The Golden Dragon Chinese Restaurant is located right across the street from the China Buffet. It's a little more of a high-end restaurant, with menus that come in the neat little menu folders.
They have a full bar and a menu full of alcoholic and nonalcoholic treat beverages; Pina Coladas and Daiquiris. I got the China Sea ($3.95) and it was so very good! It took me the length of the entire meal to finish it and it was delicious and fruity.
On a recommendation I ordered the General Tao's Chicken; I've heard people say it's the best entree they have. You get a LOT of food for the price. The veggie subgum is also crunchy and delicious.
With such low prices and excellent quality, I don't know how this business makes enough profit to stick around. Whatever they're doing, it's working: Aladdin's has been a Cleveland landmark since the 1970s. Mostly a wholesale operation, they make Middle Eastern specialties to sell to many local grocery stores and restaurants. The company is open to the public for a quick, cheap bite to eat.
Not to be confused with Aladdin's restaurants (a local chain of restaurants selling Lebanese food), the baking company is located on Carnegie Avenue just before downtown.
It's a great place to stop in for a sandwich. I had the hummus, tabbouleh, a pack of pita bread and a couple grape leaves. It was enough to feed myself and a friend, including two tall cans of iced tea, for under ten dollars.
If you're in the Coventry area of Cleveland Heights early in the morning, the place to get breakfast is at the Inn on Coventry. Find it at 2785 Euclid Heights Blvd # 2, Cleveland, OH 44106. Their hours are 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday ; 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Friday; 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
As for parking (and parking for Coventry in general), you can pay out the nose for parking in the garage or on the meters, but your best bet is to park on Edgehill road, a five minute walk away. If you choose the meters, NEVER let them run out of money. Cleveland Heights police run a tight ship. They will grab you within two minutes of your meter running out. Seriously. (p.s: never ever speed in Cleveland Heights. This includes going 27 in a 25.)
This morning we walked over from Madeline's house to grab some brunch at the Inn on Coventry. Their walls were plastered with awards they've won from local newspapers. The food was good and fairly affordable; but the portion sizes were small. After my plate of french toast I was still a bit hungry.
It was delicious anyways. Madeline got toast with two eggs; the 'two eggs' looked more like one and a half.
The decor is quite cozy. The last time I was here was New Year's Day 2008; it was the perfect atmosphere for... well... let's call it recovery.
The West Side Market is the premier tourist attraction for those who are delighted by produce, amused by fresh meat, curious about imported jellies and jams, and attracted to fresh breads.
Their hours are Monday and Wednesday 7am-4pm; Fri-Sat 7am-6pm. Find it at the corner of Lorain and West 25th St. There IS parking for the West Side Market: find the designated lot on Lorain between the Market itself and the bridge. If you end up crossing the bridge into downtown, you've gone too far.
Once in the market, find everything from crepes to fresh meat to spices and herbs. The fruits and vegetables are located in an arcade around the outside of the market.
This is just an introductory post; I took lots more pictures. Just like you can't get through the West Side Market in a day, you can't fully blog the West Side Market in a day.
This is the dive bar of coffee shops. And I am blogging from there right now! I'm the one with lots of eyeliner.
Oh wait, that describes pretty much every girl here.
A 24 hour joint with free wifi (that gets pretty slow when the juggalos start downloading terabytes of pr0wn). The coffee isn't the cheapest, but the specialty drinks are good. With names like "Dirty Girl Scout" and "The Warchief", they're good, if you can afford them. However, a two buck cup of tea and a pack of playing cards does make for a cheap night out.
Most of the clientele here doesn't really have money, though. There are games of spades and poker that go through the night. Things start to slow down around 4 or 5 am.
When I was in college I used to come here to write papers and pull all-nighters. Later on I came here when I was lonely at night and had nowhere else to go. It's really the only place in Cleveland where you can do that and end up playing spades till 5 AM with a bunch of strippers, juggalos, hustlers, and hipsters.
There's a 24 hour drug store across the street, too, conveniently. They seem to market accordingly to the crowd that hangs around this place: selling plenty of junk food, poker sets, playing cards...
Down the street, at W. 150th St. there's a 24 hour Taco Bell and McDonalds.
Please note: on Google Businesses this place was once known as "Common Grounds Coffee Bar and Homeless Shelter". It is not really a homeless shelter, although you will find plenty of kids here who simply have no place to go.
If you're looking for a quiet, high-class, Starbucks-esque coffee experience.... go somewhere else. You can find them at 17104 Lorain Ave, Cleveland, OH44111 in the Kamms Corners neighborhood. That's the far west side, maybe 20 minutes out of downtown on the Freeway.
Perhaps one of the cheapest restaurants in Cleveland, The Big Egg has a reputation as a seedy late night spot. The lovely interior does not live up to this reputation: it's actually quite nice. It's located near 52nd street and Detroit on Cleveland's West Side.
They're open 24 hours but only on Fridays and Saturdays. Sundays they close at 8; every other day of the week they close at 9.
I got the Chicken Parm dinner and it came with soup and ice cream for dessert. It was delicious, unassuming, and totally un-gourmet. My friend got the salmon burger and cleaned her plate. The diet coke flowed. Refills came and came. Aretha Franklin played in the background.
There were a couple of lovely families dining there on the Sunday night we went... none of the rumors of 600 lb waitresses or rowdy drunks proved to be true. The food, however, was glorious cheap diner food.
