Indianapolis Restaurant Scene

Shanghai Lil - Dim Sum Revisit

2013-05-23T04:08:00.000-04:00

I heard a rumor the other day that Shanghai Lil might be closing (hopefully that is all it was) so the other day when hubby and I had a free day for lunch (and got shot down attempting to try a new place that as it turns out was only open for dinner), we decided to drop in and have some dim sum. It had been awhile. And I figured I would remind you about it just in case you had forgotten (I would be sad if it closes).

The meal started with a little amuse bouche before our lunch (even for lunch which I thought was a nice touch). This time the one they gave us was delicious as well. It was a little duck and cabbage salad with a piece of soft, wonderfully cooked eggplant (I am a sucker for eggplant). It was super tender and had a nice soy based, slightly sweet sauce. The salad part was more acidic and they were nice together.

We ordered several things—our usual ha gao ($3.95) and spring rolls ($3.75) were a no brainer. They are some of our favorite basic things, and they are very well done at Shanghai Lil. Ha Gao are shrimp dumplings and they are generally pretty straightforward—shrimp inside a soft steamed dumpling. The shrimp is fresh and doesn’t have that fishy taste that it sometimes can if it’s been sitting around too long, and it was properly cooked. The spring rolls are good as well—super crunchy and containing actual shrimp and lots of veggies. They are also thinner than your classic egg roll and easier to eat.

We also got shrimp siu mai ($3.95) which is similar to the shrimp dumplings, except the steamed shell is filled with shrimp that has been minced with other things—I am thinking scallions here, so it has a slightly different flavor. The dough used in the dumpling is a little different too—a little firmer than the ha gao.

We also tried the fried tofu with scallion sauce ($3.95) and the shrimp and chive cake ($3.95). I generally like tofu, and this was pretty good, particularly along the pointy parts where you got nice bites with crispy edges. Once you got to the middle it was just a little too much gooey tofu with nothing else. The sauce had very little flavor to me. We ended up adding some soy to it.

The shrimp and chive cakes were interesting and a nice variety (we usually try and get at least one new thing when we do dim sum). Interestingly, there was actually pork in there too, which I didn’t mind, but it was a little surprise. They ingredients were minced together, put in a dumpling skin (more like the siu mai thickness) and then pan-fried which gave them a nice little crunchy side. There were a lot of chives and scallions in there, and they had a very grassy flavor because of it. I appreciated the additional variation in texture (I try to balance between steamed, fried and pan fried) although this was probably my least favorite item of the day.

Overall the quality is really very good, and the dim sum menu is quite large. We don’t have a lot of good Chinese food on the northeast side, and Shanghai Lil is definitely one of the better ones. And I am glad they do dim sum (they also have some good looking non-dim sum lunch specials I would like to try as well).

Shanghai Lil

8505 Keystone Crossing

Indy 46240

317/205-9335

www.shanghai-lil.com

Road Trip - Sotto - Cincinnati

2013-05-20T05:31:00.000-04:00

Hubby and I took a quick road trip to Cincinnati recently to see a band we like. The purpose of the trip was the concert, but naturally as soon as we decided to go, I started figuring out where we could eat before for dinner and lunch the next day. So we had a very early dinner at Sotto, which is the new, more casual, restaurant from the same people who own Boca, which we loved.

Boca has recently re-opened in the space that used to house the Maisonnette, which was the old school “best” restaurant in Cincinnati. When the Maisonnette was open, there was a casual French restaurant run by the same owners called La Normandie. Now Boca is up top and Sotto is below (a very cool thing is that hubby and I had the opportunity to eat at both places before they closed as well).

I love the atmosphere of Sotto—it is basically underground, and full of brick. The first thing you notice is how dark it is, especially when you come in from full daylight. Think lots of wooden chairs, weathered looking walls and one of my favorite things—a big pillar candle on each table. I loved the wine pit that they had created out of the former fireplace. There was also a great soundtrack playing.

Anyway, the menu looked great and we had a hard time choosing—we decided to get something from each different course and share. The first thing we had been from the bruschetta menu (i.e. grilled bread with different toppings). We had the oil packed tuna with hard boiled egg and chili oil ($10). A perfect portion to split between two—it was one toasted piece of bread cut into two pieces. Ours was topped with a thin layer of caper mayo, the super tender tuna, slices of hard boiled egg and drizzled with chili oil. It was delicious. I have had similar preparations and never liked it as much as I did this. I loved the addition of the chili oil (and the sprinkles of salt on top) to give it an extra dimension of flavor
too.

At the same time we were also served our antipasti course, which was polenta with a fried egg, lomo, brown butter and parmigiano. Oh. My. Goodness. This was amazing. The polenta was soooo fine and creamy, the egg was perfect and runny in the middle and the lomo (a very thin sliced cured pork tenderloin) was so tender but had a lot of flavor, but wasn’t overpowering. And brown butter and parm? How can you go wrong? We both loved this one. We split it exactly down the middle and scraped the dish clean with the bread that they bring to the table. Speaking of which, the bread was great as well. It is from a local (to Cincy) bakery called Blue Oven. It was an Italian country loaf that was cut into wedges. It had just the right amount of tender middle and chewy crust. They serve it with a great grassy olive oil.

For our primi course, we went with the housemade tonnarelli pasta ($14). Tonnarelli is a thicker long pasta (like spaghetti)—it is more of a square shape though and is textured a little so it holds onto the sauce pretty well. There were only two housemade pastas which surprised me a little. The sauce on the pasta was a simple creamy butter sauce with salt and pepper. Lots and lots of cracked black pepper. We enjoyed it, and it really kind of grew on us, but it was probably our least favorite item of the meal. I think I would have enjoyed it more as a side dish with my main dish, instead of on its own, but it was still good.

For our main dish, we shared the salmon with anchovy white wine sauce ($19). It was served on a bed of cooked spinach. It was also perfectly prepared. The fish was grilled and was at the perfect medium rare—the center quite rare. The sauce though—it is what made the dish. You probably wouldn’t have even known it had anchovy in it if you hadn’t seen it on the menu—it just gave it a depth and slight saltiness that was so good with the slightly acidic wine sauce. I loved the sauce. I could have just dipped bread into it all night long.

We still had a decent amount of time, and since we were having such a good meal, we decided to split a dessert as well. We had the ricotta doughnuts ($6) with three dipping sauces. These little fried doughnut holes seem popular these days, but these were unique in that they were made with ricotta so they were really moist inside. They were served with dark chocolate, pistachio cream, and salted caramel sauce. Loved that salted caramel sauce. Loved it with a little bit of the chocolate and a lot of the salted caramel. Hubby really liked the pistachio cream. Actually, hubby won't stop raving about these doughnuts.

The service was very good. Our server was attentive but not annoying. He knew a lot about the menu and made great recommendations. They were great about bringing the right silverware and dishware with each new course. It was polished but not stuffy. The whole dinner was a great experience, and I look forward to returning. Although I feel like I have to try the new Boca first. We poked our nose in there and it was a cool atmosphere too—very different from Sotto—light and lots of upholstery with a giant chandelier. Definitely a “fancier” feel. But Sotto is a really great value for truly excellent food.

Sotto

118 East 6^th Street

Cincinnati, OH 45202

513/977-6886

www.sottocincinnati.com

Oishi Sushi

2013-05-16T06:42:00.000-04:00

A bunch of you guys really like this place and since I have been a recent sushi binge, I figured it was time to try it so I met up with my friend Suzanne to give it a go. It’s good to have friends who will travel to distant places for lunch because hubby grumbles about it. It is also good to have an open mind, because, well, the exterior of the place is a little worn out. I got there a little early, but I was greeted promptly upon entering and brought a drink right away. They have a ton of rolls on the menu, and many that sound very interesting, so I was glad to have some extra time with the menu.

I had some miso soup to start ($1.95) and it was good. I mean, rarely does a miso soup amaze me or anything, and there wasn’t anything about this one that changed that opinion. It was fine.

For rolls, we ordered the Afghanistan Roll ($12.50), the Dinosaurs Roll ($13.95), and the Sushi in the Sky #2 Roll ($13.50). We both really liked the Afghanistan and Dinosaurs. The Afghanistan is unagi (eel) and avocado on the inside and is “erupting” (says the menu) with spicy shrimp tempura (in other words, the shrimp bits are on top of the rolls that have been placed on their sides. There was also a bit of masago on top (fish eggs). It was really good. Probably my favorite. The roll itself was pretty petite though, which I like because you can fit it in your mouth and because the flavor isn’t dominated by the rice (it was actually a little crumbly though which made it a bit hard to pick up with chopsticks). The crispy bits on top had a nice flavor, and were still nice and crunchy.

The Dinosaurs roll was fried soft shell crab inside with eel and avocado on top. Ok, so similar kind of thing to the Afghanistan, only kind of reversed, and also really good (note that they sometimes say “eel” on the menu, sometimes “unagi.”). The crab was chopped up and there was a fair amount of it inside the roll. Nice and crunchy too.

The last roll we got was the Sushi in the Sky #2. It was ahi tuna, avocado and eel inside with torched yellowtail on the outside. The fish was all good, and I liked the middle of the roll, but the yellowtail on the outside just had too much of the “torched” taste I guess. It almost tasted like gas if you know what I mean. I think I would take a pass on the torched options in the future. We ended up sort of peeling the fish off the top and just eating the rolls. Then it was pretty good, although I still liked the others better.

All in all, this was one of the better new sushi experiences I have had in awhile. The food was good and the service was very efficient and friendly. They were frequently refilling drinks and checking on us. I wish it wasn’t so far away from my house, I would like to go back.

Oishi Sushi

6929 East 10^th Street

Indy 46219

317/356-8880

www.indyoishi.com

Mississippi Belle - Revisit

2013-05-13T06:31:00.000-04:00

This is a revisit, because it is one of those places that I feel an obligation to make sure you guys go to even if you missed my post from like 3 years ago. Well, if you like fried chicken anyway.

We actually carry out from here a fair amount, but the other Sunday, we were driving around with the kids looking for somewhere to eat on the way to the Children’s Museum and everywhere was crazy busy. We knew the kids would like it because, well, they’ve had it before. I don’t know if Sunday for lunch is the best time to eat there because you pay full price (their lunches are more reasonable) but we ate for days on the food we took home (it is all you can eat for Sunday meals and dinner and the meal is $13 for your choice of meat and 4 sides, less for kids).

