9th Street Bistro

Some good friends have been inviting us to go to 9^th Street Bistro in Noblesville—we have been there twice with them in the last couple of months and I have been meaning to write it up, but I am lazy and busy and well, I am sitting in the airport waiting on a flight delay, and here it is! Honestly, this is one of the better new (ish?) places in the Indy area and is a labor of love between a husband-and-wife team who came back to Indiana in 2020 to open this place (and we all know how that went….)

But this place is a little northern gem in the Indy area. Both times we have been here, they have highlighted seasonal items and have cooked them just right. I love that they change the menu fairly frequently, and seasonally, but also offer a daily?/weekly? specials menu with such things as the “fried thing of the day." The first time they were empanadas. The second time…soft shell crab. You wanna win my heart? That’s the way. Why it is hard to find, I don’t know. I mean, I get that there aren’t crabs in local waters…but you can get fresh seafood any which way these days. I don’t know why I don’t see them on all menus. 

Anyway, both fried bits were delicious. And I (of course), loved the soft-shell crab. The crab was perfect. The sauce alongside (a tartar-ish aioli) was tasty. I could have lived without the bread underneath honestly—I felt like it just soaked up all the tasty sauce. The crabs were great though—and so were the empanadas—which now appear to be on the regular menu with a seasonally changing theme.

The first time we also had the bread plate with pimento cheese and the whipped butter because my daughter was home on spring break and if she could live on bread, she would. The focaccia was great—the whipped butter was also so tasty that we bought some to take home—the pimento cheese was good, but nothing mind blowing. Tasty, but not the best I have had. 

This last visit we also had the burrata starter and the asparagus starter. Both were very good and had lots of interesting flavor profiles—the burrata had a sweet edge, as it was served with apricots and orange honey and topped with crumbled pistachios. The asparagus had an Asian bent to it, and was topped with fried egg aioli, sweet soy and fish flakes—love the way the blow in the breeze. While I liked this dish—and the asparagus was just perfectly cooked—it was a little on the sweet side—I would have loved a little acid from somewhere.

The chicken at this place is amazingly good. I don’t typically order chicken, but I split it with my daughter the first time and had a bite of our friend’s version on this night. It was just a simple roasted chicken half (de boned) but man, it was so tender and had so much flavor, I would definitely order this again. It was served with a simple salad with locally grown veggies.

Hub and I split the pasta dish (there is always a pasta dish, but they change it up frequently). This one was house made spaghetti with a lemon cream sauce and sauteed shrimp and had fried capers on top. So good—so good. Would definitely get this again as well. One friend had beef wellington—which I didn’t try but looked delicious.

All in all, this is probably one of the best new (to me) restaurants I have tried in Indy in a while. Will definitely go on our rotation list. They also do a weekly special carry out dinner deal on Sundays (I believe) that look tasty, although I haven’t tried one. I signed up for the emails and always think they sound good. Now that I have tasted how good the food is, I would imagine these would be really good. 

9^th Street Bistro

56 S. 9^th Street

Noblesville, IN 46060

317-774-5065

www.9thstreetbistro.com 

Jaggers

My daughter and I were up north running errands and I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to try something new. As I often do, I took to twitter and asked for suggestions. A couple of you suggested Jaggers, which I had never even heard about! That alone made me want to try it. Plus, it’s a burger/chicken sandwich joint, so I knew my daughter would be happy.

It’s not quite fast food—you order at the front and then they bring your food out when it’s ready. It wasn’t very crowded when we were in there, but I think it’s fairly new. The staff was all very friendly as well. According to their website, they don’t freeze their meat at all, and they bake their buns every day.

I had the crispy chicken sandwich ($3.99). I went with the standard basic to start with to get a sense of what they do with a chicken sandwich—they have spicy versions, and versions with additional toppings. They also do a grilled chicken sandwich.  The basic sandwich comes with pickles and Jaggers sauce. The sauce is a combo of BBQ sauce, mayo and sour cream. The sandwich was quite tasty—the chicken was nice and tender and the coating really crispy. I liked the way the breast meat didn’t get all tough and hard to eat the way thick chicken breast sandwiches can be. I liked the pickles for some acid. I think the Jaggers sauce is a matter of taste—it’s a distinctive taste, a little on the sweet side with the BBQ sauce but with a little tang from the sour cream. I found with a little more mayo on there, I liked it.  I can’t say I was in love with the sauce though. The chicken itself is really tasty and the freshly made buns are really good—very soft and light.

My daughter had a cheeseburger ($4.99 for a single plus fries and a drink for an additional $2.99). Honestly, I may have liked the cheeseburger slightly more than the chicken sandwich—same yummy bun and very juicy beef that they ground in house. For a fast food-ish place, they do a lot of things in house, which I appreciate. They call the fries shoestring—I think they aren’t that thin, but they were tasty. They are lightly battered and were nice and crisp, even if I have my doubts that they are making those in house.

