Oakley's -- Revisit

Hey guys, just a reminder—don’t forget about Oakley’s. It is still a great option for a nice dinner out with a lot of different flavors for everyone. I know it’s outlasted so many places, and that everyone loves the hot new thing, but this place is still solid.

We met my sister and her husband over there the other day to save them a few miles (they live west). They seated us in the chef’s table, which was fun, but you definitely need to want to be in the action. I will start with saying I love the professionalism of the staff and their prompt service and knowledge of the menu items. 

My sister and hubby started with the classic shrimp corndogs ($2.75 each). They really enjoyed them. I have had them many times before but wanted to try something else. I rarely pass up deviled eggs so we had the red chile tamale deviled eggs ($5.75) and the prime rib dumplings ($13.75). Both items were very, very good. I liked the bit of heat in them with the corn, lime and cilantro flavor—there was also some smoked chicken on top making them a little more filling than most. There was a little crispy corn crisp as well—like I said, these are much more than most deviled eggs—a lot going on, but lots of great tastes. 

Hubby was oohing and awwing over the dumplings and they were also really good. Again, much more to them than your typical dumpling. They were full of steak, spinach and leeks, and sitting on poblano crème fraiche. Oh yeah, and topped with sweet corn pico de gallo, cotija cheese and with crispy bits of tortilla on top—again some great Mexican-type flavors and great combination of textures as well as flavors.  There are always a lot of flavor combos going on in Oakley’s dishes—sometimes it is almost overwhelming to try and figure out what’s what, but everything almost always tastes good.

Like the next dish, which is a perennial favorite of mine. The “Toad in the hole” ($13.75) is a variation of your classic cook an egg in the hole in the toast. So this version has got your egg cooked in the hole of a piece of Brioche, but it is also topped with artichokes, prosciutto, roasted pepper and olive relish, arugula, candied walnuts, Brie, mushroom truffle and red pepper coulis. Whew! That’s a lot of stuff. And you know, you pretty much can’t even see the egg, but man is it tasty. It’s one of my favorite things at Oakley’s. You can kind of get a different flavor profile with each bite if you want to by dipping in the various sauces. But you get at least a little of the eggy bread in most bites, and that’s always a good thing.

Hubby ordered one of his regular Oakley’s favorites for dinner—the pasta with a crushed tomato sauce, roasted garlic ricotta and pancetta ($19.75). And as always, he added the chicken and artichoke meatballs (+$6.75). This is a great pasta dish that has been on the menu for a long time for good reason. I like the extra acid of the artichokes and tomatoes and the artichokes seem to help keep the meatballs moist.

I ordered a special ($35.75) that was also really good—it was a seared tile fish filet that was topped with all kinds of things—there was carrot puree, small pasta, some aioli, roasted veggies and lots of other stuff that I have forgotten. There were olives and other acidic bite that I really liked. Again, a ton of things going on, but the fish itself was really light and  tender.

My sister had scallops ($15.75) and my brother in law the short rib ($32.75). I didn’t really try theirs so I can’t really speak to them, but they seemed to like everything they had a lot. And as always, they were beautiful.

We had a couple of desserts—the Dan’s chocolate bar ($9.75) and the special ($9.50), which was an olive oil cake with berries and a wonderful homemade raspberry sorbet. I wasn’t expecting to like the olive oil cake as much as I did, and I really liked it. Honestly, the chocolate bar is a little dense for me—extremely rich and thick. It typically comes with coconut ice cream, which neither hubby nor I really like so we substituted the roasted banana yogurt from another dish which was really good and interesting. The bar is served with some chocolate ganache, cherries jubilee, and dehydrated chocolate mousse. I did like the variation in textures—I just couldn’t eat more than a bite or two. Also, side note: Oakley's has one of the best dessert wine menus in town.

All in all, for a special night out, this is a great place to remember. There’s a lot going on in pretty much every dish, but it’s fun to try all the various flavor combinations. And the main ingredient is pretty much always prepared exactly perfectly. And it’s nice to be cared for by a professional staff who is not at all snooty. I do sort of wish the menu changed slightly more than it does, but on the other hand, I have certain favorites that I love as well. 

What are your favorite items at Oakley’s?

Oakley’s Bistro

1464 W 86th St
Indianapolis, IN 46260
(317) 824-1231

www.oakleysbistro.com

Oakley's - Revisit

Hubby and I were in the mood to go back to Oakley’s—we wanted something good without having to go downtown. We met a friend there as well (it was supposed to be him and his lovely wife, but she was a doctor on call and yadda yadda, babies gotta be born, so it was just the three of us).

