Canal Bistro - Brunch

I had a brunch meeting on a weekend with a small group, and we decided to try Canal Bistro because they take reservations. On the weekends, I just don’t have the patience to wait an hour to eat. I had never been to Canal Bistro for full on brunch, so it was almost like going to a new restaurant.

They have a very large menu of choices for brunch, although there are several areas that are variations of similar items—various breakfast sandwiches/pita wraps takes up half of the back page for instance. It’s nice to see some interesting things on there though. I ordered the Mediterranean frittata ($11). It is described as a frittata with leeks, roasted tomatoes and spinach topped with feta, sundried tomatoes and basil. So I sort of pictured a frittata that had the first three ingredients mixed in and the other stuff baked on top. This was more of a (huge) piece of frittata with everything baked inside. It wasn’t bad, but I didn’t really get much of the cheese flavor. The whole thing was decently moist, but just a little on the bland side. They should throw some olives in there. It’s huge though. I also ordered a side of bacon, which was crispy and delicious.

Oh, and if you like a mimosa or bloody Mary with your brunch, they were $5. And you can get your mimosa made with a range of various juices. I had a mango one and it was very nice.

My daughter had “The Classic Fool” breakfast plus one egg (she got it sunny side up, but you can get it however you want). This is a bowl of slow-cooked fava beans mixed with olive oil, tomatoes, onions, parsley and fresh lemon and then topped with the egg. The egg was cooked nicely and she enjoyed the dish. It was nice that it had a touch of acid to it.

All in all, while the dishes didn’t blow me away, this is a nice spot to sit outside and have brunch. The menu is quite large, and I look forward to trying something else next time.

Canal Bistro

6349 Guilford Ave

Indy 46220

317/254-8700

www.canal-bistro.com

Burgerhaus

I kept forgetting about this place. Unfortunately, I think part of it may be its location. It’s on the canal, which I hope becomes a more well-traversed place, but when the weather is really bad, it’s hard to imagine the location to be a super popular one. Also, it doesn’t help that the parking is a bit confusing. But just so you know, there is a garage that is attached to the restaurant—just drive west on 9^th Street until it dead ends. There’s a parking garage there that you can park in for free if you ask for a validation from the restaurant (park on the bottom level and you can park right at one of the restaurant’s entrances).

I met my friend @wibia—he’s always willing to try a new burger place. We ate early and we’re the only ones there for a while. Like I said, I worry about this location—the crowd picked up a bit, but the place was never very busy. I ordered the “Haus burger” ($9). You get to pick your cheese and add additional items if you like. They come standard with bibb lettuce, tomato and sliced red onions.  I just got cheddar (it’s white cheddar) and told them to leave the tomato off because I am wary of tomatoes in the winter. I also asked them to add garlic may—I find often a special sauce on a burger can really make a difference. They also asked how we wanted them cooked. I ordered mine medium and wibia medium rare. I was interested to see how this came out. I liked the soft brioche bun—it held up well to the burger but was soft enough to squish down so it wasn’t so big. The lettuce and red onion were nice and fresh and crisp and I liked that they use bibb lettuce because I like the relative softness of it—I hate when you get a big piece of hard Romaine heart on a sandwich. I also liked the thick cut dill pickle slices served on the side of the burgers.

The cheese was nice and melty and I appreciated the additional moisture from the mayo, particularly since, as it turned out, they did not cook that burger medium. I would say well done was more like it. And @wibia’s burger was at best, medium-well. Sigh. I mean, it was still decent because the beef was high quality, but it could have been a lot better if it was actually cooked to order. 

As for the flavor of his burger, he tried one of their combinations, the Monaco ($13). This had a beef burger, white cheddar cheese, sautéed onions and mushrooms, avocado, arugula and burgundy wine mayo served on a pretzel bun. It sounded interesting and included all things that I like for sure. Not sure how I felt about it all together. It may have been just a little much. It was kind of so many things; you couldn’t really appreciate any of them a lot. I was not a fan of this pretzel bun because it was really dense. I guess in some ways that is good to hold up to so many toppings, but the top of the bun didn’t mush down and it was one that was for me, hard to fit into my mouth. Overall, I preferred mine with fewer toppings and the softer bun.

We both had fries alongside our burgers. They were served in very cute little miniature fry baskets, and were fresh and fairly crisp. There just wasn’t anything about them that really stood out. They were just kind of middle of the road fries. They do offer a bunch of fries prepared and topped in different ways—I’d be tempted to see if they would offer this with the side of fries. Spicy blue cheese or garlic parmesan sounds good.

I’m glad to see a new restaurant going in along the canal. It is certainly an underserved area. As far as the food goes, it was a decent average burger for me. Not sure it was enough to make me want to go out of my way to get another one. There were some tasty sounding things on the appetizer menu—I wonder how they are? And there’s a fairly extensive craft beer list (And I like the way they give you beer pairing suggestions with many of the food items), but you know that’s not luring me in. Anyone else been?

Burgerhaus

335 West 9^th Street

Indy 46202

317/434-HAUS

www.indy.burgerhausrestaurants.com  

Sangiovese

The View



Every so often I let hubby convince me to try Italian again.  This time it was because he had a fairly late meeting and so we wanted to go somewhere close to home because I knew I would be hungry by the time we got to dinner.  So we decided to return to Sangiovese which is very near our house.  We went once before, right after we moved here, and while we didn’t hate it, weren’t overly impressed with certain things (the mussels) and just never seemed to get around to going back.  So it had been about five years.  Sangiovese always has coupons in some of the local books, so we also finally decided to use one of them as well (and I see they are also going to be part of the “Northside Nights” restaurant week which starts this week). (P.S. there is also a "Savor the Southside" event going on at the same time on the southside.)

