96^th Street Steakburgers
Indianapolis Airport Location
http://www.96thstreetsteakburgers.com/index.cfm

Let’s face it, a good burger is difficult to beat. There is no greater disparity between two things of the same name than a good burger and a bad burger.   I haven’t talked about 96^th Street Steakburgers since I first reviewed it in April of 2009.   People left a good amount of comments and I discovered you either love it or hate it.

What I Ate:  Double  Steakburger Combo; about $6.50

Toasted bun, awesome pickle, crunchy lettuce, cheese, tomato and secret sauce.  It is a great burger.  Nothing fancy, just consistent and always amazing.  I really enjoyed the pickles and the crispy edges on the burger.  They offer a triple, but I think that the double is the perfect ratio.

I originally ripped the milkshake, but it has grown on me.  I am not sure I would say if it is the best in the city, but if you say it is your favorite, I would not argue with you.

Would I Buy It Again?  Yes.  This is easily my favorite burger in the city under $8 and I might go as far as saying that it my favorite in the city regardless of price. I go there about once a month.  Before you start bitching about the fries, I like those too.  My wife has tried the Taco Burger and The Southwest and both of those are phenomenal as well.

I also think that it is a great value.   A $5.00 combo meal from McDonald’s or this?   Not even close my friends.  They had a Crusader Deals Coupon and when Crusader Deals went out of business and they still honored my coupon.  Awesome customer service as well.

I am repeating myself, but I really, really enjoy the burger here.

-wibia

Imperial Palace
5510 Lafayette Road
Indianapolis, Indiana 46254
http://www.imperialpalacechinese.com/

Indianapolis has some exceptional ethnic food; however, Chinese food is one of the weaker links.  I am always trying to find a place that elevates beyond the strip mall China Garden #98 type of place that has coupons on the menu.   I check Yelp and Urbanspoon form time to time and the ratings for Imperial Palace were rather high and it was consistent that this is not your average strip mall Chinese restaurant.  Erin form Indianapolis Restaurant Scene joined my wife and me to investigate.

What I Ate:  Hot and Sour Soup, General Tso Chicken, Yum Yum Chicken.  All on the lunch menu at around $6.00.

The lunch menu is somewhat limited.  There are about twelve choices, most of them chicken or veggie dishes.   When looking through the menu, it looked like every other run of the mill Chinese place.  I decided to start off with Hot and Sour Soup (see above).

It is a huge portion of soup and served really hot (temperature).  The soup was too thick for my taste and too peppery.  It wasn’t horrible, but I would never order it again.

Next up was General Tso Chicken. I would usually not order this to judge a Chinese place on, but since I could try two other things, and it sounded good at the time, I figured why not?  Way too much sauce and it reminded me of something that you could get at Panda Express. Next..

My wife tried the Yum Yum chicken.  We asked the owner what it was and he said, “it is very yummy.” Gotcha.  He was actually right.   This is a really good version of what you would get on a toothpick in the Castleton Mall Food Court.   The chicken was lightly fried and reminded me of a Bourbon Chicken.

Would I Buy it Again?   No.  The owner was very charismatic and seemed like a nice little family place. I have had worse, but I have had better.   One a ten point scale, I would give it a six because it is clean and I enjoyed the service (including the Sinatra soundtrack).   It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t the authentic experience that I was looking for.

-wibia

Taj Mahal Indian Cuisine & Sweet Shop
14096 Trade Center Drive
Fishers, Indiana 46038

In 2013, I’ve given up meat (I still eat seafood).  Yes, considering my history of meat gluttony on this blog, that is a strange decision.  The reason I’ve done it though is not because I’m against meat or for any particular health reasons, but more to challenge myself to see if I can actually stick to it.  It’s a small battle against myself to see if I still have the will power to stick to any sort of decision I’ve made.

Anyway, since I am abstaining from meat, it’s tough to find places that have non-meat dishes outside of the typical salads, fried vegetables or pastas.  There is one kind of cuisine that is different though and that is Indian cuisine.  Over half the Indian population is vegetarian, so there are a lot of flavorful varieties of food to choose from since they have to come up with varieties with which to feed their culture.  Plus, I like Indian food, so I wanted to give this place a shot as it is under new ownership with a new name (there had been two previous iterations of Indian food restaurants at this exact same site, one of which made me violently ill).

Now, seeing that this place had “Sweet Shop” in the name kind of made me laugh, but sure enough, my first sight when I entered the restaurant was this big deli case of sweets (I didn’t get a wide angle shot because I didn’t want to look too creepy marching in here and snapping pictures).  I didn’t get any sweets on this trip, but maybe I will some time in the future.

What I Got:  Saag Paneer; $8.95.  Saag Paneer is an entree, according to the menu, that is “Cooked with green spinach, green mustard, broccoli and cabbage with onions, ginger and ricotta cheese with Indian Spices” (Paneer is cheese and Saag is spinach).

