The Milky Way (Lebanon)

I'm back! For a minute anyway. I’m writing this one with just my left hand pretty much so it’s gonna be short and sweet (I know, you’ll all really miss my wordiness right?). Me and my son went to Lebanon to meet my friend @indyfoodswap and her sons to see about a certain milkshake. It was all in the name of research. It didn’t pan out as we thought (long story, but don’t ask for a chocolate and BBQ potato chip milkshake.)

But we had lunch—we ordered a bunch of stuff and shared. The main dish, described as a hand-breaded pork tenderloin sandwich ($5.73) was a disappointment. I am not so sure it was hand breaded. If so, maybe it was awhile ago and then frozen.  

What was really good though? The onion rings ($2.95). They were easily my favorite item of the lunch. They were thin cut onion with a super crunchy (I mean SUPER crunchy) battered coating. Really fresh and hot and just the right amount of greasy. These could be a problem for me if I lived closer.

Also strangely addictive were the fried rolls ($3.99). Ok, so I am pretty sure they were some kind of dinner rolls that came refrigerated in a tube and were then cut and thrown in the fryer. But serve ‘em with little packets of apple butter and I was happy and so was my son. These things were super tender with just the nice crisp exterior.

The Milky Way’s extensive menu heavily focuses on various dairy products (shakes, sundaes, soft serve, etc. etc.). The kids all partook of the goodies and enjoyed it. It’s a cute little old fashioned kind of divey place and it’s pretty reasonably priced. Oh, and get the onion rings.

Look for another guest post from my friend @wibia on Monday! I'll be back full time soon.

The Milky Way

836 Indianapolis Ave

Lebanon, IN 46052

765-482-1940

http://lebanonmilkyway.com/ 

Parky's Smokehouse

It was Valentine’s weekend, and we knew we were having a fancy meal on Monday, so we wanted something a bit more casual for a weekend night out.  We perused “the list” and settled on Parky’s because it was casual, we hadn’t had BBQ in awhile, and it was Saturday, so we could head to the Northside without fighting horrendous traffic. (Or so we thought, Castleton is horrible anyway; it took us like 20 minutes just to get on 465).

When we pulled in, I was surprised how much this place looked like a chain from the outside (and on the inside too). Turns out, it was a former chain location that was taken over and turned into the independent Parky’s.  Everyone was very friendly to us, and our waiter knew the menu inside and out, which I appreciated—he could answer all our questions, and did so very honestly.  But when you are inside, you feel like you could be sitting in almost any mid-range chain in the country. Weird.  But you could certainly tell this was a locally owned place once you looked around and noticed one of the owners behind the bar, and all the local advertising on the placemats.

Right away we were brought a basket of dinner rolls that honestly didn’t look that appealing to me, but hubby had a bite and assured me they were good.  And they were. They were warm and had a nice yeasty French bread flavor—and they were served with softened butter which is a little touch I always appreciate.  For an appetizer, because recently I was accused of reviewing nachos a lot, and because I never had actually reviewed nachos before, for fun we decided to go with a half order of the pulled pork nachos as a starter ($4.99).  We were also having a hard time negotiating who was going to get what meats on their sampler platters, so this gave us a way to try the pulled pork in one form, while still getting all the other stuff we wanted too.  The nachos were fine.  They had barbequed beans, the pork, their sweet sauce and then the cheese (jack and cheddar), sour cream and a few green onions.  The sweet sauce, which I think is the most popular, was a little sweet for me, and the pulled pork, while having good flavor, was a bit scarce, and a little dry.  The beans added a nice heartiness, although they were also a little on the sweet side which started to get a little overwhelming for me.  We got a half order, and didn’t finish them, but then again, we had a lot of food coming.

