Indianapolis Restaurant Scene

Jockamo Pizza

2012-03-12T05:53:00.003-04:00

Jockamo is a place that has been recommended for quite awhile by several of you guys so hubby and I headed over there for lunch the other day (after nearly being killed on the way over by a giant SUV running a red light, but that’s another story). Anyhow, the first thing I noticed is the fact that they embrace other independent Indy restaurants by using several local ingredients in their pizzas (Papa Roux étouffée sauce on one, G.T. South BBQ sauce on others) and I also like the atmosphere of the place (we were at the one in Irvington). The staff was exceptionally friendly, and they were constantly refilling drinks, etc. That part they have down for sure.

We started with an order of breadsticks ($3.25 for 3) with their “house special creamy parmesan” sauce (it had been recommended by several people, and you know I am always looking for an interesting breadstick sauce). This was probably the highlight of the meal for me—I enjoyed the very thick, creamy sauce. I am wondering about whether the breadsticks are made in house though—they just looked so perfectly uniform and didn’t really seem like they were made from the same dough as the pizza crust (which seems is usually the case with breadsticks). But they were super light and airy and nicely seasoned.

For our pizza, we wanted an opportunity to try a couple different of their house special pizzas so we got a half and half which you can do if you order at least a medium (our medium half and half was $14.50). Right away I was intrigued by the “Po Boy” which was the first one on the menu, so we got half a “Po Boy” and half a “Cheese Louise.” The Po Boy part had red sauce, red onion, green pepper, Cajun sausage from New Orleans, cheese, and your choice of shrimp, crawfish or chicken that is seasoned with Old Bay. We got the crawfish at our server’s suggestion. I don’t know, this didn’t really do it for me. I mean, I knew it was a strange pizza topping going in, but it just didn’t come together for me. There was so much on there too—it was a little too much for me. And one of the bites I had with the crawfish was a little fishy. I did enjoy the sausage though—a nice punch of flavor.

The “Cheese Louise” part of the pizza was definitely my favorite half (and hubby’s too). It had 5 (!) kinds of cheese on it—cheddar, mozzarella, ricotta, gouda, and parmesan as well as bacon and red onion. It was an interesting flavor combo with all that cheese and then the smokiness from the bacon and the crunch from the red onion (and they did an excellent job getting the right amount of onion on there—enough you can taste it with every bite). The creamy dollops of ricotta added a slight sour flavor to the parts it was on which I enjoyed. However, again, it was SO much stuff piled on a style of crust that just isn’t me. There is nothing interesting about this crust to me—I like the crust to be a little chewy and to have its own unique flavor that makes you want to eat the crust edges even with nothing on them. I also appreciate a lighter hand with toppings, and this style of pizza seems to pride itself with piling them on and heavy as the crust can possibly withstand.

So before you start yelling at me about this one, I just want to say that I have come to the realization (partially due to several angry emails) that pizza is extremely subjective. Everyone has their style of pizza that they like, and, well, the whole “Indy style” (as I call it) is not mine. I know a lot of you like this place but honestly, it isn’t for me.

Truly, I believe Indy does have its own style of pizza, a la Bazbeaux, Some Guys, and Jockamo, but none of these are ones that excite me. The crust is somewhat thin, and flat, and then it is (in my opinon) overly loaded with toppings.

So, obviously, this is a matter of preference. What do you guys think? Do you have certain styles you like and others you just don’t? Any of you find this type of pizza your favorite? I did love finally checking out Irvington (where my Dad grew up). Where else should I try in that area?

Jockamo Pizza

5646 East Washington Street

Indy 46219

317/356-6612

www.jockamopizza.com

divvy

2012-03-08T06:42:00.001-05:00

Divvy has been on my radar since it opened—the small plates concept is one of my favorite ways to eat. Anytime I can try several items at a meal, I am happy. And I took the opportunity to expand my options even further and invited several friends to join us. We ended up with 8 of us at the meal, which was fun because--well, first these particular friends always make me laugh—but also because we got to try SO many things. The down side was I tried so many different things actually that I actually ended up overwhelming myself a little with all the constant changes in flavors as we passed around plate after plate. So I am going to do my best to hit on most of the items.

The first dish that sticks out in my mind as a favorite was the tempura tofu ($9). It was cubes of tofu that were tempura battered and fried. I really liked the texture contrast between the perfectly crisp outside and the warm, custardy inside. The pieces of tofu were served with a teriyaki sauce and super thin blood orange glass noodles and sesame seeds. The noodles (which are also served alongside the seared tuna) were good as well and added a very delicate amount of citrus. Actually, the seared tuna ($12) was pretty much identical in its set up, and the tuna was cooked nicely—basically raw with just a seared edge).

Another favorite of mine, as well as the table, was the corn crème brulee ($5). I was like an extremely rich corn pudding with some kick from jalapeno. There were some whole kernels of corn inside and the top was bruleed crunchy and topped with red sea salt. Honestly, if I hadn’t known better (it is on the vegetarian part of the menu), I would have thought there was bacon in the dish—it had such a deep smoky flavor. It was tasty scooped up on some of the bread that came along with other things. I was sort of surprised they didn’t serve it with some sort of bread though—if I hadn’t had so much from other things we had ordered, I don’t know that I would have just wanted to scoop it in with a spoon, but maybe that’s just me.

a chicken nacho

Surprisingly (to me anyway), I also really enjoyed the chicken nachos ($7), which I never would have ordered except for our large group (someone else ordered them). They were made on a base of a crispy, buttery flour tortilla and topped with chicken, crème fraiche, Monterrey Jack cheese and a chipotle pineapple salsa verde. There was a little smoky flavor from the salsa verde and I really liked the tartness of the crème fraiche. An inventive take on a bar classic. The fried biscuits ($6) were a nice thing to share as well—and who isn’t going to like what is basically a little doughnut hole of biscuit batter—they weren’t quite as dense as most fried biscuits I have had, but tasty dipped into either the apple butter (a classic combo) or the mango marmalade. Interestingly, pretty sure it was these same biscuits that showed up later sprinkled with powdered sugar, with chocolate, blackberry and butterscotch sauces and re-named “beignets” (and re-priced at $11). Still tasty though.

olive tapenade

We also got several dips because they are so easy to share and most all of them were enjoyable, although none of them completely wowed. My favorite was probably the olive tapenade ($5) which was a flavorful olive dip sitting in a roasted red pepper puree and served with toasted slices of pretzel bread. I love olives, so it is kind of a given I am probably going to like this. But several others mentioned liking it as well. Our least favorite was the baba ganoush ($6). It was made with the typical eggplant and well as white beans and topped with a balsamic glaze. One of my friends nicknamed it “cumin ganoush” though because it was so heavy on the seasoning. Way too much for us. The crab dip and beer cheese dip were somewhere in the middle of the two—both very good, but not amazing.

carpaccio

The beef carpaccio ($14) wasn’t bad—really heavy on the horseradish mustard on top. It seemed as if there was almost as much mustard as there was meat. And I didn’t like how some of the edges of the meat had lost their bright red color and gone to the gray place. But if you portioned out the toppings a bit, it didn’t taste bad.

The frog legs ($12) were only ok—they were sort of done in a variation of a chicken wing. Deep fried with a Thai chili sauce drizzled on top and a side of crème fraiche for dipping. Unfortunately, the fried coating wasn’t very crispy and I thought just the plain crème fraiche was a little uninspired. Hubby also told me later that his leg was totally undercooked and it kind of freaked him out (mine didn’t suffer that fate). This is one that would not be a repeat for us.

The seared seasoned scallops ($14) with brandy, melted leeks, and lime wedges were also just ok. The scallops themselves were bland and not seared at all (nothing crispy going on the edges as far as I could tell). The flavor of the sauce wasn’t bad, particularly when you squeezed those limes on it to brighten it a bit. But when the meat of the dish is so blah, I wouldn’t recommend it. We also had the ostrich tartar with crispy capers ($10). The ostrich was a little too chunky for my taste, and the flavor was kind of bland. It needed some seasoning in there (maybe some of that mustard from the carpaccio or something).

We shared several desserts and they were all good. I mentioned the beignets, which were good, but I wouldn’t get them AND the fried biscuits since they are basically the same. They also do a bunch of mini desserts which are all $3-4. Apparently, the highlight was the chocolate mousse with peanut butter and caramel sauce and red sea salt on top. I wouldn’t know, because it was gone by the time it got to me (they are pretty small). The key lime pie was also good. I’m a sucker for s’mores desserts, although there was too much of the graham cracker crumbs on this which made it too dry overall.

The biggest problematic issue we had overall was the service was pretty off (one friend was so pissed off, I doubt he will return). The service was generally slow and they were sort of weird about letting us order what we wanted when we wanted (they only let half of us pick something in our initial order and by the time our order was taken, we were getting pretty hungry). I am not sure if they were worried about overwhelming the kitchen or something, but I would think at a tapas place (that was quite crowded on a Sunday night by the way) that they could handle an influx of a lot of orders at once. Luckily we were drinking a fair amount of wine and having a good time so we looked past it, but there were definitely some kinks here. The interior is stylish and modern—much of it covered in different colors of wood. It gets pretty loud when it is crowded (which it was) but you certainly feel like you are in a lively restaurant. (Also, it is 21 and over, so don’t bring the kids).

"beignets"

Overall, I look forward to trying Divvy again—and this time with a smaller group (maybe just hubby). It was kind of crazy with all the things being passed around especially when you’re trying to focus on the foods based on only a couple of bites. I am also interested to see if the service is better with a smaller group. Food-wise, I would say there were more hits than misses, and the menu is huge, so there are still plenty more things to try (and I would keep a couple of the things I really liked this time).

divvy

71 West City Center Drive

Carmel, IN 46032

317/706-0000

www.divvycarmel.com

SoBro Café

2012-03-05T06:23:00.003-05:00

This is a review in which I am actually including two visits—my first was for brunch with the family and the second for lunch with a friend. We ended up there for brunch with the kids recently when we wanted to hit Taste with the kids, but when we got there, the line was out the door and none of us had the patience for it. At SoBro, we sat right down and were greeted by a friendly server. It was between 11:00 am and noon on a Sunday, and the only menu option at that time was the brunch menu, which was limited to 6 or 7 items, but luckily there was something that appealed to everyone.

I had the fried egg sandwich ($9.50 with bacon), hubby had the biscuits and gravy ($6.95) (they also have a vegetarian version), my son some scrambled eggs and toast and bacon ($5.95), and my daughter the “French kiss” toast ($7.25). I didn’t notice a children’s menu at all, so they were just ordering off the regular menu (although there were a few kids in there besides mine).

My fried egg sandwich was tasty, although simple. I didn’t ask for the egg to be any certain way, I sort of thought I would see how they do it, and they fried it fairly hard (boo) but the flavors of the bacon, the avocado, tomato, lettuce, and cheese were all good. I would recommend sourdough bread (which is what I got) because the wheat that my son got alongside his eggs was a little hard. There was also a generous portion of home fries with the sandwich--they were fine, the ones that were the crispiest I liked, but I have to admit, I am not generally a home fries kind of girl anyway. It is hard to find any that have ever really gotten me excited.

The best item by far on the table though, was hubby’s biscuits and gravy (I hate it when he out orders me). There were two biscuits cut in half and covered with the chunky, sausage filled gravy. The sausage was nice and peppery and I loved the thinner gravy. Usually I am not a big fan of biscuits and gravy (and really a lot of gravy in general), because of the over-thickened, fakey, taste that so many of them have. This gravy was great. Thinner, like I said, and exceptionally well seasoned. It had a fair amount of peppery spiciness. I also really liked the fact that the biscuits stood on their own and remained crispy under the gravy. Honestly, I clearly preferred hubby’s breakfast to mine (even though mine was fine too). Luckily, there was plenty for us to share. Hubby, who is a big biscuits and gravy fan, declared this may be his favorite in town.

