B's Po Boy -- Revisit

In the tradition of always reminding you about my favorite places, I am reposting about B’s Po Boy. This is a favorite for me and hubby, and the kids like it as well. I know I have mentioned it before, but hubby went to school in New Orleans, and is particular about his po boys. He loves the po boys at B’s and finds them very authentic.

We pretty well have our order down to a science, except every once in a while when hubby gets the fried oyster po boy or I get a soft shell crab po boy when they are running them as a special. But on a usual summer evening, our favorite time to go, we sit outside and have fried shrimp po boys. Hubby gets a whole one plus extra shrimp ($12 + $9 for extra shrimp)(hold the pickles), and I get a half one with extra shrimp ($8.50 + $5 for extra shrimp) fully dressed (mayo, lettuce, tomato and pickles). They ship the bread in from New Orleans and it tastes like just the right kind that you want for a po boy, soft, but with a bit of firmness on the outside. When you get extra shrimp, they are literally just falling out of the sandwich all over the place, which is a good way to be. My daughter tried a half of the blackened catfish po boy this time ($9, even though both kids usually tend to get the fried shrimp po boys too.

catfish

The shrimp is small and has s nice seasoned crispy coating. It sometimes falls off a bit—it’s a messy sandwich for sure, but oh so tasty. They don’t cook them to death—they’re nice and tender. I also like to get a side of their remoulade ($.75) to drizzle on my sandwich. Hubby just shakes some hot sauce on his, which he claims is what you’re “supposed” to do. The catfish was nice and tender, but a little too spicy for my daughter—I thought it was nice but it certainly had a spicy kick with the blackening seasoning.

My daughter’s favorite things at B’s are the beignets ($5.50) though, and they are tasty. We always get the chocolate dipping sauce, and it’s nice and rich and warm. They beignets and pretty airy inside, but the dough is somewhat dense as well. Like large, slightly denser doughnuts. On this trip my son realized they also have root beer floats ($5) on the menu, and was thrilled to get this as well. They gave him two nice scoops of ice cream and a bottle of Abita root beer. He was thrilled with it.

We sat outside—the kids played bocce right next to where we were sitting, and we all enjoyed a lovely evening. I like that they have added extensive sails over the top of the seating area to limit as many people as possible from having to sit in the sun. It’s one of our favorites for an easy, casual, dependable meal. And it’s perfect for outdoor dining on a nice night.

B’s Po Boy

1261 South Shelby Street

Indy  46203

317/916-5555

www.bpoboy.com 

Road Trip: Main Street Diner--Richmond, IN

My kids stayed at their Grandparents for a few days this summer, and I met them halfway between our houses, in Richmond, to pick them up. Of course, my first thought was, we should meet at lunchtime. And my second thought was, where to go in Richmond? I actually wanted to try this restaurant I read about ages ago, but apparently it had gone out of business. I ended up just picking the Main Street Diner because it looked kind of cute, and looked like it had a menu that would please everyone. It’s an old school diner place. There are booths and a counter and that’s it. It was a little tight fitting the 5 of us into one booth, but they did bring us an extra chair. The guy working the front was really nice and enthusiastic—I think they are recently under new ownership.

It’s a pretty straightforward menu—burgers and sandwiches pretty much, although you can also order breakfast any time.  I ordered the hand-breaded tenderloin ($7.50) with a side of hash browns (love that you can order breakfast sides as well as the regular ones). My son ordered biscuits and gravy ($3.25) and my daughter had a chicken sandwich ($7.50).

The food was pretty solid diner food—nothing blowing your mind, but care was taken with all of it. My tenderloin was hand-breaded and large, and tasted like the breading was made with corn flakes, which I always enjoy—giving it a little more flavor than many. It was super thin though, and tended to be a little on the dry side. My kids cut all the extra large edges that hung over my bun and ate them like nuggets. They gave you all the right fixins’ on the side, and I stacked up my red onions, pickles, lettuce and mayo. The hash browns tasted like they were seasoned a bit, which I appreciated. The portion was huge and the outside was pretty crisp (key for me). They were maybe a little more blackened than I prefer (I love a golden brown hash brown) but not too bad.

