Milktooth

Of course I have been anxious to try Milktooth and as soon as I asked my friend Suzanne if she’d meet me, she said yes yes yes! She had been to both the preview brunches at Recess and really enjoyed them. I had been trying to wait my obligatory couple of weeks, but could barely stand it.

First of all, this place is pretty darn adorable. Very shabby chic—lots of reclaimed and vintage pieces throughout, mismatched china, etc. I thought the chairs at our table looked familiar and then was told they were from the library at IU Bloomington. I probably sat in those same chairs! Even the tables were made by the chef himself from reclaimed wood. I also liked that although cute, the chairs were comfy. Also, hallelujah for a parking lot. It may not hold all the cars when the place is full, but it holds a lot of them I’m guessing. Food-wise, they’re sourcing much of the ingredients from local purveyors.

It’s a brunch place so naturally, there are eggs everywhere and I was completely overwhelmed with deciding what to order. It all sounded good. We ended up settling on the sweet tea fried chicken and biscuit ($14) from the “Classic” side of the menu and the Chilaquiles roja ($14) from the “Divergent” side of the menu. Of course we needed to try something from the “Adjacent” section as well and chose the latkes ($5).

Ok, this place lives up to the hype (and there has been a fair amount). Everything was good. Really good. If I had to choose a favorite, it was probably the fried chicken. So, here’s the set up: really good, chunky, chorizo gravy on the bottom of the bowl topped with a freshly made biscuit, several pieces of the fried chicken (my piece was a boneless thigh) and a perfectly beautiful sunny side up egg. The egg was seasoned well and the flavor of the chicken was so, so good. Rarely do I eat an egg and not want to season it a little. This needed nothing. The spices in the chicken were my favorite part and I wanted to dole out a little bit with every single bite. The biscuit was buttery and somewhat dense and the gravy gave it just the right moisture. It was all perfect together.

We also had the chilaquiles, which were made up of hunks of lamb carnitas and collard greens. Normally when I have had chilaquiles in the past, crispy tortillas were part of the dish, and this was more of a saucy meat base, but quite good. I liked the slight bitterness from the collards mixed in and when you got just the right bite with the meat, some egg (another perfect sunny side up egg), a little of the guac and sour cream on the side and a few of those julienned (very lightly pickled perhaps?) radishes, it was a wonderful bite. I only wished for a bit more of the sour cream to go around with every bite. It was the kind of dish that could be very spicy, but this wasn’t. It had good spice flavors, but not in the hot kind of way.

The giant potato latke was fantastic. It was super crisp on the edges, but not in the least bit burned. It had a wonderful buttery taste to the potatoes and the drizzles of harissa ketchup and aioli were perfect. A little spicy kick to a familiar ketchup flavor and a little bit of tanginess from the aioli.

I am amazed at the amount of staff working here—they have got baristas making their special coffees (my macchiato was delicious although I did sorta want two sugar cubes vs. the one they brought me when I asked for sugar) and there was one person who looked like he spent most of the time pressing fresh OJ. We sat near the bar where you could watch every dish come out of the busy open kitchen and wish you had ordered that too. The place is lovely to look at and so is the food. And the flavors measure up to the presentation. I can see some people potentially complaining about the portion sizes being small though, although I found them just fine. I found the “modifications are politely declined” wording on the menu fine as well, but am a person who is happy to eat a dish the way the chef wants to prepare it. Others might be less so, but go in knowing this is not your average “2 eggs any style/choice of meat/choice of bread” kind of diner. Put yourself in their hands though, and I think you’ll be happy. I certainly was.

Milktooth is a great addition to Indy’s food scene. And how badly did we need a great brunch spot (and there’s booze too)? I hope maybe they add a night or two of service because I’d be happy having dinner here as well. 

I am anxious to hear what people think about this place and how your experiences have been (and what you ate!), so leave me a comment and let me know.

Milktooth

540 Virginia Ave

Indy  46203

317/292-2280

www.milktoothindy.com 

Souper Bowl

Every time I write about pho, someone mentions Souper Bowl in Westfield to me. Obviously, I needed to try it so I got my friend Suzanne to go check it out with me since she lives on the north side and is always up for a food adventure. We always order too much food, and this day was no exception.

