Ambrosia

We recently had a fun dinner with some friends at Ambrosia restaurant in Broad Ripple. All in all, the food isn’t bad, and is probably some of the better Italian I have had in Indy, but nothing out of this world.

Because there were several of us, we decided to get several appetizers to share. We had the mussels, the fried calamari, a shrimp and shitake mushroom dish, and the torta di caprino (which is described as a goat cheese pie).

The mussels were decent. They were fresh (unlike every other Italian restaurant I have eaten in in Indy). I really liked the broth. It was a white wine, garlic, olive oil and lemon juice sauce. You could taste the zing of the lemon juice which I appreciate to give it some dimension. It was tasty just on the bread too. The portion was small enough that one person could easily order it and probably eat them all. In a large group, you may want two orders.

Speaking of the bread, it was good as well. It was just a nice Italian loaf sliced, but served warm, which I appreciate. Good for sopping up of various sauces.

The fried calamari wasn’t a highlight. Fried calamari is so ubiquitous in this city, and is done very well elsewhere—not something I would order again here. The sauce served with was just a basic cocktail sauce which I didn’t think added anything. There was certainly a lot of the calamari—both the rings and the tentacles, but like I said, nothing special.

The shitake mushroom appetizer was certainly the best appetizer on the table. The plate had several pieces of thinly sliced “rustic” bread and was covered in the broiled shrimp and shitakes is lots of olive oil and garlic. It might not have been something I would have ordered on my own, but the friends we were with liked it and wanted to get it, and I am really glad we did. It was delicious. And different. I appreciate someone doing something other than the standbys at Italian places.

The torta is described on the menu as a “baked goat cheese pie with a light gorgonzola cream sauce” and served with herbed crostini. Now I am thinking that sounds really good. But the execution wasn’t as impressive. More like a round piece of goat cheese with a gorgonzola sauce around the bottom. Basically, you took a piece of the crostini, smeared some goat cheese on it and tried to get some of the gorgonzola sauce to put on top. It wasn’t bad, but something you could whip up at home in a few minutes. The “pie” part I didn’t get---was it because it was round? I wanted some sort of crust I guess. Probably wouldn’t be on my order list again.

Now, honestly, I could have stopped right there, it was a lot of food, but everyone was ordering dinner so I did too. I ordered the ravioli della mamma which was a spinach and cheese ravioli in a pesto cream sauce. It wasn’t bad, but maybe a little one dimensional—just pure creamy pretty much. Probably didn’t help that I was pretty full by the time I ate it. I should say, what I didn’t eat got polished off by the rest of the table, and I do think maybe they all liked it more than I did.

We did order a couple of desserts as well. The “really big piece of chocolate cake” which was that, a big piece of chocolate layer cake, but it didn’t stand out for any particular reason. The other thing we had (which I ordered) was the tartufo—a ball of chocolate gelato with zabaglione (a rich frozen custard) inside and rolled in cocoa. It was really good—especially the zabaglione. Yummmm…

I really like the atmosphere here (well the patio anyway which is where we sat). It was a beautiful night, and the company was really good. I would go back—and the menu is quite large so there are lots of things to try, and several sound pretty good. But, while this isn’t a totally stellar review, I do think it is one of the better Italian places we have (that I have been to anyway). Which, sigh… makes me pine for some places in San Francisco. Oh well.

(Hey, I am sure I have asked this before, but where oh where, is the really good Italian food???)

Ambrosia Restaurant

915 East Westfield Blvd

Indy 46220

317-255-3096

http://www.ambrosiaitalian.com/

Sinclair's (at West Baden)

Ok, first of all, no I don’t have a gambling problem—we actually have been to French Lick twice in the last month on some personal business nearby. But hey, it is pretty cool having a luxury resort right there. And hey, a little gambling is fun.

This time we stayed at West Baden, and have pretty much decided we will always stay there from now on when we go back down. The hotel is just nicer and the rooms feel more sumptuous. Anyhow, since we were staying there, and had just eaten at the French Lick restaurant, we thought we’d give the West Baden high end restaurant, Sinclair’s, another go.

Wow, this place has greatly improved since we were last there. This restaurant seems to go though major changes with its menu every time we go, and this time was no exception. The menu is now just a high end continental feel, with many more interesting choices than the 1875 Steakhouse. Plus, there is basically a steakhouse menu tacked on as well, so if you want a steak, you can surely get one.

I started with the beef carpaccio which was very, very good. Raw beef tenderloin sliced super thin and topped with cold pressed olive oil, fried capers, very thinly sliced shallots, and fleur de sel (chunky sea salt). Simple, but really well done.

Hubby had the wedge with blue cheese dressing, Serrano ham, roasted cippolini onions and roasted tomatoes. It was also very good, and since I had just had the wedge over at 1875 the last time, it was easy to compare. You would think it would have been the same, but this was much better. The roasted tomatoes were great, and the Serrano ham was a nice touch as well.

For my main dish, I had what was described as lobster ravioli which was actually 3 raviolis filled with Boursin in a lobster saffron sauce with a lobster tail and two de-shelled claws on top. Hubby was making fun of me for ordering it because usually when I order lobster ravioli, I end up with some raviolis stuffed with cheese and maybe an essence of lobster. This time, it was lobster with a bit of pasta on the side. It was tasty and the lobster was pretty much properly cooked. (The claws were great—the tail may have been just a teeny tiny bit overcooked, but it was still good). The sauce was light and flavorful and the raviolis were actually nice. And I liked the fact that there were only three so it wasn’t like you felt like you were completely overwhelmed.