Normally when I do a revisit I try and branch out and get something different. At Mississippi Belle, screw that. Fried chicken. Mac and cheese. Mashed potatoes. That’s the way to go and you will be happy. My daughter, who isn’t as huge a fan of fried chicken as I am (how does this happen?), actually did get the turkey plate, which is an interesting shredded turkey. It was pretty good—moist and tender and easy for her to eat. Better than the chicken? Heck no.

My advice is to go with all dark meat—it is just so good and so tender. I love the crispy skin on their chicken over all, and you just get more of it on the dark meat pieces. The breasts are so huge you just don’t get enough of the skin. Although the wings are pretty tasty. Anyhow, it’s the seasoning makes this chicken stand out. The only negative for me with the chicken is that they are obviously cooking it constantly because it comes out really fast though and occasionally because of this, you can get a piece that isn’t quite as fresh as others.

The mashed potatoes are good, and are generally a necessary component to a fried chicken meal for me. Like I have said before, they taste like potatoes—and even without gravy, they are fairly creamy—not stiff like a lot of potatoes are when gravy is used. There’s some pepper in there too. One of my favorite things though is the mac and cheese. It isn’t fancy, and I am guessing there is some processed cheese in there because it is so smooth, but I love the peppery kick to it. It’s just right with the meal and I will never go there and not order it. And they give you so much of it; I am serious when I say we were eating it for a week.

The hot water cornbread—which are like little discs of cornbread that are fried. Again, I would love a little butter or apple butter or something with them, but they’re pretty good too.

Anyhow, if you want some darn good fried chicken, skip the fast food and check out this place. You will certainly not go home hungry, I will guarantee you that.

Mississippi Belle

2170 East 54^th Street

Indy 46220

317/466-0522

Ruth’s Pull Up a Chair Café -Revisit

2013-05-09T05:32:00.000-04:00

Ruth’s a place I eat fairly regularly, and I have written about it before, but recently I was in and noticed they were adding on to their space and had a new menu, so I figured it was time for a re-visit. Ok, truth be told, one of the reasons I haven’t written about it before is because I almost always ordered the same thing and it seemed boring, but they took one of the things I used to order off and there were some new things, so I decided to try one of the new sandwiches.

It is simply listed as “turkey” ($9) on the menu—it was super tender slices of turkey with spinach, Havarti cheese, lots of nice ripe avocado, bacon and spinach. There was a pesto sauce as well and the bread (your choice, I went with sourdough) was grilled in a Panini press. This was a great sandwich. Had all the elements I like—it wasn’t overstuffed and hard to eat, had some additional seasoning besides just the basic ingredients (pesto) and the ingredients themselves were really good. Plus I loved perfectly grilled bread. Normally I order the chicken c
obb, which is also really good, and has blue cheese on it which gives it that extra falvor, but I think the turkey on this one was better than the chicken I have had on that sandwich in the past.

I also got a side salad with blue cheese dressing which I really liked as well. First, when I get a side salad, I don’t need a bunch of other stuff on it—some nice leaves are enough for me. This was basically that just with a few thin slices of parmesan and diced tomato. The dressing was obviously homemade and had a great flavor and lots of crumbled blue cheese added in. I will admit I may have dipped my sandwich into it a few times. I would be happy to order one of their salads with this tasty dressing.

We have had several breakfast items here in the past and have enjoyed them as well. Last time we were here, hubby had a salmon version of eggs benedict that was done very well.

They have also doubled their size and, best of all, changed the front door to the other store front, making a little entry way which blocks the cold wind from blowing directly into the restaurant, which was always my biggest pet peeve about eating at this place for half of the year. The service was good, the interior is cute and they had a fairly good crowd. It’s nice to see a small independent restaurant (particularly in the Castleton general area) doing well enough that they can expand. I definitely need to expand my horizons at this place and stop ordering the same thing every time (although I will certainly be ordering the turkey sandwich again), so if you have a favorite, let me know.

Ruth’s Pull Up a Chair Café

3343 East 86^th Street

Indy 46240

317/757-8006

www.ruthspullupachair.com

Top 50 List?

2013-05-08T09:05:00.002-04:00

Since everyone was talking about the Indy Star's 50 "Top Restaurants" List yesterday on twitter, on request (thanks @zigged for the idea) I have decided to post links to my posts about the ones I have been to (I have been to 43 of them, although I may not have reviewd them all). So if you want to know what I think about a lot of these, click on the restaurant names below. I have to say I vehemently disagree with several of the choices and feel like there are some major omissions (uh, Oakley's comes to mind). But mainly, I want to hear what you think. Do you agree with the list? Which were ones that shouldn't have been included and what are some that were left off that shouldn't have been? I would love it if you post your thoughts in the comments below so others can see them too... (I love your twitter responses, but not everyone will see them.)

And in the meantime I will be mulling over what my top list would be....

R Bistro

888 Massachusetts Ave.

Recess

4907 N College Ave.

Bluebeard

653 Virginia Ave.

The Libertine Liquor Bar

38 E. Washington St.

Late Harvest Kitchen

8605 River Crossing

Black Market

922 Massachusetts Ave.

H20 Sushi

1912 Broad Ripple Ave.

5694 N. Meridian St.

5164 N. College Ave.

339 S. Delaware St.

1134 E. 54th St.

Corner Wine Bar (I have been, but don't have a post)

6331 Guilford Ave.

Broad Ripple Brewpub

840 E 65th St

Three Sisters

6360 North Guilford Ave.

Brugge Brasserie

1011 E. Westfield Blvd.

Napolese

114 E. 49th St.

Pizzology

13190 Hazel Dell Pkwy., Carmel

Jockamo

5646 E Washington St. and 401 Market Plaza, Greenwood

Bazbeaux

multiple locations

Iaria's

317 S. College Ave.

Milano Inn (I have not been)

231 S. College Ave.

Iozzo's Garden of Italy

946 S. Meridian St.

Workingman's Friend

234 N Belmont Ave.

Scotty's Brewhouse

various locations

Jazz Kitchen (I have not been)

5377 N. College Ave.

Slippery Noodle Inn (I have been, but haven't written a post)

327 S. Meridian St.

St. Elmo Steak House

127 S. Illinois St.

Hollyhock Hill (I have been but did not write a post)

8110 N. College Ave.

Shapiro's

808 S. Meridian St.

Cafe Patachou

4901 N. Pennsylvania St. and other locations

Duos

2960 N. Meridian St.

The Legend (I have not been)

5614 E. Washington St.

Papa Roux

8950 E. 10th St.

Tie Dye Grill

1311 N. Shadeland Ave.

Yats

multiple locations

Sakura

7201 N. Keystone Ave.

Heidelburg Haus (I have not been)

7625 Pendleton Pike

Rathskeller

401 E. Michigan St.

Mama's

8867 Pendleton Pike

El Sol de Tala

2444 E. Washington St.

Abyssinia (I have not been)

5352 W. 38th St.

Greek Islands (I have not been)

906 S. Meridian St.

Santorini Greek Kitchen

1417 Prospect St.

Kountry Kitchen

1831 N. College Ave.

Maxine's Chicken and Waffles

132 N. East St.

Judge's Tip-of-the-Rib (I have been, but have not written a post)

2104 W. Michigan St.

Boogie Burger

1904 Broad Ripple Ave.

King David Dogs (I have been but have not written a post)

135 N Pennsylvania St.

Mug n Bun

5211 W. 10th St.

Peppy Grill (I have not been)

1004 Virginia Ave.

Bakersfield Mass Ave

2013-05-05T12:10:00.001-04:00

Man, I have seen a lot of good feedback on twitter about this place. I have to say, I am always a little suspicious about places when I see SO much tweeting and re-tweeting. I don't know why exactly, but call me a cynic. Do people REALLY like it that much or are they just excited to try the hot new place? Anyhow, I am writing this post based on two visits which is not my normal way to do it, but I felt like since I only had one of the tacos before we ended up leaving the first time (I did have other things), I couldn't talk about a taco place without getting more.

On the first night, the first thing I noticed was the noise. Seriously, one of the loudest restaurants I can remember. I mean, the place is obviously popular, but it also is just really, really, loud. We ordered some chips and guacamole ($6) to start. I liked it. Lots of big hunks of avocado, and lots of lime. It was very tangy. Not super spicy, but nicely seasoned with onions. I also had a house margarita ($6), which was good too.

We decided to split one of the tortas and figure out which tacos we wanted in the meantime. So we go the Milanesa torta ($8), which had a deep fried breaded chicken cutlet, arugula, black beans, avocado, and a lemon mayo, with salsa verde on the side. It is on a firm bread called a telera roll. I was impressed with how tender the chicken was even though it was flattened and fried. It was nice and crispy and still moist and tender. The other things on it really added a nice combo of flavors—you can’t go wrong with more avocado, and that plus the black beans gave it a creamy rich consistency and it had a fair amount of acidity from the aioli. I was actually surprised at how much acid both the first two items had.

We only got the huitlacoche taco ($4) that night because the torta had been so big (and the guac is a large order as well) that we were pretty full (and we were having a hard time talking to each other because of the noise level). This was the biggest disappointment for me of the evening. The tacos are smallish, but very full—this one with corn truffles, roasted poblano peppers, onions, corn, cotija cheese, and cilantro. What is a corn truffle you ask? Well, it’s basically fungus that grows on corn (aka “corn smut” which probably doesn’t sound as appetizing). It is supposed to be a delicacy in Mexico, but the whole thing just seemed kind of bland to me, particularly compared to the other things, which seemed to have a lot more flavor (and acid). Some of the salsa on the table helped (I liked the green salsa the best).

On the second visit, I was there with hubby and my friend wibia and his wife. We got guacamole again as well as the queso with chorizo ($6). Honestly, the guac had about the same flavor, but I thought the chunks of avocado were just too big this time. You couldn’t even scoop it out with a chip they were so big. A little bit more mashing would be a good thing. The queso wasn’t bad—you can’t go wrong with a little melted cheese with your chips (and I appreciated the server’s suggestion to get the queso and chip and then a side of guac to save a few bucks). The chorizo was a little over-fried I thought and kind of dry.