The French toast was very popular with the kids, and I am pretty sure they would both get this on a return visit. It is supposed to come with cream cheese and strawberries on top, but my daughter asked for them on the side. She did end up spreading the cream cheese on several pieces and enjoyed it together. I think she might even let them make it the way it is listed on the menu next time. I had a little bite. It was basic French toast to me—nothing that made it stand out from what you might make at home, other than I have never topped mine with cream cheese. The eggs and bacon were also straightforward—my son ordered them scrambled. Your basic scrambled eggs with some pretty tasty bacon alongside (although now every time I see bacon on a menu, I am hoping for Smoking Goose, I love that stuff.)

So the next visit I met a friend for lunch, and was disappointed to be told as soon as I sat down that they were out of their specialty Dutch Pennekoeken, which are listed as “pancakes” but which I am told are a lot like crepes actually. They have several savory options, and I love a good savory crepe. Sadly, I didn’t get to try one this time. So we split an appetizer of corn fritters ($4.50) which were like little pancakes themselves, but with chunks of corn in them and made with at least some cornmeal I would guess. I liked the chunky bits of corn and the sweet flavor, but they were maybe just a tad dry. They were served with a spicy black bean dip as well as a flavored sour cream which I really enjoyed. The sour cream had an extra tangy flavor (lime perhaps) and it added good moisture to the corn cakes. They also brought us a side of their sweet potato fries (which are baked actually) on the house ($3.50 or $2.25 with a sandwich) because they felt bad for the fact that they had run out of pancakes. I think these are one of the things that are not housemade, and to be honest, they didn’t really wow me. They did have a nice crunch for being baked, and I appreciated that. I also liked the thick homemade ketchup alongside. I did appreciate the gesture though—they certainly wanted to make us happy.

After re-evaluating my options, I settled on the Tunisian Melt just because it sounded intriguing (and our server said it was one of her favorites) ($8.25). It was an open faced sandwich (Texas toast) topped with tuna salad with potato chunks, sprouts, a little spinach, boiled egg, a lemon caper dill sauce, harissa (a type of chili sauce), and topped with melted cheddar cheese. Sounds kinda strange huh? But it sort of made me think of a Niçoise salad kind of flavor which sounded really good to me. And I really quite enjoyed it. The tuna part itself was not like your traditional tuna salad kind of thing (which I NEVER order by the way)—it wasn’t mayo based the way so many are. I really liked the salty, tangy lemon caper sauce and the texture variation of the eggs and the potatoes. It was slightly warm with the melted cheese. I appreciated the fact that it was something very different from most sandwiches you see around and I thought the flavors pretty much worked. There was a lot going on, but I enjoyed it. I would get it again I think, although hopefully at some point I can get one of those pancakes (anyone had one?)

One of the nicest things about SoBro café is how friendly the staff is—our server was super friendly and apologetic about the pancake situation and knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the food. Another person (manager/owner?) came by several times as well to refill our drinks and check on us. I also liked the cute little statues that hold the checks at the end. The food is nearly all homemade, and there is creativity being demonstrated, which I like in a lunch place. So often sandwich menus look identical, and there are some deviations here (although there are plenty of standards as well). I would love to hear what you guys think of the place if you’ve been.

SoBro Café

653 East 52^nd Street

Indy 46205

317/920-8121

www.sobrocafe.com

Fat Dan's Deli

2012-03-01T05:38:00.007-05:00

Fat Dan’s has been on my list for awhile, and luckily, I have a friend who is pushy when it comes to his love of the place as well as getting me to write about it. But I can appreciate a restaurant-pusher—especially when I end up agreeing with them. This was actually my third visit (all in the last few months) to Fat Dan’s, and all of them have been good. On this most recent visit, I ordered the burger ($6.25) (which I also had on my first visit). (Note: this is not an anonymous review, but as always is still an honest one.)

So you can probably guess that since I ordered the burger a second time, particularly when I am not generally a person who orders a lot of restaurant burgers, that it is a darn good burger. I love that I was actually asked how I wanted it cooked (medium rare) and that Dan cooked it just that way (yep, it’s often a one-man operation, and Dan is a taking your order and cooking it up). The burger was really tender and juicy, and I liked the two kinds of cheeses (Provolone and cheddar I believe) and I liked the soft, fresh bun. The first time I just ordered it as it came, and it had more stuff on it (lettuce and tomato type stuff). This time I just asked for it with just cheese, ketchup and pickles (my classic combo) and I liked it even better than the first time because I could really taste the meat (and it wasn’t as tall, which made it easier for me to eat). This isn’t the thin burger style, but it is probably the best of the fat burgers I have had around town.

So if you order fries ($2.75), you get a pile of them dumped on a piece of butcher paper on the table. Seriously, a ton! The first time I didn’t eat a lot of them---honestly I thought they were a little soft, but this time I asked for them extra crispy and I enjoyed them a lot more. They are hand cut—mostly your classic fat cut French fry shape, but a few thick round slices as well. You can tell they are coming from fresh potatoes and I like the somewhat heavy handed seasoning on them. Get them crispy and they are really good (I might pass on them otherwise though).

In the past, I have also had the pulled pork sandwich ($8.25) which is very good as well. They have a little smoker in the kitchen and Dan does a good job with the smoked meat. It is very tender—really rich and smoky though, hard for me to eat a ton of it. It has a really nice deep flavor—not all dried out like a lot of pulled pork sandwiches. I also had a taste of my friend’s “wreck” sandwich which has a little bit of everything on it. There's roast beef and turkey, lots of onions, giardiniera, tomatoes, lettuce, and melted cheese served on an Italian roll. Pretty much a kitchen sink kind of sandwich. Honestly, the slice of it I had I don’t even think had all the ingredients. It was huge. It was pretty good, but I liked my burger better I think (at least compared to the bites I had). They do have a classic Italian Beef sandwich on the menu, which I am intrigued to try (when I have someone to split it with) as well as a traditional Chicago dog. I was with someone on one visit who got the corn dog as well, and I was intrigued by it as well—it was a hand dipped batter. Impressive.

Which brings me to one of my favorite parts about Fat Dan’s—the atmosphere. It is a hole in the wall kind of place—not fancy, but it has a great friendly vibe, especially if you are lucky enough to be there when Dan is actually working—he chatted with us for awhile, and it is completely obvious after 5 minutes of talking to him that he is a really great guy, and really cares about what he is doing. He cares about all his ingredients, and makes food the way he would want to eat it. (My only complaint, in the winter, it tends to be a bit chilly, so wear your sweater). They’ve got beer on tap (local Triton Brewing Company currently, and Old Style, of course), and it is a fun place to sit and have a beer and a great sandwich. (Yep, even I drank beer.) These sandwiches are hearty too—a great place for a person with a healthy appetite (or for two people like me to share something).

Fat Dan’s Chicago Style Deli

815 Broad Ripple Avenue

Indy 46220

317/600-3333

www.fatdansdeli.com

Petite Chou - Revisit

2012-02-27T05:56:00.001-05:00

I’m back on the fried chicken thing ever since those wings from First Wok the other day. After having several conversations about the duck fat fried chicken from Petite Chou (in Broad Ripple only) with several people, I finally figured out a Wednesday night, with babysitting to try it (they only do it on Wednesdays). There were four of us, and we all wanted it—we mentioned it to the server right away, which is advisable because it takes about 30 minutes to cook. Get your order in, and in the meantime, order a starter and enjoy your drinks. Also, I am pretty sure they only do so many, so it is a good idea to order before they run out. I am pretty sure the table next to us didn’t get any because they had already run out (us getting 4 orders probably didn’t help.)

To start though, hubby and I shared the wild mushroom duxelles ($6.95). Friends of mine (including the ones we were with) had had a version of this before and really liked it. The version they offered on this night though was different from what other people had told me about. This was more like a dip/spread of mushrooms and cream with a sprinkle of fresh parsley on top (it also said that it included shallots and wine). Unfortunately, it suffered fairly significantly from under seasoning. We all grabbed for the salt and pepper. It definitely needed salt and I had an overwhelming desire to squeeze lemon over it to brighten it up. It was just too one-dimensional of richness. And I love mushrooms. We also shared an order of the duck fat frites ($4.95) between the four of us, and these had a great flavor (who doesn’t love duck fat flavor) and they were good and salty. Putting some of the mushroom stuff on top helped the flavor of the mushrooms a lot by amping up the salt. Pretty sure the duck fat didn’t hurt there either. The fries on their own were unfortunately a little soft and wimpy. The flavor was good, the crispiness was not. I really like their aioli though—nice and garlicky. There was also a Dijon/mayo blend that was good. When you’re giving me fancy fries, I like a fancy sauce. I appreciate they weren’t giving us ketchup. I also really enjoy the bread service at Petite Chou. Crusty bread slices with nice soft, salty butter. My favorite.

Ok, on to the main reason for our dinner, the duck fat fried chicken ($17.00). So with this dinner, you get two pieces of chicken (a breast and a leg), mashed potatoes, and a side of green beans. Hubby was a little sad right away because he’s a thigh man (and he really likes wings as well). We were sort of wondering what happens to all the wings and thighs, but guessed they must just order these particular parts for this meal. Anyway, as for the chicken, it was really quite good. And really very HOT! You had to give it a good few minutes to cool down before you could safely take a bite. But the first thing I noticed when I finally did bite into it was that it had FLAVOR! So many well known fried chicken places in this town know how to fry a tender bird, but seem perplexed by the idea of actually seasoning it before they fry it. There was some good seasoning in the coating here, as well as the richness that just inherently comes from something being fried in duck fat. And the outside was super crispy and delicious. My one complaint is that the breast meat was just a bit dry. The potatoes were served under the chicken and were good with it—nice and buttery. The green beans were fresh green beans (not those grey-ish canned things) served with diced tomatoes. They were pretty tasty too (although I’ll admit I didn’t eat much of them, too focused on the bird).

So I enjoyed the fried chicken and would go back for it easily. I think I would try a different starter next time (I know I would), unless it was more the way it had been described to me before (whole sautéed mushrooms with seasoning). But there are several lovely sounding salads, and I know Patachou can do a good salad, so that might be a good start next time. All in all, it was a very successful fried chicken excursion, and worth a trip if you have a strange fried chicken fetish like I do.

Petite Chou

823 Westfield Blvd

Indy 46220

317/259-0765

www.cafepatachou.com

U.S. Adventures: Vegas, Baby! (Part 2)

2012-02-23T05:16:00.005-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

And...the first part of a post of which I have already posted the second part. Enjoy....

Some people go to Las Vegas for gambling, some go for the shows (and apparently some go for the very short skirts). Me, I go for the food. And to meet up with a very dear friend who I met when I lived in San Francisco, and who remains one of my closest friends. She needed to get away, I was tired of everyone telling me about how great the food is in Vegas, so it seemed perfect. She was happy to let me plan every meal and accompany me as my date.

