Hiroshi’s Pub

December 12, 2010 | by Ben 1

Everyone loves barbecue, even vegetarians. But who would expect great barbecue with great sushi? Hiroshi’s Pub has a huge menu, but they somehow manage to successfully pull off about 90% of it.

Hiroshi’s Pub is on Richmond and Chagrin in the same plaza as Moxie. I’m always up for any place with a smoker, and Doug Trattner gave Hiroshi’s a pretty good review. After weeks of trying to persuade Sarah (“An Asian place? Barbecue?”) we finally went there, and we weren’t disappointed.

On our first visit we had the pulled pork sliders ($8.50) for an appetizer, and they were unbelievably good. This was the most melt-in-your-mouth pork I’ve had in Cleveland, although it wasn’t quite as smoky as The Brew Kettle’s. Jonathan also really liked these. We later had the pulled pork sandwich ($6.95), which was a bit more unweildly in a full portion.

One of our favorite dishes was the smoked sausage and cheese platter ($11.95). The various … continue reading

Happy Dog redux

July 9, 2010 | by Ben 3

I have a weakness for a good hot dog. When I was seven years old, eating Sabrett’s spicy hot dogs from street carts was one of the highlights of visiting relatives in New York City. And I’ve “cheated” after a year of vegetarianism for an all-beef hot dog.

But not all hot dogs are created equal. Happy Dog’s version at the time of our last review was middling, a light pink version that was decent but saved by the toppings. They’ve started custom-ordering their own hearty, meatier all-beef version, though, and now they definitely serve the best dogs in town (or maybe anywhere).

The dog pictured below had bourbon baked beans, hot pepper relish, smoked Gouda cheese, a fried egg and cucumbers:

This was generally really good, but the hot pepper relish wasn’t at all hot. I should have ordered the habanero hot sauce, the one thing on the menu I’ve found that has a genuine kick (although I’ve yet to order the habanero … continue reading