Zest!- Breakfast

*****ZEST IS OUT OF BUSINESS******

On a breakfast kick lately, and after asking on facebook and twitter the other day about biscuits and gravy, a large number of you guys mentioned Zest and I have always wanted to go for full-on breakfast, so we packed up the kids and prepared for a wait. It was a Saturday and I expected a long wait, but it wasn’t too bad at all. They were very busy, with lots of large parties, but the service was pretty efficient considering.

I ordered the Fletcher’s Biscuit sandwich (as did my son) ($4.95). I had mine with bacon and avocado, he had his with sausage. They do a really great job with this—you get a huge fluffy biscuit stuffed with a ton of scrambled eggs, cheese, and your choice of meat. The scrambled eggs were nice and moist—just as they should be, and they give you enough of them that they kind of tumble off the biscuit and practically make another order of scrambled eggs. The bacon is from Smoking Goose and was great. I had a side of cowboy potatoes ($2.95) as well. These things are rich and decedent and delicious. They are diced potatoes, with a seasoning mix, cheese and what I am guessing is a fair amount of sour cream, giving them that slightly tangy flavor—and making the sauce fairly smooth. 

Hubby ordered a half order of the biscuits and gravy ($5.95). It is interesting looking because it has an almost pink, or maybe orange tint to the gravy, which I’m guessing  comes from the “secret mix of spices” that are listed on the menu (and I am guessing are some of the same seasonings used in the cowboy potatoes). The menu also says they use Goose sausage, but unfortunately, the hunks of sausage were pretty dried out (same was true in my son’s biscuit sandwich). The biscuits were light and fluffy and the gravy looked very appealing, but for all the “secret spices” I didn’t really think there was a lot of kick (or even flavor) to it. You certainly get a lot of food here though, even with just a half order.

My daughter had one of Zest’s other signature items—the Crème Brûlée French Toast ($5.95 for half order). OK, if I thought the cowboy potatoes were decadent, man, this dish is crazy. It is seriously like eating an exceptionally moist cake that has been turned into French toast. Lots of vanilla flavor, plus maple syrup drizzled on top and a side of bacon. I have a hard time eating things that are purely sweet for a meal, and couldn’t eat more than a bite or two, but I can see how this could be a favorite of people who do.

I have eaten a fair amount of meals at Zest, and most have been pretty good. Prepare yourself to a good amount of very rich food here that’s for sure—not the place to go if you’re watching your diet or anything. My personal opinion is that they excel the most at breakfast. 

Zest Exciting Food Creations

1134 East 54^th Street

Indy  46220

317/466-1853

www.zestexcitingfood.com 

Zest - Revisit

*****ZEST IS OUT OF BUSINESS******

I have decided it’s Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives week on my blog.  Indy has been lucky enough to have several of its local restaurants featured on the show in the last several months, and Zest is the most recent episode, set to air tonight (May 9^th). Later in the week I am reviewing another recent restaurant to have been featured already.  Anyway, I have reviewed Zest a couple of times before, but thought a revisit would be a timely post.  I am curious as to how being featured on DDD increases business—from what I have heard and seen, it seems to help increase business immensely, and since they feature local places cooking fresh food, I am all for it.  But I would love to hear from people in some of these places as to just how much it has helped.

So the BFF and I headed in for lunch the other day—I was in the mood for something fairly light (which can be somewhat challenging with Zest, hard to pass on their macaroni and cheese) but I started with a cup of their soup of the day, which was a tortilla/avocado soup ($3.95) and went with the sampler plate of 3 of their signature deli salads ($8.95).  I really liked the soup.  It was a chicken broth based soup, with nice pieces of white meat chicken, radishes, scallions, crispy tortilla strips, a lime wedge and a couple good hunks of avocado on top.  It had a really great spicy flavor, without burning.  The radishes added a peppery flavor and I was impressed with how the tortillas still had a bit of crispness to them when you ate it—they obviously must put them in right as they are serving it.  They also gave it a bit of fullness, as well as a little bit of corn flavor.  The squeezed lime wedge gave a little sour acid to the soup and the avocado on top was the perfect silky buttery topping to the other things.  I haven’t seen this one before on the menu. I hope it is recurring.

