Earlier this week some colleagues and I had lunch at La Gourmandise on Main St. in Urbana, IL. I had a salad and half a sandwich, both of which were quite good. I was especially intrigued, though, by the German cuisine available on Friday and Saturday evenings. La Gourmandise is owned by the same family that owns the Bayern Stube in Gibson City, IL. We’ve always wanted to try the food there, but it’s such a long haul from Charleston and there’s really nothing else there to see, so we’ve never made the trip.

So this evening we decided to try our luck at La Gourmandise. We got there right about 5PM and it was very quiet. Just a few folks using the wifi. La Gourmandise is really more of a small bistro, so there’s no restaurant atmosphere. You walk up to the counter to order and they bring out your food when it’s ready. Doesn’t take long to get your food, though.

Sarah doesn’t like pork or veal, and the majority of the German offerings are pork or veal based, so she ordered the Downtown Roast Beef sandwich, which is roast beef with Provolone and Avocado Pico de Gallo. So got fries as her side. I ordered the Allgäuer Schnitzel, which is a schnitzel topped with ham and swiss cheese. I usually prefer a straight schnitzel with a lemon, but the ham and swiss actually worked quite nicely on the schnitzel. I also had red cabbage (Rotkohl) and spätzle for sides. To top it off, I had a bottle of Russian Baltika beer from their impressive selection. It was perfect with the meal.

Sarah’s sandwich was very good, although she was suffering from a cold and had trouble tasting anything. I will attest to the excellent fries she had, though. Very much like the fries I enjoyed in gasthauses in Germany. My schnitzel was perfectly cooked and quite tasty. As I said, the ham and swiss were a nice touch. The spätzle was good and the red cabbage was better than most I’ve tasted. It was slightly sweet, which I think made the difference. I spoke with the owner for a bit afterward and told him of my preference for a “neat” schnitzel with lemon and a side of good Bavarian potato salad. He explained how they make their potato salad and it seemed like the kind I loved when I lived in  Nürnberg. Next time we stop here for dinner, which will be soon, I’ll be sure to order it.

UPDATE: We went back for dinner Saturday evening (April 11) and Sarah had the Paprika Schnitzel, which the chef (the owner’s mother) was kind enough to prepare using chicken instead of veal or pork. Sarah thought it was delicious and I agree. I had the Allgäuer Schnitzel again with rotkohl and potato salad. The potato salad was, in fact, just as I remember it from Nürnberg. Delicious. I had a Jever Pilsner with my meal. It was nice and bitter the way I like it. This place is quickly becoming a favorite of ours.

Today we drove around looking for a place to eat where we didn’t have to wait 30 or 40 minutes for lunch. It was crowded everywhere due to Valentine’s Day. We ended up over at Village Green Plaza over on Windsor and Duncan looking for Pasha. To our surprise, Pasha was gone and in its place was Istanbul Mediterranean Cuisine.

The restaurant is apparently under new management and the menu is definitely changed. There are more choices, yet still some familiar ones. There is now a large seafood menu and some Italian dishes. The menu was basically Greek, Turkish, and Italian. They also have Efes Turkish Pilsner beer available, which is one of my favorites. They had lunch specials showing on the sign out front, but only Mon-Fri. Today we got the full dinner menu.

Sarah thought the Crepe Pie looked interesting. It was beef or chicken (Sarah went with chicken) sauteed with peppers, onions, tomatoes,  and pine nuts and served in a “pie”, which was more like pita with melted cheese over the top, and a salad. I went with the Great Alexander Kabob, which was gyro meat and diced pita with a tomato-based sauce and a yogurt sauce on the side. Dinner came with very tasty bread with olive oil and parmesan cheese for dipping. I had an Efes Pilsner with my meal.

Sarah’s Crepe Pie was nicely presented, but it lacked pizzazz. A spicier presence would have made the dish. The salad served with it was excellent, though. My gyro meat was quite good, but it would have been better with some onions and tzatziki instead of the rather bland yogurt sauce. Still, the meals showed promise and there were several other items on the menu which looked like winners. We’ll definitely return for more.

Tonight was our fourth trip to Saigon in the Savoy Plaza in Savoy, Il. Aside from the service, we were pretty impressed with it when it first opened. That first night our appetizers actually were served during the meal. It seemed they only had one waiter. Still, the pork dish I had was very tasty and Sarah’s beef dish was also quite good. We’ve been back three times since. There’s not much on the menu I like besides the pork and noodles or the beef rolls and noodles. Sarah has been a little more adventurous and has tried other dishes. The crowds have definitely thinned out lately, though. The second time were were there, a few weeks after it opened, it was packed. Tonight there were maybe 6 or 8 tables with guests.

What’s disturbing is that the quality of the food appears to be slipping. Tonight I had the beef rolls with tiny rice sticks and vermicelli noodles. In the past you could lift out some noodles with chopsticks, but tonight the noodles were a solid flat mass that was actually cut into sections. The beef was fatty and tough. Sarah had a spicy beef soup that had some nearly raw beef parts and slabs of fatty beef. Neither of us enjoyed dinner. I’m wondering if the drop off in clientele is due to the decline in quality or if it’s the other way around.

Saigon needs two things: a liquor license so they can serve at least beer and wine, and another waiter or two so appetizers come out first and you don’t have to tackle the waiter to get your bill and leave. If they can get back to the quality they had when they first opened and they can solve the waitstaff issues, they may survive this economic slump.