My daughter had a chocolate milkshake ($2.99)—it was fine, nothing that really made it stand out. The menu says they’re hand-dipped but it tasted pretty one-dimensional.

All in all, for a quick meal that’s not quite fast food, and extremely family friendly in Noblesville (and not a chain, or at least a very small one-looks like there are two), I think it’s a good option. I could see eating here fairly regularly with my kids for a quick lunch if it were in my neighborhood. Nothing mind-blowing, but all good quality. And I really enjoyed the buns.

Jaggers

14570 Mundy Drive

Noblesville IN

317/773-3085

www.eatjaggers.com  

Rosie's Place - Revisit

I wrote about Rosie’s awhile back, but I had not been there with the family, so one Sunday we felt like a drive and headed up to Noblesville. I think Noblesville has done a nice job with their old town center—keeping the historical buildings intact as well as supporting pretty much only locally owned businesses. I think that’s pretty impressive these days.

Anyway, we only had to wait a couple of minutes, even though the place was doing a hustling business. They have a pretty large menu (breakfast and lunch available) but all of us but my son were lured in by specials on this day.

I had a special breakfast sandwich with eggs that were scrambled with fresh chives, gouda cheese, fresh spinach and bacon all on challah bread. There were breakfast potatoes served with it. My favorite part of the sandwich was the perfectly toasty bread—a slightly sweet, eggy bread sliced just the right thickness. It was so light and buttery, it almost fell apart as you ate it. The eggs were nicely done as well. They weren’t overcooked and had a nice lightness to them that is often hard to find in a busy breakfast place—and they were lightly seasoned as well. The other ingredients were fine. The bacon had good flavor, although it was little tiny pieces of bacon scattered on top which maybe easier to sort of portion over the sandwich, but they fell off when you were eating them ad I never got a good 

bacon-y bite. I preferred the bites of my son’s full pieces of bacon. The spinach was fresh and plentiful. The potatoes were just too soft and weren't really anything special.

Hubby had a special—the shrimp and grits (of course he did). Unfortunately, this dish was not very good. There was a large lump of the grits in the middle—and they were quite firm and not the slightly soupy, looser grits he prefers. There were several seasoned shrimps scattered around, but sadly, they were also a little on the firm side. Actually, now that I think of it, the eggs on top were also pretty darn firm with little runny yolk on them.  They were also sprinkled with bits of bacon. So yeah, this one sort of got the thumbs down. Just too firm and dry.

My daughter had another special—the "Samoas" pancakes. That’s right, Samoas like the girl scout cookies. Talk about decadent. There were three pancakes with chocolate ganache between each one, and more on top. Then, they also topped the chocolate on the top with a mound of caramelly coconut. This was pretty darn tasty. Ok, if I ate this for breakfast, I would be in a sugar coma for hours, but the chocolately bites I had were really good (the chocolate ganache is very good). My kids, on the other hand, were happy to finish it off. 

Rosie’s is a solid, friendly neighborhood place. This meal had its ups and downs for sure, but if it were my neighborhood, I am sure it would be a fairly frequent stop. The menu is very accessible, it’s family friendly and the ingredients are fresh.

Rosie’s Place

68 North 9^th Street

Noblesville, IN 46060

317/770-3322

http://rosiesplace.net/ 

Best Bet - Revisit

I was picking my son up from baseball camp in Fishers the other day and I knew he would be starving after, so I wanted to find a place nearby that would be fast and kid friendly (and preferably local) for lunch. So Best Bet seemed like a good bet.

I have been before and was interested to see what they offered for lunch. It’s mostly burgers, and a few other sandwiches, but what ended up sounding good to me were the breakfast tacos so that’s what I went with. The menu is pretty straightforward and so is the food. 

They bring you a bread basket of toast and one little cinnamon doughnut type thing per person. You can ask for more toast by flipping over a little sign to let them know you want more.  I enjoyed the doughnut—it was hot and had a lot of cinnamon sugar on it—nice little sweet treat (and available only on weekdays I believe).

My breakfast tacos were good, but I can’ t anything jumped out about them. There were scrambled eggs, cheese and chorizo with salsa and sour cream on the side. The eggs weren’t overcooked, but there wasn’t a lot of seasoning other than exactly the ingredients mentioned. Tortillas with cheese, eggs and chorizo and the chorizo wasn’t overly spicy. Two of the tacos were stuffed really full and one wasn’t. Regardless, this was a pretty darn big meal for me. The breakfast potatoes on the side were a little mushy for my taste, but I am not a big home fries person unless they have really nice crispy edges.

