Sunday, March 27, 2011

Midday Gourmet Deli

5501 W 86th St # G Indianapolis,IN 46268
Midday Gourmet Deli


Sorry for the delay again. It has been a pretty busy couple weeks. Be prepared for a slew of new posts here in the next couple days. My brother introduced me to this little sandwich place when I first started my job, as it was one of his go-to restaurants to dine during lunch. They are only open for weekday lunches from 11am to 2:30pm. The restaurant isn't very big, but I have never had a problem getting a table. The service is very quick. You walk up to the counter, place your order, and within 5 minutes they bring it to you. The do a good job catering to the work crowd, as they get you in and out pretty quickly. 


I decided to go with the daily lunch special, the Rachel. The Rachel is like a Reuben, but it is pastrami instead of corned beef, and cole slaw instead of sauerkraut. In my next post, I speak at length about my affinity for the Reuben Sandwich.  The lunch special included chips and a drink. The sandwich itself was pretty average. I have had better food at Midday. The meat tasted fresh and I really liked the sourdough bread as it was nicely toasted. The sandwich just didn't blow me away. I probably wouldn't order it again.  I think it was the cole slaw. I am very particular about my cole slaw. I do like a creamier slaw as opposed to a more vinegar based slaw. I also like the cabbage chopped more fine instead of longer strands of cabbage. There was a nice crunch to the sandwich, which I enjoy, but the slaw just didn't add a whole lot of flavor. The thousand island was not too overpowering


I will definitely come back, as they have a delicious egg salad which is a great option for you Catholics out there that need a non-meat option during Lent. 


“Civilization has taught us to EAt with a fork, but even now if nobody is around we use our fingers.” - Will Rogers
Midday Gourmet Deli on Urbanspoon

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Sunrise Cafe (Keystone at the Crossing)

3309 E 86th St
Indianapolis, IN 46240

It was a Sunday morning and I decided to go with WJB and RFS to brunch before I had to run errands. For any of you who chose Sprint as your mobile carrier, if you have crappy service in your house, you can call and complain and Sprint will send you an Airave (mini cell phone tower) for free.  I learned this in running my errands. I decided to provide you something with something nice, before I rip into this restaurant.

When did I piss off the great service gods? Jeeze. Two days in a row I received terrible service. First of all I had already eaten breakfast, so I just wanted lunch. Too freaking bad! They didn't have anything that resembled lunch there.  I can only blame Le Peep for being too crowded and for us choosing a place called the Sunrise Cafe. I guess I could be more angry if I went to a place called the High Noon Cafe and they only served breakfast. You live and you learn. Anyways, I chose to order the quiche and hash browns. As you can see by the picture, you would have have thought I ordered an extra crispy potato pancake and an overcooked egg, cheese, and bacon pie. The texture of the quiche was kind of rubbery. It wasn't fluffy and the top was more done than I preferred. Google pictures of a quiche: golden brown is fine, but the Sunrise Cafe took the brown part a little too literally. I don't even know where to start with my hash browns. Apologies for using the same joke twice, but they took the hash brown part a little too literally. They were the crispiest, driest hash browns I have ever eaten. No amount of ketchup could mask how terrible it was. Should I have sent it back? Yes, but I always have a fear of the chef staff doing something gross to my food. Ever see Waiting? I prefer cheddar cheese as opposed to Fromunda cheese.

Back to the service...hell. Can I get a drink order? Can you take my food order? Can I get a refill? Can I just get someone over here to help us? It was crowded, but there were so many workers there, the busyness shouldn't have mattered. They seemed overstaffed. Also the place just seemed dirty. It was really dark and not inviting. Twice I sat there for over 5 minutes with an empty drink. This is the first time in a LONG time I actually tipped based on the service I received. I can give people the benefit of the doubt if they were short staffed and they told me they were extra busy. But it seemed like our waitress frankly didn't give a hoot about us.

NEVER GOING BACK AGAIN! **Note. This restaurant has different ownership than the one in Carmel at 116th and Meridian. That place is delicious. And they serve lunch!

EAt this (Sunrise Cafe 116th and Meridian), not that (Sunrise Cafe at Keystone the Crossing).

Destination Chicago: Goose Island Brewery

1800 North Clybourn
Chicago, IL 60614
Goose Island Brewery



First I want to apologize for the delay in my posts. It has been a pretty busy couple weeks. RFS and I made the trip up to the Windy City to visit a good friend from college and his fiancee. AG, if you are reading this, I wish I could send a nice little nut tap to Austin. It is always good to go back to what was home for me for two years. Unless I went for an entire week, I don't think I would be able to eat at my some of my favorite restaurants and see all the people I would want to see up there. When people ask me what I miss most about the Second City, I am quick to say the people, the food, and the nightlife. Turned out the time I lived up there, I was able to experience the coldest winter in 60 years and the coldest summer in 100 years. I don't miss the traffic and the biting cold winters. So let's get to one of the things I do miss, the people and the food.



