Adobo Grill -Revisit

Hubby and I are such good parents, that we took our kids to see Taylor Swift recently when she was here in Indy. We both love music and wanted the kids to have concert experiences with bands they like, so Taylor Swift it was. Stupidly, we thought, “oh we’ll just run into Scotty’s and grab something to eat beforehand.” Like the other 10,000 parents of tweens apparently. So we ran across the street to Adobo and grabbed one of their last tables. Also with a roomful of parents and kids. There was a lot of glitter people. Everywhere.

However, I saw this as a golden opportunity to update my posts on Adobo. I just looked. I haven’t written about this place since 2009. Wowza. 6 years. Also, I just looked and I said I might never go back in that post, so I guess they have Taylor Swift to thank for getting me back there.

We started with the tableside guacamole ($8.99), because my entire family loves guacamole. My daughter strangely claims to not like avocado, but loves guacamole. Makes perfect sense right? Well, she’s 12, so yeah. Anyhow, they bring over the guacamole cart and mix it to order in front of you—if you like it spicier, they add more jalapeno, etc. Their guacamole is excellent. And I am choosy about it. They use all the same things I do and enough fresh lime to give it an excellent fresh kick. The guacamole alone may be enough to get me back in there for drinks and chips. Speaking of, their chips are pretty good too. Nothing super amazing but not the crappy thick chips that taste like they just came out of a cheap bag.

I ordered the tuna ceviche ($11.99). This was a mistake. I keep being hopeful of getting really yummy ceviche here and other places, and I keep on being disappointed. These were little dices of ahi tuna that I think were nice quality, but honestly they were cut so small they were a bit overwhelmed by the other stuff in there—there were peppers mixed in with the tuna and there was a nice amount of diced avocado on the bottom. And pickled onions on top. At first glance, you’d think it would be my perfect dish—lots of things I love all stacked up on top of each other. But there was also this sauce on it, they called it chipotle ginger sauce—but it was super sweet. I love ginger and am also a fan of chipotle, by thus must have been a simple syrup made of these things or something. Even with some squeezes of lime wedges I asked for, it couldn’t shake the almost syrupy sweetness.

My daughter ordered an appetizer, the Tlayuda ($10.99), which is basically a fancy Mexican pizza. And it was delicious. It was a crisp whole-wheat tortilla topped with black beans, chicken, red onion, cheese, sour cream and pico de gallo.(It is also normally supposed to come with spinach and avocado but she asked for it without.) Regardless, it was really good as it was—the chicken and black beans both nicely seasoned and it was topped with just the right amount of gooeyness. I would have enjoyed the spinach and avocado, but we just added a little guac. It stuck with me enough that I made a version of it at home for dinner the next week. Not overly difficult, but really good. It was big enough too that we all pretty much ended up eating off of it. Honestly some guac and this would be the meal I would want at Adobo.

Hubby had one of their casseroles, or “las cazuelas.” He chose the Cazuela de carnitas ($9.99). It’s an earthenware casserole dish filled with carnitas (pork shoulder here), black beans, salsa and cheese. The flavor was good, but the dish was sort of on the runny side, making it difficult to roll into the warm tortillas they served with it. Instead, hubby went with chips. It came across as more of a dip rather than a casserole based on its consistency. Not a bad taste, but nothing earth shattering here. I think hubby preferred the tlayuda as well. Actually all of us enjoyed that the most.

My son, who was a little cranky and not in the mood for Mexican that night, ordered chicken fingers off the kid’s menu. Normally I would barely mention this, but they were actually quite good for kid’s fried chicken strips—they appeared that they actually might be making them in house. Not the usual exact same ones you can get anywhere from Steak n Shake to Ruth’s Chris.

All in all it worked out and we had a good meal and I got a new post to write. And I found a couple of things I enjoyed. And I learned to stop ordering their ceviche. Taylor Swift put on a good show and the kids were thrilled.

Ceviche though…where to get it Indy?

Adobo Grill

110 East Washington Street

Indy 

317/822-9990

www.adobogrill.com 

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!

