Platt 99

I know Platt 99 is really a bar with little plates of food, more than a restaurant (I don’t think there is even a full kitchen associated with the place) but this is sort of an ideal place for me, because I love eating small lots of little things, and who doesn’t love a drink? The cocktails I have had have been good—the wine list is kind of limited by the glass, but it purports to be a cocktail place so I guess I can’t get too uppity about it.

I love the interior of the bar—it is modern and has what are probably the most photographed lighting in all of Indy Instagram world (that glassed in part in the picture is the bar).  But the hotel is artsy, with some beautiful pieces of art scattered about, and Platt 99 follows the creative lead of the hotel.

Anyway, I am just focusing on the food here and there were certainly some ups and downs.  I appreciate the complimentary truffle popcorn.  You can’t really go wrong there. It’s good to have a little something to munch on that has a hint of truffles.

As far as what I liked, I enjoyed the beef roulade ($11).  It is fresh and has a great mash up of flavors without being heavy.  There are little thin pieces of rare beef that are rolled around arugula and blue cheese and dressed lightly with a truffle vinaigrette.  Four little tasty bites.  It was really well-balanced in its flavors and this

 was one I wanted more of.

I also really liked one of the specials—the banh mi ($7).  Sadly, our server never mentioned it to us, it was another server who was friends with my date that mentioned it and recommended it.  But it was also one of the better things we had. It had duck pate, pickled carrots, arugula, cilantro, peppers and a seasoned mayo. It had a fair amount of heat and was one of the more flavorful items I had.  If it is offered again, it’s something best split between just two people—it comes in 2 small halves.

We also had the Riverbend blue grilled cheese with pears and onions on raisin sunflower bread ($8). It was okay, but the cheese wasn’t really very melty, and honestly, did not have the blue cheese flavor I expected. I wonder if they used a different cheese to be honest.

My least favorite was the escabeche ($9)—and sadly was the one I was most excited about ordering. The description was sardines, egg salad, and toast—all things I really like and was kind of excited by the prospect of something totally different from most Indy menus.  It just didn’t work—the egg salad was underseasoned, the fish very cold and bland.  I expected more of a stronger acidic flavor with the fish, but it was pretty lacking. Interestingly, at the suggestion of a server, we ate the parts separately, and it was better that way. Still not great, but better. I was looking and I think they may have taken this one off the menu which was probably a good call.

The service was a little strange. My friend’s friend (who wasn’t our server) offered up some good advice about food.  Our own server didn’t give a lot of guidance and actually seemed to be rushing us the whole evening (even with not even half the place full). I am not sure if his shift was ending, but it was odd.  I still really like the vibe of the place (and the cocktails I have had in the past have been good) and I look forward to going back to try some of the other small plates. What ones have you guys had?

Platt 99

The Alexander

333 S. Delaware Street

Indy 46204

317/624-8200

http://www.thealexander.com/dining/lounge.asp

Sabbatical

SABBATICAL IS CLOSED******************

Hubby and I intended to go to Sabbatical the other night when we ended up at the Sushi Bar, and have been determined to go ever since.  We ended up meeting some friends the other night for dinner—I always like having a few extra people to try tapas (which is generally what makes up the menu at Sabbatical) so I can try lots of things.  I am looking back though and thinking maybe this is not as good idea as it sounds because it means I have a lot of items to remember when I go to write it up.

My first reaction to the place is that the interior is really more of a bar feel than a restaurant feel.  Honestly, I haven’t been in the building in many, many years and I am not sure what the different incarnations have been like, but the interior is a little cold.  I think when the patio is open; this restaurant will visually have more appeal.

Hubby and I got there first and ordered a glass of wine and a couple of small things that we thought most people would like—the bread and butter plate ($5) and the roasted garlic ($4).  The butter is very soft and mixed with herbs and truffle—could taste the herbs for sure, not as much the truffle.  It was served with a small sliced loaf of pretty soft French bread and Naan.  Honestly, I am not sure how I feel about $5 for bread and butter, but it seems to be more common these days.  I enjoyed the roasted garlic—it was a whole head of garlic that was roasted giving you several cloves of soft, sweet, nutty garlic.  I love roasted garlic in general so I liked it—it isn’t really something overly easy to share in a group though unless you don’t mind everyone’s fingers on your food—you really had to pick up the whole head to squeeze the cloves out. It was served with thin-sliced toasted French bread which I liked—it had some oil on it and was nice and crisp.

We had lots of other things and I am just going to discuss them in no particular order other than they what springs to mind as I write.  The Stella blue cheese dip ($7) was a warm dip that was very creamy and had a nice blue cheese flavor, but that wasn’t so overwhelming that it offended anyone.  I thought it was interesting that they served it mainly with sliced fruit and veggies (apples, squash and peppers) and then a bit of Naan type bread (the menu said French bread crostini, but it wasn’t).  I liked the apples dipped in the blue cheese—I’ve always been a fan of blue cheese and fruit, but the raw veggies didn’t do much more me, and I would have preferred something a little firmer bread-wise than the Naan. But the dip itself was worth ordering.

