Indianapolis Restaurant Scene: Zoobilation 2011

It has been a couple of years since we’ve been to Zoobilation, but we were able to get there this year—it’s always fun to people watch at this event, particularly later in the evening. I also ate a ton of different things, but here were some of the highlights that stuck out in my mind:

Tilapia ceviche from Adobo. Maybe because it was so hot, but the cold dishes were hitting the spot. This ceviche was light and limey with a hint of heat from jalapeno, and had a perfect slice of avocado on the plate.

Shrimp, octopus and tuna ceviche with avocado, cucumber, cilantro, tomato, soy and yuzu from H20. It was served on a tortilla chip and the flavor was great. I also like that it was easy to eat—not so big that you made a mess, and it was easy to walk and eat it. Handling your drink and a plate with a fork got to be a little challenging sometimes—especially when you are trying to take pictures of it on top of everything else. And I noticed it is on the menu tonight at H20, so you can go check it out yourself if you want.

Lobster voodoo from Ruth’s Chris. These were two small pieces of deep fried lobster tail that were coated in a spicy voodoo sauce. They had quite an impressive set up with deep fryers behind the booth. This was one hubby went back to for 3 helpings throughout the night.

Baked snow crab rolls from Sensu. These were nice bite sized items as well—just one piece of a sushi roll with snow crab and Dynamite sauce (chili, garlic and mayo) and crunchy bits of tempura. It was rolled with rice paper. This was a really nice bite as well—and I was excited to get to try this because we had just been to Sensu and almost ordered this on their menu and hadn’t. (P.S. Look for my full review of Sensu on Monday).

Dessert-wise I had several things I really liked. The sticky toffee pudding from R Bistro was outstanding—sort of like a dense spice cake topped with a caramel sauce. (This won one of the best of the best awards. I also really enjoyed the dark chocolate tartlets which were filled with caramel and sprinkled with sea salt from Circle City Sweets and the chocolate cake shooters with buttercream frosting and a bit of raspberry from Cakes by Cathy—that may have been the moistest cake I have ever eaten.

Circle City Sweets

I was happy to see a lot fewer sliders than 2 years ago when we went. There was a really good variety of different types of things served in different styles. I didn’t eat every single thing there, but I got a pretty healthy sampling of most of the things. It was also fun to see a lot of our City’s great chefs all together in one place.

If you went, tell me what you liked or didn’t and your overall impressions of the night. It looked like a lot of people were having a lot of fun, even if they were all pretty sweaty!