Rick's Cafe Boatyard-Brunch

It was Sunday, it was sunny, so we decided to try brunch at Rick’s Café Boatyard with the kids and the Grandparents. They’re on opentable, so we made a reservation online (I recommend a reservation here) and headed over. (If you haven’t checked out opentable.com, it is a great way to get online reservations at most Indy restaurants and even other cities like Chicago and San Francisco—where I started using it). This is one of the few true waterside restaurants in town, and by that I mean, one of the few situated on a decent sized body of water (i.e. Eagle Creek). Definitely a large portion of the draw for me is the ambiance, and not as much the food.

One of the things I like about this place for brunch is that they do have a brunch menu with breakfast-y type items, but you can also order off the regular menu if you aren’t in the mood for breakfast items. But in the interest of reviewing something different, I decided to go for it and try the one of the brunch items, the Eggs Chesapeake. This is a version of Eggs Benedict served on top of crab cakes instead of English Muffins and Canadian bacon. I ordered this at the recommendation of our server (he said it was his favorite brunch item). It wasn’t bad, and the crab cakes had a fair amount of crab in them, but the seasoning was a little heavy handed I thought. The eggs were perfectly poached and the hollandaise pretty good as well. They were served with “breakfast potatoes” which were home fries. Home fries have to be really special to excite me (I am a hash brown girl for breakfast) and these weren’t really doing anything for me. I did have some of my Mom’s Seafood frittata as well which is basically a round omelette with shrimp and crab in it and a Mornay sauce on top. It was not bad either, the shrimps, when you came across them, were tasty. But nothing that made you want to run back and order it again. I don’t know, maybe my Dad was right; maybe seafood and breakfast don’t go together. He ordered the regular eggs benedict and seemed to enjoy them (again, they seem to have egg poaching down).

Hubby had the blackened catfish (from the regular menu) and thought it had sat under a heat lamp a bit and was a bit dry. The kids seemed to enjoy their meals, and except for somewhat slow service near the end, a decent meal was had by all. Again, I think the main draw here is the atmosphere and not the food. You feel like you’re at one of those seafood places you go when you’re on vacation with a great view. They have a nice deck and I would like to go eat out there one of these days when the weather gets nicer.

Rick’s Café Boatyard
Eagle Creek Reservoir
4050 Dandy Trail
Indy, 46204
317-290-9300
www.rickscafeboatyard.com

Rick's Cafe Boatyard

I am so behind.. Summer is flying by and I have had some great meals, but no time to write about them. So I am trying to do some catch up. A few weeks ago we went to Rick's Boatyard over on Eagle Creek. The night we went was one of those nights when there were tornado warnings all through the night, and all though it was impressive watching the storms, it probably wasn't the safest choice.

We started with the calamari which was described as "tempura." I wouldn't exactly call it "tempura," more like a light breading to me, but I will say it was really good. It was more like strips of the body of the calamari (as opposed to the normal rings and tentacles you usually get with fried calamari), but it was super tender and I thought really good. As did everyone else at the table. It was served with a remoulade sauce that was quite tasty, but it was good with just a squeeze of lemon if you ask me.

I then had the combo of tempura shrimp and Parmesan crusted tilapia. It was good, but not as good as the calamari. The funny thing was the dinner portions were huge but the calamari portion quite dainty. Hubby has planked whitefish which was also good, but again, did not measure up to the quality of the calamari. We saw someone else get crab legs which looked really good. I think we have decided that next time we will get the calamari and the crab and see how that is. We also had a mud pie type dessert which I guess they are known for. It was decadent and quite good as well.

I really liked the atmosphere of the reservoir-side dining and always enjoy finding such places in our fair, land-locked City. I know it has been around a long time, but it was my first time there. If you haven't been or haven't been in awhile, give it a try. Especially when the weather is nice.

Rick's Cafe Boatyard
4050 Dandy Trail
Indy, 46254
317-290-9300
http://www.rickscafeboatyard.com/