Kona Jack's -- Revisit

The family and I decided to hit Kona Jack’s for dinner the other night. We were squabbling about what we wanted and my son wanted a steak, while the rest of us wanted (fresh) seafood. Perfect solution.

It obviously has a loyal following because even after all these years, it was hopping for dinner on a Friday. We ended up in the sushi bar area (they mumbled something about kids, so I wonder if they don’t seat kids in the main dining room), which was fine except the tables in there are pretty darn small if you’re putting four people at them.

My son got his steak dinner ($32), complete with baked potato and was happy. The quality of the beef was good, and it was cooked properly medium rare. His meal came with soup or salad and he chose a Caesar salad. I didn’t try it—he said it was fine, but slightly underdressed. Oh yeah, and they bring you this tasty loaf of warm herby bread with seasoned soft butter. That bread is delicious. My daughter wanted me to ask if we could get some extra to take home. She loved it.

My daughter got the special, which was fish and chips made with fresh lake perch. It also came with soup or salad and she got the clam chowder and gave it to hubby and me. I always forget that the clam chowder at Kona Jack’s is one of the better ones in town. Next to Barking Dog, which is now closed sadly, it’s my favorite. It is seasoned slightly differently and is a bit chunkier, but is very good. Her fish and chips were also good—perch is quite thin, so it’s not super tender, but it was fried well and tasted very fresh. I can’t stand those big steak fries they serve here, and am never tempted to eat even one. Those are straight up boring foodservice if you ask me.

Hubby had the blackened grouper sandwich ($15.50). The quality of the grouper was very good—Kona’s does a great job of having impeccably fresh fish, which is one of the reasons it is one of my favorite places to buy fish to cook at home as well. They also gave it a heavy-handed dose of blackening seasoning, which gave it a nice kick. Honestly though, there was a lot of bread to fish ratio and nothing particularly special about the bun, so hubby just ate the fish. Next time he says he’ll order it without a bun and see if they give him a little extra fish.

For me, I had the tuna tartar ($15) and the tempura fried veggies ($10). Well really, hubby and I shared them since his meal was a little light without the bread. Mine certainly was not. They give you a nice portion of tuna here for $15. It’s cubed and seasoned well with garlic, ginger, cilantro and a sesame dressing. It comes with crispy fried wonton chips and a little seaweed salad. It’s my go to place for tuna tartar now that H2O has closed unless I make it myself. It’s a little larger dice—almost like a poke, but very good.

The tempura fried veggies were also tasty—and a very generous portion. Also, it almost seemed perfectly tailored to me. The veggies on the plate were broccoli, asparagus, zucchini and avocado (ok, fruit). Pretty much my favorite things to tempura are these exact things. Actually, I think this was the first time I had fried avocado and I was wondering how it would hold up. It was delicious. I pretty much can’t think of a way I don’t like avocado unless it’s not ripe.

All in all, we all agreed that we need to remember Kona Jack’s more often when we’re all undecided about where to go. It’s a pretty wide menu and great quality seafood. Love the bread and clam chowder too.

Kona Jack’s

9419 North Meridian Street

Indy   46260

317/843-1609

www.konajacksindy.com

Kona Jack's--Revisit

I hit Kona Jack’s the other day with my friend Suzanne for lunch. I keep telling myself that eating sushi is healthy, even if I like ordering the ones filled with fried bits of things. It’s called rationalization. Or denial. Whatever.

We did however decide to get the tuna tartar (their spelling)($15) as well because we have both been missing the one from H2O Sushi. The flavor here is a pretty close equivalent—with radish, ginger, green onion, cilantro and a sesame dressing. This one has a more distinctly sesame flavor to it, but that is not a bad thing. The hunks of impeccably fresh tuna are cut on the slightly larger side, almost like a poke size, if you are familiar with that dish. So yeah, this may be a little healthier than many of the rolls…until you factor in the fried wontons, which of course you have to do because you need some vehicle to scoop it up with right? And you of course need that crunch to go along with the smooth tuna. It’s a very good version of tuna tartar and it is more than enough to share—at least with two people.

We also got a couple of rolls. And yes, they both had fried bits in them—the first was the shrimp tempura roll, which is pretty classic -–shrimp tempura in the middle with avocado, and then wrapped with rice and Kona’s uses soy paper for this particular one. Not sure why exactly, but I am good with either soy or nori, so fine with me. It’s topped with spicy mayo and eel sauce. It was pretty much what you expect, nothing that made it shine more than others really, but still good. They were on the big side on this visit, which isn’t my favorite thing because then I have to cut them in half, which is not ideal.

Same went for the Tampa roll ($14), which I have had before and really enjoyed. They indulged us by making it for us, even though it wasn’t the special that day. It was good, but just not quite as good as I remember the first time I had it. It has fried grouper inside, along with avocado and wasabi tobiko, which were all good, but I couldn’t put my finger on why it didn’t excite me as much. Maybe the grouper was not as good or something. I think maybe it wasn’t as crunchy, and I like the texture variation in my rolls. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed it. Again, I found myself cutting them in half because they were so big.

