Cafe Korea
7262 Fishers Crossing Drive
Fishers, Indiana  46038
http://www.cafekoreaindy.com/Default.aspx

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never had Korean food.  I’ve always been curious about it, especially with all the Korean taco food trucks popping up nationally, but have never been curious enough to make the leap to check it out.   But, on a recent Saturday night, so families members and I were looking for somewhere different to eat and since they live nearby, we decided to give this one a shot (none of us had eaten Korean food before).  I’ve seen several positive reviews on this place before both in print and online, including this one at Indianapolis Restaurant Scene, so I was anxious to try this out.

Before I dive into the taste of the food, I have to say that the waitress/owner was perhaps one of the friendliest people that I have ever met.  She’s obviously familiar with the fact that there are a lot of people like us that have never had Korean food before, so she was more than willing to help explain the food and her culture to us, no matter how ugly of Americans we appeared to be.  So, service gets an A+++++++.

What I/We Got:  Seafood Pancake (Appetizer); $12.99 and Dol Sot Bi Bim Bop (Entree); $13.99.

We were going to start with two appetizers, one of which being this seafood pancake, but our extremely helpful server told us that would not be a good idea.  Thank goodness she did because although my photo does not really show proper perspective, this seafood pancake was about as big as a small pizza.  There were three of us and there was definitely enough for us to have second servings for each of us.  As for the taste, it was just okay.  The potato pancake and green onions were tasty, although they need an additional salt component (the pancake was served with soy sauce on the side, but not even it brought enough saltiness to the table).  The odd thing about this pancake was the pieces of squid scattered throughout the pancake.  I’m not against squid, but I’m certainly not a fan of it and every time I encountered squid while working my way through this one, it was extremely disappointing.  The squid, as it often can be, was very tough and chewy and when mixed with the relative flakiness of the pancake, that’s not really a good mix.

Next up was my entree that was listed under the “Favorites” portion of the Cafe Korea menu.  Dol Sot Bi Bim Bop is a dish made of pieces of beef and thinly sliced vegetables including bean sprouts, cucumber, carrots, cabbage and spinach served on top of a bed of white rice.  Then, this mix is then topped with an over easy fried egg and served in a PIPING hot earthenware pot.  When the dish arrives, you are supposed to mix everything together in order to get the egg yolk to spread and also because the pot is so hot, the rice will burn and stick to the bottom.  On the side, everyone is served a multi-compartment dish that includes cold spinach, cold bean sprouts, spicy cucumbers and spicy kimchi (cabbage).  Also, you are given a bottle of Sriracha-like hot sauce to top your dish.  Of course, since I am a hot food freak, I bathed mine in hot sauce and then stirred everything together.

In terms of how it tasted, well, it wasn’t outstanding, but it wasn’t bad either.  Much like the pancake, this really, really needed salt.  The thinly sliced beef was a little tough, but everything else was cooked perfectly and made a harmonious dish.  The problem was that there was nothing really particularly wonderful about it.  The thing that this dish really did have going for it was the egg yolk.  Every time I encountered some of the yolk mixed with the rice, beef and vegetables, it was creamy, warm and quite good.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough egg yolk to cover for the entire dish and was a downfall.

As for the sides, they were all good and I particularly enjoyed the spicy cucumbers and kimchi as they were both covered in spicy sauce and handsomely dressed with red pepper flakes.  The odd part about all of them, at least to me, was that they were served cold.  I’m sure that is part of the food culture, but it was something that my ugly American tastes did not expect.

Would I Buy It Again?  This one is a tough one.  While I didn’t dislike anything I had, I also wasn’t the world’s biggest fan.  Personally, I would say NO to buying it again.  Just not my cup of tea, so to speak.  That said, I would encourage everyone else to give this place a shot to see if they like it and/or can find a favorite dish.  It’s a small locally owned business by extremely friendly Korean business people that are trying to spread their culture to their little pocket of Fishers and I encourage everyone to help them stay in business by giving them at least once chance.  I’m certainly glad I/we did give them a chance because they deserve every bit of help they can get.

-IndianapolisEater

Happy Dragon
11670 Commercial Drive, Suite 400
Fishers, IN 46038
www.happydragonfishers.com

In the last month, two new Asian/Chinese restaurants have opened in Fishers including Asia Bistro and Happy Dragon. In this first of two reviews, I take a first look at Happy Dragon.

