Homemade, Quality Food is in Style at Gourmé

With all the restaurants in the Strongsville area, one would think it wouldn’t be that hard to find a place to review. Usually it isn’t, but this past weekend proved to be a small challenge.

I offered to treat my wife to dinner and thought I’d kill two birds with one stone, so to speak, by hitting a place in Strongsville for this column. We checked out my “official” list of dining establishments and picked a place to eat. We were meeting friends afterwards for a movie but had plenty of time to dine.

We hopped into the car and headed on over to Strongsville for our “first” pick. We walked in and discovered that the place had a large private party going on. They had a few tables open in the bar area but I thought it wouldn’t be fair to review them when they were trying to cater a large crowd. (Plus the lighting wasn’t the best for pictures. Yes, I’m a fussbucket when it comes to taking pictures.)

We headed back to the car and pulled out my trusty list. After a bit of debate, we agreed on another place and headed on over.

As we pulled in we noticed that our second choice was take-out only. Had I been by myself, I would have just ordered a few items and headed on over to a nearby park and sampled the cuisine. Being with my wife, I wanted to have a nice sit-down dinner that we could enjoy together. (Plus, it was pouring rain so the idea of a romantic picnic wasn’t going to happen.)

We still had time before the movie for a dinner somewhere, but where? I gave up on my list and just started to look to see what was on the street. I remembered seeing a humble-looking place that caught my eye and watched for it when we drove back.

I have to say that , 15315 Pearl Rd., needs a better sign to bring more attention to itself. Even when we pulled into the lot I couldn’t catch its name easily and wasn’t sure if it was open for business. Happily, it was. (Yay! We finally get to eat!)

This is the kind of place my parents would have loved: old fashioned, home-style food. Gilled ham steak, meatloaf, breaded pork chops, real mashed potatoes . . . my mom and dad would have made Gourmé a regular fixture in their diet. It actually brought a small tear to my eye thinking about it and them.

The owner, Azar Khouri, is a very sweet, friendly man. He gave me the lowdown on Gourmé and how he’s been in business for 19 years. He loves the community and appreciates his customers, so much so that he often serves free dinners on Thanksgiving.

And the one magical word he kept repeating to me was “homemade.” Just about everything is freshly made daily in their kitchen. Let me add that the prices are amazingly small too, and you get a lot of food on your plate, just like at mom’s.

You have to try the bread pudding on the salad bar. It was my favorite item that I tasted. It was perfectly spiced, fresh, moist and delicious.

I also enjoyed my soup, which was chicken dumpling. The tender, homemade dumplings melted in my mouth. Yum. The other soup available was beef barley and it looked great too.

An added bonus for me was that the salad bar included radishes. I adore radishes and happily crunched on a bunch. It doesn’t take much to make me happy!

We tried the sampler platter of appetizers. Nice! Our plate of fried delights was crispy and very, very hot. My wife is a big fan of breaded cheese sticks and was very pleased. I love breaded mushrooms and onion rings and found them both satisfying and scarfed them down as fast as I could. (I've got to remember to chew.) The best item on the plate were the chicken tenders. All white meat and perfectly cooked.

For my dinner, I ordered the breaded pork chops, which were huge. I couldn’t finish them and I rarely can’t finish a meal. The homemade mashed potatoes were thick and heavy, just the way my mom would have made them.

My wife ordered the meatloaf and let me say in full disclosure, I hate meatloaf. (Why did she have to pick the meatloaf? I thought when she ordered.) When she cut a portion for me to sample, I could feel the sweat break on my brow. I slowly put the fork in my mouth and . . . I liked it, I really liked it.

The meatloaf here is more like eating Salisbury steak. It was flavorful, tender and moist, not like how my mom made it. (Sorry, mom. You were a great cook, but your meatloaf was like eating a brick with catsup on it, only drier.)

My one nitpick were the green beans that accompanied both our dinners. I suspect that these were canned, but all the same were a little too mushy for my tastes.

The rice pudding (Yup, homemade) was a wonderful way to end the dinner. All the better, it came with the meal at no added charge. Other dessert choices included ice cream or sherbet. (Not homemade.)

I’ll have to come back and try one of their “Early Riser” breakfast specials: Just 99 cents with the purchase of a beverage. Not bad.

Gourmé may not be the fanciest place to eat, but it certainly offers great deals and hearty, old-fashioned fare that’s hard to find in this day and age of chains and fast foods.

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