A taste of something new at Angela’s

Dining in East Lansing is a hard sell when the students are in town, but my desire to try something new overpowered those reservations last Sunday. Angela’s Cafe opened over a year ago in the spot formerly home to the sorely missed Aloha Cookin’, and its distinctive, Balkan-influenced menu options had been piquing my interest for some time.

Angela’s offers breakfast and lunch options, as well as a full menu of cafe beverages, including matcha and espresso drinks. At first glance, it might seem like a normal diner menu, but when you look closer, the ingredients used make things much more exciting.

Instead of regular old pancakes, Angela’s has thin, crêpe-like Swedish pancakes, which are served with your choice of topping, including pistachio Nutella, fresh fruit and caramelized apples. Instead of a Cobb salad, the restaurant has a fennel and cannellini bean salad with feta cheese and olives, and instead of a boring veggie burger, it has a roasted veggie sandwich with plum chutney, brie cheese, zucchini and squash. It also has byrek, a savory pastry filled with meat, cheese, or potato and served with yogurt.

As much as I was tempted by literally all of the above, the apricot jam and mascarpone cheese on the honey-cured ham sandwich was a combination I couldn’t say no to. Served on a crusty, toasted baguette, the buttery, faintly sweet cheese and the tart, rich jam tasted incredible with the savory, juicy, thick slice of real ham (not the thinly sliced, mostly just salty ham you’d expect), all of which was brought down to Earth by some fresh arugula.

My one regret is choosing fries over the chicken-lemon-rice soup or salad. The fries were excellent, but I would have liked to see more of what Angela’s has to offer that stands out from the ordinary —there’s a limit to how special a fry can be.

My plate came with a side of pesto aioli, and whether that was meant to go with the fries, the sandwich or both, it was a tasty addition. Another reason I wish I’d picked soup or salad is that I would have felt more justified taking home something from the case of baked goods, the pistachio-ricotta cake in particular. But there’s always next time, and there’s about 10 other things I need to try anyway.