We also had the seared scallop wonton tulips ($9) which were little fried wontons that were filled with a seared scallop and topped with mango, red onion and wasabi cilantro cream.  I liked the crunchy wonton for a good texture variation from the scallop, but flavor-wise, this dish was lacking.  I think the mango was there for a little sweetness and acidity, but it wasn’t enough and I didn’t get wasabi or cilantro out of the teeny bit of cream that was on top.  I honestly sort of expected it to me more of a chopped filling that was mixed with other things—this tasted mostly like a seared scallop in a fried wonton and that’s it (to be fair, the scallop was cooked decently, which can be a challenge at many restaurants).

The table also ordered the brie stuffed turkey meatballs ($8) with cranberry chutney.  Ok, I didn’t choose these, and am probably not the fairest person to review the dish because generally, meatballs rarely impress me, and these were certainly not ones that were changing my mind.  The meat was fairly tender (it sort of completely fell apart as soon as you touched one) but didn’t seem overly seasoned.  The chutney was sweet and the brie not overly melty.  I don’t know, these just didn’t really come together in any special way for me.

I did enjoy the flavor of the adobo battered mushroom skewers ($6) even if they weren’t quite as crunchy as I would have liked.  The whole mushrooms were battered with adobo-flavored batter and fried.  The adobo flavor is one hubby and I quite like, and it was quite dominant.  The whole thing was drizzled with more of the wasabi cilantro cream, which had a nice balancing effect (this time there was enough of it to really taste it a bit).  If the batter had been really crisp, these would have been outstanding. As it was, they were one of our favorites.

The group ordered a couple orders of the seafood skewers which each had a scallop, a large shrimp and a piece of salmon that were seasoned and grilled.  Another thing I didn’t personally order, and which I normally wouldn’t, because I find “meat on a stick” often to be dried out.  I was actually pleasantly surprised by this—at least the salmon, which was the only part I tried.  It was pretty heavily seasoned but at least it wasn’t just completely bland and dried out, which is what I normally would fear in a dish like this.

We tried the pulled pork sliders as well (I think they were $4 each) from the specials menu—I thought they were one of the better things we had—the pork was nice and tender—but wow, were they spicy, as in way too much heat.  I appreciate them having a bit of heat, but this was just a little too far.

We also got several desserts (after I tried to order one recommended by our server and was told they were out of it after I ordered it), but the only one I tried was the peach and cranberry shortcake dumplings ($5).  They tasted very dense and somewhat dry (like shortcake) and almost like they were made with some cornmeal. They were covered in what was described as a caramel sauce on the menu, but it was almost like a caramel flavored cream sauce.  They also brought some ice cream on the side.  I only had a couple of bites of these—they just weren’t really doing it for me and honestly, that was about all I could handle they were so dense. 

I had hope for this place, and there are certain items that are pretty good.  Unfortunately, there is just some lack of finesse in almost every dish that just doesn’t get me excited to go back.  There is an effort being made in the kitchen to make something interesting, but it just isn’t totally coming together somehow.  The service was very friendly, and like I said, the outdoor space will be nice when it is warm, but I will be interested to see how this place does in the meantime. Who’s been?

Sabbatical

921 E. Broad Ripple Avenue

Indy  46220

317/253-5252

www.sabbaticalindy.com

Tastings

Tastings has been on my list since it opened—unfortunately I missed the first chef, but recently a couple of different people have recommended it again, so I took one of my girlfriends and we did a lunch date there the other day.

My first thought was I was sort of surprised it was open for lunch since there was no one in there when we got there (a few people showed up later, but that was it).  I guess since it is connected to the Conrad, maybe they have to be open?  We chose a comfy couch to settle into and then got our little card to try some wine tastes.  This place has these fancy machines hooked up to various wine bottles and you put whatever amount you want on your card and then go try 2 ounce portions of whatever wine you want (the 2 ounces range from about $2 to over $10 for a few).  When you figure out how much they are making on a bottle of wine with these 2 ounce prices, you realize they are making a large profit here, but it was still fun to try several things, and it was fun to be with a very wine knowledgeable friend to help pick some interesting choices.  Also, if you get lucky, they will offer you a couple of free end of bottle pours as they did with us (they were putting the new bottles in the machines).

Food-wise, we got quite a few different things, and again, it was fun to sample various plates (it generally is a small plates type of menu). We started with the blue cheese chips ($5) which were very crisp kettle style potato chips topped with melty blue cheese and a creamy sauce. Honestly, even though it was basically just a fancy chip and dip, it was probably my favorite thing of the day.  The chips were crisp enough to stay that way the entire lunch and there was enough of the blue cheese for all of them.  They were nice and hot when we got them and I would order them again.

