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Rosie's Place

3:35 AM | Labels: Breakfast Places, Independent Restaurants, lunch places, Noblesville, Northside Restaurant, Rosie's Place

I had to be way north the other day, so naturally my mind wandered to where I could grab lunch that was new. I thought of Rosie’s because several people have recommended it and I have read about it a couple places. I didn’t realize it was right on the square in Noblesville—right in between the Asian Grill and Matteo’s. It’s a pretty big place, and I loved all the sweets piled up as you walked in. The lady who greeted me (and was my server as well) was super nice and very friendly.

The menu is half breakfast items and half lunch—the lunch side is made up mainly of salads and sandwiches. I was torn about which way to go—honestly, everything sounded good and I am really looking forward to trying breakfast as well. Those breakfast tacos have my name on them.

So in order to try as many things as possible since I was by myself, I got a “pick two” ($7.50) and had a half sandwich and a soup—ok, and I also got a side of mac and cheese ($2.50). The sandwich I got was the roast turkey club. The sandwich was sliced turkey, bacon, slices of cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato and basil mayo. A sandwich like this can go one of two ways—it can be fine, but kind of boring, or there can be something special that sets it apart. This one was pretty special. The main thing that made it for me was the basil mayo—it was really good—and was on the sandwich in an ample amount to actually taste it with just about every bite. It added the tangy flavor that sets a sandwich like this apart (the thing that Taste does in spades). The bread was also really good too—it was fairly thick sliced wheat bread, but which was perfectly toasted and soft enough that it didn’t turn the sandwich too bready. All the main ingredients were great too, but without that little extra that came from the mayo and the great bread, it would have just been a sandwich.

I had a cup of one of the soup specials—the chicken velvet, which is a popular Hoosier specialty. I mean I assume it is served in other places, but you certainly see it in Indiana a lot. I know it was a famous item from the LS Ayres tea room, but I wonder where it was actually invented. Anyway, I have had it several places before, and this one was good—I mean this is a soup based on cream and butter that is thickened and has hunks of chicken added—it is super rich, and this was no exception, but it was well done and I was amazed with how tender the pieces of chicken were that were in there. So often with soup, because the chicken has been heated so long, it tends to get tough and stringy, but this chicken was not.

The mac and cheese is homemade, and it wasn’t bad, although it didn’t blow me away. It is a creamy sauce, although it isn’t a really saucy mac and cheese. There was also melted shredded cheese on top. I would probably add a little more seasoning to it (I added salt and pepper and then liked it a lot more) because it was a little bland on its own.

All in all, this is hearty stick to your ribs kind of food done with just the right amount of flair—when the weather is warm again, I look forward to trying one of their many salads—they sound really good as well. The ingredients being used are high quality and they are appealing to down home sensibilities, but at the same time offering some slight twists on classics. The day I was there they were offering a fried pork tenderloin sandwich as well—it looked pretty intriguing. My server was really friendly, and I left the place feeling full and like I had been well taken care of. I certainly would like to go back and try some other things. I also would love to hear other recommendations for Rosie’s or Noblesville in general if you have them.

Rosie’s Place

68 North 9^thStreet

Noblesville, IN 46060

317/770-3322

http://rosiesplace.net/

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Best Bet

3:51 AM | Labels: Best Bet, Breakfast Places, Independent Restaurants, Noblesville

Based on recommendations from readers, hubby and I headed north to Noblesville for a new breakfast spot. It was a Sunday, and there was a bit of a wait. We settled on bar seating because we looked around and realized we were going to wait a fair amount of time if we wanted a table. Hubby usually isn’t a fan of bar seating because he likes a back on his chairs, but it actually turned out nice because we got to watch them cook everything. The kitchen is really small—mainly just the area behind the bar with one large griddle on which is mainly piled their breakfast potatoes (“Ava potatoes”). The place is decorated in a gambling theme which is carried through on the menu.

