Monday, July 7, 2014

The North End

I have ventured over to Ryan Nelson’s new place, The North End, a couple of times since it opened—the first time for lunch and the second time for dinner. First of all, judging by the Monday night crowd at dinnertime, this neighborhood has been desperate for somewhere like this to go. It’s nice not to have Nora continue to be such a desert of independent, casual restaurants. So much fast food in this area.

At my lunch I had the Carolina pulled pork sandwich ($8), which came with 1 side. I went with potato salad because that is usually my go to with barbecue. The pork was okay. It’s the kind of pulled pork that has a lot of the crisp “bark” on it. So it kind of depends on whether you like that or not. They serve 4 sauces—a sweet molasses based sauce, a classic BBQ sauce, a spicier version and a vinegar/mustard-based sauce. You needed the sauce for sure to get the pork juicy. The sandwiches also come dressed with a house made cole slaw, which is a bit creamy and has a bit of vinegar. It was nice with the meat and sauce I thought.  Was it my favorite pulled pork? No, it’s a tad dry for me. The potato salad is a write off though, it was also super dry and bland. Just seemed liked chunks of potato with a bit of mustard. Needed some creaminess and some more zip.  I appreciated the wedge of boiled egg to mix in, but still could have used a little more pizazz. On both visits, I had the cornbread as a dessert ($3 as a separate side). It’s very sweet and topped with a nice mound of maple Bourbon butter. I really enjoyed it as a small dessert though (and so did my son). The first time they served it in a little iron skillet, which gave it a little more crisp edges, which I liked. They didn’t on the second visit. 

At dinner, we were with another family, and took the opportunity to try a bunch of the appetizers, which all sounded very appealing. Probably my favorite was the smoked Alaskan salmon dip ($8)—it was a creamy dip with lots of salmon in it as well as capers and chives. It was seasoned well and was served with thick housemade potato chips. A great combination. And when I squeezed a couple of lemons from the broiled oysters on top, it was perfection.

The oysters  ($12 for 6) themselves weren’t bad. They were small oysters (my favorite) but were almost overwhelmed by the amount of broiled parmesan cheese on top. The cheese had sort of hardened into one large piece of cheese on top on some of them and a lot of the garlic butter had spilled out of the oysters before they were served. For the price point, I think I would just stick with the salmon dip.

Based on several recommendations, we also had the house battered onion rings with remoulade ($7). These were my biggest disappointment of the appetizers. These are the really big kind of onion rings, which don’t tend to be my favorite kind anyway, but if they have a really nice crunchy batter, I won’t care. Here, the batter wasn’t crunchy at all—very soft. I liked the drizzled remoulade that was on them (although didn’t help with the softness) and asked for some more on the side. I don’t know, maybe it was just an off night on these because like I said, a lot of people have recommended them to me.
For dinner, I wanted to try something new and went with the chicken ($15). It is a half roasted chicken and was spectacular. The smoked meat was so tender--it was amazing. The skin on the chicken was crisp and seasoned. Dipping the meat in the sauces was barely even necessary, but I enjoyed all of them. A bit of classic mixed with spicy is probably my favorite, but I went back and forth with the mustard sauce because I liked the acidity of it. After my son had eaten half his pulled pork sandwich, he tried my chicken and then proceeded to pick it to the bone. Every time we drive by now, he asks when we will go back and get more of the chicken.

For sides this time (the entrées come with 2 sides), I had the mac and cheese and the collard greens. The collards were good. Tender with the right amount of porky bits and vinegar. The mac and cheese is also very good (probably my favorite side if I were choosing). It was creamy and topped with a slightly sweet, slightly smoky, rib jam that gave it extra texture and depth. Although my son had the fries as his side, which were tossed in bone marrow butter and jalapenos and they were quite delicious as well. Decadent, but good. They were certainly hubby’s favorite side.

