Andrew Coppolino on which cold dishes to enjoy on a hot summer day

Both Don Corleone in The Godfather and the Star Trek character Khan paraphrased the old expression that "revenge is a dish best served cold."

But I say that there are several summer dishes that are best served cold as well.

For the most part, restaurants serve hot main courses, but by perusing appetizer menus and combining a few dishes, you can put together a cool tasting menu for a hot summer day and possibly save a few bucks doing it.

Here are a few suggestions for cool dishes that make warm summer eating satisfying and satiating. Please check with individual venues for dish availability and hours of opening.

Fruit and cheese theme

Two cool examples include variations on a cheese-and-fruit theme.

Fork and Cork, Kitchener, serves a "Melon Caprese" with greens, burrata cheese, melon, prosciutto, fresh basil and mint and dresses it with a honey-herb vinaigrette, a drizzle of balsamic reduction and a garnish of walnuts for crunch.

The burrata is essentially a mozzarella ball stuffed with stracciatella and cream – it just oozes rich goodness.

A few blocks away, the "Summer Berry" salad at The Charcoal Steakhouse combines some of the same elements and cheese textures with honey basil-scented ricotta to which they add ice-wine grapes, apples, blueberries and strawberries.

The dish is given a bit of body with some toasted oats and a balsamic-and-strawberry reduction. It's served on a bed of greens.

Poké: Sushi Hawaiian style

It's raw fish that may blend some warm rice with cool veggie toppings. The Poké Box in Waterloo specializes in the dish and offers a half-dozen selections (you can get cooked protein and vegetarian dishes, too).

The Big Umami is cold salmon and tuna served on rice with avocado, mayo, seaweed salad and green onion. It's quite refreshing.

The Culinary Studio in Belmont Village has a regular rotation of take-away meals, including a poké dish.

Proof Kitchen and Lounge near CIGI offers a gluten-free yellow-fin tuna poké with sesame, avocado, steamed rice, cucumber, daikon and a spicy mayo.

A few blocks away on Erb Street, the Hungry Ninja, a small six-outlet chain in southwestern Ontario, prepares bowls with raw salmon and tuna with pickled ginger, seaweed and tobiko.

They can also provide gluten-free and vegan choices as well.

Noodle salad

Well, that's what I call them anyway. And they are a favourite of mine for eating in warmer weather: Classic rice vermicelli — bun cha gio — usually has multiple variations on Thai-Viet menus, including at Pho Tran in Kitchener.

Warm vermicelli noodles are the base for chopped lettuce, cucumber, crunchy mung-bean sprouts, shredded carrot and mint leaves.

It's essentially a cool salad with a crisp spring roll and crushed peanuts over which you pour a little bowl of heady umami fish sauce and stir it up.

The dish is also found at Pho K-W in downtown Kitchener and Ben Thanh in Waterloo.

Mezze is a must

It's a hugely satisfying way to eat cool that provides a wide variety of flavours and textures — and it fills you up. 

Order a series of cold "mezze" (appetizers) at one of the many Mediterranean and Middle Eastern restaurants in the area.

From Arabesque on Victoria Street North, that could include Muhummarah, a dip of finely chopped walnuts that is mixed with bread crumbs, rich tomato paste, onions and pomegranate sauce.

It's topped with a drizzle of olive oil. The large order is substantial and filling.

Walk the Boardwalk in Waterloo and you'll find Syrian flavours at Naranj Middle Eastern Cuisine. Mezze there, like most Middle Eastern restaurants, includes baba ghanoush of charred eggplant, tomato, walnuts and pomegranate along with mutabbal, which is eggplant made zippy with tahini, lemon juice and pomegranate molasses.

Similar dishes are available at Shawarma Plus near Wilfrid Laurier University and Chic Pea on University Avenue near Weber Street.

Cobb: A salad of 1920s leftovers

Originating a century ago at Hollywood's Brown Derby as a way to use up leftovers, the Cobb salad often appears on chain roadhouse menus, but it also touches down at a few indie restaurants as well.

It's a classic melange of ingredients and can be a cool meal in itself.

One such chain is State & Main in Cambridge; their Cobb is pretty classic. It combines chicken: bacon, shredded Cheddar, cucumber, tomato, avocado and of course hard-boiled egg with a balsamic and blue cheese vinaigrette.

While it has one of the largest back bars in the region, White Rabbit in Waterloo also has an inventive menu put out by a small kitchen, including their Cobb: avocado, blue cheese, chopped tomato, green onions, corn and a hard-boiled egg.

The dressing is Green Goddess, another 1920s classic of mayonnaise, tarragon vinegar and a lot of herbs.

Downtown Waterloo's Symposium puts a grilled chicken breast in their Cobb salad bowl.  

Otherwise, it's sun-dried cranberries, the fibrous crunch of shredded red cabbage, crumbled bacon, sliced hard-boiled egg, grape tomatoes and creamy, tangy chevre that sits atop a bed of crispy cool Romaine.

• Read more from food columnist Andrew Coppolino