Murphy's Steakhouse- A little update

We took the kids to Murphy's again last night for dinner. I am not going to write another review since I got the exact same thing I had last time. But this time I took a picture so I thought I would post it... And I have to say, I enjoyed this meal just as much as I did last time. Although I did not follow my own advice and order my steak rare instead of medium rare which I should have. Murphy's "medium rare" is more like medium to me for sure. But I just thought it might have been a fluke the first time. It was not. Love that fried lobster and drawn butter though.

Murphy’s Steakhouse
4189 N. Keystone Ave
Indy 46205
317/545-3707

www.murphyssteakhouse.com

Zest- Revisit (Lunch)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

El Bodegon Tapas Bar

***ED Note: looks like El Bodegon is closed for business as of August 2010***

We went totally in a different direction for lunch the other day, in food and location, and went to Fishers to try out El Bodegon. I love the idea of tapas (small plates) because you get to try lots of flavors without too much of a commitment. And this place has lots of options, with plates starting at $1.00 (for a slice of Serrano ham or manchego cheese on a piece of bread.)

We started out ordering what we thought was quite a bit of food for the two of us for lunch, but ended up ordering even more. We ordered the aforementioned Serrano ham and Manchego which were both really good. I think I like Serrano ham even better then the Italian Prosciutto, in general I think it has more flavor. The bread they were slicing and using as a base was also really nice bread. It was sort of like a baguette in size, but has a slight chewiness to it that went really nicely with the various toppings. In this first round we also ordered a beef empanada, some anchovies (on bread as well), the tortilla (or sliced potato and egg dish) and the garlic shrimp.

The empanada was a little bland, although obviously handmade and quite lovely to look at, it needed a little something to jazz it up. Maybe a tangy sauce or some onions (ok, maybe that isn’t authentic, I don’t know, but still). It was clearly the weakest thing. The garlic shrimp were the best thing on the table and hubby promptly ordered another dish as soon as we gobbled up the first round (there are only 3 small shrimp on the tapa plate). There were large hunks of toasty garlic which were the best part. Those combined with the shrimp and the garlic-y olive oil were outstanding. They also offer these shrimp as an entrée which would be something I would seriously consider ordering in the future.

The tortilla was just ok, also needed a little jazzing up. It was a wedge of a traditional Spanish tortilla, slices of potato stacked on top of each other and held together with egg. I have had really good ones before, but I can’t for the life of me tell you what about them made them so other than I guess they must have just had more seasoning. The anchovies were just canned anchovies on the bread. They were good, as far as canned anchovies go. I was sort of hoping for those beautiful white anchovies you see in Europe, but I guess that was asking too much.

In our second round, we also ordered an arepa, which is a corn meal based sort of mini sandwich. They have Venezuelan arepas and Columbia arepas which are different in style (the Colombian ones being thinner, more almost like a tortilla). At our waiter’s recommendation, we ordered one of the Venezuelan ones, which sort of reminded me of a biscuit made with corn meal. Sort of like a cross between a biscuit and corn bread. It was dense, and had a wonderful crispy exterior. I really liked this aspect of it. We got one with seasoned shredded meat and avocado. Had a slightly Mexican flavor about it—with the shredded meat and avocado and corn meal. It was tasty, although it needed one more thing to make it really stand out for me. There was one on the menu that included chicken, avocado and mayo which I would like to try, because the mayo might just be enough to take it that next step.

Just for fun, we also had a glass of wine which we also enjoyed. They serve Spanish wines, and it was a simple wine, but if you closed your eyes, ate your food and sipped the wine, and listened to the music playing, you could feel like you were in a little restaurant in Spain, and not in the middle of a strip mall in Fishers. Something about the wine reminded me of house wines you get in any little café in Spain. Now, this is not to say the interior of this restaurant is going to wow you (I said, close your eyes). It is very simple, and frankly, a little barren in spots, but there are a few areas that are very nicely laid out, like the little shelves full of Spanish products for sale. It could use a little softening up, maybe some curtains or carpet, but then again, lots of places in Spain would be similarly decorated I am sure. The food also has some Venezuelan and Colombian variations (the various arepas etc.) The owners are making an effort to bring the foods they know to Indy diners. Unfortunately, there were not a lot of diners there, although there were always at least a couple of other tables. It is also kind of hidden on the backside of a strip mall near Wal Mart, so they also probably don’t get a lot of drive by customers.

I love having somewhere different to go, with lots of menu options, including a different lunch special every day. Nothing there was amazing, but it was unique and this City needs more diversity. The spice of life and everything right?

El Bodegon Tapas Bar
8510 East 96th Street
Fishers, IN 46037
317/841-3350
www.elbodegon-indy.com

Naisa- Lunch

I am getting on a roll these days getting out to some new lunch places. The other day hubby and I headed out to Naisa, a place that has been on the list for awhile. Hubby told me he would go anywhere so I trucked him off to Fountain Square.

