Nada - Revisit

I have been back to Nada a couple of times since I last wrote—once for dinner and once again for brunch. If my son gets to choose a brunch or lunch place, he inevitable chooses Nada. He is obsessed with their chicken tacos. So when we had something to do afterwards downtown, so we decided it was a good choice. We started with their queso ($7), which is pretty much a requirement at this point. I do think they have some of the best queso in town. There are smooshed black beans on the bottom, and when you stir them all in, they have a lot more flavor than most. You can also order several other additions if you want, but I recommend against it. You really don’t need it. Also, I think they have some of the best chips in town—they’re clearly freshly fried, and just nicely layered tortillas. They come across light and salty and delicious. The dinner that is included in this post was with 3 friends who had never been and all loved the chips.  Also, you need a side of guacamole. They do a very nice job with it as well—nice and bright and acidic. Do yourself a favor and get both. For our brunch meal, my kids both had the chicken tacos, which have chicken, guac, cheese, and pico de gallo ($9 for 2 tacos). These make them very happy and I think that’s great.

Hubby and I split one of my all time favorite brunch dishes, the chicken goetta-dicta ($12), which is their version of eggs benedict made with a muffin, a layer of goetta, avocado, poached eggs, and Sriracha hollandaise. It was delicious and it always is. Goetta is a patty made with oats and sausage and is nice and crunchy and meaty at the same time. It’s perfect in this dish with the creamy avocado, perfectly poached egg, and hollandaise. We decided to share this but take the opportunity to try something new as well, so we ordered the  “Mex’orean” fried chicken buns as well. Now as soon as we ordered them, we remembered back to the first time we went to Nada and got the “Mex-orean” fried chicken appetizer and were decidedly disappointed. The chicken was s super dry that time. But I am happy to report that the chicken was much, much better. They serve them on soft slider-type buns with pickles and a lightly spicy mayo type sauce and they were actually very good. I love the whole pickle thing on Asian-style buns, and these were no exception. Good to know they continued perfecting the chicken, because the super light crust was very tasty and the inside remained moist. We would get them again.

The other meal I had was fun because we all got tacos and traded around so I got to try several (each order comes with three tacos at dinner). There were fish tacos ($15), mushroom tacos (“hongos”) ($12), fried avocado tacos ($11) and mu shu ($13). Actually one of my top choices was the mushroom version. I was surprised at how much I liked it and how much flavor it had. There were balsamic grilled mushrooms, guacamole, black bean puree, Chihuahua cheese, rice, and pico de gallo. It sounds like a lot of ingredients, but there was just enough of each of them. The mushrooms still were the star though and were very tender and flavorful. Next, I really enjoyed the fish tacos, which are battered and deep-fried pieces of hake with guacamole, lime marinated cabbage and avocado. They were tasty as well. The cabbage could have been shredded a little finer maybe, but they had a nice bright lime flavor. The fried avocado also had chipotle bean puree, pickled cabbage, maple, pickled red onion and pepitas. This one was good, and I liked the crunch from the pumpkin seeds, but even with the pickled items just seemed to need a little acid. My least favorite was probably the mu shu tacos, which were made with pork marinated in beer and ginger, and topped with sesame, hoisin, lime cabbage and avocado. They were a little dry and the flavor was a little too sweet and one dimensional for me.

All in all though, Nada has really grown on me over the years (particularly brunch). I think they have made improvements over the years. I do wish you could mix and match your own tacos, but I guess if you go with friends, you can always make that happen yourself.

Nada

11 West Maryland

Indy 46204

317/638-6232

www.eatdrinknada.com 

Noise rating: 2 bells (out of five)

Nada - Brunch

While we were in Cincinnati recently, we decided to eat brunch at Nada before heading out of town. Mostly because it was right across the street from the hotel. I have only eaten at the Nada in Indy once and had a kind of mixed experience, but was intrigued to try their brunch menu. And you can get reservations. (And the menu for brunch in Indy appears to be the same).

We started with the queso gringo ($7), which was very good. I assume this is on the regular dinner menu too, and I would get it again in a heartbeat. It had a layer of refried black beans on the bottom of the bowl ad the cheese (smoked gouda) is mixed with habanero peppers and pico di gallo. All of these things together made for a tasty, chunky, delicious take on queso dip. Much more interesting than many I have had. I also really like their freshly fried chips which are light, but flaky if you know what I mean—they sort of peel apart in layers. Really good. 

I was torn by what to order for my main dish, but was intrigued by the eggs goettadicto ($12). I thought this dish might only be available in Cincy, where goetta is from, but as it turns out, looks like it’s in Indy too. Which is good news for you guys because it was delicious. It was English muffins topped with crispy fried goetta, perfectly poached eggs, lots of avocado, and an extremely lemony Sriracha hollandaise. So goetta, if you don’t know, is a product from the Cincinnati region made up of sausage, oats, and spices and its all mixed together, sliced and cooked like a sausage patty. I really like it because while it has the flavor of sausage, it has the crunchy texture that you can imagine from the oatmeal. I absolutely loved how much acid was in the hollandaise though. A great lemon flavor to go with the eggs and goetta. And a little pico di gallo to pull it all together. A great dish. One I would (and will) happily eat again.

