India Diner
8810 South Emerson Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46237

I love Indian food.  I really didn’t start eating it with regularity until about ten years ago, but once I discovered this cuisine, I was totally hooked.  The dichotomy of creamy dairy based sauces that are also, in some cases, fiery hot is delicious.   The number of spices and techniques involved also make it a cuisine that has an infinite number of variations keeping dishes interesting and adventurous

Unfortunately, I found most of the Indian in Indianapolis to be on the boring side.  A dumbed down version devoid of the heat and complex flavors of the really good Indian that I have eaten elsewhere.  I primarily eat Indian at lunch via the ubiquitous buffet (My daughter has some food allergies so this is my best chance to eat Indian).  I get that you are trying to hit the lowest common denominator with this type of service but really, the blandness of dishes that I was experiencing was killing me.  Then I tried India Diner.  Yep, just a couple doors down from the newly expanded Brozinni Pizza.

India Diner is your typical store-front Indian joint; clean but somewhat dull interior dominated by a long buffet line.  What’s on that line makes it anything but typical.  It’s Indian food with the spiciness and depth of flavor that I crave.

What I Got:  I usually graze these things, sampling small bites of a variety of dishes on the first pass and then absolutely destroy it on subsequent trips and there was no breaking from routine here.  First trip was red onion chutney that was great.  I also got Lamb Vindallu, Vegetable Pakora, Dal Makhni, Palak Paneer, Tandoori Chicken and finally Punjabi Curry.  I don’t eat a lot of lamb but this was exceptional.  Tender and moist with a brilliant red sauce of yogurt and spices.  Heat was medium for me, but far beyond the Vindallu I’ve had elsewhere in the city. Pakora is a breaded fried fritter and this was really good, not greasy but again with a nice hit of spice, not heat, just spice. Dal Makhni is a vegetarian lentil based curry that is less about dairy but still manages to be creamy and full of flavor.  Palak Paneer also vegetarian is spinach cooked with a mild, slightly dry Indian cheese that I have had many times.  The danger here is the cheese, in spite of swimming in a very mild yet complex sauce, can get tough and dry.  But not here, where it’s really good.  The Tandoori Chicken with the to-be-expected Chicken Tikka (yeah, I killed this on trip #2) is great as well as it was correctly spiced and not overcooked.  The unexpected star of the show was the Punjabi Curry.  I’ve never seen this preparation before.  Vegetable Pakora was in a sauce that was neon yellow.  The flavor was citrusy with a bit of heat that hit late and then the curry spice from the Pakora.  I asked the server about it and he said they just started to have this on the buffet.  It was fantastic.  The tip-in for me is that at India Diner they bring fresh hot Naan right to the table rather than having it on the buffet where it tends to either dry out or get soggy.

Would I Buy It Again?  Oh yeah.  With a drink you are getting of India Diner for around ten bucks and you are eating, as least in my mind, a fairly authentic representation of Indian food.

-Smokin DB

Gyro N’ Kabob
3681 W 86th St
Indianapolis, IN 46268

Sweet pic of the front of the building…?   If you are a regular around here, you know that I hold the gyro in high regard.  However, they are done so poorly around Indy and I am not sure if I have anything better to report here.   Independently owned, order at the counter, banquet chairs, loud TV…so far so good.  Menu has picture that had to be taken with a two megapixel Kodak camera, but you could get an idea of what is happening.   Kind of dumpy, but super clean…usually a good combination.

What I Ate:  Gyro special (Gyro + drink and chips), $6.18 with tax.  Not a bad deal really, as gyros can get a little pricey.

When it was delivered, I could already tell it wasn’t going to be that great.  Unfortunately, I was right.  Small cuts of lamb were buried in a ton of lettuce and sauce.   The pita was warm and was an actual pita (unlike a cardboard pita pocket), so no complaints there.   The problem was that there really wasn’t any flavor.   Salt, pepper or anything.

Fries were straight of of a bag + seasoned salt.

Would I Buy It Again?  No.  It is a fair price and the staff was really kind and welcoming, but the food didn’t leave any lasting impressions.  Honestly, I felt like I could’ve easily made this at home.

-wibia

Kabob Korner
6066 East 82nd Street
Indianapolis, IN  46250
http://www.kabobkorner.net

Spurred on by a post on IndianapolisAmy’s blog, its proximity to my home and an overwhelming desire to expand my food horizons, I recently gave some Afghan food a shot on an overcast Saturday afternoon for lunch.