We did try the premium margaritas ($12) this time which I did like a little better than the regular ones because they were less tart, but they come in a really narrow glass that doesn’t have a big enough rim for the salt, and whenever you drank from it, the salt ended up on your nose. We asked them to make our second one in a different glass and they were happy to oblige. They were strong as well. Strong, but very tasty. But I am not totally sure they are worth double the price of the house margaritas.

So hubby and I decided to just try all the tacos except the vegetarian ones. (The tacos are all $4 each). The tortillas are homemade and are quite good. My favorite was definitely the fish taco. It was fried mahi with a nice crunch and a nice limey Tabasco flavored sauce and citrusy slaw. It was a good balance—the fish was tender but crunchy on the outside, the lime shone through, and it had a nice slight heat. The slaw gave it the fresh crunchy taste. My next favorite was probably the mole, which was chicken (but it was braised in the mole sauce which had a deep spice to it). It was served with pickled onions and queso fresco. It had a complex flavor and I loved the pickled onions with it.

Honestly, the rest of the tacos were not bad but none blew me away. I preferred the short rib on the short rib torta ($9) based on the bite I had of our friends’ sandwich. The bread was just a better conduit for the very rich hearty meat—and the flavors on the sandwich were really good together (it was more balanced with more cheese, caramelized onions, arugula and black beans). There was just too much meat to other ingredients ratio on the taco. We had both the pork tacos and I have to say, all the braised meat starting running together. The pastor had a lot of pineapple though, which made it stand out somewhat, although for me, not in a good way, because it sort of dominated the taste. The chicken verde had the pickled red onions too, but the chicken itself was just okay.

Here's a picture with a flash. Not very pretty, but you can see them better

So my problem is that the tacos—well, other than the fish-- just didn’t really wow me that much. And this time, we got seated downstairs, which may have been a touch more quiet (barely) but the place, even fairly early on a Wednesday, was heaving, and was still really, really loud. But at least my ears weren’t ringing the next day like they were after my first visit (seriously I worry about the staff’s hearing). But top the noise level issue off with the fact that the tables downstairs are picnic tables with no backs, and hubby has basically declared he will probably be unlikely to return. So I guess maybe we’re just too old for this place or something. Or maybe it is just so popular because it’s new and pretty reasonably priced, and the food isn’t bad, and maybe it will calm down at some point. But I have heard of people being told there was a three-hour wait at times. No way would I wait that. (Our first visit we did have to wait about 30 minutes for a table on a Friday night).

The service is good—both times I was there, our servers were knowledgeable and the service was prompt. Both times the two different women checked in regularly and made sure we had what we needed. It’s run well, it’s just too damn loud. At least for me.

Bakersfield

334 Massachusetts Ave

Indy 46204

317/635-6692

www.bakersfieldmassave.com

Pizzology - Revisit

2013-05-02T05:10:00.000-04:00

A friend asked me to meet her at Pizzology for lunch the other day, and I realized how long it had been since I had been there. Lunch is a good time to go to Pizzology because the crowds are not so intense (I have never had to wait at lunch) and they have a nice lunch special—a soup or salad, a lunch sized pizza, and a soft drink for $9. Ok, it is going to be more than $9 if you want any other toppings besides cheese, but still, not a bad deal (my total was $11.50) for 3 things.

I had the salad—the option on the lunch menu is the house chopped which tends to be my favorite anyhow. And even though it can be a little inconsistent sometimes in the amount of toppings (blue cheese, roasted tomatoes, shallots, sliced olives and prosciutto), this time it was pretty good—enough that you could taste them with the chopped romaine. I like that they roast their tomatoes, especially this time of year because it makes them sweeter. I also like the dressing—a citrus vinaigrette. Nice and tangy.

For my pizza I got a white pizza (no red sauce, just olive oil) with a farm egg and mushrooms. I really enjoyed it—as usual I am a sucker for a runny egg. I salted the yolk a little and dipped my crust into it. There were also a lot of mushrooms which I appreciated. They are roasted and the flavor gets amped up a little because of it. As I have said before, the crust is the thing here, but it can vary between really well done and not done enough. This one didn’t have the black charred spots that I know some of you like, but personally, I enjoyed it this way (I am not as big a fan of the charred taste). The bottom was crisp and the crust was chewy. There was a lot of cheese on it and I was happy.

My friend had roasted tomatoes and sausage on her pizza (with red sauce) and seemed to enjoy it quite a bit as well—I never managed to try it before I realized I was really full.

One of my favorite things about the lunch experience on this visit though was our server Candice. After some recent service debacles, it was so refreshing to have a great server. She was good at her job and she was really friendly and personable. We enjoyed chatting with her a bit. She even drew a cute smiley face on my take home box. It’s amazing how much someone who cares about her job can add to your dining experience.

Pizzology

13190 Hazel Dell Parkway

Carmel, IN 46032

317-844-2554

www.pizzologyindy.com

R Bistro- Revisit

2013-04-29T06:32:00.000-04:00

It has been a little while since we’ve been to R Bistro. We keep an eye on the menu in general and when some friends invited us to join them, we went. Overall, I really like R Bistro—it is one of the standard good restaurants in Indy. The menu changes weekly, and there are some ups and downs with that kind of constant change, but largely it is fairly consistent in its quality.

I liked the sound of the pork belly taco ($9) with red cabbage slaw and ordered that for my starter as did someone else at my table. Unfortunately, after ordering it, our server came out and informed us they had only one left and were switching it to rabbit. I took the bullet and got the rabbit. In general I like rabbit fine, but honestly, in a taco, I can’t say it is preferable. The taco was exactly the same set up—the meat in the soft shell with some lightly pickled carrots and cucumbers (a sort of giardiniera) with a nice crunchy fresh red cabbage and ripe mango slaw on the side. But the meat itself, while fairly tender, didn’t have a lot of flavor. I probably just should have switched to something else. I had a bite of my friend’s pork belly and it was much tastier. I am sure it came together more as a dish with that pork in it than the rabbit.

For my main dish though, wow, I had the most amazing thing. It was actually a starter as well, but I ordered it for my entrée. It was ricotta gnocchi with roasted oyster mushrooms and wild ramp pesto ($9.95). It was so, so good. It was one of those dishes that was so good that I HAD to share it with my friends just so they could taste it, even though I really, really didn’t want to if you know what I mean. (Luckily I didn’t have to share with hubby because he had ordered it as an appetizer). The gnocchi was so tender, and lightly seared and then the mushrooms—well, it said they were roasted, but it must have been in some sort of animal fat because man, they were so freaking good. Slightly crispy and delicious. And the pesto had some serious flavor—enough garlic the dish almost had a slight heat to it, if you know what I mean. I loved it. I seriously considered ordering another plateful for dessert.

Hubby had the roasted chicken leg (which was the whole leg—thigh and drumstick) with sausage and creamy polenta in a red wine sauce ($22). I think we were both surprised by how sweet the dish was—there was a fruit sauce on top (currants I think). The chicken was nice and tender but was dominated by the very sweet sauce from the fruit that wasn’t mentioned in the menu description. There wasn’t anything wrong with the dish, other than it wasn’t our taste and he probably would have ordered something else had he known.

There was rhubarb cobbler on the menu ($6.75) which meant it had to be ordered. Three of us ordered it actually. I liked it. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but the rhubarb part of it was very nice—it was still pretty tart, which is how it should be. And when you mixed it with the sweet cobbler part (ok, I would say it was more like a shortcake or something) and some ice cream, you got the sweetness you needed and it was tasty.

One of the biggest disappointments on this night for me was the service (again) (I know, I’m like a broken record). But it really kind of bummed me out, because R Bistro, for me, has always been a restaurant with impeccable service. But again, we were a party of 6, with an auto 19% gratuity, and well, I won’t bore you with my feelings on the topic again, but let’s just say I am seriously considering not going out with more than 5 people ever again. We didn’t have drinks for at least 15-20 minutes and some friends of ours who came in after us (a party of 2) were in and out in significantly less time. Ok, enough said.

I like R Bistro and Indy is lucky to have a consistently good restaurant like this. I love the ever-changing menu, and that so much is seasonal and local. I am going to go with the fact that this service experience was a fluke (although this is the first time I have been with more than 4 people). I love that the place was still full even after being open for so many years. It’s a place I would certainly never write off. Damn, especially after that gnocchi.

R Bistro

888 Massachusetts Ave

Indy 46202

317/423-0312

www.rbistro.com

King Wok

2013-04-25T05:15:00.000-04:00

Over on the west side with the intention of trying an Indian place, @indyfoodswap and I ended up across the street at King Wok when the Indian restaurant didn’t open as early as we thought. A friend of mine had recently been telling me how much she and her husband liked King Wok, so it seemed like a perfect opportunity.

I liked the menu a lot—there is Vietnamese and Chinese food, but we pretty much stuck with the Vietnamese side. I love eating with Suzanne because we get to order lots of things and share them all. Which is why I did not order pho, even though a lot of people told me it is their favorite in town. We like to share and noodle soup is somewhat of a challenge to share. Next time, I promise

Anyway, we started off with an order of agedashi tofu ($3.99) which was four squares of tofu that are lightly fried and served in a salty broth that tasted like it had soy and a fish element as well as probably some wine or vinegar. I quite liked the dish. The tofu was smoking hot and had just the exact right crispy exterior. I liked the pieces that weren’t soaking in the broth the best, because they stayed crunchy longer—that way I could just dip in the sauce as I ate it. The broth was really flavorful—one of the most flavorful items of the meal.

We also shared Banh Xeo, or the pan fried Vietnamese rice flour crepe ($6.50) which was a super crispy pan fried crepe that was filled with pork, shrimp, onions, and bean sprouts and served with lettuce and basil on the side. Typically this is one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes, and I enjoyed this one, although it was so crispy that it sort of shattered on the outside when you ate it. They also have several steamed crepe options that seemed intriguing. I love the sauce they serve alongside this dish (a traditional seasoned fish sauce) and I ended up putting it on everything—just bumps up the flavor with a little salty, slightly fish taste and a little heat. Also, this thing is HUGE (as you can tell from the comparison to Suzanne's thumb).