Hubby had the veal chop with sautéed mushroom and caramelized onion ragout and a cauliflower gratin side. He loved it. It was huge and he ate nearly all of it even though he kept saying, “just one more bite.” We skipped dessert in favor of the blackjack tables (we probably should have stayed for dessert as it turns out!)

The service was a bit off, as it took awhile to get acknowledged by the host (the place was totally full so I think he was doing some bussing work as well) and although our waitress was nice, she seemed a little bit harried. Also, hubby was annoyed at the small wine pours by the glass, but the wines we had were nice. I have said before how nice this room is, and it still is beautiful (it hasn’t changed at all). Now, as long as they keep the current quality of the menu, I will certainly choose to eat here next time we visit over 1875 (what? a girl can change her mind).

Sinclair’s

West Baden Springs Resort

8670 West State Road 56

French Lick, IN 47432

http://www.frenchlick.com/hotels/westBaden/dining.jsp

812/936-9300

St. Elmo's Steakhouse

Well, I figured since I grew up here, and have been back now for three years this month, and I have never been to St. Elmo’s, it was time. Now, I went in with a certain degree of skepticism since I have not heard a lot of positive things about St. Elmo’s. But determined to keep an open mind, we checked it out.

Well, one thing you can say about this place—it certainly doesn’t lack customers. We were there on a Wednesday night and the place was nearly full (at least the parts I could see). We were promptly seated and give the menu. One quick look around told us every table in our room was either tourists or businesspeople with maybe one or two exceptions. (You can tell they’re tourists when they are wearing shorts and baseball caps. Clearly St. Elmo’s isn’t turning anyone away.) (But seriously, on a side note it is depressing to me that people would choose to go to a nice restaurant and wear shorts and baseball caps).

Anyway, the menu is very basic and offers only one appetizer—the infamous shrimp cocktail (well, and salads which are at the bottom of the menu). Of course we had to order the shrimp cocktail. Now this may get me into trouble, as I know it is sort of an institution, but the one word which I think best describes the shrimp cocktail is “stupid.” Seriously, who is enjoying this thing? I can handle spicy food, but as I have said before, nothing turns me off more than something that is so spicy, you can no longer taste the food. This is such a dish. Basically, they take 4-5 shrimp, put them in a bowl, and pour a ton of their “cocktail” sauce on top so every inch is covered, which is far as I can tell is 12 parts horseradish to 1 part tomato juice (not even the slight sweetness of ketchup in there—and since one of the choices with your steak is tomato juice, and I can’t imagine a lot of people are ordering a side of tomato juice with their steak, I am assuming it is an ingredient used elsewhere—just my guess though). This “preparation” is particularly annoying when you look at their website menu and they show a nice shrimp cocktail with the shrimp hanging over the side of the bowl and the cocktail sauce in the middle (as the thing should be served). They basically give you no option of how much of the “sauce” to use because they just dump it on top. Anyway, it is not good in my opinion, and I would never order it again. I guess I should say just for the sake of saying it, the shrimp themselves are good and cooked properly, although it is really hard to tell because all you can really taste is the horseradish. So do yourself a favor, and order a salad.

One thing that is nice is that the entrees all come with a potato side and your choice of navy bean soup or the aforementioned tomato juice. I appreciate that while the food has the heft of a steakhouse price tag, at least you get something more than just the steak for your money. So I ordered a filet (10oz) with the baked potato on the side (you can get fries, baked potato, mashed, or green beans) and had a bit of the soup. The soup was nothing special, wasn’t bad, wasn’t great—hubby said it tasted like the same kind you could buy in a can. The steak, however, was perfect. I was pleasantly surprised with how good the steak was, and how perfectly cooked it was. When I saw it, with the nice dark grill marks, I have to say, I was worried it would be overcooked, but no, it was delicious. And cooked medium rare all the way through, not the kind you get sometimes that are raw in the center and overcooked on the edges. I really liked this steak. The baked potato was fine, nothing spectacular, but I ordered it “loaded” on the side after being asked by the waiter if I wanted it. This includes butter, sour cream, chives, bacon and cheese. I was slightly annoyed that there was an up charge for this that was not mentioned by the waiter, but the bacon pieces were tasty.

Hubby had the ribeye, his favorite, and agreed with my assessment of the steak. He really liked his also (of course we couldn’t agree on whom had the better steak, but we have different taste this way). He wasn’t impressed with his fries though (he said they weren’t very crispy) and wouldn’t order them again.

We also ordered additional sides of creamed spinach (can you tell this is hubby’s favorite side?) which wasn’t very good at all we thought, and king crab mac and cheese which was pretty good, but honestly, I don’t think the crab added much to it (except for raising the price). The mac and cheese would be a nice thing to order on its own, but unfortunately, it isn’t offered that way.