Next we had the Mediterranean Sampler platter ($12) which had red pepper hummus, a white bean and sundried tomato dip and a tomato and mozzarella bruschetta-type topping.  They served it with a bunch of pita and toasted bread.  It was really a portion for way more people than just the two of us, but we enjoyed trying all the different things anyway.  We both liked the hummus the best—the roasted red peppers gave it a deeper flavor than just plain hummus and it had a nice garlic flavor as well.  Neither of us was as sure about the white bean dip.  It was really thick—not so much of a dip as it was a spread.  The beans weren’t really mashed up that much.  It had a slightly strange flavor that I couldn’t put my finger on. Not sure if it was from the tomatoes or vinegar or what.  The diced tomato topping was seasoned decently with basil and a vinaigrette type dressing with little chunks of mozzarella on top, but the tomatoes had little flavor on their own.  I also wished the toasted bread pieces had more flavor on their own and were toasted a little but more.  I can’t say I would order the white bean dip or the tomato topping again.  The hummus was pretty good though.

We also shared a filet mignon flatbread pizza ($11).  They are little square pizzas and this one was topped with a tomato sauce, gorgonzola (we both love our blue cheese), caramelized onions, and pieces of steak and drizzled with balsamic glaze. This was probably my least favorite of all the things we had. There was just too much going on, and I definitely could have done without the tomato sauce—it really conflicted with all the other flavors to me, especially the balsamic on top.  The beef was little tiny pieces and after being warmed on top of the pizza became overcooked.

We also shared some of the “Best Chocolate in Town” truffles as well ($10). At this point, I was pretty stuffed, and we ended up taking some of them home, but I really liked the flavor of the Wee Mac truffle. Didn’t think I would dig beer flavor in my chocolate, but it was good—really good.  I like that the restaurant is using truffles from a local maker too.

Our server was really nice—explained how everything worked and even though he obviously wasn’t busy with lots of customers, was around when we needed him and left us alone when we didn’t.  And the free wine tastes didn’t hurt.  Even though the food didn’t blow me away, I think this might be a fun place to return to with a group of friends—I enjoyed trying the different wines--even if you just ordered some cheese to go with it off the menu.

It’s been open awhile—so who has been? Have you had menu items that you really enjoyed?

Tastings

50 West Washington Street

Indy 46204

317/423-2400

www.awineexperience.com

Divvy - Revisit

We have wanted to try Divvy again since our first experience awhile back.  We went with a large group the first time and I was a little overwhelmed with all the different things we tried.  This time there was just 4 of us, and while we still got to try a lot of things, I didn’t feel quite as overwhelmed.  Also, our server was exceptionally friendly and helpful this time.  The menu had changed a fair amount since our first visit, but there were still several of the same items as well (I assume the more popular items).

We started with a couple of the spreads/cheese starters—we had the bruschetta ($6) and the bruleed brie ($8).  The better of the two was definitely the bruleed brie.  It was toasted pretzel bread slices with a little fig jam, nicely melted creamy brie, and tart green apple slices.  Normally I don’t get that excited about brie, but this was a great combo with the apple and the sweet jam (but there wasn’t too much of it which was nice). The bruschetta was grilled slices of focaccia with tomato, onion, roasted garlic and balsamic.  There was also quite a bit of feta sprinkled on top.  The whole dish was just sort of flat to me—the balsamic wasn’t tangy enough or something—it was more on the sweet side I think.  I don’t remember the roasted garlic at all.

The first repeat item we ordered from last time (at my request) was the tempura tofu ($9). I really enjoyed it again.  The cubes of tofu were soft inside with a nice crunch outside.  They was drizzled with a teriyaki sauce and served with pomegranate-blood orange noodles and sesame seeds.  The noodles were cold and had a fair amount of the fruity flavor to them—it was nice alongside the richer tofu.

We also really enjoyed the popcorn scallops ($10). It was a healthy portion of little bite-sized pieces of scallops with a salty, crispy coating.  They were a little addicting—and I appreciated that they were served with a tangy, citrusy tartar-type sauce.  It was a good balance. We also added a random order of the frizzled onions ($4) mid-way through the meal—they were pretty tasty too.  They were basically onion straws, but they were made in house and had a nice crust and a chipotle tomato sauce with them that definitely had a distinct chipotle flavor.  They were good—not amazing but good.