We got the Hu Tieu Xao Thap Cam, or sautéed rice noodles with shrimp, chicken, beef and veggies as well ($6.99). The dish was enjoyable, particularly when you added a bit of the fish sauce from the crepe---and really I liked mixing crispy bits of the crepe in there too to give it a little extra texture. The noodles were cooked just right and were not gloppy at all. There were some bits of the meat that were a little tough, but some of them were very good. I enjoyed the bites of shrimp as well. Overall though, flavor-wise, without the doctoring up, the dish may have been a little bland. But all of the dishes together made for a very tasty lunch. And very cost effective as well--you get a ton of food for a very reasonable price.

I would certainly go back. As we were leaving, I laughed because I actually ran into my friend who had recommended King Wok to me and she scolded me for not getting the pho. So, definitely, next time!

P.S. I am really trying to get over to the west side more right now (the construction is done! Yay!). So please let me know your favorite other spots in that area. Need to update my list.

King Wok

4150 Lafayette Road

Indy 46254

317/295-8090

http://kingwok-indy.com/

Uptown Café

2013-04-22T05:51:00.000-04:00

Always looking for new places to go with the family, we headed to Noblesville to try Uptown Café. I have wanted to try it for a while, and many have recommended it. It was a Sunday and we went with the expectation of a wait, and prepared the kids for it. Luckily it was a nice day, and we only had to wait about 15 minutes.

There’s a good chance you might have to wait because the place is pretty small—and a lot of the seating is bar seating and tables for 2. We finally got into a little booth in the back and looked over the menu (under the glass on the tables). It is a cute little old-fashioned diner type place. They do several good sounding breakfast items as well as several lunch choices. It was after noon though, so hubby and I went with lunch.

I had the “Kirstie’s grilled cheese” (which with add-ons was $9.87). The basic sandwich is grilled Parmesan crusted bread with spinach, tomato, and American and pepper jack cheese. The menu lists the bacon and avocado as add-ons. Of course, those are two excellent additions to any sandwich, so they were added. It was a very good sandwich with very good bacon and a nice generous portion of ripe avocado. Honestly, I have decided maybe I don’t like the whole sort of burnt cheese phenomenon as good as it sounds. The bread was coated with Parmesan which was perfectly grilled, but it was a pretty strong burnt cheese flavor. I ordered a side of has browns off the breakfast menu and they were some of the best hash browns I have had in this town (and I am kind of picky). They tasted freshly made and had a nice crispy edge to them. I had to protect them from hubby’s fork a few too many times.

I was liking my sandwich pretty well and then I tasted hubby’s. It was better. (Damn, I hate it when that happens.) Luckily, he took pity on me and we shared half and half (he says it’s how he proves his love). And it wasn’t that mine was bad at all, it’s just, well, his was better. He had the roasted chicken flatbread sandwich with chips (8.79). It was a piece of flatbread, sort of like a pita type thing that was wrapped around chicken breast, spinach, bacon, mushrooms, pepper jack and had honey Dijon mayo. I had considered ordering this myself, but am always wary of chicken on sandwiches, particularly breast because often they’re just big hunks of rubbery meat that taste like nothing and are hard to eat. This was not like that. The chicken was in small pieces (almost like shredded pieces) and was mixed with the other things. The honey Dijon mayo made it really good. There’s gotta be something like that to pull a sandwich together (I think something like this would help on my sandwich). Again, the bacon was very good as well. I really liked the flatbread and am now very intrigued by the breakfast sandwich that comes on the same bread. My only complaint is all the fillings were sort of lumped into one place inside the bread and they needed to be re-proportioned a bit. But I didn’t mind doing this myself.

I do like the interesting bread they are using and the extremely fresh high quality ingredients. Once we were seated our server was super nice, and very efficient. My kids both had a stack of French toast sticks that they really liked as well.

I have to say, Noblesville has got some nice options for breakfast and lunch (I really enjoyed Rosie’s as well) and I am a little jealous. I wish there were more places like this around my house. I am confident we will return to Uptown—I am anxious to try the breakfast things. And hubby is anxious to get more hash browns. Plus the kids really liked it. That kind of agreement in our family rarely happens when it comes to restaurants.

Uptown Café

809 Conner Street

Noblesville, IN 46060

317/674-8668

www.uptowncafenoblesville.com

Cerulean - Revisit

2013-04-18T07:49:00.000-04:00

I have been anxious to go back to Cerulean since our first visit, which we really enjoyed. I have heard a lot of differing feedback from different people about it since, so when friends invited us to go out with several people there again, I jumped at it (not to mention, 8 people = even more opportunity to try more things).

Cerulean has recently shifted into their spring menu and that always makes me happy too. I think I have mentioned before that Cerulean’s menu is broken down into 3 parts—small plates, which are just a couple bites, medium plates, which are more like traditional appetizers, and entrées. Hubby and I really liked the very small plates last time, and they tend to be the most appealing to me ingredient-wise here. So we ordered 5 of them, prompting one friend to declare that we “ordered food like drunken sailors.” But she was sharing with us, and they really are only a couple of bites, so it really wasn’t that much.

The first thing I tasted was the pickled Indiana shrimp with lemon and garlic sauce below and a hard boiled egg ($4). I really liked it, although tough to share one shrimp so I only got a little bite. The shrimp had a nice acidity to it without being rubbery, and the lemon and onions on top added to it. I liked the richness of the (exactly perfectly cooked) boiled egg as well. I want to get this again to eat wholly on my own.

Next we tried the cauliflower frites ($4), which sounded very interesting and were easier to share (there were 3 or 4 of them). They were panko breaded and nice and crunchy on the outside and served on top of a slightly sweet golden raisin sauce and more of the garlic sauce. Nice tasty little morsels.

The corvina ($4) was also really well done and I had to grab it away from hubby or he would have eaten it all. The other friend we were sharing with only got a taste I’m afraid (and so did I). The fish was super tender (lightly poached I am guessing?) and served with a celery aioli, and chili oil with a distinct lime flavor. It was delicate but the seasonings were great and well balanced. It’s nice to see something different than what you typically see a lot of places.

The chickpea fritters also were good—easy to share and pretty approachable. You have basically a hush puppy made out of ground chickpeas. I liked that the sauce served underneath was totally different from everything else we had—a yogurt based sauce with cilantro, jalapeno and mint. Yet, you still got a bit of tanginess from the yogurt. I thought the mint was probably the strongest flavor of the others. The fritters were really hot and crunchy.

Finally, at hubby’s insistence we ordered the corn macaroon ($4) again (one of the few hold overs from the last menu). I understand why, because it is very good, but I was totally good trying new things. But you can’t really go wrong with a perfectly cooked corn macaroon stuffed with pork belly and served in cheddar sauce. Although honestly, I think it is best served as a fall dish. Would love to see some kind of a spring version. Lamb maybe? Asparagus macaroon? I don’t know, just thinking out loud (so to speak).

We were sold on a second course by our server who really hyped the beef heart stew. ($14) His description made it sounds great, but honestly this was the biggest disappointment of the evening for me. There were little potato pancakes (he said they were sort of like the “tator tots” from the last menu, bit of the heart and some herb relish served in a broth. The potatoes were sitting in the broth (which tasted mainly of beef stock) so they got soft quickly and the herb relish could not deliver enough freshness to be tasted through the heavy rich broth. The heart itself was a little tough for me as well.

For my entrée, I had the striped bass with linguinette (super thin linguine) with nettle pesto, a big king trumpet mushroom and fava beans ($26). I really enjoyed this. The fish had nice crispy skin, it was well seasoned and went very nicely with the herby tasting pasta. Hubby was disappointed he hadn’t ordered it. He actually ordered the same thing he had last time (he forgot) which was the sous vide duck breast with lemon fettuccine, carbonara sauce with duck crackling ($28). Unfortunately, he ended up with the same complaint—the duck was tasty but a little overcooked. He also didn’t think the pasta had as much of the lemon flavor that he liked from last time. I do appreciate that they make pasta in house.

I am a sucker for rhubarb, and there was a rhubarb dessert ($9), so I had to order it—it was rhubarb fennel compote, rhubarb sorbet, chamomile mascarpone cream, some sliced strawberries and fennel tarragon coulis. It was hard to know exactly what to expect here, and Cerulean is doing beautiful dessert plates. The flavors were good and were a nice fresh, slightly sweet, slightly tart way to end the meal.

So overall food-wise, we were pretty happy. There were certainly highs and lows, but it confirmed my feelings about the food that I had at the first visit—that I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, my feelings about the patchy service were only confirmed even more. Our server was very attentive in the beginning of the meal and enthusiastic about explaining the menu. After the small plates came though, things slowed WAY down and it was difficult to get drinks ordered when we wanted to. Part of the problem may have been that as a large party, we were seated in what was sort of a back room, and were probably easier to forget about (not to mention my theory of the whole automatic gratuity being added making the service not as attentive). But probably the more annoying thing was our run-in with the wine steward. We had ordered a second bottle of wine (different type than the first), which was opened and tasted by a friend who knows a thing or two about wine, as well as several others of our group and it tasted off. These things happen, which is why they give you those little tastings to begin with. So she asked the waiter to have a new bottle brought out but the wine steward came out and told us no, we were wrong and they would not be opening another bottle, but would bring us something else. I was sort of surprised by this—it seemed a little uh, un-customer friendly. Sadly, I have heard of several people having issues with the wine service here (lack of stemmed wine glasses is a big one I hear—at least if you are ordering an expensive bottle of wine.)

Anyhow, I think if Cerulean can get their service issues ironed out a bit, and then polished up, Indy will have a really nice modern fine dining restaurant to add to our ever-growing repertoire of great independent restaurants. They’ve pretty much got the food thing working for them already.

Cerulean

339 South Delaware Street

Indy 46225

317/870-1320

www.ceruleanrestaurant.com

Road Trip - 610 Magnolia, Louisville, KY

2013-04-15T06:25:00.000-04:00

Man. You know those meals you can’t stop thinking about? This was so one of them. I have been looking forward to writing about this since I ate the meal. 610 Magnolia is set in a inconspicuous old house—honestly, other than the little lighted numbers, you wouldn’t even know there was a restaurant in there. You walk in to a very warm, inviting environment though (I really didn’t know what to expect based on the exterior). Lots of wood and dark slate gray. I liked the feel of it right away. You knew you were in a nice place, but I don’t think anyone would feel out of place regardless of how they are dressed.

