I have been hearing lots and lots of things about Market District the store—and had not even been there to shop. But then I heard there was a restaurant too, and that’s what got me in the door. The main reason I haven’t been is because it’s not close to us, and even more specifically because, Meridian Street. I have avoided that area like the plague.
I was surprised to see that it’s a nicer, more full service type restaurant than I expected. I was kind of expecting a café-type place, but this place has a wine list, lots of booths and table service. The menu is actually very appealing as well—there’s a whole list of doctored up French fries (they call them “knife and fork fries”) that sound good, some nice salads, sandwiches, and pizzas. I went with the BELT pizza ($12). This was a pizza crust topped with bacon, egg, blistered tomatoes, provolone and fresh arugula. (I am sure you are shocked to hear that I ordered pizza that had eggs on it.) This was a really good pizza. The crust stood up to all those toppings—even with those perfectly delicious runny eggs on top, and was still crisp on the edges. I loved the lightly seasoned fresh arugula on top to give the whole thing that crunchy fresh edge. Even though it’s not really tomato time, by blistering the cherry tomatoes, they had a great softness and sweetness. And did I mention the perfect eggs being yolky all over the whole thing? And yet still not runny whites? It was very well done and I would eat it again. My friend, who may be slightly less a fan of all that egg on a pizza really enjoyed it as well and even took my leftovers home.
He had the “turf and turf” burger ($13), which was quite a large burger topped with house smoked BBQ pork, cheddar cheese, fried onion strings, BBQ sauce and pickled chow chow. The burger patty itself was made with a brisket and chuck blend and was extremely flavorful and tender—and they cooked it pretty nicely too, with a nice pink interior. There was a lot of stuff going on with this burger, and I am not usually a fan of BBQ sauce on a burger, but this was very tasty. Loved the texture from the onions and the acid from the pickled veggies. It was large, but not ridiculously so, and the bun (brioche) was soft and smashed down as you ate it. Much better than the too-firm pretzel buns I am seeing a lot as of late. I hate it when the bun makes it too hard to eat.
Like I said, I like the menu here a lot—there were lots of things I would like to try and based on what I had, I will certainly return. I also like that their “kid’s menu” includes not only some of the regular type choices, but that they will make any of the menu items at a smaller sized to allow kids to order everything on the regular menu. My kids will really dig this, as they aren’t huge fans of many of the typical kid’s menu choices.
The service was extremely attentive and the food was well paced. Like I said, I look forward to trying it again soon—maybe even for dinner with the kids. I just wish the traffic out there wasn’t so crazy. Oh yeah, I also checked out the grocery store. It is massive! I was just sort of browsing to see what they had, but that fish counter was very tempting. It’s nice too that while they have the gourmet stuff, you can still get regular stuff there too like name brand soda and cereals. If it was closer to me, it would certainly go into regular grocery store rotation.
Anyone else eaten at Table yet? Curious to hear what you had/what you thought.
Table by Market District
11505 North Illinois
Carmel, IN 46032
317/689-6330
We haven't been to the restaurant there, but we love doing our grocery shopping there. Like you said they have all of the gourmet and top shelf stuff, but also they have everything a Kroger would have and very competitively priced at that. Their bakery is to die for. Most grocery stores have almost all of their pastry and bakery items brought in frozen, but Market District has actual pastry chefs and they are making everything on site.
ReplyDeleteWe had the chance to attend a preview party with Yelp and have done our grocery shopping several times since. We have not been to Table, yet, but I saw that they have a Sunday brunch, which has piqued my interest.
ReplyDeleteI love that it's a one stop shop for groceries (when we go to Whole Foods, there is almost always something that I need to get elsewhere). I also LOVE that they carry Tyner Pond meat in the butcher shop...and it's a few dollars less per pound than ordering online from TP directly.
I'm a big fan of Table and Market District in general. The "fork & knife" fries were really good when I had them. On Tuesdays, they do a wine and food tasting menu at the bar - it's $8 for 3 samples of wine paired with items that may or may not be on the regular menu. I've done that a few times and it's a great deal.
ReplyDeleteAs far as service in the grocery store: I wanted a couple pounds of sirloin and they didn't have enough in the case - so they asked if I was in a hurry (I wasn't) and offered to grind up enough for my order. They were upfront that it would take a while so I went into Table and had a glass of wine while I waited.
I've been there a couple times & have had great food and service every time. They have a prep station in the store where they will cook things that you buy. Haven't tried that yet but it sounds interesting!
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