It’s now May, and my calendar is starting to look like summer. Which means I have something going on most days of the week.

I’ve gotten in the habit of prepping salad ingredients for the week, which is really helping me eat healthy, even on the busiest of days.

Even so, I found some time in the past few weeks to hit a new restaurant, revisit one of my favorite sandwiches in the Twin Cities, take my kids for some excellent pizza and have a ladies-night dinner at a place I hadn’t been to for a while.

Altera

I ate at this Highland Park newbie right after it opened at the end of last year, and was impressed by how the former Agra Culture space had been transformed into an elegant dining room and pretty bar. It was the perfect spot for a last-minute date night.

Since my first visit, I couldn’t stop thinking about the johnnycake, a hybrid of cornbread and a cornmeal pancake. The fluffy cake is topped with a dollop of whipped honey butter and comes with a side of jalapeno-infused maple syrup. It was just as good the second time. In fact, I’m not sure I can eat here without ordering it.

We also loved the ultra-crispy, somewhat spicy Pok Pok wings that are accompanied by a generous portion of fish-sauce-infused marinated cucumbers. You know, for balance.

My husband and I were so full after these starters that we couldn’t finish the main dish we ordered to share — a springy gemelli with perfect, rosy shrimp, little tomatoes, lemon and parsley. No matter, it, accompanied with some of that leftover johnnycake, was an excellent lunch.

The cocktails here are great, too. My husband especially loved his slightly spicy, smoky old fashioned.

Altera >> 721 S. Cleveland Ave., St. Paul; 651-788-7009; alterarestaurant.com

Tuna melt at Yum! Kitchen and Bakery

Why don’t more places make their own English muffins? Or their own potato chips, for that matter?

Both of these touches make the tuna melt at Yum one of my favorite sandwiches in the Twin Cities.

A tall, fluffy English muffin is halved and piled high with excellent tuna salad (I keep trying to remember to put Kalamata olives in mine at home), a fat slice of tomato and melty muenster cheese, then broiled to perfection. This open-face beauty — served with fresh-from-the-fryer delicate, golden brown potato chips and a crisp pickle — is shareable, especially if you plan to order dessert, and you definitely should. I recommend a slice of the Patticake or a cupcake, but you can’t go wrong with any of the offerings here.

Yum! Kitchen and Bakery >> Four metro locations, including 164 N. Snelling Ave., St. Paul and 8340 City Centre Drive, Woodbury; yumkitchen.com

OG Zaza at King Coil Spirits

My middle daughter was home for the weekend, so we decided to take the kids out for pizza.

I love the mid-century-modern vibe at King Coil, and thought it was time to check out the new pizza operation, OG Zaza, which serves excellent New Haven-style pizza all over the cities.

And the pizza here is great — we especially loved the Fredo, a crispy-chicken alfredo pie.

But I have a beef with the way ordering works and how the pizza is served.

You have to order separately from the distillery cocktail menu and from OG Zaza. There’s a QR code that takes you to a landing page with both menus and ordering systems. A server came to our table and took our drink orders, but explained that we’d have to order from a kiosk or online to get our pizzas. Confusing at best. And after we put our online order in, there were no instructions about how the food gets to your table. For the record, the pizzas sit at the counter until you pick them up. And, here’s the kicker, and the most annoying part: They are served in cardboard boxes, which makes eating them at a table inelegant at best. How hard would it be to serve them on more environmentally-friendly and less clunky aluminum trays?

On the plus side, it made taking our leftovers home easier. We only needed one box for that, though, and ended up throwing away three others.

OG Zaza at King Coil Spirits >> 550 Vandalia St., Suite 140; kingcoilspirits.com

A-Side Public House

A night out with girlfriends was a great reason to return to this Randolph Avenue restaurant.

Great cocktails, French-influenced plates and a central location make it a popular place, so reservations are recommended if you plan to visit. Also, keep in mind that the space is extremely echoey and often filled with groups celebrating, so the noise level can be high. If you’re hard of hearing or looking for an intimate date-night spot, this is not the place for you.

We started with the curried vegetable dumplings, which are potato and carrot fritters spiked with curry and served in a creamy yogurt sauce and sprinkled with cashews and raisins. They were crispy, flavorful and could be a light dinner by themselves. We loved them.

We followed with a vegetable pot pie, topped with a lid of golden-brown, flaky pastry; tender, comforting short ribs; and an excellent veggie burger option for those who are sick of the usual grain patty — a fluffy, herbaceous falafel burger.

The patio, which sprawls out onto the sidewalk from the garage doors at the front of the restaurant, which used to be a fire station, is a great option for the noise-averse, and it just opened for the season!

A-Side Public House >> 754 Randolph Ave., St. Paul; 651-756-1351; asidepublichouse.com