Granite City Food & Brewery
150 West 96th Street
Indianapolis, Indiana 46290
http://www.gcfb.net/

Every now and then you just feel like eating a huge meal and being fat.  That feeling happens to me more than I’d like, but I try to control it by limiting myself to no more than two giant meals a month.  If I didn’t do that, well, we’ve been there before.

Anyway, I was experiencing one of those moments a while back and that led me to Granite City Food & Brewery for their Sunday Brunch.  I’ve been before and didn’t do a review, but since I’ve told so many friends about this offline, I figured that it was time to share with my blog friends as well.  FYI, WIBIA has been there before to review their non-brunch food items and has been there for brunch as well.

What I Got:  Sunday Brunch; $14.99.

Here’s a link to the menu their brunch offerings on their site, so I’ll spare listing them all out and just hit what I got and took photos of.

When you first arrive, they bring out a plate of caramel rolls and that’s what you see in the picture in the top of this post.  They bring one roll per person and these things are about as big as your head.  If you know anything about nutrition at all, you know that cinnamon rolls are just about the unhealthiest thing in the world, so when you are getting a giant cinnamon roll dripping with warm caramel sauce to start your meal, well, you might as well throw your calorie counts out the window for the day and/or week.  In terms of taste, these things are soft, sweet, gooey and basically the most sinful  and delicious thing you could ever eat in your entire life.  Frankly, you could stop after this and be okay, but I had to get my money’s worth in this meal!

After gorging myself on a caramel roll, plate #1 was a stop at the make-your-own Eggs Benedict station with assorted meats, cheeses and vegetables and as you can see above, I was definitely not shy about my creation.  They have a cook working there that will construct everything to your liking, so I chose a mixing of just about everything they had on the line (by the way, that’s a sausage patty under the poached egg).  Ha!  Unfortunately, while it looks delicious, it really wasn’t all that great.  The hollandaise sauce was flat and since this was a make-your-own station, a lot of the food had been sitting for a while so it wasn’t fresh/crunchy.  It’s too bad too, because when done right, Eggs Benedict is awesome.

Plate #2 wasn’t exactly healthy either.  From top in clockwise direction, you’ve got hickory smoked bacon, biscuits and sausage gravy and then baked reggiano hash browns.  Let’s start with the bacon and I’ll use one word to describe it:  delicious.  First of all, it’s extremely thick and that is awesome.  Secondly, it straddles the line between being too soft and being too crunchy…in other words, perfectly cooked.  The peppery kick from the seasoning added a nice bounce to the bacon and frankly, I can’t say enough good things about it.  Unfortunately, that’s not the case with the biscuits and sausage gravy.  The biscuit was pretty standard, but the gravy was pretty weird.  First of all, it could have used more flour because it wasn’t particularly thick.  Secondly, it had more of a yellow-ish color instead of your traditional white coloring and that was not something that I would ordinarily expect.  As you can see in the picture, there’s also little specs of red and green in the gravy and that comes from the pepper and herb seasoning that they put into the gravy and I can honestly say, I was not a fan.  Peppery and spicy sausage gravy is something I don’t mind…I prefer it in fact, but that is usually a black pepper heat.  The spice in this gravy was more of a red pepper flake spice and zingy (nice word) and I was not a fan of that.  Granite City gets points for trying to be different here, but it just didn’t work.  The last item on the plate is the baked reggiano hash browns and once again, one word describes these:  delicious.  The reggiano makes these things thick and creamy and also adds a nice salty bite to the mix in general.  It also makes them creamy and when you add in the fact that these were baked to add some crunch, you get a bit of heaven.  If I had the recipe for these, I would seriously make them at least once a week because these are the best hash browns that I’ve ever had in my life.