What I Ate:

Crab Rangoon (6): $4.39.

It seemed like this Crab Rangoon was the standard fare frozen kind that was just tossed into the fryer.  I would pass on this and go with one of their many other options like their fried dumplings.

Fried Dumplings (8): $4.79.

Nice size portion for the price and fried with just a bit of crispiness but not crunch.  Dipping sauce was soy based and nothing special, yet the combination worked well.  Above average dumplings and portions size earns my recommendation here.

Shrimp Lo Mein: $5.79.

The older I get, the more I appreciate a simple, but good lo mein.  The noodles were cooked perfectly and the sauce covering was enough to provide a lot of taste without overdoing it and making it runny like you find at other places.  A good quantity of shrimp that were not overcooked and veggies had nice crunch.

Would I Buy It Again?  Yes.  I enjoyed what I ordered and their large menu leaves plenty of other options to try.  Prices on average seem a bit lower than other local completion, service speed was reasonable and the cleanliness of the facility was above average.  I will be revisiting Happy Dragon after they are more established to try some other menu items and see if the standards remain high.

-EatHSE

[Pic quality is a little lacking; it was dark in there and the iPhone 4 did not like that.]

Stacked Pickle
11621 Fishers Station Drive
Fishers, Indiana  46038
http://www.stackedpickle.com

This is our second review of the Stacked Pickle.  The first one was done by wibia and was for the Carmel location.  This one is for the newly opened Fishers location.  I was there on a recent Saturday night for my first visit ever and was anxious to try it out.

What I Got:  Burger & Wing Combo; $9.49 (it was on special that night, so usual price is $10.49).  The combo is made up of the burger of your choosing off the menu (I chose the Black & Bleu burger), four wings of any flavor (I chose teriyaki) and fries.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:  I love blue cheese.  Because of this, the Black & Bleu burger had my name written all over it for my menu selection.  I ordered it medium rare and at first glance, it appeared that they kitchen did an excellent job cooking it to that temperature because you could still see some of the juices seeping out.  That was definitely a check in the positive column.  Also on the outward appearance side, the burger was served with two nice sized slices of bacon and a heaping of blue cheese.  If this was a burger beauty contest, this one was performing well so far.  So, how did it taste?  I would definitely say well above average.  It was quite good in fact.  It was meaty, cooked perfectly and served with just the right amount of toppings (toppings also included lettuce, tomato and onion).  With its size, I would have been happy with just this burger for dinner, but since I don’t like wasting food, it was on to the wings!

First glace at the wings was telling me that these guys do not serve you skimpy wings and I LOVE it when businesses do that because it means that they care about not screwing their customers over and charging high prices for tiny wings (I’m looking at you Buffalo Wild Wings).  As for the taste, the teriyaki was just okay.  It wasn’t spicy and it wasn’t sweet, but it was somewhere in between.  I was expecting either spicy or sweet and when I didn’t get that, I was disappointed.  Still, these were tasty wings and I would not discourage anyone from ordering them.

The fries were just typical fries.  It was a nice sized portion, but they were nothing to write home about.  As you can see from my photo and from previous reviews where I’ve been busted for it, I rarely treat fries as anything other than ketchup delivery vehicles and these did the trick for that.

Would I Buy It Again?  Yes to this combo and yes to the Stacked Pickle.  This was a healthy amount of food and one special, it was a great price and value too.  Even at the regular price of $10.49, I still think this is a good value and a good buy, so go for it.

This was also a nice establishment with walls full of televisions and sports memorabilia.  It’s non-smoking all day and kid friendly until 10:00 p.m. on Saturdays (not sure about other days), so you can take the family here for some grub and a game.  They have bands or DJs on the weekend and are open until 2:00 a.m. on those days, so if you are looking for a late night hang out, this could be an option for you too.

-IndianapolisEater

Maybe I need to do a better job of reading calendars as these two kind of snuck up on me… 

From September 6th through September 18th, you can take advantage of Northside Nights and Savor the Southside.  These events are similar to Devour Downtown where several restaurants are offering deals at the $30 price point. 

What’s interesting about these two events is that the participants aren’t just clumped together in one small geographic area like the downtown event.  These restaurants consist of establishments scattered across their loosely defined metro areas.  For example, Northside Nights consists of restaurants in Carmel, Castleton, Fishers, Geist, Noblesville and Zionsville. 