The other reason I let myself be convinced to give Sangiovese another try is because they have a very nice deck overlooking the river in the rear of the building.  It is one of those random strip mall restaurants that are very deceiving looking from the outside (particularly right now with a ton of construction going on there).  But the deck is lovely and actually I really like the warmth of the interior of the restaurant as well.

So we got a nice table out there with on a night when it was breezy enough that it was actually cool out there (shocking!) but still not as cold as it was inside the restaurant. Anyway, the menu was quite different from the last time we were there and we were disappointed to see the Carpaccio that used to be on the menu no longer there (although it is still on the online menu).  There was an interesting sounding calamari appetizer though—it was described as a calamari steak stacked on field greens and tomatoes with a garlic, caper, caramelized onion, and Pinot Grigio sauce ($8).  Sounds good huh?  Well unfortunately, the waiter told us it wasn’t actually being served as a steak but as rings and tentacles.  But at least it wasn’t deep fried, so we went with it anyway.  Turns out it was just rings, and they were only okay.  They were borderline chewy as calamari rings can so often be.  I really liked the sauce though—especially the caramelized onions with the sauce. I would have liked a bit more of the greens (I think there were probably only 6-8 leaves there) and the tomatoes were a disappointment (which is bad when it is August in Indiana).  The sauce was spicy with the garlic and the capers and it was a shame it didn’t all come together.

When trying to decide whether to order one of the several specials, I asked the server about the mushroom ravioli special which sounded intriguing.  I point blank asked if the ravioli was made in house and he said no.  I appreciated his honesty, but I thought that the fact that they are using frozen food service ravioli just demonstrates the problem with most Italian food in Indy.  Seriously, if someone made some from scratch, people would be blown away. And come on, it isn’t that hard. Anyway, I went with the penne alla Medici ($15) which was penne pasta with an olive oil based sauce, sundried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, capers, crushed red pepper and marinated chicken breast slices based on our server’s recommendation.  You know, it tasted pretty good, because I like all those things a lot, but when you really thought about it, it would be insanely easy to make at home since most of the ingredients were jarred.  The chicken, which I am sure they cooked there, was the most disappointing part of the dish because it was dry.

Hubby ordered one of the day’s specials which was the Osso Bucco ($28) and came highly recommended as well.  And hubby loves a good Osso Bucco.  Sadly for hubby, this was not a good one.  While the meat was slow cooked and fairly tender, it had very little flavor to it.  It was interesting because it was served with a side of risotto that looked bad because it was all white and looked like it didn’t have any flavor, but in fact, it was pretty tasty and perfectly cooked.  They must have used some nice wine and stock to make it because it was delicious.

Finally we tried one of the two housemade desserts (several were not and again, it was nice that the server was on top of this issue and answered me honestly)—the tiramisu ($7).  It was quite light and had all the flavors you want in a tiramisu. You could taste the coffee, but not too much and the mascarpone.  And it had just a touch of chocolate. I would have preferred the chocolate to be powdered though, as the syrup they were using tasted suspiciously like the kind my kids make their chocolate milk with at home.

So sadly, while the service was good, and the view lovely, the food just reminded me why I rarely eat Italian food out in this City.  It just isn’t that good.  It just seems like people are lazy when it comes to making Italian food in restaurants.  Hardly anyone makes their own pasta and corners seem to be cut a little too often for my taste.  The restaurant did have a fair amount of people in it which was impressive given it was mid-week and the construction made it quite difficult to even see the restaurant is there (not to mention the fact that several of the entrances to the strip mall were closed the day we went).

But I continue to search….

P.S. Let me know if you plan on taking advantage of the north and south side restaurant weeks and how your meals are.

Sangiovese Ristorante

4110 East 82^nd Street

Indy 46240

317/596-0731

www.sangioveseristorante.com

The Deck

Z's Oyster Bar and Steakhouse- Revisit

*****AS OF JUNE 3, 2011 Z's IS CLOSED*****


Unfortunately, Z’s is a place that is sort of “out of sight, out of mind” because it is in such a location that the only time I see it (when I am on 465), I am not usually thinking about dinner, or paying attention to the scenery.  It is one of those places that we always think of just after we sit down somewhere else because while it is close to our house, it constantly escapes our memory.  And it isn’t because the food hasn’t been good, because for the most part, it always has been.  Finally, we had a night where we thought of it in advance of actually going to dinner, and went over.

So it was a Friday, and sadly, they weren’t very busy, although there were enough people in there to make you not feel totally alone.  And it was a beautiful sunny evening, and I appreciated the view overlooking the water. Also, as a super added bonus, Fridays are half price bottles of wine night at Z’s for anything under $100 (and our waiter told us more expensive bottles were negotiable as well, I am sure they would at least give you $50 off a bottle over $100).  So that was a great deal, and inspired us to buy a much more expensive bottle of wine than we might normally, falling directly into their trap.

Anyway, as for the food, it was all really good.  As in, I have been having a lot of disappointing meals lately around town and this one restored my faith.  Of course, this always seems to happen to me in restaurants that hardly have any people in them, which gets me worrying about their longevity. 

The menu is quite large, and I do have a few favorite items (fried oysters and the “walu” butterfish to name a couple), but I wanted to get some new things for the benefit of this review (and for the benefit of me not getting stuck in a rut).  I started with the lobster bisque ($10.95).  I really like lobster bisque that is really good, but I have had a lot that are not.  So I’m thinking, since Z’s specializes in seafood as well as steaks, and has a fair amount of lobster on the menu, if they can’t pull this off, then they’re in trouble.  Well, they totally pulled it off. It was delicious.  Just the right consistency, not too thick or runny but with deep rich lobster flavor.  There was also a little garnish of some diced lobster meat, parsley and green onions on top that I mixed in and which gave it just enough texture to break up the silky soup.  Hubby really liked it too and we pretty much licked the bowl clean.

