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/