My daughter’s burger was certainly a freshly made patty and she enjoyed it. I would have liked it a little less cooked, but I am sure that is not surprising (they don’t ask). And she had a big owl of cottage cheese on the side. My son had pancakes and bacon. The bacon was pretty tasty and nicely crunchy. The server offered to cut his food for him and then did, which I thought was nice, but maybe a little strange.  They also ask your names when you are first seated—last time I found it more friendly, and this time, it just seemed a little forced, although our server was certainly friendly enough. 

There’s a gambling theme about the place for sure and my kids were intrigued by it, and wanted to come back when they each were handed a poker chip on the way out.

It’s a decent, straightforward, simple breakfast (and lunch) place. The food is certainly not fancy or especially creative, but if you want a locally owned restaurant in that area for some bacon and eggs, it isn’t a bad bet.

Best Bet

14300 Mundy Drive

Noblesville, IN  46060

317/776-1136

Uptown Café

***September 2013: currently closed. Supposed to open under new management***

Always looking for new places to go with the family, we headed to Noblesville to try Uptown Café. I have wanted to try it for a while, and many have recommended it.  It was a Sunday and we went with the expectation of a wait, and prepared the kids for it. Luckily it was a nice day, and we only had to wait about 15 minutes.

There’s a good chance you might have to wait because the place is pretty small—and a lot of the seating is bar seating and tables for 2.  We finally got into a little booth in the back and looked over the menu (under the glass on the tables). It is a cute little old-fashioned diner type place. They do several good sounding breakfast items as well as several lunch choices.  It was after noon though, so hubby and I went with lunch.

I had the “Kirstie’s grilled cheese” (which with add-ons was $9.87).  The basic sandwich is grilled Parmesan crusted bread with spinach, tomato, and American and pepper jack cheese.  The menu lists the bacon and avocado as add-ons.  Of course, those are two excellent additions to any sandwich, so they were added.  It was a very good sandwich with very good bacon and a nice generous portion of ripe avocado. Honestly, I have decided maybe I don’t like the whole sort of burnt cheese phenomenon as good as it sounds.  The bread was coated with Parmesan which was perfectly grilled, but it was a pretty strong burnt cheese flavor. I ordered a side of has browns off the breakfast menu and they were some of the best hash browns I have had in this town (and I am kind of picky).  They tasted freshly made and had a nice crispy edge to them. I had to protect them from hubby’s fork a few too many times.

I was liking my sandwich pretty well and then I tasted hubby’s. It was better. (Damn, I hate it when that happens.)  Luckily, he took pity on me and we shared half and half (he says it’s how he proves his love).  And it wasn’t that mine was bad at all, it’s just, well, his was better. He had the roasted chicken flatbread sandwich with chips (8.79).  It was a piece of flatbread, sort of like a pita type thing that was wrapped around chicken breast, spinach, bacon, mushrooms, pepper jack and had honey Dijon mayo.  I had considered ordering this myself, but am always wary of chicken on sandwiches, particularly breast because often they’re just big hunks of rubbery meat that taste like nothing and are hard to eat.  This was not like that. The chicken was in small pieces (almost like shredded pieces) and was mixed with the other things.  The honey Dijon mayo made it really good.  There’s gotta be something like that to pull a sandwich together (I think something like this would help on my sandwich). Again, the bacon was very good as well.  I really liked the flatbread and am now very intrigued by the breakfast sandwich that comes on the same bread.  My only complaint is all the fillings were sort of lumped into one place inside the bread and they needed to be re-proportioned a bit.  But I didn’t mind doing this myself.

I do like the interesting bread they are using and the extremely fresh high quality ingredients.  Once we were seated our server was super nice, and very efficient.  My kids both had a stack of French toast sticks that they really liked as well.

I have to say, Noblesville has got some nice options for breakfast and lunch (I really enjoyed Rosie’s as well) and I am a little jealous. I wish there were more places like this around my house.  I am confident we will return to Uptown—I am anxious to try the breakfast things. And hubby is anxious to get more hash browns. Plus the kids really liked it.  That kind of agreement in our family rarely happens when it comes to restaurants.

Uptown Café

809 Conner Street

Noblesville, IN 46060

317/674-8668

www.uptowncafenoblesville.com

Kobayashi

If there is one thing I have taught my kids (and hopefully there is more than one) it is that it is good to try lots of new restaurants. Usually they are pretty game, but sometimes they roll their eyes and wonder why they just can’t go to one of their favorites (the answer is because there are only so many times we can eat at Steak ‘n Shake and MCL), Anyway, I find it is best to just announce the new destination enthusiastically and they’ll be pretty happy.

