Geraldine's Supper Club

Geraldine’s is the newest restaurant from Dan Jarman, of Fat Dan’s fame. Totally different type of place, completely different vibe for sure. So this is a tough one for me, because so many people have told me how great the Old Fashioned and the steaks are, and while I really enjoyed several things, those two items happened to be the weak links of the meal. However, there are many things I enjoyed, starting with the atmosphere of the place. Love the old school supper club feel, and the wood everywhere. We also had a very attentive server, even though we might have challenged her with a few of our questions.

The first thing we ordered to eat was the housemade Gorgonzola potato chips ($11). So they are super thin, super fresh potato chips that are drizzled with a blue cheese creamy sauce and chunks of Gorgonzola. The chips reminded me of those ones you get at the State Fair that are like a long thin layer all off of one potato. These were really good and went down a little too easy. Honestly, they ended up being one of my favorite parts of the meal and I sort of wish I had eaten more of them. Before we got the appetizer though, they brought us a banana sorbet palate cleanser. It was tasty, but I think I would have preferred it before the main course.

Next, we had a salad course—hubby and I split a wedge salad ($11). It was fine. The smoky whole piece of bacon was delicious. I think the dressing was likely the same sauce used on the chips, but because it is kind of thin, which makes it good on the chips, but doesn’t stand up quite as well to a big hunk of iceberg. And there wasn’t nearly enough of it, so we got some extra on the side. The bacon was delicious. The rest was fair.

My sister had the beef wellington ($34), which is a filet with mushroom cooked inside pastry. This was definitely the best of the steaks on the table—the filet was fairly tender, although I think cooked a little more than was ordered. It was good, and it’s nice to see this old standard on a menu. It just didn’t blow my mind. The two men at the table had the 14-ounce ribeye ($40) with the addition of herb butter. They were not super impressed with the steak, and the bite I had was so fatty, I had to spit most of it out. Maybe you have to stick with the dry aged steaks or something, because everyone has told me the steaks are great, but this one did not impress any of us. We had a side of the crispy hash brown wheel (how could you say no to that?) ($10) and sautéed asparagus ($12). The outside of the hash browns was yummy—very crispy and well salted. There was just a little too much of the soft non-crispy bits on the inside. But I am being picky—I like my hash browns as crispy as possible. Maybe deep fry the whole thing…who knows.

So, since I was going to share the beef wellington, I got the seared ahi tuna appetizer ($15) as my main. This was delicious. One of the best versions of this simple straightforward dish that I have had. The tuna was really high quality and cooked just right. It was served with a soy dipping sauce and a mustard sauce on the plate. I could pass on the spicy mustard, but I really enjoyed the soy sauce. It was a really nice dish and a good accompaniment with all the rich heavy flavors of the steaks.

We were celebrating my sister and her husband’s birthdays, and they must have heard us say “happy birthday,” because they started the end of the meal by bringing us a free dessert consisting of a chocolate bon bon, chocolate dipped strawberries, and some caramel meringues. This was really good. The dark chocolate on the strawberries was bitter and just right with the sweet strawberries. We also ordered the sticky toffee bread pudding ($12) to share at the recommendation of the server. This was really tasty too. We love bread pudding and sticky toffee pudding, and this was a great combo of the two. Plus, more of those caramel meringues, which were one of my favorite things…. I need to make these. I love the texture of meringues, and the light caramel flavor added to them and was somewhat unusual (and delicious) for a meringue.

But back to that drink. It was an old fashioned that was watered down with soda or water. You could tell they just wanted the glass to look full, but hubby wasn’t a fan. I saw a video on twitter of the bartender making the same drink, and the glass was not full. So maybe another bartender with his or her own style…who knows. The wine pours on the other hand were generous. The wine list was small, be what we had was good. 

All in all, I am still somewhat intrigued by this place—I like the vibe of it, and some of the things (appetizers mainly, and the dessert) were really good. I might make a light meal of apps—there were several more I would like to try. If I were going to get a steak, I might just stick with a straight filet. The service was very friendly and efficient as well. 

But since everyone else has told me nothing but good things… share with me what you have had and liked.