Plate #3 brought one of my favorite foods in the world, prime rib.  In addition to that, in clockwise fashion again, we had garlic mashed potatoes, more baked reggiano hash browns and some salad.  Let’s start with the prime rib…all I can say is that I had such high expectations and left so disappointed.  First of all, as you can see above, they carve it paper thin and that is just ridiculous since this is a buffet and you can have them add more and more prime rib until you get enough.  What a joke.  Dissertation aside, the problem with thinly slicing prime rib is that it ends up with no juices and that affects your product and honestly, the roasts that they are using for their prime rib roast are not particularly high quality anyway.  It lacked flavor and when combining that with thinly slicing it, it really makes this a loser and a huge disappointment in my mind.  The garlic mashed potatoes were good, but there’s not much of a point wasting a lot of time on them.  They were creamy and had a nice garlic kick and I appreciated that.  Outside of that, there’s not a whole lot to say.  I’ve already covered the hash brown, so I’ll just say that there’s a reason they made it to the second plate.  As for the salad, I had to be healthy at some point, right?  LOL.  On a side note, if you manage to sneak up to the carving station while the carver is away, you can cut yourself your own piece of beef so that can get a little extra juice/thickness and not get the shaft like you would from the regular carver.

The Sunday Brunch also had a make-your-own station for waffles and French Toast (the slices are absurdly thick) as well, so you can hit those as well (I have on other trips for the brunch) and the toppings for those include, various jams, syrups, whipped creams, candy toppings (chips, Heath bars, M&M’s, etc.) and it’s definitely a good thing to have for kids or the little kid hiding inside of you.  They also have various other items on their buffet such as sausage links (enormous), pastas, vegetables, pastries, fruits, soups, etc.  Basically, if you attempted to try some of everything, there is no doubt you’d gain fifteen pounds before you exited.

Would I Buy It Again?  Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.  At $14.99 for a lot high quality food, you really are getting one of the best brunch buffet options that I’ve ever seen (keep in mind that I’ve never been to Las Vegas).  The prime rib may be substandard at best, but the quality of everything else more than makes up for the low quality beef.  Heck, I might even spend $14.99 just to eat one of those sinful caramel rolls again.  Dear lord, I’m drooling on my keyboard now…

FYI, Granite City also offers a Saturday brunch with some different menu items.  It’s more of a stripped down version of Sunday’s and I think it costs less too.  Saturday’s brunch menu has a make-your-own omelet station and that is the primary attraction.  All you need to know though is that they have the caramel rolls and the hash browns on Saturday too, so you’d be more than set no matter what day you choose.

-IndianapolisEater

Ale Emporium
8617 Allisonville Road
Indianapolis, Indiana 46250
http://www.ale-emporium.com/ 

Ale Emporium has become a staple to Castleton dining and rightfully so, because it is really good bar food.  They have been serving up quality food and craft beer since I have been in Indy (2001).  I used to go there to get and Anchor Steam and a slice of pie.  Not much has changed in the last decade.

We have talked about their Hermanaki wings.  I love them, but I can’t figure out why they can’t make them cheaper than $18.50 for a large order.  Their pizza rocks, lets chat…

What I Got:  10″ Pan Pizza ($10.50) and 14″ Pan Pizza ($19.00).   This is a 10” with bacon and ham.

I didn’t in fact order this, my on-again/off-again friend Taco did.  He is married now, so I will assume that this is the last pizza he will get with these toppings.  With a diminishing man card, I have a feeling he will be adding veggies to his pizza.  Time will tell.

They call this pan pizza, but I am more comfortable calling it Chicago Style.  This is nothing like the pan style that you get at Pizza Hut.  Crust, then meat, then cheese (a ton of it) and then sauce.  Perfect.

When you have this amount of meat, the crust can get soggy from the oils and fat, but not here.   Still a knife and fork pizza, but the crust held it’s consistency.  The cheese was stringy enough that you had to cut it with the spatula when served on the plate.

The toppings were quality, the sauce was rich, but not too much because Chicago style is really about the cheese.

Would I Buy It Again?  Yes.  To all of their pizzas.   No matter what crust you choose, you will be happy.  Their pizza is outstanding.  It is a cool place to chill and they have a great beer selection.  However, don’t try to order a fancy drink.

And lets do this…

HALL OF FAME.  Yeah, it has been a while.  They have possibly the best wings in the city, a great beer list and one of the best traditional and Chicago style pizzas in the city. Plus, they have bands, and I give props to any bar that supports local music.