So I had “The Bluff” which was 3 eggs, your choice of sausage (2 patties) or bacon (2 slices), their “Ava” potatoes and a bottomless basket of buttered wheat toast ($6.50). This is sort of a large meal for me, I would never eat three eggs at once (and only ate two on this visit), but there aren’t a lot of options for smaller breakfasts—and most of them are actually bigger than this one. So I liked the bottomless toast concept. They give you a little disc that you can turn over to one side if you want more or the other if you don’t. The toast was clearly buttered with real butter and it was nice because the toast was always fresh and hot when you wanted it.

The eggs were cooked perfectly over medium. The bacon wasn’t bad, but didn’t really stand out to me for anything—hubby had the sausage patties which they made from a ball of the fresh sausage and flattened on the grill (see how much I learned sitting at the bar?). They were much better than the bacon I thought.

So it was interesting watching them work on the potatoes the whole time—they were more like home fries, chunks of cooked potatoes that were put on the grill and continually cooked with melted butter, fresh onions and seasoning salt being added all along the way. Because I saw them when we sat down, I ordered mine well done, because I like some crunch with my potatoes—normally they are more of a soft, almost creamy consistency (with as much butter as they were putting in there, it makes sense they would be creamy.). The thing I liked was how they were using pretty pure ingredients in the food. And they accommodated me and fried them a little more right on the grill before they served them to me and they were pretty tasty. I am still a hash brown girl at heart, but I liked the crispy bits.

The other thing I really liked about the place was although it was quite busy, the owner was there, and everyone working seemed invested in the place. Our server introduced herself and asked our names when we sat down and wrote them on our check with her thank you. The owner came to us, as well as everyone else, and checked on us a couple of times. There is certainly pride in the place. The food is good, the service very good (although it takes awhile when they are busy with a kitchen that small—but it is not for lack of efficiency in the kitchen). It is a warm, family friendly breakfast spot and if it were in my neighborhood, I would probably return just because of the hospitality—and the food hit the spot too.

Best Bet

14300 Mundy Drive

Noblesville, IN 46060

317/776-1136

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The Local Eatery & Pub

3:09 AM | Labels: Noblesville, Northside Social, The Local Eatery and Pub

My Dad and I laughed on the way to the place about the fact that it was pretty much a guarantee that one of us would like this place and the other would not, since we rarely tend to agree on restaurants, but they were game for trying somewhere new with me anyway. We were on the Northside, so we figured we would check out The Local, based on a a lot of recommendations.

So it is in a strip mall at 146th and Gray Road, and is somewhat set back, which is probably somewhat of a disadvantage (and based on all the signs on the roadside saying they are open, my guess is a lot of people have no clue there is a restaurant back there). But we knew it was there, and headed in. The first thing I noticed was the entrance is somewhat disjointed from the place. There is a bar side and a restaurants side with a door somewhat in the middle that hardly looks connected to either part. But we went in and were promptly seated in the bar (I am assuming if you had a kid with you, you would be seated on the other side, although there was no one over there the day we were there).

So they sort of pride themselves on making things in house, with the exception of the tator tots that are on the menu. So we tried a variety of things. Let me start with the highlight of the meal--my Dad ordered the chicken fried pork tenderloin sandwich. It was really good. The breading a little lighter and I don't know, more loosely stuck to the meat than your usual pork tenderloin. Not so crunchy I guess. But this was a damn good sandwich. The pork itself was really tender, and as my Dad pointed out, there wasn't a single bite that was fatty or gristly at all (I only had about a quarter of the sandwich). There was a nice flavor in there too that was a little horseradish-y almost. Not sure if they seasoned up the mayo a bit, but the sandwich had just a tiny bit of a kick. It was served on a properly portioned soft bun with lettuce and red onion. It was well done.

Mom and I split the fried chicken drumsticks and the mushroom and goat cheese flat bread as well as some of their hand cut fries. Interestingly, there were wings and the drumsticks on the menu, and they first brought us an order of the wings by mistake which we sent back. But the drumsticks were way larger than the wings, and looked so much better (although I didn't try the wings). They were regular sized legs that were fried and rolled in sauce, much like wings (we got the regular barbecue sauce) but were nice because they were so much bigger. There were 5 of them on the plate (even though the picture only shows 4). The meat was maybe a touch dry, but the sauce was flavorful, with a smoky flavor with just a touch of heat. They need to give you some wet wipes with these though--eating barbecue sauce coated chicken legs makes for some serious sticky fingers. But would I order them again? Not with that tenderloin as an option.

