Ruth’s Café

Hubby and I had lunch at Ruth’s the other day. It used to be a pretty regular place for me, but for one reason or another I haven’t been in awhile. I am always impressed with how solid their lunch business seems to be. It’s really nice to see an independent restaurant thrive in that location (near the Fashion Mall) because there are so few in the area. They are doing so well in fact, according to their website, it looks like they have opened a little branch in a nearby office building.

It was early for lunch so hubby went with one of their benedicts. This one is the salmon avocado version ($11.25).  This is sourdough toast on the bottom, seared smoked salmon, avocado, the two poached eggs and then homemade hollandaise sauce.  It was really good. The eggs were poached just right and I liked the fact that the salmon was warm. They use lots of avocado, and the hollandaise sauce is light but has a nice lemony flavor. We both had side salads with our dishes—I appreciate that they make this an option—and the side salads at Ruth’s are good because they use nice mixed greens mixed with some romaine. I am picky about the lettuce I get in a salad, and they are using good quality. They also served it with a few cherry tomatoes and slivers of parmesan.

I ordered my favorite combo---the half sandwich and salad (around $10). The sandwich I get is their version of a turkey club. There’s some thick slices of turkey on grilled sourdough (you can get whatever bread you want though) topped with melty Havarti cheese, avocado, bacon, lettuce as well as some pesto mayo. There’s just something about this sandwich that I love. I like that it’s grilled and warm, I like the avocado, which they are not stingy with, and I like that they don’t screw it up by putting a slice of under ripe tomato on it. I feel like that is a fatal flaw at many restaurants.  I also really like their chunky blue cheese dressing with my salad, as well as with my sandwich (I tend to dip the sandwich in it as well). 

Anyhow, it’s a very good breakfast and lunch option on my side of town, which is a rarity. The menu is large and there are lots of appealing things, even if I tend to be drawn back into that turkey sandwich nearly every time.

Ruth’s Café

3343 East 86^th Street

Indy  46240

317/757-8006

http://www.ruthscafeindy.com/ 

Ruth’s Pull Up a Chair Café -Revisit

Ruth’s a place I eat fairly regularly, and I have written about it before, but recently I was in and noticed they were adding on to their space and had a new menu, so I figured it was time for a re-visit.  Ok, truth be told, one of the reasons I haven’t written about it before is because I almost always ordered the same thing and it seemed boring, but they took one of the things I used to order off and there were some new things, so I decided to try one of the new sandwiches.

It is simply listed as “turkey” ($9) on the menu—it was super tender slices of turkey with spinach, Havarti cheese, lots of nice ripe avocado, bacon and spinach.  There was a pesto sauce as well and the bread (your choice, I went with sourdough) was grilled in a Panini press.   This was a great sandwich.  Had all the elements I like—it wasn’t overstuffed and hard to eat, had some additional seasoning besides just the basic ingredients (pesto) and the ingredients themselves were really good.  Plus I loved perfectly grilled bread.  Normally I order the chicken c
obb, which is also really good, and has blue cheese on it which gives it that extra falvor, but I think the turkey on this one was better than the chicken I have had on that sandwich in the past.

I also got a side salad with blue cheese dressing which I really liked as well.  First, when I get a side salad, I don’t need a bunch of other stuff on it—some nice leaves are enough for me.  This was basically that just with a few thin slices of parmesan and diced tomato.  The dressing was obviously homemade and had a great flavor and lots of crumbled blue cheese added in.  I will admit I may have dipped my sandwich into it a few times.  I would be happy to order one of their salads with this tasty dressing.

We have had several breakfast items here in the past and have enjoyed them as well.  Last time we were here, hubby had a salmon version of eggs benedict that was done very well.

They have also doubled their size and, best of all, changed the front door to the other store front, making a little entry way which blocks the cold wind from blowing directly into the restaurant, which was always my biggest pet peeve about eating at this place for half of the year.  The service was good, the interior is cute and they had a fairly good crowd. It’s nice to see a small independent restaurant (particularly in the Castleton general area) doing well enough that they can expand.  I definitely need to expand my horizons at this place and stop ordering the same thing every time (although I will certainly be ordering the turkey sandwich again), so if you have a favorite, let me know.

Ruth’s Pull Up a Chair Café

3343 East 86^th Street

Indy  46240

317/757-8006

www.ruthspullupachair.com