Oakley’s has changed their menu format up a bit with a bunch of small plates. I am always sucked in by small plates, so we mainly ordered a bunch of those to share. Probably my favorite small plate was the black bean artichoke hummus with lobster truffles, artichoke spinach parfait and roasted pita ($10.75). There was A LOT going on with this dish but it was pretty much all delicious. The only thing that I was kind of meh about were the little fried lobster balls—they were just okay. But the hummus itself, the cheese and the fresh veggies were great. There was a lot of artichoke flavor, which I love, and there was a perfect balance between rich and acidic. A great one to share for sure.

We also shared the escargot (basil fed apparently) with maître d butter and Texas toast ($8).  Hubby loves escargot and doesn’t get them a lot, so he was excited to see them on the menu. Yes, they’re snails, but trust me, with that herby butter and that thick toast, if you’re weirded out about snails, you won’t care. They’re just tender little herby morsels. I really enjoyed the pop of texture and flavor from the mustard seeds on top as well. They were very nicely done.

We shared the Tennessee eggrolls ($8) as well, which were an interesting variation on an eggroll. They were fried and stuffed with pulled pork, grits, jalapeno and cheddar and topped with a kale “slaw.”  I really enjoyed the fresh greens on top and thought these were an interesting variation. Much more meaty than your average eggroll. We also ordered the French boule (bread shaped like a ball) ($3.75) because I am always tempted by housemade bread (it seems so rare around here) and also because I was intrigued by the mustard butter being served with it. That sounded like a good combo to me. Honestly, the bread didn’t really wow me that much. It was fine, but nothing to write home about. And the butter just had a hint of mustard.

For our “main” dishes, I ordered another starter, the sweet corn gnocchi ($12.75) with lemongrass creamed corn, sweet pea romesco, pork belly and cilantro tortilla salad. I have had amazing gnocchi in the past at Oakley’s and was hoping for a repeat with a variation made with one of my favorite things (corn) but while good, this wasn’t the best thing on the table that night. I was looking for a bit more acid maybe to balance out the sweet and rich flavors of the corn, peas and pork belly, and I just didn’t really find it. Still good, but compared to the earlier starters, not as impressive.

Hubby had the ribeye steak entrée ($34.75). This was another case of A LOT of things going on with this dish—there were smoked hash brown croquettes, creamed kale, tarragon Béarnaise vinaigrette (I was loving the sound of this), blue cheese salsa verde and crispy onions. I mean, all things I love, but wow—it sounded like a lot and it was. It tasted good, if just a little confusing with so much going on. But really, how could you complain about any of those ingredients—fun twists on classic steakhouse ingredients. I do love some blue cheese with steak.

The dessert was their version of s’mores, fancy-style. Honestly, I didn’t really care for it, other than it was quite pretty. There was a little too much fruity stuff going on, which didn’t make sense to me with s’mores. And the chocolate and cake part was a little bland. I’ve had some great desserts here, but this one wasn’t one.

I really like Oakley’s—it’s a solid choice on the north side when you want a good, high-end meal. The one thing about Oakley’s—sometimes there’s so much going on with some of the dishes that you are almost overwhelmed. The hummus dish totally worked I think, whereas the steak dish was on the border. But there’s a ton of creativity in this kitchen and I always enjoy it.

Oakley’s Bistro

1464 west 86^th Street

Indy 46260

317/824-1231

www.oakleysbistro.com 

Oakley's - Revisit

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

Oakley's Bistro- Revisit

Recently, I had the opportunity to go to Oakley’s for lunch and then again for dinner not long after.  I had heard that the menu had changed a bit and was interested to see how much.  I have always enjoyed Oakley’s and am excited to see something new on their menu.

So the first meal was lunch, for my Dad’s birthday.  I had the soup and tart combo (really it was a pizza, not a tart). I started with the shrimp bisque.  It was good.  The soup had a nice shrimp flavor, and I usually enjoy the little chopped bits that Oakley’s puts into their soups, but these tasted mostly like celery and were just a little too crunchy for me.

I also had the “spring” pizza simply because it had morels on it (my Dad got the same thing).  It sounded really good—with ramps, morels and pesto. The crust was very thin and crisp, sort of what I imagine a flatbread should taste like, actually. I found it humorous that they called it a pizza instead.  Anyway, the flavor was good, there was pesto spread as the sauce, some really skinny roasted spears of asparagus, some ricotta cheese and pine nuts giving it a nice little crunch.  The morels you ask?  Well, they were there, but they were really small little pieces—one piece on each piece of pizza.  They tasted good in the bite in which you got them, but a few more would have helped the pizza really live up to its description.  There was also a properly dressed pile of greens in the center that went great on top of the pizza to give it a little kick from the vinegar in the dressing.