For your reference, we have reviewed several of these participating establishments.  Here’s the list:

Northside Nights

Claddagh Irish Pub

Daddy Jack’s #1

Daddy Jack’s #2

Eddie Merlot’s

Mitchell’s Fish Market

OAKLEYS bistro #1

OAKLEYS bistro #2

Peterson’s

Pizzology #1

Pizzology #2

Sahm’s Bar & Grill

Scotty’s Brewhouse #1

Scotty’s Brewhouse #2

Scotty’s Lakehouse

Stone Creek Dining

Savor the Southside

Augustino’s

Fireside Brewhouse

Stone Creek Dining

So, if you are looking to dine with a deal at some quality Northside or Southside establishments, check it out before it ends on the 18th.

-IndianapolisEater

International House of Pancakes
9750 North by Northeast Boulevard
Fishers, Indiana  46037
http://www.ihop.com/

Over the years, I’ve seen a ton of IHOP commercials but have not been to one often (maybe not ever) because the nearest IHOP location to me was at least a twenty minute drive away.  With Denny’s, Bob Evans and Cracker Barrel all within five minutes of my house, I really didn’t have the motivation to drive that far for a similar chain breakfast.  When this IHOP location opened five minutes from my house within the past month, I knew it was time to finally break the seal.

What I Got:  Stuffed French Toast Combo; $7.49. 

Since I’m too lazy to type out the description, I’ll just ”borrow” the text from IHOP’s menu page:  “Cinnamon raisin French toast with a sweet cream filling, crowned with your choice of cool strawberry topping, warm blueberry or cinnamon apple compote and whipped topping. Served with two eggs, hash browns, two bacon strips or two pork sausage links.”  For my purposes, I chose the cinnamon apple compote and the two pork sausage links.

First, let’s go with what I’m going to call the “accoutroments” (i.e. the basic breakfast stuff) in the eggs, hash browns and sausage links.  I got my eggs scrambled and they were pretty much what you’d expect.  It was the same with the hash browns and the sausage links.  There was nothing special or memorable about them and that’s why I didn’t bother to include them in my picture.

The real main attraction of the dish was the Stuffed French Toast.  I’ve had French Toast countless times in my life, but never stuffed French Toast.  I’ve seen countless food programs where they make stuffed french toast and I’ve always wanted to eat my television while watching, so I was pretty excited for this one.  When it was delivered to my table, I thought that while it looked good, I was less than impressed with the size.  It was two small pieces of toast with filling and toppings.  I would have expected two monster pieces of toast when you are trying to make something the star of the show.  Not off to a good start here.

As far as taste was concerned, I would rate it as slightly above average.  The toast was well cooked/toasted and it did taste pretty solid.  It was a little dry for my liking, but that could be fixed with one of IHOP’s five syrup options, which inlude Original, Sugar Free, Blueberry, Strawberry and Butter Pecan.  Perhaps I’m a rube (I am), but I had no idea they offered multiple syrup options.  I tried every single one of them and chose the Butter Pecan because it was weird, yet appealing.  It really did save the dryness of the toast for me.  The sweet cream filling was tasty, but very runny.  I was expecting something a little more solid to hold the toast together.  Still, it wasn’t horrible.  The only true negative in this entire order was the cinnamon apple compote.  I LOVE cinnamon and I especially love cinnamon apple compote, but this did not taste fresh, nor was it warmed up at all.  It was cold and tasted like it had been spooned straight out of the can.  Frankly, it went from me sort of liking this stuffed French Toast to deciding that it was just “blah.”

Would I Buy It Again?  Stuffed French Toast…not from here.  IHOP…yes.  Heck, it’s breakfast and there are a million options, why not go there?  There’s got to be something decent on the menu, right?  For next time, I’ve got my eyes on the breakfast funnel cakes, assuming they still have them when I go.

In terms of IHOP though, it’s pretty much the exact same as Denny’s.  You can get a decent meal for a semi-decent price, but don’t expect any culinary masterpieces…that definitely includes this Stuffed French Toast.  I guess I’ll just have to go back to the drawing board to find another place that does this incredibly appealing dish right.