The big disappointment of the day was the flatbread. Honestly, we thought it was pretty bad. The crust was that thin cracker-type crust which can be good when done right, but this one was really soft under the toppings and really hard on the edges. And the "sauce" on the flatbread was basically a caramelized onion paste that was spread around on the crust. It was topped with dollops of goat cheese and slices of what seemed like completely raw shitake mushrooms. This thing just did not come together at all for me. The whole thing wasn't warm enough, and the mushrooms should have been cooked. Preferably like sauteed with some seasonings beforehand---especially if you are using this kind of a mushroom--they were really dense. The toppings over all just came across as too dry. I don't know how you would fix this, as there were so many things going wrong with it in my mind. My mom agreed and refused to even take the leftovers home (my parents are big leftover people).

The fries were handmade and had a nice flavor--they were maybe just a little soft for me, but on the whole, I liked them. But again, a place only serving ketchup alongside, which seems uninspired to me.

I guess I didn't expect quite so many bar food type things on the menu---from what people were telling me, I was expecting something a little more fresh food oriented or something, and less of all the deep fried stuff. But the tenderloin was good, worth ordering again (and with the fries).

The Local Eatery & Pub
14655 Gray Road
Noblesville, IN 46062
317/218-3786
http://www.localeateryandpub.com/

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Asian Grill

3:33 AM | Labels: Asian, Chinese restaurants, Independent Restaurants, kid friendly, lunch places, Noblesville, Northside Restaurant, Vietnamese

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 from various cuisines. They offer dishes that are Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Indian and Cambodian. This seems to be a popular thing right now, and if it is being done well, it is sort of nice to have lots of different things to choose from.

We sat down at our table (which was unfortunately very close to the door which was opening quite frequently and which made for a very chilly spot--a curtain in front of the door might be nice) but we were just happy that we had a table! We started with some apps—the crab wontons, the vegetable samosas, and the Thai beef salad.

My favorite of the apps was the samosas ($4.75). There were two decent sized fried patties filled with seasoned potatoes (Indian spices) and some mixed veggies. They were very hot and crispy and served with extremely fresh tasting cilantro chutney. These are the kind of Indian flavors I like—especially the bright cilantro dip on top. The crab wontons ($5.95) were a little different from most I had though because they were large triangles of wontons that were deep fried. They were exceptionally hot when they came out of the kitchen. Hubby likes these and was happy to have someone to agree to share them with him, since I usually refuse because they aren’t my favorite thing to order. They were served with a thin, sweet sauce. For crab wontons, they were good and hubby quite enjoyed them.

Crab Wontons

My least favorite thing was the Thai beef salad ($5.50) which I normally really like, but not in this case. It is a cold beef salad, and the beef was actually tasty and tender, but the vegetables it was served with were pretty much all raw red and green pepper chunks, which are not my favorite thing to eat by the forkful. In the past, I have had this served with lettuce and pickled red onions which I preferred. It is described on the menu as being in red wine vinaigrette, but it seemed a bit sweeter than that to me.

Thai Beef Salad

We got three entrées and shared them. They are really good sized, and in my opinion you could share one between 2 people. Anyway, we had the Lok Lak Beef, the Orange Chicken, and Red Pepper Shrimp. Actually, the main dishes were all good. The Lok Lak Beef ($14.25) is Cambodian in origin and was large chunks of sirloin that were sautéed. The edges were slightly crispy from what was probably caramelization of the marinade when the pieces of beef were sautéed. It was served over sliced onions and with a side of cucumbers, lettuce and tomatoes. The beef was really tender, and had a nice flavor of garlic that combined with the onions was really good. This is a Cambodian variation of the Vietnamese Shaking Beef (speaking of which, I ran across the recipe online for the Slanted Door’s version—which was one of my favorites in San Francisco. Thought I would share here.) Anyway, I would certainly order this again.

