A Barberton Institution: Milich's Village Inn

I know it seems as though I am suddenly writing about eating out in Barberton quite a bit lately, but I had quite a few photos queued up that I haven't had a chance to get to until now. It has been probably 20 years since I had a chance to eat at one of Barberton's famous chicken houses and I just happened to be passing through one Friday evening about a month ago and decided to give it another try. My memories from two decades ago remind me that this isn't a fancy place, but a family friendly, and hopefully a tasty one.

So I pulled into Milich's Village Inn (4444 South Cleveland-Massillon Road, Barberton, OH 44203, 330-825-4553) on a Friday evening around 7 pm to find the place was nearly packed. Fortunately, I had arrived as most people were finishing their meals and leaving, so a table opened up fairly quickly. Now I had come here with the intention of getting the fried chicken (their specialty). However, it being a Friday night, there was an all-you-can-eat fried haddock meal on the menu for under $10.

Considering the fact that they were infamous for their fried chicken, I decided for some reason to transfer this accolade to their fried fish. I ordered it with mashed potatoes and gravy, cole slaw, and hot sauce. If you'll remember from my post at the Chicken Manor Restaurant in North Canton, I first talked about hot sauce. Essentially it is rice cooked in a tomato sauce with peppers and onions and is, as the name suggests, spicy.

First the bread was brought to the table. Clearly nothing fancy ... two slices of white, two slices of rye.


Although my server warned me that my fish might take a while, it wasn't fairly long after I received my bread that I received my entree:


Cole slaw on the upper left, hot sauce on the upper right, and fish on the bottom. A shot of the mashed potatoes is next:


Now, before I talk about how the food tasted, I wanted to point out that the fish on the plate were not the nice, neat, whole filets, carefully breaded and deep-fried. Here is a slightly closer look at what showed up on my plate:


It was as if when they put my plate together, I just got the dregs that were at the bottom of the fryer baskets. The presentation was AWFUL. To top it off, when I asked for a side of tartar sauce, this is what I received:


PACKETS of tartar sauce?

Look. I'm not trying to be all froo-froo here and expect that I'm going to be served from a silver platter while asking the table next to me for the Grey Poupon. But honestly, the whole thing felt "cheap". I know that many a restaurant will take the LARGE bottle of tartar sauce and distribute it into smaller portioned cups for service and that the tartar sauce is the same whether it comes in a little cup or out of some packets. Similarly, had I ordered a side salad, I would have my choice of a variety of dressings, all of which come in individually wrapped packets. My point here is that it amazes me how restaurants will make it a point to talk about family-style or homemade or yada, yada, yada, but then skimp when it comes to other areas.

Anyway, back to the taste. The cole slaw was okay. It was a vinegar based slaw and had a nice balance between acid, sweet, and salt. The mashed potatoes and gravy were nicely seasoned. The hot sauce, in my opinion, was probably the best thing on the plate. It had a bolder flavor then the version from Chicken Manor and actually had a nice heat to it. The one thing on that plate that absolutely fell short was the fish. Because I had gotten a lot of end pieces, which are thinner than the middle of the filet, they were overcooked and dry. I did have a few mid-section filets and while they were moist, it struck me as just average.

When I went to pay at the counter, I noticed it was sitting directly in front of the kitchen. I asked my cashier if they knew what kind of fat they fried in. He replied, "Lard." This kind of surprised me as I didn't think anyone fried in lard anymore. I will say that I don't think the fish had any kind of off-flavoring from the cooking oil, so maybe that was because of the lard.

The final thing I'll say about Milich's is that while I was standing at the cash register looking into the kitchen behind it, the one thing that stood out to me was how dirty it was. Fried stuff in baskets, on the counters, on the floor. And I don't mean sitting in containers. Clearly, clean as you go is not a mantra that this kitchen adheres to. I'll admit that by the time I left, most of the dinner crowd had come and gone. However, a clean kitchen is a safer kitchen. Personally, I don't think I would've wanted to work in that kitchen.

More To Barberton Than Just Chicken Joints

Barberton, OH has sort of traditionally been known for it's family style fried chicken restaurants. However, aimlessly meandering through the city, I discovered Angie's Italian Restaurant (located at 343 4th Street NW, Barberton, OH 44203, 330-745-6056) around 7 pm on Friday evening. Needless to say, the parking lot was packed. So, lacking a better option (and the fact that I was decidedly hungry by this point), I figured I would stop in and check it out.

Seating on Friday and Saturday night is first come, first serve, but surprisingly, it only took about ten minutes for a table to open up. I grabbed a take-out menu to study at the table while I waited for my server to show up.


They have a number of items on the menu, sandwiches, pastas, pizzas, and surprisingly much of it is homemade. After weighing my options, I decided to get the Italian Sampler, which consisted of rigatoni with homemade marinara sauce, a stuffed shell, and pork and ricotta filled cannelloni. The meal also came with a side and garlic bread. I choose the cottage cheese as my side. Because I could, I also got a side of the homemade meatballs.


Nothing really to write about here. It was typical cottage cheese. Although I will say the portion size was quite large.

Unfortunately my server had screwed up my order and brought out a plate of rigatoni and not the Italian Sampler I had ordered. She did bring my side order of meatballs, so I had her leave those and return to the kitchen to correct my order. Here are the meatballs:


These were quite good. Very juicy on the inside (sometimes you can dry them out if you simmer them too long in the sauce) and very flavorful. The tomato/meat sauce that accompanies the meatballs was also quite intense and delicious. By the way, if you order your pasta topped with the meat sauce, this is the sauce you get. I think I would've been quite happy with some spaghetti with this sauce and those meatballs on it.