Other than the giant snow bank along the curb to negotiate (not really their fault), we had no problem getting in for lunch. The place had only a couple of tables full when we got there, although people came in fairly regularly the entire time we were there, and several picked up carry out.

I was a little surprised by the menu, in that is was very classic Chinese dishes. For some reason, I sort of expected it to be a little less traditional based on what I had heard. You’ll see all the classics--- things like chow mein, General Tso’s chicken, sweet and sour pork and chicken, and even moo goo gai pan. I haven’t seen that on a menu in ages. Maybe the dinner menu is more extensive, but the dishes for lunch were pretty old school. Not that there is anything wrong with that, just not what I was expecting.

Each lunch item comes with a choice of soup (egg drop, hot and sour, or wonton) and a little seafood puff. You also get your choice of steamed or fried rice. I asked our server which soup she preferred and she said the hot and sour (which I do like) but then told me about their wonton soup and the fact that their wontons were made smaller so they are actually more bite-sized. That sold me on it, because while I generally like wonton soup, I often don’t order it for that reason---who wants to try and cut a wonton in half? The soup itself was very light and the wontons were smaller (there were three of them) and obviously quite fresh. However, it lacked much flavor. I think I would go with the hot and sour next time.

For my entrée, I ordered the garlic chile chicken which was sliced white meat chicken with broccoli, celery, baby corn, hot chile peppers, snow peas and bell peppers and in a thick slightly garlic-y sauce. The menu listed it as hot and spicy and I am happy to say that it actually was. I drank quite a bit more with my lunch than usual. It had quite a little kick. And I loved that the veggies were actually cooked a bit—so often the broccoli in Chinese dishes is so raw it is just too hard (and often too large) to eat. This broccoli was actually cooked to where it was still crisp, but also tender. The chicken was plentiful and balanced by an appropriate amount of veggies. The little seafood puff was more cream cheese than seafood, as they usually are, but was obviously freshly fried and super crispy. A great deal for lunch.

Hubby substituted an egg roll (they have spring rolls and egg rolls-the spring rolls are veggie, the egg rolls contain pork and are larger with a thicker shell) for his soup. He was impressed with it and said it was probably the best egg roll he has had. It was clearly freshly fried (can you say burn your mouth hot?) and had two layers of the flour wrapper—the outer one was fried super crispy, but there was an interior layer that added a nice chewiness to it that was tasty and different. I also liked that when you took a bite, long strings of the cabbage didn’t come dangling out. They must have chopped the veggies more and I appreciate things like this.

He had the General Tso’s chicken which is dark meat battered and deep fried and served with hot chiles as well. This is your classic General Tso’s, with the slightly reddish spicy yet slightly sweet thick sauce. He thoroughly enjoyed it. I had a bite and it had a nice bit of spiciness to it as well. He ordered the fried rice (I had steamed) and while it was quite dark in color, it didn’t really seem to have a lot of flavor to it really.

All in all, this is a great little Chinese restaurant from what I can tell. The ingredients seem super fresh and the food is clearly being made to order. We both proclaimed that if it was in our neighborhood, it would certainly be on our regular rotation for carry out. And hey, if you have been for dinner, let me know what you thought.

Naisa Café
1025 Virginia Ave
Indy 46203
317/602-3708
http://www.naisacafe.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

Sullivan's Lunch

I have been having a hard time coming up with lunch places that are nearby that aren’t all my usual standards. I frequent the same 4-5 places for lunch a lot, but I have written them up before, and I don’t want to bore you with all the same places. Most of the new places on my list are a little farther afield, so I have to have a decent amount of time to fit one of them in. So we randomly decided to try Sullivan’s for lunch and see what was up. (Not to mention a reader recently asked for a review.) We have been there for dinner a couple of times, pre-blog days, and to be honest, were never overly impressed, but I heard they have some good lunch specials.

I do like the interior of the restaurant of Sullivan’s. It is a nice open room, with the kitchen at one end, with a nice feel to it. Lots of wood and a large flower arrangement in the center. The place was not that crowded when we got there but by the time we left was pretty busy for a weekday lunch, mostly with business people I think. They have the “business lunch special” which is a pretty good deal—you get a soup or salad and either a small filet, salmon or chicken for $18.00.