My daughter’s chicken sandwich was pretty basic—mainly because that’s how she tends to order them—just straight up chicken with cheese pretty much. My son really liked his biscuits and gravy—again, these were standard but still tasted good—there were nice chunky bits of sausage mixed in. The biscuits were pretty soft, but absorbed the gravy nicely. He only ordered a half order, which was one biscuit, and ended up ordering a second biscuit to finish up all the gravy.

Again, the guy waiting on us (and pretty much the only front of the house person) was very friendly and helpful. There were a few tables in there, but it was by no means full. It’s the kind of place that I bet makes a great solid egg breakfast as well.

Since we were there, and I had noticed it on my way down Main Street, the kids and I hit Olympian Candies on the way out of town. It’s one of those old-fashioned candy stores that for some reason Indy doesn’t seem to have (not that we don’t have great chocolate, but none of these shops that have been around for 50 years). They hand dip all their chocolates and they were delicious. My kids loved the marshmallows and the salted caramels, but I was partial to the dark chocolate covered raisin clusters. Super nice people, super yummy chocolate.

Main Street Diner

1600 East Main Street

Richmond, IN 

765/935-3663

https://www.facebook.com/billsmainstreetdiner

Oympian Candies

625 East Main Street

Richmond, IN 47374

765/962-4989

www.olympiancandies.com 

Delicia- Brunch

Hubby and I had a chance to go to a weekend brunch on our own the other day and decided to give Delicia a try—we weren’t sure whether the kids would be huge fans, so this was a good opportunity. A lot of you have recommended it to me when I am complaining about the lack of brunch places in Indy as well. 

First of all, on a Sunday, it wasn’t too busy, which was nice because you didn’t really need a reservation (although they do take them, which I appreciate) and they have a full bar so if you’re one who wants a Bloody Mary or some such thing, you can get it here. All of the menu sounds really good, and it was hard to choose—lots of eggs, which you know makes me happy. Less of the sweet-type options, if that is what you tend to go for though.

We decided to start with a little brunch cocktail—I was interested in trying something different, because although I love margaritas, I have actually never loved the margaritas at Delicia. I spied a drink called the Caipirinha ($9)—made with cachaca, which is like a rum that is distilled from cane sugar, muddled limes and sugar. It was very good. It was tart, but the alcohol balanced it nicely. I would easily get one of these in the future here instead of a margarita. Hubby had a lovely mimosa ($7) served in a wide, old-fashioned champagne glass. Both drinks were quite nice.

We negotiated over the menu a bit, and settled on chilaquiles rojos ($9) and the huevos benedictos ($11).  You guys, these were both really delicious. It has been awhile since I’ve been to Delicia for dinner, and honestly I have had ups and downs food-wise, but brunch was great. I was impressed.

The chilaquiles were interesting—there were lots of tortillas that were mixed in, but they weren’t particularly crunchy. This surprised me, but ultimately didn’t bother me. They still had a dense texture that gave the dish a nice variation and that corn flavor. The tortillas were topped with a mild chile sauce, mole sauce, Chihuahua cheese and queso fresco. Oh, and of course two fried eggs that had nice runny yolks. This dish was wonderful—it had such wonderfully savory flavors and the chile sauce rounded it out nicely. You could add chicken or chorizo for an additional cost, and I was going to, but forgot. I was glad I forgot though because I think it was just perfect as is.