We also had a dessert which was described as chocolate cherry bread pudding with vanilla ice cream. It didn’t really come across as such, but it was good nonetheless. It was like two dense pieces of cake that were chocolaty in color, but had a flavor, strangely, more like sticky toffee pudding. It was really tasty though, and a nice surprise. I think it was a special though, so may not always be on the menu.

All in all, I actually enjoyed St. Elmo’s more than I thought I would. But I would never, ever, order that shrimp cocktail again. I don’t care if it is an institution.

St. Elmo’s Steakhouse
127 S. Illinois Street
Indy 46225
317-635-0636
http://www.stelmos.com/

Brugge Brasserie

It has been a long, long time since we have been to Brugge Brasserie, (it was pre-blog days even) and the reason was the last time we went, it wasn’t very good. This time, it was really good and I look forward to my next visit to mix it up a little bit.

First of all, it was pretty impressive how busy this place was on a Monday night. It just goes to show, a quality independent can be successful. Our server was also much friendlier than the one we had last time and was helpful in answering questions.

So, we started with the endive salad which was mixed greens with some chopped endive, candied walnuts, blue cheese and raspberry vinaigrette. The salad was really tasty. The blue cheese was good quality and went really well with the candied walnuts. And when they say candied, they mean it; I mean there were some bigger pieces in there that looked like pieces of walnut brittle. The salad was properly dressed and we ate every bite. If I was going to be picky, I would say it was maybe just a little too sweet, with the candied walnuts and the raspberry vinaigrette, but I still really enjoyed it (and hubby thought it was great just the way it was). It was certainly enough to share between 2 people. There was a spinach salad as well as a special salad with caramelized fennel and pear. They both sounded really good as well. Next time.




For our dinner, we ordered the mussels Provencal. One of Brugge’s specialties is the mussels and they serve them in many different flavored seasonings. The Provencal was French Chardonnay, French Butter, herbs de Provence, shallot and garlic. I certainly like all of those things and it was really hard to choose amongst the different choices. Let me start by saying, it is nice to eat at a place with enough turnover that you know you are getting fresh mussels that are correctly prepared. They are also the smaller size that I prefer (yes, boys, size does matter, and bigger isn’t always better). As far as the mussels themselves went, they were super high quality. As far as the Provencal seasonings, I would prefer a bit more flavor. I saw one big garlic clove in the pot—instead of that maybe some minced garlic and some fresh herbs would have added a bit more? And even more shallots would have been good I think. I did enjoy them though, although I will definitely try another flavor next time. Hey, I have had lots of recommendations to eat here from readers. Tell me what your favorite flavor is for the mussels—I would love to know.

The 2 pounds of mussels (again, certainly enough to share) come with a bit of French bread and an order of frites with 2 dipping sauces. The frites, I will say, were outstanding. The combination of the frites, the dipping sauce and the mussels made a fantastic combination in my mouth. Again, they give you lots of choices for dipping sauces. We went with the regular aioli (mayo with fresh garlic) and the roasted garlic aioli (with roasted garlic obviously). The roasted garlic was much milder in flavor—I really preferred the regular aioli—it had a great garlic bite. I would probably get that one again and add in a new one next time. (Again, what’s your favorite flavor)? As far as the size of the frites, the ones that came with the mussels were really enough for the two of us, although if I had had more, I certainly would have eaten them. They were great. Rated up there with the best in the city.

Now, I know it is sort of sacrilegious, but we didn’t have the beer. Brugge is known for its own brewed beer and have won awards for it I understand. What can I say? I am not a beer drinker. We had wine—and I was glad to see a new wine list with some dryer choices. Last time most of them seemed pretty sweet as I recall.

I love dessert crepes, so we had the nutella crepe. Nothing super fancy, but tasty nonetheless. It was a sweet crepe filled with nutella (a hazelnut chocolate spread if you are unaware) and drizzled with raspberry sauce and cream. Hubby wasn’t a fan of the raspberry sauce detracting from his nutella, but I liked it all together.

All in all, I am really glad we went back to Brugge after all this time. It was a thoroughly enjoyable meal. (Note--they also serve many other things besides mussels, such as crepes, soups, and regular entrees as well. So if you aren’t into mussels, there are other options, although I can’t vouch for them (not yet anyway).)

(Don’t forget to leave your comment about your favorite mussel seasoning and frites dipping sauces! I gotta figure out my game plan for next time.)

Brugge Brasserie
1011 A East Westfield Blvd.
Indy 46220
317-255-0978
www.bruggebrasserie.com

Bazbeaux Pizza

I don’t know, Indy has so many pizza places and some people think that must mean we have lots of great ones, but I'm not sure. Honestly, I am not in love with Bazbeaux the way so many people are (I mean, according to its website, it has won the people’s choice for best pizza in Indianapolis Monthly every year since 1986) but all in all it was not bad. I am amazed however, at how well all of the pizza joints seem to do, so I guess everyone has their different taste, and their own favorite, and they all seem to do just fine.

Anyway, although pizza isn’t usually my idea of a night out, for some reason I was in the mood to go back to Bazbeaux. I think it was because I was in the mood for some sort of veggie type pizza and I knew Bazbeaux would have lots of options. When we walked in, I was happy not to fight a huge crowd—sometimes the waits have been pretty bad. We were also greeted right away and taken care of by a very attentive and friendly server.