Hubby started with the Washington’s salad ($8.95), which we have had before and it was also very good, and very large (seriously, if you want a salad share it. We did, and we still didn’t eat it all).  It was mixed field greens with Danish blue cheese, apples and candied pecans with a maple walnut vinaigrette.  The greens were dressed appropriately, and it included one of my favorite flavor combos—fruit and blue cheese, so I couldn’t go wrong here.  I liked that while the dressing had a touch of sweetness form the maple in the dressing, it was still clearly a vinaigrette, and didn’t have that fakey sweet taste that a lot of dressings do when they include some sort of sweet ingredient.

As is my way many times in restaurants like this that have very large portions (and more expensive prices), I went with another appetizer for my main dish, the Provencal steamed clams with tomatoes, garlic, white wine and parsley ($12.95).  These were also really good—there was lots of garlic in the broth (you could see all the dices of it on the bottom of the pot) and the combination of the acidity of the wine and tomatoes was great. It tasted fresh, the clams were the right size for me (not too big) and they were good.  They were certainly plentiful enough that you could share this as an appetizer with another person.  Or you can easily make an entire dinner here out of two appetizers.

Hubby had the rib eye steak (natch) ($34.95) and I have to say, this was the best steak I have had in a restaurant in recent memory.  It was wonderful. I am not sure how they seasoned it, but the flavor was amazing.  And it had a great grilled flavor. Their meats are prime quality and it shows.  Sometimes I don’t like rib eyes as much because if they are cooked just a teeny bit too much, they get a little tough, but this was spot on. Perfection.   We had agreed to share, but hubby was a little annoyed with how much of it I wanted I think.  In the classic steakhouse way, the sides are served (and priced) separately, and we ordered a side of the cheese browns as well (we always get these, hubby really likes them) ($5.95).  They are good, and I do like a bit of starch with my steak.  They are large chunks of potatoes (they call them hash browns, but I would say they are cut more like home fries) covered in cheddar cheese.  They are nice and tender and quite cheesy.  A nice accompaniment.  I have had several of their other side dishes as well in the past, and many of them are quite good.

After having quite a nice bottle of wine, and still having some of it left at this point, we decided to splurge on a dessert as well.  We split the Godiva chocolate crème brulee ($6.95).  It was dark bittersweet chocolate (that’s what sold me) cream that was caramelized on top in the classic crème brulee fashion.  You can’t really go wrong here. (Notice the spoon mark from a certain someone who couldn't wait to dig in.)

So next time you want a steak (or really, some of the freshest seafood in Indy too), go check this place out.  I think it is better than most of the other steak places in town, and one of the few independents, especially on the north side.  And you can get a great deal on a bottle of wine on Fridays.  That alone may help us remember it more, especially on Fridays!

Z's Oyster Bar and Steakhouse

6220 Castleway West Drive

Indy,  46250

317-644-8000

www.zsoyster.com

Left Bank Café

The other night my daughter and I decided to try something new for Mommy/daughter night out and were downtown, so we thought we would hit Left Bank.  I have read a few things about it and knew they had crepes, which always intrigues me.  It is a little café right on the canal at Michigan and Indiana.

Left Bank is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner I believe, and my guess from our visit is that dinner is not their big money maker because we were the only ones in there. A couple of people stopped in for coffee or a pastry, but no one else sat down the whole time we were there.  It was quite chilly the night we ate here, so we opted to sit inside which is very small and simple—my guess is the real appeal is sitting out along the canal during nice weather.  They have a lovely outdoor seating area with quite a bit of seating.

I ordered the apple and leek crepe with walnuts, clover honey and a gorgonzola cream sauce that was served on the side. I also ordered a cup of French onion soup because it was so cold outside!  The soup came out first and was extremely hot.  Once it cooled down a bit, I enjoyed it. It was chock full of onions in the classic broth and had a round of toast and cheese on top, in classic French onion soup style.  I liked the cheesy bread—it was nice and melty and tasted good with the rich beefy broth.

While I enjoyed the soup, I was let down with the crepe.  I thought the flavor combination sounded quite intriguing because it was unique and because I love fruit with blue cheese. And of course, I am always a fan of leeks.  The crepe looked like it had some buckwheat flour in it (it wasn’t totally white) which I generally like, but honestly, the crepe was so stuffed with the ingredients, you couldn’t even taste the crepe much.  This is an example of the type of crepes I don’t like, and why I don’t order them very often.  I like to be able to really taste the flavor of the crepe itself and have much less of the ingredients inside—I like them to be almost flat, and this one was as fat as a giant burrito.  And while I liked all the ingredients in it, there was just too much of them.  The gorgonzola cream sauce was nice, but could have used a little more of the blue cheese flavor in it to make it really stand out against the sweetness of the fruit.  There was also a side of very cold pasta salad that didn't really excite me, particularly with how cold it was outside.  It had a pesto-ish flavor once it warmed up a bit.

Our server was quite friendly and joked around with my daughter (who had a grilled cheese with a lovely fruit salad on the side) and was literally, right there when we needed something (remember, there was no one else there).  However, at one point, my daughter came and whispered in my ear, “Mommy, this place is kind of slow!”  And she was right.  It took quite a long time to get our food.  I am pretty sure there was only one person cooking in the kitchen, but really, with just two of us, I was surprised it took as long as it did.