I wasn’t in the mood for a straight steak, so I went with the steak salad instead. It was really nice. It was mixed greens topped with crumbled blue cheese, tomatoes, some large chunks of roasted potatoes, a filet cut into fairly large slices, and lots and lots of fried onion strings and blue cheese dressing. I liked that they asked me if I wanted the dressing tossed throughout or on the side. I said both, never trusting they will properly dress it, but in this case they did. The dressing was appropriately tossed throughout and I didn’t really need the dressing on the side (hubby liked it for dipping his fries though). The steak was good quality, and had a great flavor. It was well seasoned and cooked on the rare side of medium rare, which is great for me. There were maybe just a few too many onions on top, as they made it kind of hard to get to the rest of the stuff underneath. But a couple of them in each bite added a nice flavor as well. The only thing on the salad I did not care for were the potatoes. They were too large and too dry inside. On a salad, I liked smaller, less dry potatoes that are maybe blanched instead. Little fingerlings or red potatoes maybe. You had to cut these into smaller pieces and they didn’t really add anything to the salad.

Hubby ordered the chicken pesto sandwich with fries and was a bit disappointed in it. As is the classic problem with chicken sandwiches (in my opinion), the chicken was too dry and there wasn’t enough sauce to balance it out. Just a little bit of pesto on the bun. He thought maybe the restaurant was worried people wouldn’t like too much of the pesto or something, but if that is the case, maybe they could make a pesto mayo or something. He had several bites of my salad and also thought it was very good. Much better than his sandwich.

The thing that annoyed me the most about this place was how slow it was. For a place that sort of seems to cater to business people, you would think they would make sure the food was coming out at a fairly rapid pace. Not so. And our server seemed to disappear for long periods of time. In fact, the manager delivered our meals. The lunch took quite a bit longer than I thought it should. Had I known, I probably could have just gone ahead and gone downtown.

But, all in all, if you want a great steak salad, and you have a bit of time, this was pretty good... When the mood hits me, I will probably go back for lunch and get it again.

Sullivan’s Steakhouse
3316 East 86th Street
Indy 46240
317-580-1280
www.sullivansteakhouse.com

Recess

Well, I have been giving Recess a little while to get the rough edges smoothed before heading over there to check it out. I know a few of you have been sort of annoyed that it has taken me so long to get there, but I have an informal policy of giving a new place at least a couple of weeks to get settled in since I write a review based on a single visit. (And if you want to read my review policies in detail, please go here.) Regardless, I have been pretty much chomping at the bit to get over there, as I have always enjoyed Recess chef Greg Hardesty’s cuisine, (at the now closed Elements). I actually completely love this new concept, a different menu every day, but a set menu, with sometimes no choices and sometimes just one or two choices (usually between two entrées). The ingredients are whatever the Chef decides he wants to do, based on seasonality and what he deems “superlative.” Honestly, with as much grief as I have received when I complain about restaurants never changing their menu, with people telling me repeatedly that won’t fly in Indy, I was a little worried about how it would go for Chef Hardesty. But based on the buzz, and the difficulty in getting a reservation on certain nights, it looks like, so far so good. (See, I guess Indy folks CAN handle a little variety!).

I also really enjoy the slightly industrial feel to the space, but with touches of softness to balance the heavy cement of the walls and floor. Not quite enough softness to deaden the noise of the place once it was full, but the spacing between the tables is appropriate so that you don’t feel like you are sharing your conversation with the table next to you. Also, when you can hear it, we greatly enjoyed the music playing overhead, truly modern music that obviously reflected someone’s very personal taste—I was wondering if the music changes with the Chef’s whim as well. That would be kind of fun.

I dined with a friend on this night, and on the way over, knowing there were two entrée choices, we quickly agreed to get one of each and share to make sure we could try everything offered. They also offer a wine pairing to match the first three courses (all but dessert) which are 3-4 ounce pours, so that basically they equal about half a bottle of wine (which I would say is two good glasses). I think this is a great idea, and with an ever changing menu, is the perfect way to try various items on the wine list. I did enjoy the pairing with my meal, and each wine was wonderfully matched.

Several other reviewers have not gone into great detail about their particular food items claiming that there is no point since the menu changes daily. I tend to disagree with this approach as I think hearing about the meal in detail will give people a little insight about exactly what you can expect. Well, not exactly, I guess, but the types of flavor combinations and generally the creativity being employed. Our dinner started with hamachi sashimi in a wasabi ponzu broth served with thinly sliced cucumbers and radish as well as enoki mushrooms and wakame (a type of seaweed). The fish was wonderfully tender and fresh and pretty well melted in your mouth—the broth added a nice flavor—a fairly simple preparation, but nice. Of course, if you are a frequent reader, you know cucumbers and seaweed aren’t my favorites (everyone doesn’t like something right?), so unfortunately, my veggies on this dish went begging.

The next course was crisp pork belly served with hominy, tomatillos and fried tortilla strips. The thick rectangle of pork belly (think bacon steak) was pleasantly crisp and was accented nicely by accompaniments with a Mexican flavor. The hominy continued the richness of the pork while the tomatillos added a bit of that tanginess that I love, and that balanced out the richness and saltiness. The tortillas added textural crunch which was also quite pleasing. I would say this was probably my favorite course. The portion wasn’t oversized (although I found the portions to be generous, I don’t think they are oversized, which I think is important when you are serving four courses).