As we perused the menu, and ordered some wine and some cheesy garlic bread, I was drawn to the “garden” pizza that is one of the specialty pizzas on the menu. Basically, it had all the veggies I have ever liked in various veggie pizzas (although never all on one pizza)-- spinach, olives, red onions, ricotta and artichoke hearts; one I had never seen on a pizza, but love every other way, avocado; and one that I hate on pizza, green peppers. So I ordered a small one without green peppers and munched on the bread. Hubby ordered the Napoli with fresh garlic, capers, basil and anchovies, which also sounded quite good.

I have to say, I think this is some of the best garlic bread around. Honestly, I could do without the cheese (it comes that way too) but hubby wanted the cheese. I picked a lot of it off because the bread and the truly garlic-y butter was great on its own. Hubby also loved it.

Unfortunately, when our pizza was delivered, mine had green peppers. All over it. Now, sometimes you can just pick things off and sometimes you can’t. This was one of the times when you just could not. They were under the cheese and on every square inch. And I really hate them. So, I had to send it back. The server was very accommodating and apologetic and put a rush on a new one. But it sort of sucks when your dining companion has their food and you don’t. And it takes awhile to make a pizza. So I had a piece of hubby’s which was not bad—needed to cut the anchovies up a bit and spread them around, but it was a unique, if not a bit strong, flavor combination. I do like the very thin crust they use—and you can choose between white and whole wheat.

When my pizza came, I guess what I realized is that the “garden” just had too much stuff on it. It was piled so high it sort of overwhelmed the crust. Hubby said it was my fault for ordering it, but if it’s one of the pizzas offered on the menu, it should be good right? Anyway, next time (which may be awhile), I would probably just make my own with a few ingredients—maybe just 2 or 3 of the ones on mine and see how that goes. I did like the ricotta on the pizza—added a nice additional dimension to the cheese aspect. And the server took my pizza off the bill because of the screw up, so I guess I can’t really complain about the price anyway. But really, I did appreciate that they just automatically did that—so many times when a restaurant makes a mistake they don’t do it (unless you ask) and in the name of good customer service, they should.

I know people love this place (and hubby was raving about his), but I guess I am not there yet. We’ll see.

Bazbeaux Pizza
811 East Westfield Blvd
Indy 46220
317-255-5711
www.bazbeaux.com

100th Post

I just noticed this previous post was my 100th and I felt like celebrating! (Maybe I watch too much TV--they are always making a big deal out of the 100th episode). Just wanted to take another moment to thank all of you, dear readers, and remind you that I love your feedback (even when you don't agree) and I truly appreciate your recommendations. Let me know if you have any suggestions for restaurants, or for anything else about my blog. I have a great time writing it, and I hope you have a great time reading it.

Cheers!

Erin

Machu Picchu Restaurant

One of the things I miss a lot about the Bay Area is the Peruvian restaurants. There was one in Oakland I used to eat lunch at quite often and a couple we went to in San Francisco quite often. In fact, Limón was one of our favorite places to eat right before we moved. Anyhow, I have been constantly on the lookout for one in Indy, and had found Machu Picchu online quite awhile ago. I thought it was much further away from my house than it actually is, so it took me longer than it should have to get there. (It is located near Lafayette Square).
Hubby and made the trek the other day for lunch and I am really glad I did. And wow, how nice it is to see so many different ethnic restaurants on the Westside. (Hey, I don’t get over there much). We walked in and were greeted warmly by our server and given the rather extensive menu to peruse. I was really craving some of the things I used to get at the other places, and was happy to see many of them on the menu, as well as a decent ceviche list.

It was only lunch, and we ordered too much, but I couldn’t help it. We started with the papa rellena which was deep fried mashed potatoes stuffed with seasoned ground beef, olives and boiled egg and served with a little basic salad on the side made up of iceberg and super thinly sliced red onion and tomatoes in a vinegary dressing. The first bite of the papa rellena led hubby to say it reminded him of a sloppy joe, but the more you ate, and when you added some of the salad with it (particularly the red onions), it was a great flavor combination. The olives and the egg made the textures more interesting and the flavor different enough. But you really need to put some of those tasty onions on top. It was big, too, and more than enough to share.

They also brought bread to the table, slices of white bread which wasn’t all that exciting by itself, but the slightly spicy creamy sauce served with it was quite interesting. I am pretty sure the sauce was the Huancaina sauce which is a type of creamy cheese sauce with typically made with white cheese and chili peppers and other seasonings.

We then also shared the Ceviche Mixto, which was all the types of seafood offered (fish, shrimp, mussels, octopus, and squid) marinated in lime juice. It had lots of shaved red onions over the top (I really like all the red onions in this food). First of all it was huge, and enough to share for about 4 people. It was definitely quite tangy, which I like, although if you just ate this on its own, it might be a little much. They were also served with the fried large corn kernels (sort of like less greasy cornuts) and I enjoyed these as well. However, I can’t really recommend the squid, octopus or mussels (actually, there was just one large mussel in there) because they were too rubbery and tough. But the fish and the shrimp were really good. Unfortunately, while there are lots of combinations of different seafood, fish and shrimp isn’t one of the combinations. But you can get them individually (and maybe if you asked, they would do a fish/shrimp combo). That would be ideal. You can see though why so many ceviches are served with other things, like say avocado, my favorite, mixed in to cut the tartness of the lime juice. Anyway, it is worth ordering, but stick with the shrimp or fish (the fish probably being the better of the two).