When you first walk in to Kabob Korner, the first thing that strikes you is that it is very basic.  I can’t remember there being any sort of artwork or anything on the walls and the tables and chairs were just there with no effort to dress them up or make them look nice.  The menu board was just a basic menu board, although they did have pictures of all the dishes on the wall to give those uninitiated people like myself at least some sort of idea what they were ordering.  It also seems as if they are trying to align themselves with more of a carryout motif than they are a eat-in restaurant look.

What I Got:  Lamb Kurma Chalow $7.35.  Lamb served on top of basmati rice mixed with the special tomato and onion sauce.

First visual impression:  This was slop served on a styrofoam plate.  Based on the menu picture on the wall, I was expecting more.

First taste impression:  This was slop served on a styrofoam plate.  And yes, I am trying to be cute by typing that a second time.  While the lamb was tender (at least the four small pieces of lamb I was able to find were), it was flavorless.  The rice was undercooked and the sauce, while hot, was pretty basic.  There’s no reason to go into a lot of effort describing this because it didn’t seem there really was a lot of effort put into cooking my dish and turnabout is fair play.  I will say though that I could feel the sauce burning in my body for several hours afterward, although that wasn’t specifically caused by the sauce that comes on the dish (I’ll get to that in a minute).

Would I Buy It Again?  Absolutely not.  While I hate to bash a small, family-owned ethnic operation like this, I just have to in this case.  The owner and what I assumed were his sons were working that day and they were all very nice (I never thought I’d be in a place where the owner was discussing Alexander the Great and his army in Afghanistan with other customers), talked to me individually and were clearly taking pride in their work, but nothing they served me was overly impressive or even tasty for that matter.  Overall, I was very, very disappointed in this visit based on what I had read in Indianapolis Amy’s previous review.

One more quick note:  remember the burning that I talked about a bit ago?  Well, that was mostly self-inflicted.  When I was grabbing my utensils, they had a station set up with hot sauce.  The only note on the sauce said “Very Hot Sauce.”  Well, that’s basically like putting drugs in front of a drug addict…I couldn’t resist.  Since I have a huge and sometimes misplaced ego when it comes to eating hot food, I openly took the challenge of having some of this hot sauce despite the fact that the seeds from the peppers were infesting this sauce everywhere.  Needless to say, this was not one of my wiser decisions.  Below is an up close view of the sauce and let’s just say from now on that I’ll be calling this sauce “Red Death.”  Maybe one of these days I’ll actually grow up and stop letting my ego get the best of me.  Ha!

-IndianapolisEater

Mediterrano Cafe
5941 East 86th Street
Indianapolis, Indiana  46250

I’ve known that this place existed in Castleton for several years but never knew what it really was.  It’s in a dreary strip mall and I figured it was just a dreary place, so I never really gave it any thought.  My curiosity got the best of me one day as I was driving by and I decided to do a little internet research and much to my surprise, Mediterrano Cafe had some solid internet buzz (see Worth Your Attention’s review).  I decided that was enough for me, so I had to give it a shot.

The thing that stinks about Mediterrano Cafe is that they are open on odd hours.  For whatever reason, they’ve decided to bag dinner service and are now only open for lunch (11:00-3:00 on weekdays, 12:00-3:00 on Sundays), where they run a lunch buffet.

When you walk in here, it is pretty much no frills.  It’s very clean, which is nice, but they didn’t take a lot of time to work on the ambiance with minimal artwork and paper tablecloths.  Basically, it’s tables, chairs and a buffet line.  You walk straight to the register, pay for your food and they give you a paper Pepsi cup, your utensils and turn you loose.   All the food is hand-labeled with the Mediterranean name of the dish along with a very brief description of what each dish is made up of for those people that are unfamiliar with some things (like me).

What I Got:  Lunch Buffet with Drink $14.00.

I’m not going to walk you through the buffet and give you a taste comparison of each item like I’ve done previously but I do have some pictures and I will highlight some of the menu options that they have available.

The buffet features a lot of meat dishes such as ground beef kabobs, chicken kabobs, gyros, lamb stew and several other pasta and food mixes combining meat and vegetables (I didn’t take the greatest notes and some of the names are names that I am not entirely familiar with).

In terms of the meat dishes, I would put specific highlights on the gyros meat (tender, flavorful and perfect), the ground beef kabobs (pictured above; oddly enticing as well and juicy and flavorful), the lamb stew (pictured in the bowl above; lamb was tender but the winner was the stew sauce which was both sweet and spicy at the same time; I’ve never tasted anything quite like it and actually was using it as a sauce on some other dishes), the spicy chicken (pictured below above and to the left of the pasta; not really spicy but very tender) and the apricot chicken (chicken wrapped in a leaf and cooked and steamed).