-wibia

Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen
1304 E. Copeland Road
Arlington, Texas 76011
http://www.pappadeaux.com/location/?id=20

This place was recommended to me very highly by my hotel concierge in addition to two colleagues who’ve worked in the area frequently. As far as seafood goes on a personal level, I basically only really like shrimp while being able to tolerate lobster and crab. I’m fine with clam chowder, too. Otherwise, I’m not a fan of seafood at all, so I knew my options would be rather limited. Still, it came so highly recommended and was within walking distance of my hotel — I didn’t have a car — that I just couldn’t pass it up.

I sat in the bar area as I pretty much always do, and the atmosphere was pretty cool. There were TVs all around with college football and many people were already enjoying their Saturday afternoon with some cocktails. Service was friendly and attentive and nothing took too long at all.

And here’s the best part, this restaurant is within either walking distance or an insanely short drive of Rangers Ballpark (home of baseball’s Texas Rangers), Cowboys Stadium (home of football’s Dallas Cowboys) and Six Flags over Texas (roller coaster park). Yes, those three destinations are that close to each other, I’d guess within a mile (no more than three miles between Cowboys Stadium and Six Flags — Rangers Ballpark is in between). And Pappadeaux is right there.

What I Got: Jumbo shrimp brochette, $21.95. Menu description: “Char-grilled bacon-wrapped shrimp filled with monterey jack cheese and a sliver of jalapeno with dirty rice.”

As you can see, I got seven pieces of bacon-wrapped shrimp. The helping of cheese between the bacon and shrimp was very generous and I believe everything was impeccably cooked. I could have used a bit more of the jalapeno — to give it some more spicy kick — but the menu says it’s only a “sliver.” I was also asked by the bartender if I wanted extra jalapenos, horseradish or Tabasco sauce. So if I was that hard up for more spice, it would have easily been provided.

I’m no food expert, so I had no idea how the shrimp, bacon, cheese and jalapeno combination would blend, but it was actually brilliant, in my opinion. I was worried this one wouldn’t turn out well but was pleasantly surprised after my first bite.

As far as the portion size, each one of the seven pieces was between two and three bites, so I was fine with it. I could see pause for the price compared to only seven pieces, but there’s a lot going on in there. I certainly could have devoured a few more of these because they were so good, but I wasn’t leaving less than satisfied by any measure.

Would I Buy It Again? Absolutely, in a heartbeat. I probably wouldn’t stray much from this choice either, because, as I said earlier, I basically only like shrimp when it comes to seafood. Maybe I’d get a bit nuts and try lobster or crab or something, just to broaden my horizons. But between the recommendations I received and the meal I had, there’s every reason to believe this a good place to get some solid seafood dishes. Those who enjoy a broad variety of seafood would probably love a good amount of the menu, but that’s pure speculation on my part.

- Show

[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

Steak ‘n Shake
http://www.steaknshake.com

It had been a while since I had eaten a nice, greasy burger and had been even longer since I had been to Steak ‘n Shake, so on a recent Sunday when both of them sounded good to me, I made a trip out for dinner.

I wanted something more than a normal cheeseburger, so I went a bit outside of the box.  Steak ‘n Shake has several different burger options and some of them seem to be blatant rip-offs of signature burgers at other burger joints.  For example, the “Royale Steakburger” is a rip-off of the Royal at Red Robin and the “Wisconsin Buttery Steakburger” is a rip-off of Culver’s ButterBurger.  While what I got is not a direct rip-off, there are several joints that have had this combination for a quite a while before Steak ‘n Shake decided to tackle the challenge.

What I Got:  Western BBQ ‘n Bacon Steakburger combo (comes with fries and a drink; I got it large sized for an additional $0.99); $6.98 + tax.

You can’t tell as well from the picture, but according to the Steak ‘n Shake website, this burger is made up of “A Double Steakburger™ topped with American cheese, hickory smoked bacon, diced and crispy fried onions, then drenched in sweet ’n smoky BBQ sauce.”  Being the regular genius that I am, I can confirm that all of these things were on there, although their usage of the term “drenched” may have been a little generous.  There was barbecue sauce on the burger, but it was far from drenched.

