Ephesus Restaurant

Ephesus Restaurant opened in the fall of 2012 in Bloomington. Greedy Eater 2 and I had talked about visiting this restaurant for some time, but never got around to it. Finally we did, and we regret not going to this place sooner. On this visit, we had a special guest, who is a co-worker of mine. We'll call him Iron Stomach. He loves great food like we do.

We went to Ephesus a couple of weeks ago for lunch. Iron Stomach ordered off the regular menu, and Greedy Eater 2 and I ordered off of their $10.95 lunch menu. The lunch menu is a pretty good deal because you order a lunch entree that comes with your choice of an appetizer and you also get rice pudding. Here's what we ordered:

Pita Bread and Dipping Sauce: The sauce and the pita bread tasted great. The bread was nice, warm, and fresh.

Arnavut Cigeri:  Lightly breaded pan-fried calf's liver, served with onion sauce & parsley mix.
Iron Stomach ordered this and thought this was very good. The liver was very tender and the flavor was great. This reminded us of how liver was cooked at home by our parents.

Adana Kebab: Red, green bell pepper grounded with lamb and beef, and parsley.
Iron Stomach also ordered this and thought this was pretty tasty. There was a little bit of heat that kind of crept up on the back of the throat.

Haydari: Fresh dill , thick yogurt, light garlic and walnuts. 
Greedy Eater 2 ordered this and thought this tasted great with the pita bread. This tasted even better with the pita and the calf liver together.

Lahana Dolmasi: Cabbage leaves stuffed with ground beef and lamb, rice, onions & herbs served with tomato and yogurt sauce. 
Greedy Eater 2 also ordered this. This was tender and juicy. The rice was flavorful.

Soslu Patlican: Chopped eggplant, baked with olive oil, garnished with tomatoes, green peppers,onions & parsley. 
I ordered this dish and was surprised it was served chilled since we thought it would be served warm. This tasted really good with the pita bread and haydari together.

Kofte Kebab: Beef and lamb grounded with onions fresh herbs cooked on grill. 
I also ordered this which was pretty good and tasty. The beef and lamb were seasoned well. 

Rice Pudding: This was sweet and flavorful. This was chilled just right.

Kunefe: Fried cheese with sugar, honey.
We were really surprised at how tasty this dessert was. The sugar and honey really make this a great dessert. If you're adventurous, this is a must try.

Café Italia - CLOSED

Cafe Italia has been in Bloomington for a number of years.  Greedy Eater 2 and I went there for dinner for the first time at the new location on Hershey.

We decided to order an appetizer and pasta dishes. Here's what we had:

Stuffed Mushrooms: Not only are these mushrooms baked with cheese stuffed inside, but they are also deep-fried. These were very good, along with the sauce.

Salmon Scottato: Salmon is one kind of seafood that is tricky to cook. Either it is undercooked or overcooked; mostly overcooked. The chef did a good job of not overcooking the salmon. The vegetables and the puree were really good.

Cellentani Pasta with Eggplant: This was the pasta special. This dish was pretty good. It had eggplant, green peppers, tomatoes, parmesan cheese, shrimp, and parsley leaves.

Three Brothers Café - CLOSED

Update: Three Brothers closed in January 2014.

Three Brothers Cafe opened in June of this year. Between the two of us, we have eaten there a total of six times. The majority of those times we have ordered Mexican dishes. Here's some of the dishes:.


Strawberry Crepes: Ordered this for breakfast on the day the restaurant opened. Looked pretty and tasted good.

Chips and Guacamole: Even though the chips aren't homemade, the guacamole is, and it tastes excellent. It's flavorful and fresh.

Gordita de chicharron verde: Pork skin in green sauce
WARNING: Although this dish is good, it is also very hot! The meat is tender and flavorful, but the verde sauce will set your mouth on fire.

Huaraches de cesina: Beef, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, refried beans, sour cream, hot sauce.
Interesting dish. The meat had good flavor. The bottom of this dish is like fried corn bread.

Quesadilla: Beef with mozzarella cheese quesadilla with lettuce, tomatoes, cilantro, sour cream, guacamole. This ranks as one of the best quesadilla's I've had.

Super Nachos: Refried beans, beef, cheese, tomatoes, black olives, sour cream, jalapenos.
This was one step above the nachos at Taco Hell.

It's rare that someone can mess up an authentic taco, but it does happen. All of the tacos we've tried at Three Brothers have been good with the meat seasoned very well.

On the left, Tacos al pastor: Taco with roasted pork, cilantro, onions
On the right, Tacos de asada: Taco with beef, lettuce, tomatoes, cilantro, onions

On the left, Tacos de lengua: Taco with beef tongue, cilantro, onions
On the right, Tacos de tripa: Taco with soft or crunchy fried beef intestines, cilantro, onions

Tacos we've tried, but didn't get a picture of:

Tacos de suadero: Taco with beef brisket, cilantro, onions
Tacos de asada: Taco with beef, lettuce, tomatoes, cilantro, onions
Tacos de chorizo: Taco with pork chorizo, cilantro, onions

Three Brothers has really good Mexican food. The prices are reasonable and the location isn't too bad either. 