I had the two meat combo plate ($10.99)—and I chose dark meat chicken (a quarter chicken) and turkey breast.  The chicken came already cooked in their Bourbon bbq sauce, and I really wanted to try the mustard BBQ sauce as well, but I think it pairs best with a bird, so that is why I also got turkey.   The chicken was really good. The meat was nice and smoky and still very, very tender.  The Bourbon sauce was similar to the regular sauce, but the kick of the liquor took away that sweetness. It had a really nice rich and smoky flavor.  I think the chicken ended up being the best meat we had that night. I would surely get it again.  The turkey came out in slices—not sure why, I was sort of envisioning a hunk of a breast with some skin still on it, but it turned out to be a lot more tender than I thought it would be when I first looked at it.  It didn't have a ton of flavor on its own, but obviously benefited from the sauce.  Unfortunately, although some of my favorite BBQ sauces have been mustard based sauces (I like “Sticky Fingers” in the grocery store), this one was not for me.  It tasted too raw—like just straight up yellow mustard without much else to smooth it out, if you know what I mean.  But I enjoyed dipping the pieces into the extra Bourbon sauce they brought me.  For my sides (you get 2) I had mac and cheese  (a slight up charge) and their “butter browns,” which, apparently, aren’t always available.  The mac and cheese was decent—elbow noodles with a lot of cheese.  I enjoyed it, but it was pretty average.  Now, the “butter browns” were little pieces of heaven.  They were just roasted baker potatoes that were chilled, then cubed and thrown in the fryer and seasoned.  I know, it doesn’t sound like (or look like) much, but they were delicious.  The potato inside was super fluffy and the outside was perfectly crispy. I liked the way each bite had some skin on it, giving it a little extra flavor.  If I went back, and they weren’t available, I’d be bummed. I might even tear up a little.

So hubby had the 2 meat combo plate as well, with the beef brisket and the BBQ ribs (up charge of $4.99).  He enjoyed the ribs—they were served saucy, which he likes and were pretty tender and flavorful from the bite I had.  Not quite fall off the bone tender, but pretty close.  Nice smoky flavor.  While they weren’t his all time favorite ribs in Indy, they were up there near the top.  The brisket was interesting.  It was all shredded up –which is not what I was expecting.  It certainly had the slow cooked flavor that is what you expect from slow cooked beef (think stew meat), but it was a little dry and stringy for my taste.  There was certainly a lot of it though.  He had baked beans and coleslaw for sides, neither of which overly impressed him.  He was happy to help me eat my butter browns though.

They had several desserts, and we chose one of the housemade options—the bread pudding ($5.89).  Pretty sure they were making this with the leftover dinner rolls, which I am totally supportive of, and it was very good.  It also had some raisins worked in giving it some nice chewy bites.  It was nice and rich, and still soft but with the right amount of density, with a lovely praline caramel sauce drizzled across the top and some dollops of whipped cream.  It was certainly enough to share, and still, with all the food we had, we couldn’t manage to finish it.  Although, I would be hard pressed not to order it again.  It was well done.

So this is a place that I can totally see frequenting if you live in the area and you want some decent food and you want to support something local (they also offer a good selection of Indiana beers).  In fact, I have a friend who lives in Lebanon who basically said that to me, they go because it is locally owned, has a good beer selection, moderate prices, and the food is pretty good.  I would totally agree with that.  I am not sure I would drive the 30-40 minutes just to go there, but would certainly go again if I were in the area.  And I’d get the chicken, and those potatoes….

Parky’s Smokehouse

2479 Lebanon Road

Lebanon, IN  46052

765-482-1646

www.parkyssmokehouse.com

Bijou Restaurant - Lebanon

Before we had actually moved back to Indy, I had heard about this place from my sister—her boss at the time thought it was the best restaurant in the Indianapolis area. So I was intrigued to say the least. But the downside was it is in Lebanon which seemed so far away just for dinner. After mapquesting it, we realized, while distance-wise it was farther, time-wise, it was really about the same from our house as it is to go to some of the farther places downtown. And it was our anniversary, so it seemed like a good opportunity to give it a go (although our big anniversary celebration is coming up next week in Chicago, but that’s another post!) One note though, I probably would stick to going here on a Saturday night from Indy unless you go later, because I imagine traffic is pretty bad during rush hour.

To start with, it is chef owned and operated, which I think seems to make a restaurant more of a labor of love, and I tend to find that things come together better all around in these circumstances. I also love the homey, but upscale atmosphere of the interior of Bijou. The restaurant is set on the town square in downtown Lebanon, looking right onto the front of the courthouse. Sadly, this downtown looks a little forlorn, like so many small town downtowns, but the restaurant itself seems to be doing fine. It reminds me of a lot of the small family owned places we used to go to in Europe—it is a couple of store fronts wide, but with dark wood and white tablecloths. The place has been there awhile, and you can tell, but thankfully, wasn’t decorated in the 80s, if you know what I mean.

Anyhow, our server was very friendly and knowledgeable about the food and the wines, although he was a bit over-worked I think. There were a few pauses in service that might have been just a little too long. But we were enjoying ourselves, and our wine, so we didn’t mind.