When we were back not long after for dinner, I was excited to see how much the menu had changed—there were a lot of new things on it and also a lot of morels, which of course once again got me excited.  So I started with the morel mushroom gnocchi ($12.75) with pickled ramps, smoked tomato coulis and a mustard truffle cream.  This dish was delicious.  It was put together perfectly both in presentation and taste.  There were several earthy gnocchi on the plate with some nice chunks of morel mushrooms and very fresh tasting peas.  It was covered in a rich, but not overdone sauce that tasted of the morels and slightly of truffles.  The tomato coulis surrounded that and made the plate very colorful.  The pickled ramps on top were tasty, but maybe a little firm to go with the small bites of the other delicate flavors.   It was also sprinkled with a slightly crunchy bready topping that was described as an “everything bagel crust.”  So it had some seeds and some nuttiness along with a slight bready topping.  It added a nice texture. All in all, I really liked this dish a lot.

Hubby and I also split the “toad in a hole” salad ($10.75) which was a healthy slab of brioche with a hole cut out, into which an egg was cooked, and the whole thing was covered in asparagus, prosciutto, roasted red peppers, a hunk of brie and dressed with truffle vinaigrette.  Okay, you know I love an egg with just about everything, and the theory of this salad was great.  The execution was a little off—the egg was cooked a little harder than I would like—I always felt that part of the beauty of a toad in the hole was dipping the little round piece of bread into the yolk, but the yolk was not runny.  The taste of it all together was good though—the fresh asparagus and the prosciutto are natural mates with an egg and what is essentially buttery toast—and add a little brie and a vinaigrette, and you can’t really go wrong.  The salad was very good, but would have been perfect if the egg was perfectly cooked.

For my main, I had another appetizer—the lobster waffle ($12.75).  This is something I have seen on the menu before, but this was described as a “morel mushroom waffle” so you know I had to get it.  I don’t think there were actually any morels in the waffle, but there were pieces of morels on top, along with lobster hunks, zucchini and crispy fried leeks.  This was not bad, but there was a lot going on here, and unfortunately, I thought the lobster bits were kind of mealy.  Compared to the morel gnocchi, well, there was no comparison.  Hubby had the housemade fettuccini  ($18.75+ $5.75 for meatballs) with crushed tomato sauce, roasted garlic ricotta cheese and pancetta.  He added the chicken artichoke meatballs as well.  He really enjoyed the pasta, and particularly the meatballs.  It was a fairly simple pasta dish in a red sauce, but the meatballs were quite unique and had a distinct artichoke flavor, which is something we both like a lot.  Even he couldn’t finish all the pasta though, and that’s saying something.

Oakley’s is definitely one of the better restaurants we have in Indy, and now that they are mixing up the menu a bit more, it is getting me more excited about returning more often.  It is nice to see fresh menu items and lots of fresh spring ingredients being used.

Oakley’s Bistro

1464 West 86^th Street

Indy 46260

317/824-1231

www.oakleysbistro.com

Oakley's- Lunch Revisit

Hubby and I hadn’t been to Oakley’s in awhile, and we hadn’t been there for lunch together since before we moved to Indy (we went one week when we were house hunting). I was hoping for one of their incredible soups to strike my fancy, but alas it wasn’t to be. (I think it is time to take butternut squash off the menu by the way—it’s almost May). The soup of the day was black bean which never has really gotten me excited so I went a different direction and decided to revisit the tarts.

I have a thing for puff pastry which the tarts are made on, and even though the last one I had was a little too pizza-ish in flavor, I thought I would give it another go. This time I had the chicken tart which was puff pastry with a bit of tomato coulis type topping, thin sliced chicken breast, a large round of mozzarella, and pesto and balsamic glaze drizzled about. It was served with a small side salad.
This tart was excellent. Really good. This time the tomato did not overwhelm the other flavors. The chicken was really tender and moist, the cheese added a great texture and richness and the pesto and the balsamic made it for me. These two things were excellent and added just the right amount of unique flavors that let you know you were in a skilled chef’s hands. The pesto did not overpower but just added the fresh green taste and the balsamic gave it the perfect sweet and tart balance. The side salad was basic, and dressed with vinaigrette. Didn’t wow me, but it was fine. But hubby had a couple bites of my tart and was quite jealous.
Hubby had the salmon pot pie which he had quite fond memories of from our first visit 4 years ago. He couldn’t remember if it was the same, but he wasn’t quite as impressed this time. It was a lovely presentation—served in a little cast iron pot it was the creamy salmon mixture with cauliflower, pearl onions at the bottom topped with more of the puff pastry as well as some sort of lemony pesto and artichokes which was a little heavily seasoned for hubby. This was one of those cases where the presentation was beautiful—hubby said he thinks Chef Oakley is one of the best platers in Indy and I tend to agree. But sometimes too many layers can lead to too much going on (wow, never thought I would say that, I do love my layers of flavor). But there was something on top he didn’t care for too much. Once he got down into the salmon part he enjoyed it much more than whatever was on the top. I had a bit of the bottom—it was very creamy and rich and had a nice flavor. But mine was better.