Chef Edward Lee has quite the accolades. He has won Iron Chef, was a favorite on Top Chef, and is on the list of James Beard semi-finalists for best Chef in the Southeast region. And the food, well, the food speaks for itself. It is a three or four course set price menu (3 courses are $55, 4 courses are $65). They also do a wine pairing ($45 and $55 depending on how many courses you get). You have a choice from at least 3 options for each course, and this was a menu that was hard to choose because so many things sounded good. Luckily hubby and I are very good at sharing and we ordered different courses the entire way through and split them.

The first course was actually an amuse bouche, so in the end you got a little extra. This included 3 little things—a crisp Brussels sprout leave with chestnut puree, a slice of daikon with hummus (great rich flavor in the hummus) and a little sandwich with pork belly. This little bite was rich, and meaty and really delicious.

Our first ordered courses were lobster bisque and the raw Ahi tuna. The tuna was so interesting—two sliced of beautiful fresh tuna topped with pieces of lardo (essentially thin cut pork fat). It was served in a chestnut and bay leaf sauce with a bourbon soy glaze and bacon powder. I was sort of wondering how these flavors would blend with the tuna, but everything was amazing. The tuna was fresh and light, but the other things complimented it well turning it into a rich, decadent dish. The bisque was also really good, and had a little lobster salad with pieces of lobster and greens. It had nice little spicy kick to it to, making it stand out from other lobster bisques I have had.

Before I forget, they had a lovely bread service as well—both visually and taste wise. The sliced bread from the local Blue Dog bakery (which we have enjoyed immensely in other restaurants in Louisville as well) was served in a little wooden basket and accompanied by soft tarragon butter that was amazing.

The next course was Carpaccio and a salad. Both were really great, but honestly, as much as I love Carpaccio, I may have even liked the salad more. It was local Bibb lettuce with little patties of warm blue cheese alongside. There were julienne pieces of apples, hazelnut brittle, bacon, and a fennel vinaigrette. I loved the way the blue cheese was warm, because it really brought out its flavor. And the sweetness of the apples and brittle were great with it. The Carpaccio was also really good. The beef was thinly sliced on the bottom, with shaved foie gras all over the top. There was a little salad as well, and bits of crisp shallots and the most amazing little fried capers that were totally light and crunchy. The salad was dressed with a light vinaigrette and had mustard oil as well. For me, mustard is the perfect flavor to go along with Carpaccio, and they did it a very refined, but delicious, way. Loved the additional richness from the foie gras, as if the perfect raw beef wasn’t enough.

The main dishes for us were the salmon and the wild boar. I will have to say, this was the only course I had a hard time sharing because the salmon was so, so good. (I am showing you a picture of it as served as well as after I deconstructed it a bit, just so you can see all the amazing looking ingredients that are kind of hidden in the initial presentation.) Wow, a perfectly cooked piece of fish on top of roasted fingerling potatoes—perfectly tender and perfectly crisp on the outside. The whole thing was topped with a pistachio brown butter puree and served on top of a nice little pile of melted leeks and Meyer lemon. All of my favorite things. Melty soft, mild leeks, a nice lemony sauce, but with the little bit of sweetness that Meyer lemons have. And beautiful potatoes. There was also a nice side of broccolini. I appreciated the well-balanced meal. And this main dish was quite a fair portion.

The boar was also very good—I don’t know if I have ever had boar in the form of chops. They were maybe cooked just a little further than I generally like meat, but had a nice, just barely game-ish flavor. There was also an amazingly tender piece of boar shoulder that was really the star of this dish, even though the chops made it look impressive. There was also a black-eyed pea ragout which hubby loved—super flavorful beans, as well as some greens. The dish was also flavored with rosemary and Guinness. Really hearty, rustic type of meal. Unusual in its main ingredient, but very comforting and familiar flavor profile. Still, if I went back to the same menu, there is no way I would not order that salmon.

We just got one dessert to share (one of us got 3 courses, one got 4) and it was also very good (I am telling you this is one of the best top to bottom meals I have had in quite awhile.) While we toyed with the idea of the cheese plate option, we ended up with the lemon panna cotta, probably because of the passion fruit element, which hubby and I are both suckers for. It had a passion fruit cream, macadamia caramel, yuzu candy, yogurt and kaffir ice cream. Loved all the tangy, fruity flavors going on in this dish, including in the ice cream. They also topped us off with some Bourbon chocolate bon bons just to give us the final chocolate pop. Perfect.

The wine pairings were great as well, and because they have a retail license as well, you can buy any bottles you particularly like—for us, that was nearly all of them, so we came home with several bottles of wine. I like being able to try them later in isolation to see if we like them as much as we remember. So far, we do. The service was also great—our server was super personable, not being snooty at all, but was happy to discuss anything on the menu, and to wonder with us about a table next to us that abruptly got up and left before ordering anything.

It was a great evening of great food and a wonderful experience. We are already planning a trip back with a group of friends because I want to share this one with some other people.

610 Magnolia

610 Magnolia Ave

Louisville, KY 40208

502/636-0783

www.610magnolia.com

Brozinni - Revisit

2013-04-11T06:24:00.000-04:00

Hubby and I were headed down to Louisville, and it was with all good intentions that I was going to try a new place. I swear. But then were thinking about how long it had been since we had been to Brozinni and the more we talked about it, the more we needed to go.

It was a Saturday though, and apparently they do table service on Saturdays—so we sat down and waited to be waited on. There was no need to peruse the menu; we knew exactly what we wanted.

We started with a small order of garlic knuckles ($2.50) (you get 4 knuckles) and then our slices (I think mine was $3.75 and hubby’s was $4.00). The knuckles are little twists of pizza dough that are sitting in a huge amount of garlic butter. Honestly, it’s the butter that makes these things so freakin’ good, and you really have to get it to have the butter to dip your pizza crust in. The pizza is New York style—thin crust, but not too thin, and huge foldable slices.

For my slice, I got my classic, mushrooms and red onion, which they have to make up for me, but they just take a cheese slice and add the veggies and a little more cheese. I love that the onions are chopped fine and you get some in every bite. I love that the sauce is savory, and there is just the right amount of it, and I love the chewy, but slightly puffy crust. I love this pizza.

Hubby had sausage, pepperoni, and mushroom, which was one of the ones that were pre-made. He thoroughly enjoyed it, but decided he actually liked mine even more just because it is so hard to get a pizza in this town with just the right amount of red onions on it like this one. I think he’ll be getting what I had next time.

The slices are pretty darn big (think two regular triangular pieces of pizza put together) and for me (and hubby too), one of them plus a couple knuckles is more than enough for lunch. And like I said, one of my favorite parts is dipping the edges of the crust into the garlic butter.

When people ask me what my favorite pizza is in Indy, I always say Brozinni. It had been awhile since I had been there though, so I always worry that things might have gone downhill. I think this was pretty much a perfect Brozinni experience. The pizza was great and the service was quick. It’s a casual place, and pretty inexpensive for what you’re getting. I’m a fan.

Brozinni Pizzeria

8810 S. Emerson Ave

Indy 46237

317/865-0911

www.brozinni.net

Delicia

2013-04-08T06:40:00.000-04:00

I am always excited when we get some new restaurants in town—and I think so is everyone else around Indy based on the hype that nearly every new place seems to get these days online. Or maybe the PR people are just earning their money. Anyway, I waited as long as I could (I try to wait at least a couple of weeks) and hubby and I went to check out Delicia.

The first thing you notice about Delicia (other than the slightly problematic parking shortage in that area) is that the restaurant has a really modern, and quite buzzy feel to it. So far, they don’t take reservations (hopefully that will change eventually), and even at 6:00, the place was pretty well near capacity. This makes me happy because I think it shows how enthused Indy people are for new places—and even places with menus slightly out of the ordinary such as the “new Latin” menu served here. Prepare yourself for a loud night, not a quiet date place, but it is certainly a very social spot.

Before we had our drinks, they brought us an amuse bouche of a soup that had a nice, spicy (not chili pepper hot, but spicy) flavor. My only warning on this one--the cups they brought us were so darned hot, it burnt my tongue which was a little bit of a bummer at the start of a meal. So be careful. Or blow on it or something. Anyhow, we moved on to a margarita ($8) and the ceviche appetizer ($11). The margarita was very limey, maybe a little tart for me, but actually seemed to get better as you drank it. The ceviche was also very limey, but in this case, seemed appropriate and I really enjoyed it (it cooled off my mouth a bit too which was nice). There was limed-marinated white fish, octopus, scallops and a large shrimp (that we cut up and mixed in) as well as hunks of avocado, tomatoes, onion and peppers. It was good—if it needed anything, maybe just a touch more heat. Make sure you dig down to the bottom of the bowl to get all the flavors in the marinade that sinks to the bottom. I think this dish is a good one to have alongside some of the other dishes to give that fresh citrus flavor profile with all the heartier richer, meat-based dishes.

ceviche

sopes

The next thing we had was the sopes de pato ($8). These were really very good as well. Totally different from the ceviche, they were little slight crisp corn cups topped with shredded duck that was slow cooked in a tomato and habanero sauce. They were topped with a bit of a spicy crema, some sprinkles of cheese, and slices of radish and jalapeno. The duck had rich flavor—if you didn’t know, you might even think it was pork. They had a fair amount of spice to them. These were hubby’s favorite item of the evening.

We were kind of going on a small plates theme because we were having a hard time deciding what to get, so the next thing we tried were the tostones ($13). These were little cakes made of plantains that were served with a bowl of sausage meatballs topped with red onions and a dish of chimichurri sauce. Basically, this was one that you were supposed to top yourself. This was the weakest of the dishes for us, although certain parts of it were very good. The tostones (the little cakes) were cold and tasted a little stale on their own. The chimichurri was a little too oily and didn’t have a lot of herby flavor. Hubby really enjoyed the meatballs on their own, and they had a spicy kick to them. I loved the pickled red onions served on top of them and used them all up on our last savory dish (and the only full entrée we ordered), the empanadas.

tostones

empanadas

The empanadas ($16) were fairly straightforward, but turned out to be another of our favorites. They are large pockets of puff pastry filled with shredded beef , Chihuahua cheese, and drizzled with habanero cream. The pastry was cooked just right so it maintained its flaky texture but without being really dry, which I find to be the case with empanadas. And man, when you threw some of those pickled red onions on top, it was delicious. (I will be from here on out asking for some of those on the side, particularly if I order that dish.) I would happily order this dish again, although there are two of the empanadas and they are quite large, so it is a good dish to share. The herb rice on the side didn’t do much for me—I didn’t find it had a lot of flavor.

