Plum's Upper Room

I had high hopes for this one. The chef has some fairly impressive credentials and the online (sample) menu was intriguing. Online reviews were very mixed both high and low, but I was anxious to try it myself and was hoping for the highs to be our experience.

First thing, I love the interior—it is upstairs in a building in downtown Zionsville and is full of lots of wood, twinkly lights, and art. We had a lovely table for two in front of one of the windows overlooking the street. In the beginning, our server was very attentive. We had our wine quickly and perused the rest of the menu (which is strangely set out in reverse order—entrées first, then apps, then soups and salads). Sadly, the server, while very friendly, didn’t know much about the menu items which made it difficult to decide what to order. It’s too bad the servers are more versed in the menu.

We started out with the soup du jour, which was a corn puree with a bit of crispy bacon ($7). This was easily the best thing we had all night. The soup tasted wonderfully of fresh corn and was drizzled with a bit of what I think was basil oil giving it an even fresher summery taste. The soup was very smooth, and when you got a bite of the bacon with it, it was perfect. 

The other appetizer we ordered, the fried green tomatoes ($10) were not as successful, although they weren’t bad. I liked the super crispy fried exterior—it was nicely seasoned with peppercorns—but it could have used some sort of sauce with it other than the flavored oil underneath.  Also, they were a little thickly cut for me—a little too much tomato to crust ratio, particularly without anything to dip it into. Hubby and I resorted to dipping them in the soup and they were tasty that way. 

It was about this point of the meal where things started going south. The restaurant began really filling up (good for them), including a party of 10-12 people that our server was also waiting on (as well as many other tables). There were only 2 servers I could see in the entire place. Let’s just say, it was a struggle to get anyone’s attention for the rest of the night. Luckily, we had placed our order just before the large party was seated, so we knew we were at least ahead of them.

Hubby had the salmon pasta special ($30) and I had the mussels ($12) with a side of frites ($7). First of all, the salmon special was on a blackboard and no price was mentioned.  When he got the food, due to the size, hubby thought he had ordered an appetizer. Which would be fine, as we often do that purposefully, but the $30 price tag we saw when we got the bill was a little steep. And sadly, it was not very good. Again, much like the tomatoes, there seemed to be something missing—moisture. These angnolotti were more like dumplings than they were stuffed pasta—and the ramp butter that was listed on the menu was not really evident in any quantity. One thing I did really like were the ground cherries, which are a type of little fruit that looks (and tastes) a bit like a teeny tiny tomato. I can’t remember ever having them before. Honestly, I thought the menu listing meant “ground” cherries as in, ground up cherries, when I read it, which sounded a bit weird, and was happy to find these instead.

My mussels were fine—the mariniere broth they were cooked in had a great flavor—wine, shallots and herbs. Sadly, there was not enough of it, and it seemed that the mussels had not been steamed with enough of it either, because they seemed a bit chewy and overcooked as well.  The thing that really annoyed with this part of the meal was the “frites” though. They were food service fries that were barely dusted with salt (and of course there was no salt on the table, and no way we were ever going to get someone’s attention to get any). And they were $7. I don’t complain about prices very often, but this and the salmon were out of line. 

At this point, hubby was ready to get out of there. The server was obviously completely overwhelmed (as was the rest of the staff). I had intended to try dessert because I had read several people say that is was worthwhile here, but when we finally got our server’s attention to ask for the menu, she said they were written on the blackboard and maybe we could just get up and go read them ourselves. To be fair, she did say if she had more time, she would’ve gone over them with us. We decided to cut our losses and leave. 

So all in all, it was a bit of a disaster. I felt bad for our server though, because honestly none of it was her fault. They were sorely understaffed. Obviously they knew they had a fair number of reservations (the tables were marked with the last names, which I thought was kind of nice), but there weren’t enough people there to take care of everyone. I also think the servers should be more trained on the

food.