For the main courses, there were two choices, a beef and a turkey dish. As I said, we each ordered one of them and shared them fairly equally, so I feel like I can tell you about them both pretty accurately. I will start with the turkey because I think it was my favorite of the two. First of all, how nice is it to see turkey being used as a white meat option on a menu for a change. I personally prefer to use turkey at home quite frequently (although I tend to have to go to Kincaid's to get turkey cutlets cut since regular grocery stores no longer seem interested in meeting customer needs, but I digress). I have a really hard time ordering chicken in a restaurant, it just seems so pedestrian, and is often so dry, but I was really excited by the turkey concept.

Anyway, the turkey was served as paillards, which are thinly pounded cutlets that were breaded and fried. They were served over a Brussels sprouts and bacon ragout (I’d say more of a warm cole slaw, and there was other things in there besides Brussels sprouts—in fact, I wished it was a little more Brussels-sprouty). There were pickled onions as well. I didn’t get a lot of this on my portion, but I love the idea. Pickled onions are one of my favorite things. There was also a side of manchego (Spanish sheep’s milk cheese) mac and cheese—this stuff was divine. Rich and creamy with a bit of sharpness. A bite of this with a bite of the turkey—yummy. All in all, this dish was unique and creative and very tasty. (By the way, sorry about the fuzzy picture, I was trying to be discreet, and this place is small.)

The beef dish was two thick slices of Fisher Farm’s ribeye with crushed potatoes, roasted poblano peppers and red onion ragout. This dish was nice as well—the beef was prepared medium rare, the chimichurri was bright and the flavors of the other sides were good. I don’t know, the meat needed a little seasoning or something—just didn’t seem to have quite enough flavor on its own. For some reason, while in theory, I liked all the things on the plate, overall, it just didn’t seem to come together quite as well as the turkey.

The dessert on this night was a Meyer lemon terrine with fig molasses drizzled on top and a little lemon poppy seed cookie on the side. This was better than both of us were expecting—cold terrine-y type things aren’t usually my first choice in a sweet or savory version, but this had a very nice Meyer lemon flavor, which is not as tart as traditional lemon. And the cookie on the side was a nice complement. There was a bit of lemon pulp on the side, which when eaten with the dish gave me the flash of a sour patch kid (yes, can you tell I have young children?). Still wouldn’t be my dessert of choice, but it was a nice refreshing thing and we both enjoyed it.

So I liked everything. Did I swoon over everything? No. But I enjoyed the experience and I love knowing that next time I go, the menu will be completely different. All in all, I think Recess is going to be quite a successful enterprise. There are, apparently, enough people in this town that can appreciate culinary creativity and can just deal with what is served. I also love the fact that hopefully continued success of Recess will actually introduce people to new flavors and foods since you cannot always go with your comfort zone here. The only thing I lament is that there wasn’t cooked seafood on the night I was there, because I think Chef Hardesty handles seafood with probably more skill than most in our city. Ahhh…but maybe next time.

And since I know Recess has been given lots of free advice about how to “improve” the concept, and I know the concept has been tweaked somewhat since its opening, here’s my two cents. I would love to see a dessert choice and a cheese choice—that would be pretty easy right? But no matter what, Recess is certainly a breath of fresh air on our dining scene and I am glad to have it. I will be back very soon.

Recess
4907 N. College Ave
Indy 46205
317/925-7529
http://www.recessindy.com/

The Loft at Traders Point Creamery

Struggling for new lunch places these days, hubby and I headed west to check out Traders Point Creamery’s restaurant, the Loft, in search of something tasty. I have always loved their products, particularly the Fleur de la Terre cheese—I always pick up a wedge when I am at the Farmer’s Market. That stuff is seriously good. It is a bit soft in the middle although tends firmer toward the rind. While not super strong, it does have earthy taste and a little bit of sharpness. But my kids love it as much as I do, so you there you go. Anyway, I was interested to see what the restaurant would be like and I like the motto on their website, “We milk it. We make it. We serve it.”

And the interior of this place is quite homey and rustic but with a modern flair. Cool barn loft space with aluminum tables. The service is very friendly and accommodating (even when there was a film crew in there the day we ate lunch filming extra scenes for a TV show).