They generally like eating at Japanese restaurants because they like teriyaki and various things like that (and an occasional piece of tuna).  We decided to hit the road and hit Kobayashi up in Noblesville after a quick twitter poll revealed most of you (although not all) who have been there like it pretty well.

The restaurant calls itself “Sushi and Asian Kitchen” and they have several non-Japanese options on the menu as well.  My daughter’s bento box came with soup and they offered miso or hot and sour and we decided to go with the hot and sour to start.  I quite liked it—it was chock full of all the typical hot and sour ingredients, including lots of tofu and had a decent spicy flavor.  If I could have made it perfect, it would have been slightly less thickened, and would have had a bit more of the “sour” part of its name, but overall, I would order it again. It’s interesting to me that miso doesn’t vary that much, but hot and sour varies so greatly.

Hubby and I shared a couple of different rolls—the Tiger roll ($10.95) and the Kobayashi roll ($10.95).  Both of them were pretty good, but I think I preferred the Tiger roll if I had to pick one.  It had shrimp tempura (which was nice and crunchy, which you know I like) and cucumber inside and then had alternating slices of salmon and avocado on top.  It was also drizzled with eel sauce and a thin mayo drizzle and sesame seeds. I liked that the majority of the eel sauce (a sweetened soy based sauce) was on the plate so you could sort of use what you wanted and the roll wasn’t overly gooey. I was surprised by the mayo because it wasn’t listed on the menu, but it was thin and lightly applied and didn’t detract.

Kobayashi Roll

The Kobayashi roll was good too, but it just seemed to be missing some pizzazz or something. Honestly, I think it was missing the ponzu sauce ingredient that was listed on the menu (or it was so lightly used, you could barely taste it). Anyway, it had spicy tuna and avocado inside and then very lightly seared tuna on top (and some sesame seeds).  I appreciated that the spicy tuna clearly had good quality tuna in it.  I wouldn’t say it was overly spicy though. If I could have tasted the ponzu a bit more, I think I would have liked this one better.  But overall, the ingredients were good, the rolls were not ridiculously large and they were well put together.

My daughter had a bento box lunch special which is a great deal at $6.95 (this is not a kid’s meal, anyone can get this deal).  You get a protein (she got chicken teriyaki), a couple of California roll pieces, salad, the soup I mentioned before, rice, and a few pieces of tempura (there was a carrot, an onion ring, and a piece of potato I believe).  The chicken was not bad—seemed like a more marinated kind of teriyaki than a saucy one, but the chicken was fairly tender.  The real standout of the kids’ meals though was my son’s chicken katsu meal.  So katsu is just a cutlet that is breaded and fried, but wow, this was incredibly tender chicken. My son was annoyed when we all kept grabbing a piece.  Who knew?  I mean it is basically just a Japanese version of chicken fingers right? But tasty.

Anyhow, if I lived in Noblesville, I can see this being a place I might frequent for a causal meal (interesting bbq restaurant turned into Japanese restaurant décor makes it hard for me to buy into for a nice dinner out). 

Kobayashi

2295 Greenfield Avenue

Noblesville, IN 46060

317/774-8188

http://www.kobayashisushi.com

Rosie's Place

I had to be way north the other day, so naturally my mind wandered to where I could grab lunch that was new.  I thought of Rosie’s because several people have recommended it and I have read about it a couple places.  I didn’t realize it was right on the square in Noblesville—right in between the Asian Grill and Matteo’s. It’s a pretty big place, and I loved all the sweets piled up as you walked in.  The lady who greeted me (and was my server as well) was super nice and very friendly.

The menu is half breakfast items and half lunch—the lunch side is made up mainly of salads and sandwiches.  I was torn about which way to go—honestly, everything sounded good and I am really looking forward to trying breakfast as well. Those breakfast tacos have my name on them.

So in order to try as many things as possible since I was by myself, I got a “pick two” ($7.50) and had a half sandwich and a soup—ok, and I also got a side of mac and cheese ($2.50).  The sandwich I got was the roast turkey club.  The sandwich was sliced turkey, bacon, slices of cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato and basil mayo.  A sandwich like this can go one of two ways—it can be fine, but kind of boring, or there can be something special that sets it apart.  This one was pretty special.  The main thing that made it for me was the basil mayo—it was really good—and was on the sandwich in an ample amount to actually taste it with just about every bite.  It added the tangy flavor that sets a sandwich like this apart (the thing that Taste does in spades). The bread was also really good too—it was fairly thick sliced wheat bread, but which was perfectly toasted and soft enough that it didn’t turn the sandwich too bready.  All the main ingredients were great too, but without that little extra that came from the mayo and the great bread, it would have just been a sandwich.