It’s really too bad too, because I really loved the ambiance and the menu sounded appealing and there was some creativity in the food. But sadly, between the service and a lot of the food we were served, there was nothing that gave us a reason to go back. I really hope it was just an off night, but it will take a lot to lure me back in. Maybe one of you guys have had a great meal here and can tell me about it? 

Plum’s Upper Room

112 South Main Street

Zionsville, IN 46077

317/873-5577

www.plumsupperroom.com

Rosie's Place - Revisit

I wrote about Rosie’s awhile back, but I had not been there with the family, so one Sunday we felt like a drive and headed up to Noblesville. I think Noblesville has done a nice job with their old town center—keeping the historical buildings intact as well as supporting pretty much only locally owned businesses. I think that’s pretty impressive these days.

Anyway, we only had to wait a couple of minutes, even though the place was doing a hustling business. They have a pretty large menu (breakfast and lunch available) but all of us but my son were lured in by specials on this day.

I had a special breakfast sandwich with eggs that were scrambled with fresh chives, gouda cheese, fresh spinach and bacon all on challah bread. There were breakfast potatoes served with it. My favorite part of the sandwich was the perfectly toasty bread—a slightly sweet, eggy bread sliced just the right thickness. It was so light and buttery, it almost fell apart as you ate it. The eggs were nicely done as well. They weren’t overcooked and had a nice lightness to them that is often hard to find in a busy breakfast place—and they were lightly seasoned as well. The other ingredients were fine. The bacon had good flavor, although it was little tiny pieces of bacon scattered on top which maybe easier to sort of portion over the sandwich, but they fell off when you were eating them ad I never got a good 

bacon-y bite. I preferred the bites of my son’s full pieces of bacon. The spinach was fresh and plentiful. The potatoes were just too soft and weren't really anything special.

Hubby had a special—the shrimp and grits (of course he did). Unfortunately, this dish was not very good. There was a large lump of the grits in the middle—and they were quite firm and not the slightly soupy, looser grits he prefers. There were several seasoned shrimps scattered around, but sadly, they were also a little on the firm side. Actually, now that I think of it, the eggs on top were also pretty darn firm with little runny yolk on them.  They were also sprinkled with bits of bacon. So yeah, this one sort of got the thumbs down. Just too firm and dry.

My daughter had another special—the "Samoas" pancakes. That’s right, Samoas like the girl scout cookies. Talk about decadent. There were three pancakes with chocolate ganache between each one, and more on top. Then, they also topped the chocolate on the top with a mound of caramelly coconut. This was pretty darn tasty. Ok, if I ate this for breakfast, I would be in a sugar coma for hours, but the chocolately bites I had were really good (the chocolate ganache is very good). My kids, on the other hand, were happy to finish it off. 

Rosie’s is a solid, friendly neighborhood place. This meal had its ups and downs for sure, but if it were my neighborhood, I am sure it would be a fairly frequent stop. The menu is very accessible, it’s family friendly and the ingredients are fresh.

Rosie’s Place

68 North 9^th Street

Noblesville, IN 46060

317/770-3322

http://rosiesplace.net/ 

Miyagi's - Revisit

So the other day I tried to meet my friend Suzanne at a new restaurant I had heard about but that apparently was already out of business (that was fast) so we were scrambling to figure out somewhere else to go quickly on 96^th Street and decided to try Miyagi’s. I had been a little jaded about the last time I went there when we could not get waited on, and hadn’t been back since. But I have always enjoyed the food, so it seemed like a good time to give it another chance.

We started with a couple of rolls—the caterpillar roll ($12) and the samba crab roll ($14). First of all, I think they were beautifully presented—and taste-wise I liked them too.  The caterpillar roll was spicy tuna inside and was topped with avocado and masago. It was pretty simple, but had nice taste and texture. The spicy tuna mix here is better quality than a lot and I liked the ample avocado (one of my favorite foods). The masago (fish eggs) gave it just a tiny amount of crunch.