I have seen a fair amount of press about this place, and most of it has been fairly positive—so of course I want to hear from you guys about it. And I am wondering if they get a decent crowd at lunchtime.  Anyone else been there?

Left Bank Café

310 West Michigan Street

Indy  46202

317/642-3305

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Indianapolis-IN/Left-Bank-Cafe/122830771070867

Euphoria - Revisit

***As of June 5, 2011, Euphoria is closed as a restaurant and is only open for private events. The chef has also left the restaurant.****

How much does service play into what a good meal is for you? Unfortunately, my boundary lines were put to the test the other night at Euphoria. I have been excited to go back since I went last winter to try the new menu (new Chef) at Euphoria. It was an unseasonably mild night and the perfect one for the patio. We were with friends who had also enjoyed a very good meal awhile back at Euphoria and were looking forward to a return visit.

The menu was quite interesting, and I enjoy that it is not the same menu you see everywhere—there is creativity going into the planning. I started with the scallops that were being served with duck confit, sour cherries, arugula and walnuts. First of all, I just liked the sound of all these things—you can tell there will be a good mix of textures and flavors. The 2 scallops (which in my mind is a proper appetizer portion) were well seared, but not overdone in the middle and served with the other items. My favorite thing with the rich, buttery scallops was the sour cherries. Unfortunately there were only 3 of the little cherries and I would have liked one with every bite. They added a real tartness that I really liked with the scallops and walnuts. There were only a few little pieces of the duck on the plate, and honestly, I didn’t think they added that much.

Hubby had a fairly simple salad of greens and grilled veggies—asparagus, squash and radishes with a balsamic vinaigrette. It was good, and the veggies had a nice grilled flavor, but it was nothing overly exciting. One of our friends had the smoked salmon appetizer which was quite tasty and interesting. There were little pieces of the salmon topped with matchsticks of jicama in a coriander crème and pickled pearl onion on the side. There were also a few pieces of fried rice (as in deep fried crunchy rice) and watercress scattered throughout. I liked this unique take on smoked salmon. It was one of the favorites at the table.

For my main dish, I had the halibut with golden beet and snap pea salad with watercress and pine nut vinaigrette. The fish was well cooked—very tender and moist, and my first bite was great—I had a bit of the salad and vinaigrette and could really taste the vinaigrette. Unfortunately, I must have gotten most of it in that first bite because I couldn’t taste the vinaigrette much after that and I really missed it. Again, much like the scallops, the flavors were well thought out and good, I just felt like there wasn’t quite enough of the seasoning aspect of the dishes.

Hubby had the Barramundi with parsley pesto and smashed potatoes, pancetta and green beans. Again, the fish was cooked really well and was exceptionally tender and moist. The pesto was nice as well. Hubby seemed to enjoy it but someone else at our table that had it was not as impressed. Also pictured is the pork dish offered this night—I took a picture because it was so pretty but I never actually tasted it. It was pork tenderloin with raisin glaze, feta and fingerlings.
We had a nice cheese plate for dessert which was tasty—we sampled all five of the cheese they were offering. I think they push cheese plates as an appetizer course though (our waiter did) because half of the crackers served were black pepper flavored. I know I have said this before, but I don’t really like heavily seasoned crackers with cheese because you really start to lose the flavor nuances in the cheese.

The food was all good—not quite as good as the last time we were there, but still very good. The real bummer of the night though was the service. When we got there, it was not yet crowded, although the bar was closed for a private event. At first our server was quite attentive to us and we were generally served our drinks fairly promptly. However, as we were talking and looking over the menu, we did not order immediately. The patio began to fill up quickly and when we left there was not an empty table. I am not sure, but my guess would be that maybe they were not expecting such a crowd and were not staffed for it. We had a hard time getting attention when we needed it—we waited for flatware for quite a bit after our entrées were served, were never given bread until we asked for it in the middle of the meal (although others were) and when we ordered a couple of glasses of wine with dessert, it took a very long time to get them (and only after quite a delay when our first selection was not available). There were long delays between courses and if we had not been enjoying our conversation with our friends so much, it would have likely ruined the meal.

Euphoria is notorious with its service issues. The food has always been good and I like the interior and patio. But I am almost to my breaking point with the service there. I would be interested to hear from any of you who have eaten there lately about what you have found while dining there. I am not sure exactly what is going on, but I would love to see the service match up to the quality of food that has always been served there.

Euphoria
337 West 11th Street
Indy, 46202
317-955-2389
http://www.indycanal.com/

Flatwater Restaurant

As far as I can tell, Broad Ripple has an apparent inability to support more than a couple of decent restaurants (now bars on the other hand, apparently are another story). So when something new comes along that seems like it might have potential, of course we want to try it... And hey, there’s a deck, and it’s on water (ok, it’s the canal, but it’s still water).

We started with an appetizer of tuna tartare. Unfortunately (for Flatwater), it had not been that long since we enjoyed a delivered meal from Brad Gates Catering in which his tuna tartare was involved, and comparisons were going to be made. Although, there really was no comparison, they really were in a completely different league, or stratosphere, or universe. You get my drift. To start, this tuna was inherently not the best quality. I don’t know, my guess is they don’t sell a lot, but it looked and tasted a little mushy. But even if the tuna had been beautiful, there was no flavor on it. I could make out a couple pieces of cilantro mixed in and possibly a hint of sesame oil and that was about all. There was a lime on the side which was promptly squeezed across the fish by me, but was not nearly enough. I got the server’s attention, asked for a bunch more lime, doused it with some salt and pepper and finally, it became nearly edible. Scratch this off the list for sure. Again, if you don’t have the turnover for a high quality raw dish, take it off the menu. Please.

