One Trick Pony - Fishers Test Kitchen

Well…several of you guys had been mentioning how good One Trick Pony burgers were and I was intrigued. You know I love a good smash burger and I figured Neal Brown could do a good job with that right?

So Friday night, I got online, planned ahead and ordered online for a 6:00 curbside pick-up to be in home in time for a hungry son who would have just been home from tennis. Well, that planning was for not. I mean, I can understand a few minutes delay….but long story (and it seemed really long), they totally lost my order, but never realized it til I sat waiting for another 15 minutes, called again and eventually just had to go in and order everything again—told that my order would be rushed and well, it wasn’t—I stood and watched as they made every order that came in in the order they ordered, even though I had ordered my food at 4:50 to be picked up at 6:00. Anyhow, I finally got my food and was out the door just before 7:00. By this point, I had some hangry people on my hands and I was just hoping the food was good.

Luckily, the food was very good. I thought the burgers were great actually—and I was pretty cranky at that point. They are grinding fresh meat behind the counter (I could see it there as I waited….) and cooking them on a flat top—smashed flat and a little crisp on the edges. I had the “dandy” burger, a single ($5), and it came topped with American cheese, pickles, onions, shredded lettuce, and dandy sauce (also tomato but I went without). The buns are soft and white and just enough to hold up to the meat but not overwhelm the flavors. I love shredded lettuce on a burger, and I liked the dandy sauce, which seemed like a mayo/ketchup blend with some pickle chunks mixed in. Or something along those lines. I had a flashback to the Barking Dog burger, which was always one of my favorite burgers in town before it closed. It had a similar flavor and thickness.

Hubby and my son had the “build your own” burgers (for my son a double with extra cheese -$9.50). My son has always gets a double with extra cheese and nothing else. Hubby got onions and bacon and the dandy sauce. Both were really good as well although I think the dandy sauce makes it. But the beef makes it too, which is obviously important. Speaking of beef though, my daughter had the impossible burger ($6), which is the only non-beef entrée offered. I was impressed with how it looked—the appearance was tasty. She was happy with it, although my son tried it as wasn’t as impressed as he was with the real beef burger, but what can you expect? But if you are vegetarian or not a beef eater, it looked like a solid option.

We got a taste of all the sides—they have crinkle fries ($2.95/$4.95), onion rings ($3.95/$5.95) and cheesy fries ($4.25/$6.25). We had one of each. We heated them all up a couple minutes in the oven when we got home (this is my sure-fire way to re-crisp up fried items—just don’t leave them in too long or they get too hard). I think our favorites were the onion rings. I don’t usually love really fat onion rings, but these were delicious. They were an extra crispy panko-like texture—really good. I also am not a big fan of crinkle fries and these did not change my mind, but the beer cheese on them definitely did. With that cheese sauce, I happily ate my share of fries. I really enjoyed the flavor of the beer making it unique from your typical nacho cheese. So ultimately, I would get both the rings and the cheese fries again. Maybe beer cheese on the side if we get them to go so I can crisp up the fries first and then dip in the cheese. And I look forward to eating that burger again. It’s the kind of burger that makes you keep thinking about it—and everyone at my house really enjoyed it. Oh, and the one positive about my long wait was that I spent the $10 in tokens they gave me for the Test Kitchen on cookies from the booth next door— they’re called Fat Stack cookies coming out of the Korave Korean BBQ booth. One was double chocolate cookies and cream and one was funfetti. They were huge and very tasty—especially after heating them back up a little (like I said, this has become my pandemic area of expertise—reheating carry-out food to make it shine). 

Based on my experience, I would not even try to order the burgers in advance though. I would just go in and order and wait. And some day, who knows? Maybe we’ll even eat inside. 

One Trick Pony 

Fishers Test Kitchen

9713 District North Drive

Fishers, IN 46037

317/953-6400

https://fisherstestkitchen.com/

Four Day Ray Brewing

Recently we went to a concert a Ruoff/Klipsch/Deer Creek and I wanted to try something different. And hubby was traying to maximize the side of the park we came into for parking. I asked around on twitter and we settled on Four Day Ray in Fishers. It’s a brewery and restaurant—the menu looks like an elevated pub menu, and that was intriguing to me.