Physical appearances aside, the meat and bun in the burger was pretty much what you’d expect in your standard Steak ‘n Shake offering.  Cooked and flattened on the griddle in their own grease, the hamburger patties were the typical greasy and gluttonous goodness that you’d expect from an old favorite.  Unfortunately, after the burger and the bun, this one started to go downhill.  The bacon was soggy and limp and so were the “crispy” fried onions.  The barbecue sauce, while it did taste nice was not nearly as ample as it needed to be.  Put it this way, this burger needs to be drenched in barbecue sauce in order to make it work with the components that construct it.  In order to get this one to be tolerable, I had to grab some extra sauce and start dipping my burger in it just to add some flavor.  If you need to doctor up a burger outside of the actual preparation of it, you have issues.

Would I Buy It Again?  Western BBQ ‘n Bacon Steakburger, absolutely not.  I will go to Steak ‘n Shake again, but this one will not be a burger that I order.  The sad part is that it has all the components to make a darn fine burger (Ryan at Grub Grade worships Western-syle burgers, so he knows what I’m talking about and would agree that if you do it right, the Western-style burger can be one of the best items on your menu), but Steak ‘n Shake failed on this one.  Too bad.

FYI, the large size drink at Steak ‘n Shake is absurd and comical (picture above).  It clocks in at over eight inches tall!  I didn’t have my graduated cylinder or beaker from my home chemistry set out, but the volume of fluid in the drink had to be every bit of a liter or perhaps even more, especially when you order it with no ice like I do.  It was so much that I only drank half and was able to save the rest to drink at dinner the next night.  LOL.  Unreal.

-IndianapolisEater

Wendy’s
http://www.wendys.com/

I like Wendy’s burgers and I’m not really ashamed to say it.  In the realm of drive-thru burgers, I really think that Wendy’s has the best tasting product.  Apparently, I am part of the minority with this opinion because the scientists at the Dave Thomas test kitchen have decided to completely overhaul their long-standing burger recipe.  I am not kidding you here…they called it “Project Gold Hamburger.”  They called in pickle chemists and focus groups.  They traveled the country sampling competing national chains and local burger stands.  Employees working the grill have been instructed to only press the patty twice instead of the usual eight times.  Lastly, and I’m really not making this up, they sought federal approval to store the cheese at a higher temperature to ensure better melting on the burger.

So I’ve already said it, but I like (or rather liked) Wendy’s burgers.  After discovering that my local Wendy’s was offering the new “Hot ‘N’ Juicy” burgers ahead of the October 3^rd nationwide launch, I thought I’d see if the changes were for the better.

What I Got:  Bacon Deluxe Single Cheeseburger; ~$4.00.

As you can hopefully see, there are FIVE slices of cheese on my burger.  FIVE.  I do not want, nor do I need, five slices of cheese on a single-patty burger.  After shedding the excess dairy, I began to notice the subtle differences.  The patty was much larger and less processed-looking.  The bun, my favorite improvement, was well-toasted and slightly crunchy around the edges.  The onions had changed to the red variety and apparently the crinkle-cut pickles won out.  Nothing has changed about the bacon, but that’s great because I liked it just the way it was.

Would I Buy It Again?  Well, the changes certainly didn’t have a negative effect on the taste, so yes, I would.  The price tag is a bit much, but I would still rather have just one of these than two of any other fast food burger.  I wasn’t aware that there was anything fundamentally wrong with the old burgers, but this was certainly very good and still head-and-shoulders above the other common drive-thrus.  If they hadn’t made such a circus of the changes, I’m not sure that anyone would’ve even noticed!  They’re so subtle that they have really only served to make an already good product just slightly better.   I would recommend, however, that they ditch the silly “Hot ‘N’ Juicy” moniker.  It didn’t work for the “Big ‘N’ Tasty”, so why go there again?

-Indy Food Geek

Ruby’s Diner
Bush International Airport
3870 North Terminal Road
Houston, TX 77032
http://www.rubys.com/

Contrary to what you might think, I try to eat relatively healthy the majority of the time.  However, when I am on business or a vacation, I seem to think that if I am out of the zip code, calories don’t count.  Plus, since I have been on a whirlwind tour for work this week (in Atlanta, back to Indy, Houston and Salt Lake City), those rules did not apply and I just wanted a burger and fries.

What I Ate:  Hickory Burger; $9.50.  1/3 lb burger with barbecue sauce, bacon, onion rings, cheddar cheese, lettuce and tomato.

