Road Trip-- Third and Hollywood, Columbus, OH

Over the Fourth of July, on our visit to Columbus, Ohio, we went out with some of hubby’s high school friends to somewhere new to us.  We had been debating where to go, but after I looked at the menu, I thought this would be a good option because they had a fairly wide menu and they had grilled artichokes on the menu and I have been craving them.

We started with a couple of orders of the cheddar cheese skillet biscuits ($8) and the artichokes ($12).  Both were so, so good.  The biscuits were so rich and buttery and full of cheese, and scallions and brushed with butter (garlic butter maybe).  They were exceptionally moist. Possibly the best biscuits I have ever had. I had to restrain myself from over eating these things.  Everyone just wolfed them down.  Even though we had really over-ordered too many, every single crumb got eaten.

The artichokes hit the spot for me too. They were good tender, but then grilled and had nice, slightly crisp edges from the grill.  I love artichokes but hate cooking them at home because you have to clean them and then cook them quickly and then get them on the grill. So when a restaurant has them on the menu, I will usually order them.  They served them with a great classic remoulade sauce that was perfect with them. Just a little spicy but had a nice mustard flavor as well. 

For my main dish, I had the seared tuna with chopped veggies and caper Dijon dressing and goat cheese ($25). Wow, this was great too. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from “mixed vegetables,” but these were veggies that reminded me of a Nicoise salad.  There were green beans, fingerling potatoes, a little arugula, some fresh corn, red peppers and tomatoes. There were also olives and several wedges of boiled egg (that were cooked perfectly slightly under hard).  Wow. The veggies mixed with the dressing (and an ample amount of it) were just as good as the perfectly seared tuna. I loved it and it was beautiful on the plate.

Hubby had a special--it was seared trout that had a lemon butter sauce with wonderful crispy fried capers on top.  The fish was cooked perfectly tender and served with a green bean/corn mixed veggie side that was also dressed and very flavorful. We fought about which one of us had ordered the better dish. Honestly, they were both really great.

For dessert we shared a couple—the lemon square ($9) and the chocolate pot de crème ($9). I liked the dark chocolate flavor of the custard in the pot de crème, but the lemon bar was what stood out. I mean, just look at it. This is more than just a lemon bar. It was made with a graham cracker pecan crust and a wonderful, just tangy enough, lemony filling. There was a fair amount of whipped cream as well. 

So we liked this place so much the night we went for dinner early in the trip, that we ended up going back for lunch with the kids and the in-laws on our way home to Indy.  This time we got a side of the pimento cheese to go with the biscuits (there is absolutely no reason you would ever go to this restaurant and not get some of the biscuits).  Honestly, I liked the pimento cheese but I think the biscuits are better just on their own. There’s enough going on with them flavor-wise, you don’t really need to add pimento flavor and more cheese.

Hubby and I split the fish sandwich for our main dish ($17)—it was fairly simple sandwich of grilled Barramundi with lettuce, tomato and red onion and a lovely aioli.  The fish was nicely (but lightly ) seasoned and was very tender. I thought it just needed a little more of the aioli so I got a side of it (which incidentally went very well with the crisp thin fries they serve there).  I liked the way they split the sandwich for us and gave us our own portion of fries (otherwise hubby will eat them all). They were also kind enough to bring me one artichoke on the side because I wanted another one so bad. My kids ended up eating a bunch of it though, so I sort of wished I had gotten a full order.  My daughter had a burger and wanted to make sure that I mentioned that she really liked it. She says it was a little pink, which she liked, and tender and that the cheese was really melty.

This is a great place to check out in Columbus and I am sure there will be return visits for our family when we are in town. The menu can appeal to just about all tastes and everything we had was done very, very well.  The service was very professional as well. It’s a busy place that doesn’t take reservations, but both times I was there (and with larger parties), we had no problem.  Also, while it is noisy, I appreciated that you could still hear the people you were dining with.  I wish we had a nice independent place similar to this in Indy. Even the kids liked it.

Oh, and did I mention those biscuits? 

Third and Hollywood

1433 West Third Avenue

Grandview Heights, OH 43212

614/488-0303

www.thirdandhollywood.com