We met some friends there and started with the loaded fries—they were a big pile of fries with cheese sauce and chopped up bacon and chives. These were a tasty snack, especially right when they came out and were really hot (and they came out fast!). The fries were crisp but quickly became a little soft after sitting under the cheese sauce for a bit. Still tasted good, just needed to be eaten with a fork. Intrigued by the loaded tots though.

We all got some different things for mains and shared bites with everyone. We had some tacos, and a couple of sandwiches. The top picks were probably the burger ($11) and the Nashville Hot Chicken sandwich ($12). The burger is 2 beef patties with two slices of cheese (as it should be), Bomba sauce (which I am thinking was just like a classic burger sauce with some combo of ketchup and mayo as well as some other seasoning) on a brioche bun. This was a tasty burger—not exactly smash burger type patties, but thin-ish and very juicy. It was really good. Hubby chose chips with the burger and they were good too although I am usually a fry person.

The Nashville chicken sandwich was also really good. The chicken breast is brined with cayenne and pepper and then it is fried and topped with spicy hot sauce, shredded romaine lettuce and buttermilk chive dressing. The chicken was very tender and the coating on the chicken, even with the sauce,  stayed crisp. I liked the cool lettuce and dressing to balance out the spicy chicken. Also a really good sandwich. The onion rings were decent too. Battered and maybe a little overdone, but a good flavor. 

The tacos were a bit more mixed for me. I like the random flavor varieties they have, and they were very interesting and unexpected. I liked the poke taco ($5), which had a hard shell filled with marinated tuna, Asian snap slaw, and pickled ginger aioli. The taco had a distinctive flavor that maybe included sesame oil and the ginger aioli on top was really nice with it. This one was my favorite. Next of the ones we tried, I liked the Cubano ($4), which was a vegetarian option that includes fried plantain, black beans, mango salsa and guacamole. It had a slightly sweet taste from the plantain, but still a good savory mix as well. An interesting flavor profile. Not totally sure I would order it again, but it was interesting. The one I was kind of mixed on was the special taco ($5), which was stuffed with smoked chicken thigh, a chipotle sauce (I think) and fried onion straws. It was like BBQ in a tortilla which threw me off a bit. Nothing wrong with any component, bit not my favorite.

Overall though, the sandwiches were the stars. And I bet their tenderloin is good too based on the fried chicken. Oh! And what a cool beer selection. I am not typically a beer drinker, but I really like the refreshing taste of the blood orange blonde. Like beer, but with a little tart kick. It was great on the hot day with the food that had all kinds of different flavors. I also really enjoyed the “Hot Pink” which is a strawberry rhubarb jalapeno blonde. It had a distinct taste of the strawberry rhubarb (which I love) and then just a tiny heat in the back of your throat after you had a sip. Our waiter described it to us perfectly and I would be hard pressed to say which I liked better. Hubby also liked the La Playa Mexican lager—his favorites are almost always the Mexican style lagers wherever he goes. 

Anyhow, I thought this was a really good pub type experience. It’s new though,  therefore packed, so be prepared to wait (although they told us much longer than our wait ended up being). The food is tasty and our service was on point. Let me know what else you have had and enjoyed. 

Four Day Ray Brewing

11671 Lantern Road

Fishers, IN 46038

317/343-0220

www.fourdayray.com 

LouVino

Hubby and I were dropping our daughter off at a friend’s house in Fishers at dinner time and just did a little search to see what was nearby. We ended up settling at LouVino as a kind of last minute choice. It’s a small chain out of Louisville, with a couple of locations outside Kentucky, and according to their website, one coming to Mass Ave soon.

