Ruth’s Café

Hubby and I had lunch at Ruth’s the other day. It used to be a pretty regular place for me, but for one reason or another I haven’t been in awhile. I am always impressed with how solid their lunch business seems to be. It’s really nice to see an independent restaurant thrive in that location (near the Fashion Mall) because there are so few in the area. They are doing so well in fact, according to their website, it looks like they have opened a little branch in a nearby office building.

It was early for lunch so hubby went with one of their benedicts. This one is the salmon avocado version ($11.25).  This is sourdough toast on the bottom, seared smoked salmon, avocado, the two poached eggs and then homemade hollandaise sauce.  It was really good. The eggs were poached just right and I liked the fact that the salmon was warm. They use lots of avocado, and the hollandaise sauce is light but has a nice lemony flavor. We both had side salads with our dishes—I appreciate that they make this an option—and the side salads at Ruth’s are good because they use nice mixed greens mixed with some romaine. I am picky about the lettuce I get in a salad, and they are using good quality. They also served it with a few cherry tomatoes and slivers of parmesan.

I ordered my favorite combo---the half sandwich and salad (around $10). The sandwich I get is their version of a turkey club. There’s some thick slices of turkey on grilled sourdough (you can get whatever bread you want though) topped with melty Havarti cheese, avocado, bacon, lettuce as well as some pesto mayo. There’s just something about this sandwich that I love. I like that it’s grilled and warm, I like the avocado, which they are not stingy with, and I like that they don’t screw it up by putting a slice of under ripe tomato on it. I feel like that is a fatal flaw at many restaurants.  I also really like their chunky blue cheese dressing with my salad, as well as with my sandwich (I tend to dip the sandwich in it as well). 

Anyhow, it’s a very good breakfast and lunch option on my side of town, which is a rarity. The menu is large and there are lots of appealing things, even if I tend to be drawn back into that turkey sandwich nearly every time.

Ruth’s Café

3343 East 86^th Street

Indy  46240

317/757-8006

http://www.ruthscafeindy.com/ 

Ruth’s Pull Up a Chair Café -Revisit

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

Ruth’s Keystone Café

I reported the other day on Twitter that I had drove by Ruth’s Keystone Café, and for a nice change of pace, saw some good news—it was re-opening after being closed suddenly in July. It was a place I ate several times, and I guess I sort of took it for granted, so I wanted to make sure and support it once it re-opened. So the BFF and I met there for lunch on what was their 4th day open.

The menu is very similar to what it was before, many of the same items, and certainly all the favorite ones (at least for me). It is paired down a bit, and has been re-printed on nice new shiny laminated cards. One of my favorite changes is that they have a nice section of combos (e.g. soup and salad, soup and sandwich or salad and sandwich) and you can get a petite portion of ANY of their salads with the combo. This is exactly what I needed at this place because there is a salad I really like (the warm wild mushroom) and several sandwiches I like as well. So I had the sandwich/salad combo with the mushroom salad and half of their Cobb sandwich. Perfect.

The salad is a salad of spinach leaves topped with warm mushrooms (mostly the brown button type), blue cheese and walnuts and served with a yummy truffle vinaigrette. There was so much of the toppings that I didn’t even end up eating all of them after going through all the spinach. But it is a really nice, hearty salad. And it is nice to be able to get something warm when the weather is starting to get a little cold.

My sandwich was the Ruth’s Cobb with shredded chicken breast, avocado, aioli, bacon and blue cheese. They have changed the style of this sandwich (and quite possibly all of them I think) to be panini type sandwiches—sliced bread with the ingredients inside and then pressed and toasted in the panini press. I found it nice to have all the ingredients slightly warm and the bread nice and toasty and not too thick, but if you are looking for the buns they used to have, you might be disappointed. I also liked that they have put more of the choice ingredients on the sandwiches, as that was my big gripe before. There was much more blue cheese and avocado, and this makes me happy. And the bacon was really tasty too. Let’s hope they keep it up!

The BFF had one of her old time favorites—the potato omelet and said she thought it was even better than before as well.

I talked to our server who said they have been quite busy since re-opening and hope that it continues this way. If this is a place you liked before and neglected, or a place you have never been to, give it a try. Support one of our better local lunch spots!

Ruth’s Keystone Café
3443 East 86th Street
Indy 46240
317-466-0770

Ruth’s Keystone Café

Several readers have commented on Ruth’s Keystone Café as one of their favorites for lunch and I thought it time I write it up. I have been several times, but it had been awhile, so I thought it was time for a trip back.

It is a small little restaurant in a strip mall across from the Fashion Mall. The menu is quite appealing and I have tried several things—pretty much all of which have been good. On this most recent trip, hubby and I got 2 sandwiches and split them—the Brie L.T. and the Missile.

The Brie L.T. is described as bacon, brie, romaine lettuce, tomato and tarragon aioli on Italian bread heated in a panini press. The sandwich was very tasty, had the right amount of brie, and although I didn’t see any romaine, it was mixed greens, I think that is probably an improvement. The only thing I didn’t really taste that much was the tarragon aioli, I think a slightly more liberal application could have improved it. But all in all, I would order it again.

The missile is described as braised chicken breast with roasted tomatoes, caramelized onions, and gorgonzola on a hoagie bun (pictured below). I liked this sandwich as well, the tomatoes were quite tasty (more flavorful than the plain tomatoes in the Brie L.T.) and it had a good amount of the chicken and onions (although, I generally expect caramelized onion to have a bit of color to them, and these didn’t, but they were still good). Again, the only thing was, it could use a bit more of the unique ingredient, the gorgonzola. I think I only had one bite where I could really taste it. Hubby suggested maybe it is because some people don’t like blue cheese, but I think if you are ordering a sandwich with blue cheese, you should really be able to taste it. And if you don’t like it, order something else. There are lots of choices here.



I have also had the cobb chicken sandwich on several occasions, and it may be one of my favorites. It is shredded chicken, bacon, avocado (natch), blue cheese, aioli and sprouts (I get mine without sprouts because there are just so many of them) on a hoagie. This is quite tasty as well, even if it suffers from the same lack of the blue cheese that the missile does. Like I said, I want to be able to really taste it.

The sandwiches all come with a nice side salad of mixed greens with their house vinaigrette which is very good. And I appreciate the health factor of this as well. The bread is also high quality and in the right proportion to the rest of the toppings.

I have also had the warm wild mushroom salad with spinach, blue cheese, candied walnuts and truffle vinaigrette. This salad is really good and all the ingredients complement each other perfectly. I would say this is my second favorite thing here.

Ruth’s also has a very extensive breakfast menu which is very intriguing and offers daily specials as well. I am always curious about the daily benedict special (as well as the several benedicts they have on the menu) which plays on the basic theme with many variations (crab cakes, salmon, asparagus, etc).

My one gripe about the actual interior is the way the restaurant is laid out (a long rectangle with a door leading in right in the middle), that no matter where you sit, if it is winter, every time the door opens, you freeze for a second. Maybe a curtain in front of the door somehow or something like that would improve this problem. Also, occasionally the service is a bit slow, particularly if there is a big crowd (which there often is), so prepare for that if you are crunched for time.

All in all, I think Ruth’s is a very good, high quality lunch place with the potential to be great with a little more consistency and attention paid to making sure all the flavors in the dishes are presented in the right proportions. They have got the right combinations; they just need to perfect it.

Ruth’s Keystone Café
3443 East 86th Street
Indy 46240
317-466-0770
www.RuthsCafe.com