is so filling that it is hard to eat more than one or two pieces–an excellent dilemma if you plan on saving some for the next day. A particularly unusual pizza is their alfredo pizza, which has a white alfredo sauce instead of the typical tomato, and is served with slices of chicken on top. It is creative dishes like these that make Luigi’s the place to come back to again and again. My recommendation: large house salad and a meat lover’s pizza (make sure to plan on leftovers!).
4) Mozart’s is a unique little Bavarian eatery in North Canton, and offers a fine selection of mouth-watering German and Austrian delicacies. From their impressively tasty spätzle to the Wiener or pork schnitzel, this small, family-owned restaurant has the most loved traditional dishes, exactly as your German großmutter used to make them. Particularly appetizing are the desserts, with names that sound like something out of The Sound of Music.
The location’s atmosphere is particularly appealing, with hand-painted walls and ceilings depicting gardens and Austrian towns, with the nostalgic sounds of German folk tunes providing the perfect ambiance for sampling the fine cuisine. One warning: your eyes will be bigger than your stomach at this restaurant, as the portions are heaping and the food is delightfully rich–as it ought to be in a German restaurant. Be prepared to take a lot home with you. My recommendation: Wiener schnitzel with spätzle, and then the apple strudel to top things off.
3) Mariachi Grill on the surface appears to be little more than a typical Mexican restaurant, yet what sets it apart are the service and the food itself. All the waiters and waitresses are unusually enthusiastic, and many of the gentlemen continually refer to you as “my friend.” While this may be a minor aspect of dining to most, it greatly improves the neighborhood atmosphere. The main reason Mariachi Grill made this list is the spectacular food, actually more ethnic in style than the tex-mex conglomeration most have come to think of as standard Mexican fare. Their homemade salsa has a unique, sweet/spicy bite, and coupling this with the queso blanco dip provides an entirely irresistible pre-dinner snack. Thankfully, the meal arrives astonishingly quickly, ensuring that the salsa and dip don’t become too tempting.
The usual fare of burritos, enchiladas and quesadillas is supplemented by such unique touches as roasted peppers and pork, which appears alongside of some of the enchilada dishes. Perhaps the most unique and truly excellent part of the experience is their zealous use of a particular type of white cheese, which I have looked to find ever since my first trip to Mariachi Grill and have as yet remained unsuccessful. It provides such a different flavor to even the most standard burrito that it is entirely distinguished from Mexican chain franchises, and promises to remain as such for a long time to come. My recommendation: the enchiladas rancheras dinner.
2) The Wasabi Grill is a fairly recent (five years or so) addition to the Montrose-area dining, located about fifteen minutes from the downtown itself. This steakhouse actually has two portions, the fine dining area, which includes an exquisite collection of sushi and sashimi, and the hibachi area, where highly trained chefs perform fantastic tricks and humorous routines while cooking your food in front of you. Unless you are leaning towards trying the sushi, I would highly recommend eating at the hibachi grills, as the chefs truly are a sight to see. From spinning and throwing their knives, to creating a flaming volcano out of an onion with burning alcohol in the middle, the chefs amuse and entertain to such an extent that you almost wish the food would take longer to cook.
While the meal choice at the hibachis is limited due to the constraints of the grill, there are still a number of excellent choices, from the filet mignon and sirloin to chicken or shrimp. Each meal also comes with a large portion of steamed or fried rice, a bowl of soup, a salad with a wonderfully tangy ginger dressing, a small portion of lo mein, and grilled vegetables, ensuring that most individuals will have enough to make a meal out of leftovers the next day (a tradition my family holds particularly dear).
Each time I’ve been to the restaurant, the steak has been perfectly grilled to my expectations–and my tastes on various days have run from well done to medium rare. The meat and shrimp sauces provided also give new and unique flavors to the food, and as an added treat, you can order classic Japanese teas or even imported Japanese soda. My recommendation: sirloin steak, medium, with fried rice and a Japanese soda.
1) The Spaghetti Warehouse is a particularly unique staple of the Akron culinary landscape. When the factory district began to shrink drastically in the 1950s, an enterprising restaurateur realized that the closures left a number of perfectly sturdy warehouses vacant. He purchased a number of adjoining warehouses, knocked out the walls between them, and began to collect nostalgic memorabilia from the early parts of the 20th century–movie posters, lanterns, and hundreds of other pieces of history–to decorate the walls. The Spaghetti Warehouse was born, and today it remains one of the more popular local destinations.
Particularly enjoyable for younger children is the real trolley car in the middle of the dining area, filled with tables and covered with advertisements from the 1920s and 30s. Elsewhere, tables are located under old hotel awnings, or, in one instance, the elegant gilded carriage of a now demolished art deco skyscraper. The Italian food is stellar, particularly their bread, which is baked on site. My recommendation: Shrimp Alfredo with the house salad or Italian wedding soup.