The lunch menu has a nice selection of sandwiches, wraps and salads as well as a few other items like mac & cheese. Now, since we were sitting in a dairy, I figured, I needed to hit the cheese hard right? So I asked our server if she recommended the mac and cheese or the grilled cheese more. She said the grilled cheese was one of the best things on the menu. Well, that sealed it. Originally I thought, a grilled cheese seemed kind of boring, but their grilled cheese was amazing. It is thinly sliced whole wheat bread made with the Fleur de la Terre cheese, and your choice of one additional item. You could choose between bacon, avocado, caramelized onions, spinach, mushrooms or roasted red pepper. You get one included and any additional items are $1 extra. Wow. I could have pretty much taken all of them. They pretty much all sounded good. But not wanting to overdo it, I just went with my perennial favorites, avocado (natch), and bacon. Wow, this may just have been the best grilled cheese I have ever eaten. The bread was quite thin and the entire sandwich was pressed quite flat so it was really easy to eat, and there wasn’t too much bread to sandwich fixings. There was an appropriate amount of fillings and they were all delicious. Wow. I would be hard pressed not to get it again. It is very rich because the cheese is quite distinctive and combined with the other things, it was extremely filling. And hey, I dipped a couple bites into the side of garlic aioli that hubby ordered with his lunch and that was a nice little tasty addition as well. You also get a side with each sandwich—I had the salt and pepper kettle chips which were tasty, but didn’t knock me out or anything.

Hubby ordered the burger with Fleur de la Terre cheese as well as the aforementioned aioli. He said it was a really really good “gourmet” burger. Apparently he has categories of different types of burgers, which when pressed was a little vague about. But he ate every bite and also really loves the cheese. The beef was properly cooked medium and was very juicy.

I really wanted to get some ice cream as well, but as it was lunch and I had a big dinner coming up we skipped it. I really look forward to taking the kids here, as it is all their favorite things (grilled cheese, quesadillas etc) and they also give tours of the farm which I know they would enjoy as well. Not to mention, how could it not be cool to have lunch in a barn?

The Loft
Traders Point Creamery
9101 Moore Road
Zionsville, IN 46077
317/733-1700
www.tpforganics.com

Restaurant Tallent

One of the main reasons for our girly weekend that started at FARMbloomington was to have dinner at Restaurant Tallent—and from every rave review I have ever heard I was maybe, just maybe, setting myself up for disappointment in some ways I guess. Don’t get me wrong, the meal was really good, just not the near perfection I was maybe wrongly expecting.

Anyhow, we were promptly seated, although as usual, I had to ask to not be seated in the 2 seats right in between two other very closely spaced tables at a banquette. This was a little annoying considering there was a two-seater available at the end of the banquette that was more appropriately spaced away from the others, and with no one on one side. We ended up sitting there at my request without too much hassle. I did enjoy sitting in the room with the kitchen and watching the chef at work. He obviously takes great pride in making sure that each plate goes out the way he wants it. I do think this “bar side” of the restaurant may be the less desirable side to be seated on in theory, because it isn’t the main room, but I enjoyed it because the noise level was not as intense. After all, the BFF and I had girl talk to discuss.

We were promptly served a nice amuse bouche of spaghetti squash pomodoro with a garlic chip on top. This was a really nice tasty bite. The tomato flavor was light and tasty and the garlic chip gave it quite an intense toasty garlic flavor on which we both commented.

The menu looked great, and to be honest it was all I could do to not just order appetizers—they all looked so good! I settled on the black truffle tagliatelle with mushrooms, spinach, parmesan and big hunks of pancetta. The pasta was excellent—homemade with an amazing truffle flavor. The mushrooms, spinach and a bit of the pancetta were really good too. If I had to complain about something, I would say it seemed like there were more pieces of the pancetta (and they were large dices) than there were mushrooms, and a few of them were a little too hard for my taste. I would have preferred a few more mushrooms and a little less bacon I guess. I did like that the overall portion was appropriately sized for an appetizer—I actually ate all of it (minus a bit of the pancetta). But overall, this pasta was really really good. Clearly my favorite dish of the evening. And you won’t want to share it, so don’t plan on splitting it with anyone!

My friend had the frisée salad with bacon, blue cheese, and a poached egg. It was interesting, they actually breaded the poached egg that was on the salad with some breadcrumbs—sort of looked like a Scotch egg on top. She shared a bit with me—it was good. Maybe a little underdressed, or maybe that was the bit I got, I don’t know.

For my main, I got the sole meuniere with sunchoke puree, bok choy and roasted mushrooms. Hmmm…not sure about this one. The ingredients were all very high quality, and were prepared properly. It was just like there was too much going on with this dish. And there was something—maybe just some very large peppercorn pieces-- that I kept biting into giving a disturbing crunch. I liked the sunchoke puree, it was a nice compliment, but there were so many different flavors between the mushrooms and the seasonings and the puree and veg, that it just seemed sort of confusing to me. You could certainly taste the lemon that is part of a meuniere sauce, but I don’t know, maybe I just expected a more delicate dish, particularly since our server told me it was one of the lighter dishes of the menu.

My friend, however, had the Cook’s farm bison with Lyonnaise potato gratin, Swiss chard, and sauce au poivre. This was really good—the bison was cooked perfectly medium rare and the potatoes were a nice complement. A wonderful alternative to the traditional meat and potatoes. And the chunky bits of peppercorns made sense here. It was really nice.