We also had the lomo saltado which is sautéed beef with more of those red onions, only this time cooked, along with tomatoes, cilantro, and French fries served with rice on the side. This is one of the interesting things I find in Peruvian food. There is a tendency to serve both rice and French fries with dishes. I have found this true in pretty much all of the Peruvian restaurants in which I have been. In this case, the fries here were actually mixed in with the beef, almost like another ingredient in a stir fry. I am not sure exactly what the seasonings used are, but it has a certain flavor that I have found common throughout all Peruvian places. And it is so tasty, and different from anything else. The beef was cut into thin strips and sautéed, so it was a little more done than I normally like, but still quite good. And it balanced out the tartness of the ceviche. I was torn between this dish and the bistek encebollado which is a whole steak served with similar accoutrements. I think I may try the other one next time and see which one I like better. But I would happily get everything I had this time again (with the changes to the ceviche I mentioned). Like I said though, we ordered too much and we walked out with enough food left over for an entire second meal, but it was well worth it.

The interior is quite large, and the people quite nice, and although they clearly spoke Spanish as their main language (along with literally every other customer in the joint), had no trouble explaining a few things to me. Our drinks were refilled without asking and we were checked on frequently. They don’t serve beer and wine however, so it will probably stay a lunch place for me, although they do serve dinner as well.

According to the menu their specialty is “Inca Chicken and Seafood” and the menu had quite an extensive listing of seafood as well as rotisserie chicken and several “platos tipicos” (classic entrees) that were made with chicken. I am interested to go back and give some of the other things a try. For now though, I am just happy to have found Peruvian that is within reach!

Machu Picchu Restaurant
5356 West 38th Street
Indy 46254
317-388-8696
(No website I could find)

Miyagi's-the next visit

I am starting to worry that maybe my standards are lowering after too long in this town or something---we had another great meal, unbelievable! I am loving it, but still, I worry. Anyway, this was a relief really because the last time we went to Miyagi’s, it wasn’t very good. But they have gotten the quality back up to my first visit, (and raised a few of the prices) and several things were damn good. And we had a really sweet, unobtrusive server.

As usual, we were really attracted to the appetizers at this place. There are so many yummy sounding things, how could you possibly get a big dish when you could get lots of little things and taste so many different flavors?

Although we ordered everything at once, it was nice that they didn’t bring it all out at once. The first thing they brought was the hot rock steak which was outstanding. In fact, it was so good, after we ate everything; we ended up getting another order. Basically, it is thin slices of raw New York strip that was marinated in a teriyaki type marinade with lots of little chives on top. They bring you a really hot rock (literally) and you cook it yourself on top. Interestingly, we ordered the same thing last time, but we were given a little iron skillet to cook it on—this was really a hot rock. Pretty cool. Anyway, it is really thin steak and it cooks in like a second—I just put it on for like 2 seconds, flip it for about 1 more second and eat it. (My tip—cook the chive side down first, and the chives stick to the meat and add a little extra flavor.) Delicious. Like I said, we liked it so much we ordered another one after we finished everything else. (And it isn’t really that filling since it is just meat after all.)

We also ordered the citrus tuna salad with mango salsa and topped with avocado spread. It was pretty good, but there really wasn’t a lot of tuna there—it was nice with the mango though. The tuna was raw and cut into dices, like a tartare. It was in about the same sized pieces as the mango, but there was about twice as much mango as there was tuna. And there were some greens as well. Like I said, it wasn’t that exciting, but very fresh and light. I probably would order something else next time.

We ordered the King Kani as well, which was two pieces of a large roll of sushi full of king crab marinated in Japanese mayo and topped with chives. Hubby liked this one more than I did (it’s that seaweed thing), but the crab was quite tasty. It sort of wasn’t what I was expecting based on the description, but still tasty.

We also ordered the softshell crab again (of course) with ponzu sauce on the side. I am happy to say, it is way back up to the quality level it was at when we ordered it the first time. The second time, the quality had fallen way off, but these were great. They were meaty enough and the crust was nice and light and crisp. Now, the price has risen from $4 to $6 to I think it was $10 on this visit. But the portion is not bad (I think it was 2 whole crabs cut in half) and it was enough for us with everything else we had. Of course, after eating all this, we ordered the second order of the steak, so maybe it wasn’t really, but I think it was more that we just really really liked that hot rock steak!

We also had our favorite dessert item at Miyagi’s (ok, the only thing we have ever tried because we like it so much)—the honey toast. Basically, just a great big piece of toasted bread drizzled with a honey sauce as well as a little bit of chocolate and raspberry sauce and served with vanilla ice cream. Doesn’t sound that exciting, but a nice simple flavor combo that ends the meal nicely.

I also like this place because it has a very modern interior and is usually at least half full of people. More like a place you might see in San Francisco---I mean, so many of the traditional Japanese restaurants look exactly the same inside and just don’t provide the ambiance for a night out if you know what I mean. Miyagi’s delivers on this point too. The food is also quite artfully presented and I like that the menu actually changes somewhat. We will certainly be back to Miyagi’s—and it won’t be quite as long this time!