I tried the deviled egg salad, the blue cheese chicken salad and the ahi tuna salad as my 3 choices in my salad plate. There was one smallish scoop of each one on top of nice fresh greens.  I would have loved some light vinaigrette on the greens, but maybe you are supposed to just eat them with the salads—I still think it would be improved with just a bit of dressing though.  I have had the deviled egg salad before—I think it is made with Dijon mustard so it has a little kick to it.  There is dill in there as well as lots of egg.  If you want an egg salad with a twist, this is a good one.  I have also had it on a sandwich special with bacon and other toppings that was really good as well.  The blue cheese chicken salad may have been my favorite of the three though—it had shredded chicken with very fine crumble of blue cheese, grape halves, and nuts (pretty sure they were pecans, although they were pretty small pieces).  It was a really nice combination of flavors—the kind of thing I often put on a salad myself—blue cheese and nuts with something a little sweet.  The sweet grapes and the blue cheese are natural companions.  If I was making it, I would put more blue cheese in it, but that’s me.

The ahi tuna salad was my least favorite. It wasn’t bad, but had the least amount of unique flavors.  There were some capers—that’s about all that stands out in my mind about it.  The tuna was pretty tender.  The salads were all served with Zest’s seeded flatbreads, which were a nice accompaniment.  They have a nice earthy nutty flavor from all the seeds on top that add good texture to the smoother salads.  (You also get one with any soup, although I didn’t use it with the soup.  The tortilla strips made it unnecessary.)  I thought it was a nice sized portion, but was wondering if others would think so—I think some might complain it was a little small.  But then again, they probably wouldn’t order a salad sampler either.

BFF had a scramble (Zest’s version of omelets).  I tend to like scrambles because they don’t get as dried out as omelets.  Hers looked good and she seemed to really like it.  I did have a bite of her cowboy potatoes which are rich, creamy and decadent.

It will be interesting to see what items are featured on DDD, as their menu is quite extensive.  I know last time I was there with hubby he loved their burger and said it is one of his favorites in the city.  My guess is DDD will feature more of the unique items, but we shall see.  Would love to hear what you guys think of the episode if you watch.

Zest Exciting Food Creations
1134 E 54th Street
Indy 36220
317-466-1853
http://www.zestexcitingfood.com/

Zest- Revisit (Lunch)

*****ZEST IS OUT OF BUSINESS******

I have wanted to go back to Zest ever since we last went for dinner (and it wasn’t so great). I always hear people say such good things about the breakfast and lunch, and I have had a pretty good lunch before, but have been anxious to get back. A friend suggested it for lunch one day, and I thought it was the perfect opportunity for a re-review.

I will say the breakfast items were really tempting and since I was in an eggy kind of mood, I did a sort of crossover thing and got one of the quiches of the day. I have this problem- I like to order quiche and I have had some really good ones, but seems like they always tend to be too poofy/eggy and not have enough of the seasoning ingredients. Finally, I got a really good slice of quiche! Zest’s quiche of the day had mushrooms, goat cheese and greens mixed in. I really liked it. And with every single bite, you got a fair amount of the ingredients. There were a lot of the mushrooms and a nice dollop of the goat cheese one top. It was a thin style quiche, it almost looked like a tart. The crust was very flakey and tasty—it was so flaky when you cut a bite of the end, it sort of just fell to flakey pieces... which is a good thing!

You also get a choice of a side with the quiche—fruit, a mixed green salad or a cup of the soup of the day. I went with the soup of the day because it sounded yummy--roasted cauliflower. And I was right, it was yummy. It was a puree type soup, but not so smooth that you couldn’t taste the texture of the cauliflower. And you could see different color tones in there to know that there really was truly roasted cauliflower in it. It was served with a piece of seeded cracker/flatbread which was nice to dunk. The flavor of the soup and the quiche were both very good. And I liked that the tanginess of the goat cheese made the meal not feel just purely rich. The only thing that was a let down on the plate was the little pile of greens on the side—I am assuming they were just there as a garnish, as I don’t think there was any dressing on them, but I didn’t even try them because they were so wilty. They looked like they had been put on the plate quite awhile ago. If you are gonna throw some greens on there, make ‘em fresh and dress ‘em a little please.

But speaking of rich, my friend had an omelet and was raving about her side of cowboy potatoes. I had never had them before, and she offered me some, so I tried them. Wow, those things are really tasty (and super rich!). They are chunks of potatoes covered in a creamy cheesy sauce of some sort. Really good, but there is no way I could eat a whole side of them. Well, maybe….

All in all, I was very pleased with this lunch experience at Zest. The food was good, and the service was extremely attentive and quick. The place is busy, but not so busy you have to wait. I would really like to go back and get the breakfast panini, with scrambled eggs, white cheddar, bacon, tomatoes and dijonnaise. Sounds delish as well.