The samba crab roll had a bit more going on. It had fried soft shell crab and avocado inside and then salmon and a shallot sauce on top.  There was a lot of texture variation with this one. The crab was crunchy and warm inside with the smooth avocado and then there were a lot of sliced shallots in the sauce on top. This one was more complicated flavors and I enjoyed them. It bordered on being a little big as far as individual pieces go, so I can’t say I preferred one strongly over the other. I would eat either one again.

When we placed our order, we also ordered a lunch special of spicy ramen to split. I have been reading about a bunch of noodle places for an upcoming trip to New York, and was tempted. I think our server forgot about them though, because we had to remind her to bring them after we had pretty much finished the sushi.  The noodles were very tasty and yes, even spicy. And I was excited to find an egg down underneath them after we had eaten some of the noodles. Sadly, by this time (and I have a feeling after the time it spent waiting to be delivered), the egg was cooked pretty hard, but I enjoyed having some protein in the dish. It would be even better if it had been a bit runnier. There were some veggies in there too—mainly onions and carrots. I liked it and it would be a nice lunch dish to get by itself as well, although I was glad to have the variety with the sushi.

It was a very enjoyable lunch—all of the food was done well. I like that Miyagi’s has a fair amount of non-sushi dishes besides the typical teriyaki (which they also have). There are a lot of intriguing things on the menu. The rolls were very fresh and totally worth ordering as well. Sometimes I worry about a place doing so much, but based on the experiences I have had on this visit and in the past, they do it all fairly successfully and generally fairly consistently. I like the modern décor (my one pet peeve though is the chairs don't fit under the table so you're left to sitting far away from the table unless you're on the booth side), and other than the delay with the noodles, our service was very friendly. I am glad I got over my grudge—it’s worth going to.

Miyagi's
3625 E. 96th Street
Indy, 46240
317/846-7077
http://www.indymiyagi.com/

Dig IN - 2013

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending my 4^th consecutive Dig IN at White River State Park.  I luckily had early entry (thanks to Dig IN for giving me free tickets in exchange for being a gastronaut).  One thing I decided after the last couple of years, is getting in that extra hour is key to beat the crowds.

However, even if you came with regular entry tickets this year, I don’t think the crowds were as bad. In fact, I think this was probably the best Dig IN yet for several reasons. This year they actually intentionally sold fewer tickets (like 1000 fewer!) and it made all the difference. There were lines, but not like I have seen in the past. And while a few places ran out of food before the end of the day, I haven’t heard of it being a big issue (as I have in the past). There were a lot of people, but it wasn’t so overwhelming.

A few of my faves

Also, I really think the food was overall the best of any year. There were no dishes that seemed repeated too much and there were very few things that I didn’t enjoy.  This was a particularly hard year for me to pick favorites because so many things were good (and I ate SO much).  A couple of the highlights for me were the pork torchon with pickled vegetables and micro herbs from Craig Baker of the Local, the little berry bruschetta that came alongside the pho from Chef Roberts of Meridian, and the bacon and white cheddar grits from Chef Muro of Valley Kitchen & Bar. That little crisp, thick piece of bacon was amazing.  I also really enjoyed the chanterelle vegetable bisque for Duos food truck. It was a hot day to eat hot soup, but it was worth it. I appreciated cooling off after that with the nearby “My Dad’s” Sweet corn popsicle from Nicey Treats.

The VIP tent had some extra special plates of goodness from Bluebeard, The Libertine, Recess, and Cerulean. Hubby and I particularly enjoyed the duck rillettes bun with pickled watermelon, shallots and aioli from Bluebeard. What a great little flavor combo.  All of the food in that area makes buying a VIP ticket completely worth it though—it was all really good (not to mention the cool, larger portable bathrooms).

