Jason’s Deli
4130 East 82nd Street
Indianapolis, IN 46250

http://www.jasonsdeli.com

What I Got: The Big Joe with Baked Chips $6.59

While out for some early afternoon errands, the wife and I stopped into Jason’s Deli for lunch.  This was our first restaurant visit under the new regime of “2011 Resolutions.”  We were both in search of something quick, light, and fresh and we were open to trying the brand spankin’ new Jason’s Deli franchise in Indy.  Having never heard of this chain, we were only hoping that we had made the right decision and as it turns out, we were right on the money.

After quickly perusing their mission statement and menu, we learned that Jason’s Deli emphasizes fresh, less “fooled-with” ingredients and tries to include organic ingredients whenever possible.  Unfortunately, many sandwiches on the menu feature only organic mustard or no organic ingredients at all.  But hey, they’re trying…and it’s a really big menu with a lot of choices.  So in an effort to be healthy, I avoided items with fatty, cured meats…no bacon, no salami.  The long line behind me forced me to order somewhat impulsively and I ended up with The Big Joe:  oven roasted turkey breast, roasted tomatoes and Asiago with pesto mayo on an herb foccacia bun.  My wife, a little more successful with the healthy thing, ordered a turkey wrap with sprouts.  We both got the baked chips in lieu of the regular fried potato chips.  On our way to find a seat, we passed a rather impressive salad bar.  Had we seen this beforehand, I think our orders would’ve looked a little different.

My sandwich arrived looking a lot smaller than I expected.  With a name like “Big Joe,” I guess I was picturing a big sandwich.  Fortunately, I’m trying to shed a few pounds and I appreciated the forced portion control.  I scraped off a little of the pesto mayo because it was on both buns; I was not a fan. I know what you’re thinking, “You’re trying to be healthy and you ordered mayo on a sandwich??”  Yeah, I know, I’m not the brightest, okay?  That’s how I got myself in this sticky wicket.  The foccacia was out of this world.  It was like a fresh biscuit packed with herby goodness.  Honestly, I could eat a shoe if it was sandwiched between this bread. The rest of the ingredients were just as advertised.  Fresh, flavorful and decidedly “unfooled-with.”  The sandwich tasted great, but I had a funny suspicion that I wasn’t getting the healthy lunch I was looking for.

Would I Buy It Again?  Yes to Jason’s Deli, but that sandwich was a mistake!!!  After returning home, I checked the nutritional information online.  It was somewhere in the ballpark of 850 calories.  So much for the diet, huh?  I would, however, get the turkey wrap that my wife ordered.  It had a whole wheat wrap, low fat turkey, sprouts, roma tomatoes, guacamole and ranch all for 359 calories.  The portion size was good too, so I just made the wrong choice.

-Indy Food Geek

Shebella’s Pizza & Deli
7035 East 96th Street
Indianapolis, Indiana  46250
http://www.shebellas.com/

For what seemed like an eternity, I had been driving by this place on my way to and from work seeing a Coming Soon sign.  Finally on June 17th, Shebella’s opened for business announcing that they had a daily pizza, pasta and salad buffet in addition to their regular menu.  Within a week after their opening, I was feeling particularly gluttonous, so I decided to give it a shot and what better way than a buffet is there to try out a variety of foods at new restaurant?

Based on my horrid experience at Luca Pizza, I tried to time up this visit around the dinner rush so that I would not have any problems with the buffet not being replenished.  Despite this, Shebella’s still had problems keeping the buffet stocked and the food warm, but I’ll give them a pass on that one since they had only been open a week at the time and they specifically told me that they learned a lot that night and were going to implement changes.

What I Got:  Pizza, Pasta and Salad Buffet $7.99.

I tried as much as I possibly could in order to do a variety of tasting of their sizeable menu, so let’s start with the pizza:

I should have put up a sugar packet as a frame of reference, but these pieces of pizza were cut small like your traditional buffet pizza cuts.  On the buffet, they had the common pizzas like cheese, pepperoni, pepperoni/sausage, supreme pizza, as well as my hated Hawaiian pizza.  Later, they also threw out a dessert pizza consisting of cherry topping and icing  (didn’t try it) and as far as taste was concerned, this wasn’t all that great.  Don’t get me wrong, it was edible enough and the sauce used was tantalizingly sweet, but the crust was spongy/soft and the cheese was just one gelatinous, glue-like mess.  Honestly, this tasted like school cafeteria pizza and that’s not a compliment.