There are two Goose Island locations, one in Wrigleyville and the other in Lincoln Park. We went to the one in Lincoln Park. I went to this one more as it was closer to my house and there is a place to park. That is one thing that you can't do a whole lot in the Chi, just pull up to a restaurant and park. Point Naptown. GI brews their own craft beers. 312 is one of my favorites. I'm sure you all know you can purchase their beers here. Drink responsibly friends. I obviously couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a fresh brew. The menu is always changing at GI. I think this is due to the fact they get all their ingredients fresh from local farms. I was sad to see their mac n cheese wasn't available. So for appetizers, we ordered the pretzels which came with jalapeno cheddar and stout mustard dipping sauce. The pretzels were amazing. The texture was spot on, soft and chewy. I preferred the mustard dip. It had a nice bite to it.  The cheddar dip had good flavor as well, but I prefer my pretzels with mustard. I can't even eat bagged pretzels without dipping them in mustard. We also ordered the Short Rib Pierogis.  I had never had fresh pierogis before and I have always wanted to try. JBH swears by made from scratch pierogis, so I had to give them shot. You could really taste the freshness in the ingredients. The meat was really tender, but other than that, I thought they lacked flavor. For my entree I ordered the lamb burger. It is organic ground lamb, topped with brie, poached pears, and frisee. KJM would not like this burger. I, on the other hand really enjoyed it. I haven't eaten a lot of lamb in my life, but I think one of the big differences is lamb is leaner than beef. The burger was really peppery. It paired well with the soft, creamy brie. The pears had a nice flavor, reminded me of Christmas, because of how they were spiced. Frisee has a more bitter taste and I could go without it. For my side, I chose the sweet potato fries. They were the least fresh tasting part of my meal. I thought they tasted like the fries you can get at the freezer section in your local grocer. They came with a curry ketchup. It was so-so. I prefer regular ketchup or maybe if they had a chipotle ketchup. The curried ketchup is just not my style. 


Now that I have pimped their food, let me get to the worst part of the meal., service. God awful! Our waitress had no sense of urgency. She was not prompt in any areas of service and she wasn't friendly. I think she showed up maybe 5 times the whole meal. Lucky for her groups of six get 18% gratuity, because she deserved no more than 6%. I ran out of water and had to drink the other glasses off the table a few times. Why was I drinking water instead of the delicious beer? Well RFS and I decided to drive back that night. Believe you me, I would have had my fair share if we weren't heading home. 


Well I do recommend this place as the beers and food are delicious. Just know that the service is sub par. 


Eat what is cooked, listen to what is said.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Rice Cooker

2436 Lake Circle Dr
Indianapolis IN 46268

I felt like I was cheating on a girlfriend in going to another Chinese restaurant not named Yen Ching. Rice Cooker just opened recently near 86th and Townshipline Rd. Their other location is in Zionsville. I had heard great things about that one so I floated the idea out to my coworkers to try during lunch. Around 1pm on a Friday, we were the only ones in there. The decor is pretty plain and they were playing Michael Buble instead of traditional Chinese restaurant music. I love me some Buble.


Upon arrival we were greeted by the owner. He was very friendly as was our waitress (his wife?). They were always asking how our food was and they were very prompt with refilling our drinks. Because I love Yen Ching so much and have always been overly satisfied with their lunch service, all other Chinese restaurants compared to Yen Ching. The Rice Cooker scored a point with the fried wontons and two types of sauce (Chinese mustard and chili sauce) brought to us when we sat down. The wontons reminded me of Chinese tortilla chips. The wontons at YC are cut like noodles, whereas these are more square. We didn't even have to request them. Rice Cooker also offers a lunch special consisting of soup, entree, fried rice, and a fortune cookie. I of course got the Hot and Sour Soup. This was a nice preview of the rest of the meal. The soup was served VERY hot, temperature wise, not spice wise. I burned my tongue right away. Once I let the soup cool off, I was able to enjoy it. The thing I liked about this soup was the abundance of meat in there. You are lucky to find more than one piece of meat in Yen Ching's soup, not so with RC's. There was more egg and less vegetables in RC's version as well. The consistency was more thick and it had a flavor I really couldn't put my finger on. It wasn't bad, it was just different. I ordered General Tso's for my entree. Once again, it was REALLY hot temperature wise. If you burn your mouth, its your own fault. I tried to warn you. As for the flavor, I requested mine be prepared spicy hot. They were spot on with this as there was heat, but it wasn't like eating a Blazin' wing from BW's. There was just something missing flavor-wise. The sauce wasn't that thick and there were actually veggies in the sauce. I really enjoyed how they add veggies, point RC on that account.  Also scored HUGE points on the chicken. It was white meat chicken that had a very light coat of breading, this made me feel like I was eating somewhat more healthy in that it wasn't mostly breading. The fried rice was good, but YC wins in that category. The fried rice was heavy on the eggs, which is fine, but the taste reminded me of Panda Express fried rice. 

I will definitely go back again and be sure to try something different. YC wins the overall price category as it is about $3 cheaper, but RC kept me satisfied. The staff was so friendly (maybe it will get to the point where they know me by name too).  It is nice to know that I have another option for Chinese close to work and my parent's house. 

 

“With coarse rice to EAt, with water to drink, and my bent arm for a pillow -- I have still joy in the midst of all these things.” -Confucius