We started with the fried tofu and the avocado rolls ($3.25). I had never seen an avocado roll on a menu (at least that I can remember) so I was intrigued. It was a cold Vietnamese-style spring roll filled with mainly rice noodles and some crunchy herbs as well as a couple of slices of avocado. It was just okay, not my favorite thing just because it didn’t have a lot of inherent flavor and the thick peanut sauce served with it was a little too much. They were too plain on their own, but all you could taste was the peanut sauce if you did use it.

I think we both liked the fried tofu much better—they were very simple and just the right size (and really, really hot). There was the right amount of tofu to fried exterior ratio. Plus we almost always order this dish when we’re together eating at a restaurant that offers it. It’s kind of a tradition. The one thing I didn’t like about it was they served it with just a standard sweet and sour (read: sweet) sauce, which isn’t my favorite. Usually when I’ve had it, it’s served with a light fish broth, which I prefer. I just used a dash of soy instead. But the tofu itself was tasty.

I order the sliced beef pho ($7.65) and Suzanne ordered the Banh Mi ($3.95). The pho was very good. I liked that the smaller portion wasn’t as overwhelming in amount as it sometimes is—I can never finish those huge bowls. Pho is really about the broth and this one was nice and rich and beefy. There was a fair amount of the very thin sliced beef and lots of the rice noodles. There was a fair amount of really thinly sliced onions in there as well and a smattering of green onions. The side plate was simpler than some-mostly bean sprouts with some Thai basil, a couple of slices of jalapeno and a lime wedge. There was not a lot of the basil and no cilantro, which is also good with it. I threw all of it in (well, not all the bean sprouts) and slurped away. 

Suzanne and I shared both so I also got to sample the Banh Mi. It was also well done, although the bread didn’t have that super flaky texture of others I have had in the past. There was a thin layer of the pate-type spread and some thinly sliced pork. The sandwich was dressed with lots of fresh bean sprouts, sliced cucumber, julienned carrots and a bit of cilantro that were light dressed in a slightly tangy dressing. It was a tasty sandwich (and extremely reasonably priced). I would have liked maybe just a bit more meat on it, but for that price, you can’t really complain. Overall I liked the pho better but Suzanne liked the sandwich better, so there you go.

I also ordered a limeade club soda ($2) that was fantastic. They make fresh (and tart) limeade and then mix it with soda. What a great accompaniment to this type of food. And you know me, add some tart, tangy drink on the side and I’ll be happy. 

If this place was in my neighborhood (and hey, it’s Vietnamese in Westfield!), I would easily visit again. The menu is large and there’s a lot to try.

Souper Bowl

112 East Main Street

Westfield, IN 46074

317/399-7858

Road Trip: Japonais by Morimoto--Chicago

Our first big anniversary dinner in Chicago was at Japonais by Morimoto. We had already made a reservation for the following night at a high-end price fixe restaurant and wanted something totally different from that for our first dinner. Japonais was the perfect choice.

Apparently, this restaurant was taken over and re-vamped by Chef Morimoto (you know, one of the Iron Chefs) not too long ago. They seem to be very successful, as the place was packed. And quite noisy. A cool thing? Chef Morimoto is there most nights apparently, including this night and we got lots of pictures of him working hard in his kitchen (our table was pretty close to the sushi bar).

After glancing through the menu, we wanted pretty much everything on the cold starters page and decided to just go with small plates. It was a wise decision because we got to try lots of things and nearly all of them were great. They want you to order everything at once, but they do a pretty good job at spacing them out. And they’re pretty flexible if you decide you might need “just one more thing.”

The star of the night for us was the tuna “pizza.” ($16). It was this super crisp, almost buttery, wafer thin tortilla on the bottom topped with very thin maguro tuna, the most amazing anchovy aioli, olives, jalapenos, and micro cilantro. Whoa, was this good. The aioli was tangy but salty (and not fishy at all) and the jalapenos gave it a bit of heat (even if you didn’t eat them, just from them sitting on the fish, there was a bit of residual flavor). I loved the olives (of course) and thought it was an interesting thing to add—not something you see with Japanese food often, but kicking up the briny taste. This would absolutely be a must order dish on any return visit.

We also got the toro tartare ($26). This dish is totally cool. Hubby and I had seen it on one of those “best things I’ve ever eaten” shows and wanted it then—so we were excited to get to try it. They give you this flat glass dish with the toro on it—it’s basically pureed into a paste almost. You use this little flat utensil to scoop out a little and drag it through the other dish that contains nori paste, guacamole, chives, wasabi, sour cream and these little crispy rice balls. Then you dipped it into a light soy-based sauce. It was really fun and very tasty. I really like the way the rice balls and chives added texture. It was one of the more challenging dishes to eat (stuff kept falling off) but it was really good.