Miyagi's

3625 E. 96th Street

Indy, 46240

317/846-7077

http://www.indymiyagi.com/

1875: The Steakhouse--French Lick

Another road trip—and I have had a lot of feedback from my previous post on one of the restaurants at French Lick, so here’s the other marquee restaurant at the resort. This trip we went to 1875: The Steakhouse (which is named after the date of the first running of the Kentucky Derby).

It is a nice looking restaurant, although there are some weird looking rooms off to one side that would not be my first choice, so we requested a table near the window. The whole restaurant is weirdly shaped because it is actually placed in a room in the resort that was the original drop off spot for one of the trains, and so basically it was a hall that was converted into a restaurant space. One thing we noticed is that people tend to dress up a bit more here than often in Indy, and it was sort of fun that way. Sweetly, we sat next to a couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and were toasting with martinis. Cheers to them!

Anyway, 1875 is your basic steakhouse, you could probably guess pretty much what is on the menu, and you could probably get about 75% of it right, but it is executed pretty well, and they do add some seasonal items to the menu to keep it somewhat fresh. I went with the classic steakhouse dinner—a blue cheese wedge to start, a filet with Bernaise sauce and a chocolate molten cake to finish.

The wedge was pretty standard, almost enough dressing for the lettuce, but not quite (there can never be enough salad dressing on these wedges, there is just so much lettuce). I never eat it all anyway, so I had plenty, but if you actually ate the whole half head of lettuce, you would need more. The chunks of blue cheese in the dressing were tasty and nice little pieces of bacon as well. Nothing spectacular, but hey it was a wedge. They don’t vary that much.

Hubby had the fried green tomatoes to start, which I had a bite of. They were quite good as well, very thin and lightly fried with a cornmeal crust. The drizzle of remoulade was a nice flavor combination. I would order these next time over the salad probably.

The steak was fine, perfectly prepared medium rare and served over a little demi glace. I think demi glace should be disclosed on the menu when it is on your food, and if you read my review of Sinclair’s at French Lick, it really bugged me how much they used there. This was not as bad and not as much, but I would still ask for it without it. If you order one of their sauces on the side (as I ordered the Bernaise) I don’t think you need more.

We also ordered the creamed spinach and lobster mac and cheese as side items (although the lobster mac and cheese is actually technically an appetizer on the menu). The spinach was really pretty good and the mac and cheese not bad, although the chunks of lobster were quite small (and I mean, quite small).

Hubby had an enormous ribeye which he thoroughly enjoyed.

We had passed on the soufflés which I regretted later—had the molten chocolate cake with cream….I don’t think it was molten so much as cake just covered in chocolate sauce, but we ate it anyway (it was chocolate after all).

Ok, when you’re going to French Lick, you’re not going for the food. But for a generally decent meal with good service in a nice locale, 1875 is a good choice.

1875: The Steakhouse
French Lick Resort
8670 West State Road 56
French Lick, IN 47432
888-936-9360
http://www.frenchlick.com/hotels/frenchLick/dining.jsp

Aftertaste-Revisit

The food karma continues, and it’s awesome! We had been wanting to go back to Aftertaste (Taste Café’s dinner service) ever since we went and had a mixed experience. We figured it had been long enough to work out some of the kinks and settle into their dinner thing (not to mention that they are now serving two nights a week-Wednesdays and Thursdays, so the crowds are not so crazy).

We got there right around opening time (6:00) because they don’t take reservations but there were only a few people ahead of us. We were seated at a table appropriately sized for the two of us and greeted by a very friendly server. The menu is still quite large and it took us awhile to decide what to get. We sorta skipped the mains and just made up a tapas dinner this time since the mains we had last time were the biggest disappointment (that and the service).

We ordered one “snack”(the truffled eggs on toast), a salad (the chopped salad), a tartine (the rare roast beef) and a side (pomme frites, natch). Everything came at the same time, which was fine, but if you want to space things out you may want to order a couple things and then wait and order a couple more once those come. The truffled eggs on toast were amazing. It was just a thick piece of bread with a fried egg (perfectly cooked, runny in the middle) with a piece of Swiss cheese completely covering the egg, one inch pieces of asparagus scattered on top and around and truffle oil on top. This is the thing about Taste, they take basic quality ingredients and turn them into truly memorable dishes. The quality is super high even though the dishes themselves don’t sound super complicated. The flavors blend terrifically and it all comes together (usually).

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The salad was a slightly smaller version similar to the lunch salads, which are always good. We had the chopped salad, which was lettuce, red onions, tomatoes, blue cheese, avocado and apples all chopped into same sized pieces. It was tossed with a sherry vinaigrette and was quite tasty. It was still so large that even between the two of us, we didn’t finish it all. But it was a nice tangy side dish to go alongside the rich yummy other things.

The tartine is basically an open faced sandwich with horseradish cream on the bread, topped with thin slices of rare roast beef, thin slices of blue cheese (which was really blue and added a lot of flavor) and balsamic onion marmalade. There were two pieces which was a perfect amount to split between the two of us---I don’t think I could have eaten the whole thing as well as the rest of the stuff.

One of the best things at Taste (lunch or dinner) is the pomme frites. Best in the city perhaps, and the basil aioli to dip in is one of my favorite things. They were a good side dish to add to everything else as well.