Upon my arrival the first night, it was dinner time in Vegas (even though it was like 10:00 p.m. Indy time) and I was excited to start our marathon of food! I quickly checked in to the room and went down to have dinner at Jaleo, one of the restaurants in our hotel, The Cosmopolitan. Jaleo is a restaurant from Chef José Andrés, and is a Spanish tapas restaurant. We caught up, drank (too much) and enjoyed some food. Honestly, the food highlight was probably our simplest dish, which was toasted bread with a fresh, light tomato spread and white anchovies ($10) with some Jamon Iberico ($15) and Manchego ($9) alongside. I loved the tomato spread. We also had the Ensaladilla rusa con atun en conserva (a salad type dish of conserved tuna, potatoes and egg ($9) and a Brussels sprouts salad with Serrano ($10). But truly, the real highlight of this meal was the girl talk. It is a fun lively restaurant, but nothing food-wise totally wowed me.

Jaleo

The Cosmopolitan

3708 Las Vegas Blvd., South

Las Vegas, NV 89109

http://www.jaleo.com/index.php/contact/las_vegas

Our lunch the next day we ended up at China Poblano, which is another venture of Chef Andrés, and also in the Cosmopolitan. I really enjoyed this one. I liked the seemingly completely incongruous menu of Chinese and Mexican small plates. The flavors in the dishes were flashy and I really liked everything. We had several tacos, my favorite probably being the carnitas taco ($4.50) with a little avocado and fried pork rinds on top, although the fried fish taco has an amazing, and quite hot, salsa verde hiding under the fish. And there were chipotle pickled red onions across the top. We also had a lengua taco (tongue) ($4.00) and scallop ceviche ($12.00). The ceviche was fun—little scallops stacked on top of a seasoned lime half which you popped in your mouth together to squeeze the juice out of with your teeth. My favorite of the Chinese items was probably the “dancing eggplant” ($9.88) which was a lightly fried whole Chinese eggplant (you know, the ones that are more long and skinny) which was served in a teriyaki/soy thick smoky sauce with black garlic, and had wispy flakes of bonito laying all over the top, and any slight breeze (just from the airflow in the room) made them dance. Not only was it visually beautiful, but it was delicious. We also had some lovely pork belly/shrimp dumplings ($12.88). For dessert, there was a dish called “Giggling Buddha taking a bath” that involved blood orange sorbet and because of the name, I just had to try it. It was really cute. There was pomegranate gelee (fancy name for jello) shaped like a Buddha head, belly and feet swimming in a bowl of "tequila air" and bubbles and with scoops of blood orange sorbet. It was fun, and refreshing (and I love blood orange).

China Poblano

The Cosmopolitan

3708 Las Vegas Blvd., South

Las Vegas, NV 89109

702/698-7900

http://www.chinapoblano.com/

Dinner that evening was Raku, which was a place my friend was really excited about. This is a really interesting place—it is not a restaurant on the strip. It is a few miles off the strip in what is essentially Vegas’ Chinatown. It was really cool just to experience another part of Vegas, a more local side. Anyway, it is a Japanese robota (charcoal) grill restaurant and one of the first things you notice about it is the extreme soothing and well-thought out décor. The walls and table are all warm woods, and even the containers of sauces on the table were beautiful. Don’t even get me started on the bathroom, where there is grass with stepping stones and a tree with birds that are singing and rose petals artfully arranged on the floor. I would go back just for this. But the food was a piece of art in itself as well. Again, it is a small plates shared style of eating, which suits me just fine. One of the food highlights was the agedashi tofu ($10) which is their own housemade tofu that is somehow very lightly fried on the outside edge and served in a lovely broth with teeny little mushrooms. When you break the tofu with your spoon, it is like the richest creamiest custard you can imagine. There was salmon roe on top that popped in your mouth with each bite. My friend could not get over this dish. She said she would eat it every day for the rest of her life if she could. The charcoal grilled items we had were buttery scallops ($7.00 each) and Kobe beef skirt skewers ($7.50 each) with crispy garlic. Both were good, but the Kobe beef was better. Slightly chewy from the fat content, but still wonderfully seasoned and perfectly bite sized and the garlic was a nice crispy counterpoint. Crunchy asparagus spears were a good side dish to get a little bit of vegetables but with crunchy bread crumbs fried on the outside. Yellowtail carpaccio ($12) was buttery and served with just the right, slightly spicy, thick soy based sauce and teeny dabs of wasabi and chili paste. Finally, one of the more interesting dishes was the crispy pig ear ($3). Having had pigs’ ears before, but where the pieces were really thin and deeply fried and crunchy, these were different. They were crisply fried on the outside, but left in thicker pieces (but still bite sized). They were slightly chewy from the cartilage of the ear, but not so much that it was unpleasant. The only downside about this place is that they serve bluefin tuna on their menu which is highly endangered. I really wish they didn’t, but I thought I would put it out there for your information. This place is quite small, and quite popular, so make a reservation if you go.

Aburiya Raku

5030 S. Spring Mountain Road, #2

Las Vegas, NV 89146

702/367-3511

http://www.raku-grill.com/

It was an amazing whirlwind trip to Vegas, and a perfect getaway. You really can just plan a long weekend around food with a little bit of this and that in between. Can't wait to go again--so many more places to try!

Room 4--Revisit

2012-02-20T05:26:00.003-05:00

Recently, I had the opportunity to take advantage of Recess/Room 4’s special lunch hours during Super Bowl week. Even though technically, by the time you read this, you won’t be able to take advantage of it yourself, since they were just offering their normal Room 4 fare, I figured it was game for a post (even though we were actually sitting in Recess) because you can always go to Room 4 and get some similar types of stuff.

I was with the BFF and we both started with the “hangover chicken soup” ($11) which was perfect for me because I felt like I was getting just a touch of a cold, and the spicy rich broth was exactly what I needed. The soup was loaded with pieces of seasoned, tender chicken and a ton of veggies—celery, carrots, onions, jalapenos, tomatoes and zucchini. There was a nice little garnish of cilantro on top. The veggies were tender, but not tasteless mush, like so often happens in soup. But seriously, the thing about this soup was the well-seasoned broth. It had so much flavor, a nice amount of heat, tasted good, and seriously helped out the sinuses. I also liked the lime wedge alongside to add to the freshness from the cilantro.

The grilled fish tacos ($16) were great. I think this was the first time I have had monkfish in a taco, and it was really nice. The fish was grilled, and very slightly charred on the edges, but the fish was really tender and I love the way monkfish has such a sweet taste. But my favorite part about these tacos was all the flavor from all the toppings. There was mashed avocado, a tangy cabbage mix with lime and fresh sliced jalapeno. They were topped with a seasoned crema, which had a little spice, but still gave you the creamy coolness that made the whole thing a perfect combo. I had just a little taste of my friend’s carnitas as well, and it had a nice meaty taste (had cotija cheese and salsa on top) but if I were going back and had the same choice, pretty sure I’d be going with those fish tacos. They were bright and delicious. There was also a black bean salad along with the tacos, and while it was good, I enjoyed the tacos (and soup) so much, I didn't have much room for it.

I was glad to hear that several of our Super Bowl celebrity guests got up to Recess to try the food here. It was good to see a few of them venturing outside of the chain-zone downtown. I am looking forward to a return visit soon for dinner.

Room 4

4907 North College Ave

Indy 46205

317/925-7529

www.recessindy.com

Eggshell Bistro

2012-02-16T05:39:00.001-05:00

If you read my blog regularly, you know I have a thing for eggs. Put a runny egg on top of just about anything, and it gets better. So of course I was instantly intrigued when I heard about Eggshell Bistro, where just about every item on the menu features eggs. When I couldn’t get one of my male friends to meet me there because it was, ahem, “too girly,” I convinced my parents to join me.

The interior is quite cute, and I have to say, possibly a little girly (think “shabby chic”). Lots of antiques and cute little wrought iron tables (my one gripe being that in our particular case, the chairs seemed too short for the table and you felt like you needed a cushion to sit on). The tables for two can also be quite small, but as it turns out, the dishes are on the petite side as well, so it probably all works out.

I ordered the truffled egg brioche which was a fairly thick slice of brioche bread (a slightly more eggy, buttery bread) with a slice of Fontina cheese melted across the top, a very soft poached egg, sprinkles of asparagus and a bit of truffle salt I believe (could have been truffle oil). It was a nice light lunch, not for someone looking for a large meal, but the type of midday meal that I quite enjoy. The egg was certainly not overcooked, which I appreciated, although it actually may have been just a little undercooked even for me—the white was still just a wee bit too runny (not that I didn’t eat every bite, being a woman who will eat a raw egg without blinking an eye). But still, when you want a poached egg, you have a certain expectation. The flavor of the dish was very good though, all the flavors complimenting each other. The asparagus gave it a little crunch and earthy flavor.

I also had a side of Smoking Goose applewood smoked bacon with my dish though, and I have to say, it really made my meal. Alone the egg dish was nice, but with the bacon, I was very happy. That bacon is superb, and they cooked it perfectly. My Mom said something like, “how do they make this bacon taste like bacon used to taste?” It was so good. You must get some of this (or one of the other Smoking Goose meats—I have heard the lamb bacon is amazing too, although I have yet to have it) alongside whatever you order. Just make sure you get enough, my parents kept trying to eat mine.

The menu is somewhat small—a few egg dishes, salads and sandwiches, but I have no problem with that. They are focusing on what they want to do and doing it pretty well. I also like that they are utilizing very fresh, and often local, ingredients. My only other complaint is that it took quite awhile to get our food after we had ordered. I would be a little worried if the place was really full that there might be quite a long delay.

So is it a manly place? Um, probably not. Were there men in there? Yep, at just about every table. If you want a giant, greasy, hangover-curing breakfast, this isn’t your place. If you want a lighter, thoughtful breakfast or lunch with some wonderful ingredients, give it a try. And tell me what you think.

Eggshell Bistro

51 West Carmel City Drive

Carmel, IN 46032

317/660-1616

www.eggshellbistro.com

The Libertine-Revisit

2012-02-14T06:37:00.000-05:00

So, if you have been following me lately, you know I am a fan of The Libertine. I have been excited to see they have been pretty well fully booked with reservations a couple of times when I have tried to make a reservation lately (so happy they are taking reservations now). It makes me happy to see a place I really like be successful, even if it means I can’t go that night.

But the other night, we did get a table reserved and went in to try out the latest menu. We started with the artichoke fritters ($8) and the famer’s cheese and olive tapenade crostini ($10). Both were good, but the artichoke fritters were our clear winner of the two. There were 5 little crispy fried balls that were chock full of artichoke and artichoke flavor. There was a distinct lemon flavor as well and a wonderful cilantro aioli to dip in. We really liked these, to the point we had to cut the last one in half to make sure we were exactly even (often hubby eats more than I do). This was something I don’t think you would want to split between more than 2 people. If I only got one of them, I would have been very, very sad.

The crostini was also good, but is something that I actually could have handled a little less of—it would be a good thing to split with a larger group. It was toasted bread slices with substantial dollops of olive tapenade and the cheese scattered around. It was topped with blood orange oil and fried capers. I enjoyed several pieces, but there was something sharp, almost bitter (the blood orange oil perhaps) that made me only want to eat a few, and not lick the plate clean. I loved the fried capers though—that was a nice touch to add some crispness to all the soft toppings, as well as more saltiness.

For our main dishes, we shared the one-eyed jack ($8) and the chicken thigh confit ($16). If you read my first review of the Libertine, you know I love the one-eyed jack, which is bread cooked in fat with an egg cooked into the middle of the bread. There is roasted garlic on top (which we had to exactly evenly divvy up as well) and fig butter on the side. This was once again, executed perfectly. I only use a teeny bit of the fig butter, because I think too much of the sweetness detracts a little, but I love this dish.