We both had a dessert—I had the butterscotch semi-freddo with brown sugar phyllo crisps and butterscotch sauce. Wow this was intense in its butterscotch goodness. Really good, and I loved the phyllo crisps with it—the super crispy texture with the ultra smooth texture of the semi freddo (which is sort of like a lighter, not as frozen version of ice cream, or a slightly frozen version of custard. “Semifreddo” literally translates to “half cold.”). It was extremely rich though, and would be a great dish to share.

My friend had the cranberry streusel with cranberry-orange compote and sorghum ice cream. It was nice as well—quite tart from the cranberries, but the creamy ice cream helped balance that out. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting though—I was sort of imagining more of a messy thing with a crumb topping, and this was more like a cross between a pie and a tart—thin like a tart, but with more of a pie crust underneath and a very orderly crumb toppping. Tasty though.

So all in all it was a very nice meal, and you can see the love that goes into each dish both in the creativity of the combinations and the beautiful seasonal items being used. Maybe my expectations were a little high, and I was just a bit disappointed in my entrée, but I can promise you, I will be back—and I would like to try for Spring or Summer, my favorite of the food seasons!

Restaurant Tallent
208 North Walnut
Bloomington, IN 47404
812/330-9801
http://www.restauranttallent.com/

Maxine's Chicken and Waffles

I have a little obsession with fried chicken—it is probably one of my most favored comfort foods around. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I drove the other people I worked with crazy wanting to eat at the Merritt bakery in Oakland, CA because their fried chicken was so good. And coincidentally, Oakland was also the first place I ever had the whole chicken and waffle combo—at a place called “Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles.” Anyway, Maxine’s has been on my list since I first heard about it, but I have only just now managed to get there.

I have read several different reviews of this place and have always wondered why the only fried chicken anyone ever talks about are the wings (that come with the waffles). Usually, when I get fried chicken, I would go with some other pieces myself. Once I got there, I realized, it is because any of the other pieces are a 25-35 minute wait, as they are all cooked to order, and who has that kind of time at lunch? Now granted, they are open for dinner as well, but, well, since there is no liquor, I knew I wouldn’t be getting hubby in there for dinner.

First of all, I read some pretty mixed reviews about the service, but when we went in, we were greeted and seated immediately and were waited on by a very gracious server who was extremely helpful and friendly. I even heard her back there yelling at the kitchen when something was taking too long. So, as for the service, I have absolutely no complaints.

We got some of the fried cornbread to start, which was not exactly what I was expecting, more like a cornbread pancake—but very tasty nonetheless. They were just made, and very warm and unique--unlike any cornbread I have had. They were good on their own and also with the peach butter that was served alongside them. It was a nice compliment and I think I ended up preferring them with the peach butter, although I ate them both ways.

Since I did not have that kind of time to spend at lunch either, I went with the classic chicken and waffle combo, which is one large freshly made waffle and three fried chicken wings. The waffle is obviously freshly made, pleasantly crisp on the outside with the soft inside and served with a little cup of the peach butter on top. In this case, I think I preferred the waffle just with the traditional syrup rather then the peach butter, but maybe that is just me. The chicken wings were very large wings (I would hate to run into that bird in a dark alley) and extremely meaty. The meat was very tender and hot, and they were obviously made to order. I was amazed at how juicy they were. The coating was more of a breading type coating with some seasoning, and while it was good, and the skin was crisp, I found it to be a little lacking in flavor, and not to be my favorite fried chicken in Indy. I think I prefer a bit more of a crunchy crust with a bit more seasoning. And while both parts of this meal were good, I am still not totally onboard with the chicken and waffle thing, but obviously it is a combo that people like, as it is certainly not the first place I have seen it, and it is the name of the restaurant for goodness sakes. Call me a traditionalist though, I would rather have some mashed potatoes and a biscuit next to my fried chicken.

Now, hubby, on the other hand, ordered the blackened catfish sandwich, which I was a little dubious about when he ordered it, but I have to say, it was outstanding. And he loved it. This was by far the better thing on the table. The seasoning on the catfish was perfect—amazing flavor. And the catfish itself was super juicy and thick, not overdone at all. In fact our server told us it was one of her favorites. The portion was a little crazy, it was two large fish fillets on a bun—he pretty much instantly took one off to eat it. Of course, we managed to finish off most of the other fillet before the meal was over—it was just so yummy.

The portions are large—and if you are worried that chicken wings won’t fill you up, you needn’t be. Between the two of us, we were pretty uncomfortably full and in fact were still moaning a bit by the time dinner rolled around.

I think the key to this place is look over the menu and order what sounds good—just because it has “chicken and waffles” in the name doesn’t mean it is the only thing to order. And hey, why we are at it, what is your favorite spot in Indy for fried chicken? Still on a quest for the best….

