Café Audrey

The other day we took the kids on a trail ride at Ft. Ben (my daughter is OBSESSED with horses), and I took the opportunity to find somewhere new and nearby to try for lunch. (By the way, thanks to my twitter friends for recommending both ideas.)  We had a great time on the horses (the trails are quite pretty) and headed over to Café Audrey afterward, which is right on the Fort property.  I had checked out the menu beforehand, and noticed they offer Broaster® chicken, which is a type of fried chicken cooked in a pressure fryer.  Of course, if there was going to be fried chicken, I was going to have to try it.

The interior of the place is cute—it is one of the old brick fort buildings and is full of mismatched tables and generally friendly servers.  It wasn’t totally full, but was doing a decent business.  As soon as we ordered our drinks, I ordered the 2 piece chicken meal ($7.29) because it takes like 20 minutes to cook.  After the kids and hubby pondered the menu, they settled on chicken fingers ($5.99), a chicken quesadilla ($6.99), and the pork tenderloin sandwich ($7.49).

So the fried chicken was only ok unfortunately.  They served a breast and a leg—the leg was pretty tender and juicy, but there was really little flavor to the crispy outside.  I will say, I don’t think I have ever had hotter (temperature-wise) fried chicken in my life.  The steam that poured out of it was intense.  The breast was dry (sigh).  They served it with these battered potato wedges that were somewhat interesting—but pretty sure they probably aren’t making these themselves.  They were okay, but nothing that makes me want more.  There was also a biscuit that sadly was also a little dry. I had to ask for some butter for that puppy.

Hubby’s pork tenderloin was made in house, and I like the whole using crushed cornflake crust (there were some whole cornflakes in there too). I have had a tenderloin with this kind of crust before at Big Daddy’s downtown and I use it myself on catfish fingers I make for the kids a lot. While I really like the crunch appeal of the cornflakes as well as the slight sweetness, it couldn’t make up for the overcooked dry tenderloin inside.  It was one of those that was pounded a bit too thin and cooked a bit too long.  We had to ask for extra mayo. The sandwich was served with homemade chips which were pretty good.  I have noticed that homemade potato chips are a big trend these days—too bad more places won’t do homemade fries…but I digress.  The chips were on the thick side, but were still nice and crunchy.

Sadly, my son’s chicken fingers were more tender than the breast on my fried chicken, and were more seasoned as well.  I say sadly because they were foodservice chicken strips and not housemade. My daughter had a chicken quesadilla and a side of black beans.  I didn’t try it, but it was a nice presentation with lettuce and tomatoes on top.

All in all, it is a cute place that as hubby says, “is trying hard.”  I am sure this neighborhood could really use a good independent restaurant serving fresh made food.  I don’t know, I would be interested to try breakfast—it seems like a place that might be able to pull it off.  Honestly though the day we went was the first time I had ever heard of this place. Have any of you guys been there?  Have you tried breakfast?  Of course I would love to hear about it.

Café Audrey

9134 Otis Avenue

Indy 46216

317/546-6000

www.cafeaudreyatthefort.com