VIP

Several of you mentioned your favorites to me on twitter and instagram (and I didn’t get to try all of them, but I did get most of them).  From the word on the street (or the social media) the favorites I picked up on were the pulled pork fritter and watermelon shooter from Chef Russo of the Severin Bar and the meatballs from Chef Davey of Courses Restaurant (at Ivy Tech). Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong! I can’t wait to hear what your favorites were (and hope I didn’t miss too much).

One of the things that I really like about Dig IN is that year after year, they figure out what worked and what didn’t and make improvements. I think they are pretty golden on the set up of the food and drink tents.  Last year, there were shortages of water and this year, I thought that was perfected with big icy barrels of water bottles scattered throughout. I also loved that they were making a real effort to recycle and compost everything (even though it was a little complicated making sure you got everything in the right container, I made a real effort and even had a volunteer thank me for doing it exactly right).  One complaint I heard quite a bit though was that there just weren’t enough of the trashcans. That's easily solved for next year though.

As far as other improvements, the only other thing I saw (and experienced) was problems with the lines for checking in/will call etc.  The lines were not clearly marked and many people (including me) were shuffled into several lines before getting to the place they needed to be.  I think that’s an easy fix though, and even with the confusion, only cost me about 10 minutes.

All in all, I am very impressed to see the way Dig IN has grown and matured, but has maintained a desire to stay at a manageable, personal size. The crowd was big, but yet seemed friendlier at its slightly smaller size—I know I ran into a lot more people that I knew this year. It just seemed more social somehow. I appreciate that Dig IN maintains its famer-based, hyper local food focus and that every person has the opportunity to personally interact with chefs and producers. I think that’s the point of Dig IN and I hope it continues that way.  

The food was better than it has ever been, the weather was great as usual, and I even enjoyed several beers—I particularly liked the Special K Kolsch from the Bier Brewery. Another thing you have to credit Dig IN with—getting me to try more beer. Somehow, the weather always inspires me to drink beer.

I would love to hear from you all to hear about your favorite bites and drinks…was this your first year, or are you a veteran like me? Let’s hear your thoughts! 

Dig IN

A Taste of Indiana

www.digindiana.org 

Meridian-Revisit

Hubby got to choose dinner the other night and wanted to go back to Meridian. The last few meals we have had there have been very good, so we were anxious to see what was new on the menu.

We couldn’t decide what to get, so we started with two appetizers—the steak tartare (we just can’t help ourselves)($13.75) and the smoked salmon crab cake ($14).  I think the steak tartare that Meridian is doing is one of the best in town (and one of the only).  It has lots of salty capers mixed in as well as a garlic mayo, which makes it very creamy. They serve it with a lemon wedge that needs to be squeezed on giving it just the right amount of acid. And I love those crispy chickpeas. I just wish they served a few more of the buttery house crackers with it because hubby and I were fighting over them. Ours was missing the advertised quail egg, but honestly, while I love egg with tartare (and almost anything), it was just as good without it.

The salmon cake was also very good. The cake itself was not overly dense, and not filled up with breadcrumbs. What made the dish for me though were the fried pickled green tomatoes. What a great extra tangy kick to a fried green tomato. The pickling also made it less firm than fried green tomatoes tend to be, and I really liked it. They were great with the salmon cake and the tomato remoulade. A little bit of each ingredient on your fork made for a delicious bite.

Because the appetizers were what looked so good, we decided to split a salad and an entrée as well. We split the Boston bibb salad with buttermilk dressing, blue cheese, bacon and a large cornbread crouton ($8.75)(the picture you see is a half). Ingredient-wise, I liked everything about this salad. My only gripe was that there wasn’t really enough dressing for it. It’s funny, I tend to prefer creamy dressings to be drizzled and not tossed, but often they don’t give you enough. It’s a fine line. I liked the lightness of the crouton though.