As you can see, it’s also served with a rice concoction that pretty much resembles vegetable fried rice like you’d get at a typical Chinese restaurant.  As for the Saag Paneer, it’s certainly not going to win any beauty contests as it was just a container full of green, spinach-smelling sludge.  If you believe the statement that states that you eat with your eyes, well, this didn’t look very appetizing.

I do have limited experience with Indian food, so I know that Indian food sometimes isn’t the most attractive thing in the world, but that gets made up for with the flavor of the dishes and this Saag Paneer was no different.  The Saag combination was more creamy than anything and certainly had a nice kick to it (I got it at medium spice level, so I can only imagine what hot would have been).  The potent flavor of the onions, ginger and other Indian spices (I want to say they at least included garlic and cumin, which is typical) certainly had a nose clearing tendency.  That potent kick when mixed with what turned out to be a creamy spinach mixture was a solid flavor combination.  The only thing that was odd about this dish was the paneer itself.  The cubes of cheese were almost tofu like in that while they maintained their shape, when you bit into them, they basically disintegrated in your mouth like you were letting the air out of a balloon, which was certainly different.  It definitely was not anything like your Super Bowl party tray cheese cube, that is for sure.  That said, the flavor was fine and salty, but just the texture of it was different.

The rice was pretty much as you’d expect and provided something nice to mix with the Saag Paneer.  I won’t spend much time on it other than that since it wouldn’t be worth my time to get too descriptive.

Would I Buy It Again?  Yeah, I suppose I would.  This certainly was not wonderful by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a decent  meal with a very large portion that would definitely fill a person up.  If I had to compare this to something American-ized, I would say that this sort of reminded me of the creamed spinach that you can get at Boston Market and since that is my favorite thing at Boston Market, that is a compliment for this Saag Paneer.  Assuming my vegetarian quest/challenge continues, if I order this again, I think I’ll drop the Paneer and just stick with the Saag.  One other positive aspect of this experience was that this did not make me sick like one of the previous Indian iterations in this location did and that is ALWAYS a positive.

-IndianapolisEater

Szechwan Garden
3649 Lafayette Road
Indianapolis, IN 46222

I will admit, part of me wants to move to Lafayette Square because of the food.  I was desperately looking for an authentic experience and my pal Erin at Indianapolis Restaurant Scene mentioned Szechwan Garden.  It was a rainy Tuesday night and there were only about four tables occupied.  This place is huge: they have to be able to seat two hundred easily.  The menu was equally as huge.  There are probably over three hundred items on the menu. Many of the items are pretty adventures: chicken feet, pig intestines, you name it.

What I Got:  Dumplings; $4.00. Salt and Pepper Seafood; $12.00. Beef Chow Fun; $8.00.

The pork dumplings were served in a somewhat spicy, oily sauce.  The flavor was exceptional and the dumplings were cooked perfectly.  There were a lot of sesame seeds in the sauce and I thought that added a bit of texture to the dish.

The Beef Chow Fun was flat and thick rice noodles.   I thought that this dish was a touch bland, but really well done.  I was really impressed with the quality of the beef and would definitely order more beef dishes when I return.

The Salt and Pepper Trio was awesome; fried shrimp, scallops, and squid. There was a thin covering of breading that lived up to the “salt” part of the name. The garnish was red pepper, green onion and bread crumbs.   The seafood was perfectly fried and one of the best single dishes I have had in a while.  Really simple, but really good.

Would I Buy It Again?   Yes, in fact, I can’t wait until I go again. I would hate to give the award of best Chinese in the city after one meal, but will say that this was the best meal I have had in a while.  There are so many new things to try that I can’t imagine that I will get sick of it.   The service was friendly and proud.  Stop reading and go right now.

-wibia

We The Pizza
305 Pennsylvania Ave SE
Washington, DC 20003
www.wethepizza.com

In my opinion, Washington, D.C. is known for tapas that were made popular in the city by Jose Andres.  However, if you want a slice of pie, then you want a slice of pie.   We The Pizza is a restaurant by Top Chef 2008 fan favorite, Spike Mendelsohn (the guy with the fedora).  It is right next to his burger place, Good Stuff Eatery.

We stopped in at lunch and it was a weekday and not that busy.  I think that we were the first customers in the restaurant.   The décor is nothing to talk about and it was just a normal pizza line with homemade sodas.

What I Ate:  Pizza; all slices were $4.00.

*Wild Forest Mushrooms, Truffles, Mozz, Fresh Thyme.  Sounds good right?   It was.   I would rarely ever say this, but there was almost too many mushrooms on it.

*Free Range Chicken, Chicken Andouille Sausage, Our Tomato Sauce, Caramelized Onions, Mozz & Cajun Seasonings.   I tend to stay away from novelty pizzas, but this one looked good, and it was.