Hubby was also happy to see they had wine by the quartino and not just by the glass. You know, one glass just isn’t quite enough, but 2 is too much for lunch. A quartino is technically a third of a bottle, so just a slightly bigger glass (they call it a glass and a half). I loved in England they had two sizes of glasses everywhere, small and large, and they had lines on the glasses to measure that you got exactly that amount every time. I think it must have been regulated by the government or something. You never got those crappy small pours on the first glass like you so often do around here in order to entice you to order the second glass.

Anyway, it was a great lunch, we sat outside on the sidewalk in full sun and it was gorgeous. The food was good, the service was good, and so was the ambience. I was a little concerned that there was only one other table there at lunch, but maybe they make up for it at dinner.

Oakley’s Bistro
1464 west 86th Street
Indy 46260
317/824-1231
www.oakleysbistro.com (and by the way, one of the better websites around for local restaurants too. Well done.)

Oakley's Bistro-revisit

Wow. There is hope after all. We had another great meal at Oakley’s the other night. Restores my faith. I know it hasn’t been that long since we have been there and I reviewed it, but it was hubby’s birthday and his choice and this is where he wanted to go. And I am really really glad he did.

It took me awhile to figure out what exactly I wanted to order because I was trying to make sure I didn’t order something I had ordered and reviewed in the past and my tendency is to go for the shellfish items on the appetizers. Both the scallops and the lobster waffle sounded good, but I am pretty sure I have had both before. So I decided to go with a salad and a starter for my meal and save room for dessert.

I had the Spinach salad with roasted fingerlings, radish, bacon streusel, lavosh, almonds onions, and mustard sherry vinaigrette. This was really good. I love roasted fingerlings in a salad, particularly when they are properly cooked which these were, and there was a dusting of the almonds and crumbles of the bacon streusel on the bottom of the plate and the lavosh (a type of cracker) was shaped into a circle and the salad was inside it. Nice presentation and nice flavors. The dressing had a sharp zip from the mustard and I really enjoyed it (and the fact that the salad was dressed properly).

Hubby had the butternut squash gnocchi with mascarpone, sage, pecans and crispy pancetta. These were out of this world. Truly outstanding. The gnocchi were super light and all the other things melded into a sauce that just was a delight. I didn’t order it myself because I tend to find pasta dishes, whatever course they are, are often too big and filling, but I thought this was just the right portion and I could have eaten the whole thing myself. Really good.

For my main, I had a starter-- the crab risotto cakes with butternut maple puree, pumpkin seed pesto and goat cheese fondue. I was questioning whether to order them because I was sort of imagining them to be like crab cakes made with risotto with some crab mixed in (which in crab cakes I always find to be in short supply). But when I asked our server about them, she said the crab was actually on top of the risotto cakes and I was sold. SO glad I ordered them. They were so good. There were two of the risotto cakes and they were properly tender with a crispy outer shell and topped with lump crab meet which was drizzled with the goat cheese fondue and set over the butternut maple puree and pesto. Wow. A unique and delicious flavor combination. I wish I had some right now. So, there were only two of them, but they were rich and actually quite filling I thought, and I even gave hubby a couple of bites (it was his birthday after all). I would so get these again.

Hubby had the beef short ribs because he has had them before at Oakley’s and really enjoyed them. This time was no exception—they were served with Portobello puree potato mash, and a blue cheese tater tot. He was really really happy with his choice and proclaimed he had out ordered me and was happy about it. I disagree, but a salad I guess isn’t inherently as exciting…

We also had the chocolate brownie cake with cashew caramel corn and caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. I have had it several times before (or some variation of it) and have always enjoyed it. This time was no exception.

So all in all, what a fabulous meal. And I am not sure if things are more exciting on the menu or what, but it seems like in the last two visits I have had to Oakley’s, things have just stepped up a bit. I have always liked the place, but now, it is rocketing up there to one of my favorites. And I like the feel of this place—it is not overly fussy, but you feel like you are in a nice dining room. The service is professional and our server really new the menu and what she was talking about. The balance is there and this may just be one of Indy’s best restaurants right now.

Oakley’s Bistro
1464 W 86th St
Indianapolis, IN 46260
(317) 824-1231
www.oakleysbistro.com