Maxine’s Chicken and Waffles
132 North East Street
Indy, 46204
317-423-3300
http://www.maxineschicken.com/

FARMbloomington

Recently, the BFF and I took a little road trip down to Bloomington for a getaway—to eat, drink and just have a break. Food wise, my main goal was to eat at Restaurant Tallent (which we did, and the review will come soon), but since we aimed at getting there by lunch time, we also decided to give FARMbloomington a go as well.

The interior of this place is quite kitschy in its farm paraphernalia, but honestly, I sort of breezed over it because I was pretty hungry. You do get the feeling that someone has had the genuine desire to create a causal farmhouse feel, but has just taken it maybe one step too far.

Anyhow, it was a Saturday, and on the weekends, they serve a brunch menu, so that is what we were choosing from. After checking out the tables next to us (if you are seated at the banquette, you are quite close to the tables on either side) we decided to split the bacon and egg pizza (I told ya, I’m a sucker for eggs on stuff). A poor young college girl with her parents next to us had ordered this pizza on her own, and was a little overwhelmed by it. It is quite large, and totally appropriate for sharing (that fact might even deserve a mention on the menu if you ask me).

So the pizza was like a thin crusted flatbread layered with a bit of red sauce (I really liked that there wasn’t too much of it), layers of quite tasty bacon, spinach, Gouda and topped with two poached eggs. The crust was obviously homemade, as it was quite uneven in shape (and totally different from the one at the table next to us) but it was really tasty. Pleasantly crispy but really thin, and still held up to the ingredients on top. I took my egg and cut it up and divided a bit of it onto each of my pieces. The bacon was layered across the pizza and was slightly crisp, but still had a nice amount of chewiness as well. I tell you what, it was really good. If I lived around there, this would be something I would probably crave on a routine basis.

One pet peeve, the napkins were really cheap and thin and they only gave you one (well, until I asked for more). A meal like this, you needed more than that. Or if you are only going to give just the one, either make it cloth, or make it more substantial. The service was a little distant, and occasionally missing, but generally we got things in a decent time frame.

But we had some wine as well; lots of girl talk, and really ended up enjoying this meal. Unfortunately, because we split one thing, I don’t have more to tell you about, but if you eat here for brunch, this pizza is yummy.

FARM Bloomington
108 East Kirkwood Avenue
Bloomington, IN 47408
877-440-FARM
812-323-0002
http://www.farm-bloomington.com/

Taki Japanese Restaurant

****Taki appears to be out of business as of 1/1/11**************


I don’t think I have ever mentioned this, but my kids’ favorite place to go to dinner, if it is totally up to them, is Benihana. They love the whole dinner and a show thing. And the nice thing about it, they love pretty much everything they serve and have something to occupy themselves. Recently a new Japanese steakhouse opened just up the street from our house, and it is not a chain, which got me kind of excited, so we thought we would give it a try. Apparently, they used to be in Des Moines, but have moved the whole place here.

This restaurant is very large and offers both the teppanyaki (cooking at the table in front of you) and a large regular sushi area with a sushi bar and regular bar. It was not too crowded yet, as it has really just opened in the last few weeks, which was sort of nice for us because we had our whole table to ourselves and our kids are a little crazy. The menu is very similar to Benihana, except they offer more reasonable prices for their kid’s meals.

So the kids and I both ordered shrimp dinners and hubby ordered a combination dinner with steak and scallops. All the meals come with soup and a salad as well as fried rice. For the soup you can have the classic Japanese steakhouse soup of broth with fried onions and sliced mushrooms or the traditional sushi restaurant miso soup with tofu. The kids got the broth, which tasted like it might be beef broth and was pretty good. I had the miso which was very good miso soup—lots of tofu which I always like.

You can get the salad with a soy vinaigrette or a ginger dressing. I am not usually a fan of soy vinaigrette but I did enjoy the ginger dressing. However, Japanese salads with the iceberg don’t usually get me that excited. These did have a bit of other field greens mixed in with the iceberg, but they weren’t super exciting.

The chef came out and cooked next and I have to say, he was super friendly and put on quite a show for the kids. If you had asked the kids which place they preferred, before even eating their food, they would have chosen this place based on the chef alone. First off, he started with making a giant flame on the table, which I have read Benihana will no longer do for liability reasons. So they were into that. Then, as he cooked the fried rice with egg, and some diced veggies, he offered to let my kids cook with him. My daughter, who has always been quite appalled by the lack of female teppanyaki chefs, of course jumped at the chance. My son, being my slightly shyer child, passed. Anyhow, he let her flip the egg around and she was thrilled. And the fact that he promised to let her do it anytime she came certainly endeared her to the place. At this point, I was just praying the food was edible since I already know where she will be requesting on her nights out.

