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This is kind of a random review, but this meal was so good, I had to share it with you. And you will know, next year, if Indy is lucky enough to have Brad Gates preparing a delivered Valentine’s Day meal again, you should totally get it. (Sometimes he does the same concept for other holidays as well).   So the way it worked was he had prepared a set menu and you could just order it to be delivered for $40 a person.   They dropped it off in little foil carry out containers with heating instructions –they were really easy to follow and not screw up.   Oh, and they brought a nice red rose too. (Keep in mind the pictures are the way I plated the food, possibly not the way he might have had in mind, and certainly not as pretty as any chef would have done I am sure.) The first course was a smoked trout and crab cake with a frissée-onion salad and mustard remoulade.   The very good sized cake was tasty—it had a lot of the smoked trout flavor to it, reminding me a little of ...

I have reviewed Brugge a couple of times, and it is a place I frequent for lunch actually, but since I almost always get the same thing—mussels and frites, doesn’t seem like I can really re-review it.   This time, I found out about something worth mentioning (even though I still got the mussels and frites—one of my favorite things) so I figured I should do a little update. The mussels were just as good as always, maybe even a little better.   I usually get the classic Provencal style which is mussels cooked with white wine, garlic, butter, shallots and lots of herbs.   This particular day we got the bonus plan on seasoning.   Every once in awhile they are under seasoned, but this time, there was a lot of seasoning which is nice, because with mussels, a lot of it falls to the bottom of the bucket (which is a great place to dip the French bread they give you along with).   The mussels only come in a two pound serving, which in my opinion is plenty f...

It was Valentine’s weekend, and we knew we were having a fancy meal on Monday, so we wanted something a bit more casual for a weekend night out.   We perused “the list” and settled on Parky’s because it was casual, we hadn’t had BBQ in awhile, and it was Saturday, so we could head to the Northside without fighting horrendous traffic. (Or so we thought, Castleton is horrible anyway; it took us like 20 minutes just to get on 465). When we pulled in, I was surprised how much this place looked like a chain from the outside (and on the inside too). Turns out, it was a former chain location that was taken over and turned into the independent Parky’s.   Everyone was very friendly to us, and our waiter knew the menu inside and out, which I appreciated—he could answer all our questions, and did so very honestly.   But when you are inside, you feel like you could be sitting in almost any mid-range chain in the country. Weird.   But you could certainly tell this was a locally o...

I have this problem.   Once I get hooked on an idea (i.e. finding the best fried chicken in the Indianapolis area), I have to keep going until I have closure.   Actually, I have a closure problem in general, but that’s another story.   I have had A LOT of people recommend Iron Skillet as the end all be all of fried chicken.   So of course, I have been itching to go. They are only open on Sundays for lunch, so we had a babysitter one day and decided to make the trek over there.   It wasn’t actually as far as I thought, only about 20 minutes or so from my house.   So this is another one of those restaurants in the genre of Hollyhock Hill and Copper Kettle where everything is family style, it is set in an old house, and basically has been serving the same stuff for decades (in Iron Skillet’s case, since 1953). So you get cottage cheese, pickled beets when you sit down (ok, this stuff doesn’t really excite me, so I am not going into details, hubby thought the c...

My sister is a Groupon addict and often buys Groupons for random restaurants all around the city, which works out well for me, because she tries places all over and when she finds one she really likes, she lets me know.   This is how we ended up at Asian Grill.   They went and liked it and then we all went together (and several of you guys had recommended it as well).   So, the first thing I noticed is that I think this may be one of maybe two or three restaurants in Indy I have been to that had a significant wait at 6:00.   Luckily we had made a reservation, so we didn’t have to wait the hour that many were waiting for a table (we did have to wait about 10-15 minutes past our reservation time).   Seriously, this place was heaving.   That always kind of gets me excited, because when you see so many people, you figure something must be good right? So this is another of the restaurants that calls itself “pan-Asian” so it can incorporate various influences fro...

You know me and New York style pizza right? So I was looking for something quick and new and kid friendly the other day for lunch and took hubby and my son to Bella Pizzeria.   This is another one of the traditional New York style places with the pizza (and calzones and breadsticks) sitting on the counter waiting to be warmed up to order. So I went with my usual (you gotta compare these kind of places right?) which is mushrooms and red onions (well, that’s what I asked for) and hubby had sausage and pepperoni and their white pizza margherita. My son had cheese (go figure, he is a man of simple tastes). I also got a couple of breadsticks, one with cheese inside and one plain. Well, my slice was served with a lot of chopped yellow onions over the top, which if I had known was going to be the case, I would have just gone with plain mushroom (which they did have already made).   The flavor of the crust was good I thought, and it was crunchy and yet bendy at the same time.   I...

Image via Wikipedia  At the request of a reader, I am once again soliciting advice on where to go for Valentine's dinner.  Since the holiday falls on a Monday this year, a day when a lot of restaurants are normally closed, I was curious to see what was available. It turns out a lot of places are opening specially for the day, and many with specially priced menus.  And what am I doing?  I am having Brad Gates Catering deliver my Valentine's dinner to my house, a tradition he started last year as part of his catering service and which I hope continues because what a great way to enjoy a great meal in the comfort of your own home (especially on a Monday!). This year's meal includes a smoked trout and crab cake, mushroom gnocchi and Gunthrop Farms Pork shoulder. Yum. A bit of research shows special Valentine's dinners at the following locations: Skyline Club 45 Degrees Smokehouse on Shelby Oceanaire  Euphoria Hue Eagles Nest Iozzo's Turner's at the Canter...

***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.**** Wow. Seriously, this was a great meal.   One of those kinds of meals that make you know that you are getting to experience food from a chef who really gets it. We hadn’t been back to Euphoria since the last visit which was marred by really off service.   And frankly, when I suggested it for this last Saturday of Devour Downtown, hubby said, “fine, but if the service is as bad as it was last time, I am never going back.”   But both the Devour menu and the regular menu looked so good, I was willing to take the chance because in the past I have always had very good food from Chef Denman. Let me start by saying just for full disclosure, I am not anonymous in the restaurant—the Chef knows who I am and always comes over to chat with us while we are there.    Our server was new to us though, and right away impressed us with his profe...

This place has been on my list for quite a while, and recently I was even scolded a bit for not having been before.    So the other day, I bribed my BFF to make the like 2 ½ hour trip out to Mooresville and back to go to Gray Brothers.   I drove and bought her lunch.   She was a bit dubious… “Erin, there is no cafeteria that can be worth this kind of drive.”   But she is used to me, and knows that once I have my mind on something, well I tend to be a pain in the ass until I make it happen. When we got there, we were happy to see the line wasn’t too long (although the fence posts in the line area sort of made me feel a little bit like cattle).   I knew I was getting the fried chicken before I walked in the door, and I did. I got one piece of white and one dark (breast and leg)(a little over $5 for both) to give them both a try.   So, in thinking about this review, I realized I need to differentiate again between the types of fried chicken.   T...