For our main dish, we really were undecided, but I loved that in general they have a lot of seafood on the menu. Nearly half the entrées are seafood-based. We ended up settling on the pepper-crusted tuna ($36.00). The tuna was beautiful and perfectly cooked just seared on the edges.  Considering the picture you see is just half an order, it was a very generous amount of fish. I am not sure I could do an entire entrée here. All of the things I saw coming out of the kitchen were quite large. The sides were sort of a play on a Nicoise salad—but this one involved sautéed kale, olives, and sautéed red onions. There was a lemon oregano citronette sauce (an emulsified lemon vinaigrette). I loved the red onions and olives with the fish, and I liked the kale—although I thought its strong flavor was a little overwhelming for the fish. I preferred eating them separately. And I found my quail egg here, although they put it on hubby’s plate. I promptly took it and split it. I mean, fair is fair right?

We had the classic Meridian donuts ($7.75) that have been on the menu awhile. But nothing else was jumping out at us and we just wanted a little something. They are little mini donuts and donut holes that are fresh fried and coated in cinnamon sugar. They serve them with a little cup of malted coffee cream to dip in (it is more like a custard and not like a liquid). Personally, I like dipping them into the cream and then back in for more sugar. They are really good and nice if you don’t want a huge dessert. Plus, easy to share.

I like Meridian. It has become one of our go-to standards for consistently good food.  I like the space and while it is usually busy enough, it isn’t so crowded or noisy that it overwhelms. The service is professional, if not a little stuffy, but our server certainly knew what he was talking about and I appreciate the little things like having your plates split for you in the kitchen. It is certainly a fixture in our rotation.

Meridian

5694 N. Meridian

Indy 46208

317-466-1111

www.meridianonmeridian.com 

Sahm's

Several of you guys have been bugging me for a while to try the fried chicken at Sahm’s. Apparently the one in Fishers offers it daily, but the one near me (at 65^th and Keystone) only offers it every other Sunday. Well, that makes it seem kind of more special right? So we invited some friends and all headed over.

Pretty much all of us decided we wanted fried chicken (except 2 of the 4 kids) so we thought we would get 4 orders for the 6 of us (there are 4 pieces of chicken per order).  They made it all together and brought it all out family style so we could just give the kids the pieces they wanted. I thought that was a nice touch. It was nice to pass the plates and take what you wanted since we were all sharing. (The meal is usually 4 pieces of chicken—a breast, wing, thigh and leg, with the two sides mentioned below and a biscuit for $12.99).

plate-o-breasts and thighs

So the chicken? The chicken was very good. It was really well seasoned and had a super crispy outer crunch. But what impressed me was that the breast I took was actually very tender throughout (although one person at our table commented that their breast wasn’t).  I loved the leg and the couple of bites of a thigh I shared with hubby as well. Probably the dark meat was my favorite, but I was impressed with the white meat as well. The meat was marinated and you could tell care was taken to try and keep the meat as tender as possible, even on the larger pieces (and the thighs were pretty darn big too—almost as big as the breasts. These must have been some curvy chickens.) The kids were digging it too. I don’t think we will have a problem getting them back here and I will certainly be happy to go back for fried chicken night (although my daughter had the cheeseburger and liked it as well). Actually hubby ate the leftover pieces for lunch over the next couple of days and told me he thinks he might have even liked it better cold. In fact, he wants to just order some to put in the fridge for the next day (weirdo). He said it stayed crunchy and because it was so meaty, and was better than any other cold fried chicken he has had.

Even though I missed my classic side of mashed potatoes (I am a creature of habit with fried chicken), I liked that they did something different with the corn stuffing that they served with it. It was pretty moist with pieces of corn in it, and a touch of sweetness. The carrots weren’t as popular for sure. I dunno, I just can’t get excited about cooked carrots, although they were buttery and lightly seasoned. They also served rolls alongside that they called biscuits, but I would call buttery dinner rolls. Much lighter and less dense than a biscuit. They were good though, although I saved most of my room for chicken.

Overall, I give the fried chicken two thumbs up. I really enjoyed it and I have a feeling it may become a regular, well, every other, Sunday kind of thing in our family (well, maybe cold the next day for hubby). He does want to try the fried tenderloin sandwich he spied coming out of the kitchen.