The lamb medallions ($14) with a pomegranate balsamic glaze were probably my least favorite item—they were ok, but the lamb was a little more cooked than I would like—and I really think lamb gets tough when it is past medium rare.  These were certainly closer to medium.  There were 4-5 small medallions—one of the smaller plates of the evening as well.  At this point we went ahead and ordered our second repeat item of the evening—the corn crème brulee ($6).  We all enjoyed it the first time and were debating it, but when our server recommended it to go along with the lamb, we were sold.  It was actually better this time around.  The dish is basically a rich corn pudding with jalapenos, Romano cheese and a bruleed top.  The top this time was nicely crisp which gave a really nice texture contrast with the creamy interior.  It has a smoky flavor, almost making you think it had meat in it (it doesn’t).

The last couple of savory things we threw on at the end were the chorizo balls ($9) and the lobster salad ($14).  These were a good couple of things to get together because one was (obviously) very meaty with spicier flavors, and the other was lighter and had a tangier, citrusy flavor.  You start to notice a lot of repeated ingredients throughout the dishes though, when you order several.  The chorizo balls included more of the chipotle tomato sauce and the lobster salad used more of the citrusy tartar sauce that was with the scallops.  Luckily, I liked both of the sauces.  The meatballs were better than I expected—they stayed fairly tender (maybe because of the fat content).  They had a bit of heat to them (there was also some chopped jalapenos on top) but they had a generous drizzle of crème fraiche that cooled them down a bit.  They weren’t my favorite thing of the evening, but like I said, I liked them more than I expected to.  The lobster salad was pretty good as well, although again, not amazing.  There was a lot of chopped lobster meat with the tartar sauce with a lot of fresh fruits and veg alongside—cucumber slices, orange wedges, sweet peppers and some radish sprouts on top.  I enjoyed it, mainly as something different to go along with the spicy rich chorizo—I am not sure if I would order it again though.

For dessert we got one larger, shareable thing—the chocolate fondue ($12) and one of the “mini morsels”--the chocolate mousse ($4).  I wanted to try the chocolate mousse because last time everyone told me it was really good but I didn’t get to try it before it was gone.  It is a little dome of frozen mousse with a peanut butter glaze and some sea salt on top.  I love the whole sweet/salty thing, so I enjoyed this.  It is pretty small though—even though we all had a bit of it, it is really more of a single dessert.  I appreciate all the little dessert options. It is a nice way to get something sweet without getting a ridiculously large dessert, which seem to dominate most restaurants in Indy.  The fondue was pretty straight forward—a warm chocolate sauce with lots of things to dip into it—homemade marshmallows, and lots of fruit—strawberries, pineapple, banana and apple.  It is an easy thing to share and tasted good.  There was nothing that made it stand out from any other similar dessert I have had before though.

Overall, I generally enjoy the divvy experience.  The menu is really quite large (and maybe slightly overwhelming) and as I mentioned, you start to see a lot of repeated ingredients throughout it.  You kind of have to pay attention if you don’t want to repeat the same flavors.  I enjoyed what we had, but none of it was blowing me away--but it is solid and creative food and there are certainly things to appease pretty much every kind of taste. 

divvy

71 West City Center Drive

Carmel, IN 46032

317/706-0000

www.divvycarmel.com

divvy

Divvy has been on my radar since it opened—the small plates concept is one of my favorite ways to eat.  Anytime I can try several items at a meal, I am happy.  And I took the opportunity to expand my options even further and invited several friends to join us.  We ended up with 8 of us at the meal, which was fun because--well, first these particular friends always make me laugh—but also because we got to try SO many things.  The down side was I tried so many different things actually that I actually ended up overwhelming myself a little with all the constant changes in flavors as we passed around plate after plate.  So I am going to do my best to hit on most of the items.

The first dish that sticks out in my mind as a favorite was the tempura tofu ($9).  It was cubes of tofu that were tempura battered and fried. I really liked the texture contrast between the perfectly crisp outside and the warm, custardy inside.  The pieces of tofu were served with a teriyaki sauce and super thin blood orange glass noodles and sesame seeds. The noodles (which are also served alongside the seared tuna) were good as well and added a very delicate amount of citrus.  Actually, the seared tuna ($12) was pretty much identical in its set up, and the tuna was cooked nicely—basically raw with just a seared edge).