We also tried the churros (which are sort of like tubular shaped crunchy doughnuts) with chocolate ($6), which I thought were just ok. I mean, dipping something crunchy and sweet (with sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg) into dark, slightly spicy chocolate can’t be all bad, but the churros themselves were inconsistent. One would be super crisp and one would be sort of soft. Honestly, it was hard to tell which was the one they were going for.

All in all, Delicia is a great addition to Indy’s food scene. It’s something different, and judging by the crowds, I think Indy wants that (hear that all you burger/pizza/wings places??). It is a really nice modern interior (although the lamps in the bar area, which are cute, are hung a little low considering how many people I saw bumping into them/wearing them on their heads). The feel of it and the energy of the crowd reminds me of a restaurant you might see in Chicago. One other comment on the interior though-- I am hoping they are planning on some light dimming shades for the front windows because the sun coming through at sunset is brutal. The service could use some polishing as well, as it was spotty throughout the night, particularly in regards to drinks.

I do look forward to going back and trying some of the other options on the menu. Several of you have mentioned this place to me already, and there are several reviews out there already. Tell me what you’ve had and what you liked so I can plan accordingly next time.

Delicia

5215 N. College Ave

Indy 46220

317/925-0677
https://www.facebook.com/DeliciaIndy

Brockway Pub

2013-04-04T05:22:00.000-04:00

Met up for lunch with my friend @wibia the other day and we decided to try Brockway. The one thing about going to lunch with him is that he has to go to places that aren’t too girly (he says fruit is not an appropriate side dish) which I guess is good because it makes me try places like Brockway. Brockway is a pub first and foremost, and has a very traditional Irish pub menu. There are some interesting items on the menu I would like to try, but I figured if I got anything too out of the ordinary, someone would probably yell at me for trying something weird and not trying the fish and chips ($9.65) which is listed as one of the house specialties.

So I ordered it and was quite pleased with the fish. Honestly it is probably some of the better fish and chips I have had in Indy. Just the way I like it-- they use a beer batter that was really nice and crisp. You could really taste the beer and you could taste that they were well seasoned—it was a little salty, and that is just how I prefer my fried fish (I usually salt them or use vinegar and these didn’t need it). The fish itself was very tender and moist and was thick cut pieces. Using skinny fish in fish and chips almost always seems to create a dried out piece of fish.

The chips were the thick, flat steak fries that I have never really been a fan of, even if they are the traditional accompaniment to fish and chips. For what they were, they were cooked right, fairly crisp on the outside and nice and hot. I only ate a couple though and might get something else as a side next time. I was intrigued by the blue cheese slaw. They also do house made chips (or “crisps” if you are sticking with the English vernacular). The tartar sauce served alongside was pretty thick and chunky. Not a bad tartar sauce, but I don’t usually eat a ton of it either. A bite of wibia’s Reuben was good, but not great. The corned beef was cut pretty thick and kind of dominated everything else.

It’s a pub, and it feels like a pub. Wooden tables, kegs of beer sitting around, and efficient (if maybe slightly gruff) service. I would go back for the fish though and I would like to try some of the other items as well. The rarebit sounded good. Anyone been there? What else is good?

Brockway Pub

12525 Old Meridian

Carmel, IN 46032

317/669-8080

www.thebrockway.com (is it just me or is the menu not on the website?)

Bluebeard - Lunch

2013-04-01T05:30:00.000-04:00

Hubby and I scheduled a nice lunch out the other day and decided to try Bluebeard. We have been several times for dinner, and I was interested to see how the lunch menu differed. The last meal we had there was outstanding, so we were hoping for more of that.

Bluebeard’s lunch menu features many of the items from dinner—the charcuterie, cheese and many of the “snacks.” But they offer several sandwich options as well. We decided to mix it up and share several things. We started with a small portion (they call it a side) of the duck confit Caesar salad ($8). First thing, for a small salad, this is an extremely generous portion. I can only imagine what the full portion is like. The salad was really good. Hubby could not stop talking about how much he liked it. There wasn’t too much in common with a traditional Caesar salad when you looked at it other than some lettuce and croutons—it was full of lots of other things—red onions, thinly sliced fennel, carrot ribbons, olives, some grated hard boiled egg, a bit of celery, and of course, the duck confit. It did have an anchovy vinaigrette, which gave it that taste similar to a Caesar. All the crunchy earthly flavors were really really good with the salty dressing (and thankfully it was tossed and properly dressed). Pretty sure I will have a hard time getting hubby not to order this every time (it’s on the dinner menu too).

My choice was the egg salad sandwich ($9). Now, I realize that sounds boring, but this is an exceptional egg salad sandwich. There was the base of the egg salad, and there was also goat cheese, pickled red onions, some greens, capers and bagna cauda (which is a spread or dip that is made with anchovies and garlic). And all of it was on nice toasty, grilled, hearty slices of Amelia’s bread. Wow, this is a really, really good sandwich. You have the richness of the egg, the briny flavor from the capers and anchovy, and the slightly tart yet creamy taste from the goat cheese and it is a perfect combination. All the flavors work really well to balance each other out (and it doesn’t hurt that I love all of these things). No one taste overwhelmed the others; they were in just the right proportion. They were served with very crunchy house made potato chips.

We also shared the carnitas tacos ($13)—there were three in a serving. They each had tons of avocado and the carnitas, meat. There was also salsa, cilantro, a bit of cream and fresh jalapenos with limes on the side. I have to say, this was our least favorite of the day. Nothing really wrong with it, but the meat was a little too dry and the flavors just didn’t stand out like the other things. There was a ton of the meat, and they needed a bit more of the toppings to meld everything together. There was a lot of avocado, but that was about it. Also, the limes that came with were really dry—I couldn’t get any juice out of them. I asked for some new ones that were much better. Once you got a really nice squeeze of the lime juice, they improved a lot. But this was one item I probably wouldn’t get again just because there are so many other delicious sounding things on the menu.

Even though we had really had quite enough to eat, we broke down and ordered dessert. We had the zeppoles ($10) with some coffee (hubby wanted me to be sure and mention how much he liked the coffee) and tea. Zeppoles are little fried balls of brioche dough. I guess you could call them Italian doughnut holes. Wow, they were really delicious (and addicting). They were really light and super hot. I really enjoyed the 3 different dipping options they gave you—chocolate ganache, honey goat cheese, and strawberry preserves. I couldn’t really tell you which I liked best. And a combo of a couple was good too—I especially liked a little double dip into the goat cheese and the strawberry. Sort of like a really delicious cheesecake. The portion was quite generous and would be great for sharing for up to 3-4 people. The zeppoles were great, but the entire Bluebeard dessert menu looks so good. It is one of the most original dessert menus in Indy I think, and every single thing sounds great. I would happily eat every one.

As far as I can tell, Bluebeard just keeps growing and improving. Pretty much every visit has been successfully better and better. Our service was spot on, and the food was very, very good. I can’t wait to see what future visits hold.

Bluebeard

653 Virginia Ave

Indy, 46203

317/686-1580

www.bluebeardindy.com

Peterson's- Revisit

2013-03-28T06:17:00.000-04:00

I’m glad we have Peterson’s—we have so many chain steakhouses in Indy, it is nice to have one that is locally owned. Unfortunately my steak connoisseur son will not get to try it for several years because you have to be 21 and over to eat there. He was a little annoyed about this, as it is his personal goal to eat at all the steakhouses in town.

Anyway, we were celebrating my sister and her hubby’s birthdays and my brother-in-law loves steak, so it seemed like a good time to give it another try (my parents were with us as well). I like the interior of the place (and hey, I am not complaining that there aren’t more kids in there). I was sort of surprised how loud it was, but it was quite busy, which is a nice thing to see.

we had already eaten 2 of them....

My sister and hubby got there before we did and placed an order for the tempura lobster fingers ($16). I have had these several times before and they are always good. How can you go wrong with freshly tempura-fried lobster? They were fresh, and tender and dipped in the accompanying honey mustard (they also give you drawn butter), they are delicious.

Hubby and I then ordered our own appetizers, the tuna tartare for me ($15) and oysters Rockefeller for hubby ($20). My tuna was disappointing. It was just calling out for some sort of acid. The tuna was good quality, but seemed fairly unseasoned (even though the menu describes it as “sweet chili tuna”). There was a sweet soy type sauce underneath and some sliced daikon on top. After eating the first chip worth, and a furtive glance around the table, I grabbed hubby’s lemon and squeezed some on my tuna. Much better.

Hubby’s oysters were great though. For classic oysters Rockefeller (spinach, cream, Romano cheese and Pernod), these are some of the best in town I think. They oysters are a decent size, but not huge so they are still tender and easy to eat. Very rich and creamy and well done. I also had a bite (o.k., several) of my sister’s clam chowder ($8), which was the soup of the day. I have to say, this was really good as well. Super chunky with lots of pieces of clam and very well seasoned. Not a bit of salt or pepper necessary. It had a nice peppery bite to it.

Normally hubby and I would split a steak at this kind of place because they are usually so big, but we couldn’t agree on which to order, so he got a ribeye ($43) and I had a filet ($35). Both steaks were really very good. Peterson’s definitely knows steaks—they are prime and they are cooked well. Mine was so tender that I was really glad I had gotten it, even though hubby’s was very good as well (just a little firmer). Ok, his was maybe cooked slightly beyond the medium rare he ordered, but the meat is so good, it was still very good. Honestly, I think there is a chance that they mixed up a couple of the steaks at the table because my brother-in-law ordered his slightly more cooked.

I liked the au gratin potatoes ($9) on this trip—in the past I have complained that Peterson’s sides weren’t that good, but I enjoyed these. They weren’t’ exactly what I think of when I think of au gratin, because they were cubed and baked with cream instead of sliced, which was what I was expecting. It also didn’t hurt that they were topped with crumbled Smoking Goose bacon. They were my favorite side.

We also ordered Brussels sprouts ($7) based on the awesome ones I had lately, and also based on more of the Smoking Goose bacon being included, but unfortunately these were too undercooked for me, and honestly, I couldn’t really taste the bacon. They were halved, and just not cooked through. Finally, we had some of the King crab mac and cheese ($11) which I also really enjoyed, although from what I could tell, there wasn’t a ton of crab in there. The mac and cheese tasted good and had a nice crumb topping though—it was a white cheddar and fontina cheese sauce and was rich and tasted great with the steak.