I had a cup of one of the soup specials—the chicken velvet, which is a popular Hoosier specialty. I mean I assume it is served in other places, but you certainly see it in Indiana a lot. I know it was a famous item from the LS Ayres tea room, but I wonder where it was actually invented. Anyway, I have had it several places before, and this one was good—I mean this is a soup based on cream and butter that is thickened and has hunks of chicken added—it is super rich, and this was no exception, but it was well done and I was amazed with how tender the pieces of chicken were that were in there.  So often with soup, because the chicken has been heated so long, it tends to get tough and stringy, but this chicken was not.

The mac and cheese is homemade, and it wasn’t bad, although it didn’t blow me away.  It is a creamy sauce, although it isn’t a really saucy mac and cheese.  There was also melted shredded cheese on top. I would probably add a little more seasoning to it (I added salt and pepper and then liked it a lot more) because it was a little bland on its own. 

All in all, this is hearty stick to your ribs kind of food done with just the right amount of flair—when the weather is warm again, I look forward to trying one of their many salads—they sound really good as well.  The ingredients being used are high quality and they are appealing to down home sensibilities, but at the same time offering some slight twists on classics.  The day I was there they were offering a fried pork tenderloin sandwich as well—it looked pretty intriguing. My server was really friendly, and I left the place feeling full and like I had been well taken care of.  I certainly would like to go back and try some other things.  I also would love to hear other recommendations for Rosie’s or Noblesville in general if you have them.

Rosie’s Place

68 North 9^th Street

Noblesville, IN 46060

317/770-3322

http://rosiesplace.net/

Best Bet

Based on recommendations from readers, hubby and I headed north to Noblesville for a new breakfast spot.  It was a Sunday, and there was a bit of a wait.  We settled on bar seating because we looked around and realized we were going to wait a fair amount of time if we wanted a table.  Hubby usually isn’t a fan of bar seating because he likes a back on his chairs, but it actually turned out nice because we got to watch them cook everything.  The kitchen is really small—mainly just the area behind the bar with one large griddle on which is mainly piled their breakfast potatoes (“Ava potatoes”).  The place is decorated in a gambling theme which is carried through on the menu.

So I had “The Bluff” which was 3 eggs, your choice of sausage (2 patties) or bacon (2 slices), their “Ava” potatoes and a bottomless basket of buttered wheat toast ($6.50).  This is sort of a large meal for me, I would never eat three eggs at once (and only ate two on this visit), but there aren’t a lot of options for smaller breakfasts—and most of them are actually bigger than this one.  So I liked the bottomless toast concept. They give you a little disc that you can turn over to one side if you want more or the other if you don’t.  The toast was clearly buttered with real butter and it was nice because the toast was always fresh and hot when you wanted it.

The eggs were cooked perfectly over medium.  The bacon wasn’t bad, but didn’t really stand out to me for anything—hubby had the sausage patties which they made from a ball of the fresh sausage and flattened on the grill (see how much I learned sitting at the bar?).  They were much better than the bacon I thought.

So it was interesting watching them work on the potatoes the whole time—they were more like home fries, chunks of cooked potatoes that were put on the grill and continually cooked with melted butter, fresh onions and seasoning salt being added all along the way.  Because I saw them when we sat down, I ordered mine well done, because I like some crunch with my potatoes—normally they are more of a soft, almost creamy consistency (with as much butter as they were putting in there, it makes sense they would be creamy.).  The thing I liked was how they were using pretty pure ingredients in the food.  And they accommodated me and fried them a little more right on the grill before they served them to me and they were pretty tasty.  I am still a hash brown girl at heart, but I liked the crispy bits.

The other thing I really liked about the place was although it was quite busy, the owner was there, and everyone working seemed invested in the place. Our server introduced herself and asked our names when we sat down and wrote them on our check with her thank you.  The owner came to us, as well as everyone else, and checked on us a couple of times.  There is certainly pride in the place.  The food is good, the service very good (although it takes awhile when they are busy with a kitchen that small—but it is not for lack of efficiency in the kitchen).  It is a warm, family friendly breakfast spot and if it were in my neighborhood, I would probably return just because of the hospitality—and the food hit the spot too.

Best Bet

14300 Mundy Drive

Noblesville, IN  46060

317/776-1136

The Local Eatery & Pub

My Dad and I laughed on the way to the place about the fact that it was pretty much a guarantee that one of us would like this place and the other would not, since we rarely tend to agree on restaurants, but they were game for trying somewhere new with me anyway.  We were on the Northside, so we figured we would check out The Local, based on a a lot of recommendations.