Another favorite of mine, as well as the table, was the corn crème brulee ($5).  I was like an extremely rich corn pudding with some kick from jalapeno.  There were some whole kernels of corn inside and the top was bruleed crunchy and topped with red sea salt.  Honestly, if I hadn’t known better (it is on the vegetarian part of the menu), I would have thought there was bacon in the dish—it had such a deep smoky flavor. It was tasty scooped up on some of the bread that came along with other things.  I was sort of surprised they didn’t serve it with some sort of bread though—if I hadn’t had so much from other things we had ordered, I don’t know that I would have just wanted to scoop it in with a spoon, but maybe that’s just me.

a chicken nacho

Surprisingly (to me anyway), I also really enjoyed the chicken nachos ($7), which I never would have ordered except for our large group (someone else ordered them).  They were made on a base of a crispy, buttery flour tortilla and topped with chicken, crème fraiche, Monterrey Jack cheese and a chipotle pineapple salsa verde.  There was a little smoky flavor from the salsa verde and I really liked the tartness of the crème fraiche. An inventive take on a bar classic.   The fried biscuits ($6) were a nice thing to share as well—and who isn’t going to like what is basically a little doughnut hole of biscuit batter—they weren’t quite as dense as most fried biscuits I have had, but tasty dipped into either the apple butter (a classic combo) or the mango marmalade.  Interestingly, pretty sure it was these same biscuits that showed up later sprinkled with powdered sugar, with chocolate, blackberry and butterscotch sauces and re-named “beignets” (and re-priced at $11).  Still tasty though.



olive tapenade



We also got several dips because they are so easy to share and most all of them were enjoyable, although none of them completely wowed.  My favorite was probably the olive tapenade ($5) which was a flavorful olive dip sitting in a roasted red pepper puree and served with toasted slices of pretzel bread.  I love olives, so it is kind of a given I am probably going to like this.  But several others mentioned liking it as well.  Our least favorite was the baba ganoush ($6).  It was made with the typical eggplant and well as white beans and topped with a balsamic glaze.  One of my friends nicknamed it “cumin ganoush” though because it was so heavy on the seasoning.  Way too much for us.   The crab dip and beer cheese dip were somewhere in the middle of the two—both very good, but not amazing.



carpaccio



The beef carpaccio ($14) wasn’t bad—really heavy on the horseradish mustard on top. It seemed as if there was almost as much mustard as there was meat.  And I didn’t like how some of the edges of the meat had lost their bright red color and gone to the gray place.  But if you portioned out the toppings a bit, it didn’t taste bad.

The frog legs ($12) were only ok—they were sort of done in a variation of a chicken wing. Deep fried with a Thai chili sauce drizzled on top and a side of crème fraiche for dipping. Unfortunately, the fried coating wasn’t very crispy and I thought just the plain crème fraiche was a little uninspired.  Hubby also told me later that his leg was totally undercooked and it kind of freaked him out (mine didn’t suffer that fate).  This is one that would not be a repeat for us.

The seared seasoned scallops ($14) with brandy, melted leeks, and lime wedges were also just ok.  The scallops themselves were bland and not seared at all (nothing crispy going on the edges as far as I could tell).  The flavor of the sauce wasn’t bad, particularly when you squeezed those limes on it to brighten it a bit.  But when the meat of the dish is so blah, I wouldn’t recommend it. We also had the ostrich tartar with crispy capers ($10).  The ostrich was a little too chunky for my taste, and the flavor was kind of bland.  It needed some seasoning in there (maybe some of that mustard from the carpaccio or something). 

We shared several desserts and they were all good.  I mentioned the beignets, which were good, but I wouldn’t get them AND the fried biscuits since they are basically the same.  They also do a bunch of mini desserts which are all $3-4.  Apparently, the highlight was the chocolate mousse with peanut butter and caramel sauce and red sea salt on top.  I wouldn’t know, because it was gone by the time it got to me (they are pretty small). The key lime pie was also good.  I’m a sucker for s’mores desserts, although there was too much of the graham cracker crumbs on this which made it too dry overall. 

The biggest problematic issue we had overall was the service was pretty off (one friend was so pissed off, I doubt he will return).  The service was generally slow and they were sort of weird about letting us order what we wanted when we wanted (they only let half of us pick something in our initial order and by the time our order was taken, we were getting pretty hungry).  I am not sure if they were worried about overwhelming the kitchen or something, but I would think at a tapas place (that was quite crowded on a Sunday night by the way) that they could handle an influx of a lot of orders at once. Luckily we were drinking a fair amount of wine and having a good time so we looked past it, but there were definitely some kinks here.  The interior is stylish and modern—much of it covered in different colors of wood.  It gets pretty loud when it is crowded (which it was) but you certainly feel like you are in a lively restaurant. (Also, it is 21 and over, so don’t bring the kids).

"beignets"



Overall, I look forward to trying Divvy again—and this time with a smaller group (maybe just hubby).  It was kind of crazy with all the things being passed around especially when you’re trying to focus on the foods based on only a couple of bites.  I am also interested to see if the service is better with a smaller group.  Food-wise, I would say there were more hits than misses, and the menu is huge, so there are still plenty more things to try (and I would keep a couple of the things I really liked this time).

divvy

71 West City Center Drive

Carmel, IN 46032

317/706-0000

www.divvycarmel.com

Taste Café and Marketplace- Revisit - Dinner

For some reason I always forget about Taste as an option for dinner—I guess because it is only open a couple of nights a week  (Wednesdays and Thursdays I believe) because I never forget about it as a lunch option. It is one of my favorites for lunch for sure. (Check out my other reviews of both lunch and dinner here.)  Hubby and I had a babysitter on a Thursday the other day and actually remembered it.  It was also a beautiful night so we thought it would be nice to sit outside. 

