Today we visited The Vine Mediterranean Cafe and Market on South Grand since we had a person in our group with very limited dietary restrictions. The Vine seemed to fit the bill so off we went down South Grand! As usual, it is hard to find some place to park along Grand or one of the side streets so we were dropped off while my wife tried to find some place to park the minivan. We noticed The Vine sits right next to Wei Hong which we visited about a year ago and enjoyed quite a bit. As we approached The Vine we saw the dining area so we tried to enter there, but realized we could not and had to enter via the market. The market seemed to have only a few aisles of Mediterranean food and there was nobody actually in it, whereas there were a few people in the restaurant section. They had maybe a dozen tables and we pushed an extra table for two against a group for four to accommodate our group of six. The one all purpose employee gave us menus and came back later to take drink orders.
The menu had sandwiches as well as lunch entrees and dinner entrees. My mother-in-law ordered the chicken kabob lunch entree, my wife ordered the beef kabob lunch entree, my daughter and son both selected the beef shawarma sandwich, and her friend picked the sauteed veggies. I decided to get The Vine Kabob sandwich with some of their fries.
It did not take too long for our server to return with salads for the people who ordered entrees. My wife had ordered the Fatoush salad which was covered with pita chips which made tasty little snacks. The dressing was pretty mild and the salad was okay but nothing too exciting. My daughter's friend had ordered the lentil soup instead of a salad and she said that was very good. If it had been me, I probably would have picked the lentil soup over the salad too.
Our entrees arrived several minutes later, definitely freshly prepared and ready to eat. My wife's beef kabob chunks were tender and delicious (yes, I sampled one!) and I also liked the seasoned rice that came with it. Her entree also came with some very red pickled turnips (marinated in beet juice) and some pickled cucumbers. The turnips were too salty, but the picked cucumbers were pretty good and blended well with the rice. The fries that I had selected with my Vine Kabob were just okay, and I should have selected the rice. The Vine Kabob itself was very good, with well spiced meat and with vegetables and sauce wrapped up in a pita that was very good and held together well. My son and daughter both liked their beef shawarma sandwiches and our guest liked her sauteed veggies (she likes eggplant!), and my mother-in-law even ate most of her chicken.
All in all it was another delightful and interesting meal on South Grand. There are definitely a lot of unique , specialty restaurants there still to explore, and I am definitely always up for the occasion.
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