Also on the buffet were multiple kinds of pasta ranging from tri-color rotini to fettucini to macaroni and cheese to cheese ravioli.  To compliment your pastas, they also had meatballs and two kinds of pasta sauces (marinara and alfredo; didn’t try any of the alfredo because I am a marinara junky).

First on my plate was the fettucini topped with marinara sauce and also macaroni and cheese.  Taste wise, it would appear that they used the same sweet marinara sauce as they did for the pizza and I already said that I was a fan of that.  The macaroni and cheese was exceptionally cheesy and gooey, but mostly bland.  If they wanted to make this a little better, they should start using sharper/stronger cheeses.  The meatballs also suffered from the same affliction:  blandness.  They lacked any real flavor other than chewy meat (they were tender).  If they mixed in some extra Italian spices like garlic, basil, etc., they may have winners here because they were sizeable.

Next on the pasta adventure was the stuffed ravioli and yes, more meatballs (I’ve had a meatball craving recently and even though these were bland, I kept eating them).

I will say that the ravioli was the best out of all the pastas that I tried.  It needed to be cooked a little longer so that the cheese would melt a little better, but all in all these were pretty solid tasting.  They were stuffed with ricotta cheese and then baked in the aforementioned sweet marinara sauce.  Like most everything on the buffet, they could have used a little bit more Italian flavoring to give them some kick, but these like I said, not a bad taste at all.  Also, each of these ravioli shells were quite large.

Finally, let’s take a look a the breadsticks and salad bar (they also had two soups available).

The breadsticks were just standard breadsticks although they were dusted with garlic butter and parmesan cheese and I found that to be a good thing as I liked these breadsticks.  I didn’t try any, but they also had nacho cheese sauce available as a dipping sauce for the breadsticks.

As for the salad bar, it was stocked with your general collection of salad toppings, macaroni salads, pasta salads, fruits, puddings, etc.  In terms of selection on the salad bar, I will say that Shebella’s did a good job here because they had just about everything that you would ordinarily want on a salad bar and everything was fresh.  This may seem like somewhat of blasphemy, but I would say that their salad bar was nearly as good as the Ruby Tuesday salad bar (the king of all salad bars).

Would I Buy It Again? Well, if you are asking about the Pizza, Pasta and Salad buffet, I would say no.  Everything here was edible and the price wasn’t too bad, but it wasn’t good enough to make me want it again.

As far as future visits to Shebella’s, I’m still undecided.  I would definitely stay away from the pizza and pasta items on the menu, but since this place is also a deli (not a true deli like Shapiro’s and the like, more like a pre-made sandwich kind of place), I will admit that I’m kind of intrigued by some of the sandwiches on the menu, so I may try one of those in the future.

Still this is a locally owned business with a staff that was obviously trying their best by putting a lot of work and pride into what they were doing, so that alone may be enough to get me to go in and give the sandwiches and this place one more shot.

-IndianapolisEater

Heidi’s Brooklyn Deli
1400 S. Guilford
Carmel, IN 46032
http://www.heidisbrooklyndeli.com

Heidi’s first opened in 1997 when two displaced New Yorkers decided to leave their day job to recreate the NY Deli…in Colorado.  The second store opened in 1999 and they are about up to 25 now.  This location is the only one in Indiana.

I ordered the Trans-Planted New Yorker.  $7.99

You have a choice of about five breads and I chose the Ciabatta.   The meal is served with a choice of side (Original Lays chips, cole slaw, potato salad.)  They also have a selection of premium chips, but that will cost you more.    Drink is extra was well.  For a combo, it will run you about $9.50.

The sandwich arrived with a sorry looking pickle.  Very standard chain veggie : meat ratio.  I would also say there was a little less meat than I expected since there were four different kinds of meat on the sandwich.  However, I enjoyed the hand cut Ciabatta.  I would’ve preferred it to be toasted since it stuck to the top of my mouth a little, but I am just being picky.

The issue that I have here is the quality of the meat.  Four tiny slices made a pretty weak meat stack.  It wasn’t a balanced sandwich.  I liked the special sauce, but couldn’t put my finger on what was in it.  The avocado spread was a little too much, the special sauce added enough mayo-like fatness to the sandwich.  Then again, since the meat was lame, maybe that is not a bad thing.

Would I Buy It Again?   No.On a 10 point scale, I would give it a 5.  Very average sandwich that I would expect at a franchised NY Deli.  The lack of value for $9.50 pushes it over to the “No” category.   Heidi’s offers Nathan’s Hot Dogs, bagel/lox and a few other items, but when the quality of the ingredients are this average, I am not sure if I am that encouraged to try the remainder of the menu.  However, the staff is very friendly and accommodating.

-WIBIA