I think the food hits a spot that Indy is lacking in though---good but not overly fancy, small plates.  (They do have entrées, but we always get small plates when we go).  The menu is quite extensive though, so it always takes us awhile to decide. And then when the server told us the specials, it was almost overwhelming.  There were probably 10, each with about 10 different ingredients. It took quite awhile for him to read them all off to us.  I am thinking it may be a lot easier (and less time consuming) to either print up some daily specials sheets or else just update the regular menu more often. 

We shared several items—the panzanella salad ($8) was the first thing delivered and it was very good.  Hubby had just been complaining about one we had elsewhere, and declared this one to be superb.  It was a spinach base, with giant white beans, nice hunks of bread, tomatoes, capers and red onion served with Champagne vinaigrette.  There was feta sprinkled on top.  I liked the variation on a traditional panzanella which often is focused more around just the bread, tomatoes and basil, and I have most often had it served with mozzarella.  This one was nice with the spinach and the texture variation from the beans, and the salty flavor of the feta.  The salad was dressed perfectly, and we both really enjoyed it. My only complaint is that I would have loved it on a slightly bigger plate—it was mounded so high, it was actually hard to eat it without making a mess. But we managed.

We also got the special antipasto platter of the day which is somewhat similar in accoutrements to the regular one on the menu, but included just speck as the meat. If you aren’t familiar, speck is very similar to prosciutto in appearance, but is smoked as well as seasoned and has a much more distinctive flavor.  They served it with marinated artichokes, some roasted seasoned tomatoes with a slice of fresh mozzarella, and a couple of boiled eggs.  There were a couple of slices of wheat baguette alongside as well.  We both enjoyed eating this dish out there in the open air.  Just a pure flavor of summer.

Finally, we shared the rare roast beef tartine with blue cheese, horseradish and balsamic onion marmalade ($12).  A tartine is basically an open-faced sandwich and taste does them very well.  The beef is actually rare, and tender, and the blue cheese combined with the onion marmalade really complement each other as well—the salty distinct blue cheese with the sweet, slightly tangy marmalade. One of my favorite combos. The horseradish was just lightly grated across the top, giving it just the right amount of horseradish-type heat.  Of course, we also had a side of the frites ($6), which are some of my favorite in town, mainly because of the basil aioli on the side.  I always get these for lunch and dinner.  The fries are light and crunchy and topped with salt and some parsley. But it is the slightly tangy aioli that is the reason I keep ordering them.  They were also offering a chipotle aioli this night, so we tried a side of it is well.  It was good too, but I am still partial to the basil.

Taste is a good casual place to go for a dinner sized exactly the way you want—you can make a nice light meal out of just a couple of the smaller plates, or you can go the traditional route and order an entrée.  I still prefer it for lunch, but it is a good change of pace for dinner as well.

Aftertaste (Taste Café and Marketplace)

5164 N College Ave
Indy 46205
317-925-2233www.tastecafeandmarketplace.com

Midtown Grill-revisit

I really wish there were more really good restaurants in Broad Ripple Village. I am always amazed by the fact that there are so many bars and bar food-type places and that people don’t get tired of them. But maybe I am just old. There are a few places that I frequent, and when we first moved back, I always thought Midtown was a good basic place where you could count on getting a decent meal. Over the last couple of years, they have re-vamped their menu a few times, with the most recent change being one toward being more of a tapas place.

Honestly, I think what they are going for is to re-make themselves into a bar with better food, as they have also remodeled the inside as well. While they have made it look a bit more modern, and they have certainly maximized the bar space (bars dominate both sides of the restaurant), but the food, well, based on my experience, has not been improved.

I was intrigued by the menu, there were several items that were at least an attempt at being unique, and a couple that sounded interesting. However, when I asked our server what she recommended, she chose all the things that you pretty much see on every other menu in Indy (wedge salad, shrimp cocktail, etc). So ok, I pretty much didn’t get anything she recommended. But there were several nice sounding things.
We started by splitting a grilled romaine salad. I will just start by saying this was the best thing that was put down on the table all night. The leaves were nicely grilled and slightly crisp on the edges and it was covered by some smoked tomatoes, and a nice tangy Ceasar-ish dressing. There was certainly more than enough dressing, and it was underneath the lettuce, so you could sort of put it on as you wished. Like I said, this was the best thing we had all night.