We also had the Hamachi tacos ($10). It’s funny—if I had these any other place, I would have been wowed. Crispy wonton shells filled with large dices of Hamachi, avocado, tomato, Serrano and jalapeno peppers and yuzu kosho (a yuzu/chili paste combo)—how can you go wrong? The yuzu, tomatoes plus the limes served alongside gave that kick of acid I crave and the fish was impeccably fresh. In comparison, it just didn’t have the combo of flavors and variations in textures that some of the other dishes had that really pushed them over the top. I’d be ordering them right and left if they were on a menu in Indy though. Still a really good choice. 

Hubby got excited after realizing that had fatty tuna (oh-toro) nigiri on the menu and really wanted to get some. It was the only real sushi item we had for the meal. It’s market priced on the menu, and expensive ($13 per piece on this night). The rice here is “hand polished” and while I can’t tell you exactly how that affects the flavor, I can say that you could really taste each individual grain of rice and there was a slight al dente bite to it. The tuna was melt in your mouth tender, but I didn’t care for the small amount of wasabi they put between the rice and the fish. To me, it detracted. Hubby loved it though. I don’t need to get such an expensive piece of nigiri in the future, but it was fun to try.

At this point, we moved into the warm part of the meal and kicked it off with some hot rock American wagyu beef. The beef was very thinly sliced, and you just through it on the smoking hot rock for a minute, just to sear the outside. They gave you 2 kinds of dipping sauces—one was a hot mustard based sauce and the other had a flavor of sesame oil. Both were very good. I went back and forth on which I liked better. It goes quick though. I probably could have eaten another entire plate of the beef, but we moved along.

The last two things we got at the same time—the “Kakuni” ($12) or ten-hour pork belly served in top of rice congee with soy-scallion jus. This dish, or should I say the pork part of it, was the only real miss for me of the evening. The pork was certainly rich in flavor, just too rich and too sweet for me. It was coated in an extremely sweet soy based sauce that was just too much. I loved the rice congee (or rice porridge) underneath it though. It had a wonderful dense consistency almost like grits. We also got our side of duck confit fried rice with an organic egg on top ($9) at this point in the meal. The rice itself was really good—the duck gave it just the right amount of heartiness without being over the top, and the egg yolk gave a nice creaminess to the unique firmness of the rice. It was really well seasoned. The only disappointing part was I would have loved to have eaten it at the same time as the beef rather than at the same time as a dish that also incorporated rice. I also think it would have slowed me down on the beef too. I would order it again and be more specific about when I wanted it.

Since it was our anniversary after all, we decided to get dessert as well, and they presented it nicely with a “Happy Anniversary” on the plate. We had the salted caramel chocolate tart ($10) because we’re both suckers for salted caramel items. It was fairly simple and very tasty. The perfect way to end the meal.

Japonais is certainly a place we are anxious to return to, and I hope to go with friends so we can order more stuff. There is so much that looks so good on the menu. I might try and see if there is anywhere in the restaurant that’s a little quieter, but I’m not sure if there is. And I’m totally ordering that tuna pizza. 

Japonais by Morimoto

600 West Chicago Ave

Chicago, IL 60654

312/822-9600

www.japonaismorimoto.com

317 Burger - Revisit

Oftentimes, I go to a restaurant I don’t even intend to write about and end up writing about it because it is just so good. Sadly, in this case, it was kind of an opposite experience. I didn’t intend to write about it, but because I had written a pretty positive post about it before, I felt like I needed to update, as I feel like things have fallen off a bit at 317 Burger. 

The kids had really enjoyed it the first time we went, so they were actually the ones who chose it this time. We sat outside, and they have a decent patio, although interestingly, very few tables for 4. They are mostly for 2.

This time we started with the poutine ($6), which we had never had before, and it was probably the highlight of the meal (hubby would definitely say it was). They have good, thick fries that stand there was lots of soft, creamy cheese curds on top. I’ve never been a huge fan of gravy on fries, and I appreciated that they gave you the gravy on the side to use as you liked. Both the males in our household enjoyed it. To be completely fair though, you put cheese of any kind on fries and my husband is going to like them.