Geraldine’s Supper Club

1101 English Ave 

Indy  46203

317/600-3336

www.geraldinesindy.com 

Capital Grille - Revisit

A couple of weeks ago we went to see the Harry Potter move/symphony event at the Hilbert Theater downtown. We wanted to eat somewhere that we could ideally park our car and leave it while we ate and then after when we went to the show. Capital Grille fit the bill, although they charged us a bunch more to stay that long. So much for a good idea.

Anyhow, it has been years since we ate at Capital Grille after a series of unfortunate incidents on our last visit. We decided it was time to give it another try. They now list the calorie count on their menu, which I appreciated, but made hubby upset because he started having guilt about what he wanted to order. I started with a cup of clam chowder ($10), and I actually thought it was very good. I will admit, I ordered it because it was somewhat low in calories compared to some other things, but I was happy. I am kind of picky about my clam chowder, and this is one of the better ones in town. Creamy, but with nice chunks of clam, and seasoned well. Hubby had the crab cocktail ($19) and it is very good as well. Nice big chunks of crab and I loved the sauce they served with it. It was a homemade mustard sauce—but creamy with mayo as well. Add some lemon and it was really good. It’s not cheap, but they give you a lot of crab. I think this is totally worth ordering again. My son got the wedge salad ($12) (it’s his go-to pretty much anywhere that has one). This was a good one. They gave plenty of dressing, which is the classic problem with wedges since they are so big and dense. He almost always asks for more dressing but didn’t have to with this one. They also gave some nice large hunks of bacon on top and sliced cherry tomatoes.

The boys split the Porterhouse ($51). It was huge. They were satisfied, and thought it was very good, but nothing about it that made it particularly memorable. I had a special, which was their take on poke, with a lot of diced raw tuna, some rice and fried green beans. The tuna was very good quality, and it was definitely seasoned throughout and had a spicy edge, but it seemed a little one-dimensional or something. It needed some acid. Or more soy or something. It just had a spicy taste, but not much else going on. I probably just should have gone with the tartare version, which is usually seasoned with a little more variety. The green beans came across a little too fried and dried out. My daughter had the citrus glazed salmon with green beans, marcona almonds and brown butter ($37). It was a very nice piece of fish cooked just right (properly medium rare). They didn’t overdo it with the sauce and it just had a nice hint of the sweetness from the glaze. One of the stars of the dinner though was the side of parmesan truffle fries ($11). These were so tasty. The fries themselves were very light and airy, but super crunchy and hot. They use white truffle oil so the truffle oil flavor was light, but honestly, you didn’t even need it. They were just so good on their own. I’m no expert on making fries, but however they are doing it, they are doing them right. 

All in all, it was a pleasant meal. I can’t say this is a place that makes you want to rush back for any one particular thing, and it is a bit spendy, but a solid quality meal with good ingredients. At least you feel like you are getting the quality of ingredients you are paying for. Service is polished, and I like that even though it’s basically a steak house, they have some other interesting things on the menu. 

Capital Grille

40 West Washington Street

Indianapolis 46204

317/423-8790

www.thecapitalgrille.com 

Red, The Steakhouse

We had a gift certificate to Red that we had been sitting on for awhile, so we decided to use it before we just totally forgot about it.  The kids are always in for a steakhouse, so we took them along.

As we looked over the menu, our server approached. She was nice but so soft spoken, we really couldn’t hear a word she was saying. The restaurant is kind of loud and she was so quiet, not a good combo when you’re trying to hear the specials. Anyway, we decided on a few appetizers and ordered those. We shared the beef tartare ($14) at my daughter’s insistence, even though lately I just keep being disappointed with beef tartares around town, and we also got the tuna poke ($16). I enjoyed the tuna poke—it was nice chunks of tuna with compressed pineapple and cucumber with a sweet chili vinaigrette. Apparently it was supposed to come with plantain chips, but we never got any. I ate it with the toasty crackers that came with the steak tartare or just on its own. It had a nice acidic flavor from the pineapple. It would have been better with plantain chips I am guessing. The tartare, as usual, was a disappointment. It had a few capers mixed in with the beef, and some shallots, but no real flavor. It was totally flat. I even asked for some lemon wedges to try and give it something, but even that didn’t help (I’m thinking mustard here people, and some more capers). We didn’t even eat it all. Just too boring.