-IndianapolisEater

Dragon House Chinese Eatery
7260 Fishers Crossing Drive
Fishers, IN 46038
http://www.dragonhousefishers.com

Dragon House has been in a strip mall where there is frequent turnover of stores and restaurants at the corner of 116^th Street and Allisonville Road for over ten years.  About ten years ago just after the restaurant opened, I gave it a try and had a bad experience saying I would never go back.  Over time, they must be doing something right to survive in this location and have consistent recommendation word of mouth from many people who live in Fishers locally.

I arrived at just after 4:30 and no food was on the buffet.  By 4:45PM, it was fully stocked and ready for me to try at its freshest best.

What I Got:  Dinner Buffet; $9.25.

Plate 1:  Sorry for the blurriness of the picture.  Spicy Sour soup is a favorite of mine and although this was not my favorite ever, it was one of the best and I ended up have two cups.  The fried rice was what you would expect with good ratios of everything that comes in fried rice and well done overall.  The buffet had an abundance of deep fried breaded items (too many for me), but the crab rangoon was solid with good size pouches of crab.  The crab claw on the right side of the plate was a two bite treat that I got each trip back to the buffet.  Although I like dark meat chicken, I do not like it deep fried for sweet ‘n sour chicken and the lack of white meat was a disappointment.  With the fried rice, I got a fresh mushroom bourbon chicken that I enjoyed, with a sauce that was not too salty.  Overall, plate 1 was a winner.

Plate 2:  This time I tried the Egg Drop soup and although it was not as good as the spicy sour, it was still above average.  I like how there is a bowl of fresh green onions on the buffet next to the soup you can add to garnish and give your soup a little more taste.  The Lo Mein was not as good as what you can get from China Wok in Fishers, but did the job and was still above average.  The Szechuan chicken was done well and the vegetables were fresh but lacked spice.

Would I It Again?  Yes and No.  Although I liked what I had in general, there was little I loved so much that I would want to go back very often.  The buffet had too many deep fried items and not enough traditional dishes to eat with rice and that was a big problem for me.  There was also no seafood to be found and I have been to better buffets than this that at least offered fresh shrimp.  There was a small dessert bar, but they did not look appealing to me.  With these problems and a $9.25 price, I cannot recommend the dinner buffet.  However, at $7.25 for lunch that also includes dumplings not found on the dinner buffet, you can have some good soup and a good rice and chicken dish and walk away satisfied with your Chinese food craving having been met.

-EatHSE

China Wok
11681 Brooks School Road # 7
Fishers, IN 46037-9758

With more time on my hands during the summer to eat out and try new places, I have begun a mission to find a place that offers consistently good Asian cuisine for a reasonable price in the north suburbs and far north side of Indianapolis.  The first stop in this series of reviews is China Wok in Fishers.  China Wok was busy even at 8:30PM on a Tuesday night and has a commonly found large menu of over one hundred menu items.

What I Ate: Crab Rangoon (6); $3.00

Too often I find Crab Rangoon over deep-fried with too small of a pocket of crab in the middle.  This Crab Rangoon had neither of those problems and the only problem I had is that I wish I had ordered my own instead of sharing with my wife.

What I Ate: Curry Chicken with Onion; $8.95 a quart with steamed rice.

I like spicy food and the first thing I did was scan the menu for spicy options.  With about 25 spicy options on the menu, I had plenty to pick from.  I am always hesitant to get curry at a place that does not focus on Thai food but decided to give it a shot.  The curry in this entrée was not overdone and provided some good kick.  The problem I had with this entrée was the ratio of onions, 50-60%, being too high in comparison to the chicken.  I love onion and this dish had several kinds including green and yellow, but in the end, the ratio of too much onion to everything else left me disappointed.

What I Ate: Shrimp Lo Mein; $7.45 a quart.

My wife went with the Lo Mein and I will admit, I rarely get Lo Mein as it I find most places serve it lukewarm or with the noodles are overdone.  China Wok is an exception to the rule.  The noodles were done perfectly and they had a good ratio of green onion and other greenery to compliment the noodles.  Some places skimp on the shrimp but I found shrimp with almost every bite.  I only wish I had gotten my own Lo Mein.

Would I Buy It Again?  Yes. Prices for quantity are comparable to other restaurants and it is always a bonus to have leftovers for lunch the next day.  I like how you can stand near the counter and see your food being made fresh in what is a clean and well-kept kitchen giving me confidence in the quality of the food I am purchasing.  Although I was not satisfied with the Curry Chicken & Onion, there are many other spicy choices on the menu to pick from in addition to the above average Lo Mein and Crab Rangoon that will have me retuning to China Wok in the future.