Anyway, it’s meant to be a wine bar—a fairly big selection and most you can get buy the glass. Unfortunately the very first one hubby ordered they were out of. We settled on a couple of choices and looked over the menu. They mainly have shareable small plates, but some of the bigger ones that you can make an entrée out of it you want to. We were torn between the duck fat frites and the stuffed tots. We ended up with the “loaded baked potato tots” ($9). I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, but it was basically like mashed potatoes, cheese, bacon and scallions mixed together in balls and then deep fried. They were served with a side of their homemade ranch. They were pretty good, but a little bland I guess. Neither of us felt like we needed more than 2 and we were done. They just needed a little something more—you couldn’t really taste the cheese and other ingredients that much, mostly just the potato. Not a bad thing, but not as exciting as I hoped. I did like the ranch dressing. It tasted fresh and house made. It had a thinner consistency than those store-bought ones that seem sort of like they are made with chemicals.

Next, we had the fried chicken tacos ($10). Again, not exactly sure what to expect, but it was basically exactly that. Tortillas that were grilled, filled with mashed potatoes and cheese, topped with a piece of boneless fried chicken breast and gravy. An interesting concept, and I guess the tortilla made it a hand-held, but I didn’t really see the need for the tortilla. The piece of chicken was seasoned really nicely though and cooked just right so it was tender and juicy. It was a tasty bite of food, but then again, you know I am a sucker for fried chicken. I probably would have rather dipped it in the gravy to keep it crispier, but I am sort of a crispy crust fanatic.

Our last savory course was the best one, the shrimp and grits ($13). I’ll be honest, I was pretty much expecting the shrimp to be chewy and tough because so few places get it right. To the point that I rarely order shrimp at a restaurant. But this was very good. The shrimp were actually lightly breaded and fried so they had an appealing crunch and were cooked just right. They were very good. The cheesy grits they were sitting on, were also very good. And of course, you know I am a sucker for a perfectly cooked egg. There were also some crispy bits of ham. All of that stuff made for a great dish. The part I didn’t like about it was the “spicy maple” sauce that was luckily mainly on one side of the bowl.  I didn’t care for the sweetness that it added, and we kind of dammed it up on the plate so it stayed out of most of our bites. Next time I would hold this sauce. If I were summing up the food overall, I would say it was pretty good and pretty rich and hearty. I was sort of craving something acidic and bright to go along with each dish. I would have loved some green tomatoes or something like that with the shrimp or the chicken. 

We decided to get dessert and it followed the rich pattern, but when you are eating chocolate chip cookie dough beignets, you kind of don’t care. They were pretty darn tasty. Hubby was a big fan especially. They are fried doughnut balls, and they are filled with lots of chocolate chips and batter that is super hot. They serve it with a vanilla anglaise dipping sauce for just a little extra decadence. They were tasty though. Sorry I didn’t take a pic after I had cut in to them! Much more interesting.

Overall, I would say if I lived in Fishers, I might go to this place on occasion. I don’t think it is really a place I would go out of my way for though. Even though nothing was bad, it wasn’t super exciting. The interior is sort of upscale chain feel—lots of wine décor. It was comfortable enough, although a couple came in and got seated right next to us and one of them reeked of cigarettes and some kind of cover up attempt--perfume or something. It sort of put a damper on my taste buds. But what are you going to do? I do wish they didn’t seat everyone so close together when there were many empty tables though. 

Have you guys been?

LouVino

8626 E. 116^th Street

Fishers. 46038

317/598-5160

www.louvino.com 

Foxgardin Family

I should have written this post ages ago, but we kept going back before concerts, and before I knew it I had been three times and had written about it never. So I will do my best to keep it brief, but we went to several concerts this summer at Ruoff/Kilpsch/Deer Creek and I was looking for somewhere to grab dinner beforehand that would take a reservation and was not a chain. Difficult in this neck of the woods. And the food at Ruoff? Well it’s appalling. Hey, Guy Fieri is not my thing but at least those burgers they had there a few years back were edible. 

Anyhow, I stumbled on Foxgardin, which is actually a good option location-wise. It in a location that you can stay off of 37/69 too much and avoid that awful traffic (seriously, you northsiders, I don’t know how you do it). And it’s a quick 5-10 minutes into Ruoff after. And they give concert-goers a discount off the bill. 