We had a couple of salads as well. My son ordered their blue cheese wedge (no tomatoes) ($12), and to be honest, it was the best thing on the table all night, and one of the best wedges around. I liked it because it had plenty of blue cheese and dressing. So often once you cut into the lettuce, there is just not enough dressing. Not so here. There was actually more blue cheese than there was lettuce. My son asked if it would be rude to ask for extra lettuce. It also had pickled onions, crispy pancetta and croutons. And seriously large hunks of blue cheese. Really good. Much better than the house salad ($11) that hubby and I split. It was mixed greens with candied walnuts, goat cheese and raspberry vinaigrette. So in this salad, there was very little cheese and the dressing was more sweet than vinegar-ish. I would always get the wedge here if I went again. I did like the mixed cheese and olive oil that they gave you with the complimentary bread, which was warm and delicious.

For my main, I just ordered a shrimp appetizer, because I could tell that there was going to be way too much food (I was right). I had the lemon garlic shrimp ($19). It was large shrimp on top of a slice of bread with a very rich buttery sauce and some very thin lemon slices. It was a good dish, but still a lot of food considering I ate some of everyone else’s. The shrimp was cooked pretty well and I liked having the bread underneath to soak up the sauce., which did have a touch of acid from the lemon.

Hubby had the carbonara pasta ($34), which was enough to feed all four of us. It was a giant bowl of pasta with a creamy sauce, more of the shrimp and some pancetta and peas. It was a little heavier and creamier than most carbonara we have enjoyed, but it wasn’t bad.  Although it wasn’t great either. Hubby did get several meals out of it in the following days.

My daughter had the tuna tataki dinner ($38), which was a large portion of tuna that was sesame crusted and sliced, and served with ginger, scallion and a ginger lime soy. The tuna was good—cooked rare as it should be and the sauce was nice. It was also really big and she made a couple of meals out of it as well. I thought it was weird that it didn’t come with any type of side dish such as rice or something. I mean, I know steakhouses want you to order sides separately, but with a dish like this, the typical steakhouse sides don’t really match up.

My son had a prime filet ($49), which we all shared. It was a good cut of meat, but was cooked too rare (even though he ordered it medium rare). It was still good because it was such good quality beef, but it would have been better if it were just cooked a little bit more. Didn’t seem to overly bother my son who ate every bit of it before we could barely sneak a few bites. We did also order some sides—the mac and cheese with bacon ($13)(you can also get it plain or with lobster or with crab) and the au gratin potatoes ($11) at the suggestion of our server. The au gratin was really good, sliced potatoes in a nice creamy, cheesy sauce. The mac and cheese was not good. I don’t know if it was the bacon aspect, but it was overwhelmingly smoky—almost like it had liquid smoke in it.  It was a huge portion that went mainly uneaten.

Finally, we shared their doughnut holes with chocolate sauce, salted caramel sauce and raspberry jam ($13 for the large order). These were sort of like beignets—with lots of powdered sugar. Not bad, but not as good as an actual beignet, and not as soft as you might want for a doughnut. A little more of the sauces would have been helpful too, especially with the larger order. They do have a nice dessert wine menu with several nice options by the glass.

All in all, not a place I would probably look to go back to, but if I did, I would definitely get the wedge salad.

Red, The Steakhouse

14 West Maryland

Indy 46204

317/757-3144

www.redthesteakhouse.com 

St. Elmo -- Revisit

It’s been like 7 years or something since we just went to St. Elmo for a regular dinner (we’ve been for some organized fundraisers etc., but not to just order off the menu). And the kids had never been. Oh, and I had a gift card from a silent auction (I have a little problem with silent auctions) so we finally got in there. I felt like it was our duty as parents to get the kids in there.

So, they took us through the maze of the restaurant and to a table downstairs that miraculously had a serious draft even though it was in the middle of the room. That was a chilly table. Our server was very nice though, if not a little overwhelmed. They were pretty busy—although I think they always are. 