Everyone seemed to like the fried rice (I had steamed). There is no shrimp appetizer included in the dinner however (like at Benihana), so at this point he started cooking everyone’s dinner. They have two sauces to serve with the meat, a sort of creamy slightly mustardy sauce and a thick ginger sauce. Interestingly, they recommend the ginger with the red meat and the creamy sauce with the seafood (which is the opposite of Benihana). Personally, I love the tangy-ness of the ginger sauce (as does my daughter) and have always used it for everything. But here, I had to ask to get it since I was having shrimp; initially he only gave me the other. But it was really good, thicker and even more gingery then at Benihana. The one thing I did not like though, was that they actually cook the shrimp on the grill with some of the creamy sauce, which I would not get the next time. But if you like that sauce with your shrimp, cooking it with some extra would certainly not hurt. The kids seemed to like it anyway. They also served the shrimp whole, instead of chopping it up, which bummed me out a little since I then had to cut it up for the kids. (Normally that is one of the beauties of the Japanese steakhouse. Everything comes sized to order for the kids.)

They also did veggies—onions, broccoli, carrots, and zucchini and made a very exciting volcano out of the onions which of course the kids also loved. Hubby really liked his scallops—and they looked like nice ones and were cooked well. I had quite a bit of his steak (he upgraded to a filet) which was really good, possibly my favorite thing. But the kids ate really well, and really enjoyed themselves, which is most of the battle when dining out with them. And hey, it wasn’t chicken nuggets or grilled cheese.

We also got a piece of chocolate cake, and our server was very careful to check the ingredients and let us know that is was made somewhere that processes peanuts, because my son is allergic. The cake was clearly one of the pre-made refrigerated jobbies (I hate cold cake) but my daughter loved it and mentions it, along with the fact that they have chocolate milk, and that she got to cook, whenever she tells someone about it. Oh and did I mention all the fish tanks? Also a big draw. But for adults, it has a nice modern feel with some interesting water/light features and soothing color scheme.

So we will certainly be back (it is almost a guarantee with as much as the kids loved it) and with a few tweaks for me (no sauce on the shrimp when it is cooking, or maybe one of the steak and seafood combos), I am glad to have a place to go that is local and where the people are really into their jobs. And while our server (who brought the drinks, soups and salad) was clearly still learning, she was really friendly and helpful. They were extremely accommodating to the kids, even down to the cheater chopsticks and free refills on the chocolate milk.

********************************************************************
Hubby and I also decided to give Taki a quick try for lunch before I posted this review. We ordered a couple of rolls and some tempura shrimp. The tempura was nice, a little different from most I have had, almost has a consistency of panko crumbs on the outside, but it was nice and crunchy and I liked that the tempura sauce was served warm, which helped keep the whole thing warm til the end.

The rolls were good. Not amazing or anything, but not bad. Ok, I think I have told you all that I am generally not a fan of rolls because I don’t like the seaweed. Lately I have been noticing a lot of rolls made with soy paper, so I thought, hey, this might just be the perfect scenario for me. So the roll I wanted to try was called the “Dynamite Lola,” which was soft shell crab (and you know how I love soft shell crab), spicy tuna, avocado and spicy sauce, and was described as being wrapped in soy paper. So, it was wrapped in soy paper, but there was still an interior part of the roll that was wrapped in seaweed, so it didn’t really help this aversion for me. The ingredients themselves were all well done and tasty, but I guess I am learning I am not a roll person. Hubby, who loves the seaweed has learned he is not a soy paper person, having never had it before. He did not care for the consistency of it.

The other roll we go was the “Taki” roll, which he liked better. It was salmon and crab tempura. It was pretty tasty (other then that pesky seaweed). They do have a ton of different rolls and sushi options, pretty much some of everything. And the fish itself seemed to be very good quality, and that is the most important thing right? They have just started serving lunch, and there weren’t a lot of people in there when we were there, but our server told us their dinners are getting more and more crowded. I do think it is a good alternative to have in this area, which is so heavily dominated by mediocre chains. I am going to go back and try a Bento box next time for lunch and see how that goes.

It is a pretty place, and a very friendly staff. If you have gone, or do go, please let me know what you think, as I am interested to see how this place does.


Taki Japanese Restaurant
4040 East 82nd Street
Indy 46240
317-849-8254

Devour Downtown 2010

Hi all-

As you know, Devour Downtown is going on through February 6th, where you can enjoy three course meals at many of our downtown restaurants for just $30.00. It is often a nice way to try restaurants that you might otherwise think are too pricey. At the request of a reader, I am making this post, asking you guys to post a comment about your devour downtown meals so that others might see some good options (and maybe some not so good ones too) for these weeks. If you have already been to a few, let us know if they were good or bad...and maybe we can all help each other out!

Cheers!

Erin