Things started to fall off when we go the burgers. I ordered the namesake “317 Burger” ($11) (with 4 cheeses, pepper bacon and garlic aioli). The problem here was the meat. The server asked us all how we wanted our burgers cooked and we all said either medium rare or medium, and they were ALL cooked way beyond well done. We all had burgers that were thinner and way dryer than the one I had when this place was new. Why even ask if you’re just going to cook them all to death? Also, hubby “built his own burger” which are automatically supposed to come with lettuce, tomato and onions and which came with none. He had to ask to get them. The fries and tots we had on the side were all solid.

My daughter ordered the Parthenon burger ($12) and enjoyed the interesting flavors of the patty being made with a gyro mix and the “gyro bacon,” feta, and the thin pita bun, but again, it was a small dry patty. We were pretty disappointed.

My daughter had enjoyed the funnel cake fries in the past, and we were happy to see they had added chocolate dipping sauce to the options (we can’t do peanut butter in our house). However, they have changed them from the fries to a regular funnel cake and it just wasn’t as good-the cake seemed over-fried and too hard—there was no “cake” in the funnel cake. And the chocolate dipping sauce? Pretty sure it was Hershey’s syrup.

This is one of those places where I can’t figure out if a dip in quality has lead to a smaller crowd or the lack of business has lead to a dip in quality, but both were true, at least on this visit. The place was nearly empty, and the quality has suffered. I don’t know, maybe they do a better bar business later in the evening with all their local draft beers, but for me, it’s gone off our list. Too bad, it was nice to have another (of the few) family friendly quality places in Broad Ripple.

317 Burger

915 East Westfield Blvd

Indy 46220

317/251-1317

www.317burger.com   

Road Trip: Blackbird--Chicago

Hubby and I celebrated our fifteenth anniversary this September and decided to go to Chicago to celebrate. We pretty much just ate, slept, and shopped—a very decadent and fun weekend. The weather was spectacular—I highly recommend getting married in September—it makes for good weather almost anywhere.

We arrived right at lunchtime on a Friday and after much changing of our minds, ended up at Blackbird. Blackbird is a place we have always wanted to try and honestly, I didn’t even know was open for lunch until I just did a general opentable search.

We got there right as they opened at 11:30 (12:30 Indy time) and were one of the first seated. The menu is a modern French-type menu and we went back and forth over what to order. We ended up with the duck liver pate ($13) (hubby) and the salad of endive, baby lettuces, potato, Dijon, pancetta and poached egg ($9) (me). Luckily we share everything because hubby totally won this round. That pate dish was amazing and was probably the best thing we had in that meal and even made it into our list of favorite dishes of the weekend. The pate was smooth and rich, with a hint of some acid (maybe Sherry vinegar?), and was served with caramelized onion pound cake and barely pickled carrots and a couple of little cornichons—the perfect combination and rich and salty, briny and acidic, and lightly sweet. It was really, really good.  My salad unfortunately, just didn’t come together, even with so many of my favorite ingredients. The egg was poached and seasoned perfectly and the few bits of bacon and potato were tasty, but there was way too much lettuce and way too little dressing. It was just ok. The pate totally made up for it though.

After asking for recommendations for main dishes, I went with our server’s recommendation of the seared whitefish sandwich ($13), which is apparently one of Blackbird’s mainstay lunch dishes. Hubby went with another starter, which was also a server recommendation; the soft scrambled eggs with roasted chicken wings, spring legumes, caramelized shallots and radicchio ($10). While both were good, happily, I won this round. The sandwich is served on grilled sourdough with lemon and herb aioli, gribiche (a boiled egg yolk mayo with extra pickly stuff), and roasted tomatoes. There were also some crispy potato chips and some potato salad alongside. Although the bread was quite blackened, this sandwich was very, very good. I think they intend to blacken the bread on purpose, although after seeing several of these sandwiches served after mine, I think my bread was a tad overdone. I can appreciate a slight char taste, but it was a bit over the top. The inside however was perfect. Super tender fish with the right amount of the acidic aioli and gribiche, greens and softened tomato. A great sandwich. Hubby’s eggs were interesting, and also good, but just didn’t have all the layers of flavor like the sandwich or the pate. It was served with the very soft eggs in a layer on top, and all the other goodies underneath. There was a lot of nice texture with the lightly crisp green beans and the shallots. And the crispy boneless pieces of the chicken wing meat. The flavor was fairly delicate and the eggs were cooked perfectly.