Ok, so that was the meal. I would say my overall impressions is that they do old school items very well—and their steaks on the whole are top notch. My biggest problem of the evening? The service. They were really busy and it seemed like our server was sort of in the weeds all night—we sat there holding our menus for way too long (we still had them when our apps came because we hadn’t yet ordered our main dishes) (and they have those really large menus that are awkward). It also took forever to get our wine. And while he seemed like he was knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the food, he seemed to disappear for long periods of time (at least from our table). It sort of all made sense when we got the bill and there was an automatic 20% gratuity added to our check (which he did not point out to us, luckily hubby caught it). I thought this was kind of weak considering there were only 6 of us and I have never seen an auto gratuity of 20% (that seemed excessive particularly due to the bad service). I feel like our service suffered so much because he knew he was getting a good tip no matter what he did. I realize I sound annoyed, and I was. Very. We are normally generous tippers, but when service is this bad, I do not generally leave 20%. I know I talked to some of you about this on twitter already, but what do you all think? Do you think service suffers when an automatic gratuity is being added? Servers, do you worry about those tables just a little less? Is it legitimate to cross out an automatic tip and write in a new lower one? I know you can add to it, but can you subtract from it? I would love to hear what some of the restaurant people out there think too.

Ok, enough of my rant, but unfortunately the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth, even though the food was on the whole pretty good.

Peterson’s

7690 E 96^th Street

Fishers 46037

317/598-8863

www.petersonsrestaurant.com

Spice Box

2013-03-25T06:20:00.000-04:00

I have to say, I have been pretty bad about getting around to all of the food trucks. I guess I am kind of weird about liking to sit down and eat, and since I don’t work in any of the offices where the trucks often park, it makes it more challenging for me. Also, in winter, you can’t even sit down outside. I am assuming the trucks’ business suffers a fair amount in cold weather, but maybe I’m wrong—whatcha think?

Anyway, I was in Carmel at an appointment and noticed on twitter that Spice Box was at an office building close to me. So I decided to pick it up and take it home to eat. I figure Indian food could probably travel fairly decently (and that’s what passenger side seat heaters are for right?). So I hunted them down and got the “spice box” with two of the main dishes—the spicy shrimp and the butter chicken ($9 for 2 items, $7 if you just want 1). It also comes with rice and a piece of garlic naan.

The first thing I noticed about this truck was how exceptionally nice the two guys were who were working there. They asked me if I had been before, and took a lot of time telling me about the different options. I wanted to try a couple of different things so I got the shrimp and the chicken, although they really had me sold on the chicken. One of them then asked if I liked spicy things and told me about the sauce they had on the side and fixed me a little cup of it to go with my lunch. He was telling me all about the ingredients (Thai green chili, cilantro, a tiny bit of mint, a bit of yogurt, as well as many other items). It is pretty obvious that they are enthusiastic about their food. They also specifically asked for any feedback, good or bad—they obviously are looking to make their truck as successful as possible.

And the food, well, that butter chicken was delicious. It consists of chunks of boneless chicken in a rich hearty sauce—the sauce had a fair amount of spice, and it lingered in your mouth, but not in a hot burn your mouth kind of way. Lots of Indian spices, lots of butter and tomato paste. It was really addicting. The chicken stayed tender and the sauce was great soaked into the rice.

I didn’t like the shrimp as much, not because it was bad, but just because I really liked the chicken more. The shrimp was well cooked (I would worry it would get overcooked in a dish like this) and the sauce had a bit more heat, but it was more of a curry type taste, with a distinct undertone of coconut, which isn’t my favorite thing. So it is more of a personal preference. But I will go back and get the chicken in a heartbeat (and apparently it is one of their most popular items so I guess I am not the only one).

I really enjoyed the green sauce too—it had a lot of cilantro in it and I liked the freshness it added to everything (I pretty much added it to all of it). It also added a bit more heat, but wasn’t overwhelmingly hot. Be sure and ask for some of this if they don’t offer it (my guess is they will though, as friendly as the were).

The Naan (which is an Indian flat bread) was tasty—it had a lot of garlic flavor, which is always good. My only complaint was because they put it in the box with the entrées, it gets a little soft from the steam of the food. I would have liked it a little firmer (maybe if they wrapped it in foil separately or something). I probably would order an extra piece next time too. It had a really great flavor.

I would say this is a truck that is worth checking out if you happen to have them in your area. I am looking forward to getting the butter chicken again. And don’t forget to tell me about your other favorite food trucks. You guys were the ones who turned me onto this truck, and I appreciate it.

Spice Box (food truck)

Various locations

Twitter: @spiceboxindy

http://spiceboxindy.com/

Punch Burger - Revisit

2013-03-21T06:31:00.000-04:00

The males in my household have a thing for burgers lately, and frankly, I was getting kind of tired of going to the same places that we always go, even though I like them. We decided to take a little road trip downtown and revisit Punch Burger with the kids.

Ok, so maybe the secret real reason I wanted to go again so soon is because I know Punch recently changed their bacon to Smoking Goose bacon and I wanted to go in there and show some support (and eat some of that bacon). I have also been hearing about this “burnt cheese” option which intrigued me, so that is also what I ordered—the burnt cheese burger with a runny fried egg and bacon (of course) ($9.24). I sort of screwed it up because I really just wanted those things on the burger, and they gave me the regular burnt cheeseburger that also has a bunch of other stuff on there too (lettuce, ketchup, onions, etc.). No biggie, I just picked them off, but I need to be more careful about how I order my burger.

Ok, it looks messy, but tasty!

So first off, the bacon was great. Soooo much better than the old bacon option there. I will say, it is slightly pricier, but this is certainly a case of you get what you pay for. And it is totally worth it. The burnt cheese was very interesting. I sort of expected the cheese to be melted regularly on the burger with just edges that were burnt. These were actually crisps of cheese that were cooked until crispy and then placed on top. They were tasty, and had an interesting crunch to them, but I can’t say this would be a regular order for me because I missed the cheesiness of the cheese on the burger. But a very interesting concept. The burger itself was good. The quality of the meat is high—I just wish they wouldn’t cook it so much. I was so busy ordering all the extra things I wanted (and screwing it up), I didn’t even think to ask to have it cooked to a particular temperature. Next time I would see if they would do it. They did ask if I wanted the egg runny or not, and they cooked it perfectly.

Hubby ordered a “build your own” (what I was trying to do) with cheese, grilled onions and bacon ($7.54). It was really, really good. He got even more bacon than I did and had the right amount of cheesiness that I missed. He did love my little fried bits of cheese and added a few on top of his (hmmm…wonder if you can just order a side of fried cheese). We shared waffle fries. They’re waffle fries, so you know they are not making them fresh, but they were done exactly how they should have been. Hot and crispy—and they season them with a seasoning mix that is pretty tasty.

The kids each got a kid’s meal, which comes with a smaller slider and a side of waffle fries. They thought they were fine, but because they were pretty small, they were even a bit drier. (My daughter also informed me that the buns were just a bit too big for the size of the meat). I think next time they would just split one regular burger and be happier. The kids also enjoyed the fancy soda machine where you can mix up different flavors into your soda (even though they don’t drink soda). They made different flavors of lemonade and were happy.

I would say overall, Punch has taken a pretty solid burger and made it even better with the addition of kick ass bacon. It’s nice to have a local place downtown serving this kind of more casual food.

Punch Burger

137 E. Ohio Street

Indy 46204

317/426-5280

www.punchburger.com

Movable Feast - Revisit

2013-03-18T05:25:00.000-04:00

You know those moments when you eat something and instantly know it is going to become something you crave regularly? Well, I had one of those the other day when I stopped into Movable Feast for a late lunch (that I took home to eat).

I wasn’t sure what I was in the mood for but remembered having a little sample of the chicken salad in the past and enjoying it. So I decided to get a half sandwich and some soup ($6). Ok, normally I don’t order chicken salad. Seriously, like pretty much never. But for some reason it sounded good and it was. What I like about this chicken salad is the sauce. It is made with yogurt and is very tangy and not gloppy if you know what I mean. It isn’t over thick and gooey like mayo-based sauces can be. There is also a ton of dill in it, and a bit of crunch from green onions and celery. The chunks of chicken were white meat, and were nice and tender. I just had it on simple wheat bread, which was nice and soft. Seriously, this is how I feel about egg salad at Patachou. Simple, and comforting. A great thing when you’re in a hurry and don’t have time to make something yourself (because these are exactly the kind of things I would make myself).

I also enjoyed the soup. It was lemon chicken and rice soup and I also have a weekness for soups with lots of rice. It had a nice distinctive lemon flavor (there was actually a slice of lemon in my bowl). It needed a little salt though, but you got it when you crumbled in the saltines they sent along with.

I have a thing for tangy things, and when you want some simple, but well executed, clean food (and not ridiculous portions) for a very reasonable price, this is a great spot. Super friendly couple that works there too.

My biggest problem with the place is deciding what I will order when I go in (although chicken salad is likely to become a regular). I know some of you frequent the place (I have seen it on twitter), so please tell me your favorite things here.

Movable Feast

5741 East 71^st Street

Indy 46220

317/577-9901
www.movablefeast.name

Serenity

2013-03-14T05:54:00.000-04:00

After my post on Cobblestone, several people emailed me to give me suggestions about where to eat in Zionsville. I was meeting my friend @indyfoodswap and she had had a good meal in the past at one of them, The Sanctuary restaurant, so we agreed to meet there. Unfortunately it was closed for remodeling (they might want to put a little more noticeable warning on their website, just a thought), so we decided to try Serenity instead (which had also been recommended).

It is a cute little house with several tables that were pretty full when we got there. The service was a little strange—the meal took quite a long time from start to finish, even though we didn’t mind too much since we were chatting.

For my lunch, I had the Serenity club panini ($9.95). It was a toasted sandwich with turkey, bacon, red onion, provolone cheese, tomatoes and spinach with a basil sauce. I had it with a side salad. For me, the sandwich hit the spot. It was cold outside, and the sandwich was hot and melty. It wasn’t overstuffed (the tomatoes were a little meh though) and the veggies were fresh, as were the components of the salad. I could have used a little more bacon, but all in all I liked the sandwich. The salad was quite large and underdressed, but much better when I asked for some dressing on the side (it was a Thousand Island type dressing).