For my main dish, I had the shrimp tacos, which actually were probably the best thing we had. The shrimp mixed with the pico de gallo and a small amount of cheese actually had a nice fresh flavor—the shrimp were actually perfectly cooked and seasoned, and after squeezing the teeny piece of lime served with each one (as well as the lemon garnish), they were bright and tasty. There was maybe a little more tortilla to fillings ratio than I would have liked, but if pressured into going again, I might actually order these again.

Hubby had the salmon sandwich with fries. The sandwich consisted of smoked salmon, greens, avocado, bacon and a dill sauce. Let’s just say, he was not pleased with his sandwich. The fish was so overcooked, it was completely dry. He asked for the dill sauce on the side and was glad he did because he didn’t really care for it that much. Honestly, the fish was so unappealing (and salmon isn’t my fave anyway) that I didn’t even try a bite. I did eat some of his fries though—they were the other best thing we had there. Could have used some sort of interesting sauce to dip them in. I mean, in Broad Ripple, you have some kick ass fries and sauces around (e.g. Brugge and Taste) so come up with something. That’s all I am saying. The fries aren’t getting me back there on their own though, that’s for sure.

So basically, this little spot, which is location-wise, a little gem in Broad Ripple, needs to amp up the food if it wants to be known as a good restaurant. Right now, it’s a friendly looking bar with a great location and food that is okay. But maybe that’s enough for them. Sigh…

Flatwater Restaurant
832 East Westfield
Indy 46220
317/257-5466
www.flatwaterbroadripple.com

Bella Vita

This is the time of the year that makes you want waterfront dining I guess...and since options are somewhat limited here in the middle of the country, we were intrigued to try out Bella Vita on Geist Reservoir. Years ago, when we first moved here, a friend told me it was her favorite place for date night and I always kept it on the list, but only now finally got around to trying it.

This was a time when I checked out the menu before going in and was a little excited by the fact that even though it is Italian (and I think I have mentioned how I have yet to find an Italian place I love in this town), it had a wider menu than the standard alfredo and red sauce and pasta all smothered with cheese that you see a lot around here. It also sits right on the marina at Geist and has a nice view of the lake. We really enjoyed the setting and were hoping for the best.

We decided to start with the beef carpaccio and the truffle fries. The carpaccio was described as thin beef with parmesan cheese, capers and olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I am not sure why they decided that they needed to take the carpaccio and turn it into crostinis, but it was not carpaccio. It was toasted bread with melted cheese topped with thinly sliced raw beef, roasted red peppers, large slices of parmesan and a couple of capers and a fairly heavy dash of balsamic syrup. When we ordered this, we wanted something light. This was certainly not light. And the biggest pet peeve about the whole plate was the roasted red peppers, which brings me to my next point. When you are making your menu, if there is some ingredient that will dramatically change the flavor of the dish, such as roasted red peppers, please list them in the ingredients. Especially when you take great care to list every other ingredient. Because for me, a roasted red pepper is a dominating flavor, and also happens to be one that neither I nor hubby particularly like. So basically it was pepper flavored beef on bread (hubby says more like pepper flavored bread since the delicacy of the meat flavor was totally lost). And the balsamic was a little heavy too, so the delicacy of the flavor of the meat (which was pretty thin, although not as thin as I would have liked) was completely lost between the peppers and the balsamic.

The other appetizer we ordered, the truffle fries, were even worse. So they were called “fries” but they were obviously not fried, and now looking back at the menu, they are actually baked, and there was nothing remotely crispy about them. They were also slightly undercooked, so there was the added benefit of not only not being crispy, but being too firm as well. There was some cheese melted on top, and apparently some truffle oil drizzled there too, although I didn’t taste it. Although, I didn’t really taste much of this dish because they were not good. Don’t call something “fries” unless they are. And ewww, don't serve ketchup with truffle fries.

Luckily for hubby, he ordered a pasta dish that turned out to be pretty good. It was “Papardelle Oceano.” These were large wide noodles with crab and shrimp in a basil cream sauce. I had some of it and it was enjoyable and worth ordering. The bites of crab were fresh and not at all stringy the way crab mixed in dishes like this often is. Hubby was quite pleased and felt that the restaurant had redeemed itself somewhat, although h is entrée was supposed to come with a salad which never came.

I had a spinach salad with blue cheese, boiled egg, pancetta and pinenuts (and unmentioned shredded carrots, not my fave). It was tossed lightly with a creamy parmesan dressing. I was let down with the salad as well. There was an enormous amount of spinach and what appeared to be no toppings. But as I dug down (which took some effort with all that spinach), there was actually quite a bit of blue cheese buried at the bottom (not as much of the pancetta and pinenuts). Because the salad was seriously underdressed for the amount of spinach, I asked for some extra on the side. Once I sort of dug out the goodies and added the extra dressing, it wasn’t bad. But I only ate probably a quarter of it.

The last annoying thing about this place is that the service was pretty slow. I think they may have been a bit understaffed for the crowd, as I only saw about three servers outside and it was filling up, including many large parties. For instance, the bread they brought to every table (except ours) turned out to be very good, but we had to ask for it and didn’t get it until the end of the meal. Like I said, hubby said his pasta was one of the better pasta dishes he has had in the City, and because of the view alone, we may go back one day. But for me, it won’t be based on the food or the service.