Hubby and one friend both got the huevos rancheros ($9) and they also did a very nice job with this dish as well. At first I was torn about which I liked better, but in the end, the goetta and that hollandaise convinced me mine was best. The huevos rancheros had a flavorful bean mix on the bottom, some crisped tortillas and two fried eggs. There was a nice diablo sauce as well. I liked the way the tortillas were crispy, making it slightly different from many versions, which use soft tortillas. By crisping them up, it made them taste a bit like chilaquiles, which are one of my favorite things.

All in all, I really enjoyed this brunch and was pleased to find such a tasty option that we also have in Indy. We also had a breakfast cocktail, and my blood orange mimosa was quite good, so if you like a cocktail with your brunch, this might be a place you should try.

Nada

11 West Maryland

Indy 46204

317/638-6232

www.eatdrinknada.com 

Nada

I was excited to try Nada because it’s from the restaurant group that owns Boca in Cincinnati, which is one of my favorite restaurants in the Midwest. I would call Nada modern Mexican cuisine—a menu that is heavy on tacos of varying flavors, with a few other appetizers and a couple of larger main dishes. There are lots of tequila-based cocktails and several beers. As for wine, it’s house white or house red.

We walked in during the IU/UK March madness game so the bar was heaving. And loud. And so not surprisingly, it took a bit to get our drinks. I ordered the blood orange margarita ($10) and hubby their version of an Old Fashioned, the “Anejo Fashioned,” made with tequila ($12). Both drinks were quite tasty. Not being a Bourbon fan myself, I liked the play on the Old Fashioned. For a second round later, hubby tried the top shelf margarita ($14) and I had their regular house margarita ($7). The top shelf was definitely smoother and more refined than the house, but honestly, they were both very good. Not sure it’s worth twice as much. But hubby may disagree.

The interior is nice-it feels very modern and is bright and colorful. A nice ambiance. Strangely, it has a lot of large tables (several sat empty much of the night) and less options for say, a party of 4. I wonder if they will seat smaller parties at those larger tables.

We started off with chips and salsa (we had the fire-roasted tomato ancho salsa) ($2) and the “Mexorean” fried chicken ($9).  The chips and salsa are very good. I love the thicker, freshly fried chips that are nice and crunchy and clearly freshly made (the layers of them start to split when they’re cooked). The salsa was also nice—the roasted flavor gave it some depth. I would certainly get chips on a return visit again—maybe try the salsa sampler or the guacamole sampler. 

Unfortunately, the fried chicken was disappointing. It was three really huge pieces of boneless breasts that were fried in a very delightful, and apparently flour free, batter. Super crisp on the outside. The chicken itself though was so large and so tough it wasn’t worth eating. Only one of the pieces, which was cut a little thinner, was even worth a couple of bites. It’s really too bad that they don’t use thinner pieces of chicken, or even better, boneless thighs, which would keep their tenderness better. The crust and the sauce (which was slightly sweet and slightly spicy) were both good. As it is though, I would not recommend it at all.

The slow drinks were unfortunately just the precursor to what was a bit of a cluster with the service for the rest of the night, which really took a turn at this point. Apparently our order got mixed up with the table next to ours—so they were served our entrées and we were served theirs about 10 minutes later. And while the men at both tables had ordered the same thing (the pork belly tacos), when hubby got his, one of the pieces of pork belly was completely missing from the taco. So both tables had to send almost everything back and they had to start over. Our server, who was very nice, was completely overwhelmed. The whole time all this fiasco was going on, none of our appetizer of empty drink glasses were cleared and our table became increasingly cramped.

We shared our tacos once we finally got the ones we ordered. As I said hubby had the pork belly tacos ($13), with a nice, crisped slice of pork belly, wonderfully cooked and not at all gelatinous. The pieces of pork sat on top of guacamole and a bit of pickled pepper and onion and some salsa. We also exercised the “add an egg” option and they added a lovely sunny egg on top of the middle taco. A little challenging to split it among the tacos, but the results were very good once you did.

Sadly the shrimp tacos ($15) that I chose were not so great. There were several small shrimps on each taco that were topped with a LOT of arugula, some queso fresco and a avocado lime dressing. The shrimp were kind of blah, and I was really hoping for more acid then was there. There were some hunks of avocado on there, but I didn’t get much from the dressing. And there was so much arugula, it almost tasted like it was more of a salad. I would pass on these next time. I am quite intrigued by the “Senor mu shu” tacos they offered. They sounded interesting. Side note: their tacos all seem to come in flour tortillas, which I guess may stand up better to some of the heartier fillings, but I still like the lightness of corn best.

At this point we decided to leave (and we weren’t offered a dessert menu anyway) and I thought it was very good form that the manager came to our table and comped all our food (as well as the table next to us). It definitely lessened the blow a bit. And about ½ of the food, and all of the drinks, were very good.

I will certainly go back, but may wait a bit to see the kinks worked out a bit more. And I hope you guys have some suggestions for which are the best tacos.

Nada

11 West Maryland

Indy 46204

317/638-6232

www.eatdrinknada.com