The huevos benedictos were also really delicious. It was the Delicia version of eggs benedict, but they made this one with English muffins sliced very thin, which were topped with beautifully poached eggs, a chipotle hollandaise sauce and slices of crisp Serrano ham on top. This was very well done. First of all, I loved the crisp ham—this is something I do with Prosciutto frequently—stick it in the oven and let it get crisp. It intensifies the flavor and gives you a nice crunchy bite. The eggs were cooked just right—nice and runny inside and I liked the little extra smoke and heat that came from the sauce. I appreciated that the muffins weren’t too bready either. If you want to go with something more familiar, which is ratcheted up a notch, this is a good choice. It also came with a side of breakfast potatoes, which I didn’t try because--did you see how many tortillas were on the other plate? Plus, I rarely meet home fries that I really like.

All in all, this is a place that is definitely going into the brunch rotation for sure. They even have a small children’s menu for brunch that I

think might woo my kids.

Delicia

5215 N. College Ave

Indy  46220

317/925-0677

www.deliciaindy.com 

Road Trip-- Krueger's Tavern, Cincinnati, OH

Recently we went to Cincinnati with some friends to see a Reds game. Ok, the men wanted to see the game—I was looking forward to trying a new restaurant beforehand, and am easily convinced to do whatever if I know this is in the cards (incidentally though, if I am going to watch a sport live, it’s going to be baseball).

One of the friends is picky picky about food (I’m talking about you Pat) so we agreed to find a fried chicken place. I asked around and was told to try The Eagle. And I know one of these is planning to open up in Indy in the future, so I thought it sounded like a good idea. Sadly, we were told when we got there that there was at least an hour and a half wait for a table, so we had to go elsewhere (even though they called like 40 minutes later to say we could have a table, but by then we had already gone somewhere else. Too bad, because if they had told us 40 minutes to start, we might have waited.) Anyway, after walking by packed restaurant after packed restaurant on Vine Street, we scored one of the last available tables at Krueger’s Tavern, which as it turns out, is owned by the same group that owns the Eagle and Bakersfield. The men chose this place and it is a very manly menu consisting of mainly burgers and sausage platters. I was a teeny bit grumbly at this point (the women were pushing for Taste of Belgium), but settled down when I saw the hot Gruyere dip ($6) on the menu. We ordered that as well as the hot beer cheese ($6).

Both of the dips were good—my favorite was the Gruyere dip though. It had the cheese as well as bits of bacon, caramelized onions and scallions and was served with really nicely crunchy slices of baguette that were brushed with olive oil. The bread was done perfectly. And the salty nutty cheese was complemented perfectly with the bacon and green onions. It was intensely rich, but delicious. The beer cheese was also good, but they just served this with hunks of rye and white bread that were soft, which wasn’t as exciting (although made sense with the runnier beer cheese). The consistency was much thinner on this one. It tasted good, but just didn’t have the same depth.

I split the Krueger’s burger ($9) with one of my friends, as well as a side of the frites ($4). They grind their own beef in-house and I have to say, even though the two patties were cooked pretty well through (they didn’t ask), the beef was very good quality and very moist. The patties were topped with American cheese, shredded lettuce, onion, special sauce and pickles. The whole lot was served on a Challah bun. It was a tasty burger—apparently was named one of the top 5 burgers in Cincinnati (#4 to be precise I think) and I could see that. If it  were in Indy, I could see it being the 4^th or 5^th best burger. It was good. A little pinkness and it could have been outstanding.  The frites were also very good. I liked the malt vinegar aioli that came with it. It was almost like combining my two favorite sauces at Brugge into one, which I think is sort of genius (I always get the aioli and the sherry vinegar with salt at Brugge). Creamy, yet super tangy too. The fries were pretty crisp and dusted generously with salt and pepper.

Hubby had the Cuban sandwich, which I got a couple of bites of—it was very good as well. He loved it. I thought the stuff inside it—the braised pork shoulder, ham, Gruyere, Dijon, black bean puree and homemade pickles were all very well done and in just the right proportions (you gotta be able to taste the pickles!), but I thought the bread was a little too dense for me—it overpowered the stuff inside a bit. Usually it seems like Cubans are a bit more flat. This one was pretty fat. Hubby raved about it though.

