What To Have

So i got a call early one sunday afternoon about a place called Gaks. Gaks is a Coffee House & Tea Room located at 3048 Medlin Drive. It’s a little outside of downtown, but wow what great food.

I went there one a Thursday for breakfast and i was extremely impressed. To start, the coffee is roasted locally at a place called 8th Sin Coffee Company, it was some of the best i’ve had. My friend, Dylan, called me about the great food and the inviting atmosphere. It’s not what i expected for the middle of a little shopping center. You walk in and there are a some small tables (4 tops) and some couches. It’s what i would think of for a coffee shop, not the great breakfast place he described.

The way Dylan desribed the pancakes, my grandmother could have been in the kitchen cooking. I’ll have to say i was impressed and pleased. The owner, Sally Finch, cooks them almost like grandma used to make. The only difference is they are the biggest pancakes i’ve ever seen. I like crunch outside edges and fluffy inside in my pancakes. These had both, except the inside fluffy was about an inch thick. No joke. It was like sweet fried pancake biscuits that were 5-6 inches around, and these were in the small order. I cant imagine the large pancake, but i’m tempted to try it (like the ole 96′er).

Top the coffee and pancakes with made to order breakfast, eggs, bacon or sausage, homemade grits, toast etc.. and it’s a filling home cooked meal.

If you like a good hearty breakfast you’ve got to try this.
They’re open:tues-fri from 7.30-3, Sat 9-3 and Sun 10-3.

–Matt

Tsuni’s is a small sushi place down Hillsborough street, right past NC State campus. It has long been a favorite place for me to get some of the best sushi around. Lunch on wed was not exception. I think they have some of the best sushi in terms of freshness and portion. I love the fact that when you get something like salmon or tuna you can’t see the rice that’s under the fish. Remember that when ordering, these make for a mouthful. My favorite roll by far is the Firecracker. Normally ordered it’s a spicy tuna roll topped with sarachi and what i like to call wasabi gravy. The gravy is essentially wasabi and soy mixed to a gravy like consistency. If you feel like to tempting fate, put a heat percentage above 100% beside the name when you order, but trust me, you need to love wasabi.

You can’t go wrong with sushi here.

–Matt

Yes, this is at a mall, but this is still one of my favorite places for sushi. Their sushi is average to above average, but I go here for the rolls. They have some rolls with ingredients you won’t find elsewhere. My favorite is something i’ll call the tortilla roll because i dont know the name, i just buy it based on the ingredients i see on the menu. This roll has cream cheese and jalepenos along with crunch and tuna (i believe).

overall, Kanki dispells the myth that you cant have good sushi at a large chain restaurant….well it does so for me anyway.

–Matt

I’m taking a little departure for the next set of articles, I’m partaking in a week of sushi with some friends from work (ulanguzi). We started on tues at Wild Ginger, wed was Sushi Tsuni (not really downtown but close) thursday was Mura and Friday will probably be Kanki (yes at the mall but trust me). I’m gonna write a bit on each once i get a chance, but you’ll defintely hear about the best experiences I have.

–Matt

This is my first visit to wild ginger. It recently opened in the progress energy building a few store fronts down from Fins. Their menu includes japanese, thai, sushi and a few other cuisines. I have to admit, i wasnt looking for much from a place that serves general’s chicken and sushi. I’ll admit, i was impressed. I had a roll (crazy tuna) or something and it was very good. The sushi was also fresh and nicely sized. One of the best parts about this place was that they delivered the food as it was prepared. So nothing was waiting on a line somewhere for the entire order to be finished.
I’ll have to go back and try some other items. The other outstanding factor for Wild Ginger was that everything was very moderately priced.

–Matt