Plow and Anchor - Revisit

Even though I have written about Plow and Anchor a couple of times, I feel like this is almost a new post because they have a new chef in the kitchen—Toby Moreno. He took over this winter after John Adams left. Apparently he came from Restaurant Tallent in Bloomington.

I was excited to see all the cold meat and seafood dishes listed as appetizers on the menu—there was a tuna crudo, beef tartare, and rock shrimp ceviche on the night we were there. These kinds of offerings just get me excited.  I was also happy to see a few changes that have been made to the restaurant and the menu. They have taken out those too low, and too hard to get in and out of, church pews that looked cool but just were not user friendly. They have replaced them with regular chairs.  They have also added fries to go with their burger, which was something I have heard a lot of complaints about from people.

If I wasn’t going to get the beef tartare ($13), I would have tried the burger, but that seemed like a bit of overkill. The beef tartare though? It was awesome. Really super delicious. One of those things that when I think of it, I want to eat it again right now. It had a lot of the classic tartare ingredients—the raw beef, capers, mustard and a quail egg on top, which were all great and all things I love in tartare, but they also included some other more unique ingredients that pushed it over the top in deliciousness. There were little dices of Ol’ Kentucky Tomme cheese, bits of bread and butter pickles and bacon all mixed in there. I’m telling you, it was a great combination of flavors and textures. The cheese sort of stands in for the egg that is often included, but gave it some softness and creaminess and the bacon lent some smokiness and a little chewiness that was nice. Plus all the kick and salt from the capers and mustard and it was just great. They’re still doing the little fried fingerling potato chips, which are very tasty and very crunchy, but still a little challenging to use for stacking a hearty topping such as this.

We also shared the rock shrimp ceviche ($13), which was also very delicious and very different from the tartare. The little rock shrimp were marinated in orange instead of the more traditional lime or lemon, giving it a little bit of a sweeter flavor. There were pieces of smoked jalapenos, radish and grilled knob onions mixed in with it. It was all served on top of a black sesame tostada, which gave the whole dish a slightly Asian bent. I wished for a bit more of the tostada part, because you started to run out of it before you ran out of the toppings and the crunch of it was one of the things that made it so good. I loved the smoky flavor of the peppers, taking some of the edge off of them. I also appreciate the pieces of orange to add more acid, which the dish needed. Honestly, I would have liked even a bit more, maybe a squeeze of lime. But all in all, a really great, unique and creative dish. Hubby and I went back and forth about which we liked best. In the end I think this was his fave, while the tartare was mine.

I was so enamored with the appetizer part of the menu that I went ahead and ordered another one for my main dish—the octopus ($13). This was long tentacle pieces, smoked potatoes, fava beans (yay spring!), romesco, pickled chilis and crispy onions. Again, another beautiful and complex dish. I love that this chef integrates some acid in almost everything and the pickled chilis made the dish for me. The smoky potatoes were also creative and added a nice flavor with the grilled octopus. Lots of texture going on here too, which makes me happy.

Hubby was in the mood for a steak and was intrigued by the ribeye ($38), which is one of his favorite cuts when it’s done properly. This was one of those times. The meat is well marbled but was cooked just right allowing it to remain tender.  There was also this really awesome broccoli side dish with the steak—“Brianna broccoli.”  So I actually really like broccoli, but I would never get excited about it at a restaurant. Usually I find restaurant broccoli to be barely cooked and boring. This was delicious. I’m not sure what “Brianna” means when it comes to broccoli, but it was creamy and cheesy and had some onions mixed in there. Hubby and  are still talking about the broccoli.  There were also potato hash and housemade steak sauce. It was a top-notch dish.

Things were going so well, we really felt like we needed to try a dessert too and see if the kithen could carry through such a great meal. As it turns out, it did. We had the ice cream sandwich with blood orange confit and semifreddo, Melomakarona and candied walnuts ($8). I was just sort of intrigued by the fact that I couldn’t remember having a dessert like this. The outside of the sandwich was sort of the texture of a graham cracker and I loved the sweetness of it and the candied walnuts with the tartness of the blood orange. The melmakarona is a type of Greek cookie that involves honey, a cookie and walnuts. Clearly all those flavors were present here, although I think raised a level with the addition of the citrus.

All in all, a top notch meal. The kind of dinner that makes you excited about dinner out. Everything fell into place, and the food was all excellent. I look forward to returning soon.

Plow and Anchor

43 E. 9^th Street

Indy  46219

317/964-0538

www.plowandanchor.com

Plow and Anchor - Revisit

Hubby and I wanted to check out Plow and Anchor again now that they’ve been open awhile and settled into their groove. They definitely are—the service was spot on all night, drinks delivered quickly and food paced perfectly. I was also happy to see the place so busy—it was Devour Downtown and I am sure that helped bring people in. I then ended up meeting some girlfriends there a week or two later for lunch—so, bonus, you get two meals in one post.