We really enjoyed Blackbird—it’s a great place to know about that is open for lunch if you want something a little higher end and where you can make a reservation. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and like I said, since we split all of our dishes, we thoroughly enjoyed the food as well. The service is very professional without being snobby, and the interior, while somewhat sparse, is comfortable. I loved the chairs that spun.

Blackbird

619 West Randolph Street

Chicago, IL 60661

312/715/0708

www.blackbirdrestaurant.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 

The Melting Pot

Randomly one night at dinner hubby and I were talking about fondue. The kids became quite interested in the idea of cooking your own food and asked if there was a restaurant in town where you could do it—and as soon as we mentioned the Melting Pot, my son was locked in on what he wanted for his birthday. We went with both sets of grandparents, so there were eight of us. First, I don’t recommend this many people with fondue—the table they had was fairly cramped and we only had two pots between us. It was a little challenging.

There are several ways to order here, but we just went with the “4 course experience.” For this, you choose a cheese fondue for each burner, a salad, an entrée and a dessert. For our cheese, we chose gorgonzola and bacon and the “Alpine Classic.” The favorite of the table was the gorgonzola—there was butterkase and fontina cheese as well as the gorgonzola. For seasoning, they put in garlic and white wine. It was served with bread, fruit and veggies. The Alpine had gruyere, raclette and fontina and was also seasoned with garlic and wine as well as lemon and nutmeg. I don’t know if our server just really overdid it with the nutmeg, but this one had an off taste. The kids really didn’t like it. I think if we went again, we’d try one of the cheddar and beer-based versions.

I had the house salad—it was just okay. It had romaine and iceberg, cheddar, sliced boiled egg, tomatoes and crouton. I went with their ranch. There wasn’t quite enough of the dressing to coat everything. All in all, everyone else’s Caesars were better.

The choices for entrées for the “4 course experience” are varied and all contain a variety of meats. It was hard for me to find one that had exactly what I wanted, but hubby and I got different combos and shared and had way more than enough food. It’s kind of crazy how much they give you. I got the “Land and Sea” ($34.95 for the 4 courses) and hubby ordered the “Seafood Trio” ($34.95 for the 4 courses). Land and Sea included filet mignon, herb crusted chicken and shrimp. The seafood trio was salmon, sesame-crusted Ahi tuna and shrimp. In our pots, we had a “mojo” cooking liquid with bouillon, garlic and citrus and the Coq au Vin, or a red wine-based sauce with herbs, spices and mushrooms. So you spear your raw meat and stick it in and cook it yourself. They give you some general timing recommendations—all different for all the different meats and in general, all too long unless you enjoy meat that is similar to shoe leather. However, we figured out the more appropriate timing for ourselves, and used our various electronic devices to try and keep track. Except both my kids (who split a dinner which also included lobster) kept asking me, “Mom, is my lobster/chicken/steak done??” And I was trying to keep track of my own stuff and both of theirs and lord help you if you stick two forks in at the same time with two different ingredients. Oy. I was exhausted by the end of this course. And I hadn’t even eaten all the stuff on my plate (FYI, there wasa lot of shrimp left over). I don’t know, even with the various sauces they served with the meat, it still just tasted like meat and seafood that was boiled. And it didn’t help the sauces, which were mainly sweet-type sauces (teriyaki, BBQ, sweet chili) and tasted like they came out of a bottle.

Ok, I just need to stop talking about the meat portion—I really didn't enjoy it. It’s one of those things that is more bother than it’s worth. I would rather just cook at home. But dessert, now that’s an entirely different story. The various versions of chocolate fondue all sound good and all were good. My son is somewhat of a purist and just went with straight dark chocolate and I wasn’t complaining (and was glad I was sitting next to him), We had some milk chocolate fans as well so we got the flaming turtle too—well, we got it without nuts due to an allergy, so it was flambéed milk chocolate with caramel mixed in. They give you all kind of fun stuff to dip it—fruit, rice crispies, pound cake and even chocolate and graham cracker coated marshmallows. There were even brownies and blondies—although I am not sure why you need to dip a brownie into more chocolate, but my daughter seemed to enjoy it. Actually, both my kids ate so much of the dessert; they were bouncing off the walls.  It was a fun and yummy dessert and I would go back just for dessert. You can also go for cheese and dessert, which is a decent option. But ultimately the chocolate fondue is where it’s at—and the meat, we’ll it’s not that great and too damn much work.