This place has a ton of beer choices—tons of random beers in cans especially, and I was happy they had a couple of fairly decent wine choices for a place like this. All in all, I was pleased with the overall quality of this place. I’m pretty sure it would likely do well in Indy too. The place was very busy, but I would say the service was pretty good, and the food exceeded my expectations based on looking at the menu (and no research).

Krueger’s Tavern

1211 Vine Street

Cincinnati, OH 45202

513/834-8670

www.kruegerstavern.com 

Incidentally, since we didn’t get our fried chicken fix in Cincinnati, we stopped at Wagner’s in Oldenburg on the way home for lunch. I have written about this place before but here’s a lovely picture of our fried chicken lunch.

Taste - revisit

The kids requested Taste for lunch the other day and we were happy to go because it had been awhile-- for years Taste was one of my favorite lunch places in Indy, if not THE favorite. I probably went there at least once a week. They were always busy and the food was always very good. Then in the last couple of years, they seemed to have a bit of a falling off with the food and the service and we stopped going as frequently. 

But I decided to go with my long-time classic favorite sandwiches, the BALT (bacon, avocado, lettuce and tomato) ($7.25) and the classic pommes frites ($4.50). It had been ages since I had ordered the BALT, and I was hoping it was as good as it had been in the past. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was back up to being in my favorite sandwich status—the proportions were back to perfect. Lots of bacon, smashed avocado spread, greens, nice slices of tomato and my favorite thing—that they add basil aioli to it, which gives it not just creaminess, but a bit of tanginess too. The bread was also nice and fresh.

The same basil aioli is served with the frites and has long been one of my favorite items as well. The frites on their own are good (cracked pepper, salt and parsley are scattered on top), but are wonderful dipped in the aioli. The kids like the frites so much though that we may have to start getting two orders.

Hubby has always liked the various egg wraps, but had a couple that were so so in the last visits. This time he had a special with salmon, cucumber, capers and greens with the egg, and I would say this was back up to past standards as well. Again, they added a nice touch of dressing to it, which I feel brings all the flavors together—this has always been one of Taste’s strengths. They are very good at figuring out a nice flavored aioli or dressing and using it as glue to hold a dish together.

During the times we did go when things just weren’t quite as good, we also noticed a drop off in the business. It used to be that you always waited in a fairly long line on the weekends to eat—to the point that we used to avoid it on the weekends. I was happy for their sake to see that business was back up—we didn’t have to wait too long in line, but we did have to hunt for a table—the dining room was pretty packed.

All in all, I am happy to see Taste back up to previous expectations food-wise. My only continuing gripe is that the service to actually get your food seems to get slower and slower each time. Our lunch took over an hour from the time we ordered it, so make sure you go with someone you like.

Taste Cafe & Marketplace
5164 N College Ave
Indy 46205
317-925-2233
www.tastecafeandmarketplace.com

Road Trip: Columbus, Ohio--Cap City, Vino Vino and Third and Hollywood

I guess we have been traveling a lot this summer—I have a lot of out of town posts lately (and more to write), but hey, Columbus is place that’s pretty close so it’s relevant right? We were visiting hubby’s family for a wedding and had a chance to eat at several places. 

The first place we had lunch was Cap City Diner. Actually, we have eaten there a fair amount of times.  It’s pretty solid, but I can’t say I have ever had anything that’s really blown me away here. Since the kids were with us, and they had soft pretzels as an appetizer, of course we ended up getting one of these. Honestly, it was one of the best things we had at this meal I think. I’m not sure what the new obsession with soft pretzels is lately on menus, but they’re everywhere. This one was well done—nice and soft and served with both grainy mustard and a nice beer cheese sauce. I do appreciate the move to beer cheese from nacho cheese.

