Panini Opa
4799 SAWMILL ROAD
614-336-8830, www.paniniopa.com Oct. 26 (out of five) some of the best values in town on wellexecuted Greek food
spanakopita, avgolemono soup, Greek salad, dip sampler, Italianstyle meatballs, gyro, spicy gyro, fish gyro, spicy-chicken panini, pastitsio, moussaka, lamb kebabs, almond cookies, limoncello cake
Little Eater isn’t so little anymore. A second branch of the local-sourcing vegetarian restaurant has opened, and it’s vastly bigger than the original Little Eater, which is a North Market food stall. In this case, bigger is better.
Serving in Clintonville since October, the new Little Eater offers a roomy, stylish and comfortable space with an invitingly crisp, mostly white interior offset by black accents. Potted plants, dangling half-globe lamps, sparking tiles and blond wooden tables add to the visual appeal.
The restaurant’s cuisine is also appealing: seasonal and creative, Californiainformed dishes are grounded in classical techniques. The heart of the menu is a rotating selection of vegetable salads served cafeteria-style in sizable scoops ($3.75 each) by a knowledgeable staff.
Keeping with Little Eater’s fashionable branding, the salads are described in trendy, all-noun “menu speak.” So expect to read about elaborately dressed vegetable fare such as “Potato & Leek: Caraway and mustard seeds. Dill & chive. Sherry vinaigrette” and “Cauliflower: Tomato couscous. Castelvetrano olive. Pine nut. Pecorino cheese.”
All of these salads are interesting and made with high-quality ingredients, and many are surprisingly hearty. The two just mentioned are highly recommended.
The only potential downside with the salads is that some occasionally exhibit symptoms of too-longin-the-bin syndrome. This happened to me with a flavorful but rather limp Greek-style Signature
Salad and a Mediterranean-leaning delicata-squash-andlentil salad that was a tad dry.
Little Eater’s servedhot, made-to-order and bakery items have been consistently strong. Soups are a solid bet, especially if the tangy, bright and spice-hinting black-bean chili ($6.25) is available.
The two crostini that compose an order of avocado toast ($7.50) taste as good as they look. Crackly crusted bread spread with fresh and creamy avocado is uplifted by textured salt, wide ribbons of carefully shaved limepickled carrot, cilantro and sharp, black-pepper feta cheese.
Another snack-sized home run is the Swiss chard crostata ($7.25). Evoking a “Cal-Ital” spin on spanakopita, it’s a savory round pastry with a golden-brown shell, a filling of minced greens and ricotta cheese and a fragrance of fennel seeds.
The bagel-influenced Everything Spice pretzel braid ($2.25) is one of the best fresh-baked pretzels in town. I could say something analogous about the buttery, craggy and terrific buttermilk-cheddar biscuit ($2).
Seeking a full meal? Pair a salad scoop with the indulgent and impressive mushroom quiche ($8.25 for the quiche), which teams a flaky, buttery crust with a custardy filling that integrates Gruyere cheese, shiitake mushrooms and shallots.
Another satisfying meal could feature the butternut-squash-andkale sandwich ($9.25). If this sounds like an odd sandwich — it does to me — it’s hardly stranger than the semiclassic kiddie combo it recalls: cream cheese and jelly.
That’s because, in addition to slabs of sweetly roasted squash and sherry vinaigrettedressed minced kale, the wonderful “sunflax multigrain bread” from Dan the Baker also contains soft and tangy Cloverton cheese plus a jam made with apples and caramelized onions.
Little Eater recently won a ballot approval to serve alcohol, so expect drinks to appear relatively soon. In the meanwhile, high-grade coffee made with locally roasted Mission Coffee beans will do just fine, thank you very much.
Especially when it’s enjoyed with standout sweets such as the Christmas-spiced, moist and hefty parsnip-ginger cupcake ($3.75, and don’t sweat the barely detectable parsnip); the Little Eater cookie ($2, think “kitchen sink chocolate chip”); and “The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie” ($1.75), a dense and chewy treat that rightfully isn’t afraid to sing its own praises.