-EatHSE

Yogi Frozen Yogurt
12660 East 126th Street
Fishers, Indiana 46038
http://www.yogifrozenyogurt.com/

I’ve been on a big ice cream kick recently and in an effort to mix it up, I’ve been trying frozen yogurt places as well since they are supposedly more “healthy”.  I’ve never been a big frozen yogurt guy because I often times find the yogurt too icy and I don’t like the fact that it lacks creaminess like ice cream has.

Last week, I went to Huddles Frozen Yogurt (sorry, no review) and was very impressed with both the cake batter flavor (it somehow had a rich creaminess to it and did not have that dreaded icy taste) and the fact that it was a build-it-yourself type of place where you take whatever flavor of frozen yogurt you like and then build your own sundae using the available toppings.  Once you have your sundae built, they then weigh your creation and charge you based on the weight.  Since Huddles is a slight hike from where I live, I started looking around to see if there were any places like this closer to me and I came across Yogi.  Yogi is similar to Huddles in the fact that they have ten flavors of frozen yogurt that rotate daily, but differs in the fact that they have over fifty toppings (I would guess Huddles is in the twenties)!  When I found that out, I knew I had to go and continue my commitment to gluttony!

What I Got:  Build-your-own Sundae, $0.39 per ounce.  My cost:  $8.51 (LOL).

When I first got into Yogi, it kind of surprised me in its spartan decor.  I guess I expected something with displays and advertising everywhere like you would see in a Baskin-Robbins or similar frozen treat-type shop, but Yogi was very clean, simple and everything was modeled in either lime green or magenta/pink.  On my way to the register, I was overcome by the toppings bar and the fact that there were two of them.  The toppings bar included your normal candy add-ons, cereal-type add-ons, nuts, cookies, brownies, waffle cone pieces, fruits, flavored syrups, whipped cream, hot fudge, chocolate chips, wafers, cake pieces, cookie dough, etc.  Basically, it would take me forever to list all of them but needless to say, I was in heaven.  Just past the toppings bars were the frozen yogurt machines with eight(ish) different flavors of frozen yogurt including Cake Batter, Lime, Strawberry, Vanilla, Chocolate, Peanut Butter, etc. (those are the only ones I can remember).

Since I had just finished a 2.5 hour workout and was feeling particularly gluttonous, I went to work on my creation.  For my base, I chose a mixture of Cake Batter yogurt (to compare to Huddles) and then Peanut Butter flavor as well.  Unfortunately, both flavors had that dready icy texture that I dislike about frozen yogurt and the actual strength of the taste of the yogurt (compared to what it was supposed to taste like) was very faint.  Since I was already in the shop though, I figured I’d make up for it in toppings.  And since this was gluttony at its best, I’ll give my toppings (the ones I can remember) their own paragraph:

Crushed Oreo cookies, Chocolate Chip Cookie, Chocolate Chips, Almonds, Cashews, Peanuts, Granola, Reese’s Pieces, Peanut M&M’s, Waffle Pieces, Cookie Dough, Hot Fudge, Peanut Butter Syrup, Crushed Heath bar, Crushed Snickers bar and well, I think that might be it minus one or two.  Here’s what the monstrocity looked like, although the syrup/fudge hides most of the toppings…

Would I Buy It Again?  One more chance. I want to see if the other varities of yogurt lack the distinct strong flavor and/or have the icy texture of these two yogurts I tried.  While being able to build my own sundae can be both liberating and amusing, it kind of loses its appeal if the yogurt underneath lacks any flavor.  On a funny sidenote, I was told by the girl working the register (those are her legs in the picture) that my sundae was the second or third biggest sundae that had ever sold.  LOL, I’m so proud and so is my mother.

FYI, Brent from Random Dude Eats Random Food just did a review on this place this past weekend as well (I think he’s following me around) and pretty much had the exact same sentiments as me.

As another FYI, I saw on their Facebook page that Yogi is opening a second Fishers location at 116th & Allisonvill Road in the strip shopping center behind Marsh (the one with the Domino’s Pizza and Subway).  They hope to open that location in July.

-IndianapolisEater