LouLife

Sharing bites from the always-interesting menu at Toast on Market.

In the South End, you’d have to scour the menu pretty thoroughly to find a dish at Vietnam Kitchen, 5339 Mitscher Ave., that costs more than 10 clams, and the few that go over that price limit do so by only a few cents. And many of the house specialties are plentiful enough to leave two people sated. This is particularly true of the rice noodle soups known as pho (pronounced fuh) and the vermicelli noodle dishes known as bun. All of the phos are $6.50, while the priciest bun (a concoction of char-broiled shrimp, sliced eggroll, lettuce, bean sprouts, peanuts and a choice of grilled pork or chicken, topping off a huge bowl of clear rice noodles) is a mere $7.25. The dilemma is, who wants to have just one dish at Vietnam Kitchen? Answer: No one with any sense. The solution is to go en masse, which is precisely why you so often see a huge table-load of people directly down the center of the room.

The East End doesn’t have many authentic, Latino-oriented restaurants — unless you’re extending the "/files/storyimages/zone" to Shelbyville. So it’s nice to find a good place that’s "abierto," close by. La Perla del Pacifico, 2840 Goose Creek Road, bills itself as a "Mexican Seafood Family Restaurant," and carries a range of marine delights, many at or under $10, from a mussel "crema" stewed with grilled bread slices ($10) to breaded, fried tilapia with tortillas, rice and salad for $8.50. If you want to go even more inexpensive, La Perla’s tacos ($1.30) are outstanding — doubled small corn tortillas holding a mound of meat with just the right touch of chopped onion and cilantro. Steak, tongue, chorizo, chicken and other meats await doses of the several hot sauces available. The tamales ($2.50) are also very good, but be forewarned that you may not find them available every time you visit.

In a little over a year, owner Ramin Akrami has transformed Shiraz Mediterranean Grill, 2011 Frankfort Ave., originally intended to be for catering and carry-out, into one of the most popular affordable and delectable dining spots in Louisville. Falafel fans in droves are finding out that Shiraz offers the best around ($3), with the large fried chickpea patties served on homemade lavash (Persian flatbread) and slathered with a cool tzatziki (cucumber and yogurt) sauce. All of the kabobs, meat and veggie, are char-grilled over flaming hardwood and range in price from $3 to the most expensive, a marinated mahi-mahi served with delicate herbal rice at $10. Superlative side dishes include the tabbouleh (bulghur wheat, parsley, and diced onions and tomato, $2.50); quinoa (a South American "super grain" blended with diced sweet peppers, $2.50); and eggplant ($5), a cool pasty concoction made with the roasted veggie, caramelized onions, garlic, mint and a house-made dressing.

Downtown, the good-food-for-nice-prices buzz has been about Toast on Market, 736 E. Market St., which serves both straight and highly inventive breakfasts and lunches from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. The place exudes energy, from the jazzy-to-big-band music track to the clangorous acoustics to the gleeful expressions on the giant silhouette faces on the walls. The menu has zip as well, including such colorful items as The King (brioche French toast stuffed with bananas, peanut butter and mascarpone cheese, topped with syrup, accompanied by hash-brown casserole, $7.50), Pan Bagnat (tuna in olive oil, tomatoes, black olives, onions, fresh basil and hard-boiled egg on a toasted ciabatta roll, served with potato or pasta salad, $8.50) and the open-face ratatouille sandwich (eggplant, mushrooms, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, red bell pepper, olives, onions, herbs and fontina cheese on French bread, also served with potato or pasta salad, $6.35).