Slippery Noodle Inn
372 South Meridan Street
Indianapolis, Indiana  46225
http://www.slipperynoodle.com/index2.cfm

I love this segment because it gives me the excuse to eat at least one tenderloin each month.   Great success!   I am a big music fan and a bad ass musician in my spare time.  Recently, I went to go see the extremely awesome Blues/Soul guitarist/vocalist Tab Benoit.   The show was outstanding and I would highly recommended it to yall! Back to the food.

What I Ate:  Breaded Tenderloin; $7.00.  Served with chips and a pickle.

My first thought was, “wow, this is kind of small for an Indiana tenderloin.”  It looks big in the picture, but the plate was pretty small.  The produce was really good.  Lettuce, onions, ripe tomatoes and thick-cut crunchy pickles, so it was a nice effort.   The bun was nicely toasted as well.  So far so good.

The tenderloin was pretty tasty too.  It was pounded a little, but left pretty thick.  I would say that it was the thickness of a normal chicken sandwich.  It was juicy and the seasoning had a little bit of salt in it as well.    I didn’t find any gristle and found it to be of decent quality considering this is bar food.

Would I Buy It Again?  I am torn here.  It wasn’t a bad tenderloin, but there was nothing going on here that I can’t get anywhere else.  Plus, it was pretty small when comparing it to other tenderloins in town.  It reminded me of a tenderloin that they would serve to an uptown girl that wanted to stick her toe in pool of the common people’s food without jumping off the deep end.

If I am eating a tenderloin, I barely want to see the plate.  I want it about as big as a small pizza.  I want it to stare me in the face and say, “bring it champ, you can’t finish me.”

In sports terms, I was Nolan Ryan and this tenderloin was Robin Ventura.  No match.

-wibia

Muldoon’s
111 W Main St
Carmel, IN 46032
http://www.muldoons.net/index.htm

March’s Tenderloin of The Month brings us to Muldoon’s in Carmel.  Something tells me that I have had this one before, but I didn’t remember any of the details.  Muldoon’s is usually one of the most recommended places to get a tenderloin, so I thought that I would see what the hype is all about.

Muldoon’s is an Irish themed bar.  Just because a bar carries Guinness, it surely doesn’t mean that it is an Irish bar.  Now, I have never been to Ireland to experience the real deal, but my wife is of Irish decent so I will continue on with my consistent know-it-all attitude.

What I Ate: Breaded tenderloin; served with a choice of sides and I went with chips,  $7.95

Served on a toasted sesame seed bun and with a tomato, lettuce, red onion and mayo.  At first glance, this tenderloin was huge.  I ripped of a piece of the meat and it was juicy and flavorful.  The thickness of the tenderloin and the breading-to-meat ratio was perfect.  It wasn’t the overly pounded out thin and dry type.  Considering the size, I thought that it would be thinner.  I would’ve liked a little more lettuce and tomato, but what they gave me did the trick.  Chips were straight out of a bag, so I will pick a different side next time.

Would I Buy It Again?  Yes and frequently. It was one of the best tenderloins that I have ever had and a fine representation of the Indiana state sandwich.  At roughly $8, it is competitively priced and well worth a trip to give it a try.  On a number scale, I would give it a 9.5/10, only leaving .5 for anything that I run across that is better, if it exists.

In tenderloins we trust,

-wibia

[Editor's Note: This is the first post in our "Tenderloin of the Month" feature mentioned in a post by wibia this past Friday.]

Broad Ripple Tavern
745 Broad Ripple Avenue
Indianapolis, Indiana  46220
http://www.broadrippletavern.com/

Some friends and I were wasting our lives drinking beer in Broad Ripple on a lazy Saturday afternoon and it came around dinner time, so we decided to peek our heads into Broad Ripple Tavern (an old favorite) for a bite to eat.

Broad Ripple Tavern is part of Lux Restaurants, which is made up of several local bar/grill type places.  Since they are all part of the same group, they all share similar menu characteristics and since I’ve had the Breaded Tenderloin at some of their other establishments and have liked it, I decided to try it here.

What I Got:  Breaded Tenderloin sandwich (comes with chips, but I substituted fries for $1.00 extra), $8.99.

First impression:  Like any true Breaded Tenderloin sandwich, this one was huge and if you can get that part of the execution down right, you are off to a good start in my mind.  It was thick and oddly shaped too, which was also a good sign in my book because that means that they hand pounded and shaped it themselves, which always leads to a better sandwich.

Second impression:  The breading on this sandwich was like a breading that I have rarely encountered on tenderloins in the past and I’ve had a lot of them.  It was crispy, as you would expect, but it had the consistency and flakiness of fried chicken and that was incredible.  Once I tasted it, it tasted like fried chicken breading too, which was particularly awesome because like any other good, red-blooded American male, I love fried chicken.

The pork tenderloin meat was also quite good as well.  Like I said previously, it was thick and ample, so it was quite filling.  It was also cooked perfectly as each bite gave me a little bit of juice oozing out and I couldn’t have been happier. 

The fries were good too, but there was nothing outstanding about them.  Just your typical crunchy fries.

Would I Buy It Again?  Hell yes.  Like I said, Lux Restaurants share a lot of similar menu characteristics and I’m glad that the tenderloin has made it to many of their establishments because this one is damn good.  Not only would I order this again from Broad Ripple Tavern, but I’ll also order it again at the other restaurants in the conglomerate.

As a quick aside, has anyone ever seen anyone order a grilled tenderloin in their entire life?  I guess this applies most to Indiana residents since the Breaded Tenderloin is the state sandwich and is more prevalent here, but I’ve never seen a grilled tenderloin ordered EVER.  I even asked the waitress and while I don’t remember her exact response, I think she said something to the effect that she rarely, if ever, has seen one.

-IndianapolisEater