*Cheese.  I didn’t order this, nor would I ever order just cheese.   However, I have learned to compromise in relationships.

*Chicken, banana pepper and red onion.  Exactly how you would imagine this to taste.   Good, but I tend to focus more on traditional options.

Would I Buy It Again?  If it was here in Indy, sure.   However, I wouldn’t go out of the way for it.  I have been to plenty of celebrity chef restaurants and they are usually let down.  There were creative combinations and the pizza was good, but it wouldn’t make anyone famous.

-wibia

Keystone Sports Review
5602 N. Keystone Avenue
Indianapolis, Indiana 46220

This is my second visit to KSR and I surely thought that I wrote about my first visit, but I did not. I had the special that day for lunch, a tenderloin club. Basically, take a club sandwich and replace the ham with a fried pork tenderloin. I wish that I had a picture of it somewhere. It was awesome and one of the better tenderloins that I have ever tasted.

Anyway, we dropped in for dinner on a weeknight and I was really looking forward to my return visit. For a random Thursday night without a key basketball game, it was pretty busy. I was worried about how they were doing as it was notoriously known as a heavy smoking bar, but the smoking ban appears to have very little effect on business.

What I Ate: Half order of breaded mushrooms; $3.49. Their Famous Wings (20 piece bucket); $11. Fish sandwich; $7.00

If someone asked me where the best breaded mushrooms are in town, I would easily say Sahm’s. Now, I have to say Sahm’s and KSR. These mushrooms were perfect. Hand breaded, friend and served with ranch. They were pretty salty and didn’t’ require additional seasoning. The batter-to-mushroom ratio is dead on. Their ranch dressing is good as well and I believe that it is homemade, but I will admit that I prefer the horseradish sauce that Sahm’s serves with their mushrooms. I am sure they would swap out the ranch for any other sauce that they have.

KSR is known for their wings. I love wings, I really do. As much as I have enjoyed some of the finest food on this earth, you just can’t beat good fried chicken, pizza and burritos. KSR offers about eight different sauces with their wings, I decided to go with hot and the dry rub.

Out of the two, I preferred the dry rub, but it was close. Catch me tomorrow and I would prefer the hot wings. To my taste, the dry rub has a good amount of seasoned salt in it, if that is not your thing, then stay away. The sauce on the hot wings were as advertised. Spicy, but didn’t detonate your taste buds. I always think that hot wing sauce either slants to tobacco or Frank’s Red Hot and I think that these slant more towards some of the hot sauces that are Louisiana based. I could be wrong, but just what I was picking up. The wings were some of the meatiest that I have had in a while as well. For the price, you can’t beat this.

The bleu cheese dressing is among the finest in the city. It is the thickest bleu cheese that I have ever run into and it is perfect.

My fiancée tried the fish sandwich. I specifically asked if it was battered in house and it was. Fried fish on a hoagie road with that awesome batter form the mushrooms. It was a great piece of thick and meaty fish. She ordered the fries and we both wish they were a little crispier, but they reminded me of what you would get at Penn Station. However, the fries were hand cut andwe  appreciated that.

Would I Buy It Again? Yes, easily. I will start every meal off at KSR with the mushrooms. I wouldn’t argue with anyone if they said that KSR has the best wings in the city as I think that you would be hard pressed to find a bigger meatier wing at that price point. Use this rule, if it goes in the deep fryer, get it.

The bottom line is, KSR is a hole in the wall bar with homemade food. They could easily take everything out of a frozen bag and half ass it, but they don’t. The service staff is friendly and they take pride in their food. It might not be a place that I would take a first date, but if you want something fried and a cold bucket of Miller High Life, this is your place.

-wibia

Bakersfield Mass Ave
334 Massachusetts Avenue
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204
http://www.bakersfieldmassave.com/

Bakersfield Mass Ave opened in the last month and I had to try it out.  Mostly because if there is any restaurant that mirrors me, it is Bakersfield.   Tacos, whiskey and outlaw music.  The restaurant is in the former Bazbeaux space on Mass Ave.   Saturday night wait was around 25 minutes and it was packed.

During the wait, I went straight to the bar.    After standing there for about 5 minutes without being acknowledged, I decided to try the bar downstairs.   Downstairs, the bartender acknowledged me, but then decided to do other things for the next 5 minutes.   I walked away and sent my fiancée, as I have learned that blondes can get drinks from male bartenders a lot quicker than guys.   We had drinks within two minutes.

What I Ate:

The limited menu is based around food that you can use your hands with.  Chips and dips, tortas and tacos.   We ordered Chips and Queso; $5.00 (picture above).

