Provision - Revisit

So right now when I go out to eat, I only will eat outside—so finding the right combo of a nice outdoor area and good food isn’t always easy—but likely the next few posts you will read will be some of our outdoor adventures. Speaking of which, please please share any great ideas for places to try with great patios, especially places that might be new to me! And I am already getting stressed about thinking about when it gets too cold to eat outside, but I am a worrier. 

Anyhow, we wanted a higher end sit-down place where we could get a reservation for an outdoor table—it seems a lot of places won’t guarantee outside tables. But Provision was a good choice. We’ve always liked the upstairs patio and it was a beautiful night. And we could reserve it. 

The tables are nicely spaced as well, and the servers were all fully masked even before the Mayor’s orders. We started with some appetizers—the tuna tartare ($22) and the king crab toast ($36). We also got a bread basket ($7). I have had all of them before, and all of them were very good. The bread basket at Provision is one of my favorite in town—next to Vida maybe. Cunningham Group seems to put out a good bread basket. Provision’s version has baguette from Blue Dog Bakery in Louisville (if you haven’t been there, you need to go—they do make some of the best baguettes in the Midwest), pretzels, naan, cereal bread and butter as well as dipping oil. All really good. Definitely worth the price. The tuna and the crab dish have always been good and this time was no exception. I like the seasoning on the spicy tuna mix with the crunch of the rice cake underneath—there’s a slightly spicy aioli as well. I really enjoy the crab dish, which is in a buerre blanc sauce with a bit of heat and served on super buttery brioche. It’s really rich and decadent—I tried to eat it as a main dish before and it was a little much. Definitely a great thing to share with a group. And a really tasty, buttery bite.

My daughter and I shared the halibut dish that came with udon noodles, mushrooms, tosaka (a type of seaweed) and yuzu-chile glaze ($46). I appreciated that they split the dish in the kitchen so we each got our own serving. The fish was good—maybe a tad bit dry. I loved the noodles and mushrooms with the slightly tangy, slightly spicy broth. My daughter actually preferred the fish to the noodles and I liked the sides the best, so there you go. It was a good dish though. 

My son had 10-ounce Iowa premium filet ($46). He could not stop talking about how good this steak was. It was perfectly cooked and nicely seasoned (from the small bite I convinced him to give me). They give you a little portion of Robuchon potatoes, which are like equal parts mashed potatoes to butter and are always delicious. We also got a side of “loaded tater tottler” ($9). This was my least favorite thing of the night—It was sort of three large fried potato pieces with a lot of spicy mayo underneath and bacon on top. Just didn’t really come together for me somehow. But really this was the only miss of the night.  Hubby had the charred shrimp appetizer ($21) for his main and was very happy—it is perfectly grilled shrimp with avocado, curry emulsion and kimchi apple. A great blend of acid and heat and smooth richness from the avocado. They definitely know how to cook shrimp.

We also shared some desserts, which were really good—especially the Indiana sugar cream pie ($10) with Turkish coffee ice cream. Even though the kids ordered the triple chocolate tarte (love the potato chip crust)($10) and really enjoyed it, everyone was fighting over the pie.

All in all, this was a great (although pricey) meal. It was so nice to enjoy a bunch of things, all cooked really well, on a nice night outside in the fresh air. It gave a little sense of peace in what is a fairly stressful world right now. Sometimes a great meal in a great environment can make you kick back and relax a little, even with a global pandemic. I have struggled with going out at all but was really glad we did in this case.  And remember, keep the recs coming!

Provision

2721 E. 86^th Street #200

Indianapolis, In 46240

317/843-6105

https://www.provision-restaurant.com/

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 

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 

Murphy's @ Flynn's

The family and I used to frequent Murphy’s a fair amount before its move. It was a kitschy space that the kids really liked. And I liked that my son, who loves steak and lobster, could get either or both for a very reasonable price. When the construction at Keystone and Fall Creek started last year, Murphy’s decided to move because they knew their business would suffer. They moved in with Pat Flynn’s at 52^nd and Allisonville. They’ve been there for a while now, but we hadn’t made it over to see what the new “Murphy’s @ Flynn’s” would be like. We were curious as to how they combined the menus etc. 

It appears that Murphy’s is the more dominant theme there, although the menu is much larger, incorporating some of the Flynn’s dishes as well (pizza, sandwiches, etc.). Most of the green booths from Murphy’s have been moved, and they have actually done a decent job of incorporating them into the existing space. Sadly, they’ve lost the wine list they had at Murphy’s, which wasn’t amazing, but had a couple of decent reds on it.

We had several different things, mostly that were from the Murphy’s old menu I think. I had a filet dinner ($17.99), which I split with my son. You still get a soup or salad (I think maybe you got both before?) and they still happily have the blue cheese dressing, which is old school, and really chunky, and hubby’s favorite. The lettuce itself is a mix, and just ok, more of just something to soak up the dressing ( We ordered an extra cup of clam chowder because my son really enjoys it. It’s more of a cream heavy version, but had a decent taste. A little hotter temperature might have been nice, although my son didn’t mind because he likes things a little closer to lukewarm. You also get your choice of potato. I went with the twice baked because I don’t remember seeing it on the menu before. It was fine—mostly some cheese on top of a seasoned baked potato. It didn’t have a lot of additional flavor than a regular baked potato, maybe less without any butter. The steak was the best thing on the plate—it was cooked as we ordered it and was nice and tender. They have a pretty decent quality beef for that price point. I also missed the yummy pieces of garlic bread that Murphy’s used to put on the plate (although my son wanted me to be sure to reassure everyone that they do still have the little baskets of crackers on the table, which he loves).

Hubby had the rainbow trout ($16.99), which is seasoned and broiled. Actually, hubby had requested it pan-crusted (which is an option on the menu) and they didn’t do it. He ate it anyway, but said it was pretty bland and didn’t have the crunchy bits he likes from previous experiences. He was trying to be all healthy and got broccoli as his side, which he then didn’t eat because it was barely cooked. Like I said though, he loves that blue cheese dressing and was greatly relieved it was still on the menu.

My mother-in-law had the fried lobster dinner ($17.99), which has been a favorite of ours in the past. How can you not like deep fried lobster? I would have a hard time eating a whole dinner of it (they used to offer it as a combo with a smaller steak) but a piece from her plate was a nice crunchy treat (they also do offer it as a starter). My in-laws both out-ordered us on the sides—they both had hash browns (which I also don’t remember from the old Murphy’s) and I really enjoyed them. They were more almost like potato cakes; with a softer more mashed interior and a really nice crispy edge. I ate as much of these as they kindly shared and this is the side I would get on a future visit.

I think if you stick with the steak and add these hash browns, and with the salad and that blue cheese dressing, you can get a nice solid meal. I can’t speak too much of the Flynn’s items, but I’d be interested to try the pizza. I saw a couple come out of the kitchen and they were nice and thin and looked pretty good. Ever had one?

Murphy’s at Flynn’s

5198 Allisonville Road

Indy 46205

317/545-3707

www.murphyssteakhouse.com