The chicken thigh confit was something I have wanted to try since I saw it on the menu. It is nice pieces of dark meat chicken (no bones) served with celery root hash and a little bacon for flavor as well as a nice handful of fresh parsley on top. I liked it quite a bit, but a few of the pieces of chicken had some tough edges—the celery root hash and the divine rich dark stock in the bowl were my favorite part of the dish actually. And this is exactly why I like the Libertine so much, the dishes are thought out with several different ingredients but that work as a team. They aren’t putting a piece of chicken on your plate with a side of potatoes and some wilty veg.

I also like that even though they have changed the menu format somewhat from the opening to reflect a more traditional menu style (there are starters, small plates and large plates), you can still do what we did and mix it up and share what is basically a combination of smaller things. We did also get a dessert this time, which was their chocolate ricotta pie in a jar and was quite tasty—it was like a slightly lighter cheesecake . There was a bit of a crust on the bottom and the chocolate layer and then a creamy top layer. I liked it a lot. It wasn’t overkill on the chocolate and it wasn’t ridiculously large, but still enough to share.

It’s obvious I like this place, and will continue to look forward to future meals there.

The Libertine

38 East Washington Street

Indy 46205

317/631-3333

www.libertineindy.com

U.S. Adventures - Las Vegas (Part 1)

2012-02-11T13:54:00.001-05:00

Vegas from the Air

Ok, so I totally screwed up and accidentally posted this earlier today, but when it was only half finished and edited, which put it out on lots of people’s readers, so I am just going to re-post it properly today and post what was actually the first half of my recent trip to Vegas on another day, and this, which was the second half of the trip, today. Clear as mud? Good. (I just hate having a half finished thing floating out there).

So recently, I got to go to Las Vegas with a close girlfriend from California (more on that in my next post). And for our last lunch in Vegas, I had chosen RM Seafood just to get something different, and to visit some other casinos, so we headed to Mandalay Bay, which turned out to be much further than it looked to walk. (The Strip seems to do that—you can see that resort, it looks so close!). But as soon as we settled in, we noticed that our server Cliff was exceedingly helpful and knowledgeable about the menu and the wine. He was mellow, but extremely enthusiastic about food, and the restaurant in general. We chatted with him quite a bit about various options and decided to share a couple of things (as usual). We shared a lobster roll ($27) and tuna poke ($20). The lobster roll was completely lovely. Served in a wonderfully buttery, crunchy but light rolls, the inside had mainly lobster and was seasoned with celery, fennel and instead of your usual mayo, they were using crème fraiche which gave it a wonderfully tangy, creamy richness that made it seem more “Vegas.” Our server had recommended we trade out the chips that usually came alongside and get the fries that are tossed with herbs. He was totally right about that. The fries were wonderfully crisp and salty and a nice balance to the creamy sandwich. And it was cut into 2 nice sized halves, making it extremely easy to share.

The poke is cubes of raw tuna (they have an extensive sushi menu as well) that are seasoned with soy, and served in a sort of salad with lots of crunchy shreds of veg-- green onions, red onions, radish and some microgreens. This was nice and light and refreshing. I really enjoyed it as well. Around this point, the manager came over to chat with us for awhile (they weren’t very busy, it was Sunday) and he was also exceptionally friendly. As we talked more (and they both gave us lists of restaurants to try as well as their contact information if we had questions) we discovered that the manager (Chris) was also the Chef Rick Moonen’s son. It explained why he was so interested in customer satisfaction—I mean he was great at his job. So as we were talking, and he was explaining how the restaurants started as a seafood place, but has so much wonderful beef as well, I told him about how I had read somewhere about the beef tartare and how wonderful it was (but it wasn’t on the lunch menu). He and our waiter agreed and then he disappeared only to return with a special (and complimentary) little taste of the tartare. I was amazed at the customer service. While I found nearly everyone in every restaurant very friendly, helpful and professional, this restaurant was the clear winner in the service experience. And really, the food was just as good. Everything was perfectly prepared and presented. And yes, the beef tartare was perfect. Smooth and rich with capers, cornichons, mustard, crispy onions and even a couple of slices of black truffle on top. And this was just a little sample, an amuse bouche ending, as it were. I can only imagine an entire order, which I hear is served normally with those lovely fries…. Oh well, next time. And if you go, be sure and ask for Cliff to be your waiter. This place has got it down, both food-wise and service-wise.

Tartare dessert

RM Seafood

Mandalay Bay

3950 Las Vegas Blvd., South

Las Vegas, NV 89119

702/632-7777

http://www.rmseafood.com/

Our last dinner was L’Atelier de Joel Robouchon. Hubby had just been recently on a business trip and wouldn’t stop talking about it, so I thought I needed to go and see what all the fuss was about. It is a completely open kitchen, and the majority of the seating are bright red bar stools around the kitchen. There are a few tables (maybe 6-8?) but I think it was more fun to sit at the bar. Although, if there were more than 2 of you, you may want to ask for a table because I think it would be hard to talk amongst yourselves. So they have a large, small and larger plates-type a la carte menu as well as two different tasting menus. We went with the smaller 6 course “club” menu (7 really if you include the amuse bouche) at $97 per person. Ok, these are fancy French items with many layers and ingredients and I shall endeavor to remember them all as well as possible, but just keep in mind, it is hard to remember all the nuances, with so many things going on in the dishes. The amuse bouche was a foie gras parfait with a port wine reduction and parmesan foam. Wow, this was amazing. You dipped your little spoon deep down to get some of the custardy foie flavor and came back not only with it, but the port and cheese flavors as well. Amazingly rich and decadent.

The first official course was mussels and mimolette veloute with croutons. So, it was an intensely rich, but not thick, soup with several whole juicy mussels at the bottom. There were dots of red pepper on top and some little crunch saffron croutons alongside. The saffron flavor with the mussels was perfect. Although, my friend and I decided we needed even more to soak up all the drops of the soup, and also used large hunks of bread from the wonderful bread basket (that puff pastry roll was divine.)

The next course was the one I was looking forward to the most I think after talking to hubby. It was a langoustine, which is sort of like a teeny tiny lobster, but so much better. The meat of the langoustine was wrapped in a light pastry wrapper with a couple of basil leaves inside and fried just crispy. The thing about langoustines is they are so sweet and don’t seem to have the tendency to get overcooked the way shrimp and lobster so often do (not that you would likely have that problem at L’Atelier). There was a little basil sauce (they called it pesto, but to me it was more like the pure essence of basil with maybe just a touch of oil) and a teeny little salad of baby green on the side that was dressed with a lovely acidic dressing that was a perfect balance of the sweet shellfish. I saw a regular a la carte order come out of the kitchen and it had three of the fritters. Hmmmm….next time perhaps.

The main course was a choice of beef cheeks or John Dory. I went with the John Dory and it was lovely as well. Two small pieces of fish that are cooked on the hibachi right in front of you. Each piece of fish was topped with chopped tomatoes and capers and served alongside was the most amazing buttery Napa cabbage. It was so tender and buttery, you sort of forgot it was a vegetable. And of course, you get the side of the famous “Robouchon potatoes” which are whipped potatoes which are basically made in a ratio of one part potato to one part butter. True story. And delicious.

A lovelysmall cheese plate was next (and you know that always makes me happy). There were three nice pieces. An Epoisses, a creamy goat cheese, and a third I can’t remember. It was simply served with just some slices of bread, and I would have loved just little fruit or jam, but the cheeses were perfectly a temperature, which seems to be something that very few places pull off.

Lastly there was a dessert course, which was a choice of a selection of tarts or a selection of ice creams and sorbets. We got one of each to share. Honestly, I thought dessert was the weakest part of the meal, although it was fun to try all the different things. My favorite tart was one that involved caramel, chocolate and big salty peanuts. The two best sorbets were the raspberry and the pear. Both tasted of the pure essence of the fruit which is what I enjoy in a sorbet.

L’Atelier is an interesting place though. You would have to be an intensely disciplined to make that kind of food all night in front of your customers I would think. And there’s no yelling and cursing like I sort of imagine a lot of kitchens are like. And watching one of the staff pick celery leaves with tweezers and place them around a fancy dish is an experience. The Chef would make an appearance frequently and mutter lowly about things, rarely smiling. A very serious man for sure. In fact at one point when my friend and I were sort of laughing about some random thing, he sort of turned and glared a little. Eventually we had a chance to speak with him for a moment and tell him how delighted we were with the food and he seemed to soften a bit. But it made the meal memorable for sure, as if the food wasn’t enough.

L’Atelier

MGM Grand

3799 Las Vegas Blvd. S.

Las Vegas, NV 89109

http://www.mgmgrand.com/restaurants/atelier-joel-robuchon-french-restaurant.aspx

First Wok

2012-02-09T06:28:00.004-05:00

On the recommendation of a friend, I stopped in to First Wok on the way home from downtown. I needed something fast and on the way home, and it fit the bill. Plus it was new (to me), which always makes me happy. Also on my friend’s recommendation, I got the chicken wings ($3.45) and a spring roll ($1.20)—and on my own I got some hot and sour soup ($1.85) because a girl cannot live on fried food alone, right? It’s totally a little hole in the wall kind of place, only a couple of tables inside--it is mostly a carry out place.

I was a little hesitant about the wings. I don’t know that I have ever ordered wings at a Chinese place, but am always willing to give something a try. He was right—they were really big, whole wings (not the sad little things you get at so many bars) and they were fried in tasty, crunchy batter. Basically, just some really nice fried chicken. There were 4 in an order which was pretty generous given the price and their size I thought. And I was even kind enough to let hubby eat one of them. He pretty much has been asking for them since. Every time I say, “what should we get for dinner from out?” he is suggesting First Wok just so he can get some wings.

The spring roll was just ok I thought, it was hot and crunchy, but there was some flavor inside it that kind of bugged me—not sure what it was--maybe some certain spice. It was a little sweet almost. The soup was squarely in the middle of hot and sours I have had. It wasn’t totally thick and gloppy like some are, and it had a decent flavor, although not so much heat. Lots of the usual things in there—tofu, mushrooms, egg, and bamboo shoots. I liked that they gave you a little bag of fried wonton chip to go with it (nothing like a little more fried right?)-- I like the crunchiness in my soup.

So, this wasn’t so much a meal as it was a random collection of items to snack on, but the wings are totally worth ordering, and I think it is now the closest fried chicken place to my house, even if it is a Chinese restaurant. And I am inspired to try a few other items as well. Anyone else ever been there?

First Wok

6219 Allisonville Road

Indy 46220

317/253-8448

King Ribs

2012-02-06T06:09:00.002-05:00

Hubby got in the mood for barbecue again (this happens every so often at our house). It is one of the rare categories of restaurants that he seems to have an overwhelming desire to try all of, so I am always willing to indulge. I am not sure why he was so geared up for King Ribs other than I think he likes the fact that it is in an old car wash. Hubby is a car guy.

Anyway, they just do a carry out thing at King Ribs, so we got online and picked out what we wanted. We got the rib dinner (on Sundays it is on special for $7.78 with two sides), some barbecue chicken (half chicken is $4.50) and pulled chicken (1 pound is around $10, but not sure because it isn’t really on the menu). (We wanted the pulled pork, but apparently they were out). We had sides of mac and cheese, potato salad and baked beans.

Here’s the thing. It wasn’t very good. I feel like I say this a lot about barbecue, but honestly I have had some good stuff, and this wasn’t it. The best thing was the half chicken, the meat was not completely dried out and the skin tasted pretty good. But the thing about all of it (and you can tell from the pictures), is that it was completely drenched in the sauce, and the sauce was thin and runny and not the way I like barbecue sauce. It almost seemed like a thin tomato sauce or something. It didn’t have any smoky flavor or and depth at all. We did get the mild, and if I were getting it again, I would certainly get the hot (we got mild because the kids were eating it).