We started with an order of the salmon tartare ($9)(I’ve been wanting to order this since I have seen it on the menu). It was delicious. Super fresh chopped raw salmon, mixed with lots of capers and dill (hubby isn’t as big a fan of dill, but I loved it). Lots of lemon and some crème fraiche dollops alongside. The salty housemade fingerling chips went great with it, even though you need to eat them like a garnish on your fork because they’re too small and delicate to scoop with. There was a raw quail egg on top as well adding a luscious creamy texture to the whole thing. It was as good, if not better, than I expected and I will be hard pressed not to order it every time it’s on the menu. It’s a little on the smaller side—we shared it, but I could easily eat it on my own.

The fried fish tacos ($5 each) were great as well. We ordered two and we were each glad we got our own. Lightly battered lake trout (I think the fish changes though) was tender and juicy and topped with so much deliciousness—lots of dressed cabbage, guacamole, harissa adobo sauce, as well as crema. There was exactly the right amount of ingredients to make for a perfectly balanced taco, both in textures and juiciness, but also with spice and acid. They served a lime wedge alongside and you didn’t really even need it (and you know that’s saying something coming from me). Another hard to pass up item for me.

For our mains, I had the ricotta gnocchi ($18) and hubby the duck entrée. They were both very good. We argued over which was better. I liked that even though the gnocchi was rich and creamy, there was a fair amount of lemon and other flavors as well. There was arugula, which gave it some pepperiness, the lemon zest as I mentioned, and some mushrooms giving it different texture from the creamy gnocchi and earthy flavors. It was still so rich I couldn’t finish it all, but really tasty. Hubby’s duck dish had a layer of crispy seared fingerling potatoes topped with wonderfully cooked duck (nice and pink) and N’duja sausage, which now may be one of hubby’s favorite things—it’s a softer sausage and added a salty kick to the dish. It was topped with a runny egg and a corn/herby sauce. There was also a saffron aioli underneath that added just the right amount of tanginess. A really well executed dish.  Hubby couldn’t stop talking about it while he was eating it.

I really wanted to try a cheese course for dessert because we hadn’t to date, so we did. Overall, it was a really nice job. There were five different cheeses, in varying flavor profiles and firmness. I liked that there was a couple of blues, because they are some of my favorite kinds to eat at dessert with something sweet—like the preserves they served here. The bread was also good, although maybe a little thinner and more toasted would have been ideal. My only complaint was that as much as I love olives, I don’t feel like they belong on a dessert cheese board. Give me some nuts or dried fruit. Leave the olives for an appetizer cheese board.

A week or so later when I met some girlfriends for lunch, it was all I could do to not order the fish tacos for lunch, but I was able to resist when I saw the lobster roll ($19) on the menu. You know I love a lobster roll. I did not manage to not get the salmon tartare and split that again with one of my friends as an appetizer. As delicious as the first time. I could eat this all day. When I got my lobster roll, I questioned it. The lobster just looked plain, not like I was expecting. However, there was aioli hiding under the lettuce (normally the lobster is tossed in it) and there was a seasoned butter that seemed to be mixed with the lobster meat as well. The wedge of lemon also helped. They dressed it more like a po boy with lettuce, pickles and red onions. Like I said, different from what I was expecting, but still good. As good as the tacos? No, but I’m glad I tried it. 

I also had a bite of a friend’s broccoli bisque ($7) and enjoyed that as well. It was a chunky soup, the way I like it. Hunks of broccoli and Portobello mushrooms. Loved the fried leeks on top. There was also a Serrano ham and melon plate ($8) that was simple and tasty—the melon sweet and the pork salty. There was a bit of balsamic and some pieces of fresh basil. The kind of bites that just taste like summer. A bite of another friend’s BLT ($10) was not as successful—it was one of those sandwiches that were too big and sloppy to eat without getting frustrated. I think they should lose the third piece of bread and try to make a more cohesive sandwich on this one. Great ingredients—Goose bacon, guacamole, egg, tomato, lettuce and aioli—but just a mess to eat.

All in all, I’m psyched to have Plow and Anchor to add to my “favorite restaurants” rotation. It is good to have the list expanding again instead of shrinking.

Plow and Anchor

43 E. 9^th Street

Indy  46219

317/964-0538

http://plowandanchor.com/

Plow and Anchor

I was really psyched about Plow and Anchor opening—I am glad to see John Adams back in Indy. I have enjoyed his cooking for years both at Bluebeard and H2O Sushi (he does know me, so my visits here are not anonymous). I was so excited I couldn’t wait the requisite few weeks I try to always wait before trying a new restaurant and went the first week. I’m basing this review off the second visit a couple weeks later (I don’t think it’s really fair to review a place based on the first week), but will reference a couple of the dishes from the first visit too.