My Sahm’s location is a fairly small dining room and was pretty full. Our server was really helpful and nice and made the suggestion to share and to serve it family style.  They have a very good selection of local beers on the menu (well, it seems like it to me). I guess they do a monthly beer dinner with courses paired to certain beers—that sounds fun too. I am excited to find some new fried chicken that I like and it’s sort of got me in the mood again. So feel free to leave any suggestions for other favorite fried chicken places around town. I am always looking for more!

Sahm’s Place

2411 East 65^th Street (and several other locations)

Indy  46220

317/202-1577

http://www.sahms.com/ 

Best Bet - Revisit

I was picking my son up from baseball camp in Fishers the other day and I knew he would be starving after, so I wanted to find a place nearby that would be fast and kid friendly (and preferably local) for lunch. So Best Bet seemed like a good bet.

I have been before and was interested to see what they offered for lunch. It’s mostly burgers, and a few other sandwiches, but what ended up sounding good to me were the breakfast tacos so that’s what I went with. The menu is pretty straightforward and so is the food. 

They bring you a bread basket of toast and one little cinnamon doughnut type thing per person. You can ask for more toast by flipping over a little sign to let them know you want more.  I enjoyed the doughnut—it was hot and had a lot of cinnamon sugar on it—nice little sweet treat (and available only on weekdays I believe).

My breakfast tacos were good, but I can’ t anything jumped out about them. There were scrambled eggs, cheese and chorizo with salsa and sour cream on the side. The eggs weren’t overcooked, but there wasn’t a lot of seasoning other than exactly the ingredients mentioned. Tortillas with cheese, eggs and chorizo and the chorizo wasn’t overly spicy. Two of the tacos were stuffed really full and one wasn’t. Regardless, this was a pretty darn big meal for me. The breakfast potatoes on the side were a little mushy for my taste, but I am not a big home fries person unless they have really nice crispy edges.

My daughter’s burger was certainly a freshly made patty and she enjoyed it. I would have liked it a little less cooked, but I am sure that is not surprising (they don’t ask). And she had a big owl of cottage cheese on the side. My son had pancakes and bacon. The bacon was pretty tasty and nicely crunchy. The server offered to cut his food for him and then did, which I thought was nice, but maybe a little strange.  They also ask your names when you are first seated—last time I found it more friendly, and this time, it just seemed a little forced, although our server was certainly friendly enough. 

There’s a gambling theme about the place for sure and my kids were intrigued by it, and wanted to come back when they each were handed a poker chip on the way out.

It’s a decent, straightforward, simple breakfast (and lunch) place. The food is certainly not fancy or especially creative, but if you want a locally owned restaurant in that area for some bacon and eggs, it isn’t a bad bet.

Best Bet

14300 Mundy Drive

Noblesville, IN  46060

317/776-1136

Oriental Inn

The other night we had a babysitter midweek (because she was getting ready to move to NYC and wanted to see our kids before she went—boo! We’ll miss her!) so I cajoled hubby into driving a bit and trying Oriental Inn. Several people have recommended it over the years and I was intrigued by the things I read online.

First thing you notice is the completely old school feel of the place. This is what Chinese restaurants were like in the 70s—totally over decorated and dark wood chairs. It was straight out of central casting for Chinese restaurants. But even though you can tell it has been there a long time, and the outside is maybe a bit run down, the dining room has a ton of charm. 

It is also one of those old school menus with everything under the sun on it so it took us awhile to peruse. Our very friendly server brought us a bowl of fried wontons to munch on (a tad stale) and took our drink orders.