So it is in a strip mall at 146th and Gray Road, and is somewhat set back, which is probably somewhat of a disadvantage (and based on all the signs on the roadside saying they are open, my guess is a lot of people have no clue there is a restaurant back there).  But we knew it was there, and headed in.  The first thing I noticed was the entrance is somewhat disjointed from the place.  There is a bar side and a restaurants side with a door somewhat in the middle that hardly looks connected to either part.  But we went in and were promptly seated in the bar (I am assuming if you had a kid with you, you would be seated on the other side, although there was no one over there the day we were there).

So they sort of pride themselves on making things in house, with the exception of the tator tots that are on the menu.  So we tried a variety of things.  Let me start with the highlight of the meal--my Dad ordered the chicken fried pork tenderloin sandwich.  It was really good.  The breading a little lighter and I don't know, more loosely stuck to the meat than your usual pork tenderloin.  Not so crunchy I guess.  But this was a damn good sandwich.  The pork itself was really tender, and as my Dad pointed out, there wasn't a single bite that was fatty or gristly at all (I only had about a quarter of the sandwich).  There was a nice flavor in there too that was a little horseradish-y almost.  Not sure if they seasoned up the mayo a bit, but the sandwich had just a tiny bit of a kick.  It was served on a properly portioned soft bun with lettuce and red onion. It was well done.

Mom and I split the fried chicken drumsticks and the mushroom and goat cheese flat bread as well as some of their hand cut fries.  Interestingly, there were wings and the drumsticks on the menu, and they first brought us an order of the wings by mistake which we sent back.  But the drumsticks were way larger than the wings, and looked so much better (although I didn't try the wings).  They were regular sized legs that were fried and rolled in sauce, much like wings (we got the regular barbecue sauce) but were nice because they were so much bigger. There were 5 of them on the plate (even though the picture only shows 4).  The meat was maybe a touch dry, but the sauce was flavorful, with a smoky flavor with just a touch of heat.  They need to give you some wet wipes with these though--eating barbecue sauce coated chicken legs makes for some serious sticky fingers.  But would I order them again? Not with that tenderloin as an option.

The big disappointment of the day was the flatbread. Honestly, we thought it was pretty bad.  The crust was that thin cracker-type crust which can be good when done right, but this one was really soft under the toppings and really hard on the edges.  And the "sauce" on the flatbread was basically a caramelized onion paste that was spread around on the crust.  It was topped with dollops of goat cheese and slices of what seemed like completely raw shitake mushrooms.  This thing just did not come together at all for me.  The whole thing wasn't warm enough, and the mushrooms should have been cooked.  Preferably like sauteed with some seasonings beforehand---especially if you are using this kind of a mushroom--they were really dense.  The toppings over all just came across as too dry. I don't know how you would fix this, as there were so many things going wrong with it in my mind.  My mom agreed and refused to even take the leftovers home (my parents are big leftover people).

The fries were handmade and had a nice flavor--they were maybe just a little soft for me, but on the whole, I liked them.  But again, a place only serving ketchup alongside, which seems uninspired to me.

I guess I didn't expect quite so many bar food type things on the menu---from what people were telling me, I was expecting something a little more fresh food oriented or something, and less of all the deep fried stuff.  But the tenderloin was good, worth ordering again (and with the fries). 

The Local Eatery & Pub
14655 Gray Road
Noblesville, IN 46062
317/218-3786
http://www.localeateryandpub.com/

Asian Grill

My sister is a Groupon addict and often buys Groupons for random restaurants all around the city, which works out well for me, because she tries places all over and when she finds one she really likes, she lets me know.  This is how we ended up at Asian Grill.  They went and liked it and then we all went together (and several of you guys had recommended it as well).  So, the first thing I noticed is that I think this may be one of maybe two or three restaurants in Indy I have been to that had a significant wait at 6:00.  Luckily we had made a reservation, so we didn’t have to wait the hour that many were waiting for a table (we did have to wait about 10-15 minutes past our reservation time).  Seriously, this place was heaving.  That always kind of gets me excited, because when you see so many people, you figure something must be good right?

So this is another of the restaurants that calls itself “pan-Asian” so it can incorporate various influences from various cuisines. They offer dishes that are Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Indian and Cambodian.  This seems to be a popular thing right now, and if it is being done well, it is sort of nice to have lots of different things to choose from.

We sat down at our table (which was unfortunately very close to the door which was opening quite frequently and which made for a very chilly spot--a curtain in front of the door might be nice) but we were just happy that we had a table!  We started with some apps—the crab wontons, the vegetable samosas, and the Thai beef salad.

