Where to Find Great Steak Without the Spend
Plus, a Yemeni-style dining experience tucked inside an Indian sweets shop
In this post:
Where to find some of the best steak deals in the city
A visit to Dadu’s expanded space, including its Yemeni-style eatery Mandi
A helpful roundup of Thanksgiving recommendations
Dining on a Budget
Steak Without the Spend: Picanha and More
By Andy Dehus
Recently, a lot of shiny new high-end steak houses have been opening up in a city with no shortage of preexisting choices, offering an ever-expanding range of narrowly differentiated ways to pleasurably max out an expense account.
Don’t happen to be on that gravy train? You’re in for sticker shock. When spending your own money on a nicely prepared piece of red meat, the rare pre-covid $50/person night out has become $100, and $200 is the new $100. And that’s not the ceiling.
Extravagant ambience and over-the-top service account for a substantial portion of what you’re paying for when you go the traditional route. But what if you don’t need servers in suits and an extensive wine list? What might the path less-traveled yield?
For one, this:
And as much of it as you’d like for $26. That’s picanha on the right, Brazil’s celebrated rotisserie-grilled sirloin cap. It’s delicious, and it’s all-you-can-eat at Brazilian Grill & Bakery in Columbus Square Shopping Center.
Even better, the deal doesn’t stop at steak. It includes a Brazilian cafeteria-style bar with dozens of sides, and a range of other meats that can vary from day to day. These protein possibilities include lamb picanha (a must whenever it’s available), linguica (pork sausage), crispy pork belly, ribs, chicken hearts and more.
The sides are, well, perfectly fine, but the grilled offerings can be very very good.
Brazilian Grill isn’t always the easiest place to navigate for a newcomer, but I wouldn’t let that dissuade you. Any employee will connect you with an English-speaker on staff, and once you tell them what you’re there for, they’ll guide you through the process. The restaurant’s $26 all-you-can-eat offer is good Monday through Friday until 8 p.m.
If there’s a better deal in dining out, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.
Other economical ways to satisfy a red-meat craving include:
Calero’s Bar & Grill (1644 E. Dublin-Granville Road)
We’ve written about this Northland restaurant before and still continue to be shocked by how the best carne asada preparation in the city comes from a Salvadoran restaurant, and undercuts the rest on price at $18.99.
Taqueria Guadalajara (2448 Home Acre Drive)
If you’re a devotee of the traditional Mexican style of carne asada, these guys can’t be beat. Pricing info is slim online, but my last visit was around $26.
Korean BBQ (multiple locations)
There’s a slew of recently opened AYCE Korean BBQ/hot pot restaurants (which we previously wrote about here), and there are a few nicer options such as Don Pocha and Gogi, with higher-quality meats that still satisfy at a fraction of the cost of a traditional steakhouse. Pricing varies, but expect roughly $25 on the low end and $60 on the high end.
The Scioto Ribber (1026 Gallia St., Portsmouth)
How about a road trip? Imagine a dozen massive charcoal grills under a covered porch, grates covered from edge-to-edge with USDA prime. That’s the scene at The Scioto Ribber, in Portsmouth, Ohio. Rib-eyes and strips are all they do, and 16-ounce cuts of either can be had for $36. Sides are–how do I put this politely--not very good, but sides are not what you drove all the way down there for anyway, are they?
Global Fare
A Yemeni-Style Dining Experience Tucked Inside Dadu's Bakery & Sweets
By Bethia Woolf
Located in the Polaris area, Dadu's Bakery & Sweets has long been a strip-mall nook for Indian cakes, pastries and classic sweet treats like gulab jamun, laddoos, jalebi and burfi. These days, Dadu’s looks much different.
In addition to the original Dadu’s, which sells breakfast and savory items in addition to sweets, the expanded space now includes two additional, very different concepts. First, there’s the nationwide chain Kwality Ice Cream, offering a range of Indian ice creams such as chikoo (aka sapota), pan masala and sitafal (aka custard apple). Second, there is Mandi, an evening-only, Yemeni-style dining concept.
It can all be a little bewildering—it takes some time to absorb the full range of offerings and the multitude of different signs and menus—but I was particularly curious about Mandi, having spent a lot of time eating at Yemeni Restaurant on Cleveland Avenue. (It’s a stop on Columbus Food Adventures’ Alt Eats Tour and a personal favorite.)
Here are my first impressions of Mandi:
Originating from Yemen, mandi is a traditional dish in which meat and rice are cooked with spices, traditionally in an underground pit. It's a dish whose popularity has spread across the Arab peninsula and beyond. For the last few years, it has been extremely popular in Hyderabad, India, where there is a significant Yemeni diaspora. According to Indian media outlets, mandi is even said to be displacing another traditional rice dish: biryani.
Finding out about the popularity of mandi-style cooking in Hyderabad helped us make the connection with Dadu’s, which shares ownership with neighboring Trinethra Indian Supermarket and the market’s restaurant, Hyderabad House.
The Mandi section of this business features a raised platform covered with rugs and cushions. You remove your shoes and sit/lounge around low tables. There are additional cushions which can be used as arm rests.
Mandi dishes are traditionally eaten with your hands, family-style from a large platter, but Dadu’s will provide dining plates and silverware. You can order platters designed for one, two or three people, but we found that a two-person platter with some added protein was more than enough for four people.
The table-filling platter consists of your choice of meat (we tried the juicy chicken and mutton) atop a large amount of spiced rice that was garnished with fried onions, almonds and raisins. There are some vegetarian options as well: falafel and paneer. Additional garnishes include sliced carrots, cucumbers and limes. We were also given three sauces that seemed superfluous.
While I enjoyed the novel experience, I will admit that it was a bit rice-heavy and one-note. I’d prefer a better protein-to-rice ratio and maybe some vegetables. For this style of cooking, I would gravitate to Yemeni Restaurant.
My recommendation at Dadu’s/Mandi/Kwality Ice Cream would be to go for the lunch special. It’s great value and includes a main curry—of which there is a vegetarian ($10) or non-vegetarian ($11) option—plus a mound of flavorful rice, a vegetable side dish, a pickle and fresh roti.
Then perhaps you can indulge in an ice cream or try some of Dadu’s desserts like the kaju watermelon. I’d recommend stopping into Trinethra market, too. It has a great selection of lentils, produce, spices and British chocolate digestive biscuits.
So far, I have had lunch, pizza and dinner at Dadu’s. Breakfast is next on the list.
Notes
Around the Columbus Food Scene
Columbus Food Adventures has an annual tradition: rounding up many (and we mean many) of the wonderful Thanksgiving offerings around the city. If you’re trying to figure out where to go for dinner, want to outsource dessert, or just aren’t up for cooking the whole feast from scratch, you can find a wide range of Thanksgiving options right here.
Fiery Sky Asian Kitchen, a regional Chinese restaurant from the founder of Xi Xia Western Chinese Cuisine, is set to open this Saturday, Nov. 15. The new restaurant will fill the former Kebab Hummus Grill space at 1450 Bethel Road in Bethel Center. Guests can expect a focus on Hunan and Sichuan cuisines, including several dry pot dishes and Sichuan soups.