Hubby ordered the obligatory shrimp cocktail ($15.95). I have said it before, and will say it again, I think the sauce is dumb. Too hot to enjoy. Hubby likes it though, and I know people have a weird obsession with it, so let’s just agree to disagree. They have nice big tender shrimp, and hubby made strange painful moaning noises when he ate it. So there’s that.

Hubby and I then shared the chopped BLT salad ($11). Even as a split, it was very generous. This was a very tasty salad. It had chopped romaine lettuce, Gorgonzola cheese, tomatoes, bacon and fried onions. They whole thing was tossed with a nice amount of their house vinaigrette. It was nice because everything was bite-sized and I loved getting the hunks of blue cheese. I would happily eat this one again. My son had the Caesar ($11) and really enjoyed it as well. It was also nicely dressed.

Moving along, the boys wanted steaks, and since I knew there would be more than enough to go around, us girls ordered a couple fish entrees. All the entrées  come with tomato juice or bean soup. I know it’s tradition, but do people really get the tomato juice? The kids got the bean soup and hubby upgraded to the lobster bisque (+7.95). The kids love beans and thought the soup was fine. Hubby was very disappointed with his bisque and I can’t blame him. It was really boring. Lots of rich, none of that depth that you want in a bisque. Maybe no sherry or something? There were chunks of lobster or crab in there, but it didn’t save it. He ate like two bites and left the rest. This was probably the biggest disappointment of the evening.

My son got the 8-ounce filet ($42) and hubby had the 14-ounce ribeye ($41). Both steaks were very good. I thought the ribeye was a bit better. When you get a great ribeye, it can easily beat a filet, but often they’re too fatty and chewy. This one was perfect. And this is not to say the filet was bad, because it wasn’t. Steaks are certainly strengths here, as they should be. I like that the price of the meal also includes a potato side (as well as the soup/juice). Hubby had fries and my son got a baked potato. They are both standard, but hit the spot with your steak.

I had the tuna steak ($35), which was a huge piece of tuna, along with sushi rice and a ball of wasabi and some seasoned soy. It was very good quality tuna, however, when they asked me if rare was okay, I didn’t expect it to be ice cold in the middle. I just pretended it was sashimi and it was fine, but I would have preferred it to be at least somewhat warmish at least all the way through. Obviously, I have no problem eating raw tuna, but when you expect a cooked piece of fish, you expect it to be a little warm. Even though I got rice with this dish, I also get a potato side so I had the baked potato as well. A perfectly normal baked potato. My daughter had a fish special that left a bit to be desired in my opinion—tasted a little fishy to me—but I appreciated her willingness to try something different.

We decided, hey why not, let’s have dessert. My kids have a strange obsession with giant pieces of chocolate cake. They can come from foodservice, and they’re just as happy. It’s weird to me. Cold cake is not my thing. But anyway, they ordered St. Elmo’s version, and they were happy. We also ordered the cookies and milk—this was actually a fundraiser dessert item so how could we say no? There were three warm gooey chocolate chip cookies and a glass of Trader’s Point whole milk. A very nice and comforting dessert. And it was all for charity. So the calories don’t even count. Right?

All in all, this was a better experience than I have had at St. Elmo, not that I have been that many times. It’s a solid steakhouse, and I’m glad since it’s one of the few local ones. I’d stick with steak overall, they were definitely the stars. Oh, and that salad.

St. Elmo’s Steakhouse

127 S. Illinois Street

Indy 46225

317-635-0636

www.stelmos.com 

Ocean Prime - Revisit

For my Mom’s birthday, she chose Ocean Prime for dinner. It had been quite awhile since we had been there, so I figured it was a good time for an update.

There was a lot of food on our table throughout the course of the evening, but I didn’t try everything. I noticed they now have sushi rolls on the menu (not sure if this is new or not) but that sounded good so we decided to order some. We ordered the Dynamite roll ($17) and the lobster roll ($18). We also ended up with a free tuna roll that they accidentally made ($16), so honestly, by the time I was done with this and a few bites of other things, I could have called it a day.