We went with the kids a few times and alone once and have tried a lot of things. Highlights were the tomato and burrata salad they had at the end of the summer which featured nice, ripe Heirlooms. The burger ($12) was also a highlight, and we didn’t discover it until the last visit. It is juicy and cooked to order and has a nice Brioche bun and just the right amount of cheese. The burger was more of a fat-style burger, but not so big that it was ridiculous. The buffalo wings ($9.50) were also solid. A nice amount of kick. They weren’t mind blowing, but tasted good with the burger and salad (hubby and I split the three). The little fried mashed potato balls were tasty as well. They became slowly addictive as you ate them.

Other things that were good, but maybe not quite as good as the burger and salad were the fish and chips—nice batter, but fairly basic, fish and chips. Also, they push their steaks and always have these special prime options. My son has had a regular filet ($27) there and enjoyed it. I don’t think he thought there was really anything that made it mind-blowing, but it was a good, solid steak. Same goes with the fish tacos ($12)—not bad, but not something I would rush to order again.

Several times we have also gotten the pretzel bread with beer cheese and pimento cheese ($11). This is also a family favorite, although I prefer the pimento cheese to the beer cheese (which I think is just a bowl of the beer cheese soup that is also on the menu). The bread is spot on though.

The first couple of time we also had this savory pancake that had some heat and sweetness (I am thinking hot honey?) but it was weird because it looked really ugly the first time, but tasted really good, and looked really pretty the second time and wasn’t as good. So I am not sure which version was the intended version, but it was an interesting dish. 

Pancake 1

Pancake 2

My least favorite things I have had was the buffalo chicken pasta ($9) and the crab cake. The pasta was really big, and for a buffalo chicken flavored dish, it was kind of bland. The carb cake had that all filling, no crab vibe going. We have also had spotty service here. Sometimes it’s great, and on about half our visits, our service was pretty slow.

Overall, you can see it is kind of a mixed bag here, but there are golden nuggets scattered throughout the menu. And I appreciate that they change the menu up regularly and also always have specials. Someone in the kitchen is using some creativity and keeping the menu new and different.  And I appreciate the discount before a concert. It’s probably not a place I would seek out just for a regular dinner out, but it is definitely a place we will go again before a concert. 

This is also a place that I would really like to hear back from you guys on though for possible dishes in the future—what have been your favorite things?

Foxgardin

 10410 Olio Road

Fishers, IN  46046

317/336-2036

www.foxgardinfam.com

Pure Eatery Fishers

Always looking for a healthier option for lunch, I met my friend Suzanne at Pure Eatery in Fishers. They have had a location downtown for years, and I haven’t been there for years, so I thought I would give the new one a try. I find the menu appealing. There are lots of sandwiches and wraps and things like that, and I like that you can order a half sandwich if you want to not eat too much. 

I went with a half of the Grady’s melt ($5.95) plus a side salad ($1.95 upcharge from chips). I like a sandwich named after someone, because I always think it is something that someone developed after putting thought into it—and that it is a perfect reflection of their perfect sandwich. Or something like that. So this sandwich is sourdough bread, white cheddar, bacon, tomato and garlic-parmesan aioli. This sounds pretty close to one of my ideal sandwiches. I have to say though, that while I ate it and didn’t hate it, there are certainly easy ways to improve it. For instance, the bacon was like tiny bacon bits, which I thought was odd. Bacon seems born to go on a sandwich in its natural state—strips—but maybe that’s just me. And maybe that’s the way Grady likes it. Honestly, I really didn’t get a lot of flavor of anything besides the cheese here, which sort of made it a sort of grilled cheese. I appreciated that the bread was toasted pretty well (I could have gone for a little more color if I am completely honest). I don’t know, I had higher hopes than how it came out. I love a good sandwich, and this was just an ok one. Now there are a lot of appealing sounding other sandwiches and wraps on the menu, and I would like to try some others—so tell me your suggestions.

My little side salad was perfect though (other than those cucumbers, which I just set to the side. I am not a fan of cucumbers, go figure). A couple of little tomatoes and then just extremely fresh tender mixed greens. I am always amazed at how often something so simple gets messed up. Large pieces of stem or hard bits of stalk, or mushy lettuce past its prime. I had the house made blue cheese dressing with it—nice and chunky—and I was quite happy with it.