The pulled chicken was dry, and again, just soaked in the sauce. There was a lot of it though. The ribs were actually the worst thing I think—they were the big spare rib type ribs, which don’t tend to be our favorite anyway, but these were exceptionally dry. Literally, I think we each ate one, and then gave up completely. It was sort of a bummer you couldn’t taste more smoke in the meat too—when you drive by you always see those big smokers going outside which has always intrigued me.

The sides were actually not bad. Not amazing or anything, but better than a lot I have had around town. The mac and cheese was probably my favorite. It was made with real cheese, and it had some of those crisp edge bits in it which are my favorite part. My next favorite was probably the potato salad—it had mustard in it and some peppers and pickles maybe? It was at least something to balance the meat, which is what I like in my barbecue sides. The baked beans were pretty standard, although they had some hunks of pork in them.

All in all I would give this place a pass, I have certainly had better barbecued meat elsewhere. I am still on a quest for a place that can do it all well, although maybe that is just a pipe dream.

King Ribs BBQ

4130 N. Keystone Ave

Indy 46205

317/543-0841

Super Bowl Restaurant Guide for Indianapolis

2012-02-02T18:34:00.001-05:00

Hey Super Bowl fans! If you found me, you probably want to know where to eat in Indianapolis, so here’s the skinny on our local food scene (at least my version anyway). I would personally be devastated if you come all the way to Indy only to eat at mediocre chains (and trust me, it wouldn’t be hard). Local friends, help me (and our visitors) out and add your additional suggestions in the comments. Obviously, there are other good places, these are just a few of my favorites. For the restaurants’ websites with information about location, etc., click on their names below.

Downtown Restaurants

One Eyed Jack-The Libertine

The Libertine: This place is a bar with amazing food. It is small, so if you want to go, you better book it right this very second. (Since it’s a bar, no kids). They are going to be open for lunch throughout the Super weekend as well. Do it, you won’t be sad. My review is here.

R Bistro: This is fine, local dining at its best. Local chef, local ingredients, ever changing menu, cool spot on Massachusetts Avenue. You want a nice place for dinner, this is your place (not overly formal though). One of my reviews here. (There are more if you look).

Goose the Market: Where to begin? Goose is an amazing place to grab a sandwich for lunch or groceries or have a drink and a snack in the evening downstairs in the enoteca. Their “Batali” was mentioned by Bon Appetit in an article featuring the best sandwich shops in the country. And trust me, you will be a happy camper with that sandwich (or any of their other daily specials). Check out my latest review here.

Siam Square: Want something a little different? Really great Thai food located in one of my favorite downtown neighborhoods, Fountain Square. It’s hip, and not overly expensive. Love their noodles. Here’s my reviews. Speaking of which, other charmers in Fountain Square include Mama Irma (Peruvian) and Naisa (Chinese).

Shrimp Po Boy at Mesh

Mesh: Technically, it is part of a local restaurant group, but Mesh offers up some quality, familiar food at reasonable prices right on Mass Ave, which is a great place to shop, eat and drink. You can get steaks, sandwiches and pasta dishes along with good drinks in a relaxed, but polished atmosphere. You can check out my posts about Mesh here.

Ball & Biscuit: B&B is another really cool place that while it is mainly a bar, offers great small plates from Indy chef Brad Gates. If you want a great (non-smoking) bar to enjoy some retro cocktails and some medium sized nosh, check them out. Or go have a drink after dinner. You will love this place.

St. Elmo: Want a steak? This is our local Indy legend. Again, good luck getting in if you don’t already have a reservation, but give it a try if red meat is what you want. You might get lucky. And according to locals, you have to try the shrimp cocktail (although, I have to say honestly I am not a huge fan of the insanity-horseradish thing, but that’s just me, apparently.) And here’s my review. If you can’t get in, give Harry & Izzy’s a try—it’s St. Elmo’s more modern little sister (or brother) and you can check them out here.

Sensu: If you want a hip, night clubby feel (this place turns into a night club later in the evening) and good Asian fusion food, Sensu is a good option. This is also a good place to go if you are looking for a little privacy, as it is dark and has several private-ish booths. We had a very nice meal there and it has been on our list to return to ever since. Read my full review here.

Ceviche- Black Market

Black Market: Indy’s gastropub. Also located in the Mass Ave area, Black Market is one of Indy’s newer restaurants and serves hearty comfort food but with a gourmet twist. Also a bar though, so don’t bring the kids.

Downtown Lunch

Several of the above restaurants are open for lunch and several are going to be specially open for the Super Bowl weekend, so you can check them out as an option. But if you are looking for a more causal place for lunch (and in some cases dinner as well), here are some of my favorite downtown lunch spots.

City Market: Indy’s City Market has undergone a great transformation over the last few years and now features mainly local foodservice vendors. This is an amazing place to grab lunch, conveniently located right downtown. You can get local pizza, Greek food, homemade soups and pastries, Mexican food, French crepes, soft pretzels, ice cream, po boys, and food from one of my favorite local chefs, Brad Gates. I have done a few reviews of a couple of the places and you can check them out here.

Hoaglin to Go: Back on Mass Ave, if you are looking for a great breakfast or lunch, check out Hoaglin to Go. It’s a little place with amazing fresh made items like quiche, pancakes, egg dishes and my personal favorite, their egg salad. I also hear they have a killer grilled cheese. Here’s my review.

Tacos at La Parada

La Parada: In the mood for some cheap Mexican food that is really, really good? This is a gem of a place where you can get a ton of food for just a few bucks and think, “wow, that was an awesome taco.” Try the ceviche too. Delicious. Warning, it’s a bit of a dive, but a charming dive. See what I ordered in my recent post. (Since they don’t have a website, their address is 1638 East New York Street, Indianapolis 46210 and their phone is 317/917-0095).

Workingman’s Friend: This may possibly be the best burger in Indianapolis. It is an old bar, but on any given day you will see every type of person from blue collar workers to businesspeople in here enjoying a fantastic burger (oh, and get the onion rings, skip the fries). Here’s my review. (Again, no website, but they are located at 234 N. Belmont Avenue in Indy and their phone number is 317/636-2067).

City Café: This place is a little gem hidden away downtown. Everything is homemade and the ingredients are top notch. Best steak sandwich I have ever had. Tip: Normally, they are not open on Sundays and are only open for breakfast and lunch, but a little birdie (ha, twitter, get it?) told me they will be serving dinner over Super Bowl weekend as well. Here’s my review.

Outside of Downtown

If you are willing to venture a little outside of downtown, we have some amazing restaurants in various locations.

Broad Ripple

Just north of downtown is the Broad Ripple area (probably a 10-15minute drive from downtown). Hit any of these places and you will have a happy belly.

H2O-Tuna Tartare

H2O Sushi: This is one of my all around favorite restaurants. And don’t let the name fool you. While they do serve spectacular sushi, my favorite things are the daily specials listed down the middle of their menu. Wonderful noodle dishes and great tacos. The chefs like to mix it up here, with various Asian influences as well as fun twists on food from other cultures too. I love this place (read more here). If you want to check it out, my advice is make a reservation.

Goat Cheese Quesadilla-Room 4

Recess/Room 4: One of Indy’s most prized restaurants is run by local chef Greg Hardesty. With a new daily menu that is set, you may try some things you wouldn’t normally try, and you will enjoy them all. The focus is on fresh, local ingredients. If you want to dine at Recess, you need a reservation for sure. But if you just want to stop in, give Room 4 a try. Room 4 is the sister restaurant of Recess which is located in the same space, but is more casual, fun, and very approachable a la carte menu. Check out posts on both here. Tip: Both will be open for lunch during Super Bowl week, which is not normally the case.

Taste Café & Marketplace: My favorite lunch spot in the City. Great for breakfast too (and a tip, they serve dinner a couple of nights a week too). Favorite item here by far: the BALT sandwich (bacon, avocado, lettuce and tomato). They add dressing to the lettuce and an herby aioli to the bread. Best sandwich ever. And don’t forget a side of their fabulous frites with basil aioli dip. A perfect lunch. Read more about it here.

Mussels & Frites- Brugge

Brugge: A local favorite for mussels and frites and house brewed beer. Their fries may just be the best in town and with a choice of about a dozen dipping sauces, it’s hard to decide (I like blue cheese, regular garlic aioli and the Sherry vinegar and salt). Check out my review. Open for lunch too!

Pizza- Thr3e Wisemen

Thr3e Wisemen: Currently, Thr3e Wisemen is making one of my favorite pizzas in the City—fresh dough, crispy crust and a great savory tomato sauce. It’s a straightforward menu with pizzas, sandwiches and salads and they brew their own beer. Lots of TVs to watch all the coverage. Here’s what I said about it on my last visit. (Also, the same owner has several restaurants throughout the state, including one downtown called Scotty’s Brewhouse. If you are looking for bar grub, it is a decent local option). Open for lunch and dinner.

Patachou/Napolese: This is a local group of restaurants where you can enjoy a great breakfast or lunch. Basic food, but extremeley fresh and high quality ingredients. Good egg dishes, really nice salads. Napolese is their own Neopolitan pizza restaurant that is quite charming as well. Petite Chou is their French bistro version. I have done reviews of nearly all their concepts in my blog as well if you want further information. And they do have downtown locations.

North

Pizzology: Up in Carmel (about 30 minutes from downtown), there’s a great local pizza place owned by the same people who own The Libertine downtown. It is Neopolitan-style pizza cooked in a wood fired oven. Great salads and pastas too. Tip: try the fritters. Delicious. They don’t take reservations so if you don’t mind a potential wait, you should be able to get a table here. Here’s my latest post.

West

Squealers: my current top choice for barbeque in Indy (although the quest is ongoing). Great ribs and those fried biscuits…well, they are things dreams are made of…Here’s my post on them.

Oakley’s Bistro: About 25 minutes drive from downtown, Oakley’s is a great slightly higher end dining option using seasonal ingredients and a seasonally changing menu. There’s a little something for everyone here. Here’s my latest review.

East

Papa Roux: A little bit of New Orleans in Indy. I personally love the shrimp po boy, but Indy people may tell you to get the pork po boy (also available in the City Market downtown). And here's my review.

South

Brozinni’s: Ok, really this is my favorite pizza, but sadly, I don’t live close enough to have gotten to go more than a few times. Huge, delicious New York style slices and amazing garlic knuckles. If you are on the Southside, this is a must. Check out my post here.

Indiana Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches

Ok, you may or may not be aware that the sort of "unofficial sandwich of Indiana" is the breaded pork tenderloin sandwich. We’re talking a piece of pork tenderloin that is pounded, sometimes very thin and sometimes not, breaded or battered and deep fried. You will see them everywhere, seriously, but clearly some are better than others. Here’s a few I can recommend (I have to admit I am relying on friends for a little bit of help on this one, as I haven’t yet sampled every pork tenderloin in town). The top three are my personal choices and are reviewed in my blog. The others are from trusted friends. Also, there is another local person who does an entire blog called “All Tenderloins, All The time” just about tenderloins if you really want to hear about A LOT of different places.

Muldoon's Tenderloin

Muldoon’s: In an Irish themed bar in Carmel (about 35 minutes north of downtown).

111 West Main Street, Suite 100

Carmel, IN 46032

317/571-1116

Pawn Shop Tenderloin

Pawn Shop: in a somewhat smoky bar about 15-20 minutes from downtown.

2222 East 54^th Street

Indianapolis, IN 46262

317/255-5490

Chatham Tap: good version I picked mainly because they have a downtown location (no kids downtown though). Also a location in Fishers, about 35 minutes northeast of downtown.