I have had this kind of a burger a million times before, but it just sounded like the fatty meal that I was craving at the time.  Good news…it did the trick.

This seemed like it was a bigger burger than a 1/3 lb.   I had to unlock my jaw to take my first bite.  The meat was cooked to medium well, the sesame seed bun was flattened and held the burger nicely.  The cheese was more oily than creamy and I wish that there was a little more barbecue sauce on the burger, but that was my only complaint.  It was actually a good burger.

The fries hit the spot.   Nothing special, but thin cut (almost Steak ’n Shake thin).

Would I Buy It Again?   Sure, why not?!   Quick and attentive service and if you are wanting a meal where you want fried, cheesy, beefy goodness and are stuck in an airport, this will do the trick.   However, I must warn you, if you have a long flight and are in the middle seat, you might want to re-think this meal as you will feel pretty fat and bloated (more than usual at least).

-wibia

Jim Dandy Family Restaurant
2301 Conner Street
Noblesville, IN 46060
http://www.jdrest.com/

I love breakfast.  It is my favorite meal of the day and I am always on the hunt for places that offer something out of the ordinary.  I have driven by the retro looking Jim Dandy in Noblesville countless times and decided to take my family to give it a try.  I am 35 years old and on this morning, I was at least twenty years younger than the rest of the customers.  A busy breakfast on a weekday morning is usually a good sign.  As I sat and observed the surroundings, it was clear that many of the retired customers were on a first name basis with the waitstaff giving the environment the welcoming small-town feel.  Service was outstanding throughout the visit with my coffee never getting less than half full.

A breakfast bar?  Yes, for $5.00, you could have eggs, bacon, pancakes, biscuits and gravy and a variety of other choices.  Although perfect for evaluating a lot of food, we arrived near the end of the breakfast bar hours and fresh food was no longer coming out so I passed and went to the menu.

What We Got:

Denver Omelet $5.99 + $1 for Hash Browns

The Denver is one of just a few specialty omelets on the menu and all omelets come with a choice of pancakes or an English muffin.  I did not want either and would much rather hash browns be one of the options for $5.99 but chose the English muffin in this case.  The English muffin was clearly toasted on the griddle to perfection and went well with my coffee.  In comparison to most breakfast restaurants, the hash brown serving size was small but was thin and had the perfect crispy like crust that make hash browns one of my favorite breakfast foods.  The omelet was also thin the way I like it and had plenty of green pepper but not so much that it overpowered everything else.  The ham used seemed of lunch meat quality, yet it still worked.  I like how Jim Dandy puts some of the ingredients on top of your omelet to sort of dress it.

The only big problem I had with the food was the cheese used.  It is clear from the squares on top that Velveeta-like American processed cheese was used both on the top and on the inside.  I quit eating that kind of cheese years ago and the amount inside made my omelet taste like a Velveeta green pepper omelet and that is not a good thing.

Bacon and Cheese Omelet $5.99

My wife chose her own combination which allows for up to two ingredients that she enjoyed and would buy again.  Of particular note, this omelet had complete strips of bacon placed inside the omelet.  I like this much better than the bacon bits that become hard or crunchy like you sometimes experience at other restaurants.

Pancakes with Syrup and 5 strips of Bacon $3.99

The pancakes were huge, came out steaming hot and were grilled well with a nicely browned on the outside.  The syrup must be the cheapest stuff they can buy and I would have gladly paid an extra fifty cents for thicker syrup that did not taste watered down.  I am not sure I have been anywhere where you get four-to-five strips of bacon in a meal for $3.99.  An excellent value and my two young daughters demolished this meal with delight.

Would I Buy It Again?  Yes, we will be going back to Jim Dandy. If no cheese alternative is available for the omelet, I will go for some of the other well priced menu items or hit the breakfast bar.  Yes, they even have a loyalty card that gets you a stamp for every $5 you spend getting a free meal after $50.  I have also heard the fried chicken is good and would like to give it a try.  Overall, service was excellent and the value was high for a small family to have an affordable breakfast.  I am fearful that as their aging customer base passes away, so will the remaining few local diners in favor of chains that lack character and that small-town local appeal that Jim Dandy still maintains long after the end of its drive-in years many years ago.

-EatHSE