Note: Staff at Three Brothers informed us that they would be changing their menu to have more Mexican dishes and less American dishes. When this happens we will post another review. 

Food Collection Part Deux

Another post full of miscellaneous food we've had.

The Cheesecake Factory - Oreo Dream Extreme Cheesecake: This is one of the best cheesecakes I have ever had.A chocolate lover would love this cheesecake. Obviously, it looks better served in the restaurant.

The Cheesecake Factory - 30th Anniversary Chocolate Cake Cheesecake: I really liked this cheesecake. It had both chocolate cake and cheesecake together.

The Cheesecake Factory - Omelette: This was a create-your-own omelette. The omelette had ham, cheddar cheese, and spinach. The hash browns were a little crispy, but were still good.

The Cheesecake Factory - Popcorn Shrimp: The batter was light and the dipping sauces were really good.

Coffee Nation - Red Velvet Cake: This was pretty good. It was pretty moist.

Logan's - Fried Cheese & Bacon Burger: Fried cheese, smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion, and sauce. This was an interesting burger. I wasn't sure about the fried cheese initially, but it turned out to not be so bad. It was a little bit on the salty side though.

Denny's Baconalia - Caramel Bacon Stuffed French Toast: Layer of bacon and white chocolate spread between two thick slices of french toast. Then it is topped off with caramel sauce and diced bacon. Yum!

Denny's Baconalia - Salted Caramel Brownie Sundae with Bacon: A warmed salted caramel brownie topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce and diced bacon. Yum!

Denny's Baconalia - BBQ Bacon Mac 'N Cheese Bites: Bits of bacon added into six fried macaroni and cheese bites. Served with BBQ sauce and a side of warm Pepper Jack cheese sauce topped with bacon. This wasn't too bad. I didn't care for the pepper jack cheese sauce.

Hardee's 1/3lb. Super Bacon Cheese Thickburger: Normally I don't go to Hardee's, but I couldn't resist trying this burger. This was actually a pretty good burger. I wasn't cheated out of getting the 6 strips of bacon as advertised, even though it was the paper-thin bacon strips.

Lost Wages

Las Vegas is one of my favorite places I like to travel to. No eating at extravagant restaurants this trip, just basic dishes at regular restaurants. Here's some of the dishes.

Elena's Filipino Food - Pork Adobo Fried Rice Omelet: OMG! This puppy was huge and tasted awesome. There is literally fried rice and chunks of pork wrapped inside of a fried egg. The rice and the pork had a great flavor.

Kahunaville (Treasure Island) - Three Egg Breakfast: The eggs were fluffy, the toast was buttery, the sausage patty was okay, but the bacon was better of course. The potatoes were seasoned perfectly. It was a filling breakfast.

Yogurt In & Crepes (Monte Carlo) - Strawberry and Milk Chocolate Crepe: This may look like your run of the mill crepe, but there are strawberries inside...with chocolate syrup. Crepes can be made to look different ways. I have to say they did a good job of making and decorating this crepe.

The Coffee Shop (Treasure Island) - Warm Caramelized Apple Pie: I've never seen a pie look like this before, but hey, who am I to complain?? Even though this looked like a doughnut, this was definitely a tasty apple pie and the heaping scoop of ice cream topped it off.

The Coffee Shop (Treasure Island) - Black Forest Ice Cream Sundae: If you love cherries with chocolate, this is the dessert for you. The whole thing tasted great. Even though the ice cream is hidden under the pile of whipped cream, it was just enough.

Fatburger - Medium Fatburger and Fat Fries: Lettuce, tomato, onions, cheddar cheese, and bacon. This was a great burger for two reasons: 1) bacon and 2) grease.

Two Blokes and a Bus - CLOSED

We've eaten at Two Blokes and a Bus numerous times since they started in Bloomington-Normal. The food served by these blokes is like no other in Bloomington-Normal. The ingredients are fresh and the food is cooked to order. It's pretty awesome that we have this as an alternative to the chain restaurants.

This post is to highlight some of the dishes we have tried at this "bustaurant." We've haven't had a bad dish yet from Two Blokes. As we try new dishes, we will update this post.

We apologize in advance for poor lighting for some of the pictures, but that just means you have to visit the blokes for lunch and/or dinner. You can see their schedule on Facebook.

Baja Fish Tacos with Beans

Fish & Chips with Mushy Peas

Beef & Chorizo Tacos with Carmelized Onions and Beans

Steak Kabobs with Sticky Rice and Asian Slaw

Pork Carnitas Tacos and Beans

Fresh Salmon Sarney and Fries

Chicken Makhani over Rice with Homemade Naan Bread

Falafel Tacos and Black Bean Salad

Chipotle Chicken Tacos and Beans

Pork Torta and Beans

Asian Rice Balls

Pork Belly BLT with Cucumber Salad

Fish & Chips with Fries

Philly Cheesesteak with Fries

Chicken Quesadilla with Beans

Blackened Tilapia over Spring Mix

Bacon Burger with Fries

Chocolate Brownie

Chocolate Bread Pudding with Orange Glaze

Angel Food Cake with Carmel and Creme Anglaise

Panna Cotta

Bread Pudding with Peach Cream

Sticky Toffee Pudding