I feel like Kona Jack’s is a solid option to remember for fresh sushi, particularly on that side of town. And I would happily eat the tuna tartar pretty much any day of the week. It’s also one of my favorite places to buy fresh fish (particularly tuna, halibut and walleye) even if the fish market is a little on the pricey side.  But this place has been around for over 20 years, so they must be doing something right.

Kona Jack’s

9419 North Meridian Street

Indy 46260

317/843-1609

www.jacksarebetter.net 

Kona Jack's - Revisit (sushi edition)

Hubby and I stopped in at Kona Jack’s after an appointment that took us nearby. We haven’t been in quite a long time, and I’m not sure that we’ve ever gone in with just the intention of getting sushi only. I love that an independent place is so busy even after all these years.

It was kind of cold so I started with some miso soup ($2). It was a fairly large bowl of soup, and I loved all the giant chunks of tofu in it—really big tender pieces, not the little bitty dices you usually get. The only thing about the soup though was it was pretty darn salty. Not sure if it’s always that way or just this one was. Still good, just a little heavy on the salt.

For sushi we got the special of the day, which was called the “Tampa roll” ($14). It had battered and fried grouper inside along with avocado and wasabi tobiko (the little teeny fish eggs) and was drizzled with spicy mayo. It was really super delicious. Too bad it’s not on the regular menu, because I would totally order it again. Fried grouper is not something I would get in a sushi roll at most places but at Kona Jack’s, because they do a lot of fresh fish, I had faith it would be good and it was. It had nice crunch, just a touch of wasabi flavor (I don’t usually use wasabi with sushi, but I liked this hint of the flavor) and the spicy mayo was just the right amount. They were a little on the big side, but manageable.

We also ordered the hot and spicy tuna roll ($8) and it was good as well. Not quite so much going on, but still a good mix of flavors and textures. There was spicy tuna inside as well as baby radish sprouts, giving it nice fresh crunch. The tuna was good quality—better than what you often get with spicy tuna—chopped but not so fine it’s almost a paste. The menu also said there was Kona sauce, but I didn’t see any sauce.

All in all, I think Kona Jack’s is a good place to grab a quick sushi lunch. I love that afterwards I can check out the fish counter and bring something home for dinner too.

Kona Jack’s

9419 North Meridian Street

Indy 46260

317/843-1609
www.jacksarebetter.net

Kona Jack's - Revisit

So the other night we were trying to figure out a place that we could meet everyone in my family’s random cravings at the moment and decided to give Kona Jack’s another try for dinner. We have been there for dinner a long time ago, way before blogging and I have reviewed it before for lunch (and have been a few other times for lunch as well).   And if you saw my post about the fish market, you will see it is a place I frequent quite a bit, even if not for a meal there (most of the fish that we cook at home comes from Kona Jack’s).

I wanted sushi-ish kind of food and went with a couple things from that part of the menu—the tuna tartare (have I mentioned that I have a slight addiction to good tuna tartar?) ($12) and the shrimp tempura roll ($9).  The tuna tartar was just how I liked it—lightly seasoned with soy, ginger, green onions, fine shreds of radish and cilantro.  They served it with crispy wonton chips.  It was a lot like my all time favorite tartar from H2O Sushi, only a larger dice of fish.  The fish was impeccably fresh (as you would hope from such a place). It is a pretty generous portion and even though hubby ate some of it, I didn’t finish it all.

I enjoyed the roll too—I just wanted something simple and fairly small since I was getting the tartar.  It fit the bill well—it was shrimp tempura and avocado wrapped in soy paper (which is how I tend to prefer it and how they serve this roll) with a drizzle of “kona” sauce and a drizzle of eel sauce.  The kona sauce was like a spicy mayo and the eel sauce is a slightly sweet soy-based sauce.  There was just enough of it for each piece and I liked that the pieces were not so big that it was hard to eat in one bite.  The bad part of my meal, which carried through a lot of the evening, was that the service was pretty slow. Our server was super nice and apologetic, but the food took quite a long time to get. Unfortunately, this left the tempura shrimp a little less than crunchy. The rolls would have been so much better if we had gotten them immediately after they were made.

Unfortunately, this was true for hubby and my son’s dinner as well, which was a surf and turf combo with filet and king crab legs ($45) (they split it).  The steak was actually really pretty good considering it’s a seafood place, and was perfectly medium rare, which was also pretty amazing considering it had sat a little too long too I think.  The crab, which they cut in half length-wise, was a little dried out because of this as well.  Not that this stopped my son from eating every bite (hubby had to fight him to get some of it).  It also came with a soup or salad and hubby got the clam chowder.  It was pretty good clam chowder and I am kind of particular about clam chowder.  Way too many large hunks of carrot for my taste, but the flavor was good—not too runny with some nice chunks of clam and potato.