Zoobilation 2011 (next year’s date is June 8^th)

Indianapolis Zoo

1200 West Washington Street

Indy, 46222

317/630-2001

http://www.indianapoliszoo.com/

Adobo Grill - Revisit

Ok, ever since I wrote my last review of Adobo, I have wanted to go back simply because there was so much dispute over that post. I have to say, I haven’t been rushing back based on my last food experience though. But people told me I ordered the wrong things (which I still don’t think should be possible—if it is on the menu, it should be good) or that the classic stuff wasn’t any good (which I didn’t order the first time by the way) or whatever. But on the whole, it seemed like people really are defensive about it, so I figured at some point, I needed to go back.

Well, I chose devour downtown as that time for a couple of reasons. I figured they would put some of their specialties on the menu, and I figured I could try several things this way as well. I also liked that according to the online menu, you get 4 courses, because they include the guacamole as well as your choice of appetizer, and you get a margarita (well, you are supposed to—they charged me for mine until I reminded them it was supposed to be part of the deal).

The first thing I noticed how enthusiastic our server was. Maybe a little too enthusiastic for my taste, but maybe I’m just jaded. But when someone says “I’ll be back to see how great everything is!,” I find it annoying. Hubby and I joked all night, is it “crappy great,” “medium great” or “actually great?” While I also think the interior of the restaurant is pretty nice and feels modern, both times I have gone, I have been seated a little table right by the bar—and if you have a bunch of 4 tops available (or even better 2-tops), don’t seat people at those teeny tiny 2-tops right next to the bus station. The overall experience was not my idea of a nice night out.

I also started off slightly annoyed food-wise when I found out they technically aren’t including the guac as part of devour downtown unless 2 people order the menu. Hubby was going to order off the regular menu, so our server acted as though they wouldn’t include it. I went ahead and ordered it anyway, fearing that based on my last experience, that it might be the only good thing on the table. I wasn’t willing to take that chance. It turned out, what they ended up doing was charging us half price for it (I found out when I got the bill) which was fine, but if you are going to put it on the devour menu, you should be prepared to deliver it. Or make a half order. As usual, the guac was great—they do a really good job with that.

Based on comments from my last post, I also ordered my margarita on the rocks instead of “up” because I like mine to last a bit longer. However, it seemed like they just added more lime juice, making for a really tart drink. Which wouldn’t have been as bad, had it not been for the fact that for my next course I ordered the ceviche of the day. The ceviche was pretty good, a classic preparation with tilapia marinated in lime, avocado, tomato and onion (slightly different from how it was listed on the menu I think). Well, when I say “avocado” I think there was one piece of avocado in the whole dish. But luckily I still had my chunky guac and I just ate some of that with it. However, my very tart margarita was not really adding much to my lime-marinated fish. It was serious lime overload. At that point, I switched to wine.

As for my main, I could have ordered any of them. They all sounded good. I let the server guide me since apparently, I ordered all wrong last time, and he directed me to the pollo al Tamarindo. It was described as a grilled half chicken in a tamarind-chipotle glaze with salsa, tomatillo guacamole and charro beans. Now, this was one of the items that had been added specially for the devour menu, and was not one of their regular dishes. Probably a good thing, because it wasn’t very good. The chicken was really dry (see, this is why I don't usually order chicken out) and the sauce just too sticky sweet. I love tamarind, because it isn’t usually just pure sweet, but this dish just did not come together even with all the other sides. And I have to say, looking around at some other tables, and the amount of this dish that remained on plates in my vicinity, I wasn’t the only one who thought so.

Hubby, based on reader recommendations, ordered the fish tacos and they were infinitely better than my chicken. I liked the tenderness and crunch of the fish combined with all the flavors of the pickled cabbage and chipotle cream sauce. These were a far better choice and hubby really liked them as well.

For dessert I ordered the chocolate tamal, which is a gooey kind of chocolate cake that seemed to made with corn meal (hence the tamal aspect)—which made for an interesting, slightly gritty, texture. I couldn’t decide if I loved it, or it sort of freaked me out. The flavor of the chocolate was really good anyway, and it was served with vanilla ice cream.