Unfortunately, as they started bringing out the tapas, things went downhill. We had the bruschetta with traditional tomato and basil mix. Ok, you could tell there were some decent flavors going on in this, it had the right tomato-y, basil flavor with a bit of vinegar and olive oil, but the execution was off. The bread wasn’t properly toasted and was actually pretty much completely soft. Which just leads to mushy bread when you add wet toppings. The tomatoes weren’t totally ripe, which could certainly be improved on. I know you can get your hands on better tomatoes than this these days. And there was a bunch of cheese all over it, which personally I thought was unnecessary.

Execution was a huge problem with the fritto misto plate we also ordered. The menu said it included calamari, scallops and shrimp. I love all of these things, and thought this was an interesting take on the classic fried calamari appetizer you see everywhere around town.

Unfortunately, while they did cut the scallops up and cut the shrimp in half, it appeared to me that they still threw it all in to fry at the same time, which cooked the shrimp well, the scallops a little too much, and completely fried the calamari to little, burnt, nearly unrecognizable nuggets. Because they were so much thinner, they needed to be put in later than the rest of the items, or else they needed to cut up the other shellfish into smaller pieces (which may not really be feasible). This is also a bummer because the original incarnation of Midtown that we went to, they had a nice fritto misto with calamari, and as I recall, lemons and fennel.

We also had the potatoes au gratin, of which I have yet to find a good version of in Indy (which kills me because you could buy frozen pre-made ones in England that were delicious). Sadly, these weren’t it either. The slices of potato were slightly undercooked (this seems to be a problem with me and potatoes lately) and therefore a bit too firm, and just covered in ooey gooey cheese. Even if the potatoes had been properly cooked, this lacked any depth of flavor to make it special and had way too much heavy cheese (I think there was probably as much cheese as there was potatoes).

Finally, we had the blue cheese stuffed lamb meatballs. Hubby was really intrigued by them and I agreed simply because, well, they had blue cheese in them. Normally I have never really met a meatball I have liked because they are always too dried out. Well, these were no exception. After a bite or two, I gave up on them as well. The idea was nice, and in theory, I think ground lamb could impart a unique flavor to a meatball, especially paired with the blue cheese. But they were doused in a thick, sweet red wine sauce that sort of covered up any underlying flavors that might have been there. Again, a unique idea that was poorly executed.

Overall, that was my theme for Midtown. There were some interesting menu items that were pretty much all (with the exception of the salad) poorly executed. There seems to be a lack of interest in the kitchen about how to wow people when the food hits the table. It seems like someone dreamed up the menu, and then didn’t bother to train the kitchen about how to prepare the food.

Midtown Grill
815 East Westfield Blvd.
Indy 46220
317-253-1141

Oh Yumm - December Revisit

Sigh… Well, we were having a really hard time figuring out what we wanted to eat on this particular night—we wanted it to be fairly close and quick. Oh Yumm used to be one of our favorite places for such a meal, but after the last dinner visit, when the service was really abysmal, we hadn’t been back. This time, while it appears that they have worked on their service issues, unfortunately, these problems were replaced by kitchen execution issues.

It looks like they have turned what was one of their best waiters into a maitre d' of sorts—he greeted us and seated us. Unfortunately, when we asked for a larger table (a 4 top) even though there were only 2 of us, we were told no, that there were people coming in for those tables (last time we were there they actually gave us the larger table when we asked, they were just grumpy about it). If they really needed the tables, this would have been fine. But as we left, all of the tables for 4 in our section sat empty. This really annoys hubby to no end for several reasons. First, we always order tapas—once you get 4 (or more) plates on the table as well as your own plate to eat from, a bottle of wine, water, etc., you are out of room. We had to sacrifice the bread basket and plates in order to fit everything. As we were walking out I thought hubby might lose it. I mean it is one thing if you have reservations booked for these tables, but if you are just saving them with the idle hope that some larger parties will come in, at the expense of paying customers, that are already there, this seems risky. And it was a Tuesday night at 5:45; I mean how many restaurants in this city are full on a Tuesday night?

Ok, enough about that, let’s get to the food. Well, first a quick note about the service. Like I said, our server was very friendly and attentive and everyone seemed enthusiastic on the whole. We ordered tapas—the fried calamari with sambal aioli, the artichoke fritters with lime chili aioli, the flatbread pizza with pesto, smoked Gouda, caramelized onion and kalamata olives, and the baked chipotle goat cheese with marinara and crostini. The thing is, even though we specifically told the waiter that he should just bring them out as they were finished in the kitchen (as is normally the way with tapas), they brought them all out at the same time. Unfortunately, it was pretty clear the calamari had been sitting a bit because it was barely warm. Now, I love the calamari here on the whole, the batter that it is fried with is super light and airy, and the calamari is not chewy or anything. However, when it is just warm, and not hot, it loses quite a bit. The sambal aioli was a slightly spicy aioli that was tasty and complimented the calamari nicely.