My favorite of the apps was the samosas ($4.75).  There were two decent sized fried patties filled with seasoned potatoes (Indian spices) and some mixed veggies.  They were very hot and crispy and served with extremely fresh tasting cilantro chutney.  These are the kind of Indian flavors I like—especially the bright cilantro dip on top.  The crab wontons ($5.95) were a little different from most I had though because they were large triangles of wontons that were deep fried.  They were exceptionally hot when they came out of the kitchen.  Hubby likes these and was happy to have someone to agree to share them with him, since I usually refuse because they aren’t my favorite thing to order.  They were served with a thin, sweet sauce.  For crab wontons, they were good and hubby quite enjoyed them.

Crab Wontons



My least favorite thing was the Thai beef salad ($5.50) which I normally really like, but not in this case.  It is a cold beef salad, and the beef was actually tasty and tender, but the vegetables it was served with were pretty much all raw red and green pepper chunks, which are not my favorite thing to eat by the forkful.  In the past, I have had this served with lettuce and pickled red onions which I preferred.  It is described on the menu as being in red wine vinaigrette, but it seemed a bit sweeter than that to me.

Thai Beef Salad



We got three entrées and shared them.  They are really good sized, and in my opinion you could share one between 2 people.  Anyway, we had the Lok Lak Beef, the Orange Chicken, and Red Pepper Shrimp.  Actually, the main dishes were all good.  The Lok Lak Beef ($14.25) is Cambodian in origin and was large chunks of sirloin that were sautéed.  The edges were slightly crispy from what was probably caramelization of the marinade when the pieces of beef were sautéed.  It was served over sliced onions and with a side of cucumbers, lettuce and tomatoes.  The beef was really tender, and had a nice flavor of garlic that combined with the onions was really good.  This is a Cambodian variation of the Vietnamese Shaking Beef (speaking of which, I ran across the recipe online for the Slanted Door’s version—which was one of my favorites in San Francisco. Thought I would share here.) Anyway, I would certainly order this again.

Lok Lak Beef



My brother-in-law ordered the orange chicken ($12.50), which is something I never would have ordered on my own, because if just sounds too sweet, but this dish was quite good, and wasn’t as sweet as I would have thought.  It is described as having an orange pulp infused sauce—and while it was somewhat sweet, it did maintain a bit of the tangy flavor of the orange as well.  The pieces of chicken were white meat and were lightly battered and fried and pleasantly tender.

Red Pepper Shrimp

The pepper shrimp were also good ($14.50), although a little dry (as in, without sauce).  They were even more lightly breaded than the chicken and sort of dry fried and served with toasty peanuts, green onions, and red chilies.  The shrimp were a nice size and were cooked very well and were seasoned with black pepper.  All the dishes came with three types of rice—white rice, fried rice and seasoned Indian-style rice.  They were all good—the rice was a bit sticky, which is how I prefer it.

I have read some complaints about service, and I have to say, other than waiting past our reservation time to be seated, I was surprised with how good the service was.  They were certainly very busy, but we did not wait long for anything once we were seated.  We all really enjoyed the experience and I would say we will certainly be back.  I know some of you will say, how “authentic” is any of it?  But honestly, who am I to say what is authentic or not, when I have never been to Asia?  Much of it tasted good, and that is what I go by.

Asian Grill

74 North 9^th Street

Noblesville, IN 46060

317/773-9990

www.asiangrillindy.com

Matteo's Ristorante Italiano

With all the ringing endorsements for Matteo's the other day here on my blog, how could I not get over there and give it a try? As I often do with Italian, I invited several of my family members to go with us so I could try lots of things and because they tend not to be as jaded as I am about Italian food in Indy.

Matteo’s is in Noblesville right on the square—it is a very quaint and attractive location both outside and in. The interior feels warm and like it has been there a long time, although not in a cheesy kind of way. The room is much larger than I would expect from the outside and features tin ceilings and décor that makes you feel like you are in a nice restaurant, but not so nice that anyone would feel uncomfortable regardless of what they are wearing. Our server was exceptionally friendly and helpful, and although told us at one point she was one of the newer servers there, she seemed confident in her job, yet still easy going with us.

We started with several appetizers to share, the fried calamari, the pizza margherita, and the olive “all’ascolana.” The calamari was your typical fried calamari with both rings and leggy pieces and was served with marinara for dipping. I found the rings to be too chewy to be enjoyable, but the leggy bits were better. Overall though, this is not something I would order again.

The pizza was pretty good—everyone at the table seemed to enjoy it. Everyone also commented on how large it was (it was really like a regular pizza size and it had quite a bit of cheese and sauce). I don’t think anyone ate more than one piece though, because if you did, you very well might not want anything else. There were six of us so it was a great thing to try with that large of a group, but for fewer people, unless you want to make it your meal with a salad, it would probably be too much. It was a homemade thin crust pizza that had been grilled and topped with marinara, cheese and a bit of basil. The crust was nice and crunchy. There was more cheese on there than I expected, but again, it was quite enjoyable.

