My foodie neighbor loves the lunch buffet at Shaan Indian Cuisine and my CityBeat colleague, Karen Christopfel, wrote a glowing review of dinner there last year. I decided to give their lunch buffet a chance even though I am really not that into Indian food and I think that buffets are best left for tacky weddings. At Shaan, I was both surprised and impressed.  

Six years ago, Mary Beth King began living a vegan lifestyle and thought she would probably never eat dessert again. But since she’s resourceful and loves to bake, she learned to craft delicious vegan baked goods and desserts. In 2009, she took a giant step and started Sweet Peace Bakery, (www.sweetpeacebakery.com), while still working at her day job for Community Shares.  

At smoQ the motto is, “If it’s legal, we’ll smoQ it!” They mean it, too. Nearly everything on the menu is smoked, right down to the apples and peaches on two of the desserts. My intrepid family and I visited on a Monday night, ready for some barbecue and Southern-style food. We must have just beaten the rush because the place filled up almost immediately.  

Palomino (505 Vine St., Downtown, 513-381-1300), overlooking Fountain Square, has a new Tuscan promotion going on, and since I just had lunch there I can assure you that the menu items I tried were excellent, towering above the usual forgettable lunch salads was their Arugula and Pea Salad.  

Pizza is America’s favorite food. It attracts almost everyone and offers so many possibilities in terms of toppings, crust and preparation. Most pizza places are content to be mundane, and many of those that strive for greatness sadly fall short. Despite the arguments over thick crust vs. thin crust or traditional toppings vs. gourmet toppings, we're always looking for a great new pizza place.  

Bellevue Bistro is a quaint, unassuming café that blends in with the independent shops along historic Fairfield Avenue in Bellevue, Ky. Or at least that’s what I thought before going there. The small breakfast and lunch restaurant (313 Fairfield Ave., Bellevue, 859-581-5600) packs a big menu, big flavors and a big ego.  

For about a quarter century, Harry Stephens has been a fixture on the Tristate dining scene. Since 2003, Stephens has owned the wonderfully eclectic Bella Luna (4632 Eastern Ave., Columbia-Tusculum, 513-871-5862), and just over a year ago he opened View in the Edgecliff Building in East Walnut Hills.  

Skinny Pig? Seriously? That’s an oxymoron if I ever heard one! That was the conversation playing in my head as I drove up to Skinny Pig, the latest restaurant venture of Joshua Steven Campbell, who is well known by many area foodies for his restaurant Mayberry and store Mayberry Foodstuffs.  

A few years ago, one of the best things about visiting other cities was exploring their food truck options. Not only do they almost always have really good, cheap and fast food, but they provide a great option for talented chefs to show off their creations to the public without the massive expense of a storefront restaurant. Now, thanks mainly to the efforts of Councilmember Laure Quinlivan, we actually are seeing an explosion of food trucks here in Cincinnati.  

The Symphony Hotel and Restaurant is quite the Cincinnati secret. Tucked away on 14th Street, adjacent to Music Hall, the hotel began as a mansion in 1871, built by a local music instructor and was later converted into the current hotel and restaurant. Dining at the Symphony makes you feel, well, fancy.