We had a hard time deciding what to get, but we wanted to try a couple of courses, so we got hot and sour soup ($2.25) and an order of crab Rangoon ($4.95) to start. Several of the things I had read said their crab Rangoon was good so we figured what the heck.  Eh, I didn’t really care for the soup. It wasn’t particularly hot or sour and actually had a taste that was almost like tomatoes which was weird for hot and sour soup. Our server did come by and ask if we wanted some hot sauce to put in it (and I didn’t even say anything) so maybe they’re aware.  Nice big pieces of tofu though and lots of egg flowers in there. I would try a different soup next time.

The crab Rangoon was really good though. They are fried, but I liked them because they weren’t greasy at all (can’t say the same for the complimentary wontons) and the cream cheese filling was light and tasted of crab, but wasn’t overly fishy. Hubby found them slightly addicting and ate the majority of them.

We decided to split an entrée because they looked pretty big and it was a good choice. We ordered form the “house specialties” list (anything to narrow it down) and got the Szechuan combination ($12.95). The dish as listed had beef, shrimp and scallops, although we substituted chicken for the scallops. It is served in a hot pepper garlic sauce with veggies (green pepper, carrots, onions and celery) and peanuts. My first bite just about choked me because it was so hot. I must have gotten a piece of the very spicy dried chilies that were also mixed in there. Once I paid closer attention, I made sure not to eat large pieces of them and all was good. The meat and shrimp was all very good, and the dish was very meat heavy. All of it was very tender. We were amazed how well they cooked a shrimp since so many places in this town seen to have a problem with it. As I mentioned, it had a good spice to it as well. They also do a nice job with using fresh orange slices in their presentation. We got some fried rice and some steamed rice and even though I tend to prefer steamed rice, I think it would get the fried rice here. It is not heavily seasoned so it doesn’t compete with the meat dish when eaten together. And it had just the right amount of stickiness.

Our server was super nice and was always checking in on us for drink refills. I loved that she also knew exactly what was in each dish we asked about and how it was prepared. Sometimes this is difficult information to get in a Chinese restaurant and with so many things on the menu; it is very helpful to be able to ask questions.  There was also a fair amount of people in there for a Tuesday night. Oh, and I liked that they had “dinner specials” much like typical lunch specials (they have those too) so you can get an entrée, rice, soup and something fried for a reduced price if you want. We ordered a la carte because the choices are more basic on the specials menu.

For a little dessert, they give you a fortune cookie and some fresh fruit--mine had a bit of a weird fortune. But it made me laugh anyway. If this place were closer to me, we would certainly try it more often. I am hoping to get over there for lunch one of these days too.

Side note, on the way home, I took this shot of what was a very popular hot dog cart called Garcia’s. I notice the crowd on our way to the restaurant and on the way home. When I posted a picture on instagram, a bunch of you chimed in about Garcia and his bacon wrapped dogs. I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of it before. But now we are looking forward to trying it as well.

Oriental Inn

1421 North Arlington

Indy  46219

317/352-0398

www.orientalinnrestaurant.com

Ralston's Draft House

Here’s the thing—I have been avoiding Ralston’s because well the menu just looked too sweet for me. If you read me regularly, you know that while I love my sweets for desserts, too much sweetness during the savory part of my meal can really put me off. It’s all about balance. There’s a fair amount of fruit sauces/reduction on the menu for sure. But I was looking for somewhere new to go, and after asking on twitter, I took @kirbysam’s advice and went for it. Last minute we asked some friends to join us, and we were good to go (side note, hubby and I spent several hours before dinner wandering through Midland Antiques which is an awesome place).

Love eating with friends, especially friends who share and like to order a lot, which these friends do, so we started with several appetizers.  We had the cheese stuffed mushrooms ($9), the fried pumpkin ravioli ($6) and the fried Brie stick ($7).  Ok, the first thing we realized is that we had ordered three items that were all the same color and shared similar breading.  Also, there was a lot of sweetness in this course.  The food was good though—my favorite appetizer was probably the stuffed mushrooms. There were 4 mushroom tops, one stuffed with goat cheese, one with gorgonzola, one with cheddar, and one with smoked gouda.  Each one was topped with a paired fruit sauce. I really enjoyed the goat cheese one the most because the balance was great with the sharpness of the cheese and the sweetness of the sauce. They were prepared very well though—nice a crunchy on the outside but not greasy.