I though the queso was good and tended to be more authentic than most.  However, it lacked the creamy consistency of the white cheese that you might be familiar with at the El Rodeo/La Hacienda-style restaurants of the world. I really liked it when we added some of the red and green salsa on the table to the queso to bring some smokiness of the red salsa or the fresh cilantro taste of the green salsa.   The chips were strong enough for dipping, but not as stiff as a dancing Carlton.  (Fresh Prince fans got that…)

Time for tacos.  Mole; $4.00, Fish; $4.00, Rajas; $5.00.

The mole taco was my favorite.   White meat chicken, pickled red onions, queso fresco and cilantro.  The chicken had a wonderful smoky flavor.  I would’ve liked this a little bit better with dark meat, but I know that I am probably in the minority.

The fish taco is fried fish, with a crispy slaw.  I liked the flavors of this, but the fish was not crispy as advertised.

The Rajas taco was the least successful.  Poblano, fresno,  and bell peppers, ejotes (green beans), queso fresco, and cilantro.   I am not sure if this was made correctly.  It mentioned cheese, but there was very little on the taco itself.  It was in desperate need of cream or cheese.

The Short Rib Torta ($9.00) was quite good.  Braised short rib, caramelized onion, Chihuahua cheese, arugula, black beans, roasted tomatillo salsa.   I couldn’t taste the black beans at all.  The arugula added pepper to the sandwich.  I really liked the bread and that it was toasted a bit.    It wasn’t uniquely Mexican, but it was a winner.

Would I Buy It Again?   Sure.  I would like a lot more torta options, especially since I thought the short rib torta was by far and away the best dish of the night.  The tacos are not the best or worst that I have had.

Though I didn’t spend a lot of time on drinks, they make a good margarita and have the best variety of bourbons in town.  I appreciated the soundtrack of Allman Brothers, Old Crowe Medicine Show, and liked Calpton’s “Blues Power.”

If you are looking for a place to throw down some whiskey or $2.00 PBR, grab some chips and salsa with a young crowd, welcome home.   If you are looking for an epicurean experience in authentic Mexican street food for your date night, hop along cowboy.

-wibia

Cook’s Pizza
14300 Mundy Drive #700
Noblesville, Indiana 46060
http://mycookspizza.com/

I’ve recently moved after spending close to a decade in the same place, so as part of my move, I’ve been exploring the restaurants in my area.  One of those places is a local pizza joint called Cook’s Pizza.  They were established in 1971, but being that the strip shopping center that they are in has definitely not been around since 1971, it’s definitely not their original location.  Anyway, a craving for pizza (and a recommendation from a friend) let me to give them a shot on a recent Sunday Night.

What I Got:  Medium Margarita Mani pizza; $12.00.

What better thing to order from a pizza joint with an American sounding name than a classic Margarita pizza, right?  LOL.  Anyway, joking aside, Cook’s Margarita Mani was described as being topped with basil, tomato, mozzarella and garlic (obviously the crust and tomato sauce are included as well) and I can confirm all those were there, although I was a bit disappointed by the lack of garlic and the basil was a bit more diced up than I would have expected.  That said, I was impressed with the amount of freshly diced tomatoes that were spread throughout (you can see some big chunks in my picture).  There was a lot more crust here than I expected, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

When I took my first bite, I wasn’t particularly impressed.  Don’t get me wrong, that’s not a bad thing, but nothing about this pizza made my socks want to jump off my feet.  The sauce, while thick and hearty, was not particularly sweet at all and since I love tomato sauces to trend toward the sweet side, that was slightly disappointing.  The garlic and basil, while somewhat noticeable when you got a piece in your bite, was mostly bland through the pizza.   The two things that were better than average and not bland with this pizza were the crust, the cheese and the diced tomatoes.  The crust was soft and spongy and that was kind of fun to chew through.  After I flipped it over, I noticed that it seemed to have just a slight dusting of pepper in it too, so that brought a little flavor that I wasn’t expecting as well.  It’s spongy quality also made it great for dipping as well, which was kind of fun.

Now, to the other better than average part…the cheese.  This cheese congealed in a way that made it almost creamy and made it delicious.  A lot of times, especially at fast pizza places (Papa John’s, etc.), the cheese can get oily, salty and just plain gross.  Cook’s mozzarella did not do that and I certainly appreciated it.  In fact, it was the cheese that made this entire pizza for me because I very much enjoyed it.  The last part that made this pizza better than boring were the diced tomatoes and I can’t say that I’d had that on a lot of pizzas in my life and it brought a level of freshness to the pizza that I don’t typically see.  Combining those three components together saved this pizza from a life of mediocrity.

Would I Buy It Again?  Yes, I would.  While it was only slightly above average pizza in the grand scheme of life, it was certainly better than a typical delivery joint.  There are some things that I wish were different about this pizza, but the performance of this was good enough that I’m willing to order from Cook’s again to see if perhaps I can find a better pizza.  If I can’t do that, I at least know that this Margarita Mani will do just fine.

-IndianapolisEater