We each started with an appetizer, which we shared and they were both totally outstanding. Mine was the lobster feuilleté which was beautifully cooked (read perfectly tender) pieces of lobster meat (and a lot of it) topped with a piece of puff pastry. And there was actually a bit of the pastry underneath the meat as well. The lobster was all in a Champagne cream sauce. It was rich and decadent and really, just perfect.

Hubby ordered (and again we shared) the oysters Bijou which were wonderful, small, tender Blue Point oysters served in their shells with bacon and a Chardonnay cream sauce (and there was a super thin slice of bread underneath the oyster making it all stay together).These were outstanding as well. I had a hard time deciding which was better and went back and forth, but in the end I think I liked the lobster better, although I would quite happily get either one (or both!) again.

We also decided to split one of their salads because they sounded good. We settled on the spinach salad with onion and Roquefort and served with a tangy lemon vinaigrette. I appreciated that they split it for us and that each salad had the appropriate amount of toppings. This was a simple salad, but one of the best I have had in a while. The Roquefort was truly Roquefort. It was super high quality cheese and you could really taste it. Not those tasteless blue cheese crumbles you get a lot of places. This was proper cheese. Proper French cheese. And I loved the vinaigrette, and the fact that there was the exact right amount of it, even on a split salad. No obligatory “warm bacon vinaigrette” here. And it was delicious.

Oh, and wait, I almost forgot the bread. Oh my. Warm perfect French baguettes. Just when you thought it might be impossible to find. There they are. In Lebanon. And the butter was delicious too—had a bit of salt and was perfect with the bread. I’m serious. You may think bread and butter sounds obvious, but I think it is tough to find a decent bread service around here. Man, it was hard to not eat too much. And they were happy to refill as much as you wanted. Oh! And I almost forgot the little palate cleanser that was sent out. Really superb passionfruit sorbet. I love passionfruit and this was really good. I really could have had a bowl for dessert. But I appreciate the palate cleanser. I think this is the first Indiana restaurant in which I have been served one.

Ok, unfortunately, this is the point where things got a little disappointing. The entrées were just ok. I was torn between the walleye in a lemon cream sauce or the shrimp and crab Normandie. Based on the waiter’s recommendation (he did say they were both very good though), I tried the shrimp and crab Normandie. This dish was large shrimp curled around a bit of what was basically crab cake mixture and set into a cream sauce with a touch of chipotle. The shrimp were cooked pretty well, but the crab cake mixture was disappointing and the sauce was just too blah. The whole thing needed a shot of acid of some sort (lemon perhaps would be an obvious choice) to bump it out of its flat, purely rich flavor. I wished I would have ordered the fish. The other thing that annoyed me (and is a pet peeve of mine) is that while each entrée is served with its own starch (mine was couscous which was fine, but plain, although in a heart shape), every single entrée is served with the same vegetable of the day. I know, I am sure this is much easier for the restaurant, and I get that. But I would almost rather not have it, then to have a one-side fits all type of thing. In a restaurant as nice as this, if you can’t pair something special, then just don’t do it. In case you are wondering, the side dish was a ratatouille with tomatoes and eggplant and then some broccoli with cheese sauce. Not that I am opposed to any of these things on their own, just the pairing of the same thing with every dish. And they didn’t add anything to the protein.

Hubby had the duck with Grand Marnier demiglaze. He felt about the same way about his as I did about mine. His was almost too sweet and thus, also sort of one dimensional. He said a bit of salt helped a bit. Some of the duck was a bit overcooked (even though they told us the kitchen cooks it medium rare and that is also how hubby likes it.). It was locally sourced, and I appreciate that. The starch on his plate was a shredded potato casserole, which he said reminded him of his Grandma’s and was his favorite part of the meal. Same veg obviously.

So I really liked about 78% of this meal, and will certainly go back. I may very well order two appetizers the next time (possibly the two we had actually, they were so good, although there were some other good sounding appetizers as well) along with my own salad. Or I may try one of the red meat dishes; I bet they can pull of a pretty good steak. Oh, and lots of that bread. And next time, dessert. The dessert menu was very tempting. And based on the two truffles we got for our anniversary, I bet dessert will be good. This place is a little gem, not perfect, but really enjoyable nonetheless.

Bijou Restaurant
111 West Main Street
Lebanon, IN 46052
765/482-7090
http://www.bijourestaurant.net/