Linda Falkenstein
The spicy tuna poke at FreshFin gets its zip from slices of raw jalapeño.
I love the idea of the lunch special. I’m not talking about daily specials served at lunch (meatloaf Tuesday!); I mean regular menu items at lower cost at lunch, maybe with a smaller portion size. These kinds of specials seem to be falling by the wayside, but there are still some to be found.
FreshFin, the boutique poke chain out of Milwaukee, has a lunch special that’s mainly promoted on a sandwich board in front of the restaurant at 502 University Ave. (It’s not listed on the menu, but ask.)
All the signature bowls save for three (the Mango Tango, the Kailani and the Avo Keto) qualify; they’re made at about half the size of the generous “regular” size poke bowl and come with a choice of side.
I’ve enjoyed the vegan Zen Bowl, which features shiitake mushrooms, tender cubes of sweet potato, avocado, carrots, cucumbers, daikon and a classic poke sauce (your choice of base includes mixed greens, brown rice, white rice, or a mix). Curry coconut chicken has some zip, even though it tastes more like curried chicken salad than poke. But I keep heading back for the spicy tuna bowl (made spicy by the judicious addition of slices of raw jalapeño). The serving of ahi tuna is generous, and there’s plenty of edamame and cucumber with a pleasant pop from bright salmon-pink tobiko (fish roe). But it’s the sides — a choice of truffled crab salad with rice crackers or a seaweed salad with cucumber and more tobiko — that makes this special feel special. The crab salad is something I would never in a million years think to order, but scooping it up on its ration of crispy rice crackers is fun and provides a nice change of pace and texture from the poke. The crab salad (actually a mix of crab and other seafood, including shrimp) is unexpectedly good, too, creamy, with a little zest from scallions. Bowls are $7-$8.
It’s easy to overlook Vientiane Palace, a Lao-Thai restaurant at 151 West Gorham at North Henry Street — it’s a nondescript building that frankly doesn’t look much like a restaurant from the exterior. There aren’t many spots left like this downtown. The lunch special menu (Monday-Saturday) boasts 15 items from $7.50 (chicken, pork or tofu), $8.50 (shrimp) or $9.50 (seafood), and portions are generous enough to merit a take-home container. This was the restaurant where I first learned to love red curry squash; its version features a sauce less creamy with coconut milk than some. The squash is roasted before being simmered in the sauce, and there’s plenty of Lao eggplant, too. Another good pick is the fried whole basil. Other options range from standards like pad thai to fried ginger and “spicy plate,” which is kind of an amped version of the red curry.
Right across the street at 201 W. Gorham, Mad Seafood Boiler has a sushi roll special on Tuesday, with two rolls for $7 or three for $10, with your pick of the wide-ranging sushi roll menu. There are more cooked rolls than raw or veggie, but who needs a long list? A recent order of spicy salmon roll and an oshinko and kampyo roll (pickled daikon and sweet gourd) left me wishing I’d popped for the three rolls. The cooked rolls are also fun, from a standard Philly roll to a black shrimp roll made with black rice, tempura shrimp, cucumber, avocado and eel sauce.
Sol’s on the Square, 117 E. Mifflin St., serves lunch specials Monday-Thursday, with four entrees ranging from $6-$9. Deopbap (rice with a topping), soondubu kalguksu (tofu noodle soup), ramen, and dosirak (a kind of bento box-style lunch that includes banchan) are the options, but with a choice of protein for most, it adds up to more like 10 entrees. Fans of Japanese curry will enjoy the sweetish mild curry deopbap. I’d spring for the top-of-the-line dosirak, though, which comes with a choice of beef bulgogi, pork or chicken teriyaki, with sides of tofu pancake, fish cake, chopchae and salad.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention BelAir Cantina’s Tuesday and Thursday taco special, although the noon crush at the restaurant at 111 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. demonstrates this $6 marvel is no secret. Yes, for just $6 you get three tacos and rice and beans and a basket of warm chips with three salsas. The menu indicates which of the tacos are on special; there are always six, but they do change from time to time. The Baja tilapia is a good choice, with crispy fried tilapia set off with lemony slaw and a tart avocado salsa, but a vegan roasted root vegetable (with the same yummy avocado salsa) or the classic carne asada will also round out your plate nicely.
