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.

German, General European and Asian festivals are in great abundance in Greater Cincinnati, but one culture I think is greatly underrepresented is Russia – and luckily they have a festival of their own too.

The Cincinnati Russian Festival, run by the St. George Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), is a relatively small festival in Nisbet Park in Loveland – right by the bike trail, Paxtons, and Blue Chip. The event featured lots of food, crafts, informational posters and live music and shows in the amphitheater area.

The ROC had their own tables set up under the cover of the back part of the amphitheater stage, which featured a lineup of borscht, golupsy, piroshki, and pork or chicken sashlik. You could get a combo plate with everything on it for $10 – which is what we got so we could try everything.