Hubby and I shared a fried chicken dinner ($16). It was not like what I expected at all (the pic is of half the entrée). The chicken was boneless chicken breast, which is not my preference with fried chicken. Unless you’re really careful, it’s just too easy to dry it out. Also, it had some sort of honey sauce on the chicken, which took away the crunch and made the chicken sweet, which just isn’t my thing. The buttermilk mashed potatoes were pretty good, and the green beans weren’t bad, but nothing exciting—they had pecans and peppers cooked with them. My daughter’s Romano-crusted chicken was more interesting because although it was also a boneless chicken breast, the exterior coating had more flavor from the cheese in the crust and less sweetness. Hubby and I enjoyed the blue cheese salad ($7.49) we also shared though—the lettuce is topped with blue cheese, tomatoes, bacon, red onion and rye croutons and tossed with blue cheese dressing. Actually, my mother-in law had the black and blue salmon salad ($14.79) that was this same salad topped with a nicely cooked (not done to death) piece of blackened salmon. This would likely be what I would order in the future. Oh, they also served these cinnamon rolls as the bread on the table--it was an odd choice to have sweets before lunch but I saved mine for after and it was delicious.

We also had a quick light dinner after attending the wedding at Vino Vino, which is a wine bar associated with Figlio Pizza. Hubby and I shared the baby bibb salad ($8) which was a nice salad of very tender bibb lettuce that was topped with boiled egg, bacon and tomatoes—the whole thing was dressed with blue cheese vinaigrette. I liked that the egg was chopped so you could get a little bite of it with each bite of salad. It had a nice texture and a good dressing. We also shared the truffled mushroom pizza ($14), which was really, really good. I have had this pizza carry out before at my in-laws, but having it at the restaurant took it up another notch. The crust is light and crisp—but with an almost buttery flavor. There was Portobello mushrooms, prosciutto and gorgonzola on top—as well as some truffle oil I am guessing. They do a great job of just getting the right amount of each ingredient without overdoing it. The pizzas are not huge either, and splitting one and a salad was a perfect light meal. If I could get this exact pizza in Indy, I would—and frequently.

Finally, we also got to return to Third and Hollywood, which I have written about before. I have really liked it each time I have gone, and this time was no exception. As always, we had the cheddar biscuits ($8), which are these cheesy, buttery, herby biscuits that come out in a little iron skillet. Everyone likes them—I am probably better off not having easy access to them. We also got pimento cheese with chips, which was also very good. I particularly liked the very light and salty tortilla chips they served with the cheese—they were very thin and not crappy chips from a bag. My son loves this place for the grilled artichoke appetizer ($13) and they are very, very good. They are just lightly seasoned themselves, and then grilled, giving them a nice charred, smoky flavor. They serve it with an unusually chunky remoulade that isn’t particularly spicy, but still has a lot going on. Who does nice grilled artichokes in Indy these days?

Hubby and I split the grilled fish sandwich ($18), which we had had before—it’s a really nice, somewhat basic fish sandwich. The white fish is very tender though and seasoned well and then topped with lettuce, tomato and aioli.  The thin crisp fries they serve with the sandwiches are also delicious. My daughter had the tuna dish, which is almost like a fancy tuna Nicoise salad—seared pieces of tuna with a wonderfully dressed pile of green beans, fingerling tomatoes, tomatoes, a soft boiled egg, capers, avocado and a great caper Dijon dressing. Then they guild the lily a bit more and add a dollop of goat cheese. This is a fantastic dish, and one I have ordered before. It’s a nice tangy mix of veggies with a side of beautiful rare tuna.

All in all, it was a quick trip to Columbus, but fairly successful as far as the food goes. Figlios/Vino Vino and Third and Hollywood are regular haunts for us, and based on these meals, will continue to be.

Cap City Diner

1299 Olentangy River Road

Columbus, OH 43212

614/291-3663

www.capcitygrandview.com 

Vino Vino

1371 Grandview Avenue

Columbus, OH 

614/481-8200

www.vinovinocolumbus.com 

Third & Hollywood

1433 West Third Avenue

Grandview Heights, OH 43212

614/488-0303

www.thirdandhollywood.com 

Indy Tacos

My friend @wibia and I had a quick lunch the other day at Indy Tacos. So many people have been talking about this place and it is so close of my house, I needed to try it.

