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| - I took my boyfriend to Balaton for Valentine's Day. His family is Croatian, so he's a huge fan of the stick-to-your ribs, heavy Eastern European food. He also has a grandmother that cooks the best food I've ever tasted, so going into this our standards for ethnic cuisine were fairly high.
Luckily, our meals did not disappoint. I ordered the "small" plate of Chicken Paprikash with spatzel and he chose the "small" plate of Wienerschnitzel with spatzel. They were both fantastic, but as many others note "small" here does not actually mean small. The man next to me ordered a large potion, and let me just say -- it was obscene. Unless you want to be eating spatzel for days, stick with a small.
We took advantage of the dessert menu and order two things: dobosh torte and cheese strudel. The torte was good and schmancy-looking, but the hands down taste winner was the strudel. The pastry was light and flaky; I'm a sucker for cheese so I was happy.
The Balaton was great. I'd recommend it to anyone who craves hearty food. Be careful how you get there, though. It's located in a nice neighborhood but, no thanks to my Garmin, the route we took there was pretty rough. I'm no stranger to the city (i heart cleveland), but the the parts we drove through were down right scary. I recommend taking 480 and going through Beachwood if you're coming from the West side. It might take longer, but if you even slightly value your life -- it's worth it.
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