Now the artichoke fritters must have been fried last, because they were exactly the right temperature (uh, hot) and were served in a metal cup lined with wax paper which was also great for keeping them warm (maybe try that with the calamari). They were really delicious. Basically, just little deep fried artichoke hearts served with a similar aioli to the calamari. Although, according to the menu, it was “lime chili” I thought it was the same (as did our server when I asked him). But it was just as tasty.

The goat cheese was nice as well, and served at the appropriate temperature. It was a basically a plate of warm marinara sauce with a nice portion of goat cheese flavored with chipotle chilies. It was nice. Hubby especially liked it—and the crostini were appropriately toasted and held up well to the cheese.

Now, when the server placed the flatbread on the table, even he took one look at it and knew it was burned…I will give him credit for that, he instantly said he would take it back and have a new one made, which we took him up on. When it came back, it wasn’t so burned for sure. Unfortunately, the mini flatbread pizzas have always been one of my favorite items at Oh Yumm, but they have changed the crust from what used to be a thin tortilla that was crisped up in butter, to what looked and tasted pretty much like pita bread that was grilled in a panini press. It wasn’t crispy and it was too dense. The toppings were a really nice combination, but the crust just detracted too much for me. I told hubby as we ate it that I wouldn’t order it again, although he disagreed.

We also wanted dessert and the server read off a long list, with several good sounding items. What we really wanted was the chocolate chip bread pudding which is our longstanding favorite and when we asked, we were told it was on the menu. I don’t know if he just forgot to mention it, or if they just keep it around for people who ask. It was just as good—and I have always really liked it.

Unfortunately for Oh Yumm, it seems just as the get one thing fixed, another problem seems to show up. Hopefully one of these days, everything will get worked out at the same time.

Oh Yumm! Bistro
5615 N. Illinois
Indy, 46208
317/251-5656
www.ohyummbistro.com

Zing-a revisit

******Zing is closed**************************

Wow, this was quite a let down. We have been here once before, and had about half of a really good meal (you can read my review from November 28, 2008). So we were hoping if we got some of the good things, and changed some of the things we didn’t like from before to something new, we would have a great meal. But sadly, it wasn’t meant to be.

We had several items (the food is served tapas style) the mahi mahi tacos (a repeat from last time), the crostini 3 ways, the proscuitto wrapped shrimp on a leek and potato cake, and the grilled artichokes with Serrano ham. The biggest disappointment was the tacos. We had them last time and they were great. Filled with tender, properly cooked mahi mahi and bright with the flavors of the avocado cream, jicama slaw and cilantro pesto. This time, the fish was overcooked and made up pf dry little flakes (reminded me of the fish from the salad I had at the Ram). They still had the other accompaniments, but there just wasn’t the freshness and brightness that made them shine last time. They have lost their luster (or else it was just a bad night).

All of the other items we tried were new. Probably the best thing we ate were the sauteed artichokes—they were just the hearts (but still with some of the stem attached) and had diced pieces of peppers and the Serrano ham on top and were in a white wine sauce. I couldn’t really taste the ham, which was a shame because I really like Serrano ham. And interestingly, based on the menu on the website, they aren’t on the menu anymore, which is sort of a shame, because like I said, they are one of the best things we had.

The crostini 3 ways included one piece each of grilled bread with bean and sage puree, another with a tomato bruschetta topping and the third with cream cheese and mushrooms. The tomato one was probably the best of the three, a nice fresh flavor with an appropriate amount of vinegar. Next I would say was the mushroom and cream cheese piece which had cream cheese spread on top and then some sautéed mushrooms. Not bad. I didn’t really care for the bean and sage puree, it was just too bland and the consistency a bit too pasty.

The proscuitto wrapped shrimp could have been pretty good, if the shrimp weren’t so overcooked and hard. The flavors were nice together. The potato and leek cake tasted like it was made with instant potatoes. Didn’t get much leek from it.

We did have a flourless chocolate cake for dessert which was basically like a brownie with some nice whipped cream and berries. Our server kept warning us that is was really small, but I thought it was a nice size. We shared it, but it was actually something you could eat on your own and not feel like you are eating a month’s worth of dessert in one sitting. We had a couple of the mousse shots as well (butterscotch and chocolate) which we had last time and were just as good, but you really need to mix the two to get the best flavors.

I’m a little sad about this dinner and review, as I really like what Zing is trying to do—I love tapas, and it is nice having them be something different from the classic Spanish ones. Unfortunately, I think Zing has changed its focus from being a unique restaurant to a bar that serves food. Most of the people there were young and focused on drinks and not the food, which sadly, in my opinion, seems to be the same focus the management has as well.

Zing
543 Indiana Avenue
Indy 46202
317/636-7775
http://www.zingrestaurant.com/