The buffet also includes falafels (not a fan), regular white basmati rice as well as a rice mixture that included lentils and cilantro.  Other side dishes (cold) included traditional Greek salad (pictured below; loaded with feta cheese, fresh cucumbers and tomatoes), lentil salad (lentils mixed with onions and cilantro; that is it under the kabob above), cabbage salad, a parsley salad (pictured below; I would not recommend it), and some other mixed Mediterranean dishes (baba ghannouj, hummus, etc.).

In terms of bread-type things they had the typical pita bread for gyros (the pita bread seemed to be store bought and not fresh; it was the only real disappointment of the buffet).  They also had something called Spanikopita (first picture at the very top of the plate).  This was something new to me that was a mix of spinach and feta cheese in a crispy phyllo dough.  All I can say about this is that I would eat it every day of the week for the rest of my life.  Incredible.

To top it all off, the buffet also includes some vegetarian dishes (didn’t try any), a soup (didn’t try it) and also some dessert type items that included coconut cake and rice pudding.  I’m not a huge fan of either coconut cake (or anything coconut) or rice pudding and eaten alone, I still wasn’t a big fan.  When I mixed them together, I was a HUGE fan of the contrasting doughy blandness of the cake with the creamy sweetness of the rice pudding.

Would I Buy It Again?  Yes, definitely.  This really was an awesome array of tastes (the buffet was quite large) and nearly everything was delicious.  I wouldn’t go often because $14 is a bit much to spend on just myself (yes, I’m frugal), but I would go a few times a year.  Just an FYI, if you are going to go here, try to find a way to have somewhere nearby to lay down when you are done due to the fact that you are pretty much assured of walking out of Mediterrano Cafe being absolutely stuffed since you won’t be able to push yourself away from all these wonderful flavors and will end up overeating.  I really don’t see how anyone could go here for lunch and then go back to work after that.  It would take incredible self control and I know I wouldn’t be able to do it and thankfully I visited on a Sunday where I could go home and take a nap.

All in all, I’m so glad that my curiosity got the best of me and I decided to give this place a shot despite the drab exterior.  You can tell that the owners take real care and pride in putting out delicious food and they seem to have developed a regular clientele as well since the owners were interacting with the other customers as if they’ve known each other for years.  Mediterrano Cafe is a hidden gem and I would recommend that everyone give this place a try.  Chances are good that you will not regret it.

-IndianapolisEater

Capri Ristorante
2602 Ruth Drive
Indianapolis, IN 46240
http://www.capriindy.com/

If you ask a person in Indianapolis where the best Italian is in Indy (outside of a chain) Capri will usually be in the top 5.  Tucked away in a Wal-Mart parking lot, a lot of people go by it every day and have no clue that it is there.  Let me set the scene, two sides of the restaurant, dining room and bar.  We prefer the bar.  Servers wear a tie & vest.  Dress code is business casual, but you can get away with wearing jeans and a nice shirt.

I am amending the formal review scoring, so we will see how this goes.

What I Ate:
Appetizers:
Calamari Fritti $9.00 6/10
Tender Calamari fried in Capri`s special batter.
A little bit better than average, but there was nothing special here.

Grana Padano con Prosciutto e Olive Casareccie $9.00 8/10
Grana Padano cheese with Proscuitto Ham & Calamata Olives
Generous portion and the marinated veggies were a special treat.  Mozzarella was really good and fresh. Quality Olive Oil and a good combination of textures (crunchy and soft)(Pic Below)

Gamberoni Fra Diavolo $12.50 4/10
Spicy Shrimp in White Wine, garlic, Olive Oil, Marinara Sauce.  Hot.
I had high hopes, and this was a let down.  This dish lacked flavor, just spicy red sauce and shrimp.  The quality and size of the shrimp were average, for $12.50 for an app, it wasn’t worth it.

