Mirage has been around a long while – and we’ve known about it for a good while too – but for some reason we had always just skipped over it. It’s one of those places we always kept meaning to go to but just never got around to. Once we finally made it, we realized the mistake we had made.

Located in Harper’s Station Mirage’s exterior is pretty nondescript. Unlike it’s neighbor, Korea House, there’s not much in the way of decoration or anything really eye-catching. But, looks can be deceiving and the saying is particularly true in this case.

Once you finally make it inside, Mirage Mediterranean has a gorgeous interior. It’s dimly lit with honey colored walls accented with bold red silk table cloths, green plants and earthy tile and wood flooring. When we arrived the place was empty, but began to fill up as we ate. There is even a small stage and a few disco balls above us where they have performers on the weekend. It can get fairly packed on the weekend, but on this particular visit it was a weeknight and they had just opened for dinner.

Sometimes great things lay hidden right in front of us. For years on our way to Downtown Cincinnati for school and later work, we’ve passed Oasis Mediterranean Grill but were completely unaware of its existence. It wasn’t until a desire for something new, and a random search led us to them. “Oh, Mediterranean! Right near us?! What?!!” Our interest piqued and stomachs empty, we set out in search of Oasis eager for Mediterranean.

We were surprised to find that, not only is Oasis delicious, but it’s also not really Mediterranean. Technically, in some ways, yes, it’s Mediterranean. However, by standard definition, it’s not. It’s Russian/Eastern European with a few grilled Mediterranean dishes.

If you live in Cincinnati or at least near it, you’ve probably heard of this place called “Andy’s Mediterranean Grille” – they aggressively promote their restaurant and their prepackaged sauces/falafel.

I first met some of the people who work at Andy’s via Whole Foods’ Uncorked! wine tasting. They were peddling and giving out samples of their boxed falafel. One tubby fellow with a particularly loud voice was calling for people to come over and try it – and he called for us to try it. I like falafel, sure I’ll try it.

I didn’t really have the heart to hurt his ballooned ego and tell him that it tasted like sand.

But, I don’t really like any food from a box in general. We decided we’d give their restaurant a try sometime and see what the fresh, real food tasted like.

For anyone who remembers Mesh, over in West Chester across the highway from Rave, will be happy to know that Cafe Bella in Mason (only a few minutes drive from where Mesh was) serves similar cuisine, almost.

Cafe Bella is a very little restaurant in an equally tiny strip mall in Mason off Tylersville road near Raja India and Brazenhead, not too far from the Tylersville and 42 intersection. It’s owned by Freweini “Bella” Andemicael, who wanted to have a simple restaurant serving delicious food including Italian, Mediterranean and her native Eritrean.

Mm, Eritrean. The first time we had that was in Pennsylvania (of all places!) at a family reunion. It was some of the best food that I’d had in a long time, and I was excited to have it in Mason too. Upon our first visit we discovered that they only serve it on Wednesday evenings. Boo.

The interior is a lot of deep, warm colors and there are only a few small tables. There is a small bar and tv as well, which look to be a bit cramped but not so bad. The only thing that felt out of place was the tv – which was tuned in to ESPN. Cafe Bella seems to go for being a hip and somewhat upscale restaurant (as much as you can be with 11 or so tables total), so I didn’t think the sports really fit the image they appeared to be going for.

So it’s a Saturday night and we were hungry. Why not go out to eat? It’s a beautiful evening…what could go wrong? For those of you who don’t know, going out on a Saturday evening to Dayton’s Greene Mall is a fairly popular idea. I guess the hunger that was overtaking me impaired my better judgment… or did it?

The initial plan was to go to another restaurant but we were greeted with an hour long waiting list…. so we put out name on the list and walked to the next place. Again… another hour wait…. put down name…. and next….. put down name….. next….. (sigh)

After 4 buzzers and a bit of walking I spotted a final place to try for dinner. The Greene Mall was packed with people so I wasn’t going to get my hopes up. On the corner of Plum Street sat Pasha, a Turkish Grill. I had never really had good Turkish food before so I didn’t really know what to expect. As soon as we walked in though, we were given a table.