The Dynamite roll was probably my favorite—it was filled with tempura shrimp and spicy mayo and then topped with some more fried shrimp. It was crunchy and quite delicious actually—both the kids and adults liked it a lot—their spicy mayo had a little bit more heat than many.  The lobster roll was filled with poached lobster tail, pickled Serrano peppers, kiwi, and massago. It was topped with more of the peppers and spicy mango puree. This one actually had a serious amount of heat to it. The ingredients were good quality, but I didn’t love this roll. It was a little too spicy, which detracted from the delicate flavor of the lobster. Also fruit in sushi rolls is not my favorite thing.

The free tuna roll was pretty good and probably fell in the middle for me. It was made up of a lot of spicy tuna on top, and avocado and cucumber inside. It also incorporated the wasabi-flavored roe, which actually had a fair amount of wasabi heat, giving this roll a pretty heated taste. All the rolls had a fair amount of spiciness that kind of surprised me a bit. Good or bad, I guess, depending on your taste. But overall, I was fairly impressed with the sushi quality and if I should find myself here again, wouldn’t hesitate to order a roll.

I had a bite of my sister’s salad as well—the Ocean Prime House salad ($10) with romaine, mixed greens, Granny Smith apples, goat cheese, walnuts and a Sherry mustard vinaigrette. I will say, this is a pretty decent tasting salad--the right amount of sweet without being over the top—and the goat cheese, slightly tart apples and vinaigrette balance it all nicely. I love a good vinaigrette. My other favorite appetizer is the goat cheese ravioli with mushrooms ($14), which I wrote about before and which my daughter had on this visit.

Sadly for me, the meal went downhill from here—this is usually my experience at Ocean Prime. You can get some nice apps, but when you move on to an entrée, they just fall a little flat. I split the Ahi tuna ($39) main with my daughter (the picture you see is half of the portion). It was served with small round roasted potatoes, fava beans and a truffle jus. Or so it said. I found the tuna, while cooked pretty well, to be pretty bland. Nothing about it really stood out for me. I didn’t get a lot of truffle taste—and I found it odd to be eating fava beans (and there were peas as well) in the middle of winter.

Luckily, the men in my immediate family did better with their meal—they shared an 8-ounce filet ($41) and thought it was very good. I did get one bite and thought it was good as well--much better than my tuna. They also do a very nice job with the au gratin potatoes at Ocean Prime ($11). They use roasted jalapenos in them, which are tasty—not spicy really at all, just adding richness and a little extra flavor. We have had ups and downs with steaks here, but this one was very good.

My sister's surf and turf app

Overall, it was a better meal altogether than most we have had here. The discovery of the sushi on the menu excited me a bit. I was bummed about my tuna and I wouldn’t order it again. I’m not sure this is a place we would rush back to, but if we do go back, a sushi roll and a steak would make a nice meal. It’s an expensive meal, even when you’re splitting, but such is life in most of the big chain steakhouses.

Our service was good—even with a large group. Hubby wanted me to mention that he hates the chairs here and finds them very uncomfortable. And the big round booths that look pretty cool are laid out right in what is basically a hallway, which isn’t an ideal place to sit either. They do have nice outdoor bar seating when the weather is nice.

All in all, it was a better meal than I was expecting and my mom was happy, so that’s all that matters.

Ocean Prime

8555 North River Road

Indy  46240

317/560-0975

www.oceanprimeindy.com 

Peterson's- Revisit

I’m glad we have Peterson’s—we have so many chain steakhouses in Indy, it is nice to have one that is locally owned.  Unfortunately my steak connoisseur son will not get to try it for several years because you have to be 21 and over to eat there.  He was a little annoyed about this, as it is his personal goal to eat at all the steakhouses in town.

Anyway, we were celebrating my sister and her hubby’s birthdays and my brother-in-law loves steak, so it seemed like a good time to give it another try (my parents were with us as well).  I like the interior of the place (and hey, I am not complaining that there aren’t more kids in there). I was sort of surprised how loud it was, but it was quite busy, which is a nice thing to see.

we had already eaten 2 of them....

My sister and hubby got there before we did and placed an order for the tempura lobster fingers ($16). I have had these several times before and they are always good. How can you go wrong with freshly tempura-fried lobster? They were fresh, and tender and dipped in the accompanying honey mustard (they also give you drawn butter), they are delicious.