The Melting Pot

5650 East 86^th Street

Indy 46250

317/841-3601

www.meltingpot.com 

Guest Post: Federal Donuts [Includes BONUS] — (South) Philadelphia, PA

Sacha here! You might remember me from Erin's review of Guatelinda. I am also known as @zigged.

Our 2014 family road trip took us east to visit my dad in New Jersey + enjoy adventures in Ocean City, MD, and New York City. The itinerary I planned included stops at restaurants that are reported to be culinary gems. This time: Federal Donuts.

I first heard of this place in Saveur's America's 50 Best Donuts (print edition). We tried another one on that list, Nord's Bakery in Louisville, and it was delicious. This one was a no-brainer because SOUTH PHILLY (where I'm from) and FRIED CHICKEN.

The menu is short and sweet. This place makes two things: donuts (hot fresh and fancy) and fried chicken. We were down to try both. I pre-ordered the donuts and chicken the night before to guarantee availability because of all the talk of their selling out of things.

We got a half dozen of each kind of donut—one of each fancy and two of each hot fresh—and a whole chicken. Each half chicken comes with a honey donut, so we got two of those too. If you call 15 minutes before arrival then they'll flavor the chicken before you arrive but I failed to do that, which was fine since I didn't remember the choices without looking at the menu anyway. We ended up with half buttermilk ranch (seasoning) and half honey-ginger (glaze). Then we drove to my dad's house in South Jersey, cut up the donuts into 6 pieces each, put the chicken on a plate, and sampled everything.

So...it's fried chicken. Tiny fried chicken. It wasn't piping hot by the time we ate it, and I tried only the honey-ginger because there weren't enough pieces for all of us to have more than one, so your mileage may vary if the conditions are different. But for $9.25 for four pieces of chicken and a donut, I wouldn't make a special trip again. I want to tell you more but there was really nothing memorable about it.

Oh, and every order comes with Japanese cucumber pickles. These were three teensy cucumber coins pickled in a gingery brine. The Huz liked them. I don't eat pickes.

Top photo, clockwise from top left: chocolate old fashioned, blackberry walnut, blueberry mascarpone, marshmallow marshmallow, chocolate sea salt, salted tehina.
Bottom photo, left to right (I think): Indian cinnamon, Apollonia, vanilla lavender.

So...they're donuts. They're good but not $2-a-donut good (although $6 for a half dozen of the hot fresh is reasonable). We each had our favorites, and all of us liked the salted tehina least (because it was almost savory), but we all agreed that they were nothing mind-blowing. My dad suspected as much ahead of time and I should've listened to him but SAVEUR LIST. A friend of mine wanted to bring us frannoli (fresh donut shells filled with cannoli cream) from Frangelli's Bakery the next day and I declined because we were donuted out but I'm sure that would've been a better treat.

We couldn't tell which hot fresh were which. I liked the dark brown ones the most of the three. They were all good but, like I said, DONUTS. Whatever.

I think the honey donuts are the basis for the hot fresh varieties and some of the fancy. There's nothing particularly honey about them but they are tasty for a plain donut. The cake is moist and tender and light and has a hint of tang like a sour cream coffee cake.

Federal Donuts

1219 S. 2nd St.

Philadelphia, PA 19147

267/687-8258

http://www.federaldonuts.com/

BONUS: If you are going to South Philly and you want to hit up a few slam dunk snack spots (i.e., not cheese steaks), go to John's Water Ice and Center City Soft Pretzel Co. You could even walk to one from the other! The pretzel factory closes at noon and the water ice stand opens at noon, so midday is the magic time if that's your plan.

TIP #1: There are other water ice places but John's is the best. For my entire life I got the same order: lemon on top, chocolate on the bottom. This time I tried pineapple on top, chocolate on the bottom. Solid choice. I'm not a fan of cherry-flavored things in general but that flavor seems to be very popular too, as evidenced by the dyed-red hands of the water ice dippers.

TIP #2: Be careful handling hot pretzels! Center City Pretzels has a mustard pump on the counter but, if your batch just came out of the oven, that pump is a trap. Dressing your pretzel will tempt you to bite it and that will hurt. Also, keep the paper bag open and maybe even take your pretzels out of it to cool (if you bought extra to save for later, which you should) so the crust doesn't get soggy and the salt doesn't dissolve.