The 8 best things I’ve tried (so far) at Cincinnati's hottest new food destination

It seems the food hall is to 2020s Cincinnati what the food court was to 1980s Cincinnati. And while I love a good slice of Sbarro pizza or a cookie from Mrs. Field's, the diverse offerings of food halls leave those Reagan-era relics in the dust.

Take Gatherall, the new food hall inside the Factory 52 complex in Norwood. I was already impressed during my first visit a few months ago when I tried the fried cauliflower bites at Decibel Korean Fried Chicken and the chicken adobo at Garbriela Filipina Kantina. But with several new vendors opening in the past month, this place just keeps getting better.

Given the growing popularity of Filipino cuisine nationwide, I am happy to see two different Filipino spots representing two entirely different aspects of the cuisine. Gatherall is also home to the first Indian restaurants to serve kati rolls – a popular West Bengali street food – in these parts and some of the best Asian-style noodles in town.

Given that we're in the throes of March Madness, I've come up with an Elite Eight version of the best things I've eaten at Gatherall so far.

The garlic noodles at Nice Nice Noodles

Long a staple of Bay Area Vietnamese cuisine, garlic noodles are nothing short of addictive. Chef Mapi De Veyra ups the Italian factor on this traditional Filipino dish, cooking his noodles in an umami-rich soy butter sauce, garlic, green onions and lots of Parmesan cheese. De Veyra is a wiz when it comes to blending what might seem like contradictory flavors. He worked as the executive chef of Quan Hapa for eight years and helped create the menu at Decibel Fried Chicken with its owner, Kam Siu, who also runs a stall here. I was happy to see his friendly face behind the counter of Nice Nice, where he's also offering grilled pork belly in Filipino barbecue sauce, teriyaki chicken with broccolini and rice, lumpia and peanut noodles.

The Village Revival Sandwich at The Melt Test Kitchen

Is it weird that I sometimes find myself craving seitan? The glutenous mushroomy, chickeny protein was first invented by Chinese monks a thousand or so years ago before it became America's pseudo-meat of choice (at least until the Impossible burger came along). While it can be a bit bland, the thing I love about seitan is how nicely it takes on the flavors of whatever ingredients it's prepared with. Melt makes excellent use of it in this sandwich, topping sliced seitan with fresh pesto, sweet roasted red peppers, tangy goat cheese and melted provolone and serving the whole thing on sourdough bread from Sixteen Bricks.

A slice of cheese pizza from Trophy Pizza

The long-awaited arrival of Evendale-based Trophy Pizza in Norwood is finally here. And while you can get just about any topping you want (I’m particularly fond of the mushroom and olive pies), I beg of you to start simple with a good old-fashioned cheese slice. It will show you why I think its New York-style pizza is the best in town. See how nicely the dough stretches? That hint of sourdough flavor? How the cheese and the sauce melt into one mouthwatering glob of goodness? That’s why Trophy wins.

The kati rolls at Tikka Xpress

Kati rolls are made by taking ingredients such as chicken tikka masala, paneer or lamb and folding it into an Indian flatbread (sort of like a Bengali chilito). While they were born in West Bengal, India, as a popular street food, kati rolls took America by storm when they were introduced to New Yorkers by Payal Saha, a native of Kolkata, when he opened his first Kati Roll Company restaurant in the city's East Village. I used to gorge on them when I lived in New York, and they're one of the foods I missed most when I moved to Cincinnati. Tikka Xpress makes a nice version that's both saucy and a bit spicy, too.

The short rib mac-and-cheese at Lucius Q

I’m usually not a fan of mac and cheese, especially when it’s elevated with things like brisket or, well, short ribs. Unless it's prepared by someone who truly knows Southern-style cuisine, or I'm serving it out of a box for my daughter, it's usually on my list of "meh" menu items. But I have to hand it to Lucius Q, which changed my mind – at least a little – when I took my first bite of their Pig Mac, a rich, smoky short-rib mac and cheese that comes in a cup topped with perfectly prepared pulled barbecue and a tangy, mustardy Carolina gold barbecue sauce. Thanks, Lucius Q, for teaching me that mac and cheese can be much more than meh.

The banh mi sandwich (with pate) at Decibel Korean Fried Chicken

I was recently complaining to Decibel owner Kam Siu about how most of the banh mi sandwiches I’ve tried in Cincinnati don’t have pate on them. To me, the French, farm-y flavor of pate is the best thing about this Franco-Vietnamese hybrid sandwich, which is also made with pickled vegetables and pork served on a French baguette. “All you have to do is ask,” Siu told me before running back into Decibel's kitchen and making me the version I requested. While I'm a long-time fan of the lemongrass chicken banh mi that Siu serves at another one of his restaurants, Dope Asian Street Fare, this might be my new favorite.

The chicken adobo at Gabriela Filipina Kantina

Gabriela offers Filipino fare that includes fried chicken skins, lechon (roasted pork belly with little squares of crispy pork skin) and street corn off the cob with house-made garlic aioli. But my advice is to start with the chicken adobo since adobo is a quintessential Filipino food, usually made with vinegar and just about whatever the person making it can find in his or her spice cabinet. Here, the chicken adobo I tried was seasoned with soy sauce, vinegar, black pepper and the sugar that lends it its sticky consistency. Owner Krizzla Yanga hails from Columbus, where she has run several Filipino-style restaurants. I'm glad she chose Cincinnati for her latest venture.

The braised oxtail nachos at Shango's Urban Taqueria

I've liked just about everything I've tried so far from Shango's, where its amiable owner, Steven Graham, along with his even more amiable young son, Ian, serves an eclectic menu of tacos and sides that draw from Latin and African flavors, as well as those from the American South. I wrote about Graham's delicious fish tacos recently, but on my most recent visit, I tried the Jamaican-style oxtail nachos, which are topped with braised oxtail, queso cheese blended with coconut-y callaloo and topped with tangy pickled onions.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: 8 foods you need to try at the Gatherall food hall in Norwood