Cafe Ganadara, the latest concept from the owners of Chicken Seven, is a welcome addition to the southern-most stretch of Hampton Avenue.
While Chicken Seven focuses primarily on Korean-style fried chicken, the menu at Cafe Ganadara offers a more expansive selection of entrees as well as a whole menu of croffles, a croissant-waffle hybrid that can be topped with your pick of sweet or savory toppings. The SDSD, a wooden skewer filled with alternating pieces of juicy sausage and chewy rice cake, is drizzled with a sweet sauce that soaks into the rice cake and provides a nice counterpoint to the salty sausage. The japchae bap features lovely, glassy noodles made from sweet potato starch tossed with stir-fried vegetables, spice-infused oil and, if you’d like, beef. The chocolate creme croffle, topped with chocolate chips, chocolate sauce and whipped cream, held its crisp admirably despite the moist toppings and made for a fanciful end to the meal.
6413 Hampton Ave., St. Louis, Facebook: Café Ganadara
This article appears in July 2023.