The brie was good as well, although it was a large wedge of the cheese and you really wanted more of the breading once you got toward the middle. Maybe slightly smaller wedges?  It was topped with one of the same sauces from the mushrooms, the blackberry Champagne reduction. It was good with the brie, but had I known the dishes would be so similar I would have chosen something else. The last appetizer was the fried pumpkin ravioli.  Ok, this one was soooo sweet none of us could eat too much of it. I think there might have been cinnamon and sugar on it, that’s how sweet it tasted. We all discussed how awesome this would be as a dessert with a scoop of good vanilla ice cream. If you like pumpkin pie, you might want to try this for dessert sometime.

Overall, I thought the main dishes were much more successful (and less sweet). I had the eggs benedict sandwich ($7.50). It was a really good flavor combo of sliced ham, a fried egg, smoked gouda and their housemade honey mustard. It was served on a pretzel bun that was perfect—soft enough to eat without wearing out your jaw. The honey mustard wasn’t overly sweet at all and there was a nice whole grain mustard kick. Most dishes come with your choice of a side and they have lots of different things to choose from, which I appreciate. I had the fried rosemary potatoes at our server’s suggestion (she thought they were slightly breakfasty to go along with my sandwich). I enjoyed them. They had a distinct rosemary flavor and I liked that they were cut fairly small so they stayed crisp.

Our friends had the recession burger ($10) and the black and blue chicken flatbread ($9). The recession burger was also very, very good. The beef is mixed with shredded potatoes, topped with aged cheddar, their own special ketchup and mustard, mixed greens, and bacon. It was served on the same pretzel bun.  This burger was very, very tender (potatoes—who knew?) and I liked that they tell you right on the menu they cook it on a flat top. In my opinion, they’re always better cooked in their own grease. There was a side of onion straws with this one and they were seriously great. I wouldn’t call them straws so much as chips. Like White Castle, only 100 times better. Even though I liked my potatoes, I was sad I didn’t get these on the side of my plate and will not make that mistake again.

The black and blue flatbread was a flatbread topped with grilled chicken, blue cheese and drizzled with a Sriracha-flavored sauce. I was impressed with how crisp the crust was—one of my biggest pet peeves about “flatbreads” is they’re usually soggy. This was not, even with the generous toppings. I would easily try some of the other ones as well. Ok, it wasn’t as good as the eggs benedict and the burger, but still good.

Hubby ordered the “French Egg Roll” ($9), which was my least favorite entrée. It was a sausage topped with goat cheese and wrapped in a crepe that was topped with bacon more of the blackberry Champagne reduction.  This one crossed the line again with sweetness for me and there wasn’t enough of the cheese to balance it. And really, the sausage kind of overpowered it. It was hard to keep it in the crepe. (Ok, insert crude joke here).

We all shared the s’mores brownie ($5.25) with vanilla ice cream and it was outstanding. Even though we were all pretty full, like I said, we like to order a lot. I would get this again in a second. Loved the marshmallows baked into the warm from the oven brownie.

There are a lot of other things I really liked about the place. First, I liked our server (Kathleen) a lot. It made me realize how much a difference it can make when someone cares about her job and does it well. The place was very busy but our service never suffered. We had drinks when we wanted them and there were runners constantly bringing out food. They have a big selection of beers on tap which I know is a big thing in Indy, and I like the way they offer suggestions on the menu of beers to pair with certain food items. The patio is nice (where we sat) and hubby and I enjoyed playing table shuffleboard while we waited for our friends.

I went in with my doubts, but I was pleasantly surprised. What else is good to eat here?

Ralston’s Draft House

635 Massachusetts Ave

Indy  46204

317/493-1143

www.ralstonsdrafthouse.com