719 Massachusetts Avenue

Indianapolis, IN 46204

317/917-8425

8211 East 116^th Street

Fishers, IN 46038

317/845-1090

Steer-In: This place was featured on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives, and I have been told has a great tenderloin.

5130 East 10^th Street

Indianapolis, IN

317/356-0996

Sahm’s: Several people have mentioned Sahm’s has a great tenderloin, and they have several locations including one downtown.

433 North Capitol (check out their website for all their locations around Indy)

Indianapolis, IN

317/822-9903

Jimmy B’s : in a little strip mall north about 25-30 minutes from downtown

10598 North College Ave

Indianapolis, IN 46280

317/848-7364

Beer!

Finally, Indy has quite a thriving craft beer loving population and there are some great places to drink quality beer (much of it brewed locally) downtown and in Broad Ripple (as well as other places). This is not my area of expertise for sure, but I know a lot of people love their beer, so I wanted to give you a good place to look to find out the best places to drink. Check out the Hoosier Beer Geek blog, particularly this page which gives you the run down on different areas and places to check out. Cheers!

I would love to hear feedback from out of towners about places they visit and their overall Indy experience! And don’t hesitate to email me personally for any other specific recommendations at erininindy@gmail.com.

Jersey’s Café

2012-02-02T05:33:00.001-05:00

This place is interesting. It was featured awhile back on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and apparently was very overwhelmed for awhile. When I was doing a little research beforehand about the place, nearly all the comments were about how slow it was. I am not sure if the business has died down a bit since the show first aired, or if they have just gotten a handle on it. It certainly isn’t fast, that’s for sure, but I thought the wait was reasonable (about 25 minutes to get our food). Maybe that was just because I was expecting so much longer. Our server was also really nice I thought which also probably helped.

So I guess one of the things they are known for are the Philly Cheese steak style sandwiches, and they have a ton of different variations of them on the menu, but I was intrigued by other things and went a different route. The sandwich I had was called the “Ham and Egg” ($8.99 with a side). So it was enormous for sure, that was the first thing I noticed about it. The bread was that really thick cut soft Vienna loaf bread. The toppings were smoked ham (really thinly sliced), bacon, egg salad, grilled onions (they call them “onion rings”), American cheese and a pepper parmesan sauce. I really liked this sandwich a lot. Of course ham, bacon and eggs go perfectly together, but the ham was nice and smoky, which added nice flavor. And the onions added some texture variation and a little more bite to the rich ingredients. The bacon was crispy and tasty too. The egg salad was how I liked it, not too fancy, just simple eggs, mayo and salt and pepper. It was really big like everything is at this place—I only ate about half. For my side I got the mustard potato salad (they also have red skinned potato salad) because I tend to like the kick the mustard adds, but honestly, after having a bite of my friend’s red skinned salad, his was better. It was creamy and just had more flavor to it. The mustard salad could have stood to be a little creamier.

My friend had the Parsippany sandwich which is a cold hoagie type sandwich—the toppings were ham, pepperoni, capicola (a pork cold cut that taste similar to prosciutto), olive tapenade, roasted red peppers, provolone cheese and a bunch of lettuce. My bite of this was pretty tasty too—I really liked the olive tapenade with all that meat. I didn’t really care for all the lettuce and other things piled on top—it looked like it made it hard to eat.

All in all, my experience at Jersey’s was a good one—it does get quite crowded at lunch—we went a little early to try and avoid the crowd and did a good job. And since it does take a little while to get your food, if you get there on the early side, you are still eating close to lunch time right? But by the time we left, it was pretty well packed. The menu is huge and I look forward to trying a bunch of other things on the menu there, including one of the Philly-style sandwiches (I was sort of attracted to the “Bronx Bomber.”) Anyone been and found something they really liked? You know I want to hear all about it!

Jersey’s Café

13710 North Meridian Street

Carmel, IN 46032

317/846-7760

www.jerseyscafe.com

Look! I'm on PBS!

2012-01-31T08:08:00.000-05:00

I am very proud to share with you this article that I was asked to write for PBS Food regarding our Indy food scene and the Superbowl!

I hope you enjoy it!

http://www.pbs.org/food/features/indianapolis-food-restaurants/

Long Thanh

2012-01-30T06:26:00.002-05:00

Some friends of mine recently challenged me on twitter about my lack of pho love and suggested I try Long Thanh to get some that I might like. I was kind of surprised that they liked this place so much because it is really super close to my house and I have never eaten there. I will admit, I went in once shortly after we moved here, and picked up a menu, but just never went back. Since then, they have classed the place up a bit with some décor (I remember it being just pretty much white all over and kind of divey) and some tablecloths. Also, the lady who waited on me both times (one of the husband/wife owners I believe) was really nice and when I came the second time remembered me and asked me if I wanted the same drink.

So I met my friends for lunch shortly after their recommendation to see if they were right. Although, on this first trip, I didn’t order the pho. Just being difficult I guess, but I haven’t found pho in Indy that I really like yet, so I wanted to try something else first and get an idea if I liked the place before I moved on to something that I am obviously kind of picky about. I had a Vietnamese spring roll (you know, the non-fried kind)($2.75 for 2) and the “grilled shrimp noodle”(#54)($6.95). So, I have to admit, those non-fried spring rolls don’t usually really get me going unless they are wrapped really tight and are small and easy to eat. And it helps if there is a fair amount of meat in them (I like to be able to see several shrimp). This one was more like a salad roll with mostly (fresh) greens—lettuce and herbs. There was a little meat in it, but not much. And it was kind of fat and messy and not my favorite thing. They were served with a thick, plum sauce with peanuts on top to dip in though which helped a bit.

I really liked the noodles and shrimp dish though—it was a bowl filled with lettuce and bean sprouts and topped with hot rice noodles, and sautéed shrimp and green onions. There were some crushed peanuts on top as well as some shredded carrots. I really like rice noodles in general—they are lighter and don’t feel so filling and the combo of the nicely cooked shrimp with some noodles and some crunchy veggies from the bottom of the bowl was good. It was served with a light, slightly sweet sauce (with a bit of chili paste and garlic it) that I enjoyed dunking my noodles into. So they were right, I was liking this place.

So the next challenge was to go back and get the pho and see how it went. I met a friend again (different one this time) and we started with the Vietnamese pancake ($6.95). I love these in general, and this one in particular. It was truly like a crepe, they way I like them, light and really thin but perfectly crispy on the edges. Folded inside were sprouts, sautéed onions, pork, shrimp, and with cilantro and romaine lettuce on the side and served with some of the same sauce I had above with my noodles. My only complaint, if I had one, is that the inside stuff was just a little oily, but not so much that it stopped us from eating ALL of it. And it is pretty generous in size. I would certainly get this again. I really really liked how crisp the outside was. Perfect.

So, I got the rare beef pho ($6.75). And guess what? I liked it. This is the first pho I have had in Indy where I felt like the dish really had some flavor. And the flavor comes from the broth—the noodles are the same rice noodles that I had had in the dish before and they are just a complement to the broth really. There are also some sautéed onions and green onions in the bowl as well as the very thin slices of beef. So, of course, there is no way the beef really stays rare in that steaming broth, but these pieces of beef were thin and tender and very good. I thought they were fairly plentiful as well as I kept making sure I got all of them. You are also served a fresh plate with bean sprouts, basil, cilantro, jalapeno slices and a juicy lime wedge. I did add some of all of this into the bowl, which more than anything added a wonderful aroma. I did not have to add any sauces to it, which I have had to do in the past at other places just to get a little flavor. The broth stood on its own and I can officially say I found a pho that I liked. Cheers to my friends who recommended it (and if you have a favorite pho location, please share!).

Long Thanh

5707 East 71^st Street

Indy 46220

317/842-6499

Circle City Sweets/Circle City Soups--Revisit

2012-01-25T06:30:00.001-05:00

Recently the schedules in our house changed and my lovely daughter and I find ourselves downtown every Saturday at lunch time (she has ballet in the morning). So we have started trying to take advantage of being there to try some new things for lunch. The last couple of weeks we have hit the City Market which has been really fun, and we can both get different things and enjoy the Winter Farmer’s Market as well.

So this week, I was sort of torn about what to get and ended up lured back to Circle City Sweets/Soups. When we got there (and I think all day on Saturdays) they were still offering breakfast sandwiches served on their own fresh made croissants ($5) so we got one of those to share as well as a cup of the tomato bisque ($2). First of all, that croissant was amazing. Warm and flaky and buttery, but with just the right amount of crunch…literally my mouth is watering right now as I type this. The “American” sandwich that we got included scrambled eggs that were very well seasoned, bacon, and American cheese. It was simple, but delicious. And quite generous in size, particularly given the price. They also offer a “French” version with City ham from Smoking Goose and gruyere which will likely be on the top of my list next time.

The tomato soup was also really good. Rich and creamy, but with still the distinct acidity from the tomatoes. The soup was topped with bacon gruyere croutons-- I mean you can’t really go wrong with that, and I appreciate the texture variation in the super creamy soup. A great little combination. And I love the fact that Circle City Sweets and Circle City Soups are a collaboration of a wife (the sweets, and those wonderful croissants) and husband (the soups, and the rest of my sandwich). They have got a great thing working there.

A little side item, from a different stall, but worth mentioning was the order of pretzel bites we got at A Taste of Philly Pretzels (guess who wanted those?). I liked that they made little bite sized pieces and they are tasty soft pretzels for sure. A frequent purchase by my kids at the Broad Ripple Farmers Market in the summer as well. My daughter wanted her pretzel bites photographed, and of course I was happy to oblige.

Yes, I was the dork taking a picture
of the trash can

I also wanted to mention a follow up from a post I wrote last summer in which I complained about the overabundance of Styrofoam use at various vendors. Neither of the vendors mentioned in this post use Styrofoam in their businesses and I recently saw a tweet from the City Market saying it was one of their goals to get rid of it throughout the market this year. That is certainly good news. As is all of the recycling cans next to the trash cans throughout, which I also don’t remember seeing this past summer. I am a crazy recycler, and find it nearly physically impossible to put something into a trash can that can be recycled. Very happy to see these changes!

Now, of course I would love to hear good kid friendly Saturday suggestions for future lunches downtown with the daughter.

Circle City Sweets

Indianapolis City Markey

222 East Market Street

Indy 46204

317/632-3644

www.circlecitysweets.com

Circle City Soups

Indianapolis City Markey

222 East Market Street

Indy 46204

317/956-2395

A Taste Of Philly Pretzels

Indianapolis City Markey

222 East Market Street

Indy 46204

317/828-6753

www.indypretzel.com

Red Habanero

2012-01-19T06:13:00.012-05:00

We had a limited amount of time for lunch after getting hubby’s car serviced nearby and popped into Red Habanero because I had heard some good things about it and also because I heard it was taqueria style and so I assumed it would be fast. It is kind of an interesting place because they have very detailed menu items describing some of the menu items, but then when you order them, they sort of wait for you to tell them how you want it made. I appreciate that you can get it as you want, but just prepare yourself for that if you go.

I went with a lunch special combination of a taco and an enchilada which also came with rice ($7.99). You choose what fillings, etc. you want and I had a chicken enchilada with red sauce and a steak taco (they have 3 kinds of beef I believe—shredded, ground and the steak, which is like a carne asada). Interestingly, there is no pork on the menu at all (that I saw anyway). We also got some guacamole and chips ($2.99). The chips were fine, nothing really special there. The guac wasn’t bad; it definitely had more seasoning than others I have had recently, but nothing out of this world.