Lok Lak Beef

My brother-in-law ordered the orange chicken ($12.50), which is something I never would have ordered on my own, because if just sounds too sweet, but this dish was quite good, and wasn’t as sweet as I would have thought. It is described as having an orange pulp infused sauce—and while it was somewhat sweet, it did maintain a bit of the tangy flavor of the orange as well. The pieces of chicken were white meat and were lightly battered and fried and pleasantly tender.

Red Pepper Shrimp

The pepper shrimp were also good ($14.50), although a little dry (as in, without sauce). They were even more lightly breaded than the chicken and sort of dry fried and served with toasty peanuts, green onions, and red chilies. The shrimp were a nice size and were cooked very well and were seasoned with black pepper. All the dishes came with three types of rice—white rice, fried rice and seasoned Indian-style rice. They were all good—the rice was a bit sticky, which is how I prefer it.

I have read some complaints about service, and I have to say, other than waiting past our reservation time to be seated, I was surprised with how good the service was. They were certainly very busy, but we did not wait long for anything once we were seated. We all really enjoyed the experience and I would say we will certainly be back. I know some of you will say, how “authentic” is any of it? But honestly, who am I to say what is authentic or not, when I have never been to Asia? Much of it tasted good, and that is what I go by.

Asian Grill

74 North 9^th Street

Noblesville, IN 46060

317/773-9990

www.asiangrillindy.com

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Matteo's Ristorante Italiano

3:33 AM | Labels: Independent Restaurants, Italian Restaurants, Matteo's, Noblesville, Northside Restaurant, outdoor seating

With all the ringing endorsements for Matteo's the other day here on my blog, how could I not get over there and give it a try? As I often do with Italian, I invited several of my family members to go with us so I could try lots of things and because they tend not to be as jaded as I am about Italian food in Indy.

Matteo’s is in Noblesville right on the square—it is a very quaint and attractive location both outside and in. The interior feels warm and like it has been there a long time, although not in a cheesy kind of way. The room is much larger than I would expect from the outside and features tin ceilings and décor that makes you feel like you are in a nice restaurant, but not so nice that anyone would feel uncomfortable regardless of what they are wearing. Our server was exceptionally friendly and helpful, and although told us at one point she was one of the newer servers there, she seemed confident in her job, yet still easy going with us.

We started with several appetizers to share, the fried calamari, the pizza margherita, and the

olive “all’ascolana.” The calamari was your typical fried calamari with both rings and leggy pieces and was served with marinara for dipping. I found the rings to be too chewy to be enjoyable, but the leggy bits were better. Overall though, this is not something I would order again.

The pizza was pretty good—everyone at the table seemed to enjoy it. Everyone also commented on how large it was (it was really like a regular pizza size and it had quite a bit of cheese and sauce). I don’t think anyone ate more than one piece though, because if you did, you very well might not want anything else. There were six of us so it was a great thing to try with that large of a group, but for fewer people, unless you want to make it your meal with a salad, it would probably be too much. It was a homemade thin crust pizza that had been grilled and topped with marinara, cheese and a bit of basil. The crust was nice and crunchy. There was more cheese on there than I expected, but again, it was quite enjoyable.

Finally we had the olive “all’ascolana” which were large green olives stuffed with ground veal and deep fried and served with Alfredo sauce. My Dad and I were both intrigued with these (I get my love of green olives from him, and my love of black olives from Mom) because we both love olives so much and this was an unusual preparation. The thing I liked about them is they were almost like a meatball in some ways, but the olive kept them a bit moister and gave them the salty/tangy kick you get from an olive. If I am not mistaken, there was a bit of cheese stuffed in there with the veal as well. You definitely needed something to dip them in, but I am not sure if the Alfredo was the right choice. A little too rich for me. These were overall quite interesting, and I enjoyed them because they were different, but would I order them again? I am not sure.