It’s a total bare bones kind of place—very little ambiance at all—mostly just painted white with some letters on the wall spelling out “TACOS.” They take your order at the counter, and the woman who took our order was very pleasant. The menu is pretty small—some tacos, some burritos and a couple of other things. We started with some chips and salsa and queso dip. The best thing of these was the salsa—it tasted pretty fresh and had just a bit of heat. The queso was very ok and wasn’t even particularly warm. It’s hard to know what makes some queso better than others (besides obviously putting interesting things into it like chorizo or meat or maybe some peppers), but I have certainly had more interesting tasting queso at other local places.

I ordered tacos, because, well, it’s a taco place right? Wibia ordered a burrito. I ordered two of the specialty tacos—the mole and the steak poblano ($2.50 each) I also ordered just  regular al pastor (pork) as well ($2.00). My favorite was definitely the straight up al pastor—it was jus the meat topped with onions and cilantro. The meat had a decent flavor that you could really taste. The corn tortillas were nice and soft. I can’t say I was a huge fan of the mole—it had a little bit of a funky taste for me and I am not a big fan of rice in a taco. Honestly, I don’t usually even eat the rice at Mexican restaurants, it’s usually too bland. In a taco, it’s just too much filler for me. The chicken inside seemed tender, but hard to say how much flavor it had on its own, as it was pretty well just a vehicle for the mole sauce.

The steak poblano was a little weird to me—the meat was a bit tough. There were grilled peppers and onion on the bottom, which were nice to add moisture. There was also melted mozzarella cheese and some other peppers on top—they were odd though—almost like they were formerly dried peppers that weren’t quite rehydrated all the way. The overall flavor was kind of like a fajita though—with the grilled peppers and onions.

The burrito ($6.99) was pretty straightforward—again, a fair amount of filler here—a lot of rice and lettuce. It also had more of the queso drizzled on top—I guess it just depends on your preferences whether this is a good or bad thing. It was fine, but that’s about it. A pretty big taco for the price—and you can choose which kind of meat you have. But with all the other stuff in there, it’s hard to even taste the meat that much.

I think all in all, I would in the future stick with the basic tacos—the one I had was clearly my favorite thing. The service was pretty quick and like I said, the woman working the front register was very nice and gave us lots of opinions about her favorite things. And it’s nice to have something new in this area as well. I think the food is fairly average though.

Indy Tacos

2196 East 54^th Street

Indy 46220

317/929-1424

www.indytacos.com 

Canal Bistro --Revisit

As soon as the weather gets nice, the family likes to start returning to Canal Bistro. Hubby doesn’t like the inside chairs, and they have a very lovely patio on the canal in Broad Ripple. They run fans so you never get too overheated. Of course this summer, it has taken til July to get to the point where it wasn’t raining every other day, but that’s another story.

Anyhow, we had a great evening, so we took the kids and headed there for dinner. I love that you can get a small order of hummus if you want, which is what we do. Their hummus is some of their favorite and I like the extra olive oil and chopped tomatoes they put on top to add some freshness. They do a good job with their pita too—they grill it till it’s lightly browned and nice and warm. The kids just like the bread dipped into the seasoned oil they also give you.

Hubby and I always get the spinach pies ($8)—or spanakopita here because they are really, really good. I have talked about them before I’m sure because, seriously, we always get them. It s spinach and cheese wrapped in phyla dough, but here, I am pretty sure instead of just baking them, which will certainly crisp up the dough--they actually deep fry them I think making them extra super crispy and nicely browned. I also love all the little bits that come in the middle of the pies—the hunk of feta, the tomatoes, lightly pickled red onions and the kalamata olives. My son finally tried them this time and I am pretty sure we’re going to be up to two orders next time.