Things are definitely falling into place at Aftertaste. The place was not so jammed that it was overwhelming, although it was still quite buzzy (probably helped that the outside seating was also available). The service seems more comfortable and polished and the kitchen, not so overwhelmed. The lunch service has always been spot on as far as speed and quality (other than sometimes you wait quite awhile on line just to order—why do people not seem to know what they want by the time they get to the register?). I am so relieved that it has improved so much, because it is a place that, while has been a mainstay of my lunch rotation, can now become a dinner mainstay as well. Cheers!

Aftertaste
Taste Cafe & Marketplace

5164 N College Ave

Indy 46205

317-925-2233

http://www.tastecafeandmarketplace.com/

Tulip Noir

Wow, I have been having a little good run of meals lately. Nothing makes a girl happier! A friend and I went out to try a new breakfast/lunch place called Tulip Noir. It was fabulous (thanks to several of my readers for the recommendation!)

Tulip Noir is located in another strip mall on west 86th street, actually right next door to Sawasdee Thai restaurant. The décor is very modern, bordering on sparse, with baseballs hanging from the ceiling (?). A piece or two of art, not much else. The service was extremely friendly, and we were acknowledged pretty much immediately upon entering. Our server was very perky and enthusiastic. My guess is the place is owned by a Mom-- I noticed that in the bathroom, there was a stool for kids to reach the sink. Having two little kids myself, I really appreciate such things.

Anyway, we managed to show up in the last few days of the Spring menu (they change it 4 times a year, seasonally) which seems to be something I am really good at doing for some reason, but I am really glad I got to eat this menu because it was really outstanding.

As for drinks, it is a restaurant with a very extensive tea and coffee menu, with few other choices. Not generally wanting tea or coffee with lunch, I went with a flavored sparkling water which would have been fine had it been cold (I personally don’t like sparkling waters with ice, but hey, maybe that is just me).

The menu looked great and my friend and I were having a hard time deciding what to order, so we agreed to split everything. We got the mushroom and asparagus crepe and the chicken ciabbata sandwich as well as a side of the cauliflower and broccoli fritters. She also had a cup of the soup of the day which was a brothy spinach soup. (Man, that grilled cheese with two kinds of cheese, apples and bacon was quite tempting though!)

The portions were perfect for sharing—there were two little wedges of the crepe, two pieces of the sandwich and two fritters. And I thought all of these things were great. The crepe was perfectly crispy, the way I think crepes should be, and was full of sautéed mushrooms and (skinny) sliced asparagus with lots of pieces of goat cheese on top. The goat cheese melted into the crepe, giving it the right amount of tang for the pure savory flavors of the mushrooms and asparagus. The only thing I didn’t like was that the mixed greens on the side seem to not have any dressing on them at all.

The chicken sandwich was made of a grilled pieces of ciabatta filled with natural lemon garlic chicken (super tender slices that were not tough and hard to eat like so many chicken sandwiches that just slap an entire breast on there) with dill, provolone, sliced tomato, sliced cucumber, spinach and avocado sauce. I took the cucumber off (ok, I hate cucumbers, although strangely, I love pickles, but that’s another story) and the sandwich was superb. It was not so thick that you couldn’t get your mouth around it, but it had enough of everything that you got a little bit of everything in just about every bite. And the flavors were great. Again, same problem with the little side salad—not enough dressing (they only way I knew there was any dressing, was by looking underneath the greens to see a bit on the plate).

The fritters were nothing like what I expected; they were more like little potato pancakes made up of finely grated broccoli and cauliflower instead of potatoes. They were served with a yummy, creamy gorgonzola sauce on top—it was almost like eating a bowl of broccoli gorgonzola soup with a crunchy edge. The flavors are great—who doesn’t like broccoli and gorgonzola together?

I didn’t try the soup, but my friend said it was the only thing that really wasn’t that great. It was a total puree, and she is more of a chunky-type soup girl. Other than that though, I think she totally agreed with my assessment of the food.

I thank all of my readers who have recommended this place—it is a real find and I can’t wait to go back and try the new summer menu very soon!

Tulip Noir
1224 West 86th
Indy 46260

317-848-5252
www.tulipnoircafe.com

Euphoria-Late Spring

***As of June 5, 2011, Euphoria is closed as a restaurant and is only open for private events. The chef has also left the restaurant.****

There was a moment when I thought I wasn’t going to write up every meal I have at Euphoria because I go there more than a lot of places. But then, I was like, forget that, this is some of the best food in Indy, and I am going to write about it! My readers need to know.

It had been awhile, and we hadn’t hit the latest menu yet so we got ourselves on over there. When we got there, we learned it was the last night for this particular menu, which always seems to happen to us, but we were happy to enjoy the last of the season’s morels. We started with the ½ order (thank you thank you for putting half orders of pasta on the menu, this makes me so happy) of the morel mushroom pasta, which was pasta “rags” (or large flattened pieces like really wide pappardelle, covered with a creamy sauce with Pecorino Romano and Taleggio cheeses, and morels and asparagus mixed in. Man, was this good. And I was so happy to see they have (at least for now) added a pasta section to the menu with two pasta choices in full or half orders. I have said many times that Chef Gates’ pasta could compete (and win) against just about any in the City. This pasta was so good and rich, but had a sharpness from the Taleggio that I really enjoyed. The morels and asparagus added a nice flavor and texture break, and the pasta was perfect. Hubby and I shared this, as well as the next item, and we both loved it.