Suzanne had stuffed jalapenos, which I thought were interesting because they are like jalapeno poppers that aren’t fried, they’re grilled. They were very cheesy—stuffed with gouda and served with a side of house made ranch. She also had a cup of tomato basil soup. Looked pretty good. I didn’t try either, but she seemed content.

Like I said, this seems like a place where you can get fresh food and can be kind of healthy if you want to (although there are plenty of ways to be decedent as well). I also like to see a local place in an area dominated by chains. They were doing a good business, and if I lived a tad closer, I would certainly try more things and go more often. What do you guys think of it? I know I have some Fishers’ readers out there—share your thoughts.

Pure Eatery

8235 East 116^th Street

Fishers, IN  46038

317/288-0285

www.pureeatery.com 

Noise rating: 1 bell (out of five)

Chao Vietnamese Street Food

The BFF and I are apparently on a quest to try all the pho, so a new Vietnamese place opens in Fishers? Yes, lunch is planned. Several of you mentioned Chao Vietnamese Street Food on twitter the other day when I asked for new lunch ideas. It’s in a strip mall on 96^th Street. It’s very casual in décor—you order up front and they bring your food out to you, but it is cute. 

I ordered the beef pho and she ordered the veggie pho (each around $10). Ok, it was good pho, but, and I know I have said this before it is rare that one stands out above or below others for me. This one had a decent broth (one of the main important things) and the usual stuff inside—onions and of course, rice noodles.  The usual plate of fresh stuff to add—this one only had basil as the herb (no cilantro), lots of bean sprouts, some jalapeno slices and two nice juicy lime wedges. I had to doctor it up a fair amount with this stuff, as well as some fish sauce and Sriracha. I have come to learn this is just what you do with pho, but I still always wonder if this is how it’s meant to be.  Anyhow, the beef it is was sliced very thin, as it should be, but the pieces were just a little too big to eat in one bite. And I would say there was maybe slightly less of the actual meat than at some places. But overall it was a nice lunch. Pho in winter is a good thing.

My friend liked her veggie version too, although she said she liked other versions with more vegetables in it better. This had the noodles, some tofu and another weird noodle type item that looked a bit like a sponge. Neither of us could identify it for sure. There was also some veg, just not a ton. Again though, she doctored it up in a similar way and enjoyed it.

There were several other items on the menu that looked good. I saw several rice dishes with various kids of meat coming out of the kitchen that I would really like to try. They also have these chao fries topped with lemongrass pork, pickles daikon and carrots and spicy mayo that sound a little magical. There are also Banh Mi sandwiches on offer. I would say the pho ranks in the middle of those I have tried, but I would certainly like to try some of the other dishes. It is also nice to see a place like this in Fishers—and also a place like this in Fishers doing so well (it was doing a very good business by the time we left on a Wednesday). It just goes to show you that Indy people are looking for things other than sandwiches and fast food to eat for lunch. This makes me happy.

Chao Vietnamese Street Food

7854 E. 96^th Street

Fishers, IN 46037

317/622-8820

www.chaovietstreetfood.com 

Bento Cafe- Revisit

My daughter and I decided to go back and try Bento Café. The first time I went, I really enjoyed the dumplings –and the sushi wasn’t bad (just enormous!), so I was curious to see if the other food was good. The menu is quite extensive ranging from noodles to what else-- Bento boxes.

We both got a lunch Bento Box. Considering the amount of food you get with them, the $7.95 price tag is pretty reasonable. You get a crab Rangoon, a fried spring roll, 4 pieces of California roll and then your entrée, which you choose. Ok, it’s a lot of food, but honestly, the only thing that stood out for me was my entrée, which I really enjoyed. I had the basil ginger chicken, which had a nice slightly spicy edge and lots of fresh basil in it, giving it a lot of depth of flavor. The white meat chicken was very thin and actually very tender—the slices were pretty big, I would have actually appreciated a knife and fork to cut them with. There were a bunch of veggies in there—my favorites were the zucchini, the onions and the mushrooms. There were also very thin sliced carrots and some green bell pepper. The California rolls were basic and are never my favorite, so I am not a great judge. These were fine, but fake crab is pretty meh to me. The spring roll and crab Rangoon were nice to add a bit of crunch to the whole deal, but honestly, I would just be happier with the entrée and some rice. It does not appear that just ordering a rice plate is an option.