Salsiccia Secca Alla Calabrese $9.50 8/10
Homemade Dry Salami with Aged Provolone Cheese.
I really liked this.  Small pieces of dry salami  (a good amount of them), cheese and some of the grilled vegetables from before.  They were a touch spicy and went well with my red wine.  It was a good paring, if I was drinking water, I might try something else. (Pic Below)

Main:
Braised Lamb Shank Special $31 9.5/10
This was the star of the show.  Lamb shank was cooked to perfection with a tomato ragout.  It was a huge portion, I had a difficult time finishing it.  It came with sauteed green beans/carrots and au gratin potatoes.  This is not my first visit to Capri and anytime they have anything braised…get it! (Pic Below)

Spaghetti Bolognese $16.00 7/10
Homemade Spaghetti with ground veal in tomato sauce.
The pasta was homemade and excellent and the small veal meatballs concentrated on the meat. Some people might say this is bland, but I liked how spices took a back seat to fresh pasta, veal and a very basica tomato sauce.

Dessert:
Cannoli: 7/10.
I am getting tired of writing!  Cannoli was good, a thicker shell used here.  A lot of Cannoli shells now remind me of a flaky spring roll, this was the old school type.

Totals:
Food:  49.5/70
Service/Management: 10/10
Originality/Execution:  8/10
Overall:  67.5/90  = 75/100

Excellent service and old school Italian Classics.  A strong emphasis on quality and care, keeping things simple but executing well.  If they have something braised, get it! Homemade pasta is really good, but they need to focus on pairing it with great sauces.   This would’ve fetched an 80+, but there were a few misses of the 7 items I tasted.  However, I recommend Capri.

-wibia

Nice pic eh? Check their website for better pictures.

Meridian Restaurant and Bar
5694 N. Meridian St.
Indianapolis, IN 46208
http://www.meridianonmeridian.com/

My return visit to Meridian and first time since I opened the blog. My first time I was with a group of friends for a birthday party and I really didn’t pay attention to the food, but I remembered it to warrant a return.

The menu was slightly different than online, but I thought that tonight’s was stronger. I ate and tasted a ton, so lets get at it.

What I ate: Apps:
Grilled Quail $10.75.
Fried Calamari (a special, I didn’t see the bill)
Beet Salad (around $9)
Salad:
Warm Spinach $7.75
<Entrée:
Veal Short Ribs (I think $28)
Lamb Loin (around $26)

Grilled quail: Jalapeno Honey Glaze, Lemon, pepper, mushroom risotto. Beautiful presentation with an herb oil. Quail was flavorful, well prepared. Risotto was a little al dente for my taste, but seasoned well. I am a big pepper fan and the risotto flirted with being too much, but overall I enjoyed this. Portion was a touch small for the price, but it was an app.  I almost wanted a little more fat/salt to the dish.

Fried Calamari: A generous portion. Lightly breaded and served with a cocktail sauce, white truffle aioli and a remulade. I enjoyed this as well. The sauces were well thought out, but most importantly they did not over power each other. Not one of them left a lasting taste and for an app, that is important.

Beet Salad: Not a big fan of beets, but I understood what was trying to be done here. Served with julienne apples, bleu cheese and there might have been a few nuts. I enjoyed it, though I thought the quality of the beet was average. The person that ordered it gave it a 7/10.

Warm Spinach Salad: Tossed in a vinaigrette and served with bacon, eggs, onion (I might be forgetting something). This was not an entrée size salad, but a nice step to the main course.

Veal Short Ribs: I usually love anything that is braised. Preparation was served with mashed potatoes, swiss chard, pearl onions, peas and carrots. The veal was well cooked, but it lacked salt. In many braised dished, the exterior of the meat holds the searing and is packed with flavor, not the case here. However, the meat was incredibly tender and the portion was very generous. 2 problems here, the swiss chard was a reckless mismatch and incredibly bitter for this dish. Pearl Onions were flavorful, but each dish only had two. I would have liked 4-5 of them. I would’ve liked a reduced sauce to be added here, gravy would’ve been too much, but the sauce could’ve been a vehicle for salt. I am being nitpicky though, this was damn good.

Lamb: I only had 2 bites. It was a little bland. Accompanied with asparagus and ratatouille, it was presented well. I enjoyed the ratatouille, but my other two guests did not.

Skipped desert, but the doughnuts with malted coffee sauce was tempting.

Would I Buy It Again? (finally):  (30 pts possible on taste, 6 dishes = 5 points each)
Quail Risotto – Yes 3/5
Calamari – Yes, easy. 5/5
Beet Salad – If you like beets 3/5
Warm Spinach Salad – No. Other great choices, go for the house salad. 2/5
Veal Short Rib – Yes, gladly and add extra onions. 4/5
Lamb Loin – No. Not bad, but not at the level of other selections.2/5

Rating:
Taste:  19/30
Service/Management: 9/10
Originality/Execution: 7/10

Total:  35/50  Recommended.

Support local restaurants!

-WIBIA