Hubby and I then ordered our own appetizers, the tuna tartare for me ($15) and oysters Rockefeller for hubby ($20).  My tuna was disappointing. It was just calling out for some sort of acid.  The tuna was good quality, but seemed fairly unseasoned (even though the menu describes it as “sweet chili tuna”).  There was a sweet soy type sauce underneath and some sliced daikon on top.  After eating the first chip worth, and a furtive glance around the table, I grabbed hubby’s lemon and squeezed some on my tuna. Much better.

Hubby’s oysters were great though. For classic oysters Rockefeller (spinach, cream, Romano cheese and Pernod), these are some of the best in town I think.  They oysters are a decent size, but not huge so they are still tender and easy to eat.  Very rich and creamy and well done.  I also had a bite (o.k., several) of my sister’s clam chowder ($8), which was the soup of the day. I have to say, this was really good as well. Super chunky with lots of pieces of clam and very well seasoned. Not a bit of salt or pepper necessary. It had a nice peppery bite to it.

Normally hubby and I would split a steak at this kind of place because they are usually so big, but we couldn’t agree on which to order, so he got a ribeye ($43) and I had a filet ($35).  Both steaks were really very good.  Peterson’s definitely knows steaks—they are prime and they are cooked well. Mine was so tender that I was really glad I had gotten it, even though hubby’s was very good as well (just a little firmer).  Ok, his was maybe cooked slightly beyond the medium rare he ordered, but the meat is so good, it was still very good. Honestly, I think there is a chance that they mixed up a couple of the steaks at the table because my brother-in-law ordered his slightly more cooked.

I liked the au gratin potatoes ($9) on this trip—in the past I have complained that Peterson’s sides weren’t that good, but I enjoyed these.  They weren’t’ exactly what I think of when I think of au gratin, because they were cubed and baked with cream instead of sliced, which was what I was expecting.  It also didn’t hurt that they were topped with crumbled Smoking Goose bacon. They were my favorite side.

We also ordered Brussels sprouts ($7) based on the awesome ones I had lately, and also based on more of the Smoking Goose bacon being included, but unfortunately these were too undercooked for me, and honestly, I couldn’t really taste the bacon.  They were halved, and just not cooked through.   Finally, we had some of the King crab mac and cheese ($11) which I also really enjoyed, although from what I could tell, there wasn’t a ton of crab in there.  The mac and cheese tasted good and had a nice crumb topping though—it was a white cheddar and fontina cheese sauce and was rich and tasted great with the steak.

Ok, so that was the meal.  I would say my overall impressions is that they do old school items very well—and their steaks on the whole are top notch.  My biggest problem of the evening? The service.  They were really busy and it seemed like our server was sort of in the weeds all night—we sat there holding our menus for way too long (we still had them when our apps came because we hadn’t yet ordered our main dishes) (and they have those really large menus that are awkward). It also took forever to get our wine. And while he seemed like he was knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the food, he seemed to disappear for long periods of time (at least from our table).  It sort of all made sense when we got the bill and there was an automatic 20% gratuity added to our check (which he did not point out to us, luckily hubby caught it).  I thought this was kind of weak considering there were only 6 of us and I have never seen an auto gratuity of 20% (that seemed excessive particularly due to the bad service). I feel like our service suffered so much because he knew he was getting a good tip no matter what he did. I realize I sound annoyed, and I was. Very. We are normally generous tippers, but when service is this bad, I do not generally leave 20%. I know I talked to some of you about this on twitter already, but what do you all think? Do you think service suffers when an automatic gratuity is being added? Servers, do you worry about those tables just a little less?  Is it legitimate to cross out an automatic tip and write in a new lower one? I know you can add to it, but can you subtract from it? I would love to hear what some of the restaurant people out there think too.

Ok, enough of my rant, but unfortunately the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth, even though the food was on the whole pretty good.

