Local Flavor: Market Street Grill and Pub will fill you up
If I had a white flag, I would have surrendered. I couldn’t possibly eat another bite.
I was so full after dining at Market Street Grill and Pub that I nearly crawled out the door.
My wife, Susie, and I went there for dinner on a recent weeknight after Beacon Journal reader Deborah J. Wears recommended the place. She and her co-worker Sharon Wilson enjoy going there for lunch.
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“The food is fabulous and the prices surprisingly under what one would believe the worth of the food!” Wears wrote. “Also, kudos to Jill, our tireless waitress, who greets us pleasantly and promptly every time we dine there!”
The restaurant is at 1677 E. Market St. at Brittain Road in East Akron where Goodyear Heights converges with Middlebury. Over the past 50 years, the address has been home to Laconi’s, Eli’s Restaurant, Eli’s Steakhouse, Firehouse Grille & Pub and Scorchers.
“Eli” is restaurateur Elie Jaber, who used to work 12-hour days with his wife, Wajiha, and children Suzy and Tony Jaber in the business. The family remodeled the restaurant as Market Street Grill in 2016 and retained ownership of the building after turning over the restaurant to Chandra Parajuli and Tika Nepal last March.
The restaurant touts home-cooked food, hand-cut steaks and a large selection of beer.
There’s plenty of parking, but entering the lot is a little tricky. Be sure to pull in the correct driveway. I nearly drove the wrong way up the Brittain Road exit ramp.
The parking lot is along the railroad tracks. A freight train rumbled past as Susie and I exited our car.
The restaurant’s interior is bigger than it looks from the outside. This is a casual place with black-and-white decor, country music, wooden booths and tables with vinyl seats. Old photos of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. decorate the walls. Big-screen televisions and electronic keno games flash in the background.
There’s little effort to separate the restaurant from the bar. Laughter frequently erupted from the lounge side of the room as patrons exchanged amusing stories.
We were happy to have the aforementioned Jill as our server. She really is terrific.
The menu is so large that it would probably take an hour to read in full. It includes steaks, burgers, pasta, chicken, pizza, sandwiches and salads.
“I’ve never seen so many appetizers!” Susie said.
There were nearly 20, including hummus, spinach dip, crab rangoon, stuffed banana peppers, nachos, chicken tenders, sesame-crusted tuna, beer-battered mushrooms, onion rings, potato skins and homemade sauerkraut balls.
Traditional or boneless wings range from six for $7.99 to 50 for $49.99.
But we really didn’t need an appetizer because the restaurant serves a complimentary basket of homemade chips with homemade onion dip. I’d never seen that done before. Ranging from crunchy to soft, the chips were tasty and the dip was yummy.
What a nice touch.
I ordered a cup of chili ($3.49), which the menu describes as “always homemade and delicious.” No quarrel here. It was a hot, hearty blend of beans, ground beef, tomatoes and celery, and it disappeared quickly into my mouth.
We came to the right place because I was in a meat-and-potatoes mood. The steak menu features a 12-ounce strip, 12-ounce ribeye, 12-ounce sirloin and 9-ounce sirloin.
I selected Eli’s strip steak ($20.49), which the menu promises is “guaranteed to make you come back.” An amusing typo lists it as a 2-ounce steak, but don’t believe that. It’s 12 ounces of hand-cut steak served on a sizzling platter.
We could hear the sizzle from afar as Jill brought it to our table. The medium-well steak was juicy, tender and nicely seasoned. I devoured the entire thing, save for one tiny bit of gristle, and then sopped up the remaining juice from the iron platter. I was past the point of no return.
For my two sides, I chose a baked potato and hot vegetables, which turned out to be green beans that evening. I had to laugh when the sides arrived.
There were more than 50 green beans in the bowl. I tried to count but gave up.
“They must have stock in the Green Giant,” Susie joked.
“Everything here is big,” Jill said.
I tried my best to eat every green morsel but there were just too many, so I turned my attention to the baked potato, served with sour cream and soft butter. As I hollowed it out, I realized I was beyond full and had to give up.
Susie ordered the loaded chicken mac and cheese ($14.59). Diners have a choice of diced chicken or spicy chicken tenders. Susie went for spicy.
She didn’t realize that the dinner came with a nice salad, a good-sized plate filled with lettuce, shredded cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and side dressing.
That would be a meal in itself at some restaurants.
The main course was a generous serving of chicken served on pasta shells and smothered in white cheese.
“I don’t even know where to begin,” Susie said.
The dish was rich and creamy with a tangy sauce that tasted like it was made for wings.
“This really has big chunks of chicken in it,” she said.
The garlic bread was delicious with butter in every nook and cranny, but there was no way that Susie could finish the main course, so she asked for a box.
“I’m incredibly full and I still have a meal for tomorrow,” she noted.
Our server Jill was friendly, efficient and attentive. With beverages, our bill came to $48.40, not including tip.
My big regret is that we weren’t able to have dessert. The two options sound incredible:
Market Meltdown ($7.99): Vanilla ice cream surrounded by hot and gooey brownie chunks, topped with whipped cream and drizzled with chocolate.
Cookie Bake ($7.99): Cookie dough baked and served around a scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with whipped cream and drizzled with chocolate.
Oh, why did I eat so many green beans? Oh, well. Next time for sure.
Mark J. Price can be reached at mprice@thebeaconjournal.com.
Details
Place: Market Street Grill and Pub
Address: 1677 E. Market St., Akron
Hours: 11 a.m. to midnight Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Thursday, 11:30 to 2:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday
Alcohol: Yes
Takeout: Yes
Outdoor patio: Yes
More info: 330-733-6279 or https://marketstreetgrillandpub.com/
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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Market Street Grill and Pub will fill you up