The other appetizer we had was the tuna tartare. This is clearly the best I have had in the City (well, I had a really good one at Puck’s once, but I think it may have been influenced by the fact that Chef Gates had worked there because it was very similar). It was a layer of a sweet onion/tomato relish, a layer of avocado, and the chopped sashimi tuna with horseradish-Dijon vinaigrette. The flavors went perfectly together, and there was just enough acid between the vinaigrette and the tomato relish to make all the flavors shine. Plus the teeny little crunchy pieces of the onion were perfect with the smooth avocado. And the salty sesame crackers were the perfect thing to eat with it--adding the salty taste and the crunchy texture. I had a really hard time deciding which was better. I would happily order either or both, again. Outstanding.






We had already ordered our entrees (sharing the pan roasted black grouper and a half order of the lobster tortelli) when we were chatting with the Chef who told me there were soft shell crabs on the bar menu! I hadn’t even looked at it because everything on the regular menu sounded so good! Well, like I said we had already ordered our food, but no way was I going to pass up soft shell crab, so we just added an order of those to our meal as well!

The soft shell crabs were delicious—really meaty ones, not like some you get that have no meat in the body. They were coated in breadcrumbs made of graham crackers as well as some other savory spices and were fried. They were really good too—a very similar coating to his calamari I think which is also quite good. There were three dipping sauces and I really liked them, except maybe for the tartar, it just wasn't exciting. They were a great deal too, there were 4 on the plate (even though there are only 3 in my picture—hubby got to one before I had my camera ready) and I think it was like $16.





Back to the things we initially ordered, the grouper was served with toasted couscous, ramps, English peas, a charred tomato vinaigrette and basil pesto. Again, the flavors all went together beautifully and the fish had a wonderful crispy skin.


The lobster tortelli has been on the menu before, and I have had it a few times. It is little tortellis stuffed with lobster, served with leeks and a “shallot-tarragon beurre fondue.” It was probably my least favorite thing we had, although it was still good. The pasta was a little dense I guess, but I love those smoked tomatoes on top for garnish. The flavors are rich and go together really well, but everything else was just so good, it seemed to lack a little luster in comparison.

Obviously, after that much food, we couldn’t do dessert, and hubby made a nice lunch of leftover fish and pasta, but one of these days we are saving more room for another cheese plate.

Euphoria
337 West 11th Street
Indy, 46202
317-955-2389
http://www.indycanal.com/

***June 21st update: went back the week after this review (what can I say, some friends wanted to get some of those yummy crabs, and who am I to argue?). Had lots of our standbys, the crab (natch), the beef tartare, and a cheese plate, all delicious as usual. Also tried the venison chops (we shared them). Outstanding. Not gamey at all and wonderfully prepared. Almost like a meatier, jucier lamb chop. Oh, and of course, the chef informs me the menu is changing yet again this week...a repeat visit may be necessary soon!

Zest-Dinner

*****ZEST IS OUT OF BUSINESS******

Sigh… I really really want to like this place—a nice independent neighborhood joint already really well-known for their breakfasts and lunches. They recently started serving dinner so we thought we should give it a go. I have had a pretty good lunch here before, but this dinner was a big disappointment. In a word, almost everything was dry.

The menu is pretty extensive and even has some breakfast for dinner items. I decided to try the three course price fixe, which is a great deal. I started with the wedge salad (you had a choice between this and the soup). It was pretty good, and not enormous which was nice and the blue cheese dressing clearly seemed homemade—it was really good.

We also had some pommes frites to share with our friends to start. They do have good fries and a really good roasted red pepper aioli to dip in (as well as a wasabi cream and vinegar, but the aioli is by far the best).

I then had the filet with chimichurri sauce served with roasted potatoes and grilled asparagus. The steak (ordered medium rare) was medium at best and really dry. The chimichurri was actually really tasty I thought—it was a bit tart, but I tend to really like tart things so I thought it was good. The potatoes were fine, nothing too exciting and the asparagus was good, but you know me, I like mine a little thinner.

Hubby had the Baja Tacos which were cornmeal encrusted basa fish with white cheddar and chipotle slaw served on corn tortillas. The sides were cilantro lime rice and refried beans. They were drizzled with sour cream and there was some pico di gallo there too. Again, dry was the word that best describes the tacos according to hubby.

I also had a bite of the asiago fried chicken, and sadly, it seemed to suffer the same fate. However, I did try our other dining companions rosemary roasted pork tenderloin and it was the least dry item on the table. Which is weird, because I generally don’t order pork tenderloin because it is often so dry. This wasn’t bad.

My three course came with a dessert—it was a sort of mixed berry shortcake which was fine as well, but not overly memorable. The service was friendly and helpful, and the dishes were well presented, but the I’m not sure if I was just unlucky, or what, but it wasn’t very crowded in there at dinner—I would love to hear from any of you who might have tried dinner and hear what you thought.

Zest Exciting Food Creations
1134 E 54th Street
Indy 46220
317-466-1853
http://www.zestexcitingfood.com/