City Café- Breakfast

I was celebrating my BFF’s birthday the other day and she chose City Café to go for breakfast. I was excited because while I have eaten lunch here a fair amount, I had yet to eat breakfast (it’s only served until 11:00 at least during the week). It was hard to decide what I wanted. I settled on the migas ($8). This is sort of their version of a chiliquiles and it was delicious. It is three scrambled eggs with Monterey jack cheese mixed into it, as well as their housemade salsa and really fresh tasting, super crispy tortilla strips.

It is pretty simple and straightforward, but really good. The eggs aren’t overcooked and the bit of tomato in the salsa gives the acidic kick. The cheese makes it, well, cheesy and the tortilla strips stay crisp the whole time and add excellent texture. The only thing I would change or add would be to get a side of their lime cilantro sour cream with it (I actually tried, but I think my server forgot about it). It didn’t really matter though, because it was still delicious and I licked the plate clean. I would get this again in a second. In fact, I wish I could get it right now. 

I also got a side of their breakfast potatoes ($1.75)—they are little dices that are fried. More like home fries. They were just ok to me. Like I have said before, I am more of a hash brown kind of girl. I like my potatoes on the crispy side. The eggs also come with a couple of sliced of multigrain toast that was buttered and tasty. 

My BFF got the roast beef hash and it was also quite good—very hearty. More of the diced potatoes but mixed with teeny diced of peppers and onions and then hunks of the roast beef. It had a wintery, almost stew-like taste. She got her eggs scrambled. I would probably opt for a runny egg to add some more moisture, but this was a nice dish as well, even though I wouldn’t choose it over my migas.

The people who work here are always quite friendly and this time was no exception. It’s a cute little place with good quality food. If you haven’t tried it yet, I would recommend it.

City Café

443 North Pennsylvania

Indy 46204

317/833-CAFÉ

http://www.letseat.at/citycafe 

City Café - Revisit

The BFF and I had been trying to plan a trip to City Café for quite some time. She had wanted to give it a try since she read my first review of it awhile back.  And she ordered the tenderloin (as in, beef) sandwich that I had that first time and loved it just as well as I did the first time. That sandwich is really good.  But, because I am a dedicated blogger, I ordered something different this time (hubby would tell you that once we discover something really good, I never let him eat it again because I always have to get something new, but I would say that isn’t exactly true.)

Anyway, I had the BLT wrap ($7.00) mainly because it featured Smoking Goose bacon which I have a thing for.  It also had chopped tomato and romaine lettuce, avocado and chipotle aioli. I am particular about wraps and will only order them in certain places now because they usually suck, but this one was pretty good.  (In theory I like wraps because they aren’t as bready, but usually they aren’t very well seasoned either and on the whole contain too much lettuce).  The main ingredient in this one was the bacon which was a mighty good thing because that bacon is so good—it is Applewood smoked and they cooked it perfectly.  Tomatoes aren’t really that good yet unfortunately and they didn’t have a lot of taste. I liked the aioli, although I decided I wanted a little more on the wrap, which they kindly brought.  Also great for dipping the housemade potato chips. The avocado was perfect and ripe (in my opinion, you can’t really have too much unless it isn’t ripe)

This is a great little lunch spot. I wish it was near me so I could try everything. But I am pretty sure the next time I am going back to that beef tenderloin sandwich. One of the best steak sandwiches ever.

City Café

443 North Pennsylvania Street

Indy 46204

317/833-CAFÉ

http://www.letseat.at/citycafe

City Café

I randomly stopped at City Café when I was downtown the other day.  I remember a couple of people recommending it to me and looking at the menu, it looked very appealing.  I walked in a little after noon on a weekday, and while it is a fairly small place (probably 12-15 tables), all but one were full (and it was being cleared).  The place stayed full the entire time I was there, which always (ok, usually) is a good sign for me.

So they have a homemade soup of the day (well, they call it “yesterday’s soup, because we all know it’s better the next day”) and on the day I was there it was chicken and rice, which is always one of my favorites.  So I ordered “the tenderloin” sandwich and substituted a cup of the soup for my chips.  (Sandwich is $9.50, sub soup +$2.75).  The soup was not what I was expecting, but it was very good.  The server told me it was a little on the spicy side, and I was sort of imagining you classic heat.  But actually, it was spicy, as in had a lot of unique and different spices from what I was expecting.  It had a kind of almost Indian flavor to it—tasted like it had curry as well as turmeric in there as well (and based on the color).  There were some pieces of chicken and lots of soft rice as well as some veggies—I noticed mainly carrot and some mushrooms.  So, it did have a fair amount of spice, although not in the heat way you normally think of “spicy” and the more I ate it, the more I wanted.  I really liked it.

The sandwich was one of the best I have had in awhile, and probably one of the best steak sandwiches I have ever had.  It was grilled roast beef, most of it very rare, with caramelized onions, bacon, and blue cheese on sourdough that was buttered and toasted.   It was a perfect sandwich.  The meat was so tender, it practically melted in your mouth, and there was a fair amount of super soft (actually caramelized) onions with lots of black pepper flavor.  The bacon was good, although was probably a bit unnecessary, but who is going to argue about gilding the lily with a little bacon?  And it was all balanced with just the right amount of blue cheese to cut the over the top rich meatiness.  And it was evenly spread across the bread, giving you a bit of the blue cheese in every bite of the sandwich.  And they even went the extra mile to make sure the bread was great too by taking the time to butter and toast it.  So, I only ate half since I had eaten the soup and was getting full, and also because I am the nicest wife in the world and wanted hubby to try it.  I rushed it home to him for him to try, and he promptly declared it “freakin’ awesome.”  He had already eaten his lunch but said no way would he let this sandwich go to waste and ate every bite.

The other thing that impressed me was that while the menu said each sandwich comes with a dill pickle spear (which it did), they didn’t mention the lovely slice of a beautiful meaty orange tomato.  Usually I completely ignore tomatoes as garnishes on plates because they are usually crappy, but this one looked really good, and tasted really good.  

The service was a touch slow for me, although they were quite busy, so I assume maybe this was the problem. I don’t think it was just me though as I watched several other people wait awhile for service.  However, after eating the food, I think it is worth the wait and I am excited to try other items on the menu (they also do breakfast, which is always a challenge around town).  They state on the menu that they use local ingredients from local farms, which of course is always a good thing as well.  It’s funny.  Obviously people know about this place based on the crowd, but I haven’t heard a lot of people talk about it.  So, have you ever been there?

City Café

443 North Pennsylvania Street

Indy 46204

317/833-CAFÉ

(they’re on facebook)