Overall, the meal was disappointing because of the fact that it took so long and so clearly had been sitting a little too long before it got served to us.  If it had been delivered quickly, it probably would have been a really good meal (especially for me—I really liked the flavors of what I ordered). The restaurant was really busy, but when I asked if that was unusual we were told, no, not really.  And when I have been in at lunch time, it always seems to have a decent crowd so I think they are fairly used to being busy. We did stop at the fish market on our way out a pick up some nice trout that we had for dinner the following night, which turned out quite well if I do say so myself.  We will certainly return at some point, but not sure I will get hubby back there for awhile anyway. 

Kona Jack’s

9419 North Meridian Street

Indy   46260

317/843-1609

www.konajacksindy.com

A Few of My Favorite Places: Kona Jack's Fish Market

Continuing along with the series on a few of my favorite Indy places (food and drink type places I frequent on a regular basis), I thought I would talk about Kona Jack’s fish market.  Honestly, this is an easy segment for me to write because literally you are just along on the ride with me on some of my regular errands…

Anyway, when I want fresh fish, and seafood in general, one of a very few places I will buy it to cook at home is Kona Jack’s.  And if I want sushi grade anything to make a ceviche or something along those lines, this is one of only two places I would trust.  For me, I have to have a little extra time, because it isn’t super close to my house, but I can always count on it being really fresh.

The nice thing about the market is that because it is also a restaurant and sushi bar, so you know their turnover is very high.  You can just go in and look in the case (my picture is of the main fish section, there is another case that contains mostly shellfish and freshwater fish) and you can tell that this stuff is good quality.  The regular fish mongers there know about seafood and can order just about anything you want—usually with just a day or two notice.

The only downside (besides it sort of being an out of the way location for me) is that it isn’t cheap.  But when you really want a good quality piece of fish, in my opinion, you can’t skimp too much or you may as well just eat something else.

I also like that I often run into friends at this fish market—even though it is a restaurant too, it feels  familiar to me and somewhat like a little neighborhood shop inside a restaurant.  So on this day, I walked in, on my way to pick up my kids, without knowing what I wanted. I just looked around until something jumped out at me. On this day it happened to be the grouper that caught my eye, which I took home and grilled with a version of a blackening type rub.  Turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.

The grouper--after



Kona Jack’s Fish Market

9419 North Meridian Street

Indy   46260

317/843-1609

www.konajacksindy.com

Kona Jack's- Lunch

The other day we were on our way to pick up some fresh seafood for dinner at one of the few places you can count on it actually being fresh, and decided hey, why not actually eat lunch here too? We have eaten at Kona Jack’s for dinner, and to be honest, it sort of bores me…so it has been awhile since we have been back. But we thought we should give it a go for lunch. I mean, honestly, they have the freshest seafood at their fresh fish counter of anywhere in the City (well the Goose too but you have to order it), and I buy it for home cooking rather frequently. It is really the only place I buy fish on a regular basis.

Anyhow, when we went for lunch, we literally got what I think was the second to last table in the place. It was jammed! We perused the menu and just when I thought I had decided, the server went over the specials which tempted me. I was torn between a very yummy sounding sushi roll and what I ended up ordering—the beer battered fish (cod) and chips. The fact that they had two kinds of fish and chips, a breaded fish (perch) as well as the beer battered one gave me faith that maybe this would be good. It obviously wasn’t just a “fish” that was frozen and dumped in a fryer and called fish and chips right? And I love a good battered fish and chips.

Anyhow, while the fish itself was pleasantly juicy and the batter had a nice flavor, with just the right amount of beer flavor, they did not quite pull off the requisite crunchy exterior. You need a really crispy outside shell right? And still soft but moist fish inside. There were a few bites that were crunchy, but most of them were a little soggy—i.e. soft on the outside. That does not make for good fish and chips. The chips, or French fries, were the big steak fry type, which are the traditional English-style chip, but they just don’t really do anything for me. I wish I would have ordered that roll. And judging by the amount of sushi rolls coming out of that part of the kitchen, a lot of people were ordering them.

Of course, this only brings me to me next quandary…I can totally appreciate using raw fish in a creative and tasty way, but somehow, if you have the quality to start with (which Kona Jack’s certainly does), how hard is that? You gotta be able to cook it properly too right? Well, they didn’t pull off the fish and chips so well and frankly, it is a little frustrating considering the high quality of their ingredients.

Hubby had an oyster po boy sandwich with breaded oysters and bread with a bit of cole slaw. First of all the oysters looked huge, and I think they were sort of above average in size (which I am sure you regular readers know is not my favorite thing). But as hubby explained to me (I didn’t even want to try them, they just didn’t look that appetizing) actually there was so much breading, you could barely taste the oyster—and that they actually weren’t that big. So, overall, I would venture to say, he would likely not order this again either. Again, frustrating to see a quality ingredient that just wasn’t very good once it was cooked.

So, this wasn’t a great lunch. This is true. But I have to say, watching the stuff coming from the sushi portion of the kitchen inspires me to go back. And I know the fish is good. And regardless of whether I eat in the restaurant, I will be a loyal customer of the fish market for a long long time.

Kona Jack’s
9419 N. Meridian Street
Indy 46260
317/843-1609
hwww.konajacksindy.com