The Leptologists Eat at Explorers Club

Candice: It's Friday, and I need to get out of the office! Let's go someplace good for lunch.
Paul: I've heard the Explorers Club is good.
Candice: Show me the menu. Ah, another Latin American fusion bistro. I love the pictures on their menu. Let's go.
Paul: Explorers Club is located on the corner of South High Street and Merrill Avenue here in Columbus, in Merion Village, about 10 minutes from downtown.
Candice: This building is beautiful.
Paul: There's no parking. I wonder if it's a problem in the evening. We walk to the front to find that we can't enter that way and must backtrack.
Candice: All of 20 feet. I like the decor. The colors are bright. The lighting is good. The prints on the wall are lovely.
Paul: The artist is Jeb Loy Nichols and the prints are from his Jazz and Folk Portrait collections.
Candice: I love the Miles Davis quote on the wall: "I'll play it first and tell you what it is later."
Paul: I like that too.
Candice: The music is too loud. They need to turn it down.  If a deaf chick says it's too loud, it is.
Paul: The soup of the day is a Lentil and Spinach. The special appetizer is the Chorizo Bread Pudding. The special entree is the Fried Pollock.
Candice: We order the Chorizo Bread Pudding and the The Black Bean Hummus with Garlic Citrus Pizza Bread for appetizers.

Chorizo

Paul: Candice orders the Linguini with Shrimp, Garlic, Cabbages, Lemon, Cream and Olive Oil. I order the Roast Half Chicken with Black Beans, Brown Rice and Jalapeno Slaw.
Candice: The Chorizo Bread Pudding is covered in an enchilada sauce that has too much salt. Yuck.
Paul: The chorizo sausage isn't as spicy as I would expect.
Candice: But the bread is nice and sweet.
Paul: I like the pizza bread for the hummus. Yummy.

Hummus

Candice: The hummus is nice and subtle. A very good consistency.
Paul: The entrees arrive. My chicken smells very good. I try one of the plantains. Sweet and tasty. The chicken however is... plain. The rice and black beans are very good.
Candice: What about the slaw?
Paul: I don't eat slaw.
Candice: Oh, right, I forgot I have to eat your vegetables. Your loss. The slaw is fresh and crisp. There is a lovely tartness to it. It isn't uniformly cut and this feels good in my mouth.

Chicken

Paul: How's your linguini?
Candice: I like it. The cabbage is a good addition, though the pieces are too big and I'd have liked it to be roasted more before the mixing. The lemon flavor isn't strong enough, but I liked what the chef was going for. The shrimp is thick and full of flavor.
Paul: The shrimp is good.
Candice: It has a good grill pattern on it. Let me try your chicken. Yeah, you're right. It's fried well, but bland. The plantains are good.

Linguini

Paul: So, was it worth it?
Candice: It was worth the wait. We were seated at once, and even by the time we left, the dining room still had open tables.
Paul: Agreed. The driving distance from downtown was not too far. Price?
Candice: $20 for an entree and an appetizer. Not bad.
Paul: Yeah, not bad on the price. Is it worth coming back?
Candice: The linguini and the appetizers were good. Your chicken was okay, with pretty good black beans and rice and slaw. But...
Paul: Exactly. There's just not enough spark to revisit.
Candice: Yep. It's not worth coming back, alas.

	Candice	Paul
Worth the Price?
Worth the Wait?
Worth Coming Back?