Last Friday, we had a date night in Powell, Ohio to visit the Columbus Zoo Lantern Festival and stopped for dinner beforehand at Koblé: Greek-Italian-Grill. It was a rainy evening, but the rain subsided at the most convenient times. The restaurant was recommended to us by a friend, who knows someone who works at the zoo and we discovered the recommendation to be spot on and in close proximity to the zoo.
With a quick placing of our order soon after walking into the restaurant, we then proceeded to serve ourselves water and walk to the dining area to pick a table. We selected a table by a window, which looked onto the deck of the restaurant for outdoor dining, but with the cloudy night with spots of rain, all customers chose to eat indoors. The prices were very reasonable, so we decided to try as many food options as possible. We enjoyed two appetizers: homemade meatballs, stuffed with Romano cheese, and served in tomato basil sauce with pita bread, and spanakopita, flaky Phyllo dough, baked with spinach, feta cheese and a mix of fresh herbs. Our entrees were the Venus chicken pasta with grilled chicken, spinach, tomatoes, onions, and peppers in white wine lemon butter sauce and topped with Romano and feta cheese, as well as their special, chicken marsala over mashed potatoes. For dessert, we took away almond cookies and almond baklava. We were extremely satisfied with our meal, so much so, that neither one of us could clean our plates.
Next, we headed over to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and enjoyed the Lantern Festival, which started at 7:00 pm and ran until 10:00 pm. The 8-week event ends on September 29th. Over 70 sets of Asian lantern sculptures illuminated by multicolored LED lights represented beautiful wildlife and some expanded habitat scenes. We both enjoyed taking several photographs during our visit. Since this event was offered after general zoo admission hours, most of the zoo animals were inside and resting, but we did get to touch stingrays, see sea lions, cranes, bats (who were very active), a red panda, a couple of monkeys, and a lone elephant. The elephants may choose to be inside or outside any time of day. Also, the zoo is expanding space for the elephants. We also learned from a staff member while purchasing an elephant CZ water bottle in the gift shop that two elephants are pregnant and the babies are due in the summer and fall of 2025! We plan to return to visit the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in mid-October. We are looking forward to it.