My daughter ordered the chicken teriyaki and we were both less impressed with it—it was a filet of chicken breast that was grilled and covered in a very sweet teriyaki sauce. The chicken suffered from being a little tough and chewy—it was not at all like the chicken in my dish, which was clearly stir-fried and much more tender.

Both entrees also came with miso soup. This was a pretty good one—it had a lot of very small dices of tofu and a slightly lighter, but more opaque color than most. I don’t find a huge variety in miso soup, but if I were going to rank it, I’d put it slightly above average. I didn’t re-order the seafood dumplings this time because I felt like we had so much food coming when we ordered that it would be too much (I was correct) but they are still the best thing I have had at Bento Café and I wish I could get a small rice or noodle dish with an order of those instead of all the extras that come in the Bento Box.

It is a cute little interior with modern light fixtures that my daughter declared were very cool. It has a little more design flare than a lot of quick service sushi places. The servers are pleasant.

So anyone else been there?

Bento Café

9778 E. 116^th Street

Fishers, IN 46037

317/578-8803

http://www.indybentocafe.com/ 

Bento Café

My friend Suzanne and I often seem to be swayed by Asian places, and a couple of people had mentioned Bento Café in Fishers to me so we decided to give it a try. It’s a cute place inside—nicer than a lot of Asian restaurants, with some modern décor and a fairly spacious dining area. If it was a little closer, it’s a place I’d try for dinner with the kids.

We started out with an order of the seafood gyoza ($4.50) and Suzanne got a bowl of egg drop soup ($2). The soup was pretty standard egg drop—a thickened chicken broth with wisps of egg in it—it had a lot of egg in it. Not really anything else in there. The gyoza (6 in an order) were really, really good. If you aren’t familiar, gyoza is just the Japanese name for dumplings—they are basically like pot stickers, only the wrapper on these is super thin and light. You can get them with various fillings, but the seafood we chose was really good and I would recommend it. It was a light mix of seafood that was probably dominated by shrimp. They were served with a light soy based sauce that had some vinegar in it. A little lighter version of the sauce you usually get with potstickers. You could tell they were housemade and very fresh. I would get these again in a second.

We also ordered two sushi rolls. They have a pretty extensive sushi menu, from really simple to very complex. We ordered the “Sweetie” roll ($11.95) and the “Oh My God” roll ($9.95). I think my favorite was the Oh My God roll even though it was enormous. It had shrimp tempura and avocado on the inside and then (a lot of) spicy tuna and tempura crunch on the outside and was topped with masago (those teeny fish eggs), eel sauce, and some scallions. Generally these are all some of my favorite items in a sushi roll. It had the right amount of crunch between the fried shrimp and the tempura bits. The tuna wasn’t the super high quality you sometimes get with spicy tuna—more of a fine, almost puree. But it still tasted good, even if we had to cut them in half with a knife to eat them.

The sweetie roll had avocado and salmon inside as well as some tempura crunch (you know I like that crunch). It was topped with thin slices of salmon that I think were lightly seared (or torched) and then spicy mayo and salmon roe. Maybe this one didn’t have quite enough variety in taste or something, because while it was good, I didn’t like it as much. I am not a huge fan of salmon roe either because sometimes it tends to be a little too fishy. This roll was a little smaller, but we still tended to cut the pieces in half to eat them.

All in all, I was intrigued by this place. Those dumplings were good enough that I would want to go back and try more of the non-sushi side of the menu (even though there are lots of other interesting sushi rolls on the menu too). There are some noodle dishes that sound good as well as bento boxes that have lots of different combos you can try several things.