So all in all, my experience was slightly better than the last, but I don’t know if there will be a third review here. And I still think the guacamole is the best thing going at this place. But c’mon, Adobo lovers, I know you have something to say, so let’s hear it!

Adobo Grill
110 East Washington Street
Indy, 46204
317-822-9990
http://www.adobogrill.com/

Adobo Grill

Ok, I went to Adobo shortly after moving to Indy when it was still on 82nd street and wasn’t overly impressed. But since it has moved, and because several readers have recently recommended it, I decided to give it another chance and write it up this time. Plus, hubby had never been.

This is what I want to know from everyone who likes this place (seriously, please write a comment and let me know)—what is it that you are ordering? Because everything I had except the guacamole and margaritas (and more on those later) was not very good.

Hubby and I wanted to try as much as possible, so we went the tapas route and ordered 4 appetizers to share, as well as the guac. Now the guac maker came out and mixed up a great bowl of the dip and the margaritas are tasty. But here is my pet peeve about the margaritas at this place. They serve them “up” in a martini glass which I guess is a way to make a margarita seem more sophisticated. They taste good, but when I eat Mexican, I want to drink margaritas with the entire meal. You can finish these in a few drinks and then, if you kept ordering more throughout the whole meal, you’d be wasted by the end of it. So I had one, enjoyed it, and then switched to wine. Do they serve them just low brow style with ice and all? I didn’t ask, but they weren’t on the menu (although they have LOTS of different kinds of tequila).

Ok, so we ordered the Taquitos Yucatecos, the Empanadas Nortenas, the Torta Ahogoda “Sliders” and the Shrimp Ceviche. The Taquitos came out first, and were very underwhelming. They were described as Achiote marinated chicken with black beans, tomato salsa, pickled onions, and sour cream. I don’t know what to say other than there wasn’t much of any distinct flavor there. The inside was quite dry and the only thing I liked was the pickled onions. They were the only thing on the plate that had any real flavor.

Next came the shrimp ceviche—it wasn’t bad, and the further down into the marinade you got (it was served in an ice cream sundae type dish), they better and more flavorful it became. There were some hunks of avocado and tomato mixed in. It was probably the best thing we had next to the guacamole. I am pretty sure the shrimp was actually cooked before being “cooked” in the marinade (which is what the menu seemed to say) but the waitress said it was just cooked in the marinade. Seemed a little more cooked than that though.

The last two things were brought out at the same time our friends’ (who were visiting from out of town) entrees were served. Well sort of. We got our last two plates and one of our friends got his entrée. Our other friend didn’t get her entrée for several more minutes which was a little annoying. Speaking of service, while our service was generally pretty friendly, you should have seen the death look/eye roll I got from the hostess when I asked to be sat at a table that wasn’t right on top of another party in a restaurant that was still not even half full.

But back to the food, the empanadas were described as “corn masa turnovers stuffed with beef picadillo, corn and Chihuahua cheese in a creamy tomatilla salsa.” Ok, the crust was tasty but even though the ingredients were totally different from the taquitos, why did they seem so similar? I guess the blandness seemed to meld together..and “creamy” tomatillo salsa? It was tomatillo salsa…not sure what the creamy part was. The salsa was pretty good though—hubby enjoyed it particularly.

Finally, and probably my least favorite were the torta ahogoda “sliders.” They were described as “mini pork carnitas sandwiches with refried beans and avocado drowned in chile de arbol salsa.” What they tasted like was a mini barbequed pork sandwich with way too much sauce. There were a couple little slivers of avocado on each on that you couldn’t even taste for the sweet sauce. I don’t know, I really really disliked these.

We did have the chocolate masa cake for dessert with vanilla ice cream. It was pretty tasty—very chocolatey.

All in all though, I have heard people say the only thing good at Adobo is the guacamole and margaritas (actually, I said that after the first time I went) and I think it might be true. But hey, maybe I am just really ordering wrong. People? Give me some help on this one.

Adobo Grill
110 East Washington Street
Indy, 46204
317-822-9990
www.adobogrill.com