Columbus has been gaining ground on the food scene for some time now, and Northstar Café is one of the new mainstays of delicious and healthy in town.
It’s the kind of place where you can eat a favorite dish three times in a row, decide on something different you haven’t had in awhile, or taste the newest seasonal addition to the menu, and ALWAYS be happy that was your choice. Today, I stopped in while out running errands, having no idea what I was hungry for. After 2 seconds looking at the menu (give or take a second) I settled on the Roasted Root Salad, perfect for these first days of autumn.
I felt healthier and happier before I even took a bite: butternut squash, beets, lightly glazed pecans, goat cheese, spicy greens and NSC’s signature grainy bread with the tiniest sprinkling of sea salt. Beyond delicious. With a light drizzling of champagne vinaigrette, this was the perfect lunch to get me on my way, completely satisfied, ready to tackle whatever else came up before the weekend.
My Northstar Café go-to when I’m looking for pure comfort food is the Square Meal, a bowl of brown rice, spicy black beans, onions, peppers and avocado, topped with a few crunchy tortilla strips for good measure. Seriously, you can’t get more square: the beans and rice complement one another for a complete dose of amino acids, the veggies are, well, onions and peppers, which can’t be beat for flavor and anti-oxidants, and the avocado is one of my all-time favorite healthy fats.
The crispy tortilla strips are pure fun. We all need a little crispy and crunchy in our lives. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Northstar Café has three locations in Columbus: the Short North, Clintonville, and Easton (with a Westerville location opening soon), and one in the Cincinnati area. Each has a slightly different menu. Try them all. http://www.thenorthstarcafe.com/