Speaking of, hubby decided to go with another of the appetizers as his main dish, the shrimp and grits ($10). He figured he would eat off our plates, and he did. The shrimp and grits were good as well. The shrimp wasn’t overcooked and the grits were cheesy with white cheddar mixed in. There were some hunks of tasso ham and some fresh tomatoes as well. It was a large appetizer for sure. 

All in all, I think now that I have been a few times and found a couple of things we all really like, it will be a nice family-friendly place to put in the rotation that is near us. I can tell you what my son and I will be splitting—that chicken. Delicious.


The North End
1250 E. 86th Street
Indy  46240
317/614-7427

http://thenorthendbbq.com/ 






11 comments:

  1. Went for lunch last week and agree that the pork was a little dry. My friend had the brisket and it was wonderful. Had the sugar pie for dessert and it was inedible... way too sweet with an odd taste of too much vanilla. The service was excellent.

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  2. We ate there two weeks ago and we weren't totally impressed. My husband thought the brisket was dry and neither of us were overwhelmed by their sauces. I had the pulled pork and thought it was comparable to other places, not anything that stood out from the rest. The baked beans were hated by everyone at the table that tried them. Our corn muffins were dry but the maple butter was yummy. Our two favorite items were the fries with bone marrow butter and jalapenos and the mac and cheese with rib jam. The fries were decadent and I could eat them as a meal!! My teenage son loved the mac and cheese and scraped the bowl clean. We will try the restaurant again and based on your recommendation, try the chicken.

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    1. Jolene, that's funny, my husband and son hated the baked beans as well (I didn't taste it so didn't write about it). Let me know what you think if you try the chicken

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  3. I haven't visited, but I did happen to notice this restaurant a few weeks ago and wondered about it. I might have to go sometime and try that chicken. Otherwise I just thought I'd chime in and say that I've been following your blog for about 6 months now and really like it! I love non-chain restaurants and have created a restaurant "bucket list" if you will from your blog and recommendations! Thank you for all of the reviewing you do!

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    1. Kelly, thanks for the kind words and let me know what you think if you try it!

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    2. I know you're always looking for good bbq places -- have you tried Big Hoffa's BBQ in Westfield? I think I've only had it once, but my boyfriend has had it many times and absolutely loves it. You might give it a shot next time you're in a bbq mood and don't mind a little bit of a drive! And I don't know how much weight you put in this, but its ratings on urbanspoon, yelp, etc are all higher than North End's, too.

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  4. Unimpressive, pork dry, coke slaw no zip, agree potato salad very boring. Brisket served in chunks not sliced. Expected more for the price and reputation, we have had better means at GT's and Circle City.

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  5. I really love bbq, and I was very excited to try this place when it first opened. Now it's two months later and a lot of the reviews I've read thus far have put me off at least for the time being. I don't put that much stock into yelp or urbanspoon reviews, but if I see a trend that is backed up by a good source like Erin's blog here then I get concerned. Dry bbq is something I can't tolerate. I realize that the chicken may be excellent, but typically I don't go to a bbq restaurant for the chicken. I'm not writing this place off yet, but I think I'll have to hear of some improvement before they get my time and my treasure.

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    1. Brent, I hear you. I was definitely disappointed in the pork, which is why I tried the chicken. I hope they tweak some of the dishes as well. Interestingly, haven't heard a lot about the ribs yet. I wonder if it's because they are pretty pricey.

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    2. We heard our waitress tell another table that the ribs they serve our competitive ribs that don't fall off the bone. You have to work to get the meat off the bone. We don't care for this kind of rib so we won't order them in the future.

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  6. interesting rereading this post after my first time at NE; as an avid LHK diner (take almost all out of town clients there), I had high hopes for NE. overall thought the food was just ok, the best things we ate were apps that were taken from the LHK menu...had similar experience as others with the baked beans, when I asked the server if they were deliberately underdone, she said yes, they don't come out of a can and they are served al dente...have had lots of homemade baked beans and have never had them served that way

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