Dang Good Foods — Restaurant in Lakewood

Dang Good Foods (May 6, 2023)

My first trip to Cleveland, mainly to explore the city and see what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame offered. Selected a Airbnb place that turned out very well after the fact. Looked around for food near the residence, and discovered the eatery.

What’s unique with this place is that it serves a lot of food originating from Singapore, where I was borned and raised. This will be a difficult review as I am basing it mostly on memories of the past given I have not visited Singapore for more than 2 decades. None-the-less, the restaurant is noteworthy and deserves visits from people who enjoy great tasty foods that are different from the day-to-day.

The restaurant menu is not complicated. I counted fewer than 20 items offered, which included appetizers and dessert.I ordered 3 items - fried carrot cake (Appetizer, the savory choice), and 2 entrees of Char Kway Teow (Fried dark flat rice noodles with dark sweet sauce) and Nasi Lemak (Coconut infused jasmine rice with assorted ingredients). All these are common foods enjoyed by many for either breakfast, lunch and/or dinner. The fried carrot cake was well fried, and I could taste the radish in the “cake”. I wished the dish was a little more savory, and spicy . I don’t think that it was at the spiciness I specified (Singapore heat). The best of the 3 dishes ordered was the Char Kway Teow. Not only was the dish fried very well, it included the appropriate level of heat that enveloped the mouth extendedly. What I found a little lacking were cockles (not the substituted shrimp) and fried fish cake that I remembered from my youth; however, the dish was adapted well for the location. The weakest was perhaps the Nasi Lemak. I found the rice was not “Lemak” enough. Wanted to taste the coconut but was not quite able to. Some of the accompanying ingredients (prawn crackers, peanuts) did not hold up well in the takeout package as the steam from the food softened the crunchiness of those stated ingredients before I had the chance to consume. (A suggestion is to separate these ingredients in takeout orders if possible.) Wished more sambal chili was provided as well. This dish should perhaps be eaten in the restaurant instead to overcome those issues.

My regret was that my time in Cleveland was too short. If I had an extra day (The restaurant is closed on Sunday and Monday), I would have enjoyed some of the other menu offerings. Overall, a pretty satisfying experience. Recommended very much for the adventurous while in...

I came to visit this wonderful little place this afternoon with my family. I came actually with my mother-in-law who is from Malaysia, and who rarely has anything good to say about most of the restaurants I take her to and I was personally curious to see if the food at this Singaporean restaurant we passed the test of my mother-in-law.

Residing in the former grounds of the Thai Thai Restaurant in Lakewood, this restaurant had all the proper social distancing measures in place. Currently it is takeout only. The dishes I got were the salmon nigiri, char kway teow, pork belly rice, Singapore fried rice, the black rice in coconut milk and char bee hoon.

I was grateful that they asked about the spiciness level desired in the food. I ordered the level 3 out of 4 for the char kway teow and it was perfect. "This is just like the night markets in Singapore!" exclaimed my mother-in-law when she tried it. Thick, chewy, spicy noodles- you could taste the sear of the wok. Utterly delicious. We also enjoyed the CBH noodles--especially the kids. Fried rice was savory and comforting.

Here's a pretty amazing story. We were taking our take out to the park at Lakewood and I got a call from the restaurant. It was the owner- she told me that her husband had found out that the sauce for the pork belly rice was too thin, and would it be OK if they dropped off a replacement dish to us. I was dumbfounded. I hadn't even complained! "What the heck," I thought, "sure!"

In mild disbelief I told her where we could be found (on a picnic bench in Lakewood park). We were already stuffing our faces like a pack of rabid animals when Dave arrived with out replacement dish. They even included a pair of spring rolls. Incredible. I won't lie, the first portion of pork belly was pretty good, I probably wouldn't have complained about it. Perhaps the meat could have been more tender. But the second portion WAS better. Even better was that incredible service.

This place rocks. It's too bad I live a bit far away or else I would come here all the time. My mother in law loved it though - I'm sure that we'll be coming back regardless. So good to have some legit Southeast Asian food in...

As soon as we walked in and saw only 6-8 dining tables with mismatched chairs, we knew we were going to be in for a treat. This place is owned by a husband and wife team. He was working hard in the kitchen so we didn't get a chance to chat with him, but she was running front of house and was super friendly and personable.

There's a few street parking spaces available directly in front of the restaurant, and some residential neighborhoods with plenty of street parking available (free and metered) within walking distance.

Dang Good Foods is a serious Cleveland hidden gem. It's worth the trip for the roti prata alone. The menu perfectly describes it as a combination of naan and a croissant. It is perfectly flaky and chewy. It's served with a side of curry to dip it in, which was unbelievably flavorful and delicious. One bite and we were sold. This is the same curry served in other dishes on the menu, which I look forward to trying in the future. The deconstructed crab rangoon dip with fried wantons was also delicious.

For an entree, I got the char bee hoon (stir fried rice noodles). I like a medium spiciness, but decided to try it at the baseline spice level of 1/10. The sauce was light and flavorful, not spicy at all. Next time I would try the 3/10 spice level.

Dang Good Foods offers a lot of vegan and/or gluten free options, and many dishes can be altered to suit dietary needs. The pride flag hanging in the window was a great indicator that they are kind and welcoming to all. We hadn't even gotten our checks yet and I was already texting friends that they needed to come eat here. We will be...