We all got different entrées, and I tried as many of them as I could. I had the seafood special which was Corvina fish served over seasoned rice with a light cream sauce, artichokes, olives and tomatoes. Corvina is a fairly firm white fish. In this presentation it was pan seared and was cooked very well. It was tender and flaky and I really enjoyed it. The cream sauce was light and buttery and not over the top—I loved the flavor of the artichokes and olives and tomatoes to get that acidic kick that I always enjoy, but it was all well balanced with the slight richness of the sauce. I liked that large high quality olives were used in the sauce, not just green and black salad olives. These were large kalamatas and maybe cerignolas? Anyway, they were large enough; they had to be cut in half in the preparation, which I also liked because you got just the right amount in each bite. I didn’t eat a lot of the rice (I am not a huge rice pilaf person) but what I did have was nice and tender and mildly seasoned.

Hubby had the “Tortellini Matteo’s” which apparently has won some local awards throughout the years for best pasta in Indy. These were your classic tortellini stuffed with cheese, and covered in a light cream sauce with ham, mushrooms, onion and parmesan cheese. Hubby was very pleased with these and found them very tasty. I had several bites of his as well and liked the ham and onion flavor imparted in the sauce, and the fact that the sauce just lightly coated all the pasta, and that it wasn’t totally swimming in it. Just enough to give it a nice flavor and texture, but not overwhelm the cheese flavor in the pasta. It was hearty and good. Hubby thought it was one of the best tortellini dishes he has had in Indy, but I don’t know that I would say it was the best pasta in Indy.

My sister, who was sitting on the opposite side of me, had the filet mignon baked in puff pastry

and served with a garlic, roasted pine nut and gorgonzola cream sauce. The steak was cooked very nicely medium rare, although she ordered it medium. She didn’t care, because she likes both (and I was happy because I prefer medium rare). The steak was nice. I liked the puff pastry as well, the bite I had had a decent crispiness to it. The sauce being served on the side was probably for the best, or the whole thing would have gotten too soggy. I only got a bit of the sauce on my bite, but my sister said it had a decent garlic and gorgonzola flavor to it.

My Mom had another one of the day’s specials that sounded very intriguing and I was glad she got it. It was crepes stuffed with pears and asiago cheese and covered in a very light cheese sauce. It was very unique, and while at first it almost sounded like a dessert to me, once I tasted it, it still had a soft savory flavor to it. It was quite delicate, but really quite good. I don’t know if I could have eaten a whole order of it myself, but I certainly enjoyed the bites I had.

My Dad had the veal picatta which I probably had the least amount of. He enjoyed it and said he thought the portion was very generous and that the lemon sauce was nice. We both right away missed the capers that were not present, and I think they would have made this dish better. The bite I had was okay, but probably my least favorite thing on the table. The sauce had the right buttery/lemony flavor, but some capers would have brought it together.

Of course, even though we had had way too much food, we had to try dessert, mainly because we had seen other servers making bananas foster tableside and we all agreed we needed to try it. The lady who made it (the hostess maybe?) was quite charming and explained that she had only lit one person on fire the entire time she had done it. And as it happened, that man was sitting at the table next to us, so obviously having his shoe set on fire did not deter him from returning. She first made caramel sauce, then sautéed the bananas in it and flambéed it all with several types of liqueur and served it over vanilla ice cream. I appreciated the fact that they made what was meant to be a serving for two people into a small individual serving for each of us. The one universal thing that everyone commented on was that they liked this dish (Dad said he only wished they kept the ice cream cold while cooking he rest because it was kind of mushy by the time we got it).

So in conclusion, I thank you guys who have been telling me to go to Matteo’s, as we had a nice meal. Matteo’s does a great job with ambiance and service for sure and that alone would likely lure me back. Food-wise, I would say it is certainly better than a lot of the Italian places in Indy that I have been. However, I still think based on my experiences to date; Indy is lacking a truly outstanding Italian place.

Matteo’s Ristorante Italiano
40 North 9th Street
Noblesville, IN 46060
317/774-9771
www.matteosindy.com

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Matteo's Ristorante Italiano

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