Peterson’s

7690 E 96^th Street

Fishers  46037

317/598-8863

www.petersonsrestaurant.com

Harry & Izzy's - Brunch

What is the deal with brunch in this town?  If you want to plan on going somewhere, and getting actual brunch type food AND make a reservation (and having booze doesn’t hurt), Indy is a tough place.  We had relatives stopping for a visit as they passed through town, and it was a fairly large group, so we wanted to make sure we had a reservation somewhere. A lot of places simply don’t take reservations and on weekends, wait times can be endless at the usual suspects.  I don’t usually go near a “chou” restaurant on the weekends, even though they are regular haunts for me during the week.

After doing some research, I was excited to see that Harry & Izzy’s has brunch on Sundays! There’s a real brunch menu and everything! They also take reservations, and serve alcohol, and as a bonus, the north side location is like 3 minutes from my house. I was surprised I haven’t heard about this option before—I wonder if they have always had brunch.

The brunch menu isn’t huge, and you can order off of their regular lunch menu as well (they actually didn’t bring the brunch menu until I asked for it).  Hubby and I agreed to get a couple of different items and share them. I had the steak and egg wrap ($10) and hubby had the steak and egg sliders ($15).  The wrap was good—there were a couple of chunks of beef tenderloin (I would say all in all it was close to the same amount of meat that is in the sliders, but for a significantly lower price), lots of scrambled eggs, queso blanco, and homemade cilantro salsa. There was also some pico de gallo on the side.  All in all, I liked it. The meat was pretty tender, the eggs weren’t dry and the salsa that was inside gave it a nice fresh, slightly vinegary flavor. I added some pico to most of the bites as well, and the tomatoes took the acid level even a little further. If I could make it better, I would cook the meat perfectly medium rare and then chop it into slightly smaller pieces—often you took a bite only to pull out a very large piece of the beef. They gave you a choice of a fruit cup or potatoes—I had the fruit and it was good fresh fruit. I liked that it wasn’t all melon (fruit cup pet peeve).

Hubby’s sliders were basically the same thing you get on the regular menu which we have enjoyed several times, except these also had some scrambled eggs and creamed spinach on top. Sort of like a mini steak dinner with eggs on top. They were good too and the meat here was cooked to order so they were nice and medium rare. This was not the case with my son’s beef medallions plate (from the kid’s menu)($10) which he ordered medium rare and they sent out well done. The boy knows what he wants though and promptly sent it back. I am not sure why they couldn’t cook his properly because they were basically the same pieces of meat that were on the sliders.

My father-in –law had the breakfast sandwich ($9) which looked really good as well—it had scrambled eggs, this time with bacon (or you can have sausage), cheese, and served on asiago cheese bread. I didn’t get to try it but he seemed to really enjoy it. I had a bite of hubby’s potatoes and they had a decent flavor. I don’t get that excited by roasted potatoes at restaurants, but these were seasoned well.

All in all, Harry & Izzy’s is a good option for a Sunday brunch meeting all the criteria I mentioned above. The food is pretty solid (if not overly exciting) and they can make you a good mimosa or bloody mary.  And you can make a reservation. I will certainly store it in mind for future such needs. Now, you guys tell me, what are your favorite brunch spots around town? And which ones take reservations?

Harry & Izzy’s

4050 East 82^nd Street

Indy  46250

317/915-8045

www.harryandizzys.com

Ocean Prime

It’s new, so of course I had to try it.  I have heard a lot of mixed things—but am always excited to see for myself, particularly when it is so close to my house.  We met my parents and my sister and her husband one night for dinner. I always enjoy these meals because my family knows they have to share whatever they order.  They are down with blog participation.

Hubby and I perused the menu before we got there because we knew we would need lots of time for negotiations—the menu is pretty big.  After guessing what my family would order (with a high degree of accuracy I might add), we decided to go with a meal of lots of appetizers to share between us. 

We started with the tuna tartare ($16) and an order of the fried calamari ($14) for the table.  Hubby and I mainly ate the tartare and enjoyed it. I liked the way they had mixed the slivers of fried wontons right into it.  It had a fair amount of avocado and was topped with some crème fraiche. The whole thing sat in a ginger ponzu sauce.  I tend to like ponzu—which is soy based with some citrus mixed in as well. Sounds like it would be a great combo with the tuna and it was good—it just had a little strange twist of sweetness, almost like there was some sweet chili oil in there too.  But all in all, an enjoyable dish.  My family really likes the calamari which is fried and served with a true sweet chili oil and candied cashews.  The calamari itself was really good—very fresh and really tender.  I have pretty much come to the conclusion that I am tired of sweet chili oil though—it seems like it is on so many menus these days.  It is certainly a very generous portion and easy to share.  If you like calamari, and a slightly sweeter taste, you will probably like this.