I really liked my steak taco though. I sort of ended up with a strange combination of things on it, because they normally put cheese, tomatoes and lettuce on them. I asked for no lettuce and to add some onions and cilantro. I also asked for some sour cream on the side (mainly for my enchilada) and he put it on top of my taco. But the taco ended up being my favorite thing. The beef is really good. Really, really flavorful. Oh, and I should mention the salsa bar where they have like 6-7 different types of salsas to try. I got the mild and the medium to start, and thought it was interesting—the mild actually had more flavor because it was just more seasoned with cilantro—it wasn’t spicy, but neither was the medium really. We ended up trying several of the others and enjoyed the tomatillo blend as well, which was more spicy but not too hot.

My enchilada was just ok. The chicken inside suffered from being too dry and there wasn’t anything else in there to help it out. The red sauce on top was good. I thought it had more heat than several of the salsas actually. I just had a quick bite of the rice because it was there, but nothing about it made me want to eat more (rarely does this happen with me and Mexican rice though).

Hubby had the cilantro-cream burrito ($6.99) which was your classic enormous taqueria burrito filled with chicken and a cilantro cream sauce as well as black beans, and rice and whatever else you wanted. He also had onions and cilantro. The burritos also come with chips on the side. I thought it had a pretty good flavor, but again, the chicken was dry—although with the sauce, it helped a lot and I certainly preferred it to my enchilada even though it was the same chicken.

So I can see how this place might be a go-to lunch place if you worked in the area. I think you could refine what is really good (I really liked the beef) and put together some good combos. It is pretty reasonably priced for a lot of food, if that is what you are looking for. Hubby ate most of his burrito and was moaning about it for several hours after. And they have hard alcohol—which seems a little out of place in this casual atmosphere, but if you want a margarita with your food, you can get one. Anyway, those of you who are Red Habanero fans, I would be interested to hear what you order that you really like.

Red Habanero

4825 East 96^th Street (and there is another location in Fishers)

Indy 46240

317/571-9642

www.Redhabanerogrill.net

Sapporo Japanese Steakhouse

2012-01-16T06:59:00.013-05:00

It was Saturday. It was Castleton. The kids were hungry. We were screwed. We were looking for somewhere to eat (we promised them dinner out) and got shut out of a couple of places because we just wouldn’t wait forever. In desperation, I remembered there was another Japanese steakhouse nearby and I think I have mentioned that my kids love Benihana, so they would love it right? And we could get in without a reservation.

So we were going for the whole teppanyaki cook it at your table experience because my kids are big fans. And forgive me for comparing the whole experience to Benihana, but it is sort of unavoidable for me particularly since we have eaten there so many times. When you order dinner, you get the traditional clear soup with thinly sliced mushrooms and fried onions. I have to say this one had a little more flavor than others I have had. The salad was your typical iceberg lettuce with a ginger dressing. This was the type that was more mayo based and creamy and I prefer the purely gingery vinaigrette type as far as Japanese restaurant salads go.

I had the filet and shrimp combination ($26.95 includes soup, salad and shrimp app) and hubby had a combination of flounder and shrimp ($20.95). We always share in these kinds of meals. My son, the steak eater, also had filet (happy to see it as an option on the kid’s menu). My daughter had the shrimp. The kids both had the fried rice option as well. So they really liked the fried rice. I noticed they make it with a lot less veggies, no chicken, and a lot more sauces than at other places. It tasted okay to me, but it apparently really appealed to the kids. I did like that there were a lot more sautéed veggies offered with each meal—there were bean sprouts, broccoli, carrots, onions and zucchini and a lot of them. I appreciated this a bit more than the kids though.

Unfortunately after that, things went sort of south. Both the shrimp and the steaks were overcooked and lacking any real seasoning. My son, pointed it out quite loudly that in fact, his steak was not medium rare as he ordered it (my son declares everything very loudly—he really needs volume control). I don’t know, maybe the guy just does the meat that way regardless of how you order it, or maybe he was just having an off night. The shrimp were also a little tough. They don’t cut them up the same way they do at Benihana, which I think is a mistake because they are probably afraid of undercooking them, and went too far the other way. The flounder on hubby’s dish may have been one of the better things, it was cooked properly and was tender and I liked the flavoring they put on it while they were cooking it. I thought the fish was just a little bit fishy though.

All in all, it wasn’t a great experience food-wise, but I will say our chef was quite flashy and skilled with all the teppanyaki tricks. They do the big flames here, and he was tossing eggs all over the place. That part he had down anyway. The interior is tired though, other than the very cool koi ponds as you walk in (even with a little bridge across it—the kids were digging this). It pretty much looks like it was opened in the 80s and hasn’t been touched since. Oh well, at least we managed to find a non-chain restaurant in Castleton—that alone earns us a medal right?

Sapporo

6342 East 82^nd Street

Indy 46250

317/570-7333

www.steakhouseindy.com

A Few of My Favorite Places: Brad Gates Catering

2012-01-12T11:18:00.000-05:00

I haven’t done a favorite places post in awhile, and I thought it would be a good fit to talk about Brad Gates Catering again. Brad has catered a couple of events for me in the last month or two and he is certainly my go to person for this kind of need. Most recently, he catered my birthday and did a great job. I’ll just tell you a couple of highlights, mainly because there was a lot of wine consumed on this particular night, and some of my recollections of particular details are somewhat foggy (also explains the lack of pictures). We had a smallish group, but Brad still provided us with lots of different small tastes to enjoy and the food was great.

I helped to choose the menu somewhat, but also let Brad come up with most of the ideas. There were a couple of things I have had before and a lot of new stuff. It was all good. Really good. One of the the things I loved was the chilied salmon nachos. They were chips with some nicely seasoned salmon, pico de gallo and avocado crème fraiche. They were easy to eat which meant I ate a lot of them. And I loved that most everything we had was finger food-ish so we all just sort of munched and hung out. We also had lamp chops Milanese that surprised me—I was a little skeptical because they were breaded and I worried they might be tough or overcooked. But they weren’t. They were super tender and perfectly medium rare. There was also a great pork wonton soup-- he did little individual spoons with a wonton in each. Those wontons were amazing. Such tender pork.

Anyway, if you are ever in the market for a caterer, I would heartily recommend Brad Gates. He also recently did the food for an anniversary party for my parents and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it as well (including me). The menu was completely different, and maybe slightly more traditional (per my request), but just as good. He is also a really nice guy whom you don’t mind having in your house for several hours (there are some I have met I would not say this about).

And, I wanted to get this posted because I just saw on facebook that Brad is continuing one of my personal favorite traditions—delivery Valentine’s Day dinners. He creates a menu and you can tell him how many dinners you want and it is delivered to your house in a cute basket. This is a perfect scenario for me because a) I hate going out on Valentine’s Day and b) I love Brad’s food. So check it out—last year’s pork shoulder was extremely memorable. It is a great way to get a great meal prepared for you by one of my favorite local chefs without having to have a party to cater. You can also check out his food locally at the Ball & Biscuit.

Brad Gates Catering & Events

317-292-4259

www.bradgatescatering.com

4 Years and Counting...

2012-01-10T05:07:00.011-05:00

So, 4 years ago today I started this blog. I have to say, friends ask me if I am burnt out on blogging and I can safely say, I am not. There are those days for sure, but in general, I actually think I like it now more than ever. It has become sort of like a job (a really crappily paid job, but at least I like it). I have met a lot of people I never would have met otherwise, and have made a lot of friends, some just online friends and some who have become very good real life friends. How cool is that? Certainly a perk I wasn’t expecting (or even thinking of) when I started this whole thing four years ago.

Some of you guys I feel like I know, even though I may only know you through recurring comments, emails or conversations with you on twitter. (I worry when I don’t hear from some of you for too long, is that weird?) But one thing I would like to say is how much I LOVE it, and you, when you take the time and make the effort to leave me a comment on the blog. I like having that record here so that everyone who reads it can read your comments too, even if they read the post 6 months later.

So, for me, I am asking a question of you--have you ever gone to a new restaurant solely based on one of my reviews? I would love to hear if you have and if so, where (and what did you think?). I want to hear about how my blog might have helped get people to try new places around town. And of course, feel free to leave any other comment you wish as well, and as always, keep all your recommendations coming! I seriously go to probably 80% of the places I choose based solely on reader recommendations. And any thoughts about ways to improve, etc. are welcome too.

Thanks for reading!

Happy Eating,

Erin

Revolucion

2012-01-09T06:28:00.002-05:00

This one’s been on the list awhile. You know I love Fountain Square, and as the friend we were with commented as we drove towards Prospect Street, “now you really feel like you are in a city.” I agree—I love the way Fountain Square feels and I love the fact that nearly everything there is an independently owned restaurant or store. This is a gem of a neighborhood. AND the construction is just about totally finished, and you can even park!

Anyhow, we walked into Revolucion about 6:30 and there were some people at the bar, but the rest of the place was pretty empty. This is a place where you just find a place to sit and then go up to the bar to order. I knew this ahead of time from reading a few things about it, and so wasn’t a big deal for me, but might be confusing to some. We started with a margarita—they were o.k. In general, I really like margaritas (on the rocks with salt) but these were just a little too tart for me. Whatever mix they were using (it was in a big vat at the bar) wouldn’t have been the one I would have chosen, or maybe I just needed more alcohol in mine to smooth it out or something. They were offering $2 tequila shots—maybe I should have added one of those to my drink. I also can’t tell you how much the margarita was because it wasn’t listed on the menu, and I never saw an itemized receipt.

The started with chips and guacamole and salsa ($5.95). The chips were nice and salty, as I like them, and fairly thin. The guac was clearly homemade and was good. It was super chunky with avocado, which is how I like it, but if I were making it (and I like to), I would have added more seasoning. Onion, jalapeno, cilantro…. There were some obvious bits of tomato in there, and a little cilantro, but I didn’t see or taste much else. I would personally like it spiced up a bit. Or maybe offer it mild and spicy or something. With all that said, we licked the little container clean and would have eaten more. The chips and salsa were about $3 if I recall correctly. They list a choice of 3 salsas on the menu, but just had the regular red salsa to serve. It was just o.k.. a little watery. I would probably stick with the guac.

We also ordered the patatas bravas ($4.95) which were basically fried potato wedges (skin on) that were tossed in a somewhat spicy, chipotle chili sauce. I have had a similar version of these at several tapas places before, although usually they were more like chunks. These seem more like they found some decent foodservice fries and then tossed in their own sauce. Honestly though, they were kind of addicting. Especially the smaller ones that were a tad more crispy. I had a hard time not eating them. If they fried them all a little crispier, I would have a hard time not ordering them again.

So, now we moved on to the tacos. The menu here is pretty small, which I appreciate. Other than the few starters, they basically just offer tacos and burgers. I generally think this is a good thing and gives them a chance to hopefully really shine. We had the beef, the pork, and the shrimp. Meat and veg tacos are $5.95 for two and the seafood are $6.95 for two. And just an FYI, you can’t mix and match flavors. You get 2 of the same flavor per order.

When they brought them out, the nice man working in the kitchen also brought us out a large sampler of housemade hot sauces. When I saw his enthusiasm about the different sauces, I started to see there was some passion in these for sure. There was a green sauce that was half regular jalapeno and part pickled jalapeno that was my favorite (and likely the most mild, but still had great flavor). There were several others including a pink one that he gave with an extreme warning. He also advised us to try all the sauces on a chip first, so we didn’t ruin our tacos. That made me laugh. The tacos were all fine. I am trying to think if I had a clear favorite and I can’t honestly say that I did. The shrimp was seasoned nicely with lime and garlic and they were not overcooked. There was a bit of cabbage on top, and they were served with a mango salsa and lime. The beef had a nicely seasoned flavor and were served with a pico de gallo topping and lime. The pork was kind of interesting. It was almost more like eating a pulled pork taco then an al pastor taco, if you know what I mean. It was more shredded and heavily seasoned with what was almost more of a sauce than what you see on your typical pork taco. Like I said, they were all pretty good, but none of them really stood out to me for any particular reason. We did enjoy experimenting with the sauces.

