{Wild Donkey Cafe}

Photo from thewilddonkeycafe.com

The Wild Donkey Cafe is another somewhat new restaurant in downtown San Luis Obispo specializing in Mexican and Greek food. Odd combination, right? On the menu, the owner explains that since the two cuisines have similar uses of ingredients and methods of cooking, they thought it would be a natural evolution to start a restaurant serving the two. And since they’re two of my favorite types of food, I was pretty excited when I heard about The Wild Donkey’s unique menu!

The restaurant opened about a year ago, but Jeff and I just had a chance to go check it out a few weeks ago to celebrate the end of our quarter and of my student teaching. Going in, I knew it was going to be a difficult decision: Mexican or Greek? It took be about 25 minutes (over a glass of wine, of course!) to decide but eventually I was tempted by their vegetarian soup special: lentil soup with a tomato broth (don’t judge!). The soup was one of the best I’ve ever had in a restaurant–not too salty and full of flavor. Sorry for the dark photos–they had their mood lighting in full effect!

I also ordered a side of pita bread with Melitzanosalata–an eggplant and tomato pureed dip. This stuff is addicting–now I really want to try to make it next time we get eggplant in our CSA box!

Jeff also ordered a special–their pastistio. Pastistio is a Greek baked pasta/lasagna dish with elbow macaroni, ground lamb, tomato, egg, cheese, and cinnamon. I don’t eat lamb, but Jeff assured me it was delicious!

For dessert, we shared the cinnamon ice cream and a side of baklava and it was seriously the best dessert I’ve had in a long time.

The restaurant itself is pretty tiny, but has a great cozy feel and friendly, quick service.

We will definitely be back soon! You can check out more about The Wild Donkey Cafe here.

{SLO Donut Co}

On the morning of our epic baking day, Jeff and I decided to head to the SLO Donut Co to grab some donuts to fuel us up for the day. You should always start a day of cookie baking with even more sugar right?

SLO Donut Co opened about a year ago on Foothill Blvd in San Luis Obispo, and is not your usual hole-in-the-wall donut shop. They have a fairly large location, with local art on the walls and even a chalkboard where you can make your own. Plus, they offer free wi-fi and comfortable seating to lure the 24 hour Cal Poly study crowd in to have a place to eat while they work.

They have some pretty unusual donuts too: cake donuts topped with fruit loops and other kinds of cereal, bars filled with peanut butter and chocolate, and bars topped with bacon in addition to your normal standards.

At almost $1 a donut, it is a bit more expensive than other donut shops but definitely a fun place to hang out and try some interesting new varieties.

You can check out more about them on their website here!

{Mo’s Smokehouse BBQ}

When I’m not in the mood for making it myself, one of my favorite places to grab comfort food is at Mo’s Smokehouse BBQ in downtown SLO. The restaurant, food and decor included, was inspired by a barbecue tour trip the owner, Mo, took across country one year. According to the website and owner Mo,

“Twenty years into my restaurant career, I decided to open a real barbecue restaurant. With a good buddy, I set off to find out what barbecue was all about. We made a 3,500 mile swing through the barbecue belt – visiting 10 states and over 80 barbecue restaurants. The people were great. We got recipes, tips, techniques, advice, instructions and one heck of a lot of inspiration. Everywhere we stopped we bought an antique chair for Mo’s Smokehouse. Also, you’ll notice the unique photos of cooks, meat smokers and BBQ joints hanging on the walls at Mo’s. These were taken by us on the many stops we made. When we came home we had the greatest recipes for beans, onion rings, coleslaw, pork ribs, pulled pork sandwiches, sweet potato pie – and we knew just the kind of place we wanted. We built Mo’s from the floor up to be the finest barbecue restaurant in the west. So sit back, suck in some of the hickory smoked flavors floating about, order up… and enjoy!”

The food really is delicious–I could eat buckets of their potato salad without stopping. Plus, they have decently priced pitchers of local favorite Firestone Double Barrel Ale (DBA), so you can’t really go wrong with that! Mo’s is definitely more family-oriented than the other BBQ joints in town which usually just makes it more low-key and less crowded–my kind of restaurant.

Last weekend, we were able to enjoy Mo’s great food and the annual Christmas parade at the same time–a pretty perfect evening! Jeff and I split a pulled chicken sandwich topped with coleslaw and served with a side of potato salad and baked beans.

I am obsessed with in love with their Carolina BBQ sauce! Their Carolina Chicken Burger is often my go-to order for that very reason.

You can check out more about Mo’s on their website here.

{Kona’s}

Kona’s Deli is a local favorite here in SLO especially for poor, hungry college students in want of meal that has big bang for your buck. That is, of course, until it burned down two years ago! Since then, we’ve been eagerly waiting for the new building (same location) to be finished, so we could get our sandwich fix again. And now, I’m happy to report that time has come!

Before the building burnt down, Jeff and I used to live pretty close to Kona’s, so it was our go to spot for a quick meal. But since we’ve moved to the other side of town, Gus’s has reigned supreme in our choice of sandwich shop, although I guess Kona’s wasn’t really a choice for most of that time. Still, I was excited to head back over and see if the sandwiches lived up to my memory. The sandwiches are huge, so Jeff and I have always ordered the full and split it, which I swear is still larger than a normal sized sandwich. This is a half!

Kona’s is especially known for their thick, fresh bread which is great since you know I love my carbs! But after a years absence, my tastes have definitely grown partial to Gus’s. Kona’s is just more of a college sandwich shop–cheap prices, large portions, but with that comes a sacrifice in quality. While it may hold many great lunch memories, I guess it was time for my sandwich tastes to grow up too!

Kona’s is located near the corner of Foothill Blvd and Santa Rosa in SLO.