Bella Vita
11699 Fall Creek Blvd
Fishers 46256
317/598-9011
www.bellavitaatthemarina.com

Euphoria- A New Chef

***As of June 5, 2011, Euphoria is closed as a restaurant and is only open for private events. The chef has also left the restaurant.****

I reported several months ago that Euphoria lost its chef, who happens to be one of my favorites in Indy. We hadn’t been back just because things were so hectic and I figured I would give the new chef a bit of time to get settled in. Her name is Ivy Denman and she moved to Indy from Chicago where she worked at Blackbird restaurant. My parents, actually, were the ones who were nagging me to go back after they had a wonderful dinner over Valentine’s weekend. My Mom is not one to rave about food, but she did about Euphoria. So we decided it was time.

I had been checking the website every so often and the menu there hadn’t changed since Chef Denman’s arrival, which sort of had me uninspired. It turns out, however, that she actually changes the menu every two weeks and uses very seasonal and local ingredients. (Side note: Dear Euphoria, PLEASE change your website. It is so mish-mashy and visually unappealing and just not up to date. At least, at least, please keep the menu up to date. Even the web address doesn’t make sense.) Anyway, when we got there the menu was completely different from what I expected and reflected very wintry cuisine (which is very appropriate for mid February).

Although I am utterly and totally ready for some spring foods and I am getting worn out with winter, the combinations of flavors being put together at Euphoria are completely unique and I would say represent some of the most refined dishes available here in Indy. This is the hand of a very very skilled chef. I started with the grilled octopus with white bean puree, pancetta, tomato confit and potato. The octopus, while it had the flavor of actually being more smoked than grilled, was extremely tender and paired nicely with very thin, crispy, possibly baked pancetta and was served on the white bean puree. There were some roasted tomatoes there as well, although I would have really liked a bit more of the acidic flavor of the tomatoes to balance out the rich smokiness of the dish. But it was beautiful and extremely well prepared.

Hubby had the crispy sweetbreads with celery root puree, blueberry mustarda, and celery and cilantro salad with buttermilk puree. Wow, this was great. The sweetbreads were in the center of the plate on top of the celery root puree and garnished with the salad on top. Sweetbreads if you are not familiar, are pancreas. Doesn’t “sweetbread” sound so much lovelier? The sweetbreads were tender and perfectly fried and the flavors were amazing together. And again, the presentation was beautiful. And I want to comment on the portion size. It was perfect. These were appetizers and they were appropriately sized as appetizers. Not huge, but enough that you got the great flavor sensations and did not feel like you were left wanting more. I, for one, greatly appreciate this.

For my main, I ordered another appetizer, the braised fresh bacon with white grits, apples, olive honey and fried sage. This was a large piece of pork belly with a wonderfully crispy bacon-y edge that was set into the grits and was beautifully set off by the tiny little dices of green apple. The apples completely made this dish. The tartness of them added just the right sweet and tart flavor to the rich saltiness of the bacon. A perfect marriage.

Hubby had the crispy braised duck leg with the house-made pasta, parsnip puree, knob onions and cilantro. He really enjoyed this. It was basically like a fried duck leg—it had really crispy skin. The pasta was a simple ribbon in a creamy sauce, and was outstanding. Another chef with a great pasta-making ability. (I still do not understand why so many chefs that cook in non-Italian restaurants make so much better pasta than the Italian restaurants in this town. But I digress).

Euphoria also has a new pastry chef, and they are presenting several choices each night. They also have paired down the cheese selection, but are still offering several selections daily (they are listed in the wine list, so if you want cheese, that’s where it is). We shared the bread pudding with caramel sauce. They also brought us a nice dish of sorbet to cleanse the palette first which was nice and refreshing. Anyway, the dessert was quite large, definitely enough to share. It was good. Not spectacular, but good. The only thing that annoyed about the evening was the pace. It was a bit slow. Sometimes this is nice, but we were ending a busy week and would have preferred to get in and out a bit faster. Our server disappeared a few times, and I think they were busier than normal, but still, I think you should be able to have three courses and be in and out in less than 2 hours (unless of course lingering is what you want, but in that case, you can always draw out your meal by ordering more slowly).

The thing about Euphoria is it has never had a problem with its food as far as I am concerned. It was wonderful under the helm of Chef Gates, and it is again with Chef Denman. They have totally different styles but are both up there in our local scene as far as I am concerned. But for whatever reason, this place has struggled to get butts in seats. I am not sure if it is the location, the parking (it is all street parking, although I have never had a problem finding a space), service issues, or that people have just never heard of it. The interior is quite warm and inviting, but recently at another dinner I overheard a conversation where someone was talking about how much they enjoyed the new chef, but that they hated eating practically alone in the dining room. At this most recent visit, the restaurant was probably nearly half full, and it is a big dining room, but it is sort of a let-down when you know it has some of the best food in Indy. So have you been? If not, why not? I am quite curious about this.

Regardless, I am telling you, I am very excited about the new chef. I hope that she can make it work at Euphoria, because she is a very, very welcome addition to our landscape. She has a gift for matching flavors from all areas—the sweet, the savory, and the tart-- and bringing them together extremely well on the plate. This is another place that I cannot wait to get back to in the Spring (not to mention that lovely deck is always so nice in good weather). Seriously, get over there and give it a go--she is doing great things with food!

Euphoria
337 West 11th Street
Indy, 46202
317-955-2389
www.indycanal.com

Euphoria- Summer Devour Dowtown

***As of June 5, 2011, Euphoria is closed as a restaurant and is only open for private events. The chef has also left the restaurant.****

Well, we took some friends who had never been to Euphoria for devour downtown (what? It’s a new season, and yes, I love this place). Anyway, I was interested to see what they would do for the devour downtown menu. I am really trying to eat off the $30 menus to see if restaurants are really showcasing their best. And because I want to see what I would think if I walked in for the first time specifically to try the cheaper menus.

