Oh Yumm - Lunch

I have written up Oh Yumm before for dinner—I have had mixed experiences there and have heard mixed reviews from other people. Although usually the food (tapas are the only thing I tend to order for dinner) is pretty good bistro faire, I have had some pretty bad service experiences before. I like the atmosphere of the place, an intimate casual bistro right on Illinois, but after the last experience I had, I haven’t rushed back. Recently I was in the area with a friend trying to figure out what to do for lunch and I thought this would be a good opportunity to give it another chance.

I do like their lunch menu—they offer their tapas, several salads and several sandwiches as well as random other things. One of the sandwiches that sounded really good was their version of a BLT made with fried green tomatoes. Because I had just made BLTs for dinner the night before, I didn’t get it, but my friend did. You get your choice of side with the sandwiches and she chose their pomme frites.
I had some of her sandwich though and it was really tasty. Served on grilled multi-grain bread with several cornmeal crusted fried green tomatoes, rosemary bacon, Bibb lettuce and pesto aioli. It was really good and a nice variation on the classic BLT that is different from any other place around here. We shared the frites and it was they were nice as well. Not the best pomme frites around, but still really tasty. I liked whatever the “house seasoning” was which gave them a little extra than just the classic salt and parsley that is common. Dipped in gorgonzola dressing, how could you not like them?

I know, it is sorta sad that I mentioned my friend’s meal before mine, but I ordered the quiche and ended up with the same experience I usually have when I order quiche. It was fine, but nothing great. I like quiche, but it has been rare that I find one that blows me away. But every so often one sounds good-- and this one had asparagus, potato and bacon-- so I get it. But it was just ok. There really wasn’t a lot of any of those ingredients in the quiche, so really, you just tasted mostly the eggy part with an occasional bite with a little bit of one of the highlighted ingredients. I had a choice of soup or spinach salad to go with it, and both sounded good (the soup of the day was corn chowder), but since we were sitting outside on a hot day, I opted for the spinach salad with gorgonzola, candied walnuts, bacon and strawberries and served with a shagbark vinaigrette. It was pretty good too. I liked having the vinaigrette on the salad to balance out the rich eggy-ness of the quiche. Is there anywhere doing amazing quiche in Indy?

There were several items on the menu that are quite tempting to me for lunch, and different from all the typical lunch items. I really want to try the French potato salad and the roasted chicken wrap. And I really want one of those fried green tomato BLTs of my own.

Anyhow, happily, our hostess and server were both extremely pleasant and efficient which was my biggest problem last time. This, combined with the fact that the menu is interesting (and changes seasonally), and some of the food was quite good, leads me to believe I will give Oh Yumm another chance even if it will likely be for lunch again.

Oh Yumm! Bistro
5615 N. Illinois
Indy, 46208
317/251-5656
www.ohyummbistro.com