An attempt at an picture of the inside of the meatball:


Finally, my Italian Sampler entree was brought to my table:


The stuffed shell is on the lower left side of the plate, the cannelloni is at the upper right side of the plate, and the rigatoni sort of occupies the rest of the plate. All is covered in their homemade marinara sauce.

First, a shot of the stuffed shell:


And a shot of the cannelloni:


Everything was pretty tasty, although as with most Italian places, there was plenty of water at the bottom of the bowl. Annoying, but not unforgivable. My favorite, I think, was the stuffed shell. The cheese filling had a very nice creamy and savory quality to it that I found most appealing. Second favorite was the cannelloni. The Italian sausage had just a little bit of capricious heat to it and the scent of fennel seed was unmistakable. The rigatoni was ... well, pretty much just rigatoni. Overall, I think I liked the meat sauce better than the marinara.

Finally, a shot of my leftovers sitting in the Styrofoam box. It's a little hard to tell in the picture, but the meat sauce is just such an intense dark red compared to the marinara. The leftover meatball is at the bottom right in the picture.


Not knowing when I would be getting back anytime soon, I decided to order a pizza to go. The menu declared that they make all of their own dough and sauce, so that is generally a good sign. When I also saw that they offered meatballs as a topping, my first thoughts turned to my good friend Nancy, who has talked in the past for her love of a good New York City pizza with sliced meatballs.

When I asked my server if the meatballs they use on their pizzas are the same as the ones I had for dinner, she replied that they were. Unfortunately, I didn't bother to confirm that the meatballs were sliced and placed on the pizza. What I got looked entirely different from what I was expecting.

The pizza box all ready to go home with me:


And finally a shot of the pie itself.


They crumbled the meatballs instead of slicing them. Needless to say I was kind of disappointed. But then again, I failed to ask the right questions. The pie was ... ok. Unfortunately, they kind of burnt the crust quite a bit. And burnt not in the good way. The ground meat was a tad bit dry, which detracted from the experience. I think had they actually sliced the meatballs, they might've survived the baking process with a little more integrity. When I manage to get back there, perhaps I'll have them do it properly.

Overall, I think it was an okay to better than average experience and definitely a place if you are trying to find a nice family restaurant that the kids will like, too. A few service and food guffaws aside, it was a pleasant experience.

Hungarian Nirvana

It may seem like the posts are coming fast and furious suddenly, but I assure you, the previous two posts and the next four or five are not being posted in real time. I've sort of gotten a backlog of photos from various gustatory experiences over the last month, but just haven't had time to put much up on the blog.

That being said, I had the somewhat rare opportunity to visit a local Barberton eatery called Al's Corner Restaurant located at the corner of 4th and Tuscawaras Streets (just south of Lake Anna). What makes it rare, you ask? They are only open for lunch and only from 11 am - 2 pm. Unfortunately, considering I am usually working in either Cleveland or Canton during the day, that doesn't give me a whole lot of time to make a trip to Barberton in the middle of the day. Fortunately, I finally had the chance to do so and I have to say, it was worth the wait.

Al's Restaurant is unique in that when you walk in, you immediately get in line. The menu is fairly limited, but fairly straightforward. You basically make your way to the front of the line, place your order which is served from the hot line underneath the glass case, pay for your meal and then sit at either a table or a very long counter (U-shaped, of course). There is a soda fountain in the back of the restaurant where you get your own refills and a refrigerated case where the bottled waters are kept.

You can order any of the lunch items for $7.00 (this includes a slice of bread and your choice of beverage), any number of sides, or individual items for prices ranging from $2.00 - $6.00. They also have a sampler for $8.50, which gives you a taste of just about everything on the menu. Being as this was my first and probably only time for the foreseeable future, I decided on going with the sampler platter:


I thought I had taken more than just this one photo, but unfortunately, I was having some unexpected issues with my camera and by the time I realized that the other photos had been deleted, unfortunately, I had already dug into the dish.

Starting at 12:00 and moving clockwise, we have:

1) Piece of white bread that comes with the meal
2) Spaeztle-like dumplings mixed in with sauteed cabbage and onions
3) Sauerkraut and hot Slovenian sausage
4) Potato and Cheese pierogi
5) Cabbage roll

and right dead center in the middle is the chicken paprikash with dumplings.

Honestly, the only thing that didn't agree with me was the sauerkraut ... not too salty, but a bit too acidic for my taste. Everything else was just lovely, with the winner going to the chicken paprikash. It was nice and creamy with just a little bit of heat from the paprika. The chicken leg I was served was hot and juicy and tender. The only off thing about the paprikash was the dumplings. They were slightly more chewy than I would have expected. Then again, the spaetzle were lovely, so perhaps that was the way they were supposed to be. I'm willing to acknowledge that.

The pierogi was pretty good, although it could've used more cheese. The cabbage roll was quite lovely, being both firm enough to cut with a fork, and still tender and moist enough to satisfy my taste. The one interesting thing to note about the cabbage roll was that the ground meat inside the roll was actually pink. Now, normally that raises alarm bells, but after taking a bite, I can assure you that it was properly cooked. There may be some kind of chemical reaction going on here that I am unaware of that makes it pink, even though it is fully cooked. Either way, it was delicious.

Honestly, the only thing I didn't even bother to try on the plate was the slice of white bread. It just seemed kind of out of place, if you ask me.

I look forward to returning. So should you.