I was glad to see that the Euphoria menu featured something besides steak (which I have seen on most of the menus) and highlighted one of the chef’s specialties, the scallops grenobloise. Another nice touch was that they were offering a wine pairing with each course for an additional $20.

Anyhow, I started with the Gruyere Salad which was red oak leaf and bibb lettuce with gruyere, croutons and a Dijon vinaigrette. I have had this salad before, and it is tasty. Properly dressed (actually tossed in the dressing) and had the cheese and croutons tossed in as well so they were nicely distributed. I kind of have a pet peeve with a lot of the restaurants in this city about salads. I hate when they give you these nice salads with great greens and then either drizzle a tiny bit of dressing on top or pile all the toppings on top in a bowl that is far too small to mix them up in. The best salads I have had are ones where you can stick your fork in, get a bite, and taste all the flavors at once. Even the dressing. This is a salad like that. Still fairly simple, but the flavors are all there in each bite.

Hubby had another classic standby, the steak tartare off the bar menu. It was, as usual, yummy and huge. Seriously, that is a lot of meat. Enough for 4 people I think. It looks so pretty all layered the way it is served, but hubby always promptly mixes it all together into a yummy mash. But I am glad to see this staying on the menu, as I haven’t had it anywhere else around here where it is any good (I can only think of one other place where I have even seen it on the menu).

I had the scallops for my main. They are always perfectly seared (yes, I have had them a few times) and they are served over fingerlings from the farmers market with green beans and garlic croutons and lemon caper butter. I love the totally zip of the lemon butter. You can actually tell there is lemon (and capers too) in there. It is tangy. And that’s how I like it. The croutons are nice with it too, although mine had absorbed a bit too much of the sauce and were a little soft. I have had it before when they are really crunchy and I like the juxtaposition of the softness of the scallops with the crunch of the croutons.

The other choice on the devour menu was a roasted chicken with maitake mushrooms, polenta and a black truffle-fines herbs jus. This was a tough decision for me because I have had this before as well and it is also really tasty. One of the few places I would actually consider ordering chicken out (I hardly ever do). I think the only other place I did it often was the Slow Club in San Francisco (man, they could cook some mean chicken). But back on topic, one of my dining companions did order the chicken and she and her husband both really enjoyed it.

Hubby had the sardine appetizer for his main dish. They were grilled whole sardines with sweet cherry tomatoes, arugula and lemon-thyme vinaigrette. This was probably the only let down of the evening. Hubby ate a whole lot of whole grilled sardines in Europe and generally really likes them. Unfortunately, these were a bit too small and the bone to meat ratio a little high. The flavors were good, but it was hard to get the meat off the bones easily.

I had the chocolate cake “cappuccino” for my dessert which was a warm molten chocolate cake served in a coffee mug with a mocha-brown sugar crème fraiche. It was pretty tasty and a unique way to serve it. But I have to say, the standout dessert was the rather large cheese board we ordered. We asked the chef to put together a nice plate (we generally like the stinkier ones) when we ordered our appetizers so that they cheese could come to room temperature. I applaud Euphoria for being the only place in town with such an extensive cheese menu. And now, it is expanding even further with the addition of new cheeses from a new purveyor. I can’t even begin to tell you all the ones we had, but suffice it to say, they were good. And gooey. My only gripe was that the crackers were too flavored and detracted a bit from the cheese flavor. I like mine plain. Or maybe a little sweet. So I asked for some bread, which they nicely toasted for me, and I was set. Oh! I totally forgot about the bread thing too. One of the things that Euphoria in its current and former incarnation has struggled with (in my opinion) is the bread service. But they have started baking their own bread, and it is really good. Nice and soft with a good crust and a slightly sweet edge. Kudos to that. Come to think of it, if they could slice it super thin and then toasted it, it would be amazing with the cheese.

Ok, one last little gripe…what happened to the pasta? I love the pasta at Euphoria (and the half orders) and I miss it. What I really wanted was an order of the papardelle with local corn, pancetta and Parmesan cream that came as a side with the one side seared beef. That sounds awesome.
I do appreciate the fact that almost every dish utilizes fresh items from local Indiana farmers--if you read through the menu you will see many local farms mentioned. I know Chef Gates hits the farmers market regularly to assure fresh produce on the menu. It really makes a difference.

Hey, I just noticed on the website they are extending the devour menu through Labor Day. Now’s the time. I tell you, for $30, this menu is a steal (I mean the scallops a la carte alone are $27!). And this is a devour downtown menu that is, in fact, showcasing what this kitchen is all about.

Euphoria
337 West 11th Street
Indy, 46202
317-955-2389
http://www.indycanal.com/ (glad to see they're working on their website...although it still doesn't fit on my screen right).

Euphoria-Late Spring

***As of June 5, 2011, Euphoria is closed as a restaurant and is only open for private events. The chef has also left the restaurant.****

There was a moment when I thought I wasn’t going to write up every meal I have at Euphoria because I go there more than a lot of places. But then, I was like, forget that, this is some of the best food in Indy, and I am going to write about it! My readers need to know.

It had been awhile, and we hadn’t hit the latest menu yet so we got ourselves on over there. When we got there, we learned it was the last night for this particular menu, which always seems to happen to us, but we were happy to enjoy the last of the season’s morels. We started with the ½ order (thank you thank you for putting half orders of pasta on the menu, this makes me so happy) of the morel mushroom pasta, which was pasta “rags” (or large flattened pieces like really wide pappardelle, covered with a creamy sauce with Pecorino Romano and Taleggio cheeses, and morels and asparagus mixed in. Man, was this good. And I was so happy to see they have (at least for now) added a pasta section to the menu with two pasta choices in full or half orders. I have said many times that Chef Gates’ pasta could compete (and win) against just about any in the City. This pasta was so good and rich, but had a sharpness from the Taleggio that I really enjoyed. The morels and asparagus added a nice flavor and texture break, and the pasta was perfect. Hubby and I shared this, as well as the next item, and we both loved it.