First, I love the fact that the menu changes fairly frequently. For me, this makes it a place you want to go more often. Luckily both times we went with friends willing to order lots of stuff and share, so I got to try a lot of things (so I apologize in advance for the length of this post). Probably my favorite appetizer from both times (and it was from my first visit) was the lamb tartare. The meat was served on crisp toast with an egg yolk underneath. It had the exact perfect amount of acidity and saltiness to balance the rich flavor of the raw meat and egg. They did a salmon version the following week that I really wanted to try but they didn’t have it when I was in. If they have tartare and I’m there, I’m ordering it.

I also really enjoyed the prawn Louie starter ($11). A Louie salad is one of my favorite salads, and I make them frequently at home—this was more of a deconstructed, lettuce-less version, but was super tasty. There was wonderful perfectly cooked shrimp, hearts of palm, avocado, boiled eggs, tomatoes, a few olives and a chili mayo (their take on a Louie dressing, which is basically chili sauce with mayo and other ingredients.). Honestly, how could I not love it? It was a bunch of my favorite things and it was done well. There was enough of the dressing to get in every bite. Simple, but every ingredient flawless.

We all shared the pig tail croquettes ($7)—some of the better ones I have had. They had a nice porky flavor and were very tender inside but hot and crisp on the outside. Sometimes I feel like croquettes are too bready, but these were spot on. Loved the pickled mustard seed sauce on top and the ham hock rouille (a thick olive oil-based sauce) underneath. A tomato salad was also quite good-chunks of tomato mixed with vinaigrette and parmesan. Reminds me of the version from H2O.

The chicken liver toast ($7) was also tasty. This one is certainly on the rich side, as liver-based dishes usually are. It had a Sherry-based sauce to it, onion confit and summer savory. The livers were nice and tender and I appreciated a bit of fresh crunch from a few fresh red onions on top. Definitely a sharing dish for me though because it was so rich.

Scapes and scallops

We all shared a side of the garlic scapes with lemon zest and parmesan ($6). So scapes are the flower stalks that come out of some garlic plants in the garden—I love that people think to eat all this stuff. They are sort of like a denser crisp green bean with a more garlicky flavor. A nice side dish to share to get a full on vegetable-type dish.

The most disappointing appetizer for me was the scallop crudo ($9). I was expecting this sort of super-composed dish with very thinly sliced scallops across the plate with the shaved asparagus, pickled strawberries, watercress, jalapeno and avocado sliced and lightly placed around and on top (and actually my mental vision of the dish seems to appear on the home page of Plow and Anchor’s website, so maybe it was just an off night?). The dish was more like a soup with a ton of small but whole raw scallops in the ponzu sauce and the other ingredients on top. Even though there was a fair amount of the broth, I felt like it didn’t have enough flavor. I was kind of excited about the pickled strawberries too, but they were also very very lightly pickled for me.

I ordered the octopus tartine ($13) for my main dish, although it is an appetizer. I ordered it because the octopus panzanella we shared the first time was so good. This was similar and also very good. The chef has a knack for getting octopus very tender. The dish had a somewhat salty flavor with olives and the seasoning on the octopus itself, but it was balanced nicely with the chorizo yogurt. I liked it and would order it again, but would prefer to share it with others as an appetizer just because of the salty flavors.

Hubby ordered the roasted halibut ($26) and it was very well prepared as well. The fish, which can so easily become tough if overcooked, retained its delicate texture and was really nice with the spring pea nage, butter-poached radishes and the ramp greens.

A couple of bites of the orecchiette ($16) with mussels and clams in an heirloom tomato broth with kale and snap peas were very good as well. I thought at first glance the broth might be bland, but it had a great flavor both from the kale and the tomatoes. I maybe preferred the version of this from the first visit, which was served with a spicy tomato sauce and spaghetti, but both were worth ordering. Another friend had the plancha burger ($14), which he really enjoyed—it was a big messy burger made with a combination of meats in the patty and topped with drunken goat cheese, onion jam and spicy ketchup. The only downside is with all the toppings, the bun could not hold up. It was pretty soggy by the end. 

Speaking of which, we tried both the sweet desserts—the lavender biscuit ($7) with strawberries, rhubarb and pea anglaise and pea shoots (yep, peas in a dessert). It was really quite good as were the beignets with caramelized bananas, nutella and crushed peanuts ($6). Ok, I was probably partial to the beignets--I mean caramelized bananas and nutella with fried dough?? Both are worth ordering though for sure.

The interior is nice—a fairly sleek look where you can dress pretty much however you want. The service is friendly, although still working out some kinks with pacing I think. Also, the cushioned church pews that are used for some of the seating are comfortable, but a little low for the tables.  

Overall, Plow and Anchor is definitely a great addition to Indy’s restaurant scene, in an area of the city that needs more choices. I am excited to watch it grow over time. I would love to hear if you guys have been and what you thought about it. What were your favorite dishes?

Plow and Anchor

43 E. 9^th Street

Indy  46219

317/964-0538

www.plowandanchor.com