45 Degrees

Sushi quest. Day 342. Hubby and I had an event downtown and decided to try 45 Degrees beforehand to continue our ongoing search for our new favorite sushi. This place has been around forever and it was about time. 

The first thing about it is the interior—I really like the funky, modern feel of it. It has a nice atmosphere for sure. Our server was also very friendly and quick. We had drinks quickly to enjoy while we looked over the menu. We started with an order of the tuna nachos ($14). These were an interesting concept and were quite tasty. Possibly my favorite item of the evening. So there’s a layer of wonton chips and they are topped with chopped seared tuna, pico di gallo, Mexican cheese, wasabi mayo, and a mango habanero glaze. There was a lot of tuna on there, and I enjoyed the various flavors that were mixed in, especially the acidity from the pico. I was worried the cheese would be weird with the tuna, but it worked. Even though it was pretty big, we managed to eat the whole thing.

For sushi, we ordered just two rolls since we had the nachos. We had the spider roll ($15) and the piranha roll ($15). The spider roll was fried soft shell crab inside along with some fresh crab and avocado (we had them hold the cucumber). It’s wrapped in soy paper and then the whole thing is drizzled with spicy mayo and ell sauce. This was a tasty roll for sure, and I really appreciated the addition of actual crab. It was nice to even see real crab as an option. Not many sushi places do this. The rolls were also not so ridiculously big, which if you’re a regular reader; you know is a pet peeve for me. I don’t want to have to cut a piece of maki in half in order to be able to eat it.

The other roll was interesting. Inside it had shrimp tempura, avocado, and cilantro (again, cucumber held) and it was topped with yellowtail, Sriracha and serrano pepper. It was served with a side of ponzu sauce.  It was an interesting combo and I liked the touch of heat and the sweet and slightly acidic ponzu. Both rolls had the combo of crunchiness I like from the fried seafood inside as well as the fresh fish richness. And avocado. Whenever there’s avocado, I’m just a little happier. I like that they have a lot of variations on rolls and that they all don’t have the stuff that I don’t like. I feel like some places we go stick cream cheese in every roll, and I just don’t believe cream cheese belongs in sushi.

Overall, I think this place meets my need for good sushi rolls. And we really enjoyed the tuna nachos. I would like to try some of their other non-sushi items as well. If it wasn’t so far, it might qualify for a regular place. Again, I also like the modern feel of the place. What do you guys think? Have you been there?

45 Degrees

765 Massachusetts Ave

Indy 46204

317/634-4545

www.fortyfiveindy.com 

Ripple Bagel Deli

I met my favorite Pilates instructor for lunch the other day at Ripple Bagel Deli—we were trying to find a place in Broad Ripple (she’s working there now) that I haven’t been and she really likes this place (and so do some other friends). She was very enthusiastic about going when I mentioned it.

So the menu at this place is enormous. You can pretty much get any combo of deli meat/cream cheese/cheese /veggies that you can imagine. I ended up with the “Sarah’s Secret” without sprouts and on a garlic bagel ($5.60). Sarah’s Secret is a bagel topped with very thin sliced turkey, mustard (think brown mustard here), cream cheese, and avocado.

Ok, I had my doubts about how good a bagel could really be just topped with ordinary sandwich ingredients, but this was pretty darn good. The secret here is that they steam the sandwich after they put all the ingredients together. This makes for a warm, and somewhat squishy, sandwich that just tastes really good. It also makes for an extremely messy sandwich that requires many, many napkins to keep your hands clean (I seriously wonder how much they spend on napkins in this place).  The avocado was ripe, the turkey didn’t taste overly processed, and it had a fair amount of a mustard kick. 

I was hopeful to try the potato salad but they hadn’t yet made it the day I was there, so I just went with a bag of chips. My fitness-obsessed friend insisted on the fancy rice crispy treat though that involved a rice-crispy-based bottom (with some peanut butter mixed in) and a chocolate layer on top. It was pretty tasty, although tasted like it had probably been made several days prior. I did notice that probably 75% of the people coming in picked one up though, so there must be something slightly addictive about them.

The people are nice here, but the ordering system is kind of random. I am assuming it is because the menu is so big, a lot of people take some time to figure out what they want. But they just sort of shout out, "who's ready?"and if you are, you go and tell them what you want. But for a cheap, filling meal, this was a great deal. The bagel was really good and it is the first time I have had a bagel sandwich made quite this way. Something about it made me have to keep eating it after I was pretty full. I can certainly see how this place has built a substantial following of late night partiers on the Broad Ripple strip. It tasted good when I was sober, I can imagine how good it would taste after a few too many drinks. 

Ripple Bagel Deli

850 Broad Ripple Ave

Indy 46220

317/257-8326

www.ripplebageldeli.com