The other appetizer we had was the tuna tartare. This is clearly the best I have had in the City (well, I had a really good one at Puck’s once, but I think it may have been influenced by the fact that Chef Gates had worked there because it was very similar). It was a layer of a sweet onion/tomato relish, a layer of avocado, and the chopped sashimi tuna with horseradish-Dijon vinaigrette. The flavors went perfectly together, and there was just enough acid between the vinaigrette and the tomato relish to make all the flavors shine. Plus the teeny little crunchy pieces of the onion were perfect with the smooth avocado. And the salty sesame crackers were the perfect thing to eat with it--adding the salty taste and the crunchy texture. I had a really hard time deciding which was better. I would happily order either or both, again. Outstanding.






We had already ordered our entrees (sharing the pan roasted black grouper and a half order of the lobster tortelli) when we were chatting with the Chef who told me there were soft shell crabs on the bar menu! I hadn’t even looked at it because everything on the regular menu sounded so good! Well, like I said we had already ordered our food, but no way was I going to pass up soft shell crab, so we just added an order of those to our meal as well!

The soft shell crabs were delicious—really meaty ones, not like some you get that have no meat in the body. They were coated in breadcrumbs made of graham crackers as well as some other savory spices and were fried. They were really good too—a very similar coating to his calamari I think which is also quite good. There were three dipping sauces and I really liked them, except maybe for the tartar, it just wasn't exciting. They were a great deal too, there were 4 on the plate (even though there are only 3 in my picture—hubby got to one before I had my camera ready) and I think it was like $16.





Back to the things we initially ordered, the grouper was served with toasted couscous, ramps, English peas, a charred tomato vinaigrette and basil pesto. Again, the flavors all went together beautifully and the fish had a wonderful crispy skin.


The lobster tortelli has been on the menu before, and I have had it a few times. It is little tortellis stuffed with lobster, served with leeks and a “shallot-tarragon beurre fondue.” It was probably my least favorite thing we had, although it was still good. The pasta was a little dense I guess, but I love those smoked tomatoes on top for garnish. The flavors are rich and go together really well, but everything else was just so good, it seemed to lack a little luster in comparison.

Obviously, after that much food, we couldn’t do dessert, and hubby made a nice lunch of leftover fish and pasta, but one of these days we are saving more room for another cheese plate.

Euphoria
337 West 11th Street
Indy, 46202
317-955-2389
http://www.indycanal.com/

***June 21st update: went back the week after this review (what can I say, some friends wanted to get some of those yummy crabs, and who am I to argue?). Had lots of our standbys, the crab (natch), the beef tartare, and a cheese plate, all delicious as usual. Also tried the venison chops (we shared them). Outstanding. Not gamey at all and wonderfully prepared. Almost like a meatier, jucier lamb chop. Oh, and of course, the chef informs me the menu is changing yet again this week...a repeat visit may be necessary soon!

Rick's Cafe Boatyard-Brunch

It was Sunday, it was sunny, so we decided to try brunch at Rick’s Café Boatyard with the kids and the Grandparents. They’re on opentable, so we made a reservation online (I recommend a reservation here) and headed over. (If you haven’t checked out opentable.com, it is a great way to get online reservations at most Indy restaurants and even other cities like Chicago and San Francisco—where I started using it). This is one of the few true waterside restaurants in town, and by that I mean, one of the few situated on a decent sized body of water (i.e. Eagle Creek). Definitely a large portion of the draw for me is the ambiance, and not as much the food.

One of the things I like about this place for brunch is that they do have a brunch menu with breakfast-y type items, but you can also order off the regular menu if you aren’t in the mood for breakfast items. But in the interest of reviewing something different, I decided to go for it and try the one of the brunch items, the Eggs Chesapeake. This is a version of Eggs Benedict served on top of crab cakes instead of English Muffins and Canadian bacon. I ordered this at the recommendation of our server (he said it was his favorite brunch item). It wasn’t bad, and the crab cakes had a fair amount of crab in them, but the seasoning was a little heavy handed I thought. The eggs were perfectly poached and the hollandaise pretty good as well. They were served with “breakfast potatoes” which were home fries. Home fries have to be really special to excite me (I am a hash brown girl for breakfast) and these weren’t really doing anything for me. I did have some of my Mom’s Seafood frittata as well which is basically a round omelette with shrimp and crab in it and a Mornay sauce on top. It was not bad either, the shrimps, when you came across them, were tasty. But nothing that made you want to run back and order it again. I don’t know, maybe my Dad was right; maybe seafood and breakfast don’t go together. He ordered the regular eggs benedict and seemed to enjoy them (again, they seem to have egg poaching down).

Hubby had the blackened catfish (from the regular menu) and thought it had sat under a heat lamp a bit and was a bit dry. The kids seemed to enjoy their meals, and except for somewhat slow service near the end, a decent meal was had by all. Again, I think the main draw here is the atmosphere and not the food. You feel like you’re at one of those seafood places you go when you’re on vacation with a great view. They have a nice deck and I would like to go eat out there one of these days when the weather gets nicer.

Rick’s Café Boatyard
Eagle Creek Reservoir
4050 Dandy Trail
Indy, 46204
317-290-9300
www.rickscafeboatyard.com