I know Zest has a lot of fans out there, would love to hear your favorite dishes…

Zest Exciting Food Creations
1134 E 54th Street
Indy 46220
317-466-1853
www.zestexcitingfood.com

Zest-Dinner

*****ZEST IS OUT OF BUSINESS******

Sigh… I really really want to like this place—a nice independent neighborhood joint already really well-known for their breakfasts and lunches. They recently started serving dinner so we thought we should give it a go. I have had a pretty good lunch here before, but this dinner was a big disappointment. In a word, almost everything was dry.

The menu is pretty extensive and even has some breakfast for dinner items. I decided to try the three course price fixe, which is a great deal. I started with the wedge salad (you had a choice between this and the soup). It was pretty good, and not enormous which was nice and the blue cheese dressing clearly seemed homemade—it was really good.

We also had some pommes frites to share with our friends to start. They do have good fries and a really good roasted red pepper aioli to dip in (as well as a wasabi cream and vinegar, but the aioli is by far the best).

I then had the filet with chimichurri sauce served with roasted potatoes and grilled asparagus. The steak (ordered medium rare) was medium at best and really dry. The chimichurri was actually really tasty I thought—it was a bit tart, but I tend to really like tart things so I thought it was good. The potatoes were fine, nothing too exciting and the asparagus was good, but you know me, I like mine a little thinner.

Hubby had the Baja Tacos which were cornmeal encrusted basa fish with white cheddar and chipotle slaw served on corn tortillas. The sides were cilantro lime rice and refried beans. They were drizzled with sour cream and there was some pico di gallo there too. Again, dry was the word that best describes the tacos according to hubby.

I also had a bite of the asiago fried chicken, and sadly, it seemed to suffer the same fate. However, I did try our other dining companions rosemary roasted pork tenderloin and it was the least dry item on the table. Which is weird, because I generally don’t order pork tenderloin because it is often so dry. This wasn’t bad.

My three course came with a dessert—it was a sort of mixed berry shortcake which was fine as well, but not overly memorable. The service was friendly and helpful, and the dishes were well presented, but the I’m not sure if I was just unlucky, or what, but it wasn’t very crowded in there at dinner—I would love to hear from any of you who might have tried dinner and hear what you thought.

Zest Exciting Food Creations
1134 E 54th Street
Indy 46220
317-466-1853
http://www.zestexcitingfood.com/

Zest Exciting Food Creations

*****ZEST IS OUT OF BUSINESS******

This is a place I kept hearing about, and I wanted to try, and then I would forget about it. Finally hubby and I made it over one day for lunch. This is mainly a breakfast and lunch place, but they have also recently started serving dinner some nights a week. Every reader review I have read about this place online is a rave, so I thought I needed to go.

They have an extensive menu of sandwiches and salads as well as breakfast items served all day. The place was about half full when we got there and the service was very attentive. At first. Anyway, we ordered sandwiches which come with your choice of sides. I had the hot mushroom sandwich with goat cheese, caramelized onions, balsamic and some greens. The hot sandwiches are HUGE and served sort of hot dog style, wrapped in foil—I realized after I got it that was because it is so big, the sandwich would fall apart if you tried to eat it without the foil. In fact, for me, it was really too big to fit in my mouth, and a bit too much bread I thought, so I sort of ate it open-faced. It was pretty good but a little rich for me—no way could I finish the whole thing. There were A LOT of mushrooms on that puppy though. I got the homemade macaroni and cheese as a side and it was really good. Old fashioned with a nice bread crumb crust. Hubby and both really liked it and the portion is definitely enough to share (which we did and still didn’t finish it).

Hubby had the shredded beef sandwich—I didn’t try it, braised meat isn’t my fave, but I think he liked it about as much as I did mine—good, but so big and a little dry. He got the pomme frites as a side and they were great—one thing this City has mastered it seems are the pomme frites. You can get great ones at Taste, Zest, Nordstrom Café, Brugge and several others. The red pepper aioli was also very good, although not my favorite of all the fancy aiolis you can find around town. Probably Nordstrom has the lock on that with the olive aioli with Taste at a close second with their herby aioli.

The worst part about our visit was the service once we had ordered. It took forever to get our food, and the place wasn’t that busy. I guess I should have been forewarned by the intricate table cloth paper art that is displayed on the walls—clearly people are having enough time to do some large detailed pieces!

The interior is very homey and eclectic—a nice neighborhood café. It is also bigger inside than you would think looking at it from the outside. There is quite a bit of seating.

All in all, the food is pretty good, and certainly very hearty. I would probably go back and next time get the mac & cheese with a side salad or something. That would certainly be a full meal! Or maybe we will go next time for breakfast. Regardless of what you eat, you will certainly not leave this place hungry.

Zest Exciting Food Creations
1134 E 54th Street
Indy 46220
317-466-1853