Cardwell's on the Plaza: Decades of Fine Dining

Cardwell’s BBQ Chicken Salad, my lunch favorite.

One of my favorite salads is served at Cardwell’s in Frontenac Plaza. It’s their Chinese BBQ Chicken Salad with crispy greens, broccoli, daikon sprouts, peanuts, fried noodles and a marvelous peanut dressing. For those of you who like this sort of melange, you probably know that Panera Bread has a similar item on their menu. They jazz theirs with roasted corn salsa, tomatoes, and French fried onions.

But say you drop into Cardwell’s for lunch—though it’s best to make reservations for dinner. You have a variety of seating options: booth, table, bar, high table, community table, patio, small alcove, or private room. I know of no other place in town that offers such an array of choices. The menu is equally as varied running the scale from their flash-fried calamari to Fresh Peach Pie. This is a place where you can meet up with friends for lunch, grab a bite before a movie, or entertain out-of-towners.

A Food Sampler

The restaurant located in the mall just outside Neiman-Markus still looks smart and the food trendy though it’s been around more than two decades. Chef-owner Bill Cardwell continues to earn kudos for consistently serving fine food, much of it locally sourced.

Here’s a photo sampler of what friends and I have enjoyed at Cardwell’s recently. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. And, yes, these dishes were every bit as good as they look.