Budina Pan Asian Cuisine
Budina Pan Asian Cuisine is a purveyor of just about all kinds of far eastern cuisine including plenty of Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese dishes. It’s kind of a funny menu, really, because with all of the different kinds of food to try make it the kind of place where you can go with a big group of people and everyone will find something they like.
Arcade Seafoods
While it might be easy to pass by Arcade Seafood without noticing it, the place is actually a longstanding, historic business in the city. Opened in 1944, this seafood shop was established in the once-proud Dayton Arcade downtown. When that spot hit hard times, Arcade Seafood moved from a spot on Ludlow Street to here, a corner on First Street. It’s kind of a neat place in that it’s both a place to buy fresh seafood ingredients, and it’s also a place to go for any number of fried seafood favorites for a dine-in meal.
McNasty’s Great Food Truck
One of the food trucks which has popped up again with the warming temperatures, McNasty’s actually used to be a restaurant in north Dayton, founded in 1973 and run by Richard “McNasty” Bell. Continuing the tradition of that bricks-and-mortar eatery, McNasty’s Great Food Truck can be found these days around Courthouse Square in downtown Dayton, serving up reubens, brisket and other kinds of quick sandwiches. People of all kinds seem to be used to its presence now, as it’s not uncommon to see a line of people from all walks of life around what seems to be an institution among Dayton food trucks.
CJ Chan
One of many Asian cuisine options in southeast Dayton, CJ Chan sits at an intersection of Wilmington Pike, Shroyer Road and a few other roads that allows the place to cater to the downtown area to the north, and the tightly-packed suburbs to the east and south. CJ Chan serves up classic Chinese take out options as well as a few different kinds of sushi. It’s a tight market for Chinese food in this area, there’s a ton of it in town. Still, it’s hard to beat the convenience of a place as centrally located as this one.
Sima Korean and Japanese
Sima Korean and Japanese Restaurant brings another take on finer Asian cuisine to the Kettering neighborhood of Dayton, Ohio. If you live in the area, you’ve no doubt been attracted by the giant signs advertising the restaurant’s defining specials: a lunch sushi buffet and an Asian barbecue treatment which has been outstanding. If you’ve never set foot in the place, you’d be amazed at how sleek and attractive the interior is; it definitely feels like fine dining. If you like sushi then this is a place you’ll definitely want to try. It’s a great showing for the concept.
Gyro Palace
It’s the epitome of a hole in the wall; this modest-looking dive nestled into a tiny space in the Airway Shopping Center on the edge of Dayton serves a ton of people from nearby Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the surrounding neighborhoods, people who value a humble establishment like Gyro Palace for its variety of dishes, its value-minded pricing and its quick service. There are a ton of reasons you might pass by this place and never drop in; it’s hard to spot. It doesn’t advertise aggressively. People outside of the internet don’t seem to know it very well. But Gyro Palace is absolutely worth a try.
The Filling Station Sports Bar & Grill
The Filling Station is a community sports bar with two locations; one just off Linden Avenue in east Dayton, and the other in Troy to the north of the city. It’s a cool concept for a local drinking hole, with a bar dominating the middle of the place and surrounded by televisions, booths, and entertainment. It’s the kind of place you go to with friends who like to do more than just sit at a table and drink; and the kind of place with those always comforting bar foods. Oh, and microbrews. Those are always a good idea.
Silvertown Cafe
IIt’s a community bar serving the Silverton area of eastern Cincinnati, and it’s the kind of place you’re probably more familiar with as a nightspot than as a place to grab food. The Silverton Cafe is huge on the inside, with dart boards, a stage for music, and a bar that’s about a mile long. The place isn’t fancy, it’s more of a local dive. And it specializes in simple dive bar food. Whether it’s playing keno, trivia night, catching the local sports game or just enjoying some free wifi, Silverton residents frequent this place, but I’m not sure it’s worth a special trip.
Crosswalk Coffee
Crosswalk Coffee is a quaint little shop serving downtown Eaton, Ohio, right along the Indiana border west of Dayton. The little shop is the kind of place with small groups of friends go for lunch to catch up. A donation jar looks for donations for the wedding of a local woman. Above the quaint decor is a sign with the four values any small town local can appreciate: Family, faith, friends and freedom.
If the shops across the street are Eaton’s social scene, then this place has to be its heart and soul.
Tostado’s Grill
One of Cincinnati’s Tex-mex dives, Tostado’s Grill near the East End is primarily a popular bar scene. Crowds seem to fill the place for sports and kareoake night as well as birthdays, family dinners and other events. It seems to attract a real mix of people and creates a very eclectic atmosphere. Tostado’s is well-regarded for its great atmosphere, but it’s also got a great menu of Mexican dishes served, of course, with a good margarita.
