I was excited to go to Midtown because I had heard rumors that Chef Neal Brown was working with Midtown on their menu. (Heard it in a comment on my own blog as well as on The Dish.) I have always enjoyed Midtown but in the 3 years since I have lived here, I hadn’t seen the menu really change and I get bored with menus that don’t change.
Once we sat down and I saw the menu, it was obvious that it had changed—there were several new items as well as certain classic items (many of which I had had before and enjoyed). I still have no idea if Chef Brown has helped on the menu, but it has certainly changed. Some of the classics that remained were the spinach artichoke dip, the calamari appetizer and the steak Dijon which is flambéed tableside. I have had the calamari and the steak before and have really enjoyed them. Since we were with friends, we decided to get the spinach artichoke dip as we had never had it here. It was really tasty with really big chunks of artichoke and a creamy sauce that wasn’t over the top, the spinach was clearly fresh, but it was just a few leaves draped over the top of the plate and wilted, so it didn’t add much (a little more would be good I think).
For my appetizer, I ordered the mussels. I was pretty sure these were new on the menu and I am sure if you read my blog, you know how much I love mussels. While the garlic sauce was really tasty, the mussels had that same problem that so many do in this town, in that they must have been previously frozen as they had that weird soft consistency. (I learned that that consistency means previously frozen right here on my blog from one of my readers—I love you guys!) If that really is the thing that causes this problem, I am asking all restaurants in Indianapolis to take the mussels off the menu if you are keeping them frozen in the back. Please! If you can’t sell enough to keep them fresh, don’t bother. Like I said, the broth was really tasty, and would’ve been great with fresh mussels, but with these mushy things, not so much.
There were several pasta dishes on the menu, and here is a big shout out to whoever had the idea to offer half sized portions at a reduced cost! Hallelujah! I have been asking for that forever! Someone has figured out that not everyone wants to eat a bowl of pasta that could serve 6 by themselves. I rarely order pasta for this reason, but with this option, I decided to give it a go. I tried the eggplant ravioli with spinach and mushrooms and truffle oil. The pasta wasn’t bad, but it was a little dense for me, the eggplant flavor was nice and I liked that it wasn’t just your usual cream and/or tomato sauce. But the mushrooms on this dish (and they were the same ones that were on hubby’s steak) were just not very good. They were too saturated in whatever they had been cooked in, tasted a bit like stew, and overpowered the dishes. And mushrooms are usually one of my favorite things. These were bordering on slimy. If there was truffle there, I wasn’t really tasting it, but that could have been because of the mushrooms. But the half portion was spot on size-wise for me.
Hubby overall enjoyed his New York strip steak, save for those mushrooms. It had a nice thyme butter on top and was cooked perfectly. I had a bite without the mushrooms and it was delicious. It also came with super thin potato strings which were really thin and tasty.
They also kept the classic white chocolate brownie dessert on the menu, which I have never ordered before even though my dentist swears by it, because I thought it had white chocolate in it (go figure) which isn’t my fave. However, I finally found out (because our server told us so) that it was actually a blondie—i.e., the brownie was white, but the chocolate chips are actually regular dark chocolate. It is served with ice cream on top. It was really good! They need to call this what it is, a blondie with ice cream. We also tried a banana thingamabob (can you tell I can’t remember what it was called exactly) which was pretty good, but couldn’t touch the brownie.
I like Midtown, it has one of the nicest outdoor seating areas around (particularly for Broad Ripple), a nice interior, and we usually always have great service. I am glad to see they are working on revamping the menu, but I certainly think it needs a bit more tweaking to get it just right. Particularly if it isn’t going to change again for 3 years.
Midtown Grill
815 East Westfield Blvd.
Indy 46220
317-253-1141
www.midtown-grill.com
Once we sat down and I saw the menu, it was obvious that it had changed—there were several new items as well as certain classic items (many of which I had had before and enjoyed). I still have no idea if Chef Brown has helped on the menu, but it has certainly changed. Some of the classics that remained were the spinach artichoke dip, the calamari appetizer and the steak Dijon which is flambéed tableside. I have had the calamari and the steak before and have really enjoyed them. Since we were with friends, we decided to get the spinach artichoke dip as we had never had it here. It was really tasty with really big chunks of artichoke and a creamy sauce that wasn’t over the top, the spinach was clearly fresh, but it was just a few leaves draped over the top of the plate and wilted, so it didn’t add much (a little more would be good I think).
For my appetizer, I ordered the mussels. I was pretty sure these were new on the menu and I am sure if you read my blog, you know how much I love mussels. While the garlic sauce was really tasty, the mussels had that same problem that so many do in this town, in that they must have been previously frozen as they had that weird soft consistency. (I learned that that consistency means previously frozen right here on my blog from one of my readers—I love you guys!) If that really is the thing that causes this problem, I am asking all restaurants in Indianapolis to take the mussels off the menu if you are keeping them frozen in the back. Please! If you can’t sell enough to keep them fresh, don’t bother. Like I said, the broth was really tasty, and would’ve been great with fresh mussels, but with these mushy things, not so much.
There were several pasta dishes on the menu, and here is a big shout out to whoever had the idea to offer half sized portions at a reduced cost! Hallelujah! I have been asking for that forever! Someone has figured out that not everyone wants to eat a bowl of pasta that could serve 6 by themselves. I rarely order pasta for this reason, but with this option, I decided to give it a go. I tried the eggplant ravioli with spinach and mushrooms and truffle oil. The pasta wasn’t bad, but it was a little dense for me, the eggplant flavor was nice and I liked that it wasn’t just your usual cream and/or tomato sauce. But the mushrooms on this dish (and they were the same ones that were on hubby’s steak) were just not very good. They were too saturated in whatever they had been cooked in, tasted a bit like stew, and overpowered the dishes. And mushrooms are usually one of my favorite things. These were bordering on slimy. If there was truffle there, I wasn’t really tasting it, but that could have been because of the mushrooms. But the half portion was spot on size-wise for me.
Hubby overall enjoyed his New York strip steak, save for those mushrooms. It had a nice thyme butter on top and was cooked perfectly. I had a bite without the mushrooms and it was delicious. It also came with super thin potato strings which were really thin and tasty.
They also kept the classic white chocolate brownie dessert on the menu, which I have never ordered before even though my dentist swears by it, because I thought it had white chocolate in it (go figure) which isn’t my fave. However, I finally found out (because our server told us so) that it was actually a blondie—i.e., the brownie was white, but the chocolate chips are actually regular dark chocolate. It is served with ice cream on top. It was really good! They need to call this what it is, a blondie with ice cream. We also tried a banana thingamabob (can you tell I can’t remember what it was called exactly) which was pretty good, but couldn’t touch the brownie.
I like Midtown, it has one of the nicest outdoor seating areas around (particularly for Broad Ripple), a nice interior, and we usually always have great service. I am glad to see they are working on revamping the menu, but I certainly think it needs a bit more tweaking to get it just right. Particularly if it isn’t going to change again for 3 years.
Midtown Grill
815 East Westfield Blvd.
Indy 46220
317-253-1141
www.midtown-grill.com
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