The interior of the place is quite large, and is extremely clean. The service, such as it is, was fine (and I mean as far as going up to the bar and ordering). The drinks were made quickly and the food came out of the kitchen promptly. My favorite part was when they guy from the kitchen came out—it’s clear he enjoys his job.

So overall, we had a fun night with a friend, and it was fun to try everything. Would I personally make it a destination for dinner? No. If I wanted some kick ass tacos in this genre, I would head over to La Parada and get them for about half the price. If I were out in Fountain Square, maybe checking out a band at Radio Radio (love that place and I think it is owned by the same people who own Revolucion) and wanted something to eat, yep, I’d go again. I would probably stick with beer though. And I’d like to try the fish tacos as well. Also, I heard there’s a cool tiki bar in back, although it was cold when we were there and we didn’t check it out. And I am glad to see more and more things opening up in Fountain Square. I love that part of town.

Revolucion

1132 Prospect Street

Indy 46203

317/423-9490

They’re on facebook, although difficult to find a menu anywhere online

Tomo

2012-01-05T08:42:00.001-05:00

Tomo is another really close restaurant to me that I have never been to—and recently has been recommended by a couple of people, so we thought we would check it out. The first thing I noticed was how well it was doing on a random Tuesday night—nice to see a small business like this with such good business. The other thing I noticed right away was the interior is pretty darn nice. I guess for a strip mall outside of Wal Mart, I didn’t have high hopes. But they have done a good job on the interior. There are a few teppanyaki tables (a la Benihana) and then a larger restaurant area with a full bar. We figured if we liked what we had, we may bring the kids back for the teppanyaki as Benihana is one of their favorite places.

The menu is quite large—the regular sushi type items as well as lots of other Japanese options (teriyaki, udon, etc) and even a few Thai dishes. Of course huge menus always worry me, but you never know. We started with an order of shrimp tempura ($6.95) for an appetizer (they have it as a dinner and an appetizer, we got the appetizer portion). It was pretty good actually. I always find it interesting to see how much tempura can vary from place to place, but their batter was very light and extremely crunchy. My favorite part was that along with the shrimp (there were 2), they served several veggies, as is usually the case, and they served broccoli as one as well as eggplant, which are two of my favorite things to be done in this style. I’m not sure why, but in San Francisco, they almost always offered both, and I got used to it—I get tired of the traditional squash and carrots you seem to see so many places here. The zucchini was also really good.

We almost didn’t order the tempura, because it didn’t seem that exciting, but I am glad we did because it was probably our favorite thing of the evening. We had some miso soup ($1.95) which was your standard miso soup, totally fine, nothing out of the ordinary. Then we had the beef tataki ($9.95). Normally I wouldn’t order beef in a Japanese restaurant (well a sushi place anyway), but because they did all the teppanyaki stuff, I knew they would turn over beef (and all of those tables were full while we were there). It was lightly seared on the edges, and sliced thin, served nearly raw (except for the sear on the edges)and cold. This dish was fine, but nothing about it made us really excited. The beef was pretty tender, but there were some pieces that were a little too fatty. The “chef’s special sauce” was a little overdone—the beef was really almost floating in it. It was soy based, with some sweetness to it as well. A little less of it would have been better. There were lots of chopped chives on top as well, which I liked for some texture. It is a very generous portion though.

Finally, we went with the sweetheart roll ($12.95) which was spicy tuna crunch on the inside (tuna mixed with little pieces of tempura bits) and then topped with fresh tuna, which was served in a cute way (it’s upside down because they put the heart facing hubby, go figure). The heart was actually made up of several sauces, which were good with the rolls, and kind of necessary, because the roll on its own wasn’t that exciting. But while I thought the whole thing was a creative presentation, I think I would have preferred the whole thing served as a regular roll with some sauce dressing it. The “spicy” tuna in the middle didn’t really have a lot of flavor and the first piece I ate had a large piece of tempura that was quite hard and made me think for a second I bit into something else. This roll would be a skip for me.

The service was good all night—not super friendly, but extremely efficient and they never let your water glass get more than 1/3 empty before they were refilling it. I also really really like the fruit flavored Japanese bubble gum they give you with your check. But then again I have a weakness for it. Honestly, it is possible I will go back just to get the gum.

Interestingly, the clientele (other than the teppanyaki grills which were dominated by families) on the night we were there was mainly made up of women—probably varying from their 20s to 40s. Not sure why this is, but I was facing the door and just kept watching group after group of women coming in.

We have quite a few good sushi places around us, and several that are better as far as my food experience has gone, but I did like the interior, and I would possibly be willing to go back to try some other things. Recommendations?

Tomo

7411 North Keystone, Suite A

Indy 46240

317/254-8666

www.tomo123.com

Thai Spice

2012-01-02T08:40:00.000-05:00

Hey, Southsiders! Look, I’m doing a southside post! I know, I don’t do that many, but it is a long drive for me after all. But vacation meant we had a little extra time so we decided to try Thai Spice finally. Every time I write about Thai food, several people always mention Thai Spice. But believe me, driving right by Brozinni’s was a test of my will power.

So the restaurant is set in what looks like an old bank, you know those ones that look sort of like schoolhouses or something? And the interior is pretty cute. They have spent some money on it and they have lots of cute glass lotus light fixtures. I liked them. (Check out my shot of the bathroom sink too.) I was a little annoyed that they sat another couple right next to us when there were many other tables available, but that’s just one of my pet peeves.

We were there at lunch, and they have a more limited menu, and each lunch came with soup, a fried spring roll and what I think was a little slice of fried banana with a honey sauce on top (all lunches are $7.80). I am thinking it was lemongrass soup—and there were bits of onion, cilantro, tomato and mushrooms in it, and a touch of chili oil, but honestly, it didn’t have a lot of flavor. Sometimes I really like the little freebie Thai soups and sometimes they are just ok, this one was just ok. The two fried items were pretty good, although not very hot, like maybe they make them up in batches and keep them warm. But a nice assortment of stuff to try before your meal.

Hubby and I shared a couple of things—his all time favorite, the Padd Seuw which is the wide Thai noodles stir fried with Chinese broccoli, bok choy and protein of your choice. He actually asked for pork, but got chicken, but it was still really really good. The chicken was tender and the dish had a great garlic flavor—a tiny bit of sweetness, a little acid, and some saltiness from soy as well. The rice noodles were fresh and so good—we both wished for more of them. I would get this again in a second.

The other dish we tried was the Padd Ped which was a rice dish with stir fried chicken (again, your choice of protein) with eggplant, green beans and basil and bamboo shoots in a red chili paste sauce. Neither one of us cared for this one. This was a new (and unfamiliar) dish for me (trying new things you know) and there was coconut milk in it, and I am not a big fan of coconut milk. If it had been listed, I wouldn’t have ordered it. Also, the eggplant was the little round green Thai eggplant and honestly, I am not sure I have ever had them before, but they were kind of hard as a rock. Not sure if they were just not cooked enough, but I did not care for them. Live and learn. We left most of this dish.

The service was very friendly and fairly fast, and I was impressed when the lady chased us to the door asking us if she could make us something else that we might like better. She was quite distressed that we didn’t like the Padd Ped. I thought that was nice. And honestly, if hubby weren’t in such a rush, I might have just taken her up on it. Of course, she could have just taken it off the bill, but I wouldn’t expect that just because I ordered something I didn’t really like.

Anyway, I can see why people like this place, and if it were nearby, I would certainly add it into my rotation.

Thai Spice

2220 East County Line Rd

Indy 46227

317/881-2243

http://www.thaispiceindy.com/

Chatham Tap

2011-12-29T07:06:00.002-05:00

I was intrigued about some comments about Chatham Tap’s tenderloins (and sides) after my Muldoon’s review and after asking around and finding out that at least the location in Fishers is family friendly, we loaded up the kids one night to give it a try (anyone know about the downtown location? Is it kid friendly?) It had only been a couple of weeks since we tried Muldoon’s, so it was still pretty fresh and a good time to make a comparison.

Based on a reader comment (thanks, Tom H.), we went with an order of the breadsticks ($5.99 with an up charge to add a second sauce) to start (also because it is something that all four of us would eat). I have to say, they were a highlight. The dough (assuming the same as their pizza dough, as they have a fairly extensive pizza menu) was cut into rectangles slices of bread (rather than your traditional “stick” form) and were topped with herbs and seasonings—thinking garlic, salt and pepper and maybe some fresh parsley. They tasted really good—really hot, soft inside and just the right amount of chewiness to the crust. They had three dipping sauces, the traditional marinara and nacho cheese, but they also offered a garlic ranch which was nice to see. We got the cheese for the kids and the garlic ranch for us and we were quite happy. And my son even preferred the ranch. I mean, honestly, it was just good, garlicky ranch salad dressing, but it was a nice change of pace. I would certainly order these again.

Hubby and I decided to sort of repeat our meals from Muldoon’s to compare and so we split a pork tenderloin sandwich ($7.49) and the ½ order of fish and chips ($7.49). The tenderloin was a good sandwich. Did it live up to the Muldoon’s version? I have to say no. It was a little dryer and less even in size. It did have a nice flavor and I liked the Brioche bun. We did have to ask for mayo to put on it, but once it was all put together, it was tasty, just not amazing.

The fish and chips were pretty good as well—these were the true beer battered type of fish fillets—they are really more like fish fingers in form, but you can tell they are hand battering them in house. The fish was pretty tender. And my son really enjoyed them as well. The ½ order was more than enough for me as well—there were 4 “fingers” on the plate and a fair amount of fries. I think the full order has twice as many pieces of fish on the plate. I saw plates coming out and it was seriously piled up.

My kids were not as excited about their food. My son particularly, may in fact be a steak snob. He ordered the ribeye from the kid’s menu (which he was SO excited to see on the kid’s menu) ($6.49). Unfortunately, it was really thin, and there was pretty much no way they could have made it medium rare no matter how hard they tried. I should have known better than to expect a ribeye on a kids menu to be anything but this really thin thing, but you can’t know until you try. He was happy eating some of my fish and chips and declared them his new favorite thing. My daughter ordered a grilled cheese ($4.99), which I am pretty sure was made with slices of smoked gouda, which was a little more of a distinctive flavor than she wanted. She also said she didn’t like that the cheese wasn’t really melted (it’s true, it wasn’t). I did appreciate the fresh slices of apples and pears served with the kid’s dishes.

I was also told by several people that the sides at Chatham Tap are much better than the ones we had at Muldoon’s, which was certainly true. The fries are the lightly battered type, with a nice flavor and crunch. But the star side were the housemade potato chips. They were not too thick, but still nice and hearty with great crunchiness. Honestly, I would skip the fries (which I doubt are housemade) and get the chips instead.

Our server was very friendly and our drinks were brought fast. The food service was a little slow—I was a little surprised by it actually, although the place was pretty busy (and was on a wait by the time we left). I liked the interior—it really felt like an English Pub, although without all the smoke (which I totally appreciate).

Overall, we enjoyed our visit, and it was fun comparing the tenderloins. This one was a good one, although, I have still had a couple I like better. But we are still always open to future suggestions!

Chatham Tap

8211 East 116th Street

Fishers, IN 46038

317/845-1090