My kids usually order a gyro platter ($15) and hubby picks at it as well. They all really enjoy the meat here—my daughter eats hers with pita, my son just eats the meat and fries. They have a solid gyro for sure.

This time I really wanted to try something new as well so I decided to go with the ceviche ($10). I remember a reader or two recommending it before, and I generally really like ceviche, so I went for it. Unfortunately, this is not the thing to order here. I think it was tilapia, which on its own is not the end of the world, even though it’s not my favorite, but the fish was very mealy and a little too fishy. It really wasn’t very good. And now that I think of it the one time I had mussels here, they didn’t seem overly fresh either. I think it might be best to stick with the standards here and not vary into seafood dishes.

Regardless, it’s still going to be a place we frequent and enjoy. I’m staying with the spinach pies for sure (maybe a whole order just for me) although I would love to hear if you guys have any suggestions for other yummy dishes that might be fun to share and try.

Canal Bistro

6349 Guilford Ave

Indy 46220

317/254-8700

www.canal-bistro.com

Northside Social- Revisit

I have a group of women that I meet once a month for dinner—we generally eat at places with fairly approachable menus because, a certain one of us is picky (no names--you know who you are). We decided to try Northside Social since it was Chow Down Midtown, and who doesn’t love a deal right? This one is actually a decent one—you got two dinners for $50. You pick from a list of appetizers to share as well as a dessert to share and then you pick from a list of entrées, and you choose your own here.

We chose the flatbread with cheese, arugula, sundried tomatoes, and shaved parmesan. It was very large for sure. It’s too bad we ordered two of them at the table because we didn’t even finish half. I like arugula and parm together and I liked the texture from the tomatoes, but I wished for some light dressing or even some lemons to squeeze on top. The menu described it as arugula salad, but I would just call it plain arugula. There was a touch of Brie on the flatbread, but I would have liked a little more, or something to jazz it up. 

For my main dish, I chose the mac and cheese. They had a fish dish, chicken, short ribs and a ravioli dish as well. The mac and cheese was pretty darn good. It was a huge portion too—I don’t think they are downsizing their Chow Down meals. It had a lot of stuff going on—several kinds of cheese as well as bacon, pancetta and crispy prosciutto. It had lots of nice varying texture and a hearty, meaty taste from all that pork. The top was sprinkled liberally with breadcrumbs that were nice and toasty. There were also chopped shallots in there as well, that helped vary the flavor even more. If mac and cheese doesn’t impress me, it’s usually because it’s just so plain that you don’t have any desire to eat more than a couple of bites. This one had so much stuff going that you felt like you were eating something more than just mac and cheese. I didn’t really find the couple slices of grilled bread necessary with this carb bomb, but there you go—I just left them. And I probably ate like a quarter of this dish—it’s really big.

One friend let me try her potato crusted base fish as well and I actually liked this one even more. I just tried a bite of the fish—it is basa, which is a white, fairly thin, flakey fish that is crusted with potato. It had a great crunch to the potato exterior and kept the fish tender and it had a nice lemony sauce giving it a nice hit of acid. I didn’t try the mashed potatoes on the side or the veg though. Honestly, I would order this again. A quick bit of a friend’s ravioli was pretty good too, although while it is called rhubarb roasted beet ravioli, it is actually regular cheese ravioli that is cooked on a sauce containing rhubarb and beets—I liked the tangy sauce with it, but the raviolis themselves were just standard. 

We got one of each of the two desserts offered on the special menu—I mostly ate the bread pudding. It was good—it was large---and pretty bready. A nice flavor, but I would have appreciated a little more of the warm pecan caramel sauce. 

They are certainly not skimping on the portions for their Chow Down menu. I don’t find the menu at Northside Social particularly interesting, but the food we had was pretty solid. And you can certainly please a variety of tastes.

Northside Social

6525 North College Ave 

Indy 46220

317/253-0111

www.northsidesocial.com