Bento Café

9778 E. 116^th Street

Fishers, IN 46037

317/578-8803

http://www.indybentocafe.com/ 

Café Korea -- Revisit

Thanks to my friend @AngieSix being more on top of things than me, she noticed that @indianapolisamy had posted about Café Korea and had talked about how much she liked the dumplings there—knowing that I have been on a dumpling quest, Angie suggested we go.  I have been a couple of times before, but had never had the dumplings ($4.99).

Of course, that is what we started with, and they were delicious! There were five, and they were a good size—at least two bites each. They were also smokin’ hot. They were filled with minced meat—pork I am guessing? They were seasoned nicely with some veggies and ginger and were lightly pan-fried. I liked the soy and vinegar based dipping sauce to add further variation in flavor and additional moisture (and heck, just to cool them off a little bit!). I would totally get these again.

I also had the lunch version of dol sot bi bim bop ($8.99). I had this the first time I came here (and the first time I reviewed this place) and enjoyed it, but I don’t know, this time it just didn’t get me going. Even with squeezing a fair amount of the hot sauce they served along with it, the dish just didn’t seem to have a of of flavor. The dish is composed of rice on the bottom topped with various shredded veggies, beef and a sunny side up egg. I still like the way the rice crusts up a bit on the bottom because the stoneware bowl is so hot, and the way it sort of turns into fried rice when you mix the egg in there. But it just needs something else. I put some of the lightly fermented bean sprouts from the banchan, or side dishes, which helped a bit, but I still wanted more. I ended up drizzling a bit of the dumpling sauce in there just for a bit of saltiness. Either my tastes are changing or they’ve changed the dish.

They do give you a fair amount of food between the main dish and the banchan and a little salad with a ginger dressing as well (pretty good but standard). And the service is pleasant. I would like to go back and get the dumplings and maybe experiment with the menu a bit more. What else have you guys had that you really liked?

Café Korea

7262 Fishers Crossing Drive

Fishers, IN 46038

317/578-1987

www.cafekoreaindy.com

Izakaya - Revisit

We met my friend Suzanne and her hubby recently for dinner before an event we were all attending. Trying to figure out a good option near Fishers landed us at Izakaya. Hubby and I had gone for lunch once before and had a decent experience, so we thought we’d give it another try. We debated trying the hibachi side (which was extremely popular the night we were there) but ultimately decided we’d save that for the kids (who love this sort of thing).

The first thing I noticed, this time and last, was how cold it was in there. They did adjust it for us, but it remained pretty breezy. I think the fans from all the hibachis running may have had something to do with this, but it made the other side of the restaurant cold. We also had an extremely enthusiastic server who told me how he was just exceptionally happy that day (nothing wrong with that).

We started with the agedashi tofu ($4.45) (seems to be a standard order for me and Suzanne at Asian places) and this was one of the better ones. The pieces of tofu were smaller sized (maybe three inches long) and had the perfect crunch to tofu ratio. They served a tempura sauce alongside which had a little more flavor than most sauces I have had with fried tofu and I appreciated it. There were also dry fish flakes on top, giving it a little salty flavor and more texture.

The other appetizer we ordered was the tuna tataki ($11.45), which I didn’t care for as much. It was just thinly sliced barely seared tuna with a ponzu sauce. First, the tuna was not sliced all the way through which made it annoying to eat, especially when you are sharing with others.  The tuna itself was fine, but the sauce was so mild, you couldn’t taste much of anything.

We then ordered several rolls. My favorite one was the Indy 500 Roll ($9.95), which was shrimp tempura and avocado inside and topped with spicy crab, crunch and eel sauce. It had the crunch I liked, both inside and out. And while I questioned the “crab” on top, there wasn’t a ton of it so it tasted pretty good.

We also had the spicy dragon roll ($10.95) and the crazy monkey roll ($11.25), which were both decent. The spicy dragon had spicy tuna inside and was topped with eel and avocado. Sometimes eel can be just slightly fishy and this had a touch of that.  The crazy monkey roll was eel and cucumber inside and was topped with salmon, shrimp, avocado, lemon, tobiko and a spicy sauce. There was a fair amount going in in this one, and I liked the pieces with the salmon and avocado on top—for some reason, shrimp just doesn’t do it for me on top of sushi rolls (even though I love a tempura shrimp inside). Maybe it’s a texture thing. But overall these two were not bad.