Unfortunately, Suzanne’s meal wasn’t as good. She ordered the black and blue salad ($11.95) that was described as having “roasted beef tenderloin” on it. She was a little disappointed with the very small amount of beef and the fact that it almost looked more like deli roast beef than the pieces of filet that she was expecting. I didn’t taste it, so I can’t speak for the flavor—I can just tell you my visual observations. They did end up giving her a discount after she mentioned her concerns about how the salad is described, which she didn’t ask for and which I thought was a professional way to handle the situation.

All the entrées come with a scone, and I remember really enjoying the one I had had at the other restaurant they used to own in Carmel. The chocolate chip/cinnamon one that came with my meal was a little soft though and I didn’t eat much of it.

All in all, I would say at least based on what I had, Serenity isn’t a bad lunch option in Zionsville. It is a very feminine place (think high tea)—I think the place was pretty much full when we left, but there was only one guy in there.

Serenity

135 S. Main Street

Zionsville, IN

317/873-5590

http://www.occasionsdivine.com/serenity.html

Oakley's - Revisit

2013-03-11T05:57:00.000-04:00

Indy has a lot of really good restaurants these days and Oakley’s is certainly one of them. I like that it is consistently good (even if every dish doesn’t always completely wow me) and the service is professional and the menu gets mixed up a fair amount. It’s been around a long time but manages to stay fresh and maintain a high level of quality.

I was with friends and we ended up sharing a bunch of the small plates—totally one of my favorite ways to eat. I love eating with people who are willing to share. The first round, we ordered the deviled eggs ($5)(I’m a sucker), the oyster rolls ($11.25 for 3) and the Creole gnocchi ($12.75). I loved the Creole gnocchi. There were several pieces of the gnocchi (but not a ton) as well as crawfish etouffee. The little crawfish tails were really tasty and similar in size to the gnocchi. The whole dish was in a spicy seasoned sauce—but not “hot and spicy,” just true New Orleans style spicy. It was really well done.

The oyster sliders were interesting. They were not what I expected. The oysters were pounded flat and then fried and stuck inside the bun with some apple slices as well as a sauce (we had so many things even I am having a hard time remembering all the ingredients). The buns were nice and toasty and I enjoyed them. One was just right though, there was a fair amount of bread to them and any more would have been a little too filling for me I think with everything else we had.

The deviled eggs were also good. I do love the whole deviled egg trend, as they are one of my life long weaknesses. These had a little piece of house made copa (which is similar to prosciutto—a cured pork with maybe a bit more fat). The copa was crisp and stuck in the egg. There was also a little ramp kim chee on top. They were very good. Like I said, I love a deviled egg and these were no exception. The thing that made these different were the things on top, not so much the seasoning in the eggs themselves which was pretty standard deviled egg (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

The next course we ordered several things including the toad in a hole salad ($10.75), which is one of my perennial favorites at Oakley’s, and anywhere, really. It is a crisp piece of brioche with a hole cut out and an egg put in and cooked runny. It was topped with lots of greens, as well as some pieces of asparagus, prosciutto, artichokes, pickled grapes, cheese and with a truffle vinaigrette and some dots of a red pepper sauce. It was really good. I loved the slight sourness from the artichokes and the pickled grapes. Really nice with the rich bread and egg. They do a nice job dressing things and making sure salads don’t come across as dry or unbalanced (and they are so pretty too). Veggie-wise, we also had a side of the roasted Brussels sprouts, which are some of the best I have had—they were quartered and roasted with some bits of pancetta (if I am remembering correctly) they were exactly the right amount of roasted so that they were cooked all the way, and not burnt, and amazingly crisp on the outside which a nice bit of salt. I could eat another bowl right now. We also ordered the harvest salad which had beets and fennel I believe, but I only had one small bite, so I’m not really really qualified to write about it.

We also shared the scallop appetizer-- it was also really beautiful and really tasty. The scallops were perfectly cooked and I did not get any little bits of sand in any of the parts I ate (I have bad luck with this). It was a hearty sauce and there was more of the copa served with it. It was described as having melted leeks, but I only noticed a few maybe on the bottom of the plate.

At this point we were ready to share a couple of desserts and call it a night. Again, we went with a classic that I have always enjoyed, the brownie with caramel corn. The brownie is baked to order, but it is better than the typical molten chocolate cake because it is a heartier brownie. They serve it with a little crème anglaise on the side and delicious caramel corn. A great classic combo of flavors. We also had the lemon crepes which were a special on this particular night. They were also tasty—the crepes had a lemony filling and little cubes of lemon curd alongside. It was nice to have the two different sweet/sour flavors side by side.

I’m not sure why I often forget about Oakley’s when I am thinking about a nice dinner. Because the food is worth remembering.

Oakley’s Bistro

1464 west 86^th Street

Indy 46260

317/824-1231

www.oakleysbistro.com

Tavola di Tosa at the Nestle Inn

2013-03-07T06:00:00.000-05:00

Tony Hanslits is the Executive Chef at the Chef’s Academy here in town and with his wife, owns Nicole Taylor’s pasta company. He used to be the chef at a restaurant back when I lived in California called Tavola di Tosa that a lot of people in this town really liked (you have no idea how many people have told me about it) and worked at many others before that.

Apparently, he has been working in private catering as well as doing some dinners out of Nicole Taylor’s for awhile now, but from what I gather, it is very difficult to get booked with him in either place. Luckily, a friend of mine told me about Tavola di Tosa dinners he is now doing monthly at the Nestle Inn downtown and we booked a table in February. Technically, it was supposed to be a Valentine’s dinner, so it was a little more expensive than the other dinners hosted there (this was $125 if I remember correctly, tax and tip included, but most are $85 for a multi-course, BYOB dinner).

Our first course was a gnocchi dish—not your typical potato gnocchi but gnocchi made from cheese and herbs and dusted in flour and served with a drawn butter sauce with fresh Parmesan. They were very light and I appreciated that they didn’t overdo it on the portion size since we still had several more courses coming. I loved the way Chef Hanslits came out and told us about each course as well. It was fun to see and hear so much enthusiasm.

I loved the next course (of course I did). It was beef Carpaccio with an arugula salad. There was red onion, Parmesan and capers giving it the salt and the crunch and the greens were nicely dressed with the right amount of acid. The beef was so tender and delicious. My only complaint is that I wished I had more of the beef. It felt like a little bit of a tease. But of course, there was more to come.

Next was a pasta course called Nona’s kerchief, which was similar in flavor to lasagna, although it was more petite in size. It was a large piece of pasta that was sort of wrapped up like an envelope around cheese and then topped with marinara sauce and served on top of a creamy béchamel sauce. It was probably the least unusual of the courses, but still tasty.

The last course before dessert was probably the favorite at the table—it was seared sea scallops with really tasty caramelized Brussels sprouts, pieces of pancetta and walnuts, all with spicy chili oil. The scallops were cooked just right and came out smoking hot. The Brussels sprouts practically melted in your mouth.

Dessert was a flourless chocolate cake with a blood orange (and Sprite!) sauce. I don’t really get too excited by flourless chocolate cake anymore, but it was meant to be a Valentine’s meal, so chocolate is sort of required I think. They also sent us home with a couple of truffles as well.

After the meal Chef Hanslits came out and just sat and chatted with everyone—answering questions and telling stories. It’s a little room (it holds seating for 12) so it was a very intimate situation and it was really fun listening to someone who obviously has extreme passion for what he does.

I realized before I posted this, I was going to need to book another night because I have a feeling it won’t be long before these dinners all get sold out as well.

Tavola di Tosa at Nestle Inn

637 North East Street

Indy 46202

317/610-5200

http://www.nestleindy.com/tavola-di-tosa/tavola-di-tosa-at-nestle-inn.htm

Bagger Dave's

2013-03-04T05:48:00.000-05:00

I met my friend @wibia the other day for lunch at Bagger Dave’s-- a mostly Midwestern chain of burger places that has recently come to Indy. Honestly, I was kind of expecting more of a fast food kind of place, but this place is a sit down place with table service. It’s still fairly casual, but not so casual as a Five Guys, Punch, or 96^th Street Steakburgers. More along the lines of Bru Burger. (There is also a toy train that is constantly running around the entire interior of the place, which might be a good kid thing).

They have several of their own combo burgers, or they have a sheet on the table that you can design your own the way you want ($4.19 for small). That’s what I did. Some of the combos sound interesting, but they all are a little toppings heavy for me. I got the small burger (which is one patty vs. two) (also, when did one patty become “small?”). I had it with one of their custom sauces (the “Railhouse Burger Sauce”), cheddar cheese, grilled onions and pickles. What can I say? The burger was fine. That’s it. It was a little dry (overworked maybe). The sauce was like Thousand Island dressing (which I have noticed is a favorite at burger joints these days—when did that start? Has that always been a thing?). I like it, basically slightly spicy mayo and ketchup together. You could also choose your bun (sesame, plain, honey wheat). I kept it simple and got plain.

We also split a single order of fries ($2.59) even though the server tried to convince us we needed a double. It was a generous portion and plenty for both of us. The fries seemed fresh cut and were pretty tasty. I could have stood them to be a little crispier. They weren’t bad though. We got a couple dipping sauces to try (the ranch and the horseradish ranch). Eh, I think they were better with just ketchup to be honest.

Our server was very enthusiastic, and I think also very new to serving, and hadn’t quite gotten his groove yet. He came to the table just a little too much.

Overall, it’s a burger, and not a bad one, but not a really good one either. I can see how it may fill a niche on this side of town though—there were a lot of business people in there having lunch. They also have a bar in the back with what appears to be a pretty decent beer selection. They also do “craft soda” which is an interesting concept. My soda (I just got a diet) wasn’t very fizzy. But if you want somewhere along that Michigan Road corridor that is kind of an “upscale casual” restaurant, that serves beer, and has a very accessible menu, you might give them a try. If you want a kick ass burger, I would go elsewhere.

Speaking of, what is your absolute favorite burger in town?

Bagger Dave’s

8840 North Michigan Road

Indy 46268

317/870-3531

http://baggerdaves.com