Finally we had the olive “all’ascolana” which were large green olives stuffed with ground veal and deep fried and served with Alfredo sauce. My Dad and I were both intrigued with these (I get my love of green olives from him, and my love of black olives from Mom) because we both love olives so much and this was an unusual preparation. The thing I liked about them is they were almost like a meatball in some ways, but the olive kept them a bit moister and gave them the salty/tangy kick you get from an olive. If I am not mistaken, there was a bit of cheese stuffed in there with the veal as well. You definitely needed something to dip them in, but I am not sure if the Alfredo was the right choice. A little too rich for me. These were overall quite interesting, and I enjoyed them because they were different, but would I order them again? I am not sure.

We all got different entrées, and I tried as many of them as I could. I had the seafood special which was Corvina fish served over seasoned rice with a light cream sauce, artichokes, olives and tomatoes. Corvina is a fairly firm white fish. In this presentation it was pan seared and was cooked very well. It was tender and flaky and I really enjoyed it. The cream sauce was light and buttery and not over the top—I loved the flavor of the artichokes and olives and tomatoes to get that acidic kick that I always enjoy, but it was all well balanced with the slight richness of the sauce. I liked that large high quality olives were used in the sauce, not just green and black salad olives. These were large kalamatas and maybe cerignolas? Anyway, they were large enough; they had to be cut in half in the preparation, which I also liked because you got just the right amount in each bite. I didn’t eat a lot of the rice (I am not a huge rice pilaf person) but what I did have was nice and tender and mildly seasoned.

Hubby had the “Tortellini Matteo’s” which apparently has won some local awards throughout the years for best pasta in Indy. These were your classic tortellini stuffed with cheese, and covered in a light cream sauce with ham, mushrooms, onion and parmesan cheese. Hubby was very pleased with these and found them very tasty. I had several bites of his as well and liked the ham and onion flavor imparted in the sauce, and the fact that the sauce just lightly coated all the pasta, and that it wasn’t totally swimming in it. Just enough to give it a nice flavor and texture, but not overwhelm the cheese flavor in the pasta. It was hearty and good. Hubby thought it was one of the best tortellini dishes he has had in Indy, but I don’t know that I would say it was the best pasta in Indy.

My sister, who was sitting on the opposite side of me, had the filet mignon baked in puff pastry and served with a garlic, roasted pine nut and gorgonzola cream sauce. The steak was cooked very nicely medium rare, although she ordered it medium. She didn’t care, because she likes both (and I was happy because I prefer medium rare). The steak was nice. I liked the puff pastry as well, the bite I had had a decent crispiness to it. The sauce being served on the side was probably for the best, or the whole thing would have gotten too soggy. I only got a bit of the sauce on my bite, but my sister said it had a decent garlic and gorgonzola flavor to it.

My Mom had another one of the day’s specials that sounded very intriguing and I was glad she got it. It was crepes stuffed with pears and asiago cheese and covered in a very light cheese sauce. It was very unique, and while at first it almost sounded like a dessert to me, once I tasted it, it still had a soft savory flavor to it. It was quite delicate, but really quite good. I don’t know if I could have eaten a whole order of it myself, but I certainly enjoyed the bites I had.

My Dad had the veal picatta which I probably had the least amount of. He enjoyed it and said he thought the portion was very generous and that the lemon sauce was nice. We both right away missed the capers that were not present, and I think they would have made this dish better. The bite I had was okay, but probably my least favorite thing on the table. The sauce had the right buttery/lemony flavor, but some capers would have brought it together.

Of course, even though we had had way too much food, we had to try dessert, mainly because we had seen other servers making bananas foster tableside and we all agreed we needed to try it. The lady who made it (the hostess maybe?) was quite charming and explained that she had only lit one person on fire the entire time she had done it. And as it happened, that man was sitting at the table next to us, so obviously having his shoe set on fire did not deter him from returning. She first made caramel sauce, then sautéed the bananas in it and flambéed it all with several types of liqueur and served it over vanilla ice cream. I appreciated the fact that they made what was meant to be a serving for two people into a small individual serving for each of us. The one universal thing that everyone commented on was that they liked this dish (Dad said he only wished they kept the ice cream cold while cooking he rest because it was kind of mushy by the time we got it).

So in conclusion, I thank you guys who have been telling me to go to Matteo’s, as we had a nice meal. Matteo’s does a great job with ambiance and service for sure and that alone would likely lure me back. Food-wise, I would say it is certainly better than a lot of the Italian places in Indy that I have been. However, I still think based on my experiences to date; Indy is lacking a truly outstanding Italian place.

Matteo’s Ristorante Italiano
40 North 9th Street
Noblesville, IN 46060
317/774-9771
www.matteosindy.com