The last roll was my least favorite and had us guessing about some of the ingredients. It was the Dynamite Roll ($9.95). It is described as a California roll (which is avocado, krab, and cucumber inside usually) that is topped with baked spicy crab and scallop on top. First of all, if you are using fake crab, let’s be honest about it. It is used a lot in sushi, and I think people expect it. But I expect it to be stated on the menu. Say it’s “krab” or “crabstick” or whatever. Especially if you use “crabstick” some places on the menu and “crab” on others (for example on the description of their California roll, Izakaya specifies crabstick is used). That makes me think you are differentiating the two. (And some places, like H2O, actually mean crab when they say crab). The topping on this roll was so strange we thought it was noodles for the longest time. It was shredded crabstick that I think had a few tiny pieces of scallop mixed in a spicy mayo-type of sauce that was then baked.  I did not care for this roll for many reasons. The main one was “crabstick.” The strange somewhat gelatinous texture of the topping was one of the others.

Overall, I liked that the rolls themselves were smaller bites though so no mouth contortions needed. They certainly have a ton of variety in their special rolls—it took us a fair amount of negotiations to get our order decided. I am still intrigued by the popularity of the teppanyaki side of the restaurant and will see if I can convince hubby to give it a go sometime, although, he was not a huge fan of the place overall. I think I may have asked this last time, but any of you guys tried the hibachi dinners?

Izakaya

7325 East 96^th Street

Fishers, IN 

317/915-8988

www.indyizakaya.com 

Izakaya

Recently I posted about a sushi meal and the day I posted it, there were several comments discussing sushi, which of course instantly put me back in the mood.  I did want to at least try something new though, so hubby and I decided to try Izakaya.  It took us a few minutes to find it because it is back in a strip mall area off to the side, but we finally did.  When we walked in, I liked the interior (other than it was freezing of course).  It is modern and feels a little nicer than a lot of Japanese restaurants. They also offer hibachi grills, so we may have to go try that with the kids one of these days.

They have a lunch special that includes ordering a couple of rolls (from a list of choices) for $9.95, which is what I got.  I picked the tuna roll with avocado and the shrimp tempura roll.  It is a pretty good deal considering one of the rolls on the regular menu is $8.95.  I can’t say I loved one better than the other—the tuna was nice and fresh—it was pretty simple though.  I would have liked a little more avocado.  But it was a nice bite sized roll.  The shrimp tempura roll was good too.  I liked the variation in texture, and having a little crunch to it with the tempura shrimp inside as well as the tempura bits on top.    Both of the rolls hit the spot and satisfied the craving.  I didn’t have any major complaints.  You also got a bowl of miso soup included with your lunch—it was your standard miso soup with seaweed and little chunks of tofu.

Hubby got the shrimp tempura lunch for $8.95.  It was several shrimp tempura (there were 3 or 4) and quite a fair amount of vegetables.  Interestingly, the crunchy outside part on the shrimp was a little different from what was on the veggies—the shrimp was almost more like panko in texture—a much crunchier, breadier, and thicker coating.  It was honestly a little too thick—it made the shrimp seem very small in comparison.  There were several kinds of veggies—asparagus, squash, a large onion ring, zuchinni and a mushroom.  The batter on these was more of your traditional batter-tempura type and we both liked it better—it wasn’t so thick that it overwhelmed the veggies themselves.  It also came with soup and a bowl of steamed rice.

Overall, it hit the spot and the service was fast and friendly.  When we first sat down, there weren’t many people there and the air conditioning was on full blast and it was freezing.  But it was one of the few places I have eaten in which I asked for it to be turned down and they went and turned it off.  Usually you just get an eye roll when you complain about being cold around here.

Anyone been to the hibachi part? I am curious to know if it is good.

Izakaya

7325 East 96^th Street

Fishers, IN

317/915-8988

www.indyizakaya.com