Tastebuds

Review by Joel Kirk

1400 East 30th Street
Cleveland, OH 44114-4050
(216) 344-1770

http://www.tastebudsrestaurant.com/

The place/atmosphere:

Hip and cool. Bright, Vibrant, Alive. That’s how Tastebuds hits you in the face as soon as you walk in the door. Brightly colored decor with local artists modern art on the walls, you know you’ve found a little bright spot on Cleveland’s East Side. As you can see from the picture above, you’ve got to LOOK for this place. it’s in a warehouse building and if you drive by too fast you may miss it. Take it from our experience though. If you’re into Healthy food for lunch and live in Cleveland, this is not a place you want to miss. This is a place only open for lunch from 11am-2pm so you need to make sure you take a trip out there one day.

As you walk into the place, you walk up to the counter “cafeteria-style” and order your food. Instead of greasy women in hair nets with the voice of Barry White like you may be used to from your elementary school days, you are greeted by warm, smiling servers who have a genuine warmth about themselves.

Their menu boasts 2 Daily Specials (different each day) and finely selected salads, sandwiches and wraps. All food is prepared from hand selected fruits and vegetables purchased directly from the North Eastern Ohio Food Terminal to ensure high quality pickens. Fresh, fun and vibrant…Tastebuds offers Clevelanders a unique spot to Lunch at.

One thing I LOVED LOVED LOVED about this place was the Hot Sauce bar they had. As you all know, I thrive on spicy foods. Can’t get enough of them. And all too often you go to a place where the food doesn’t have quite enough kick and you want to out some hot sauce on it. Don’t you hate it when you go someplace and they don’t have the type of hot sauce that you normally like to put on your food? Not to worry about that at Tastebuds. They have a Hot Sauce Bar with a vast array of Hot Sauces you can choose from (I used a couple, tee hee hee don’t tell). More places should do this for us condiment-minded folk.

What was ordered:

Joel:

For a Starter, we split a LARGE piece of Artichoke Pizza and a Fruit Salad (combined around $8). I was raised in California, so I like to at least THINK I know what good artichokes taste like. Well, these were good artichokes. Very fresh and what a fun way to eat them…on a pizza! The piece had Artichoke Hearts, Tomatoes, Red Onion, Mozzarella, Olive Oil, & Garlic and was really good. The Fruit Salad was a combo of Grapes, Pineapple (which was a-maz-ing), Watermelon and HoneyDew. All were very fresh with the Pineapple tasting like a local woman in a coconut bra had just split it open with a huge sword tableside. Too bad that didn’t happen…or I might find myself going to Tastebuds every day, I’m just saying.

For the main lunch, I ordered the BBQ Chicken Wrap and Aztec Black Bean Soup. I splashed my trio of hot sauces into the Aztec Black Bean Soup and think I now know what 2012 feels like on the Mayan Calender. HOT!!! CALIENTE! Oh well, I’ll be tasting that all day and parts of tomorrow. Very good soup, hot and filling. Perfect for a cold January day like today in Cleveland.

The BBQ wrap is BBQ Chicken with Sour Cream, Cheddar Cheese, & Shredded Lettuce. They use a slightly sweeter BBQ sauce and I have to say this pairing with the HOT Aztec Black Bean Soup that I made was aperfect pairing. the coolness of the Sour Cream helped my mouth recover a bit. I could easily see myself going back to get another one of these wraps. Very good. All told, for right around $10…that’s a very filling lunch.

You can actually see the steam coming off the Aztec Black Bean Soup. I like to think of that as the Hot Sauce Devil summoning the Underworld to attack my belly.

Chris:

Chris got the Pepper Jack Chicken Daily Special. This is a Breaded & Sauteed Chicken Breast, Melted Pepper Jack Cheese with Rice, Black Beans, Corn, Salsa, Sour Cream, & Scallions. The Daily Specials are served in a pretty big portion. At $9.50, you are sure to leave full and satisfied.

Chris said it was a very good blend of flavors and was not able to finish his lunch. He was just too darn full.

Innocent bystander:

Our innocent bystander was nose deep in a book by Nora Roberts when we walked up to him. At first, he was taken aback by my abruptness but soon warmed up to speaking to me about the food. I think he thought we were in a library or something for a moment.

Anyways, he had the other Daily Special (which is why I wanted to talk to him). He had the Greek Salad. This salad is Penne Tossed with Roma Tomatoes, Spinach, Artichoke Hearts, Black Olives, Red Onion, Olive Oil & Garlic topped with Grilled Chicken, Feta, & Pine Nuts. Not only is is topped with Feta….it was covered in Feta. Feta is betta is you ask these guys.

Our innocent bystander really liked his salad and even offered me a bite to taste it. Saying he wasn’t much of a food reviewer (but could suggest a few books), he thought I should try a bite. So I did.

After waking up from dropping unconscious, I realized the innocent bystander hadn’t slipped me something (which wouldn’t have been surprising) and it really was just that this salad was KNOCK YOU OUT GOOD! By far, the best thing I had tasted while there. Very fresh, awesome combination of spices and flavors. Light, healthy and perfect. This is something worth going down there for. If you like a good Greek Salad and live in Cleveland, DO NOT MISS THIS ONE AT TASTEBUDS.

Hour Later Review:

Aztec Strikes Back. Enough of that.

Would we go back:

A resounding YES. It’s nice to find a Healthier place like Tastebuds in Cleveland. Remember, they are only open from 11a-2p Monday through Friday so if you want to try this place out, carve out time to do so. It’s coming highly recommended from the guys here at EAT. So, go ahead, let your Tastebuds salivate a little, you’ll be happy you did!

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