Next, hubby and I split the Shellfish “cobb” salad ($19).  I was intrigued by the salad because it was about as close to a Louis salad as I have seen around town and I desperately miss them.  There was lettuce, blue cheese, chopped egg, and shellfish—lobster, crab and shrimp.  Strangely, the dressing with it was called “gourmet” dressing—really? Is that a technical name for a dressing?  When asked the server told me it was egg and champagne vinaigrette based and described it as “dull” which I thought was a little weird.  It wasn’t bad, and the salad contained a whole bunch of my favorite things on a plate, but overall, it just didn’t seem to mesh together. I am not exactly sure why.  I appreciated that they split the salad evenly between us.  I think I enjoyed my sister’s Ocean Prime house salad better—the dressing (a Sherry vinaigrette with some Dijon) was very good.  The salad had lettuce, spinach, apples, goat cheese and walnuts. It was well done.

For my “main” dish, I had the goat cheese ravioli appetizer ($11).  Even though it wasn’t steak or seafood, I thought it was the best thing on the table all night.  The pasta was housemade (that makes me so happy) and was stuffed with goat cheese—the broth it sat in was buttery and lemony and there were also thinly sliced shitake mushrooms scattered throughout, which added a nice earthy flavor to go along with the sharpness of the goat cheese and lemon.  Even my brother in law liked it, and he claims not to like goat cheese.

Hubby had the “signature appetizer” crab cake ($16) for his entrée (you can get it as an app or entrée; he went with the smaller version).  I had heard decent things about it and it was so well featured in the menu, I had pretty high hopes, even though generally crab cakes bore the crap out of me these days.  This one was not very good—it wasn’t that crabby—more of a flatter pancake kind of version without much of the crabby lumps I like.  Hubby was really disappointed.

We had bites of pretty much everyone else’s food—steak, shrimp pasta, scallops and lobster.  It was all cooked properly (well, the shrimp was a bit tough) and was enjoyed by the people who ordered it.  It was pretty classic steakhouse type food.  We also all shared a couple of sides—one I really liked and one was a bit of a letdown.  The jalapeno au gratin potatoes ($10) were really good—the potatoes were more shredded, had just a hint of heat from the peppers and lots of Swiss cheese which was nice.  They were cheesy but not so much so that you felt like you were just eating cheese.  They were worth ordering for sure.  The black truffle mac and cheese ($12) was a letdown.  One of my big pet peeves is when something is called “truffle” and has absolutely no truffle flavor (but is still priced as if it does).  You can see the two slices of truffle in the picture, but that is the only evidence of truffles.  By looking at the picture you can taste the truffle flavor as much as I could that night.  The mac and cheese wasn’t a bad basic mac and cheese, but I was sad about the truffles.

Desserts were good as well--hubby and I shared the peanut butter pie ($9) (we have a peanut allergy in our house, so we never have peanut stuff in the house, so it always seems extra decadent).  It was really very good.  I am not sure I would call it a "pie," but regardless, I would say it was tasty.  It was basically peanut butter mousses covered in a dark chocolate ganache.  The middle was very light and soft and the chocolate super rich.  Like an amazing peanut butter cup.

Overall, it’s a nice place, very popular with some highlights on the menu for sure.  The interior is nice, although many of the tables are kind of cramped together.  They have a great looking outside bar area in which I would enjoy grabbing an appetizer and a glass of wine some time. There are definitely ups and downs food-wise, and it is pretty pricey, so some of the entrées are kind of risky endeavors if you don’t want to spend a lot.  I do like that they have a fair amount of non-steak (and mainly seafood) entrée options.  I would go back, but I would probably stick with appetizers. 

Who else has gone? What was your experience like?

Ocean Prime

8555 North River Road

Indy  46240

317/560-0975

www.oceanprimeindy.com